Ticketmaster

Don't know if you have been following - even a little bit - the Senate hearing on Ticketmaster  / Live Nation  (after this "TM" ) and the whole concert ticketing industry. This was mainly precipitated I think after the debacle over Taylor Swift Tickets. 

you can read the whole article here..

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64384304

Seems that - of course - tickets to her concerts that went on sale on TM were "attacked" by BOTS that snapped up tickets before the General public could  get their hands on them,,, in some examples tickets that lucky fans put into their CART  were bought out from under them as they were in the Check out process.  Then these BOTS - thats robotic ticket buying - owned by ticket Scalpers had the tickets, they sold them for crazy prices.... $5000 - yes FIVE Thousand dollar and MORE !!!  You see these BOTS buy up groups - Hundreds of tickets then resell them. Even when the BOTS were unable to get into the system - they slowed down the process to the point the system either crashed or just sat there for HOURS with out movement.  They tried doing a preregistration to FAN Club members - but that did not really help. The Senate has heard or will hear from SeatGeek - Ticketmaster &  Live Nation. 

OK- let' s talk about a few things .... 

- Ticketmaster / Live Nation are responsible for a bit more than 70% of the Concert and sporting event tickets sold in the US. = As Senator Amy Klobuchar correctly (IMHO) pointed out - THAT IS A MONOPOLY !  You don't have a choice of where to get a ticket from... Either TM or one of these Resellers.  

- TM charges what most think are crazy fees - there is no delivery of the tickets ,, you either download them and print them yourself - or you use an electronic ticket Barcode / QR Code to gain entry to the show.. for this TM gets from $10 - $20 per ticket. Thats over and above the Ticket price.  TM claims that the Venue set the ticket prices, not them and not the Artists. 

- TM claims no wrong doing  - Claims the BOTS are the reason for system failures,,, However - with the profit they make - there is no reason to change , upgrade or innovate the way tickets are sold to the General Public.. 

There are a few things that again IMHO would immediately change the way the system works and move this in a positive direction. 

1) Artists need to be more involved in setting the Price of the Tickets to their shows.

2) Venues need to  distribute  across several if not many vendors.

3) RESALE of Tickets is NOT ALLOWED !  (this should be 1st) Consumers are going to have to buy into this one,, as say you buy the ticket and then for whatever reason can't go to the Show... You are gonna be out the Money! OR - IF the show is sold to  some percentage - say 90-95%  that the ticket vendor would buyback the ticket (even at a lower price) knowing they would be able to sell it to someone else and could get a re-list fee so the 1st buyer would not be out all the money...  Folks have proposed ticket limits - but BOTS are smart enough to be able to look like different people buying them - so I doubt that would even work.  

4) Preregister for ticket sale- so - for say 2 weeks (whatever) ahead of the actual sale , you can essentially at your leisure register to buy tickets - Set amount of tickets and price range you are looking for.  (YUP - this costs you some percentage of the ticket price that isNON refundable) The Ticket vendor then assigns you a number  (in a lottery fashion) that is associated with a time to sign on and purchase your tickets.  

- I register to buy 2 Eagles tickets at a price point between $150 - $200 per seat,  or say seats that are Less than $200 per....  and the FEE for that is $50  that goes toward the Ticket Price.

- I get a Date - 2/17/2023 - Noon to 12:30 pm. to complete my purchase. I go in at that time - purchase my tickets at $175 each plus a $20 one time fee - so $370 Total - and that days purchase is minus the $50. VIOLA ! done.  

This does not cure all the ills of the ticketing industry - but i think certainly would help...