#music industry: ticketing

[dearly]

Ticket masters: The rise of the concert industry and how the public got scalped

[reasonsforhope]

Yesterday [April 30, 2024], a bipartisan collection of US Senators introduced the Fans First Act, which would help address flaws in the current live event ticketing system by increasing transparency in ticket sales, and protecting consumers from fake or dramatically overpriced tickets.

Today, the artists and Congressmen allege, buying a ticket to a concert or sporting event requires negotiating a minefield of predatory practices, such as speculative ticket buying and the use of automated programs to buy large numbers of tickets for resale at inflated prices.

The legislation would ban such practices, and include provisions for guaranteed refunds in the event of a cancellation.

The political campaign organizers, calling themselves “Fix the Tix” write that included among the supporters of the legislation is a coalition of live event industry organizations and professionals, who have formed to advocate on behalf of concertgoers.

This includes a steering committee led by Eventbrite [Note: lol, I'm assuming Eventbrite just signed on to undermine Ticketmaster and for PR purposes] and the National Independent Value Association that’s supported by dozens of artistic unions, independent ticket sellers, and of course, over 250 artists and bands, including Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews, Cyndi Lauper, Lorde, Sia, Train, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, and hundreds more which you can read here.

“Buying a ticket to see your favorite artist or team is out of reach for too many Americans,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

“Bots, hidden fees, and predatory practices are hurting consumers whether they want to catch a home game, an up-and-coming artist, or a major headliner like Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny. From ensuring fans get refunds for canceled shows to banning speculative ticket sales, this bipartisan legislation will improve the ticketing experience.”

Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Peter Welch (D-VT) also signed on to the Fan First Act.

In the House, parallel legislation was just passed through committee 45-0.

[Note: That's a really good sign. That kind of bipartisan support is basically unheard of these days, and rare even before that. This is strong enough that it's half the reason I'm posting this article - normally I wait until bills are passed, but this plus parallel legislation with such bipartisan cosponsors in the senate makes me think there's a very real chance this will pass and become law by the end of 2024.]

“We would like to thank our colleagues, both on and off committee, for their collaboration. This bipartisan achievement is the result of months and years of hard work by Members on both sides of the aisle,” said the chairs and subchairs of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“Our committee will continue to lead the way on this effort as we further our work to bring this solution to the House floor.”

“The relationship between artist and fan, which forms the backbone of the entire music industry, is severed,” the artists write. “When predatory resellers scoop up face value tickets in order to resell them at inflated prices on secondary markets, artists lose the ability to connect with their fans who can’t afford to attend.”

-via Good News Network, May 1, 2024

[foklcore]

Taylor Swift icons

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[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[possible-streetwear]

1971 !!!

[faithfromanewperspective]

concert tickets are not an investment. hate how everything in this economy we’re like ‘ooh what if I buy it cheap then hike the price up and resell’ and it’s perfectly normal—it’s not. it’s not okay. what’s happening is you’re taking advantage of someone who’s really desperate to see this artist when if they wanna spend that money on the artist, the money should go to the artist themselves. who probably don’t change as much as they could because they’ve set a price that is financially sustainable for themselves and accessible to most who want to go not just the wealthy or those who don’t spend money on any other artists. and I’m not talking about if you can’t go to your concert and resell your ticket closer to it for like 25% more to get a bit back for all the time you spent waiting in queue for a concert you don’t even get to go to. the reason concert tickets are so hard to get is because there are people competing to buy them who are just gonna resell them for absurd amounts of money and honestly? as concertgoers and fans of artists we deserve better. our artists deserve better. they didn’t put a middleman in there. we don’t need it.

[twopoppies]

I wanna make it clear from the get go that I’m in no way defending Harry’s ticket pricing or Ticketmaster’s ridiculous monopoly over concert tickets.

That said, I think people have a habit of oversimplifying marketing and marketing strategies, and assuming that they’re directly reflective of an artist’s personal greed, so I’d like to offer some alternate food for thought.

I think Harry’s ticket pricing is the result of three things: 1) marketing and brand strategy, 2) audience, and 3) negotiating leverage.

Marketing strategies have multiple layers to them, and are highly dependent on variations per artist per genre. What do I mean? Two people can both be lucrative pop artists but appeal to a widely different audience and will therefore be branded and marketed accordingly. Ed Sheeran, for example, is one of the top pop artists in the business. He’s worked with many of the biggest and brightest pop acts, but his personal brand has always been down-to-earth singer-songwriter troubadour type. That’s the audience he plays to, and that kind of audience has a certain price point and is expecting it to be maintained. It’s very different to the kind of fan who would buy a ticket to a Beyoncé concert, or a Taylor Swift concert, and even though you can argue that there is overlap, you can understand that visually and experience-wise, the branding differs immensely. That directly affects ticket price points.

Next, audience. Like it or not, Harry’s music appeals to a wide audience that’s largely made up of very casual fans, so the profit strategy is quantity over quality. If you pay attention to the kind of audience Harry plays to, at least 75% of them are only going to one show each (casual fans, parents with young children, partners buying tickets for occasions, etc). That means, for them to maximize overall profits, an individual ticket that’s priced much, much higher will give them more returns than multiple affordable tickets (they don’t put the weight on repeat concert-goers because they’re a relatively small part of Harry’s concert audience). The profit strategy for Harry has always been to cater to the maximum number of people possible, while artists like Louis, whose ace up their sleeve is the solid, loyal fan base they’ve cultivated, will put the weight on repeat-concert goers and will therefore be more successful pricing each ticket lower, so people can go to multiple shows.

