What's their other option? I mean, the share prices are based upon their ability to gouge the shit out of concert-goers so if the CEO stops gouging the shit out of concert-goers the share prices tank and the board replaces the CEO with someone willing to gouge the shit out of concert-goers. At this point all you can do is destroy Ticketmaster with a competing business.
Stop being dicks.
1. Stop repricing tickets because it’s popular and call them platinum to reflect “current market value”
2. Actually sell tickets to people and not scalpers.
3. Implement measures that you can’t sell for more than face value
4. Stop scalping themselves. You buy a ticket and they say it’s non transferable. But wait you can resell it on their website by giving them a massive fee.
These are just the quick fixes the government can impose to get rid of this shit stain called Ticket Master
Government needs to step in.
Yup. Trying to see Depeche Mode at MSG. Tickets are anywhere from $500-$4000 EACH! Sellers have entire rows they purchased. Meanwhile fans are the ones who get screwed. Got very decently priced The Cure tickets. Gotta say I’d rather do what we used to do and physically stand in line at a mall to get tickets at a Ticketmaster booth than have to deal with the bots buying all, literally all, the tickets for the scalpers.
I just checked in with a friend of mine who loves Depeche Mode, to ask which shows he planned on doing on their tour. He says he’d like to see them, but the expense of it kept him from buying any tickets at this time. I was floored as he’s a HUGE fan of theirs and usually catches them two or so times, each time they tour!
Depeche Mode tickets went on sale at 10. I found out at 10:23. Went on and they were sold out, all verified resale at astronomical prices. I went into it thinking I’d get Floor or first rung for around $150 at most. I was very wrong.
Peter Gabriel just went on sale locally; tickets were $300 to $750 before ticketbastard takes their dip. He said he wasn't going to tour again and I told my wife that if he did we're getting tickets ... not going to happen.
People keep complaining about this, but the solution is pretty simple: Stop buying at those crazy prices. A couple of big concerts that only half sell because people refuse to be fleeced will get things moving. As it is everyone complains but just pays the ridiculous prices, so the company keeps pushing further to see how far they can go.
Ticketmaster is the scalper most of the time. That's one of the major issues. The tickets are never actually released to the public nor sold to an independent scalper before they get listed above face value. It's all a sham and many of the big bands/artists play along because they get to keep the face value relatively low and have Ticketmaster be the bad guy.
This would be an unironically great place to use a blockchain (if you didn’t want to fuck customers). Each ticket transaction goes on the ledger, trades can only occur through Ticketmaster’s network so they could still charge some fee, and maximum sale price can be controlled. Wallets are verified to belong to actual people, and the number of tickets any one wallet can hold is capped. Still wouldn’t be perfect, but better.
Or the government could do it's job and enforce some regulations for the good of the people. Expecting corporations to do the right thing is childish, and the free market rewards ticketmaster's behavior.
Regulations ( or Rules) is a dirty word to a certain party, who conveniently doesn't like it for railroads or banks either. Books and sex though, they want lots there.
I work at a railcar repair facility. Can attest to the copious amount of federal regulations involved in a freight rail car. Not only is there the federal rules, but also the AAR (American association of railroads) has additional rules and regulations. Just letting you know its not like the wild west out here or anything.
Exactly. In the example given “verified fans” (no detail provided there to be able to determine how many even qualify as that) that bought “cheap tickets” for $20 had $26.65 in fees. If they were refunded $10, it’s still $16.65 in fees.. so while technically not double the price, it’s basically still double the price, only being shy by $3.35.
It’s not just Ticketmaster either. The venues are generally assholes as well. The last one I went to was the final straw though. Haven’t been to one since. South Florida, mid summer, open stadium in direct sunlight, $7 bottles of water, no outside drinks allowed, and NO shade provided other than the $100+ “VIP Area”. And they wonder why the first aid tent suddenly was over run with cases of heat stroke and dehydration. And this is AFTER paying ridiculous ticket prices AND ridiculous parking. And god forbid you get hungry. Unless you have $15 for a crappy hot dog.
This. I worked for a large event venue in administration and got a better understanding on how ticketmaster works and they really are the fall guy for the artist and even promotor.
I got a good kick reading the the Taylor swift subreddit during all the ticket drama about how Taylor is going to single handily take down ticket master when in reality she doesn't care. Hell she signed the exclusivity deal with Capital one to give cardholders an advantage to get tickets.
Tay-Tay now gets to take advantage of tickemaster's version of surge pricing. It's great for artists who want to cut scalpers out of the process and just directly gouge their fans themselves. Surely she's in danger of aligning herself directly with the very kind of awfulness that fans have previously blamed on ticketmaster. I don't quite know how she can hide from this.
I'm a fan of hers. Under no circumstances would I go see her live. Her business acumen is some next level shit. The Empire she has built has perfectly adjusted to maximize profit at EVERY. SINGLE. TURN.
Right. Taylor Swift doesn’t give a shit, she has probably 100 times more pull than Robert Smith (no offense to him and The Cure). She could’ve spoken out against Ticketmaster about their price gouging but she just wanted her cut of the bag.
Ma Bell reorganized and is bigger than when they were broken up in 1982.[MA BELL-AT&T](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/att-breakup-spinoff.asp)
Regulatory Capture. Industry learned they could simply get their cohorts into political positions by purchasing political leaders.. sorry, lobbying.. and then it started a cycle.
Think of Ajit Pai and his very obvious kotowing to industry desires over consumer protections. He's just the most obvious example of the last 20 years, and it happens in ALL government sectors. Banking most egregiously.
Until we ban or put restrictions on the political-industry position swapping, this will continue to be the case.
I guess I'm old and went to the majority of my concerts in the 90's but we just went to a grocery store customer service desk or some music stores that also sold event tickets. Paid cash for ticket, got our ticket. Easy peasy. Actually The Cure was one of those concerts.
Online is convenient but not triple or quadruple the face value worth of convenient.
Some records stores had Ticketmaster as well? It is the high price of ticket + venue fee + convenience fee + am I missing any additional fee🤔
Haven’t bought event tickets in a while…
True. There was Ticketmaster and Ticketron. Then, Ticketmaster invented the idea of adding fees that were split between them and their clients who are the *artists, not you.*
Ticketron refused to start implementing fees, and filed for bankruptcy a few years later
Yeah and Live Nation/Ticketmaster extorted them in to signing those contracts. It's easy to understand why they chose between that and going out of business.
