#swift act

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Live Nation/Ticketmaster is buying Congress

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me THURSDAY (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Monopolies are intrinsically destabilizing and inevitably implode…eventually. Guessing which of the loathesome monopolies that make us all miserable will be the first domino is a hard call, but Ticketmaster is definitely high on my list.

It's not that event tickets are the most consequential aspect of our lives. The monopolies over pharma, fuel, finance, tech, and even beer are all more important to our day-to-day. But while Ticketmaster – and its many ramified tentacles, like Live Nation – may not be the most destructive monopoly in our world, but it pisses off people with giant megaphones and armies of rabid fans.

It's been a minute since Ticketmaster was last in the news, so let's recap. Ticketmaster bought out most of its ticketing rivals, then merged with Live Nation, the country's largest concert promoter, and bought out many of the country's largest music, stage and sports venues. They used this iron grip on the entire supply chain for performances and events to pile innumerable junk fees on every ticket sold, while drastically eroding the wages of the creative workers they nominally represented. They created a secret secondary market for tickets and worked with ticket-touts to help them run bots that bought every ticket within an instant of the opening of ticket sales, then ran an auction marketplace that made them gigantic fees on every re-sold ticket – fees the performers were not entitled to share in.

The Ticketmaster/Live Nation/venue octopus is nearly impossible to escape. Independent venues can't book Live Nation acts unless they use Ticketmaster for their tickets. Acts can't get into the large venues owned by Ticketmaster unless they sign up to have Live Nation book their tour. And when Ticketmaster buys a venue, it creams off the most successful acts, starving competing venues of blockbuster shows. They also illegally colluded with their vendors to jack up the price of concerts across the board:

https://pascrell.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ful.pdf

When Rebecca Giblin and I were writing Chokepoint Capitalism, our book about how tech and entertainment monopolies impoverish all kinds of creative workers, we were able to get insiders to go on record about every kind of monopoly, from the labels to Spotify, Kindle to the Big Five publishers and the Google-Meta ad-tech duopoly. The only exception was Ticketmaster/Live Nation: everyone involved in live performance – performers, bookers, club owners – was palpably terrified about speaking out on the record about the conglomerate:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

No wonder. The company has a long and notorious history of using its market power to ruin anyone who challenges it. Remember Pearl Jam?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taking-on-ticketmaster-67440/

But anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Not only is Ticketmaster a rapacious, vindictive monopolist – it's also an incompetent monopolist, whose IT systems are optimized for rent-extraction first, with ticket sales as a distant afterthought. This is bad no matter which artist it effects, but when Ticketmaster totally, utterly fucked up Taylor Swift's first post-lockdown tour, they incurred the wrath of the Swifties:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2022/11/21/23471763/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-monopoly

All of which explains why I've always given good odds that Ticketmaster would be first up against the wall come the antitrust revolution. It may not be the most destructive monopolist, but it is absurdly evil, and the people who hate it most are the most famous and beloved artists in the country.

For a while, it looked like I was right. Ticketmaster's colossal Taylor Swift fuckup prompted Senator Amy Klobuchar – a leading antitrust crusader – to hold hearings on the company's conduct, and led to the introduction of a raft of bills to rein in predatory ticketing practices. But as David Dayen writes for The American Prospect, Ticketmaster/Live Nation is spreading a fortune around on the Hill, hiring a deep bench of ex-Congressmen and ex-senior staffers (including Klobuchar's former chief of staff) and they've found a way to create the appearance of justice without having to suffer any consequences for their decades-long campaign of fraud and abuse:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-04-30-live-nation-strikes-up-band-washington/

Dayen opens his article with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is always bracketed by a week's worth of lavish parties for Congress and hill staffers. One of the fanciest of these parties was thrown by Axios – and sponsored by Live Nation, with a performance by Jelly Roll (whose touring contract is owned by Live Nation). Attendees at the Axios/Live Nation event were bombarded with messages about the essential goodness of Live Nation (they were even printed on the cocktail napkins) and exhortations to support the Fans First Act, co-sponsored by Klobuchar and Sen John Cornyn (R-TX):

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/arts/music/fans-first-act-ticket-bill.html

Ticketmaster/Live Nation loves the Fans First Act, because – unlike other bills – it focuses primarily on the secondary market for tickets, and its main measure is a requirement for ticketing companies to disclose their junk fees upfront. Neither of these represents a major challenge to Ticketmaster/Live Nation's control over the market, which gives it the ability to slash performers' wages while jacking up prices for fans.

Fans First represents the triumph of Ticketmaster/Live Nation's media strategy, which is to blame the entire problem on bottom-feeding ticket-touts (who are mostly scum!) instead of on the single monopoly that controls the entire industry and can't stop committing financial crimes.

