Ticketmaster or Puppetmaster?
By Amie Ahn Nov. 13, 2024
A Taylor Swift fan anxiously maneuvers through the Ticketmaster website, deftly selecting their seats. As they proceed to the check-out page, their heartbeat drops to their stomach as their eyes adjust to a frozen blank screen. Nothing can fix the website crash—once it reloads, all progress is lost, and all tickets are sold out. These site crashes, along with excessive fees and dynamic pricing, have become a common occurrence on American ticket sales company Ticketmaster. Regardless of these negative customer experiences, the company continues to hold a monopoly over the concert ticket industry.
Ticketmaster was founded in 1976 as a ticketing hardware seller, but it switched to computerized ticketing by 1985. In 2009, the company merged with Live Nation, an entertainment company. Over decades, Ticketmaster began securing exclusive ticketing contracts with the majority of concert venues in the United States.
Regardless of the company’s power and influence, Ticketmaster is infamous among concert goers and musicians. One source of dislike stems from the high service, processing, delivery and facility fees that are added to the ticket prices. The company states that part of these fees go toward helping their clients and covering the cost of hosting the concert itself. However, the full ticket price including fees can only be seen on the final check out page, causing significant inflations.
“Overpriced fees are my biggest complaint about Ticketmaster, as they can cost as much as half of the actual ticket price. To make changes to these fee policies, concertgoers could try to avoid buying upcharged Platinum tickets and even organize small-scale boycotts,” Sophomore Jessamine Sloan said.
Additionally, Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing policy—the act of adjusting prices in response to changes in demand—raised further complaints in 2022. As stated by the British Broadcasting Corporation, many concertgoers claim that dynamic pricing mostly benefits Ticketmaster rather than the artists themselves. For example, longtime fans of American rock singer Bruce Springsteen were infuriated after tickets for the first tour he was holding in six years cost up to $4,000. Similarly, as reported by NPR, many Taylor Swift fans were unable to score tickets to her “Era’s” tour because of long waitlists, website crashes and constantly fluctuating prices on Ticketmaster’s website. Subsequently, Swift fan Michelle Sterioff sued Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation. However, in December 2023, Sterioff’s case was dismissed. The true motive behind her sudden act is not verified, but Billboard had disclosed in August 2023 that she was discussing an agreed settlement with Ticketmaster.
Scalping, or ticket resale, is another substantial issue that many users claim Ticketmaster fails to manage. Scalpers purchase tickets to resell them at a much greater price when the demand is higher; many use Ticketmaster’s verified resale system to resell tickets within the company’s website. These resale prices are prone to being highly exaggerated; artists such as rock band Pearl Jam have requested Ticketmaster to limit all resale prices to face value—called Fan-to-Fan Face Value Exchange—as stated by Patch News. However, Ticketmaster does not voluntarily establish these restrictions, because resale fees are an additional source of profit.
In order to avoid the many problems of acquiring tickets on Ticketmaster, fans often use alternative websites—independent third-party websites—such as StubHub.
“Once, I used SeatGeek to buy my tickets, but I still prefer to use Ticketmaster for non-resale tickets because I can get them for face value. Nonetheless, for many bigger artists, Ticketmaster tickets are often sold out in the presales and scalpers are not handled well,” Junior Brianna Le said.
Despite the central position Ticketmaster occupies in the realm of musical artists, fans and concerts, the company faces many complaints from consumers. However, its monopolistic grip seems to be holding for the time being.
About the Contributors
Amie Ahn
staff writer
Amie Ahn is a sophomore at Leland High School and a writer for the Charger Account. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, hanging out with friends and eating.
Caitlynn Sue
artist
Caitlynn Sue is a Junior at Leland High School and a page editor for journalism. This is her second year in journalism and she loves writing and eating snacks during print night. Outside of journalism, she enjoys baking, violin, and dance.
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