Ticketmaster is a Racket

This blog post is a bit different than my normal content, but I have honestly been brewing over Ticketmaster for quite a while and I have finally had enough and need to rant. Of course, if you are not in the mood for a rant, then maybe skip this post haha!

Any person that has ever gone to a concert, or other type of event in the last few years, has had to deal with with Ticketmaster. Of course, we are all very aware of how they charge just insane fees for the most random reasons and I have seen many memes about it too. However, the fees are simply the tip of the iceberg.

But before I get into the actual issue that is bothering me, I definitely want to talk about the fees. I even looked up a breakdown of the fees on the Ticketmaster website and you can find that here. For starters, why the hell in 2022 are companies still charging “convenience fees” for using a credit card?? One, if you are purchasing tickets online what else are you suppose to do? And two, at this point, using a credit card is the MOST convenient way and if someone were to use a pay by mail option then that would actually make sense to charge a convenience fee. They also charge a processing fee on top of that. Like, processing charge for what, sending an email with a PDF of the ticket?? Additionally, they charge delivery fees, which again, doesn’t make sense for sending an email with a PDF of the tickets or even the option to pick up at Will Call. Plus, wouldn’t that basically fall under the processing fees? Next, they will charge a facility charge for each venue and those fees apparently go back to each perspective venue but when you think about it, what do the venues actually need these fees for when the ticket, parking, and drink sales all go to them as well? And lastly, they charge you tax, which yes, that is a given, but the tax is calculated for the total of the ticket with all the fees and not the value of just the ticket. Seriously, it is just laughable at this point!

This whole notion of Ticketmaster charging ridiculous fees isn’t anything new and at this point, many of us just bite the bullet and deal with it in order to see our favorite shows. But after the acceptance of the ridiculous fees, the real problem comes into play: SCALPERS. Now when I refer to scalpers, I am not talking about some dude buying 6 tickets and then reselling them for a higher price. I am talking about the scalper bots that make this entire process insufferable. Recently, I was trying to purchase tickets to see Stevie Nicks and wanted to make sure I secured tickets for the lawn seating, which was only $60 a ticket. I already have a Ticketmaster account and it was advised that to really ensure a chance to get the tickets you wanted, you could join a virtual waiting room 10 minutes early before the tickets went on sale. So naturally, I set an alarm and joined 10 minutes early and sat in the virtual waiting room until the sale. However, once the tickets went on sale and I was given the ability to purchase tickets, ALL THE LAWN SEATS WERE BOUGHT! I would understand if I tried after the tickets went on sale but I literally followed all the steps to give myself the best chance at tickets and even by joining early, I still lost out on the tickets I wanted to the bot scalpers. And there is no way you can convince me that it wasn’t bot scalpers and just other individuals in the waiting room due to how quick this happened. Once this occurred, I was immediately filled with rage and just a general feeling of helplessness. But wait, it gets worse!

So once all the tickets are bought up by these bot scalpers, people who didn’t get the chance to purchase them in Ticketmaster can then go to an app such as Seat Geek and purchase from there. The kicker is, the tickets are naturally marked up but on top of that, Seat Geek also charges ridiculous fees. So all of the work trying to chase down some tickets and what would normally cost a little less than $150 for two lawn tickets, now costs nearly $250. The whole process is seriously disheartening and honestly ruins the live music experience for music lovers who genuinely want to support their favorite artists. Now listen, before anyone starts coming at me with stuff regarding capitalism and the free market, I get it and literally have a degree in economics so trust me, I understand. The thing is, it does not have to be this way. Allow me to explain:

As much as I love a good rant, I am also a firm believer in most rants including some sort of suggestion or solution for the issue at hand, so yes, I do have a suggestion. The simplest way to put it is that artists, specifically tour managers, do not have to go through Ticketmaster. That is not a requirement by any means. Many artists have even spoken out about this and have sold their tickets through other avenues besides Ticketmaster. For example, one of my favorite artists, Sturgill Simpson, spoke out against these ticketing systems and about finding ways to to put a stop to this madness. Him and Eric Church expressed their frustrations and even cancelled tickets that were purchased by bots and put them back up for sale at normal prices. Sturgill stated that “the only way to put a stop to this is for people to stop buying tickets from scalpers altogether, or to make so much noise it forces politicians/Ticketmaster to stop taking money from Stub-hub lobbyists that pay them fat stacks of coin to keep online scalping legal.” You can read the full article on this here.

However, the solution doesn’t stop there. Personally, I do not like the idea of relying on politicians to fix this issue but it is a start to the conversation. Another option would be venues and artists simply not selling their tickets on Ticketmaster. When the Austin City Limits Festival sells their tickets, they are purchased on their website only and the tickets are limited to 6 per person. Of course, that doesn’t completely stop scalpers, but it definitely reduces the amount of unnecessary fees and makes it to where individuals actually have a chance to purchase tickets. Although ACL is its own conglomerate and they have the ability to do that, I don’t understand what is truly stopping artists and venues from selling their tickets directly from their websites and putting caps on the tickets. Yes, it is easy to leave it up to Ticketmaster but I highly doubt the profits vary that much to where artists wouldn’t want to give the respect to their fans to try and avoid their tickets being scalped.

Overall, I am fully aware that there are many moving parts to this issue and that I don’t know the ins and outs of the entertainment industry and why these things are still occurring. However, it is impossible for artists and tour managers to not realize that this is happening. Naturally, some sort of scalping is going to occur, even the occasional individual wanting to resale their tickets at a higher price due to them being unable to attend the show, but it does not have to be this way. Ticketmaster is absolutely ruining the live music experience and is totally okay with it. After two years in a pandemic, the least we should be able to do is go to a concert without paying double the price of the actual ticket. I know I am not alone in this so please share your thoughts and opinions on this because I would love to fuel this Ticketmaster hatred of mine. Okay, rant over!