Axios isn't Live Nation's only partner in selling this distraction tactic. Over the past five years, the company has flushed gigantic sums of money through Washington. Its lobbying spend rose from $240k in 2018 to $1.1m in 2022, and $2.38m in 2023:

https://thehill.com/business/4431886-live-nation-doubled-lobbying-spending-to-2-4m-in-2023-amid-antitrust-threat/

The company has 37 paid lobbyists selling Congress on its behalf. 25 of them are former congressional staffers. Two are former Congressmen: Ed Whitfield (R-KY), a 21 year veteran of the House, and Mark Pryor (D-AR), a two-term senator:

https://www.bhfs.com/people/attorneys/p-s/mark-pryor

But perhaps the most galling celebrant in this lavish hymn to Citizen United is Jonathan Becker, Amy Klobuchar's former chief of staff, who jumped ship to lobby Congress on behalf of monopolists like Live Nation, who paid him $120k last year to sell their story to the Hill:

https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/lobbyists?cycle=2023&id=D000053134

Not everyone hates Fans First: it's been endorsed by the Nix the Tix coalition, largely on the strength of its regulation of secondary ticket sales. But the largest secondary seller in America by far is Live Nation itself, with a $4.5b market in reselling the tickets it sold in the first place. Fans First shifts focus from this sleazy self-dealing to competitors like Stubhub.

Fans First can be seen as an opening salvo in the long war against Ticketmaster/Live Nation. But compared to more muscular bills – like Klobuchar's stalled-out Unlock Ticketing Markets Act, it's pretty weaksauce. The Unlocking act will "prevent exclusive contracts between ticketing services and venues" – hitting Ticketmaster/Live Nation where it hurts, right in the bank-account:

https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2023/4/following-senate-judiciary-committee-hearing-klobuchar-blumenthal-introduce-legislation-to-increase-competition-in-live-event-ticketing-markets

It's not all gloom. Dayen reports that Ticketmaster's active lobbying in favor of Fans First has made many in Congress more skeptical of the bill, not less. And Congress isn't the only – or even the best – way to smash Ticketmaster's criminal empire. That's something the DoJ's antitrust division could power through with a lot less exposure to the legalized bribery that dominates Congress.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix-fix-the-tix/#something-must-be-done-there-we-did-something

Image: Matt Biddulph (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiddulph/13904063945/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

--

Flying Logos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[lyss-butterscotch]

The art of violence

[theerastour]

I am what I am cause you trained me...

[stillgotscars]

the bomb - florence + the machine // the smallest man who ever lived - taylor swift

[francesderwent]

anyway Taylor Swift is the canary in the coal mine of dating culture and we ignore her to our peril

[irrevocablecondition]

the thing is, it's not an act of spite for me.

it's not an act of revolution or protest. and maybe for other it is out of spite and that's okay, we all have different mindsets, but i am not alive out of spite.

it's not an act of protest for me to keep living. it isn't an act of revolution for me. it isn't something i do out of spite, hell, i don't have enough spite in me for that. it's not spite that stops me from Doing It.

it's remembering. just,,, just remembering.

it's remembering the first time i introduced myself with "robyn", it's remembering sitting with my friends and changing my pronouns online as we ate lunch - pasta, beans, and vegan cheese from my bag. an absolute staple at my sixth form. just a few clicks of some buttons but it felt massive. big. important.

it's remembering how my school found out my name. i hadn't told them, only my friends knew, and we were sat in english class grouping up for a project and my friend said "robyn's with us". there was a few seconds of confused silence until i raised my hand and then our teacher just nodded and carried on. we got some essays back that same day, she'd crossed out my deadname and corrected it. we never spoke about it in any depth, but i hope she knows how much that meant to me. i hope she knows that my very quiet "thank you" doesn't even begin to cover it.

it's remembering my first gender appointment and the trans woman in the waiting room who sat with me and told me everything to expect. she walked me through absolutely everything as i sat there biting my nails, and she stayed there until my appointment ended to ask me how it went. we haven't seen each other since but we text sometimes. she's coming to see me when i go in for top surgery next month.

it's remembering the way i set my phone up when i applied my first dose of T, how i lent it against a bottle of antibac spray on a shitty bookshelf in my crappy homeless shelter. how i had to cut the first four minutes because i was just standing there holding the box, and how i sent that video to the family i had no contact with and they had nothing but love for Me.

it's remembering my first haircut at a barbers, my first list of names, the first deed poll in my hands and the first empty bottle of T, and every one that followed, my first binder, my first roll of tape.

