Just Got This E-mail Sent to Me: Concert Fans Beware!

Given to...

The Pepsi Center in Denver seems to be willing to fight the bastards. If I am correct, they are going through TicketHorse for any event in the building. Kudos Denverites.

Jeanwah

So it was emailed to Springsteens fans?
Where's PJ on this topic??

whgarrett

I don't see how this affects me. I am able to pay for the tickets if I juggle my priorities. So can everyone else. And what if they can't? Is it our right to be able to see affordable concerts? Anitrust..anticapitalist...antigovernment bullshit. Blah Blah Blah. Get a better job and see more concerts.

81

before long they will be bought out by paypal and paypal will tack on anouther fee.

HollisBrown

mookeywrench wrote:

Fellow Concertgoers,

There's a train wreck about to happen and consumer groups say YOU will be the victim - if the two most powerful corporate interests in the live concert business get their way. But you can help stop the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The government needs to hear from music fans now. Tell the Department of Justice that you're against these monopolies amassing illegal power over consumers, before it's too late. <!-- e --><a href="mailto:antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov">antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov</a><!-- e -->

As a concertgoer you have already felt the pain, and if Ticketmaster and Live Nation get their way, it'll get worse. In the last 12 years, since Live Nation and its predecessor started its widespread take over of the concert industry, concert tickets have shot up 82% while the consumer price index has gone up just 17%*. We are concerned that if the two concert industry behemoths, Live Nation and Ticketmaster, were permitted to merge, the variety and quality of artists coming to local venues would be affected, and your prices could rise further and faster.

Five of the nation's most prominent public interest groups called on the Department of Justice to block the proposed merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

In the consumer groups' and lawmakers' words:

"Consumers deserve a fair deal in the entertainment marketplace, not the fewer choices and higher prices that would result from this merger," said Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection at Consumer Federation of America.

"This merger is an insult to both musicians and consumers," said James Love, Director of Knowledge Ecology International

"We cannot envision a remedy that would ease this chilling impediment to competition… In the absence of other effective, expeditious remedies, the proposed transaction should be prohibited." American Antitrust Institute White Paper

As described by Senator Herb Kohl (WI) in the Senate Antitrust hearing, "This merger will not only expand Ticketmaster's control of the ticketing market by eliminating a competitor, but it is also creating an entity that will control the entire chain of the concert business – from artist management to concert promotion and production to ticketing and ticket resale."

"This merger would be a disaster for consumers. Nothing short of blocking this takeover of the ticket market by two industry behemoths will be acceptable," said National Consumers League Executive Director Sally Greenberg.

"As president, I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement. I will step up review of merger activity and take effective action to stop or restructure those mergers that are likely to harm consumer welfare…," said Senator Barak Obama when he was campaigning for the presidency.


If you agree with the consumer groups and lawmakers, make a difference and LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD NOW.

If you are tired of paying exorbitant ticket prices and service charges and paying for parking on a per head basis and dealing with the gouging, unregulated secondary ticket market in an effort to get good seating. If you are disgusted with paying more and more every year for the live concert experience THEN ACT NOW, CLICK ON THE LINK IMMEDIATELY BELOW AND SEND A MESSAGE TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE URGING THEM TO STOP THIS MERGER!
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov">antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov</a><!-- e -->

To learn more, check out:

ticketdisaster.org

Public Interest Groups Call on Justice Department to Block Ticketmaster/LiveNation/Comcast Merger

American Antitrust Institute's White Paper TICKETMASTER - LIVE NATION

Philadelphia Weekly's cover story "Monopoly Rules"

Signed,


Jam Productions, The 9:30 Club, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Metropolitan Talent, Another Planet, Frank Productions, Stone City Attractions, Rams Head Live, The Black Cat …… and independent concert promoters and venue operators nationwide.

*Study by Princeton University economist Alan Krueger

You get this from Concit Joe?

demetrios

81 wrote:

before long they will be bought out by paypal and paypal will tack on anouther fee.

If that happen's, I hope all business companies & regular user's that use paypal boycott's all of this bs charges & just stick with their old school credit cards. Those were the day's.

