Ticketmaster and Live Nation agree to merger

thraker

It's now official as of this morning (Feb. 10th) Ticketmaster and Live Nation officially announced their plans for a merger.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/live-nation-and-ticketmaster-agree-to-merge/?scp=1&sq=ticketmaster%20live%20nation%20merger&st=cse

I'd like to hear Pearl Jam's take on this new development. I remember back in the day when they were testifying against Ticketmaster. This is bringing back some ugly memories. Just the other day I was looking to get tickets to a Medications show at the Black Cat in DC. The tickets are only $8 but there was about a $3 "convenience charge". I know $3 isn't much but when you think about it, that's almost half the price! I also got tickets to Springsteen at the Verizon Center and the charge was in the $20-30 range for $60 tickets.

To add injury to insult, I read another article where there was talk of the company possibly getting rid of the "first come, first serve" approach to ticket sales in favor of an auction model exclusively, which is for all intensive purposes, legal scalping. As we all know, they have run into some issues with this service already, going by the name of Bruce.

With this possible new merger on the horizon the future of bands touring major markets is looking bleak. There's always the independent promoters putting on shows in basements, churches or bars, but major bands like Pearl Jam might have to start answering some tough questions on behalf of their fans. I know our boys will come through.

Just throwing some thoughts out there. Sorry about the rant. Discuss amongst yourselves.

pjsteelerfan

There is going to be an antitrust investigation, they are going to have to clear some hurdles before it gets approved

youngster

Ticketmaster has been nothing but corrupt and thieving since they began and I can't see how this is a good sign. It will just make already outrageous prices even worse. I don't see why huge bands like PJ, Springsteen, RHCP, Metallica etc can't have their people contact the venues themselves and have tickets sold on that venues website and the fan club website. If you want to see a show at a certain place, go to the respective site and buy tickets ( which can be printed at that box office). I'd love to see this so Ticketmaster would go out of business, but my guess is it will never happen.

A disgusting side note:

I wanted to go to a charity event in my hometown last year and the only place to get tickets was TM. It was $50 to attend which all went to charity but tack on the fees and it would have ended up being $ 77. Needless to say a great charity didn't get my $$ due to TM. :twisted:

Eduardo Veduardo

pjsteelerfan wrote:

There is going to be an antitrust investigation, they are going to have to clear some hurdles before it gets approved

It'll get approved...they've got mad cash to throw around.

Tombourine2

cropduster82 wrote:

Ticketmaster has been nothing but corrupt and thieving since they began and I can't see how this is a good sign. It will just make already outrageous prices even worse. I don't see why huge bands like PJ, Springsteen, RHCP, Metallica etc can't have their people contact the venues themselves and have tickets sold on that venues website and the fan club website. If you want to see a show at a certain place, go to the respective site and buy tickets ( which can be printed at that box office). I'd love to see this so Ticketmaster would go out of business, but my guess is it will never happen.

Live Nation own most of the venues, and even the venues they don't, Ticketmaster has contracts with the promoter (again, usually Live Nation) or venue itself to sell the tickets. Meaning if ticketmaster don't get to sell the tickets, the band doesn't play there. Hence why the 1995 anti-ticketmaster tour was so difficult.

I think it's been touted here, but I genuinely think that if Springsteen, PJ and whatever other bands feel the same way and refused to play Live Nation/TM venues, it could go somewhere - particularly in relation to "service charges" and "handling fees". I know PJ tried it before, but I think if there's a few very, very big bands on board, it could work.

pjpitt89

i HATE ticketmaster. always have always will. if there is any way we, as individuals, can help destroy them someone please throw it out there

Champagne Breakfast

I've been very into this news and situation and even attended a conference on it...
I have to say this merger will only create flexibility for ticket prices to decrease. They are going to look for innovative & creative ways to change the ticketing and live experience. The execs know the pain of the current system and a major reason for this merge was to try and eliminate it as much as possibly because quite honestly;...it can not be done as is. Granted this WILL take time. There are hurdles to get over before this merge even closes (by the end of 2009). But over time i think this can really be a good thing and revolutionize the industry.

Keep in mind, ticketmaster, live nation, etc do not create the ticket prices. bands, management, etc do. the service fee's a different story. But overall the company (ies) want to sell more tickets, work with more bands, and sell out more shows. Raising prices obviously would not do any of that. I've heard there may be a few artist who speak out in the near future showing their major support for this merge.

We'll see. Time will tell all....

Eduardo Veduardo

pjpitt89 wrote:

i HATE ticketmaster. always have always will. if there is any way we, as individuals, can help destroy them someone please throw it out there

don't buy tickets from them...that's really the only way...

