Ticketmaster has to be destroyed. They are everything that is wrong with business. Every one of their customers hates them, and yet they still continue to do business. Not only do they do business, they continue to do a ton of business. They not only charge their own customers a ton, but they also use sites like Ticketsnow to resell their own tickets for much higher prices. They made it impossible to camp out for tickets, as they are now decided by lottery, even at the venues that Ticketmaster doesn’t own due to exclusive contracts. The problem is; they have cornered a market that people aren’t willing to give up, no matter how much they hate what Ticketmaster is doing. True music fans have to go see concerts, and they will pay anything to see the bands they love, even if they are paying a company they hate. However, Ticketmaster isn’t the real problem. It’s the venues and the bands.
It’s the venues for being greedy, and accepting exclusive deals with Ticketmaster through legal bribes, without a care for their customers, because their customers will show up anyways, disgruntled only at Ticketmaster, and not at the venue. Sadly, the Ticketmaster service isn’t the problem, because if it was, a company would simply be created which charges less, as the internet tends to police itself. Ticketmaster is nothing without the exclusive deals it makes with the venues. So we need venue owners who care about their customers enough to turn down these exclusive offers. However, these sorts of people don’t tend to own venues, though I swear here and now that if I ever have the money to open a venue, I will do it, and never use Ticketmaster or a site like it. The annoying part of the whole situation is this; Ticketmaster is offering a service that no one really needs. Selling tickets only requires a domain name and the most basic programming. This should be done directly by the band or the venue. I actually have no problem with people reselling tickets, AS LONG AS THEY GOT THEM USING THE SAME TICKETPOOL AS EVERYONE ELSE. Selling directly to ticket resale sites is an abomination. But the venue is happy as long as it keeps making money, as it will of course. Which brings me to the bands.
So far, I have heard of bands that claim to be outraged by Ticketmaster’s resale policies and general practices. They have complained, sued, and made public statements. But I have yet to see bands actually do anything about it. If they all don’t like the policies, they should all refuse to play. Or if they do play, they should play in venues which don’t use Ticketmaster. Or they should ban together, and make a festival called Fuck Ticketmaster, or some name without the profanity. Regardless, there are things that can be done, and complaining and trying to sue when our anti-trust laws are so obviously a joke in this country really is just a waste of time. If Radiohead wanted, they could release their next album that gives half their profits to buying out some of the venues with exclusive contracts, and then selling their own tickets through their website. These bands own the thing that Ticketmaster sells, music. Aren’t bands supposed to support their fans as we support them? Radiohead was able to release one of the most popular records ever without the use of a record company. Doesn’t it make sense that they should be able to play music for their fans without the use of a ticket site?
Here’s what I propose for Radiohead. Make your own festival. Promote it as power to the fans. Do it in the UK if you want, ill fly there. Sign up all the bands that hate Ticketmaster, it shouldn’t be hard, your Radiohead, who wouldn’t want to play with you. Make it the biggest festival ever. Charge whatever you want, I don’t care, and neither do your fans. As long as the money goes to you, I’m happy, and so are they. Once someone buys a ticket, a track-listing of all your songs appear. They then get to order them, so that the number one song they want to see you play live is at the top, then number 2, and so on. Once all the tickets have been sold, and with everyone’s list getting equal weight, the set list is determined. Obviously, you won’t play your full discography. But you choose the amount of songs you want to play, and then you start at the bottom of the list, so you close with the number one song people wanted to hear. Recommend that all the other bands do the same thing. You would sell out as many days as you wanted to do it for. You could even make a venue based off the idea. Let me promise you though, if you don’t use Ticketmaster, and you make it known that their policies will not be tolerated, other bands will follow, and things will change. And if any other bands want to step it up in the meantime, that would be just great.
Note: I would be happy to do all the grunt work for that festival. I just don’t yet have the money. But when I do, things are going to change with the live music industry. I promise.
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