In America, it has been a disillusioning few weeks for music followers. Though her “Swifties” are far too loyal in charge her, Taylor Swift helped botch the sale of a 52-night stadium tour by attempting to promote extra live performance tickets in a single go than had ever been achieved earlier than. Bruce Springsteen, acknowledging that he had upset followers by promoting tickets at costs as excessive as $5,000, supplied no regret. “If there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back,” he gruffly instructed Rolling Stone. Bob Dylan, who bought 900 “hand-signed” copies of his new ebook for $599 apiece, was compelled to confess that he used a writing machine for the signature as a substitute.
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Mr Dylan has lengthy lavished disdain on his devotees. But few have a greater fame with followers than T.S. and the Boss. Reading reactions to the dynamic-pricing system utilized by Mr Springsteen for his subsequent tour is sort of a reprise of the nice rock’n’roll swindle. “Bruce has replaced the scalper,” laments Lori S., a fan because the Seventies, on Backstreets, the web site for Springsteen aficionados.
Ms S. is uncommon. Most pissed off concertgoers direct their ire not on the stars however at Ticketmaster, America’s dominant ticketing system, and the promotional colossus it merged with 12 years in the past, Live Nation Entertainment. In October, weeks earlier than Ticketmaster’s methods crashed whereas thousands and thousands of Ms Swift’s followers had been shopping for tickets, shopper teams had launched a marketing campaign referred to as “Break Up Ticketmaster”, accusing it and Live Nation of working a monopoly to “rip off” music followers. Reportedly, the Department of Justice (DoJ) is revisiting the merger, first cleared in 2010, on antitrust grounds. Live Nation denies that it’s anticompetitive.
Amid the real angst over high-priced tickets, and the overhyped politicisation of the matter (Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, promotes the “BOSS Act” towards ticket-price gouging, named earlier than Mr Springsteen began to behave like every other fats cat), the brouhaha misses two factors. The first is that it’s largely the artists, not Ticketmaster, who set the price of the tickets. They additionally give the inexperienced mild to the usage of dynamic costs, like these used for airline seats, that permits Ticketmaster to cost extra when demand outstrips provide. The second is {that a} large a part of the value inflation comes from secondary resellers (ie, scalpers or touts) who use bots and different means to amass batches of tickets. As a Brit, your columnist considers these unusual oversights. In his residence nation, Ticketmaster and Live Nation have large market shares, as they do in America, however it’s resellers that appeal to essentially the most flak. In this transatlantic divide lie some fascinating classes concerning the “gigenomics” of dwell leisure.
To start with, have a look at the contrasting antitrust targets. In America, the DoJ is nearly solely targeted on Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Since the merger in 2010, the live performance large has operated underneath a “consent decree” forbidding it from strong-arming venues to make use of Ticketmaster. In 2020 that was prolonged to 2025 after the DoJ accused it of violations. But its critics desire a larger crackdown, accusing the conglomerate not simply of bullying venues however of utilizing its dominance to drive costs increased. They need the Biden administration’s reinvigorated trustbusters to interrupt it up, somewhat than merely impose measures to advertise good behaviour.
In distinction, Britain’s competitors authorities waved by way of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger with out circumstances 12 years in the past however have been notably warier in relation to resellers. To approve the $4bn acquisition by Viagogo, an enormous reseller, of StubHub, an American rival, they demanded that the mixed entity shed StubHub’s non-American enterprise due to their large market share in Britain. Ticketmaster largely will get higher press in Britain than the touts. During a parliamentary inquiry in 2019 FanFair Alliance, a concertgoer foyer group, praised it for shutting down its secondary resale websites. Its promotion of paperless ticketing and actions to confirm a purchaser’s identification had been additionally welcomed.
That factors to a second distinction, in regards to the nature of tickets themselves. In America, critics of Ticketmaster argue {that a} ticket confers possession, that means it needs to be doable to purchase and promote it as freely as a second-hand automobile. They be aware that individuals buy tickets months earlier than a live performance and will have the ability to resell them to whom and at no matter worth they need. They dislike issues that impede that, equivalent to paperless tickets.
Those on the opposite aspect of that argument deal with tickets extra like a licence to go to an occasion, and look at limits on transferability as a wholesome method to impede touts. Pearl Jam, a Seattle rock band that 28 years in the past butted heads with Ticketmaster over antitrust issues, now treats the ticketing web site as an ally, utilizing its non-transferable, mobile-only ticketing providers to make sure it retains costs low and scalpers at bay. It has additionally opposed Mr Pascrell’s BOSS Act, whose provisions embrace a ban on non-transferable ticketing. This, the grunge rockers say, would largely profit secondary sellers.
Pearl Jam is a uncommon American band that has sought to rein in ticket costs (a couple of British stars, equivalent to Ed Sheeran, attempt to do the identical). Most are a lot much less altruistic, for causes which are simple to grasp. Until the covid-19 pandemic stopped dwell occasions, bands had for years been making extra money from touring than from recording. Now that excursions are again on, they’ve misplaced earnings to recuperate. After the pandemic, concertgoers seem notably eager to splash out on reveals, the larger the higher. And the competitors between megastars to stage essentially the most Instagrammable occasion is so intense that they make investments fortunes to provide a spectacle.
Only the sturdy survive
In different phrases, for all their folksy or countercultural veneer, superstars are typically capitalists. Like Live Nation, they’ve an incentive to be as large as doable and to earn the very best rewards. As those sweating on stage, they’ve each proper to cost no matter they like—although they should steadiness that towards the danger of alienating some followers. Live Nation will be as grasping because it likes, too. But it needs to be ready to sweat within the political warmth. ■
Read extra from Schumpeter, our columnist on international enterprise:
What Disney can be taught from Elton John (Nov twenty fourth)
From GE to FTX, beware the Icarus complicated (Nov seventeenth)
Even with political gridlock, America Inc ought to nonetheless concern the bossy state (Nov tenth)
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