I never buy from them online anymore...I always wait until the day of the show and just find a ticket there...still came from TM, but at least my money isn't going into their pocket...they really suck.

starmap3333

You'll wish you had ticketmaster when this is all said and done... anyone who tried to get Phish tickets through Live Nations HORRIBLE ticketing site knows what I mean.

Zod

I don't know how Ticketbastard hasn't come under more antitrust lawsuits. They have a virtual stranglehold on most arena's. They're aren't alternatives, its a monopoly.

They seem to directly sell tickets to brokers, and now they opened their own broker company which is really crooked.

Only upside to TM was they one of most robust websites on the planet. One of the few that don't seem to crash when its getting absolutely hammered (I remember the early days of online sales the site would crash, but they fixed it). Not alot of companies that can handle short term intensive traffic.

demetrios

PS .. Pearl Jam, Halifax Metro Centre doesn't use Ticketmaster.
http://www.ticketatlantic.com/en/home/default.aspx
Just throwing that out!

Lesbelges

Champagne Breakfast wrote:

I've been very into this news and situation and even attended a conference on it...
I have to say this merger will only create flexibility for ticket prices to decrease. They are going to look for innovative & creative ways to change the ticketing and live experience. The execs know the pain of the current system and a major reason for this merge was to try and eliminate it as much as possibly because quite honestly;...it can not be done as is. Granted this WILL take time. There are hurdles to get over before this merge even closes (by the end of 2009). But over time i think this can really be a good thing and revolutionize the industry.

Keep in mind, ticketmaster, live nation, etc do not create the ticket prices. bands, management, etc do. the service fee's a different story. But overall the company (ies) want to sell more tickets, work with more bands, and sell out more shows. Raising prices obviously would not do any of that. I've heard there may be a few artist who speak out in the near future showing their major support for this merge.

We'll see. Time will tell all....

Yes, once the monopoly created by a Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger happens, they will lower ticket prices out of the goodness of their hearts.....They are a business, they will lower prices in only 2 circumstances:
1) The drop in price leads to so many more sales that it's worth it (might be possible, but why not do it now?)
2) A competitor offers a better price on tickets (Not happening in a monopoly)

don't believe what they say....there is a reason antitrust laws exist

Stu42

Champagne Breakfast wrote:

I've been very into this news and situation and even attended a conference on it...
I have to say this merger will only create flexibility for ticket prices to decrease. They are going to look for innovative & creative ways to change the ticketing and live experience. The execs know the pain of the current system and a major reason for this merge was to try and eliminate it as much as possibly because quite honestly;...it can not be done as is. Granted this WILL take time. There are hurdles to get over before this merge even closes (by the end of 2009). But over time i think this can really be a good thing and revolutionize the industry.

Keep in mind, ticketmaster, live nation, etc do not create the ticket prices. bands, management, etc do. the service fee's a different story. But overall the company (ies) want to sell more tickets, work with more bands, and sell out more shows. Raising prices obviously would not do any of that. I've heard there may be a few artist who speak out in the near future showing their major support for this merge.

We'll see. Time will tell all....

that is absolutely delusional. A major company that pathetically steals our money now, is going to lower ticket prices when they have an absolute monopoly on the industry....maybe in the long run when they high prices strangle the market and people stop going to shows altogether. The only bright side of this is that there is no way that anyone can not believe this is a monopoly, and the merger won't go through, but truth's never a major factor when money's involved.

Champagne Breakfast

Stu42 wrote:

Champagne Breakfast wrote:

that is absolutely delusional. A major company that pathetically steals our money now, is going to lower ticket prices when they have an absolute monopoly on the industry....maybe in the long run when they high prices strangle the market and people stop going to shows altogether. The only bright side of this is that there is no way that anyone can not believe this is a monopoly, and the merger won't go through, but truth's never a major factor when money's involved.

Ok..I'm not saying im for this merger. But you like many others don't realize that ticketmaster & live nation do not create the actual ticket price. one of the main initiatives to the super group combination is to find a new way to sell tickets at a lower price. Eventually. The point is to get more people in the seats. Not turn people away. If this goes thru, the new company will not begin til late 2009.

vedderfan10

demetrios wrote:

PS .. Pearl Jam, Halifax Metro Centre doesn't use Ticketmaster.
http://www.ticketatlantic.com/en/home/default.aspx
Just throwing that out!

The venue you could play in Victoria doesn't use ticketmaster either....