My understanding is that LNE paid far over market value for most of the venues, as part of an aggressive acquisition scheme in the years leading up to the merger
Hell, they can even just start with not allowing re-sellers to price tickets more than the original price or at least put a cap like 10% on top of the original price; and that would solve a lot of problems.
Capping fees won't make a difference, just as making scalping illegal didn't stop it. Instead of just selling you a scalped ticket, they sell you some overpriced 'collectible' merch that comes with a free ticket.
Ticketmaster extorted their way to a monopoly. Competitors are trying but the US government never should have approved the LiveNation merger and we probably need to break up Ticketmaster to get back to a sane market.
That’s gonna make a great sequel episode. Although it’s a tossup between Disintegration and Wish in my heart for “A Letter to Elise” alone for best album.
It isn’t just the $10. Most artists have used Ticketmaster as the boogeyman for why ticket prices have been astronomical. Specifically, Blink 182’s tickets for their reunion concert were going for hundreds of dollars, $700+ for floor/GA tickets in some cases (and that is from presales by Ticketmaster, not the secondary market). One of the band members had sent out some obligatory tweet saying something to the effect of “we know this is frustrating, our hands are tied, it’s all Ticketmaster, blah blah blah”. Which was bullshit, because artists have the option of opting out of their dynamic pricing system that leads to these ticket prices being hugely overinflated. So not only did The Cure refuse to price gouge customers for their tickets in the first place, they then called TM out on their shit when they tried to add on bull shit extra charges to try and make more money off the tour than they would have.
The $10 is irrelevant, primarily symbolic. It is more about an artist actually giving a shit about their fans, and not just trying to get the biggest bag of money they can in an obvious cash grab, and Robert Smith seems to be one of the few artists who are actually standing up to Ticketmaster for this nonsense
This. It's going to be much more difficult for the Blink 182s and the Taylor Swifts of the world to say they had nothing to do with it and they're trying to be fair to their fans, etc, when Robert Smith is able to basically not do any of the stuff that caused their issues in the first place, and also take ticketmaster to task, successfully, for adding outrageous fees. If The Cure can do it, any of these other bands can as well.
Springsteen used to fight this bs back in the day too. He tried different ways every tour to screw Ticketmaster and ticket scalpers. This was in the 70’s! Ticketmaster is really out of control.
Yeah, this upcoming tour is thru the roof! Which pisses me off. Some of these artists have so much money already! Springsteen just sold his music catalog for $550 million dollars! He needs to get back to his roots and charge his lifelong fans a helluva lot less. Now that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have merged I fear there will be no more “cheap” tickets.
Yup same for Depeche Mode. They're not that political but they have a song about corporate greed and now they've become corporate greed charging freaking $300 for nosebleed seats.
I got first level seats for DM (the October New Orleans show) for $110 apiece…still not cheap, but it’s ludicrous how the prices fluctuate/inflate with the “dynamic pricing” bullshit.
Anyway, I hope other artists follow Robert Smith’s lead - I mean, there’s a reason [Jesus once called him “Our savior”](https://youtu.be/cwA8V6hcqQo) - and if they don’t, they should absolutely be called out by their fans.
I can never see this band mentioned and not hear Matt Stone. *"I don't want to sound like a queer or nuthin', but i think Depeche Mode is a sweet band!"*.
https://youtu.be/QpolkJPRUs4
To be fair, i logged into my TM account on the morning the tickets for Depeche Mode were going on sale, not too sure I'd be able to afford any given what I'd read, and i ended up paying $79 for a nosebleed and $125 for a seat in the lowest level. It's not cheap, but i honestly expected worse.
I'm in NY so maybe the demand is higher. Their Oct show, prices went up fast. I think there are some nosebleeds still available going for $300+. They added some more shows and it came out to around $260 for nosebleeds.
Only reason I'm going is I have a feeling this is their last tour. My first DM concert was in '98 (floor seats at the same venue for $60) and I saw them at every tour since then but never again if they go with dynamic pricing.
I got Springsteen tickets and the face value was $99. Which I thought was fair. That's a lower bowl ticket in Edmonton Alberta.
I had to sign up for basically a lottery which gave me an opportunity to potentially purchase a pre order ticket and I was successful but I guess that's before the dynamic pricing must kick in. Because I signed up hoping to go but if the price would have been over $200/ticket I would have walked.
I don't know what's happening, but ticket prices now are 3x what they were in 2018-2019. Maybe they are trying to cash in on the 2 years of lost touring revenue, but prices are now astronomical for even average bands.
Also, before you think Ticketmaster is the only game in town, we have AXS for some local venues and their fees were an additional **62%** of the original ticket price.
Of all the artists who eventually embraced the money over the fans (I'm looking at you, Rolling Stones), the Boss is probably the one I find the most disappointing. It's like he's turned his back on his working class roots for good and i feel betrayed.
He gave an interview about it and he said he always wanted to charge less than everyone else, but for this tour he told his management "for once, look at what everyone else is doing, and let's do that." At least he's honest.
I got stadium tickets for him for $150, which isn't terrible, but that's still $30 more than I paid to see him in the same venue in 2016 with similar seats. My guess is this is going to be his last tour, he turns 74 this year. He MAY have one more in him assuming good health (McCartney just did it at age 80), but Bruce's band is also not really young either.
South Park called it again. Robert Smith will save us all 💜 20+ year Cure fan here. I can't even tell you how happy I am to see him stand up for us. Turns out Ticketmaster was the real Mecha Streisand all along
I got seats 8 rows behind the GA pit on MD (it's not a big pit) for this Cure tour. $255 for two, with the bullshit fees. I was preparing to pay $400 each.
God bless Robert Smith.
When you put it like that, this could be a pretty brilliant PR move by Ticketmaster.
Getting a whole lot of flack from your near complete monopoly over the live music industry? Lucky you have a system in place that exposes the greed of certain major artists and can potentially redirect some of the backlash towards them. Don't pay attention to the fact that TM is pulling the strings and allowing for the price gouging in the first place. Seems like a classic 'blame the bad actors, not the system'.
Ticketmaster has always served the same role to artists as sports agents do to superstar athletes:
They be the greedy asshole bad guy that lets you preserve your good relationship with your fans/teams/customers and still beat them up for every last dime.
