Ticketmaster In for Their Cut of Everything
Ticketmaster, and similar ticket middlemen, are charging enormous amounts in extra fees for tickets. They are at the point of being 30% of the price of the ticket or even more. The musicians never see this money. These companies used to be just an alternative to the official box office for selling tickets, but now they often get a cut even if you make it to the official box office.
The Ticketmaster issue has an interesting history. Pearl Jam had a famous run-in with Ticketmaster where they tried to avoid the monopoly. They prepared a testimony which they presented to Congress regarding the state of tickets. The prices referenced in this testimony are over a decade out of date (both the raw amounts and percentages are MUCH higher now), and the intimidation and dirty tactics continue until today. These issues were brought to the Department of Justice, which basically ruled in Ticketmaster's favor. TicketMaster hasn't looked back in their monopolistic practices.
Almost ten years after the testimony, the only thing that changed is that Ticketmaster is charging more per ticket, even as other bands try to take them on and continue to fail.
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