brandonsfacepodcast t1_jebik3m wrote on March 30, 2023 at 8:25 PM

That's how it's always been. Ticketmaster has been a paid fall guy since the 90s.

The artists take X% of the fees that ticketmaster charges, and ticketmaster gets all the blame. Like the other commenter says: the artists themselves probably have very little to do with these contracts. That doesn't mean they don't know that a) the contract exists and b) they're gonna make money off of it.

GrooseandGoot t1_jec4wfp wrote on March 30, 2023 at 10:54 PM

I call bs on this, because Ticketmaster NEVER states how much of their fees go to artists. They don't have any transparency whatsoever, they just say "trust us, the artist gets some", without saying what "some" ever is.

It's a smokescreen

brandonsfacepodcast t1_jec5830 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 10:56 PM

It's honestly really complicated the way it all works out. Last Week Tonight has a great episode on it detailing how it works and how shitty it actually is.

They aren't required to be transparent because they're a private company and those negotiations are done via private party contracts.

GrooseandGoot t1_jec6jqs wrote on March 30, 2023 at 11:05 PM

Yup, aren't required.

Thats the point. Their claims are meaningless and downplay how much profit they earn from it, it's a smokescreen.

Then you add resale tickets. A ticket that has already been charged the fees at the point of purchase get a 2nd fee hit on the seller, then a 3rd fee hit on the buyer.

Then you add in the broker networks that work directly with ticketmaster to secure sections of tickers to go directly to resale which the public never once has access to.

It's market manipulation and it's all hidden in secrecy.

brandonsfacepodcast t1_jec9xs7 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 11:30 PM

Yes, ticketmaster makes a fuckload of money off the fees, and you bet your ass they're collecting those fees in double on the resell market. I'm not denying that a bit. You should watch the video I linked in my earlier comment, because it lays it out better than I can but I'll use the same example John uses:

Justin Bieber "sold out" Madison square garden in minutes.

Here's what really happened: say MSG has a capacity of 10,000 tickets to sell. They release 5,000 to general sale. That leaves 5,000 tickets. They sparse those out to the artist (which actually happened in this case) and even ticketmaster themselves to sell on the resale market. All while collecting the fees in double, and paying out commissions to the artist on those double fees. That isn't even touching the companies that use bots to buy tickets and sell on the resale market.

It's most definitely a racket. It's most definitely a monopoly and market manipulation. Ticketmaster rakes in fees and percentages on tickets, then pays themselves as they own the venue. Let's not get it twisted though: everyone involved from the promoter (ticketmaster), venue (ticketmaster), and the artist are all getting paid on a massive scale depending on how large the artist is.