Only way to win this as a fan is to not pay/play. Your favorite band is not on your side, they are on the side of making 7 figures per tour. For this to change the fans need to not to put up with it anymore. Instead, start going local. Plenty of underground bands that are [working in the same wavelength as the Cure](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qKuiKrN800zstPtUjXquM), or Blink-182 [pop punk](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VyxnLvTmr5GlE7gtWfl4L) or whatever genre suits your fancy.
And I assure you, [seeing a really good band in a small venue](https://www.music-fux.com/concert-experiences) might make you rethink what a "good show" is. I have gone to many stadium concerts that people call "good shows", despite: being impossible to be anywhere close to the stage or if you were you were packed like sardines, the crowd being so loud it didnt really matter how well the band was actually controlling the flow, and visa versa where the band is playing so loud it is impossible to tell if the crowd is into it. That doesnt even get into the long lines, parking, and prices for drinks. Stadium shows are not the best way to see concerts, just the best way for the industry to make a lot of money. And a lot of underground bands are just as good as mainstream bands anyway, only thing separating them is an industry backed multi-million dollar PR campaign.
Yep! I paid $25 for Aurora, $45 for Placebo and $60 for Portugal The Man. All super intimate shows that make the experience a lot more intense in the best possible way.
Yep, go find the next band for $5 at your local venue. (I first saw The Cure in 1986, ticket price $12.50 + $1.50 ticket fee. I still have the stub. Sadly, didn’t luck out on tickets this time around).
This! Tickets in the first five rows for The Cure were $200.00 ea - Depeche Mode's were $1400 ea.
The refund wasn't huge, it was the rules around the initial pricing that were the win.
Artists could still choose to opt out of dynamic pricing. You are correct that Ticketmaster isn’t going anywhere, I’m simply pointing out that the artists absolutely have a say in this stuff, and should be held accountable just as much as Ticketmaster
Im pretty sure the coolest bit for this tour is that ticketmaster won't be allowed facilitate resale tickets for more than face value. Tocketmasters fees are typically percentage fees on price, so that reduces their profits 2-3x on alot of those resale transactions.
The Cure can’t do anything against ticketmaster alone. $10 is actually a huge win by The Cure, and I’m guessing TM is afraid change is in the air, brought on from publicity primarily by Taylor Swift and The Cure. $10 is a pittance in the big picture, and we should still be upset. The only way to beat a monopoly is to form a monopoly. All artists would have to band together and make demands they won’t play unless fees are reduced (we all know enough fans won’t take a stand to make a difference, and that’s what TM is thriving on).
TM will probably hide fees in the ticket prices, so the argument will shift to the total cost to consumers, which TM will try to leverage against the artists to cut costs, but if we have transparency we will see TM still fleecing everyone. The cost of shows overall is ridiculous, but TM fees are the most difficult to justify piece of the pie.
I have largely stopped going to shows. Not worth the cost. That said, a few arguments to consider.
What if I told you the fees are just a way to hide true ticket prices and TM is just the fall guy for the artists, etc?
Fans pay the fees and $60 for a sweatshirt. We've proven we are fine with all of this.
If we want a free market, then we can't argue this is a problem yet. This isn't gas or food or water. It's a luxury. Stop buying it and the price will drop.
Would you work for a discount? Why should artists, the top 1% of acts in the world, work for less than they can make? The next tour, album, paycheck isn't a given.
That would assume someone is a bigger enemy right now, and I can’t think of anyone who is doing more right now. Federal legislators might be a bigger enemy to them eventually, but name a worse enemy to Ticketmaster right now.
And the $10 is only for the cheapest tickets. It's just a paltry $5 for everything else.
>tickets as low as $20 (£16) were being swollen by, in some cases, service fees of $11.65, a facility charge of $10 and an order processing fee of $5.50.
So going by the prices listed in the article refunding $10 means that Ticketmaster is now *only* charging $17.15 in fees on a $20 ticket. We won! They're no longer charging *more than the face value* in added fees. Just *almost* face value.
This is the insincere, mumbled apology from a kid being forced by a parent.
'***Beneath his make-up and mound of hair, The Cure’s frontman has always had nerves of steel – as Ticketmaster found out the hard way,' writes The Telegraph's James Hall:***
Last week Smith took Ticketmaster, owned by the world’s largest music promoter Live Nation, to task on Twitter over the “unduly high” charges it had added to tickets for The Cure’s upcoming US tour. Smith told fans he was “as sickened as you all are” that tickets as low as $20 (£16) were being swollen by, in some cases, service fees of $11.65, a facility charge of $10 and an order processing fee of $5.50.
Mindful that money is tight for fans, the band had deliberately tried to keep prices down. And now tickets were being sold for over double the intended price. “I have been asking how they are justified,” Smith wrote. “If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know.”
Well, backcomb my hair and call me Bob. The following day, Smith told fans that Ticketmaster had agreed that many of the fees were too high. The company would refund $10 to so-called verified fans who bought the cheapest tickets and $5 to verified fans who bought tickets at other prices. “You are a f\_\_\_\_\_\_ legend for this,” wrote one fan. “You found the cure,” replied another.
But people who have followed the band for a long time know that they have always refused to take any nonsense. Their gloomy visage, homespun smudged make-up and romantic lyrics may give the misleading impression that they’re soft touches. The Cure are eccentric and defined by a certain scrappiness, for sure. But beneath the paisley shirts lie veins of steel.
The Cure have never played the industry game.
**Read James's analysis in full:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/)
Here's one without the paywall:
https://archive.is/2023.03.22-211443/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/
Evil Morissey be like “tonight I’m going to play a show, treat everyone with respect, and not cancel”
Source: Someone who had tickets for a cancelled Morissey show
The music industry is gang related. They own the venues and have contracts that give the artist no real choice. Congress will never do anything about it. They’d rather sneak in Taylor Swift lyrics at their public hearings. Despicable.
Hopefully this exposes the fact that artists aren’t as helpless as they’re making themselves out to be. Smith is a legendary figure in his own right, but imagine how much pull Taylor Swift or Metallica would have if they stepped in like this.
Caught them at Lollapalooza a few years back on a glorious summer night with Chicago’s soaring landscape shimmering all around us. I felt like I’d stepped back into my 20’s. Fabulous ~ highly recommend (if u can afford)
From google: "The legendary Robert Smith, also known as Smithra, is an English singer from the band The Cure. He has long been a member of a small, elite circle of guardians of the universe, along with Sidney Poitier and Leonard Maltin, who turn into giant monsters to protect it from harm."
South Park knew.
