Trend Analysis
November 8, 2024
Maggie Rogers at a Box Office
Last year, after Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour led to the collapse of Ticketmaster, heartbroken fans took to TikTok to explain how after hours of waiting, the platform glitched and kicked them out, leaving them empty-handed. Due to complaints from Swift’s large fanbase there was an increased general awareness of Ticketmaster and the platform features that mistreat musicians, venues, and concert-goers.
In 2010 Ticketmaster, which was the largest ticketing platform in the US, and Live Nation, the largest concert promoter and major venue owner, merged into the Live Nation Entertainment group. The merger’s critics, including Bruce Springsteen, claimed that it would lead to a “near monopoly situation” that would leave concert-goers worse off and concentrate too much industry power in the hands of a single actor. In a time when mergers were on the rise and somewhat incentivized due to easier regulation, the United States Justice Department and Federal Commission (entities tasked with reviewing mergers) included a few caveats in the deal (consent decrees) that amongst other things, forbid Ticketmaster/Live Nation to retaliate against venues for using other ticketing tools.
Now, a decade and a half later, the merger has continued to grow, promoting/selling tickets for around 50,000 shows in 2023, a 30,000 increase compared to 2010. This is partly due to more shows being put on in the last fifteen years, but mostly because the merger means that the two companies have almost exclusive control of the market. This, in turn, allows them to hike up service prices, with the average service fee charged to consumers lying at 27% but often increasing to be up to 80% of what concert-goers are paying for their tickets.
In an Op-Ed for the New York Times, Clyde Lawrence, a member of the New York based band Lawrence, highlights that this issue also affects artists. Alongside his band member and tour manager, Jordan Cohen, they represented artists in the congressional hearing against Ticketmaster and Live Nation in 2023. In their testimony and an interview with The Washington Post, they illustrated the financial impact of the merger, using Lawrence as an example, and concluding that of the gross ticket sale (without the Ticketmaster added fee), they keep around 40%, half of which has to go to tour costs like travel insurance and production. Clyde states, “So that would be about $6 out of a fan’s $42.”
Following the congressional hearing, the Department of Justice sued Live Nation with the goal to “restore competition in the market,” not to appease Swift’s fans who dealt with slight inconveniences when buying tickets, but rather to guarantee the longevity of the industry in a space that is not dominated by a singular name.
While the future of Ticketmaster/Live Nation remains unclear, some artists have begun exploring alternative ways to sell tickets, using tools available to combat bots and scalpers. One of these artists is Maggie Rogers, who during her 2023 tour, chose to sell tickets directly at the box office, helping fans avoid large ticketing fees and limiting scalpers' influence on prices. In a video announcing the initiative, she urged fans to “Come buy a concert ticket like it’s 1965.” The initiative was so successful that Rogers replicated it for her 2024 arena tour, even personally selling tickets in several of the major cities where she performed.
As Rogers alluded to in her post, 1965 was an age when going to a concert meant waiting in line to buy a ticket from the venue. In those times, ticketing was a service that venues had to pay for, and tickets could also be purchased from authorized ticket sellers. Around this time, holographic symbols started being implemented in tickets, which made them harder to fake, but also made them collectable items.
Not long after, Ticketron, a company that was Ticketmaster’s rival for years, started implementing computerized ticket selling machines at venues that would charge approximately 0.25 cents for ticket sale, as well as the leasing of the machine, facilitating the venue’s operations and charging them for the service. Ticketmaster bought Ticketron in 1991 and absorbed its large market. A few years later, in 1995, ticketmaster.com launched, changing ticketing forever.
Maggie Rogers’ initiative shows promise: it greatly reduces ticket costs for fans, while also fighting back against scalpers and bots. Moreover, waiting in line and meeting others who are doing so can inspire stronger fan bases and create unity amidst fans that behind the screen forget that they are not the only ones wanting to see an artist. However, the system has run into various issues. For one, arena shows are large, meaning that the amount of people lining up to queue for a ticket often was more than venues could handle in terms of safety and security. This led to people complaining about the lines being chaotic and unsafe, especially for Rogers’ younger fans. Additionally, in person sales raise questions about inclusivity. Those who live far from major cities, have disabilities, or lack the flexibility to spend long hours waiting in lines are excluded from this process.
To combat this, Rogers tried reaching a middle ground, letting the presale go live on Ticketmaster the day after box office day, allowing fans that were not able to wait in line, or did not secure a ticket after doing so, another chance at seeing the show. Unfortunately, the presale and general sale on Ticketmaster resurfaced problems of high ticket fees and scalpers.Although this did not cancel out the effects of the in person sales, it did highlight how they are not enough to combat the issue.
Although not perfect, creative solutions like Rogers’ spark conversations about the future of ticket sales, and brave initiatives like Lawrence the Band’s testimony against Live Nation show that the industry is doing what they can to fight back. Artists like Maggie Rogers and Lawrence, although greatly established within the industry, are still not large enough to have substantial leverage to single-handedly enact change. However, an artist like Taylor Swift, who influenced the way artists were paid through streaming through an opinion piece and has a fan base strong enough to bring issues with Ticketmaster into the mainstream, does have the power push for a solution that makes ticketing fairer for venues, artists, and fans.
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