Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by Ticketmaster. Michael Rapino, the CEO and president of Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster, recently made a statement claiming that these days the cost of tickets for concerts are “underpriced.”
“Music has been under-appreciated. I always joke, sports, it’s like a badge of honor to spend 70 grand for a Knicks courtside. They’d beat me up if we charge 800 for Beyonce, right? — We have a lot of runway left. So when you read about the ticket prices going up, it’s still average concert price is $72. Try going to a Laker game for that…The concert is underpriced, has been for a long time,” Rapino said.
As someone who frequently fights for their life trying to get concert tickets through Ticketmaster, I can attest that tickets are insanely overpriced, not underpriced as the CEO claims.
There should be stricter policies and laws to prevent ticket sales companies from selling them at a price other than face value, and on top of that, adding a bunch of fees to the sale. Why am I paying over $80 in fees for a $70 concert ticket at a venue with a 5,000-person capacity in the pit?
That is not even close to the most outrageous prices I have seen on their website. How is it mathematically reasonable to ask your clients to buy a resale ticket for $1,000 and then ask for $200-$500 in fees? All for the ticket to be in either nosebleeds or, if you’re lucky, an obstructed view.
It is also ridiculous not to have better technology to properly control how many tickets are instantly bought in large amounts by bots to be resold right after for a higher price. And, there should be stricter monitoring over how many people receive pre-sale codes.
On those once-in-a-blue-moon occasions when you are blessed by the spirit of the ticket gods to receive a pre-sale code, you are then required to suffer through the unreasonably long line of 1,000-plus people in front of you, to finally get the chance to buy a ticket. Only to find out the tickets sold before you are already being resold on the website for insane prices, and, in order to pay that, you would have to take out a loan and donate your plasma and liver.
Listen, I get it. Securing good and reasonably priced tickets is a life-or-death situation…but it shouldn’t be. The pre-sell codes, the unholy long waiting line, unnecessary fees and resold tickets are issues that should be fixed immediately, so that every fan can see their favorite artists play their favorite songs. CEO’s and their ticket sale companies should be held more accountable because they cannot keep getting away with this.
If there is one thing I understand and respect is an artist and their management establishing a price they think the artist and their performance deserve, but what I do not agree with is money-grabbing corporations taking advantage of artists and their fanbase.
Bring back in-person ticket sales and physical tickets that you get at the box office of the concert venue. Live music should be accessible, not an opportunity for corporations and scammers to make more money.