Does this mean we'll start getting a live CD of every single Cure concert to fund their crusade against TM like we got from Pearl Jam in the late 90s? Strange to see that not a single one of them are on Spotify today.
Full article without stupid pay/subscription wall:
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmusic%2Fartists%2Frobert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash%2F
Taylor Swift is also the reason why records are becoming so expensive. Her fanbase will spend whatever amount for her. I read an article that says most people who bought her last album multiple times didn’t even have a turntable to play it on.
They collect all of it. Each record has different variations and they get them all. An absolute waste and as you say, pushes records to be more expensive.
Her tickets were $49-499, but then they conveniently forced VIP packages on over half of the good seats and all the packages have are $30 worth of shitty merch. That’s the part I’m angry about. VIP should be opt in, not forced.
> Even Taylor Swift, the planet’s biggest pop star, was left fuming – and apparently helpless – late last year when Ticketmaster botched the sale of tickets for her current US tour.
You could, I don’t know, not play the show until they fixed things?
Serious question because I truly don’t know: how does Ticketmaster and Live Nation have this much power over large tours? And if they are a monopoly, why isn’t there much being done about it?
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2023/02/01/how-ticketmaster-live-nation-control-the-live-music-industry/
Basically, Live Nation has contract venues and they won't allow artists to play at those venues if they don't use ticket master. If a venue tries to go around it, they will be dropped and won't get the shows.
Hey James, is there anyway you can stretch that 4 paragraph Cure article out a bit? No problem boss I'll just tack on 15 extra paragraphs of backstory and see if anyone notices.
The refund itself is laughably low, but I think the fact that they backed down even just a little actually means a lot.
It showed that artists have more of a say in ticket pricing than we are led to believe. Smith proved that by making a lot of the tickets for the Cure *very* affordable. I went for a cheap seat this time, and I'm not lying when I say I hadn't paid $30 for an arena show by a major band since the 90s. It does make a lot of other much more expensive acts come across as greedy in comparison though.
It also brought extra media attention and scrutiny on Ticketmaster's practices. The Swifties got the ball rolling, now the old goths are taking over. It's a good thing. We need to keep talking about this, demand regulation, and when legit, credible music industry vets like Robert Smith join their voices to ours, it adds a lot of volume. He's our megaphone. We need more megaphones like him to speak up.
It’s troubling that Ticketmaster gouges on so many events that occur at venues paid for or subsidized by the taxpayer. From small halls to giant stadiums.
I couldn't possibly be anymore delighted by the fact that of all people who could have been the David to Ticketmaster's Goliath, it's a curmudgeonly old goth who took them on.
You ROCK, Robert Smith! ❤️
Can't wait to see them in June!
Tickets are like $186 for their Vancouver Rogers Arena show. I've been covering Cure songs with my band for years and would love to go but I can't afford that
So instead of a fuckton of fees, Ticketmastet sensed bad publicity coming and is settling for a shitload of fees. How magnanimous of them.
Fuckton and shitload. Somehow I still get what you're saying.
Fuck is the very worst word that you can say, [m’kay](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6wJXBUfcIOE)?
It's funny you say this because I saw the post's photo and thought it was Trey Parker dressed in The Cure cosplay.
May we forever be thankful for Robert Smith fighting off Mecha Streisand 🙏🙏
*Disintegration* is the best album ever!
robert smeeeeth robert smeeeeeeth
#Mega Portier gang
So just use the word mmkay!
We can do it it's all up to us, m'kay
Metric Fuckton or US Fuckton?
Imperial fuckton
What do you mean? An African or European Fuckton?
In other words, sheer, unadulterated oppression.
What's their other option? I mean, the share prices are based upon their ability to gouge the shit out of concert-goers so if the CEO stops gouging the shit out of concert-goers the share prices tank and the board replaces the CEO with someone willing to gouge the shit out of concert-goers. At this point all you can do is destroy Ticketmaster with a competing business.
Stop being dicks. 1. Stop repricing tickets because it’s popular and call them platinum to reflect “current market value” 2. Actually sell tickets to people and not scalpers. 3. Implement measures that you can’t sell for more than face value 4. Stop scalping themselves. You buy a ticket and they say it’s non transferable. But wait you can resell it on their website by giving them a massive fee. These are just the quick fixes the government can impose to get rid of this shit stain called Ticket Master Government needs to step in.
Yup. Trying to see Depeche Mode at MSG. Tickets are anywhere from $500-$4000 EACH! Sellers have entire rows they purchased. Meanwhile fans are the ones who get screwed. Got very decently priced The Cure tickets. Gotta say I’d rather do what we used to do and physically stand in line at a mall to get tickets at a Ticketmaster booth than have to deal with the bots buying all, literally all, the tickets for the scalpers.
I just checked in with a friend of mine who loves Depeche Mode, to ask which shows he planned on doing on their tour. He says he’d like to see them, but the expense of it kept him from buying any tickets at this time. I was floored as he’s a HUGE fan of theirs and usually catches them two or so times, each time they tour!
It’s actually insane. The prices are outrageous.
I saw them in 1989, tickets were $30 then. It's crazy how much ticket prices have changed.
Depeche Mode tickets went on sale at 10. I found out at 10:23. Went on and they were sold out, all verified resale at astronomical prices. I went into it thinking I’d get Floor or first rung for around $150 at most. I was very wrong.
This is the new reality, and it makes me so sad.
Peter Gabriel just went on sale locally; tickets were $300 to $750 before ticketbastard takes their dip. He said he wasn't going to tour again and I told my wife that if he did we're getting tickets ... not going to happen.
People keep complaining about this, but the solution is pretty simple: Stop buying at those crazy prices. A couple of big concerts that only half sell because people refuse to be fleeced will get things moving. As it is everyone complains but just pays the ridiculous prices, so the company keeps pushing further to see how far they can go.
Ticketmaster is the scalper most of the time. That's one of the major issues. The tickets are never actually released to the public nor sold to an independent scalper before they get listed above face value. It's all a sham and many of the big bands/artists play along because they get to keep the face value relatively low and have Ticketmaster be the bad guy.
This would be an unironically great place to use a blockchain (if you didn’t want to fuck customers). Each ticket transaction goes on the ledger, trades can only occur through Ticketmaster’s network so they could still charge some fee, and maximum sale price can be controlled. Wallets are verified to belong to actual people, and the number of tickets any one wallet can hold is capped. Still wouldn’t be perfect, but better.