Aero83_

demetrios wrote:

81 wrote:

before long they will be bought out by paypal and paypal will tack on anouther fee.

If that happen's, I hope all business companies & regular user's that use paypal boycott's all of this bs charges & just stick with their old school credit cards. Those were the day's.

I wouldn't hold my breath..either way more expensive ticket prices, I'm shocked..

HollisBrown

81 wrote:

before long they will be bought out by paypal and paypal will tack on anouther fee.

Ebay owns paypal. Don't see that happening

helplessdancer

peacegirl wrote:

I read this thread last week and then I saw this on Backstreets.com and figured I'd post it here

IT OUGHT TO BE EASY, OUGHT TO BE SIMPLE ENOUGH...
...and now it is, thanks to CalPIRG (California Public Interest Research Group). If you haven't yet contacted the U.S. Department of Justice to express your opposition to the proposed Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger (and even if you have done so already), you may want to take advantage of the new online form designed and posted by CalPIRG, which just joined the opposition. You don't have to live in California to use it, and it makes it extremely easy to add your voice to those of us who oppose this proposed merger. If you don't wish to share your contact information with CalPIRG and/or its network, there's still the "old-fashioned approach," too, outlined in Backstreets' December 3, 2009 news posting, in which we also detailed Bruce Springsteen's and our positions on this important issue.

No matter how you do it, we urge all Springsteen fans again to write, call, e-mail etc. right now, since a decision from the U.S. Department of Justice on the merger proposal is expected to be announced very soon. To get the latest updates on the merger decision, click here.
- January 8, 2010

and here is the link for the online form:
http://www.calpirg.org/action/consumer/ ... ter-merger

thanks for this.




RIPBG

SOLAT319

This is especially bad news for us: the rabid hardcore fanbase who have the need to see gazillion shows at every damn tour.

As Jeanwah mentioned above, it will be interesting to see where Pearl Jam stands on this.

PittsburghPJ

To Whom It May Concern,

I have been to hundreds of sporting events and concerts in my life, and the level of control Ticketmaster and Live Nation have over this industry has to be the most unfair business practice in this country. Ticket prices have skyrocketed - if you are lucky enough to even get one. Scalpers and professionals buy up huge quantities of tickets online through Ticketmaster and Live Nation's websites for the sole purpose of turning a profit, a disgusting act of unrestrained capitalism. Not only that, these ticket brokers can do this instantaneously through computer programs, before any true fans even have the opportunity. The reselling of these tickets - tacitly supported by the ticket companies themselves through their own reselling forums, such as Ticketmaster exchange. How this company is allowed to essentially sell the same ticket twice is beyond the pale.

I am sick and tired of being priced out of events I want to go see, if I can even buy a ticket. I buy concert tickets through fan clubs, and I recently acquired season tickets for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I will never buy another ticket through either of these companies EVER again until these practices are changed.

Sincerely,


Not the greatest piece I've ever written...but I figure quantity over quality in this instance.

steelzeppelin

Maybe I have missed something but I am very surprised that PJ (especially EV) hasn't spoken out about this merger publicly. It seems that the only people who can get tickets now are brokers (thank you 10c for helping curb this practice at PJ shows) and tickets are treated more like a stock. This is sad, but it may be worth it to pay a company $20 just to print off a ticket.......... the paper is good quality.

Jeanwah

I wrote the PJ activism an email. I'm hoping to hear back. Anyone else who feels strongly about this, please do the same. The addy is: <!-- e --><a href="mailto:activism@tenclub.net">activism@tenclub.net</a><!-- e -->

blondieblue227

SOLAT319 wrote:

As Jeanwah mentioned above, it will be interesting to see where Pearl Jam stands on this.

the old pj or present day pj?
big difference.

Jeanwah

blondieblue227 wrote:

SOLAT319 wrote:

As Jeanwah mentioned above, it will be interesting to see where Pearl Jam stands on this.

the old pj or present day pj?
big difference.

Good point. Present day PJ shows to be tight lipped.

blondieblue227

opinions on things change as you get older..............

i feel pj 10c ticket prices are fair but i'd like a new statement from pj what they think of prices now of other artists.
but whatever. they give it or not. i'm not holding my breath.