Thursday, February 26, 2009

Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger Hits Roadblock

Yesterday the Justice Department's anti-trust hearing for the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger took place. Thankfully for all of us, some serious setbacks took place and hopefully will lead to the elimination of this potential merger. Both Utah and New York's senators were skeptical of the merger and of TM/LN sketchy business practices and highly inflated ticket prices. The main issue that was raised in the hearing was in regards to TM's professional scalping site "TicketsNow" which has continued to screw over ticket purchasers. In one major instance, fans trying to purchase Bruce Springsteen tickets were re-routed to TicketsNow and its highly inflated prices, while Ticket Master STILL HAD TICKETS AVAILABLE! What's more, this major error occurred again with Leonard Cohen tickets being released early on TicketsNow while not yet on sale at Ticketmaster. Fans looking to buy tickets to No Doubt's reunion tour were also re-routed to TicketsNow.

As a frequent concert-goer myself I personally can't stand buying my tickets from Ticket Master. The convienence fees are simply ridiculous, often 1/3 of the ticket price themselves making a potentially cheap ticket pretty damn expensive. Hopefully the Justice Department will see that this huge merger would be a bad idea and will nip it in the butt.

No comments: