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aeolianblues

@aeolianblues / aeolianblues.tumblr.com

Amateur writer and cartoonist, trash poetry specialist, musician, punk radio host, computer science student and enthusiast. Muser, hi hello! Museblogging at @sunburnacoustic. Disastrously cooking at @vengefulcooking

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Add one more to the count of lawsuits against Ticketmaster!

Add one more to the legal woes bois, they've been sued again, this time by a Drake fan for tickets to a show in Montreal, which adds another country to the places where Live Nation/Ticketmaster are on a legal roundabout. Manifesting consequences!

Drake fan files class-action lawsuit against Ticketmaster over inflated "Official Platinum" prices

The suit alleges the ticket giant "intentionally misleads consumers for their own financial gain."

In summary: a fan bought "platinum" tickets for over $700. As has happened quite a few times, either because of legitimate demand and initial hype over tickets, or just owing to bots buying up tickets to put on the resale market, the show sold out and a second date was announced. The same ticket that the fan had bought for > $700 was now on sale for $350 (presumably because the bots weren't buying up night 2 because they knew they wouldn't be able to sell it off as well). Fan sues for price gouging.

This is now in addition to cases open at the state level in a few US states, as well as an investigation open in the US Senate about whether or not Live Nation/Ticketmaster are a monopoly, in response to an anti-competition anti-consumer case brought on by fans of Taylor Swift who couldn't get tickets or had to wait for hours due to ticketmaster being unable to handle the demand for tickets, leading to hours-long queues, delays and some presale cancellations. (Completely precedented demand, btw. They were informed of the high demand, assured Taylor Swift that they could handle it and insisted that they be the sole distributor of her tickets, which they were, and then royally fucked it up. Fucked it up so bad they're now in court facing anti-trust allegations, let me know if I've used any of those words wrong).

In other worries for Livenation, Robert Smith of the Cure has got their asses on blast at the moment. Rob was trying to keep prices for The Cure's tickets low on their upcoming North American tour, and opted out of all "platinum", "premium" and other ridiculously priced tickets, and Cure tickets were priced at a face value of $20.

Ticketmaster tried to fleece anyway by adding on fees that were almost as much as the ticket itself, people shared their ticket price breakdowns that had them paying about $11 in "service fees" for a $20 ticket. Someone shared that they had spent $80 in tickets, and $90 in fees. Ridiculous.

Rob was not having it, he's been following up aggressively with Ticketmaster, questioning every single fee, every policy, and publicly posting their responses, explanations and "glitches". The publicity has not been good for them. He got them to refund $5 on each ticket as a "courtesy gesture" (not Rob's words), and you'd think $5 was a paltry amount for a company that regularly prices up $80 tickets to $400-$2000 (Depeche Mode tickets, remember?), but they clearly weren't too pleased; they refunded the money with the most passive-aggressive email saying "This is thanks to Robert Smith." They didn't need to say that lol, they could've quietly refunded the money with a standard business email, but they were clearly just pissed off that he was relentless in questioning them! He is still in talks with them, and he posts all updates he receives, check his Twitter or The Cure's Instagram.

Additionally, the UK seems like one of the few places where the tide might be turning regarding the various chokeholds that venues—or rather, promoters like Live Nation—have on artists and workers in the music industry. They've been talking about things like merch cuts that venues insist on taking from artists for selling merch to their own fans at the venue—fees that can range from 20% to 50% of everything sold on a night—and initiatives like Independent Music Week and the Music Venue Trust are flying the flag for grassroots venues, insisting in Parliament that larger music venues should be required to invest back into grassroots venues, that nurture and produce the artists who will go on to fill their arenas and draw in large crowds in time. This is in addition to all the talk that's being had in committee chambers in government about rules and regulations around the economics of streaming, record contracts, royalties, publishing and copyright... all major talking [points in the music industry.

So it's a hopeful time. Something could come of it. It may be localised to the UK, but it could kick off bigger things.

The opening of a new lawsuit in a third country, Canada, puts further pressure on Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Let's see what happens! Artists and fans have put up with a lot for the last two decades, it's high time for change.

