Ticketmaster/Live Nation What Does it Mean for Consumers

as i was saying...

What does this mean to consumers? - Well, its like they are taking a big dump on a plate and all we can do is eat up and enjoy it!

bunch of pricks

just another example of how the world's coming to an abrupt end and it doesn't really matter cuz there's nothing cool around anymore to care about anyways. fuck it all...........

This sucks for all consumers. This is a huge monopoly. Pearl Jam said this would eventually happen during their fight againt Ticketmeister years ago. Let's see, the largest concert promoter, Live Nation, merging with the largest ticket agency, Tcketmeister = huge ticket prices and fees. Also, when tickets for a Live Nation event are about to go on sale, their new 'sister' company, Ticketmeister, will have all of the best seats already reserved for Ticketmeister's 'sister' company, Tickets Now, where tickets are sold for anywhere between 2-5 times their face value. Good luck on getting decent seats for a reasonable amount.

SODOMY

we need sci back...SCI TICKETING!

They don't want you to listen, it's a stream for Real Player!

Let me be the first to say that Ticketbastard can lick my big hairy balls!!!!!! got it yup big hairy balls!!!!!!!

no more streams available....damnit. either there are a ton of people wanting to listen to this, or the judiciary subcommittee like to buy the cheapest subscription possible....

go see the local bands and only buy from venues

Its up to YOU to stop patronizing these guys

that said

im still gunna do it sometimes too

WE ARE FUCKED

let your money do the talking. there are HEAPS of great shows and festivals to attend that have nothing to do with either entity mentioned above.......

Ticketmaster is the biggest Monoply we have seen since ATT&T, hopefully there is someone in washington who actually understands the ramifcations of this and says to the "Hell-No". But seeing that most of Washington probably doesn't even pay for there own tickets and is nearly half dead, were screwed!

me thinks that Seth's plea is not strong enough: http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=3674&wit_id=7625

What does it mean, well, sort of like being bent over and dry humped by a elephant. Just got my Phish ticket via Fedex from TicketToad.com. They should call it Getphuckedtickets.com This is going to be a mess for all of us for bands that sell out fast like Phish, I'm sure we will see even more fees for the tickets, like a merger fee, or we are king fee. OK, I'm over my ranting, glad I'm going to see Phish this Summer, keep jamming.

it means this consumer will never get to see his favorite band phish again .....cause i flat out refuse to pay more than face value for a ticket....i hope ticketmaster ceos burn in hell along with bill graham presents

HOW IS $21 A CONVENIENCE CHARGE FOR PHISH TICKETS WHEN I GOT KICKED OUT ABOUT 20 TIMES AND ALMOST DIDN'T GET TICKETS AT ALL??

HOPEFULLY IF THEY MERGE I WILL PAY $40 FOR A CONVENIENCE CHARGE...

why don't more people care about this

and bill graham would not do this

the sts9 tickets from livenation were supposed to be 26 bucks. not bad for a sts9 and prettylights opener, so i go to get 2 tickets and my total is $82.14, i'm like wtf? i look up and see each ticket has 14.75 added in bullshit fees, thats more than 50 percent of the ticket cost !!! so i didnt get to see sts9 at the congress this year...

These guys own everything house of blues ,paradise in boston. Not to many ways around these pricks,bars are the only venues these guys do not own. So even through mail order,they get $ they own the places. This has to be a monopoly, the share holders are all they care about! Clear channel went after people on the radio for talking negative about George W. and were major contributors to his campaign.(read the wiki) This sucks, I just love music.

It means this fucking sucks!

Another corporate take over of America, out of the hands of many and into the GREEDY few!

This is the worst thing that coulod happen to shows ever.

SHIT.

This blows, we already pay like 15 dollars in extra charges. I just bought a ticket to a show and ended up with like 13 dollars in extra charges. This is some bullshit, the only way to pay the real value of ticket is to get it at the box office. FUCK Ticketmaster and FUCK Livenation. Livenation is reason like none of my friends got tix to Phish due to their shitty website!!

this is killing me, they are talking about the springsteen ticket f up and the ticketmaster representative refused to acknowledge how much the convenience charge was. WHAT A CROCK!!

It means we are fucked....ticketbastard

We need to tell OUR bands not to play their venues. I know that we have all been bent over by these guys many times over, but if the bands we like dont play their venues or sell tickets through Ticketmaster, we wont have to put up with this sodomy. SCI ticketing? Venue only ticketing? Anything but this crap?

It means im jumpin fences from now on in an act of protest

AVOID TICKETMASTER AT ALL COSTS!!! enough is enough and if they continue to raise ticket prices then we should force them to drop them or i will have to start up my own fucking company so the music industry can survive!