Yes, it sucks for Harry’s actual, loyal fans, but we have to accept that the current level Harry is at is finite, and given that the music industry will always be profit oriented, they are clearly trying to take advantage of that.

Lastly, negotiating leverage. I think we have to understand that the creative freedom we’ve seen Harry expressing (which has grown markedly from HS1 to HS3) is a direct result of the money he’s able to bring in. Money speaks, and the kind of money Harry’s bringing in tells his label that it would be idiotic to curtail him from writing the kinds of songs he wants, dressing the way he wants, doing covers of magazines in dresses, getting involved with queer artists, designers, actors and projects, etc etc etc. That leverage was hard won, especially for a closeted artist. The fact is, his profitability is likely the only thing that’s keeping them from shoving him back into the frat-boy womanizer narrative he had in 1D because what he’s proven is that his authentic music, taste, and style evolution is actually as lucrative (if not more) than their original branding of him.

So, yes, as much as the pricing of Harry’s tickets sucks and is unfair, I think people should think twice before branding it simple pathological greed. There are many things at play here, and we still have to acknowledge the capitalist nature of the music industry in general. “Survival” as an authentic artist in the music industry comes at a cost, and more than anything, that’s going to come down to an undeniable level profitability.

[dreamings-free]

Pollstar Staff | 11/1/24

Following a massively successful year with record-setting box office tallies and Taylor Swift’s highest-grossing tour of all time  — what’s next for the live biz in 2024? Pollstar’s editorial staff offers predictions.

Live Growth Spurt May Slow The live industry saw unprecedented growth in 2023 with a massive 46% growth YoY for the Top 100 Tours, according to Pollstar Boxoffice reports. 2024 should be another strong year — but perhaps not a great one. Though the U.S. economy showed promising signs with GDP increasing 4.9% in Q3, the total household debt spiked to $17.29 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, though inflation continues to outpace salaries. Consumers may think twice before clicking the checkout box and adding another credit card charge, which may decrease ticket sales following live’s record-setting year.  – Oscar Aréliz

Reunions, Farewells & Mega-Fests It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle, so the industry as a whole will get creative to continue the upward momentum of recent years. Expect more seemingly unlikely reunions, farewells that may not actually be final (cough, cough), and additional legs of tours that seemed like one-time affairs. Also, don’t be surprised if the mega-festival trend (When We Were Young, Power Trip, etc), continues to gather steam to the point of becoming a whole new category of yearly event.  – Ryan Borba

Ticketing: Same As It Ever Was With mounting public pressure, grandstanding politicians and supreme supernova demigoddess Taylor Swift aligning for the cause of ticketing reform, in the coming year one can expect little to change. That’s because tickets are money, whether artists, their teams, promoters, venues or ticketers keep prices low, outsmart bots, include all-in pricing, shut out the secondary or sell on the side, capitalists always gonna capitalize. – Andy Gensler

Sphere’s Innovations Break Out Many of the innovations that make Sphere so groundbreaking are likely to start trickling out to the world. Don’t expect to see 16K LED screens that stretch around concertgoers at your local arena any time soon, but it’s not a stretch that the beamforming sound system Holoplot created for Sphere becomes scalable enough for broader expansions and artists who already embrace innovation are likely to make bids at recreating Sphere’s already legendary immersive experience at other venues (as best they can). – J.R. Lind

More Protest Songs More artists will pen anti-war songs, including showing support for innocent civilians in various conflicts. We’ll also hear other politically-minded songs, such as tunes concerning women’s rights — along with more live events booked to benefit those in need and support causes near and dear to artists’ hearts, like 2022’s Love Rising Nashville organized in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Plus, it’s an election year. – Sarah Pittman

Indies Go Back To The Future Independent operators may remain fiercely competitive but, with the establishment of trade groups NIVA and NITO, a greater spirit of collaboration has emerged in the wake of COVID. In some cases, onetime rivals – including clubs and promoters – are teaming to share resources to lift all boats, while Brian Becker’s LiveCo brought together five indie promoters to expand existing partnerships with entertainment platforms to create new, innovative projects. Expect this trend to continue.  – Deborah Speer

Cloning Technology Arrives Insomniac Events founder/CEO Pasquale Rotella manages to find a scientific breakthrough getting one step closer to cloning himself by 2030. This opens doors for agents and promoters to attend all their events at once, and for artists to play multiple shows at the same time. – Ariel King

[melodramatic-lover13]

Hi everyone!!! I'm writing an essay about the Ticketmaster fiasco for my music business class and I wondered if you guys could help me by filling out a short survey (pretty please and thank you).

[dearly]

[finex09]

its 2am but I can’t sleep bc I officially got a job in the music industry 🎉

I’m apart of a local theaters Street Team, which essentially means I scream and shout abt certain shows on the internet & pass out flyers and such. So excited!!

[foklcore]

taylor swift in selfie with others on VMA'S icons!

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[persephoneflouwers]

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[godofsmallthings]

babes the issue isn’t that “taylor” (as in, the actual person taylor swift and whatever combination of her team at 13 management, team at her record label, booking agents, concert promoters, venues, and live nation/ticketmaster employees that have collaborated to plan this massive undertaking of a tour) chose to work with ticketmaster. the issue is that there is no choice.

[so-idialed-9]

The perfect convergence - John Oliver comes HARD at Irving Azoff, Ticketmaster, and Live Nation, and declares his love for 1Dans says Niall is his favorite- YouTube

[sunshineandlyrics]

Clyde Lawrence (from the band Lawrence) calling out the Ticketmaster at the US Senate's hearing, 24 January 2023 x