Neil Younger is one in all many artists publicly criticizing Ticketmaster for its long-held monopoly on live performance ticket gross sales. In a March 19 submit on his Neil Younger Archives web site titled “Live performance Touring Is Damaged,” the singer-songwriter decried the corporate’s excessive ticket costs and ticket charges, which have reached as much as 30 % for some artists.
“It’s over. The previous days are gone,” Younger wrote within the submit. “I get letters blaming me for $3,000.00 tickets for a profit I’m doing. That cash doesn’t go to me or the profit. Artists have to fret about ripped off followers blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers. Live performance excursions are not enjoyable. Live performance excursions not what they had been.”
The submit additionally incorporates a information article by Ananya Bhattacharya discussing the Treatment’s latest dilemma with Ticketmaster; particularly, that their followers had been subjected to excessive charges through the Treatment’s “Verified Fan” sale for his or her upcoming tour. “I’m as sickened as you all are by at present’s Ticketmaster ‘charges’ debacle,” frontman Robert Smith tweeted in regards to the topic on March 15. “To be very clear: The artist has no strategy to restrict them. I’ve been asking how they’re justified. If I get something coherent by means of a solution I’ll allow you to all know.”
The next day, Smith tweeted, “After additional dialog, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that most of the charges being charged are unduly excessive, and as a gesture of goodwill have supplied a $10 per ticket refund to all ‘Verified Fan’ accounts for lowest ticket worth (‘LTP’) transactions.” He additionally wrote that Ticketmaster would give a $5 refund to “Verified Fan” accounts for different ticket transactions, and famous that tickets on sale the following day would have decreased charges.
After years of dominating the occasion ticketing market, Ticketmaster has been the goal of overwhelming criticism these days—from artists, followers, and even authorities officers. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on-sale date was canceled throughout a fiasco that overwhelmed Ticketmaster’s web site and shut out quite a lot of followers from shopping for tickets. A number of of these followers sued the corporate the corporate consequently.
Ticketmaster has additionally confronted a congressional listening to and an antitrust investigation for abuse of energy, helmed by the Justice Division. The investigation additionally targets Dwell Nation Leisure—the corporate fashioned after Dwell Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010.
Neil Younger has incessantly used his platform to criticize mammoth firms. Final yr, he posted a letter on Neil Younger Archives demanding that his music be faraway from Spotify, claiming it spreads “faux details about vaccines—doubtlessly inflicting dying to those that imagine the disinformation being unfold by them.” (His letter referred to Joe Rogan, who has been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.)
Spotify complied with Younger’s request and eliminated his music days later. The platform additionally said that it eliminated “over 20,000 podcast episodes associated to COVID-19 because the begin of the pandemic.” Younger later urged Spotify workers to give up their jobs.
Extra not too long ago, Younger appeared to critique Beck’s cowl of “Previous Man,” which was launched as an NFL-sponsored clip earlier than the 2023 Tremendous Bowl. After Beck’s cowl aired, Younger posted a nonetheless from his anti-sponsorship video for the 1988 track “This Be aware’s for You.” Within the picture, Younger holds a bottle labeled “SPONSORED BY NOBODY.”
6 Methods to Repair the Damaged Live performance Ticketing System