However, I tried to get tix for the Flight of the Conchords show in Vancouver in may - got shut out of two pre-sales and then when the public on-sale happened, the show sold out in less than one minute (???) and the only tix one could buy were from Tickets Now, TM's online broker. What's up with that? The TM outlet in my town said I would have much better chance of getting tix if I was to stand in line at the box office... Oh, and on a $39 ticket, the services charges were $14!!! I bet most of the seats are going to be empty a FoC because the scalper prices will be too high and fans won't be able to afford them...that blows...

The tix I got for the 2nd Ed show in Vancouver last year I bought from a scalper in New Jersey. HOw the heck do Eastern US places get Vancouver tickets BEFORE the Vancouver people get a chance?

Zod

Vedderfan10 wrote:

demetrios wrote:

PS .. Pearl Jam, Halifax Metro Centre doesn't use Ticketmaster.
http://www.ticketatlantic.com/en/home/default.aspx
Just throwing that out!

The venue you could play in Victoria doesn't use ticketmaster either....

However, I tried to get tix for the Flight of the Conchords show in Vancouver in may - got shut out of two pre-sales and then when the public on-sale happened, the show sold out in less than one minute (???) and the only tix one could buy were from Tickets Now, TM's online broker. What's up with that? The TM outlet in my town said I would have much better chance of getting tix if I was to stand in line at the box office... Oh, and on a $39 ticket, the services charges were $14!!! I bet most of the seats are going to be empty a FoC because the scalper prices will be too high and fans won't be able to afford them...that blows...

The tix I got for the 2nd Ed show in Vancouver last year I bought from a scalper in New Jersey. HOw the heck do Eastern US places get Vancouver tickets BEFORE the Vancouver people get a chance?

Couple of things.

1) Waiting in line is probably the worst way to buy tickets now. They sell out so quick (or the good seats do), then if you're not first in line, it would of been faster online.

2) Its probably the guy in new jersey got them on the regular on sale. People making livings off it now. They just sit at home all day waiting for stuff to go on sale and buy it as quick as they can. There's also software that read those captcha (the words you have to type in) faster than a human. Alot of scalpers use software. Which sucks, because captcha technology is getting so bad, I have a really hard time recognizing the words, so I have to retype it a few times to get it right, meanwhile the computer software is already in buying scalper tickets.

3) Its always been speculated that TM directly sells blocks of tickets to brokers (but never proven). When I was in my teens I saw a guy walk up to the counter and pay cash for a wad of tickets. I wasn't sure if that was a TM deal, or a TM employee was using their power to make money (back them TM employees could buy up to 15 percent of a venues tickets.. not sure what it is now).

Pegasus

Champagne Breakfast wrote:

Stu42 wrote:

Champagne Breakfast wrote:

that is absolutely delusional. A major company that pathetically steals our money now, is going to lower ticket prices when they have an absolute monopoly on the industry....maybe in the long run when they high prices strangle the market and people stop going to shows altogether. The only bright side of this is that there is no way that anyone can not believe this is a monopoly, and the merger won't go through, but truth's never a major factor when money's involved.

Ok..I'm not saying im for this merger. But you like many others don't realize that ticketmaster & live nation do not create the actual ticket price. one of the main initiatives to the super group combination is to find a new way to sell tickets at a lower price. Eventually. The point is to get more people in the seats. Not turn people away. If this goes thru, the new company will not begin til late 2009.

shitty bands no-one wants to see they might lower ticket prices.. but bands that sell out anyway, prices will shot through the roof (or at the very least the good seats will).
And if they wanted to lower price, they wouldn't put services charges worth 50% of the ticket and charge P&P for emailing you a fucking ticket (that costs them NOTHING!)

Plus A big part of the ticket price is the venue fee, and most of those belong to them in the first place.
And I don't care what the face value is, it's the total cost I do care about.
I'd actually prefer a higher face and no fee because at least if it's cancelled I'd get all of it back rather than paying £10 for a show that never happens! :evil:

without even starting on the scam that they run with resellers.

CJMST3K

Eduardo Veduardo wrote:

pjsteelerfan wrote:

There is going to be an antitrust investigation, they are going to have to clear some hurdles before it gets approved

It'll get approved...they've got mad cash to throw around.

IT'LL GET APPROVED.

Live Nation's board of directors includes Ari Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Live Nation has the Obama administration in their "family".

ac

From the merger documents, "Live Nation to acquire Ticketmaster for $2.5 billion, plus $700 million in convenience charges".

Pegasus

AC282923 wrote:

From the merger documents, "Live Nation to acquire Ticketmaster for $2.5 billion, plus $700 million in convenience charges".

CJMST3K

Pegasus wrote:

AC282923 wrote:

From the merger documents, "Live Nation to acquire Ticketmaster for $2.5 billion, plus $700 million in convenience charges".

yeah... per ticket!