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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2023 17:23:02 GMT
Ticketmaster is in the spotlight on Capitol Hill following its Taylor Swift tour debacle, which saw droves of fans unable to secure tickets to her wildly popular upcoming tour.
Why it matters: It took an artist as big as Taylor Swift to get the conversation about why Ticketmaster controls so much of the live event industry going again, and now lawmakers have their sights on Live Nation, the site's parent company.
Details: "LiveNation is so powerful that it doesn't even need to exert pressure, it doesn't need to threaten, because people just fall in line," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who during her opening remarks said young people should have the opportunities to go to concerts like she did when she was young.
Joe Berchtold, president and CFO of LiveNation, which owns Ticketmaster, is testifying Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the state of competition in the ticketing industry.
"The recent onsale experience with Taylor Swift, one of the world's most popular artists, has highlighted the need to address [ticket scalping] issues urgently," said Berchtold. "We were hit with three times the amount of bot traffic than we've ever experienced... This is what led to a terrible consumer experience, which we deeply regret."
"We apologize to the fans, we apologize to Miss Swift. We need to do better."
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Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2023 12:02:51 GMT
Several witnesses called to testify at the Tuesday Senate hearing spoke about how the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger affects small to mid-level artists.
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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2023 18:00:11 GMT
Ticketmaster will take several steps to ensure fans are able to purchase tickets to Beyonce's first world tour in five years.
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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2023 21:58:32 GMT
Ticketmaster is back in the spotlight, as tickets for Beyoncé’s upcoming Renaissance tour go on sale on the platform in the coming days. This will be a big test for the ticketing giant, following the long wait times and technical glitches the site experienced during presales for Taylor Swift’s tour in November. The issues sparked congressional hearings, widespread vitriol among fans, several of whom filed a lawsuit against the ticketing giant, and pushback from Swift, who said she had been assured the platform could “handle this kind of demand.”  In his statement during the Jan. 24 congressional hearing on the matter, Live Nation Entertainment president and CFO Joe Berchtold blamed bots and cyberattacks for the problems during the Swift presales. The bots failed to acquire tickets, he said, but dealing with the attacks slowed down the site. He promised the company would do better. “The recent onsale experience with Taylor Swift, one of the world’s most popular artists, has highlighted the need to address these issues urgently. We knew bots would attack that onsale and planned accordingly. We were then hit with three times the amount of bot traffic than we’d ever experienced. And for the first time in 400 verified fan onsales, they came after our Verified Fan password servers as well,” Berchtold said. Demand is also expected to be high for the Renaissance tour, Beyoncé’s first solo tour in more than six years. It begins May 10 in Europe before continuing to North America, with stops in Toronto, Chicago, East Rutherford, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Houston and other cities. Live Nation is the promoter of the tour, and is owned by the same parent company as Ticketmaster. To help accommodate some of the demand, Ticketmaster said it is staggering sale dates and using its Verified Fan system to power sales for the North American leg of the tour. The registration process is also slightly different this time, as windows for the Verified Fan sales close at different times depending on the selected city. |
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Post by Admin on Feb 3, 2023 20:30:51 GMT
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