This is interesting:

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/new-jersey-sett.html

lol i just listened to the court hearing; irving azoff got his dumbass grilled, even at the end when paperless ticketing got brought up, and how it would totally elimanate the chance to re-sell or buy last minute tickets, and give them a huge monopoly he answered "yes, we are making great strides towards paperless ticketing." what a bastard, i am confident this merger will not happen. that david balto testimony is gonna be the nail in the coffin

STOP BITCHING AND CALL HERB KOHL! (202)224-5653. Don't claim that the government doesn't work if you don't give representatives your views

Go to your local clubs the day of the show and pay for tickets AT FACE WITH NO FEES.... Saves money and sends a message at the same time.

i think this might be the last summer i go to any shows :(

lol @ the jumpin fences comment, thats classic. I've hopped many a fences, and am sure to be jumpin a bunch more. I'm not taking chances with phish tho, i paid about 90 bucks a ticket for the alpine and deercreek phish shows (in my defence some of em are pavilion seats, and i got em off some ass from criaglist that got 6 tickets for each show just to sell. so when most of my friends didnt get any, i was the first one out of many to reply to his add, bastard made almost 25 bucks off each ticket !). i should buy a fuckticketmaster shirt and wave a huge fuck livenation banner at the shows...

Someone please start selling/passing out fuck ticktmaster and fuck livenation shirts at Phish this summer. Let them know how we feel and dont stop until this shitstorm has passed

Why don't we all organize a boycott and refuse to see music (as painful and as hard as that will be) until SOMETHING happens. $14.75 for convenience fees is outright ridiculous. We should not be paying $4 for such fees!!!! If this continues, I will stop seeing music where ticketmaster is my only means of acquiring admission. The bands will most definitely have to stand up. SCI! SCI! SCI! SCI!

If you want to blame someone. Blame these great bands we all know and love. They are ALL ok with it and not one of them fights for the rights of their fans. Pearl Jam tried for a while and finally just gave up beause it's too expensive to fight this monster. They need to get together and put and end to this bulls*it. There is nothing convenient about paying 40% of total cost to these bastards.

if anyway makes a cool designed t-shirt, i will buy a few, i dont want it to be lame tho, ill see if my buddy can whip up a cool design

^ if anyONE not anyway^

How about phuck ticketmaster and phuck livenation shirts and stickers? Damn i am one clever son of a bitch

It POOP again!

Sticker price for Modest Mouse tickets $35. Price after ass rapage fee $50. That's a 42% mark up! Now imagine after the merger.

Phuck 'em

Just think of it as paying for all the music you steal!

this is garbage.

this is almost as bad as Joe Biden's RAVE ACT!!!!!

It's The End of Live Shows As We Know It.

LiveNation controls so many music venues now. A majority of venues (500 capacity and up) have contracts with LiveNation. Bands have no choice but to put up with it and play the venues. And people still want to see the bands. Hopefully Congress will step in..... Today, in New Jersey, Ticketmaster was forced to pay the state $350,000 for automatically directing ticket purchasers to a sister site that jacks up the prices. That's the stuff we're going to have to deal with...... The real loser here is going to be the music lover and the band. The real winner is going to be TicketMaster/LiveNation and the ticket scalper.

And also, Van Halen, Shakira, Seal, and Smashing Pumpkins all sent letters to Congress supporting the merge. Not that I would ever go see any of those bands or whatever the hell they are, but I hope they burn in hell with Live Nation/Ticketmaster. Especialy Irving Azoff (CEO of ticketmaster and manager for Seal and Van Halen, big suprise)

"What does this mean for customers..." this means that we're all fucked!

why oh why is Bill Graham dead?

^i agree with matt wholeheatedly. not to mention shakira has a $70 million dollar deal with live nation. no wonder she supports this shit. phuck all of this and thank god congress at least met it with a "little" opposition. not only did the serius/xm merger ruin satellite radio but this ticketmaster/livegaytion will ruin the concert industry...

Going to a Live Nation show wearing a Phuck Live Nation T shirt won't do anything... they already got your money. If we all let our bands know that we can't support them due to the evil practices of TM/LN, maybe something will change.

In the meantime, if you're into the music, there is plenty of great stuff going down in the local clubs (gotta look around). Also, not all festivals are under Live Nation's sway. Support them!

Just a thought.

Peace

another great reason to support live local music and small venues. Minneapolis has them. I hope your town does too!

Dude just said "Apple Valley in Ayst Troy Wisconsin"

The day the music died II

I'm jumping over the fence my next show

phuck

The Empire Strikes Back

Hey Imsetfree. This story is the only thing that is as much garbage as your profile picture of that overrated loser. Phuck Ohio State.

sure ruin the music industry now why not you ruined the fucking economy rape the consumers we should boycott all shows untill we get what we want see how fast these douche bags change things think about the $ those towns would not get from heads on tour corprate america ruining it for everyone once again imagine that see you in hell thieves !