it's the first time i got introduced as a boyfriend, as a brother, as a son. it's remembering the first time i saw my sister after everything went down and she yelled "ROBYN!!!" from across the street and jumped into her big brother's arms even though she was 12 and farrrr too cool for all that mhm.

it's remembering every nod on the street as i pass another trans person and for those couple of seconds, we See each other and we Get It and we aren't so alone. it's the soft smiles in the women's restroom on a night out and the compliments of my hair or my makeup, how we wash our hands together and get drinks together after. it's every customer that says "cheers lad", every time they throw out a simple "he" like it's something so casual. like it was never even a question. it's the optician leading me to the men's stands and pointing out ones that would look good on me. it's the bouncers at clubs who look at my ID and it's that one specific bouncer who looked between me and the photo and said "well done" before letting me and it's just two words but it's remembering that. well done.

it's hope, really.

because i remember every single first, and second, and third. and i remember how easy it all felt - breathing, after i figured it out and everything fell into place. like i'd been walking through life with one side of my nose blocked and i didn't even know until i signed that deed poll.

and i know it will come back. i know it will. that happiness and that joy and that easeee i first felt. i know that's going to come back. at some point, it will come back.

and if, until then, the nods i share with trans people on the street feel more like matching grimaces? then i'm just glad to have been someone to share it with for a few seconds. a few seconds of recognition as we pass on opposite sides, and maybe a glance back to remind myself that we're never really alone.

i'm not staying alive out of spite. it's gonna come back. i know it will, i'm staying alive to see that. i'm staying alive to see it.

[shitswiftiessay]

Ahh yes, Taylor Swift, the PATRIARCHY SMASHER and BARRIER BREAKER, whose entire career was bought by her father who holds shares with Big Machine records, who had to ask Daddy for permission to endorse a democratic candidate, who dates racists and misogynists and hangs out with rapists and Trump donors, and who’s mostly famous for writing albums about her ex boyfriends. Because that’s feminism!! Patriarchy = smashed!!

​Its the way swifties will say all this shit about feminism and then go be racist as fuck to Beyoncé and tear down other female artists.

[liscorrino]

"I'll never leave" ... "Never mind"

[deswhomst]

people who say james/regulus would never do this or that in regards to jegulus treat falling in love as if it’s a logical and thought-out process when it’s not. it’s not this smart decision a person makes so much as something that just happens to them. also love truly does make you do insane things!!! especially initial stage love. so to me james would do this and regulus would do that, not bc it’s true to their character or whatever but bc you often don’t control your emotions and feelings as much as they control you when it comes to all this.

[tomscottsredshirt]

✦ ₊ ˚⊹ ʲᵒʰⁿⁿʸ ᵈᵉᵖᵖ ᶜʰᵃʳᵃᶜᵗᵉʳˢ ʰᵘᵍ ʰᵉᵃᵈᶜᵃⁿᵒⁿˢ 🍰💭💌

ʷᵒʳᵈ ᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗ: ⁵⁰¹

୧ ‧₊˚ 🕸️ ⋅ ☆ ꒰ ɪᴄʜᴀʙᴏᴅ ᴄʀᴀɴᴇ: ꒱ a little awkward about it, but generally likes hugs, especially after a particularly unpleasant nightmare or if he's scared. too shy to initiate most of the time. very gentle and comforting, puts his head on your shoulder and pets your hair. loves to cuddle during thunderstorms.

୧ ‧₊˚ ✂️ ⋅ ☆꒰ ᴇᴅᴡᴀʀᴅ ꜱᴄɪꜱꜱᴏʀʜᴀɴᴅꜱ: ꒱ clumsy and hesitant due to his hands (poor boy's afraid of hurting you), but craves hugs at every given opportunity, even if he doesn't know how to express it. hugs with him are long and intimate, a tender touch that reminds him he's loved despite his differences. if he's taller than you, rests his head on top of yours.

୧ ‧₊˚ 🔪 ⋅ ☆ ꒰ ꜱᴡᴇᴇɴᴇʏ ᴛᴏᴅᴅ: ꒱ would probably slit anyone's throat if they even tried to hug him, unless it's someone very very close to him. even so, he's stiff as a board and just hovers his hands around your waist, not actually touching you and pulls away quickly.

୧ ‧₊˚ 🚬 ⋅ ☆ ꒰ ᴅᴇᴀɴ ᴄᴏʀꜱᴏ: ꒱ not used to hugs and isn't very fond of them either, but doesn't mind being held here and there if it's someone he trusts, like his s/o. rubs your back. he def smells like cigarette smoke 24/7.