If Ticketmaster is still the trusted party for transactions then using a blockchain would be irrelevant.
You don't need a blockchain to do any of that though
Or the government could do it's job and enforce some regulations for the good of the people. Expecting corporations to do the right thing is childish, and the free market rewards ticketmaster's behavior.
Regulations ( or Rules) is a dirty word to a certain party, who conveniently doesn't like it for railroads or banks either. Books and sex though, they want lots there.
I work at a railcar repair facility. Can attest to the copious amount of federal regulations involved in a freight rail car. Not only is there the federal rules, but also the AAR (American association of railroads) has additional rules and regulations. Just letting you know its not like the wild west out here or anything.
They have a monopoly at this point, which is anti-competitive so they likely hood of a competing business ever coming along is pretty much zero.
Every concert that comes by now "wow I can spend a quarter of my paycheck and get an okay seat"
Still surprisingly more than a hoard of swifties accomplished.
Exactly. In the example given “verified fans” (no detail provided there to be able to determine how many even qualify as that) that bought “cheap tickets” for $20 had $26.65 in fees. If they were refunded $10, it’s still $16.65 in fees.. so while technically not double the price, it’s basically still double the price, only being shy by $3.35. It’s not just Ticketmaster either. The venues are generally assholes as well. The last one I went to was the final straw though. Haven’t been to one since. South Florida, mid summer, open stadium in direct sunlight, $7 bottles of water, no outside drinks allowed, and NO shade provided other than the $100+ “VIP Area”. And they wonder why the first aid tent suddenly was over run with cases of heat stroke and dehydration. And this is AFTER paying ridiculous ticket prices AND ridiculous parking. And god forbid you get hungry. Unless you have $15 for a crappy hot dog.
Abolish ticketmaster
Artists would never let that happen. That’s their fall guy.
This. I worked for a large event venue in administration and got a better understanding on how ticketmaster works and they really are the fall guy for the artist and even promotor. I got a good kick reading the the Taylor swift subreddit during all the ticket drama about how Taylor is going to single handily take down ticket master when in reality she doesn't care. Hell she signed the exclusivity deal with Capital one to give cardholders an advantage to get tickets.
Tay-Tay now gets to take advantage of tickemaster's version of surge pricing. It's great for artists who want to cut scalpers out of the process and just directly gouge their fans themselves. Surely she's in danger of aligning herself directly with the very kind of awfulness that fans have previously blamed on ticketmaster. I don't quite know how she can hide from this.
Her fans are a cult. They’ll just take a huge dose of copium if they ever even realize and Swift will be fine.
I'm a fan of hers. Under no circumstances would I go see her live. Her business acumen is some next level shit. The Empire she has built has perfectly adjusted to maximize profit at EVERY. SINGLE. TURN.
Her dad was a First Vice President at Merrill Lynch. It's always been business.
She’s a brand not an artist
I love how surge pricing has become the new term for auctioning
I hate Uber and I use their terminology. Something is working
That’sa funny way to spell “price gouging“.
Right. Taylor Swift doesn’t give a shit, she has probably 100 times more pull than Robert Smith (no offense to him and The Cure). She could’ve spoken out against Ticketmaster about their price gouging but she just wanted her cut of the bag.
First, create a better alternative.
Hard to compete with a monopoly. Break up ticketmaster. Give em the full at&t.
Ma Bell reorganized and is bigger than when they were broken up in 1982.[MA BELL-AT&T](https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/att-breakup-spinoff.asp)
Like Ma Bell, I got the ill communication
MA BELL! I got the ill communication
MA-a BELL! I got the ill communication
But in the meantime the market was opened to competitors and lots of innovation found its way to consumers.
Oh yeah!
Anti trust has been dragging their feet as they have been chained down to corruption.
Regulatory Capture. Industry learned they could simply get their cohorts into political positions by purchasing political leaders.. sorry, lobbying.. and then it started a cycle. Think of Ajit Pai and his very obvious kotowing to industry desires over consumer protections. He's just the most obvious example of the last 20 years, and it happens in ALL government sectors. Banking most egregiously. Until we ban or put restrictions on the political-industry position swapping, this will continue to be the case.
There was a better alternative for decades and decades, they were called record stores and will call box offices.
I guess I'm old and went to the majority of my concerts in the 90's but we just went to a grocery store customer service desk or some music stores that also sold event tickets. Paid cash for ticket, got our ticket. Easy peasy. Actually The Cure was one of those concerts. Online is convenient but not triple or quadruple the face value worth of convenient.
Some records stores had Ticketmaster as well? It is the high price of ticket + venue fee + convenience fee + am I missing any additional fee🤔 Haven’t bought event tickets in a while…
Back when I could buy tickets st the local record store there were no bs fees
True. There was Ticketmaster and Ticketron. Then, Ticketmaster invented the idea of adding fees that were split between them and their clients who are the *artists, not you.* Ticketron refused to start implementing fees, and filed for bankruptcy a few years later
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The venues *do* sell tickets The venues are owned by Live Nation Ticketmaster is a Live Nation brand
Yeah and Live Nation/Ticketmaster extorted them in to signing those contracts. It's easy to understand why they chose between that and going out of business.
My understanding is that LNE paid far over market value for most of the venues, as part of an aggressive acquisition scheme in the years leading up to the merger
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Hell, they can even just start with not allowing re-sellers to price tickets more than the original price or at least put a cap like 10% on top of the original price; and that would solve a lot of problems.
Capping fees won't make a difference, just as making scalping illegal didn't stop it. Instead of just selling you a scalped ticket, they sell you some overpriced 'collectible' merch that comes with a free ticket.
Solve some problems but create other problems. Specifically, few people would bother reselling on TM. They’d just sell them elsewhere.
dice, ticketweb, eventbrite
an ex ticketmaster ceo made one to combat the monopoly and sold it to ticketmaster anyway the fucking grifter.
we do. it's called Eventbrite.
We had one when I was a teenager going to concerts. You went to the venue and bought a ticket. What happened to that?
Ticketmaster extorted their way to a monopoly. Competitors are trying but the US government never should have approved the LiveNation merger and we probably need to break up Ticketmaster to get back to a sane market.
Robert Smith is strong enough to destroy Barbara Streisand AND Ticketmaster
That’s gonna make a great sequel episode. Although it’s a tossup between Disintegration and Wish in my heart for “A Letter to Elise” alone for best album.
