A Prospect Newsletter About Big Ideas
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>
Â
Ticketmaster Offers to Exploit Concertgoers More Transparently
The ticket broker's new 'all-in' pricing pledge is an effort to
stave off antitrust enforcement. Â Â
On Thursday, Live Nation and its ticket broker subsidiary Ticketmaster
announced a bold pledge. The company would be transparent with its
captive consumers about how much it will extract from them for live
entertainment. Ticketmaster's junk fees would be exactly the same, but
buyers would learn about them before checkout, instead of after.
The White House took a victory lap.
"[These] new commitments today will improve the purchasing experience
for tens of millions of customers annually," the White House said in a
statement before a meeting with executives from Live Nation, SeatGeek,
and other ticketing platforms. But though the consumer experience might
be better, it's not clear whether the ultimate price tag will be.
Live Nation's pledge came in a response to President Biden's State
of the Union address, which singled out deceptive junk fees as a scourge
inflicted on consumers across the economy. Biden has since directed
agencies to make targeting fees a priority in their respective agendas,
and urged Congress to pass legislation on the issue.
Other ticketing companies, as well as lodging platform Airbnb, have also
begun displaying full prices up front before checkout. The CEO of Live
Nation first said the company would implement all-in pricing during his
testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing six months ago
<[link removed]>.
Now, the company claims it will finally do so, beginning in the fall.
Live Nation's announcement does not entail eliminating or even cutting
down on the exorbitantly high junk fees it places on sales. Currently,
consumers only discover fees late in the process of checking out for
tickets for concerts and sporting events, but the platform will now
display the full price up front, without adding additional costs later
on. Depending on how it is displayed, an all-in up-front price could
actually obfuscate how much the company charges for fees, rather than
making it transparent.
Ancillary fees average about 27 percent of face value, according to a
2018 Government Accountability Office report
<[link removed]>. Fees can even reach as high
in some cases as 82 percent depending on the cost and peak pricing.
During the Cure's recent tour, fans reported
<[link removed]>
that fees were surpassing the ticket prices.
"I like to compare [the all-in pricing pledge] to sticker shock at the
start of the checkout process versus the end, with no actual difference
in the overall experience," said Krista Brown, senior policy analyst at
the American Economic Liberties Project.
[link removed]
AELP along with the Break Up Ticketmaster coalition blasted the
announcement for failing to address the core issue with the platform:
its monopoly power. One benefit supporters of all-in pricing claim is
the ability to comparison shop on an apples-to-apples basis. But
transparency in fees alone won't fix rampant price-gouging, if for
most live music shows there's only one platform to purchase tickets
from. That eliminates the comparison-shopping advantage.
At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this year, Live
Nation's CEO refused to say how many venues the platform holds under
contract, but claimed that there was plenty of competition. A new report
from AELP rebuts that, revealing
<[link removed]>
the extent to which Live Nation has rolled up the live concert business
into its orbit and crushed competitors. The report gathers data on
ticket sales and other information from the top 300 concert
amphitheaters and arenas, totaling around half of all concert revenues
from 2022. The findings show that Ticketmaster dominates contracts for
ticketing and other services for each venue category. Live Nation
controls operations for 64 percent of the top-grossing U.S.
amphitheaters, 77 percent of ticketing services, and nearly 80 percent
of ticketing for arenas. No other competitor serves more than a small
handful.
"This analysis leaves no room for doubt: Live Nation-Ticketmaster
maintains monopoly control over concert venues," said Brown in a press
release.
Senate testimony
<[link removed]>
had already revealed that Live Nation controls 87 percent of ticketing
contracts at NBA/NHL arenas, and 93 percent at NFL stadiums, which are
also used for music performances. The Live Nation monopoly squeezes
venues and crowds out competitors, which can contribute to a worse
concert experience for fans. Live Nation has been alleged to force
venues into exclusive deals, while using its market position to expand
into numerous lines of business, including concert promotion, ticketing,
artist management, and even venue operations. Its vertical integration
over the live concert business allows it to dictate exploitative terms
to performers.
In addition, for concertgoers, fees are just one problem associated with
Ticketmaster's monopoly. The platform collects data on users and
allows for rampant scalping on secondary markets, as well as the
proliferation of bots that drive up prices.
Ultimately, Live Nation's all-in pricing scheme appears to be a
classic face-saving move, one often used by companies to stave off
regulation or other government action. The Department of Justice
initiated an antitrust investigation into Live Nation in October of
2022, and other regulatory agencies have begun rulemaking to crack down
on junk fees. Even the White House, while lauding the company's
voluntary measures, said President Biden would continue pushing Congress
to pass legislation. Biden specifically referred to mandates for all-in
up-front pricing, rather than voluntary measures. But truly alleviating
the exploitation of concertgoers would require more than just
disclosure.
~ LUKE GOLDSTEIN, WRITING FELLOW
Follow Luke Goldstein on Twitter <[link removed]>
[link removed]
CLICK HERE TO OPT OUT OF THIS NEWSLETTER SERIES
<[link removed]>
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.