୧ ‧₊˚ 🍫 ⋅ ☆ ꒰ ᴡɪʟʟʏ ᴡᴏɴᴋᴀ: ꒱ probably disgusted? flinches away, then reluctantly lets you hold him if he cares about you. awkward and stiff as well, not really knowing where to put his hands. rolls his eyes but actually loves it. chuckles nervously.

୧ ‧₊˚ 🎭 ⋅ ☆ ꒰ ᴊᴀᴍᴇꜱ ᴍ. ʙᴀʀʀɪᴇ: ꒱ would be surprised to receive a hug from anyone, but happily reciprocates it. sways left and right a little. he appreciates hugs especially after one of his plays don't go so well. if you're his s/o, gives you a little kiss on the forehead afterwards.

୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ 🥃 ☆ ꒰ ʀɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ ʙʀᴏᴡɴ: ꒱ big tight bear hug, like one you'd get from a caring dad, which he is. squeezes you a little too hard sometimes, maybe even lifts you up a little. likely to ruffle your hair playfully. if you're his s/o, might whisper a dirty little something in your ear, or his hands might wander.

୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ 📄 ☆ ꒰ ᴍᴏʀᴛ ʀᴀɪɴᴇʏ: ꒱ might not seem like a huge hugger on the surface either, but really likes them. idk he just seems like the kinda guy who'd like to cuddle up while napping. runs his fingers through your hair. hugs bring him comfort in the midst of his divorce, or when he's struggling with writing. they're brief but meaningful, letting him know you're there if he needs you, and he does.

୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅ 💭 ☆ ꒰ ɢɪʟʙᴇʀᴛ ɢʀᴀᴘᴇ: ꒱ LOVES hugs but wouldn't openly ask for them, even when he needs it the most. when you offer him one, he rests his hands on your upper back, holding you tight. he's afraid of letting you go. having someone safe to hold onto and knowing he's loved and appreciated, even if just for a moment, means the world to him. it's strange for him to feel like he has somewhere to go when all the responsibilities of caring for his family get too much. he deserves all the hugs in the world <3

[bey-life]

Taylor Swift presents Beyoncé her 34th GRAMMY as she becomes the first Black artist ever to win Best Country Album 🐎

[cosmicterrorthe8th]

I think it's a pretty common hc that the kiddads are a pretty food motivated bunch of people. Like because of the kidnapping where they were not given food for days. Also I think in captivity, the older ones tried to give their food to the younger ones (the twins) cuz they were stuck there the longest. And Grant was like let me be like a bear and hibernate in this time of starvation.

[th30ra3k3n]

ocean blue eyes looking in mine

you ruined my life by not being mine

Dedicated to @thiamsxbitch

[uaijatp]

✨🩷💙✨

[norabugz]

Katy Perry going to space is the weirdest fucking thing ever

Like how do you reach that level of wealth that you can spend it on an 11 minute long space journey. Like what??? That's so fucking dystopian. And it's being marketed like some break-through feminist movement. It's the most performative thing I've ever seen.

If Katy Perry actually wanted to help the feminist movement. She would donate that money to female-lead charities to support women globally in every situation- whether they're suffering from DV in the US, or in the middle of a warzone, not go to space.

We have enough problems that need to be fixed on earth before we go looking for trouble in space.

[justnone88]

Leave it to *Billboard* to write an article about Beyoncé and make it about somebody else entirely. They claim the only reason they didn’t choose the other person was Beyoncé's longevity, but I can give you more than just that reason for choosing Beyoncé over anyone else. Beyoncé has the vocal capability of an opera singer, the dance skills of the best dancers in the world, and an unparalleled intuition for making a difference in the industry—she changed the game with that digital drop! Her visuals pushed everyone to step up their game, and her storytelling through her albums is something that deserves to be studied.

Not only that, but she has been a loud advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, gave us *Renaissance*, and has spoken clearly about her stance on racism in the USA. This woman’s career goes beyond anything we could have imagined 27 years ago when she first entered the game. She has earned the respect of her idols—Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Prince, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, and more.

This list should not be about sales. It should be about artistry and the act of creating work that transcends time. In that regard, the other person wouldn't even come close, I guarantee it. However, we all know the real reason behind *Billboard*'s rant, and it starts with a big R. White supremacy and white women's feminism often go hand in hand, trying to make us believe they are better than those truly doing the work.

So open your eyes, because even if you don’t like Beyoncé, you certainly know that list is not the most accurate one. Otherwise, Gaga would be up there behind Beyoncé!

Also, where is mariah carey? Or jazmin sullivan in that godforsaken list? What about Janelle Monáe or even Miley Cyrus?