Did you buy concert tickets between 2019 and 2024? Are you owed money? The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that they, along with seven states, have accused Live Nation and Ticketmaster of costing fans millions of dollars by tacitly allowing ticket brokers to scoop concert tickets and sell them at a significant markup. The FTC alleges that Ticketmaster ignored brokers’ violations of ticket purchasing limits set by artists, allowing Ticketmaster to reap $3.7 billion in resale fees between 2019 and 2024.
Those actions along with Ticketmaster’s failure to disclose the full price of tickets, including fees, upfront violated consumer protection law, the agency said.
Ah yes, the price. Prior to many shows going on sale, it’s never advertised how much the tickets will cost.
A few years ago, I was in line to buy tickets to My Chemical Romance for their only (at that time) Los Angeles show. The moment tickets went on sale I swiftly moved my cursor to see how much they were in different sections. Upper section, near the front row. More than $200 each. I moved on to compare to deeper sections, but decided I’d go for the originals.
By the time I got back to them, they were $325 each. They’d gone up within a minute. Fearing they’d increase again, I clicked the seats and bought them. Not long afterward, a second show was “added”. Nothing was “added”. They knew and the artist knew that there’d be two shows in L.A. But the damage was done. Buyers regret.
Prior to being able to buy them, I had to wait in the “queue” instead of getting in “line”. I knew there were going to be issues when we started using British terms with redundant letters. QUE will suffice.
It wasn’t always like that. Thanks to YouTube, there’s grainy video of an ’80s TV commercial showing how much tickets cost. In writing. “$15.50 and $14.50.” Feel free to chuckle that it’s a Judas Priest concert, but they’re still touring 40 years later and tickets in the front section for their North Carolina show tomorrow night with Alice Cooper are more than 200 bucks each.
For another current concert tour, let’s look at last night’s Nine Inch Nails concert at the Kia Forum. I looked earlier in the day to find the price of an available originally priced ticket. I found Section 136, Row 5, $285. It was the only original value seat left. Everything else was resale.
Let me take you back to my experience with NIN. I saw them on May 1st, 1994 at the Mesa Centennial in Arizona.
The show was general admission. No seats, everyone stood. Ticket price for all? $17.50. That’s back when the tickets said “No Cameras or Video Recorders”. Yeah, people watched the concerts directly with their eyes, not to see if they have their phone framed correctly. And please people, shoot horizontally. The stage is horizontal. So are all screens now.
I’d never seen so much fog machine fog in my life. You could barely see the band. Seriously. The colored stage lights only accented the fog. Occasionally you’d see a figure with a guitar through the haze. Not implying that Trent Reznor filled with some pre-recorded music but who knows who was playing what. To me, it was humorous. It was like when Pink Floyd played behind the wall for a while. Realistically, they could’ve been backstage having tea.
Here’s my point. I know it isn’t the 1900’s anymore. I realize that things cost more than they did. But ticket prices have gotten so out of control, they don’t even tell you how much they cost when they go on sale.
Where’s the truth in advertising? There are venues around the country that don’t allow third-party vendors or reselling.
We are the customer, we are the fans, we are the audience that makes the shows. At the least the scalper on the street would tell you the price. If the day ever comes where we are owed money in a class action suit, let’s just hope that claiming the cash won’t be through the Ticketmaster website. Cer-ash.
By Brick Taylor
Brick has been covering entertainment since the ’80s. He once said during a lunch interview, “I’ve seen ’em come, I’ve seen a lot of ’em go. But to this day, I still feel like I didn’t see Nine Inch Nails through that haze.” Then when the check arrived he said, “You’re getting that, right?”