Wow man..thats a really awesome opinion, glad you shared it with me...bum.

WATCH THE HEARING!!!I watched the whole hour and forty five minutes. I am very proud of the Senate Judicial Committee on this one. I CAN'T BELIEVE TICKETMASTER BLAMES THE TICKETSNOW SCALPING ON A "TECHNOLOGY MALFUNCTION" AND ALSO CLAIMS TO NOT KNOW ABOUT OTHER INSTANCES LIKE THE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN INCIDENT WHERE CONSUMERS WERE REDIRECTED TO TICKETSNOW...WELL..PHISH IS ONE BAND THAT THIS HAPPENED TO SEVERAL TIMES. Ticketmaster also claims to not make any extra money off of tickets sold on Ticketnow...how dumb do they think we are? The NEW chairman of Ticketmaster also clearly states that he thinks secondary market sales like those done through Ticketsnow is scalping and should be illegal...but that he was not in the company when it acquired Ticketsnow. The audacity of Ticketbastard and Live Nation (CLearchannel) floors me. They lie right there on the stand with a straight face about all this shady shit.

Mr. Schumer and Mr. Cole are my new heroes. These guys are really good at holding Ticketmaster accountable and put a kabash on the bullshit.

i recommend watching the first five minutes of hour two to hear some real sadness

y=o jambander i called up herb kohls office. it really mad me feel liitle better. nice peoples working at the office.

anyone who slams BGP has no clue as to what he and that co. meant to the world of music everybody supposedly cares about so much. NOBODY loved the scene more than mr. Graham. He was long gone when live nation took over and nobody in that organization had the ability or desire to run it the way it deserved to be run. it sucks to get old and see things around u turn to shit. Bill Graham will forever be a legend among legends and I shit in the open mouth of anybody who thinks otherwise. life sucks..... get over it.

and furthermore..... all you heads can go back and remember the good times. I mean the REAL good times. Its all nostalgia now anyways. Go back and look at your phish stubs that were 18 bucks. your GD stubs that were even less. for the rest of you.... stop your crying. your parents are paying for your shows these days anyways... the magic's over. realize it and shut the fuck up.

Bring mail order back...fuckers.

totally gonna have to shit under LN/TM's christmas tree this year..... SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC, MAKE YOUR VOICE KNOWN AND HIT UP THE FESTIVALS THIS SUMMER THIS SHIT NEEDS TO END

yo funkyMOFO why do u have to be such a dick man.... "for the rest of you.... stop your crying. your parents are paying for your shows these days anyways... the magic's over. realize it and shut the fuck up" -Are you serious?? Its people like you who dont even deserve to go to shows

funkymofo is right. Don't slam Bill Graham. He was awesome. No one else would have been able to keep BGP alive the way he ran it. I met Bill several times at GD shows, and he was sooo hands on with his shows. The live music he produced over the 25 years he was a promoter will never be replicated. Best damn promoter ever. F Live Natio9n and F Ticketbastard.

Eh hmm Now whats goin on here,,,?

way ahead of you DrFunkinstein!

stores.ebay.com/uglybusstop

PHUCK LIVENATION, support independent ticketing!

its the end of the world as we knew it! This is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. Fucking shady as hell. Now livenation will also be a sister company to ticketsnow. Expect an "error" message when you try and buy tix to any popular show. Then expect to be redirected to ticketsnow to purchase your $50 tickets for no less than $900. This is a fucking joke. I thought monopolies were illegal?

Check it out folks... cornered markets> price gouging will only hurt the producer in the long run... UNLESS their high tix are actually worth the money to you and you fork over the cash... if you are WILLING to buy em THEN THESE FUCKS ARE DOING NOTHING WRONG, YOU ARE!!! YOU CONTROL THEIR PROFITS/ ALLOW THEIR BULLSHIT TO CONTINUE!!! ACT RESPONSIBLY AND DON'T SELL YOURSELF OUT!!! if you buy tix from these fucks - you sold out and are perpetuating the tyranny, period. just because they serve you a plate of shit doesn't mean you have to eat it... you don't like monopolies? you want the gov't to save you from monopolies? ask yourself about the Federal Reserve System thats gunna eat up every bit of value in this world through inflation, THEY caused this depression we're sliding into . there is your monopoly, in fact they are history's only true monopoly. start saving and start reading folks, and don't sell out to unethical treatment of yourself. (and to shakira, pumpkins, eddie van halen and the eddie van halen band...and all the rest of em... as the late Bill Hicks would say...keep suckin satan's cock.)