The Dark History of Ticketmastar

It isn’t that dark

By georgia fink

icketmaster, a website that you’ve probably used before and most likely got upset about because of how high the prices for tickets are. Why can’t you get tickets anywhere else? Why doesn’t Ticketmaster lower their prices? Are the prices really that outrageous, or are they reasonable and Ticketmaster is just hated?

Ticketmaster was opened on October 2nd 1976 by some Arizona State University staffers. This is when there were multiple different ticket companies, like Ticketron, which was the most popular ticket company until 1990, when Ticketmaster overtook them.

Ever since then Ticketmaster has been the main place to buy tickets from. The reason for this is in their business model. It used to be that ticketing companies would charge venues to sell their tickets, but with Ticketmaster, things move the other way. Instead the venues are paid by Ticketmaster to sell tickets. In return, the venue is a partner of Ticketmaster and can only mainly use them.

This is the reason for the “service fees” put on the tickets and and this is why people hate them so much. Since 2019, ticket prices on Ticketmaster have risen about 17%. It was bound to happen, with inflation, but this is an exponential rise in prices. Too much in a too short period-of-time. Luckily there are other people, like bands, that see this and have tried to get Ticketmaster to lower their prices, or not use it all together. Though it hasn’t always been successful.

One of the first ones to do this was Pearl Jam. When they were planning on giving a free Labor Day concert to 30,000 of their fans in Pearl Jam’s hometown of Seattle. Ticketmaster instead sought a $1 service fee. Pearl Jam also tried to tour without Ticketmaster, though that didn’t work and they had to cancel the tour half-way through due to many venues being partners with Ticketmaster.

Many other bands have shown their disdain for Ticketmaster. One of the most recent ones is The Cure. The band was purposely trying to keep the ticket prices low, the cheaper ones being as low as $20. The issue, though, is that Ticketmaster was raising the prices by $5-$10. In the end, the lead singer, Robert Smith, saw this and was outraged. He eventually got Ticketmaster to refund everyone with a verified fan account and who bought the cheapest tickets.

There are many more bands and singers that hate Ticketmaster. A few more examples include Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Metallica, AC/ DC, Iron Maiden, Foo Fighters, and Radiohead. Some of the most popular artists of all time.

As you can see, Ticketmaster has this long history of making people hate them, but there are no other companies that you can use. Ticketmaster has no competition so they can do whatever they want, almost like airline companies.

As someone that likes to go to concerts, Ticketmaster is my enemy. When me or my parents go to checkout, we want to see the final cost the same as it is advertised and shown as, not a higher price. I feel like if Ticketmaster showed the ticket prices as the price with the “service fee” then there would be no issue, since there is no difference between the prices. But they don’t do that, so this annoys people like me who want to pay as little as possible for concert tickets.

There isn’t that much to the “situation” though. It is really only about the rise in prices by a lot. You would pay $500 for a good ticket, but at checkout you end up paying $700, all due to “service fees.” This is an outrageous mark-up in the price. Paying $200 more for a ticket that you expected to pay $500 on, and $500 is already a lot of money!

Though, Ticketmaster can get away with this for many reasons. One of them is the fact that there is no competition with them. There are smaller ticketing companies, but Ticketmaster is the biggest one out there and no one is catching up any time soon since they have their partners. Because of this, Ticketmaster can get away with marking up the prices however much they want. There is no one else to buy from.

Another reason is that people really want to see the musicians going on tour. When someone comes to your city, town, or state, it’s usually a once in a lifetime experience. The superfans won’t usually go searching for the best deals, instead they want to get the ticket as soon as possible so they can get as close as they can to their favorite musician(s).

One last reason is that the venues are contractually obligated to sell tickets with Ticketmaster. For venues to sell with Ticketmaster, they sign a contract and then that’s the only ticketing company that they can use. Therefore, other ticketing companies can’t get enough tickets to even compete with Ticketmaster, and this puts Ticketmaster at the top.

With all this being said, I feel like, on the business side, that it’s understandable. If a company can earn more money, they will, and Ticketmaster is just one example of this. But on the consumer side, the price mark-ups are just too much. When I see a concert I don’t want to pay much more than what they are showing it as. It’s basically a scam.