Yo, it’s Bandcamp Friday! If you’ve been thinking about buying music, try and support artists independently! They have to put with with shit with LiveNation and Ticketmaster for a living

Add one more to the count of lawsuits against Ticketmaster!

Add one more to the legal woes bois, they've been sued again, this time by a Drake fan for tickets to a show in Montreal, which adds another country to the places where Live Nation/Ticketmaster are on a legal roundabout. Manifesting consequences!

Drake fan files class-action lawsuit against Ticketmaster over inflated "Official Platinum" prices

The suit alleges the ticket giant "intentionally misleads consumers for their own financial gain."

In summary: a fan bought "platinum" tickets for over $700. As has happened quite a few times, either because of legitimate demand and initial hype over tickets, or just owing to bots buying up tickets to put on the resale market, the show sold out and a second date was announced. The same ticket that the fan had bought for > $700 was now on sale for $350 (presumably because the bots weren't buying up night 2 because they knew they wouldn't be able to sell it off as well). Fan sues for price gouging.

This is now in addition to cases open at the state level in a few US states, as well as an investigation open in the US Senate about whether or not Live Nation/Ticketmaster are a monopoly, in response to an anti-competition anti-consumer case brought on by fans of Taylor Swift who couldn't get tickets or had to wait for hours due to ticketmaster being unable to handle the demand for tickets, leading to hours-long queues, delays and some presale cancellations. (Completely precedented demand, btw. They were informed of the high demand, assured Taylor Swift that they could handle it and insisted that they be the sole distributor of her tickets, which they were, and then royally fucked it up. Fucked it up so bad they're now in court facing anti-trust allegations, let me know if I've used any of those words wrong).

In other worries for Livenation, Robert Smith of the Cure has got their asses on blast at the moment. Rob was trying to keep prices for The Cure's tickets low on their upcoming North American tour, and opted out of all "platinum", "premium" and other ridiculously priced tickets, and Cure tickets were priced at a face value of $20.

Ticketmaster tried to fleece anyway by adding on fees that were almost as much as the ticket itself, people shared their ticket price breakdowns that had them paying about $11 in "service fees" for a $20 ticket. Someone shared that they had spent $80 in tickets, and $90 in fees. Ridiculous.

Rob was not having it, he's been following up aggressively with Ticketmaster, questioning every single fee, every policy, and publicly posting their responses, explanations and "glitches". The publicity has not been good for them. He got them to refund $5 on each ticket as a "courtesy gesture" (not Rob's words), and you'd think $5 was a paltry amount for a company that regularly prices up $80 tickets to $400-$2000 (Depeche Mode tickets, remember?), but they clearly weren't too pleased; they refunded the money with the most passive-aggressive email saying "This is thanks to Robert Smith." They didn't need to say that lol, they could've quietly refunded the money with a standard business email, but they were clearly just pissed off that he was relentless in questioning them! He is still in talks with them, and he posts all updates he receives, check his Twitter or The Cure's Instagram.

Additionally, the UK seems like one of the few places where the tide might be turning regarding the various chokeholds that venues—or rather, promoters like Live Nation—have on artists and workers in the music industry. They've been talking about things like merch cuts that venues insist on taking from artists for selling merch to their own fans at the venue—fees that can range from 20% to 50% of everything sold on a night—and initiatives like Independent Music Week and the Music Venue Trust are flying the flag for grassroots venues, insisting in Parliament that larger music venues should be required to invest back into grassroots venues, that nurture and produce the artists who will go on to fill their arenas and draw in large crowds in time. This is in addition to all the talk that's being had in committee chambers in government about rules and regulations around the economics of streaming, record contracts, royalties, publishing and copyright... all major talking [points in the music industry.

So it's a hopeful time. Something could come of it. It may be localised to the UK, but it could kick off bigger things.

The opening of a new lawsuit in a third country, Canada, puts further pressure on Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Let's see what happens! Artists and fans have put up with a lot for the last two decades, it's high time for change.

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