Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/21/self-scalping.html
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Ticketmaster deflected public anger last year by having the Ontario government pass an anti-scalper bot law. (Turning Ticketmaster’s technical business problem into a law enforcement problem using public money.)
Naturally the BumbleFord weakened even that.
Still, it would be fun if Ticketmaster executives went to jail under the law that they asked for as a slimy PR move.
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Fuck Ticketmaster and their “convenience” fees:
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Not sure how to fix this; TicketMaster is basically THE OPTION.
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Shocking news. They have a reputation for integrity, he said with a straight face.
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They were called TicketBastard back in the day for a reason.
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ESPECIALLY when you are purchasing it at the f’n BOX OFFICE!
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Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, this is 100 percent correct.
Which is why I think that one headline “public relations nightmare” isn’t really true.
My wife and I attend probably two dozen or more live shows a year. We often do see ones that are at smaller venues that don’t use Ticketmaster, but if it’s someone we want to see that’s playing a larger venue, there is no option.
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I’m completely shocked Ticketmaster would do this.
… He said with intense sarcasm.
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The musical acts who are supposed to be receiving revenue from the ticket sales have been defrauded as much as their fans have, but they are the people Livenation/Ticketmaster have contracts with. A wise class-action suit would seek dissolution of these corporate entities, in addition to bankrupting them.
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I wonder if going after venues/artists would help push this more effectively.
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Requiring people to present a matching credit card at the venue would probably work in a lot of cases. (Yes, I am well aware of the myriad reasons why that’s a stupid idea. We’re trying to find solutions to a broken system here so we should at least try to start somewhere.)
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This is why I haven’t seen a show in years.
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Sad but true.
I see less TicketMaster shows than I used to, only because the cost of concerts in large venues has become so insane. For the cost of just the ticket to a big show, I can get a ticket to a show by a local band in a smaller venue, dinner, drinks, a cab ride home and maybe even some merchandise. And that local band will probably appreciate the support a lot more.
But sometimes concerts happen that I just can’t say no to, and I have no choice to deal with TicketMaster 
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Yes, that’s us now for the most part. This year, larger venue shows I didn’t want to miss included Phish, Dead & Company, Jason Isbell and upcoming Widespread Panic.
However, we have one up in the Bay Area at the Fillmore in Dec to see Chris Robinson Brotherhood.
Here’s the breakdown for that. I didn’t know that the Fillmore used TM now…
*Edit - the Jason Isbell one was even more offensive.
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“Enables scalpers”? Poof! If Robocop tried to arrest them, they’d say they work for Dick Jones. Ticketmaster probably has an unofficial VP of Scalping.
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I understand how they managed to hold on to this monopoly back in the 80s when buying concert tickets actually required going to a ticketmaster location in person, but I still don’t understand how their business model was able to survive the rise of the world wide web. Shouldn’t it be a trivial matter for most large venues to just set up their own online ticket sales and keep the fees for themselves?
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Vertical and horizontal consolidation and cronyism in what has always been a dirty and corrupt business. Live Nation has a lot of clout with the large venues that want to book the acts they’re promoting.
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