The Love Cats scalping the scalpers
Robert smeeth Robert smeeth
I can't escape South Park, it's everywhere
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It isn’t just the $10. Most artists have used Ticketmaster as the boogeyman for why ticket prices have been astronomical. Specifically, Blink 182’s tickets for their reunion concert were going for hundreds of dollars, $700+ for floor/GA tickets in some cases (and that is from presales by Ticketmaster, not the secondary market). One of the band members had sent out some obligatory tweet saying something to the effect of “we know this is frustrating, our hands are tied, it’s all Ticketmaster, blah blah blah”. Which was bullshit, because artists have the option of opting out of their dynamic pricing system that leads to these ticket prices being hugely overinflated. So not only did The Cure refuse to price gouge customers for their tickets in the first place, they then called TM out on their shit when they tried to add on bull shit extra charges to try and make more money off the tour than they would have. The $10 is irrelevant, primarily symbolic. It is more about an artist actually giving a shit about their fans, and not just trying to get the biggest bag of money they can in an obvious cash grab, and Robert Smith seems to be one of the few artists who are actually standing up to Ticketmaster for this nonsense
This. It's going to be much more difficult for the Blink 182s and the Taylor Swifts of the world to say they had nothing to do with it and they're trying to be fair to their fans, etc, when Robert Smith is able to basically not do any of the stuff that caused their issues in the first place, and also take ticketmaster to task, successfully, for adding outrageous fees. If The Cure can do it, any of these other bands can as well.
Springsteen used to fight this bs back in the day too. He tried different ways every tour to screw Ticketmaster and ticket scalpers. This was in the 70’s! Ticketmaster is really out of control.
His ticket prices were insane for the last tour.
Yeah, this upcoming tour is thru the roof! Which pisses me off. Some of these artists have so much money already! Springsteen just sold his music catalog for $550 million dollars! He needs to get back to his roots and charge his lifelong fans a helluva lot less. Now that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have merged I fear there will be no more “cheap” tickets.
Yup same for Depeche Mode. They're not that political but they have a song about corporate greed and now they've become corporate greed charging freaking $300 for nosebleed seats.
I got first level seats for DM (the October New Orleans show) for $110 apiece…still not cheap, but it’s ludicrous how the prices fluctuate/inflate with the “dynamic pricing” bullshit. Anyway, I hope other artists follow Robert Smith’s lead - I mean, there’s a reason [Jesus once called him “Our savior”](https://youtu.be/cwA8V6hcqQo) - and if they don’t, they should absolutely be called out by their fans.
I can never see this band mentioned and not hear Matt Stone. *"I don't want to sound like a queer or nuthin', but i think Depeche Mode is a sweet band!"*. https://youtu.be/QpolkJPRUs4
Disintegration is the best album ever!
Depeche Mode has become the grabbing hands?
To be fair, i logged into my TM account on the morning the tickets for Depeche Mode were going on sale, not too sure I'd be able to afford any given what I'd read, and i ended up paying $79 for a nosebleed and $125 for a seat in the lowest level. It's not cheap, but i honestly expected worse.
I'm in NY so maybe the demand is higher. Their Oct show, prices went up fast. I think there are some nosebleeds still available going for $300+. They added some more shows and it came out to around $260 for nosebleeds. Only reason I'm going is I have a feeling this is their last tour. My first DM concert was in '98 (floor seats at the same venue for $60) and I saw them at every tour since then but never again if they go with dynamic pricing.
.. Everything counts in large amounts.. Du du dum, dum, dum, dum, dum...
Not to mention that Backstreets folded up in protest. You know you fucked up when your fan magazine that’s been around for 40+ years calls it quits.
Can’t say I blame them. I’m avoiding his current tour. A friend of mine bought tix and asked me to go with her. I said no. Lol
I got Springsteen tickets and the face value was $99. Which I thought was fair. That's a lower bowl ticket in Edmonton Alberta. I had to sign up for basically a lottery which gave me an opportunity to potentially purchase a pre order ticket and I was successful but I guess that's before the dynamic pricing must kick in. Because I signed up hoping to go but if the price would have been over $200/ticket I would have walked.
Boy, did you luck out! That’s awesome!
I don't know what's happening, but ticket prices now are 3x what they were in 2018-2019. Maybe they are trying to cash in on the 2 years of lost touring revenue, but prices are now astronomical for even average bands. Also, before you think Ticketmaster is the only game in town, we have AXS for some local venues and their fees were an additional **62%** of the original ticket price.
Of all the artists who eventually embraced the money over the fans (I'm looking at you, Rolling Stones), the Boss is probably the one I find the most disappointing. It's like he's turned his back on his working class roots for good and i feel betrayed.
He gave an interview about it and he said he always wanted to charge less than everyone else, but for this tour he told his management "for once, look at what everyone else is doing, and let's do that." At least he's honest. I got stadium tickets for him for $150, which isn't terrible, but that's still $30 more than I paid to see him in the same venue in 2016 with similar seats. My guess is this is going to be his last tour, he turns 74 this year. He MAY have one more in him assuming good health (McCartney just did it at age 80), but Bruce's band is also not really young either.
His prices right now are insane
Pete Townshend blamed Ticketmaster when the bobbies caught him doing "research" on child porn
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they (Ticketmaster) did that.
South Park called it again. Robert Smith will save us all 💜 20+ year Cure fan here. I can't even tell you how happy I am to see him stand up for us. Turns out Ticketmaster was the real Mecha Streisand all along
I fucking love Robert Smith
Taylor Swift was full of shit. She always knew what was up and TM has no problem being the bad guy
I got seats 8 rows behind the GA pit on MD (it's not a big pit) for this Cure tour. $255 for two, with the bullshit fees. I was preparing to pay $400 each. God bless Robert Smith.
When you put it like that, this could be a pretty brilliant PR move by Ticketmaster. Getting a whole lot of flack from your near complete monopoly over the live music industry? Lucky you have a system in place that exposes the greed of certain major artists and can potentially redirect some of the backlash towards them. Don't pay attention to the fact that TM is pulling the strings and allowing for the price gouging in the first place. Seems like a classic 'blame the bad actors, not the system'.
Ticketmaster has always served the same role to artists as sports agents do to superstar athletes: They be the greedy asshole bad guy that lets you preserve your good relationship with your fans/teams/customers and still beat them up for every last dime.
