Neil Younger is certainly one of many artists publicly criticizing Ticketmaster for its long-held monopoly on live performance ticket gross sales. In a March 19 publish on his Neil Younger Archives web site titled “Live performance Touring Is Damaged,” the singer-songwriter decried the corporate’s excessive ticket costs and ticket charges, which have reached as much as 30 % for some artists.
“It’s over. The outdated days are gone,” Younger wrote within the publish. “I get letters blaming me for $3,000.00 tickets for a profit I’m doing. That cash doesn’t go to me or the profit. Artists have to fret about ripped off followers blaming them for Ticketmaster add-ons and scalpers. Live performance excursions are not enjoyable. Live performance excursions not what they have been.”
The publish additionally encompasses a information article by Ananya Bhattacharya discussing the Treatment’s current dilemma with Ticketmaster; particularly, that their followers have been subjected to excessive charges through the Treatment’s “Verified Fan” sale for his or her upcoming tour. “I’m as sickened as you all are by immediately’s Ticketmaster ‘charges’ debacle,” frontman Robert Smith tweeted in regards to the topic on March 15. “To be very clear: The artist has no solution to restrict them. I’ve been asking how they’re justified. If I get something coherent by the use of a solution I’ll allow you to all know.”
The next day, Smith tweeted, “After additional dialog, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that most of the charges being charged are unduly excessive, and as a gesture of goodwill have supplied a $10 per ticket refund to all ‘Verified Fan’ accounts for lowest ticket worth (‘LTP’) transactions.” He additionally wrote that Ticketmaster would give a $5 refund to “Verified Fan” accounts for different ticket transactions, and famous that tickets on sale the following day would have decreased charges.
After years of dominating the occasion ticketing market, Ticketmaster has been the goal of overwhelming criticism recently—from artists, followers, and even authorities officers. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on-sale date was canceled throughout a fiasco that overwhelmed Ticketmaster’s web site and shut out numerous followers from shopping for tickets. A number of of these followers sued the corporate the corporate in consequence.
Ticketmaster has additionally confronted a congressional listening to and an antitrust investigation for abuse of energy, helmed by the Justice Division. The investigation additionally targets Dwell Nation Leisure—the corporate fashioned after Dwell Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010.
Neil Younger has regularly used his platform to criticize mammoth corporations. Final yr, he posted a letter on Neil Younger Archives demanding that his music be faraway from Spotify, claiming it spreads “pretend details about vaccines—probably inflicting dying to those that consider the disinformation being unfold by them.” (His letter referred to Joe Rogan, who has been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.)
Spotify complied with Younger’s request and eliminated his music days later. The platform additionally acknowledged that it eliminated “over 20,000 podcast episodes associated to COVID-19 because the begin of the pandemic.” Younger later urged Spotify workers to stop their jobs.
Extra lately, Younger appeared to critique Beck’s cowl of “Outdated Man,” which was launched as an NFL-sponsored clip earlier than the 2023 Tremendous Bowl. After Beck’s cowl aired, Younger posted a nonetheless from his anti-sponsorship video for the 1988 track “This Observe’s for You.” Within the picture, Younger holds a bottle labeled “SPONSORED BY NOBODY.”
6 Methods to Repair the Damaged Live performance Ticketing System