On the grill of the United States Senate, the Ticketmaster platform admitted this Tuesday to having a “responsibility” in the cacophony around the sale of tickets for the tour of the American star Taylor Swift last November.
“Looking back, there are a number of things we could have done better,” acknowledged Joe Berchtold, head of Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company.
However, he was quick to point to shared responsibility for “bot attacks” that would have significantly slowed the platform’s operations during Taylor Swift’s mid-November ticket sales.
overall chaos
Endless waits, bugs and sky-high prices… during the pre-sale of his upcoming The Eras Tour, which kicks off on March 18, a litany of fans had complained on social media.
This chaotic situation had reignited criticism of the giant’s dominant position in the ticketing industry, which merged in 2010 with entertainment giant Live Nation.
Without naming her directly, the singer had addressed the platform in an Instagram post, claiming to be “out of it” after seeing many of her fans “live a nightmare”.
A designated “monopoly”
If the pop star did not make the trip to Congress on Tuesday, the senators heard the testimony of Clyde Lawrence, a soul singer, who criticized “the total lack of visibility” that artists have regarding the fees charged by the platform.
Because in addition to selling tickets, Live Nation also owns a large number of concert venues.
“If they want to charge us $250 for 10 clean towels, they can and did,” criticized the musician.
“That’s exactly the definition of monopoly,” said Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “Live Nation is so powerful that it doesn’t even need to exert the slightest pressure, lavish threats. People just line up,” criticized the elected official, head of the powerful Senate judiciary committee. Concert prices for rock legend Bruce Springsteen, some in the thousands of dollars, also caused a stir in early 2022.
Ticketmaster “controls the industry”
At mid-morning, a handful of Taylor Swift fans gathered in front of Congress to also denounce the platform’s actions.
Ticketmaster “controls the (music) industry in a way that is completely unfair to consumers,” said Jennifer Kinder, a 56-year-old lawyer.
In November 2022, this Texan waited nine hours at Ticketmaster hoping to get a ticket with her daughter to attend a concert on The Eras Tour torunnee. “I never managed to get tickets,” said this woman, wrapped in a black down jacket, in front of the United States Congress, which filed a complaint against the platform.
Source: BFM TV