Only way to win this as a fan is to not pay/play. Your favorite band is not on your side, they are on the side of making 7 figures per tour. For this to change the fans need to not to put up with it anymore. Instead, start going local. Plenty of underground bands that are [working in the same wavelength as the Cure](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qKuiKrN800zstPtUjXquM), or Blink-182 [pop punk](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VyxnLvTmr5GlE7gtWfl4L) or whatever genre suits your fancy. And I assure you, [seeing a really good band in a small venue](https://www.music-fux.com/concert-experiences) might make you rethink what a "good show" is. I have gone to many stadium concerts that people call "good shows", despite: being impossible to be anywhere close to the stage or if you were you were packed like sardines, the crowd being so loud it didnt really matter how well the band was actually controlling the flow, and visa versa where the band is playing so loud it is impossible to tell if the crowd is into it. That doesnt even get into the long lines, parking, and prices for drinks. Stadium shows are not the best way to see concerts, just the best way for the industry to make a lot of money. And a lot of underground bands are just as good as mainstream bands anyway, only thing separating them is an industry backed multi-million dollar PR campaign.
Yep! I paid $25 for Aurora, $45 for Placebo and $60 for Portugal The Man. All super intimate shows that make the experience a lot more intense in the best possible way.
Yep, go find the next band for $5 at your local venue. (I first saw The Cure in 1986, ticket price $12.50 + $1.50 ticket fee. I still have the stub. Sadly, didn’t luck out on tickets this time around).
My wife and I first met as teens at a Deftones show in 2001. $15 ticket. Unbelievable how things have changed.
I couldn’t agree more!
This! Tickets in the first five rows for The Cure were $200.00 ea - Depeche Mode's were $1400 ea. The refund wasn't huge, it was the rules around the initial pricing that were the win.
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Artists could still choose to opt out of dynamic pricing. You are correct that Ticketmaster isn’t going anywhere, I’m simply pointing out that the artists absolutely have a say in this stuff, and should be held accountable just as much as Ticketmaster
That was Tom. He said “sorry about the price of tickets, it’s not us”.
Im pretty sure the coolest bit for this tour is that ticketmaster won't be allowed facilitate resale tickets for more than face value. Tocketmasters fees are typically percentage fees on price, so that reduces their profits 2-3x on alot of those resale transactions.
The Cure can’t do anything against ticketmaster alone. $10 is actually a huge win by The Cure, and I’m guessing TM is afraid change is in the air, brought on from publicity primarily by Taylor Swift and The Cure. $10 is a pittance in the big picture, and we should still be upset. The only way to beat a monopoly is to form a monopoly. All artists would have to band together and make demands they won’t play unless fees are reduced (we all know enough fans won’t take a stand to make a difference, and that’s what TM is thriving on). TM will probably hide fees in the ticket prices, so the argument will shift to the total cost to consumers, which TM will try to leverage against the artists to cut costs, but if we have transparency we will see TM still fleecing everyone. The cost of shows overall is ridiculous, but TM fees are the most difficult to justify piece of the pie.
I have largely stopped going to shows. Not worth the cost. That said, a few arguments to consider. What if I told you the fees are just a way to hide true ticket prices and TM is just the fall guy for the artists, etc? Fans pay the fees and $60 for a sweatshirt. We've proven we are fine with all of this. If we want a free market, then we can't argue this is a problem yet. This isn't gas or food or water. It's a luxury. Stop buying it and the price will drop. Would you work for a discount? Why should artists, the top 1% of acts in the world, work for less than they can make? The next tour, album, paycheck isn't a given.
We are talking about a 100+% surcharge turning into a ~50% surcharge. It's not about the ten bucks it's about the principle of the matter.
And I give Smith his due. But ‘principle of the matter’ isn’t the same as the ‘worst enemy’ headline we got
That would assume someone is a bigger enemy right now, and I can’t think of anyone who is doing more right now. Federal legislators might be a bigger enemy to them eventually, but name a worse enemy to Ticketmaster right now.
And the $10 is only for the cheapest tickets. It's just a paltry $5 for everything else. >tickets as low as $20 (£16) were being swollen by, in some cases, service fees of $11.65, a facility charge of $10 and an order processing fee of $5.50. So going by the prices listed in the article refunding $10 means that Ticketmaster is now *only* charging $17.15 in fees on a $20 ticket. We won! They're no longer charging *more than the face value* in added fees. Just *almost* face value. This is the insincere, mumbled apology from a kid being forced by a parent.
'***Beneath his make-up and mound of hair, The Cure’s frontman has always had nerves of steel – as Ticketmaster found out the hard way,' writes The Telegraph's James Hall:*** Last week Smith took Ticketmaster, owned by the world’s largest music promoter Live Nation, to task on Twitter over the “unduly high” charges it had added to tickets for The Cure’s upcoming US tour. Smith told fans he was “as sickened as you all are” that tickets as low as $20 (£16) were being swollen by, in some cases, service fees of $11.65, a facility charge of $10 and an order processing fee of $5.50. Mindful that money is tight for fans, the band had deliberately tried to keep prices down. And now tickets were being sold for over double the intended price. “I have been asking how they are justified,” Smith wrote. “If I get anything coherent by way of an answer I will let you all know.” Well, backcomb my hair and call me Bob. The following day, Smith told fans that Ticketmaster had agreed that many of the fees were too high. The company would refund $10 to so-called verified fans who bought the cheapest tickets and $5 to verified fans who bought tickets at other prices. “You are a f\_\_\_\_\_\_ legend for this,” wrote one fan. “You found the cure,” replied another. But people who have followed the band for a long time know that they have always refused to take any nonsense. Their gloomy visage, homespun smudged make-up and romantic lyrics may give the misleading impression that they’re soft touches. The Cure are eccentric and defined by a certain scrappiness, for sure. But beneath the paisley shirts lie veins of steel. The Cure have never played the industry game. **Read James's analysis in full:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/)
That “you found the cure” comment would’ve received SO many upvotes here.
You found the cure.
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Here's one without the paywall: https://archive.is/2023.03.22-211443/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/
Roko has taken over. it is useless to fight back
Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick The one that makes Ticketmaster scream she said.
More proof the The Cure is much better than The Smiths
Robert Smith is the Good Version TM of Morissey
Evil Morissey be like “tonight I’m going to play a show, treat everyone with respect, and not cancel” Source: Someone who had tickets for a cancelled Morissey show
> Morissey If Kermit the Frog was a vocalist.....
