If you’re like me, you long for the days of waiting on long lines for tickets to see your favorite artist. Remember when “first come, first serve” were the days? Remember “Ticket-tron?” Then in the mid to late 1980’s, it all started to end with Ticket Master. Being first in line meant nothing as Ticketmaster implemented the “lottery” system. So if I woke up at 3:00 a.m (or stood in line from the night before) to score tickets to my favorite show, it didn’t mean I would be first. They decided to have each member in line to pick numbers from a hat-because it wasn’t fair to the person who showed up late? What?? One time I clearly remember being first on the line; then having to pick a lottery number and ended up one of the last to purchase tickets. Walking up to a ticket window, you’d pay pretty close to “face” price. But as the internet age evolved there was no need to stand “on line.” As Ticketmaster slowly swallowed up the market and became a monopoly, they stared to gauge our eyes out with “handling” fees and other expenses.
And now Ticketmaster™ has Ticketnow, a subsidiary skilled in taking the gauging a bit further as Bruce Springsteen fans learned last week. You would think that Live Nation has the opening it needs to swoop in and put a dent (or nail) into Ticketmaster. One would think that they would charge a lesser fee and steal away the business from TM. But no… My first experience ever with Live Nation occurred yesterday as I purchased tickets for an event. This show was priced at $25. Do you know the price after Live Nation applied their fees? $35. The result was a 40% markup. I was stunned and all my excitement for someone standing up to Ticketmaster has been destroyed. It’s back to the same old situation. The consumer gets ripped off and can’t do a thing about it.