Taylor Swift was the protagonist at the Capitol this Tuesday. She wasn’t there, but everyone was talking about her. Democrats and Republicans put their differences aside for a day to hold a session to accuse Ticketmaster of monopoly over the fiasco selling tickets for the American singer’s tour. And since they agreed on the political diagnosis, they competed to quote the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s songs. The winner was undoubtedly Mike Lee, a Republican Senator from Utah.
In his speech, Lee paraphrased a verse from You Belong With Me to joke about the Democrats winning the Nov. 8 Senate election, referred to karma at the end of his speech, and cited Blank Space’s “dream-clothed nightmare” regarding administration of ticket sales.
For whom his passage through the commission was a nightmare, Live Nation Entertainment president Joe Berchtold was the target of all gunfire. Live Nation, the largest concert promoter in the United States, controls the major venues and Ticketmaster accounts for more than 70% of ticket sales. Both merged in 2010 despite doubts about the competition the operation generated, and the resulting group has breached some of the commitments it made to get the green light for the merger.
Demonstrators at a protest against the monopolistic practices of Live Nation and Tikcetmaster this Tuesday outside the capital DREW ANGERER (Getty Images via AFP)
Berchtold was the first to enter the Senate Judiciary Committee session. He accused the bots of crashing the system during Taylor Swift’s ticket sales, apologized to the singer and her fans, assured that Ticketmaster had not gained market share since the merger, but lost it, and admitted that the company Had problems improving, but that it didn’t act like a monopoly. “We have to do better and we will,” he said.
As soon as he had finished his words, the head of his competitor SeatGeek, Jack Groetzinger, struck down the first blow: “The only way to win back the competition in this sector is to separate Live Nation and Ticketmaster,” he said. According to SeatGeek, if a stadium or major venue doesn’t award ticket sales to Ticketmaster, Live Nation takes the music elsewhere. On Taylor Swift’s tour, which is being promoted by Live Nation, 47 of the 52 concerts will be at venues where Ticketmaster tickets are sold, he said.
Jerry Mickelson, head of promoter Jam Productions, comes to the same conclusion from the other market, that of concert promoters: “Today we know for sure that this merger is vertical integration on steroids, that it leverages dominance in a market to expand their power and dominance in another, thereby eliminating competition and harming consumers. And he wondered, “Would Coca-Cola allow Pepsi to distribute its products?” When organizing a concert, he argues, he ends up giving preference to his rival because he’s forced to sell tickets through Ticketmaster.
Sal Nuzzo of the James Madison Institute and Kathleen Bradish of the American Antitrust Institute characterized Live Nation as a monopoly from a more theoretical perspective. And to complete the panorama, Clyde Lawrence of the Lawrence Band intervened as the last guest. “We’re not yet artists on the level of Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift, but we hope to one day be big enough to crash the ticketing website,” he began to joke.
Live Nation’s Joe Berchtold watches as SeatGeek’s Jack Groetzinger testifies before the Senators. Andrew Harnik (AP)
Lawrence revealed the difficulties relatively modest bands face when dealing with Live Nation and Ticketmaster. “In a world where the promoter and the venue are not tied to each other, we can be confident that the promoter will try to get the best deal from the venue. In this case, however, the promoter and venue are part of the same corporate entity, so Live Nation is essentially negotiating to pay itself. And just to be clear, due to Live Nation’s control of the entire industry, we have virtually no say in the discussion of these games, nor are we offered much transparency about them. If they want to charge 10% of each listing and call it an “installation fee,” they can (and do); If they want to charge us $250 for a stack of 10 clean towels, they can do that (and they do),” he said, referring to the premises that the promoter directly controls.
And when it comes to tickets, according to Lawrence, the relationship between the promoter and Ticketmaster is just as bad for musicians. “When an artist performs at a Live Nation venue, the artist has no choice but to sell the tickets through Ticketmaster,” he said. and he gave an example of a typical concert priced at $30 per ticket: The fan attending the concert pays not $30 but $42 for the commission that Ticketmaster charges. Of that gross amount, the band gets $12, and about half goes towards the cost of the tour: “That leaves us, an eight-man band, $6 per ticket… before taxes. And we pay for our own health insurance.”
Those initial presentations set the stage for Democratic and Republican senators, beginning with Commission President Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota (like Prince and Bob Dylan has singled out as her credentials) who said what she heard is the “definition.” of monopoly” and also starts quoting Taylor Swift when he says that over-consolidation is bad for the country. “We know it too well (All too well)”.
Live Nation’s Joe Berchtold, SeatGeek’s Jack Groetzinger, Jam Productions’ Jerry Mickelson, James Madison Institute’s Sal Nuzzo, American Antitrust Institute’s Kathleen Bradish and musician Clyde Lawrence during session before Senate Committee .Al Drago (Bloomberg)
Not only did the senators criticize Taylor Swift’s handling of ticket sales (“a debacle,” according to Republican John Kennedy), but some even argued that the merger should be rolled back if the company fails to meet supposed regulatory obligations. “Live Nation/Ticketmaster is the 900-pound gorilla here,” said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. “This whole concert ticket system is a disaster, a monopolistic disaster.”
The senators also discussed possible measures, including making tickets non-transferable to prevent scalping and calling for more transparency into commissions and fees from promoters and ticket sellers. Kennedy also suggested that big artists like Taylor Swift or Bruce Springsteen should charge price caps. “Not every kid can afford $500 to go to Taylor Swift,” he said.
Blumenthal addressed Live Nation’s President directly: “I want to congratulate you and thank you for an absolutely amazing performance. You brought Republicans and Democrats together in an absolutely common cause.” He also couldn’t resist quoting Taylor Swift, in this case with the song Anti-Hero: “May I respectfully suggest that Ticketmaster look in the mirror and say: ‘I am the problem. Because I am’.
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