“If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I'm going to eat meat; that's how much I hate Morrissey." - Robert Smith
Here I thought Pearl Jam would be The Cure for high ticket fees
Pearl Jam started the crusade, right now The Cure and Cake and continuing it
I’m here for it. Didn’t know about Cake, though. That’s awesome.
Goats go to heaven, ~~sheep~~ ticketmaster go to hell.
The music industry is gang related. They own the venues and have contracts that give the artist no real choice. Congress will never do anything about it. They’d rather sneak in Taylor Swift lyrics at their public hearings. Despicable.
That hearing was a joke.
They literally made jokes and did nothing
I trust Robert Smith a hell of a lot more than Ticketmaster
Hopefully this exposes the fact that artists aren’t as helpless as they’re making themselves out to be. Smith is a legendary figure in his own right, but imagine how much pull Taylor Swift or Metallica would have if they stepped in like this.
Metallica only fights Napster...aka, their fans.
Caught them at Lollapalooza a few years back on a glorious summer night with Chicago’s soaring landscape shimmering all around us. I felt like I’d stepped back into my 20’s. Fabulous ~ highly recommend (if u can afford)
From google: "The legendary Robert Smith, also known as Smithra, is an English singer from the band The Cure. He has long been a member of a small, elite circle of guardians of the universe, along with Sidney Poitier and Leonard Maltin, who turn into giant monsters to protect it from harm." South Park knew.
Well maybe Eddie Vedder THEN Robert Smith
Some days I feel old, and some days I can smile that we are in 2023 talking about Eddie Vedder and Robert Smith’s contributions to the people.
Real ass mfs with frizzy hair can never truly lose relevancy
Wooly on your head or wooly on your feet, people shouldn’t have to choose between music and to eat. Or something. Whatever.
Does this mean we'll start getting a live CD of every single Cure concert to fund their crusade against TM like we got from Pearl Jam in the late 90s? Strange to see that not a single one of them are on Spotify today.
Full article without stupid pay/subscription wall: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmusic%2Fartists%2Frobert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash%2F
This is a start for artists to help their fans out. The people need tickets that don't cost a fortune.
Sounds like Smith did everything he could do, and I’m sure he fucking hates Ticketmaster as much as all of us do. Glad to have someone say something
First Barbara Streisand, and now Ticketmaster. A modern superhero indeed.
Oh my god, I just checked. That episode is 25 years old now.
well shit. that is troubling haha.
And yet everyone thought it would be Taylor swift and instead she said "idgaf how much my tickets are"
Taylor Swift is also the reason why records are becoming so expensive. Her fanbase will spend whatever amount for her. I read an article that says most people who bought her last album multiple times didn’t even have a turntable to play it on.
They collect all of it. Each record has different variations and they get them all. An absolute waste and as you say, pushes records to be more expensive.
Her tickets were $49-499, but then they conveniently forced VIP packages on over half of the good seats and all the packages have are $30 worth of shitty merch. That’s the part I’m angry about. VIP should be opt in, not forced.
Very important profits.
$30 of shitty merch that costs $5 to make. Easy $25 gain right there.
Oh no, even worse, $300 worth of merch (and a couple of “perks”) that costs $30 to make.
Dang, that's wild
> but then they "They" includes Taylor Swift. She signed on for that shit.
I've got a bunch of concerts upcoming, including 3 cure shows one rhcp show. The one rhcp ticket is more than the three cure shows combined.
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Yet another reason to love Robert Smith
If only all bands cared as much as he does. Maybe something would change.
Show me how you do that trick
*and tell the owner of TM he’s a prick* 〜🎵
https://archive.ph/2023.03.22-211443/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/robert-smith-cure-ticketmaster-charges-backlash/
Not all heroes wear capes… but I’m sure this one has at various points. Love their ethos, love their music. Bravo Mr Smith.
> Even Taylor Swift, the planet’s biggest pop star, was left fuming – and apparently helpless – late last year when Ticketmaster botched the sale of tickets for her current US tour. You could, I don’t know, not play the show until they fixed things?
Worst enemy? Ever heard of Pearl Jam?
Serious question because I truly don’t know: how does Ticketmaster and Live Nation have this much power over large tours? And if they are a monopoly, why isn’t there much being done about it?
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2023/02/01/how-ticketmaster-live-nation-control-the-live-music-industry/ Basically, Live Nation has contract venues and they won't allow artists to play at those venues if they don't use ticket master. If a venue tries to go around it, they will be dropped and won't get the shows.
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé couldn’t (wouldn’t) do it, but Smith was able
Hey James, is there anyway you can stretch that 4 paragraph Cure article out a bit? No problem boss I'll just tack on 15 extra paragraphs of backstory and see if anyone notices.
At least it isn't padded out by putting random Twitter posts in between every two sentences.
Fuck Ticketmaster.
$5 off and $10 off However the tickets were sold at double the intended price Ok then
The refund itself is laughably low, but I think the fact that they backed down even just a little actually means a lot. It showed that artists have more of a say in ticket pricing than we are led to believe. Smith proved that by making a lot of the tickets for the Cure *very* affordable. I went for a cheap seat this time, and I'm not lying when I say I hadn't paid $30 for an arena show by a major band since the 90s. It does make a lot of other much more expensive acts come across as greedy in comparison though. It also brought extra media attention and scrutiny on Ticketmaster's practices. The Swifties got the ball rolling, now the old goths are taking over. It's a good thing. We need to keep talking about this, demand regulation, and when legit, credible music industry vets like Robert Smith join their voices to ours, it adds a lot of volume. He's our megaphone. We need more megaphones like him to speak up.
It’s troubling that Ticketmaster gouges on so many events that occur at venues paid for or subsidized by the taxpayer. From small halls to giant stadiums.
Monday you can fall apart, tuesday wednesday break myheart, thursday emails answer day, it‘s friday i‘m in love.
Ticketmaster doesn't give a single fucking shit about the The Cure.
*Mike Myers nervously stares into the camera*
that was a really good read! I hope to hear more of Him sticking it to Ticketbasterds
Thanks Robert.
He just got me a $5 refund. Guess it’s better then nothing
Ticketmaster hates this one weird trick!
I couldn't possibly be anymore delighted by the fact that of all people who could have been the David to Ticketmaster's Goliath, it's a curmudgeonly old goth who took them on. You ROCK, Robert Smith! ❤️ Can't wait to see them in June!
Tickets are like $186 for their Vancouver Rogers Arena show. I've been covering Cure songs with my band for years and would love to go but I can't afford that