I'll be the first to admit that Ticketmaster has taken a fair share of my income over the past two decades. Sure, I went to concerts when I was younger, but those were few and far between. Most likely I wasn't the one paying for them either. As an adult, the burden now falls on me to feed the addiction of watching live music.
It's pretty rare the occasion where I find someone who has been to as many or more concerts as I have. It does happen from time to time though. The genres are many, I have seen country artists, classic country artists, rock, pop, hip hop, rap, electronic, nothing is off the table.
Based on that, you would think that I wouldn't have a problem with the way Ticketmaster conducts their business. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. I absolutely despise Ticketmaster. I think they are an archaic company with an archaic system and zero incentive to adapt and change because they own a virtual monopoly on the live event ticket sale market.
Over time, scores of Gen X'ers have come to just accept the fact that Ticketmaster charges an arm and a leg for pretty much every event under the sun. There are the rare occasions where you can get lawn seats at an outdoor venue for $20, but after the fees and taxes they charge, you are still looking at closer to $50 per ticket.
Take the image above for example. Def Leppard/Motley Crue as well as Poison and Joan Jett. You might think that $79.50 per ticket is a steal. First we need to be reminded that these artists are not in their prime. Far from it actually, which made for a kind of disappointing concert experience. On top of that, these tickets were for the figurative "nosebleeds". Literally, we were three rows down from the highest seats at Comerica Park. Can you imagine what the other tickets cost?
Like I said, thousands if not millions of my generation have simply resigned themselves to paying these prices. Supply and demand, there are only limited dates and limited seats, so it makes sense that tickets would cost so much right? Artists need to get their cut as well, so it's only fair that prices are so high. They need to cover their costs and all that...
And then came the Millenials.
A group of individuals not willing to accept the line generations before have come to accept that sometimes life isn't fair. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I'm actually wondering why none of us didn't do it sooner. Perhaps my generation was willing to accept that truth for themselves but didn't want to perpetuate it to their offspring.
I don't know, but however it worked out, here we are:
Taylor Swift Fans Sue Ticketmaster over "Eras" Tour Ticket Fiasco
I've already written about what a train wreck the pre-sale was. I got an early access code, but I didn't even bother trying to use it due to a certain series of events. I'm actually glad I didn't try to now. I think I would have likely punched one of my monitors.
Not that I am a stranger to the game. I remember last time I purchased Taylor Swift tickets. I had three monitors with three different browsers open in each one. In addition to that, I had two virtual machines running with the Ticketmaster site up on those as well to ensure I could get tickets. I was successful that time, but man it was a lot of work.
"Breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation, fraud, fraudulent inducement, and several antitrust violations."
That's just a brief overview of what the plaintiffs are accusing them of. I have little doubt this could end up being some form of class action. Say they do happen to win. With a couple million people trying to buy tickets, don't expect the payout to be very big...
Believe it or not, I actually think this lawsuit could gain some traction. While personally, I think something definitely needs to be done about Ticketmaster, we know from past experience that the government doesn't like to mess with big business. Just look at where we still are with the cable companies.
What makes this different is the fact that people can no longer handle life not being fair. People want someone to blame, they want there to be a bad guy, and now we have one. Politicians and Lawyers whose kids and grand kids were "wronged" by Ticketmaster are looking for a fight.
I love Taylor Swift, but I could honestly care less about those tickets. Does that mean I won't hop into a class action if given the chance? Probably not, but what I do hope happens is some change is made to practices, technology, and processes. I'd love to see a solution to the bot problem because of this and hopefully the reduction in ticket prices whether it comes from competition via a free market system or some other means.
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