Zach Bryan is making a statement. On Christmas, the singer-songwriter announced on social media that he had released a new live album titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live From Red Rocks). He also told fans that he is taking a stand against high ticket prices, though he did not specifically call out Ticketmaster in his post, save for in the album title. “Seems there is a massive issue with fair ticket prices to live shows lately. I have met kids at my shows who have paid upwards of four-hundred bucks to be there and I’m done with it,” the country star began his message. “I’ve decided to play a limited number of headline shows next year to which I’ve done all I can to make prices as cheap as possible and to prove to people tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show...
Less than three weeks after two dozen Taylor Swift fans sued Live Nation over Ticketmaster’s disastrous presale of tickets to her Eras Tour in November, another similar lawsuit has been filed against the concert giant in California federal court. Filed Tuesday (Dec. 20), the class-action lawsuit, brought by Swift fan Michelle Sterioff, accuses Live Nation and subsidiary Ticketmaster of violating federal antitrust and unfair competition laws and “intentionally and purposefully” misleading “millions of fans into believing” Ticketmaster would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in presales for the tour. Similar to the lawsuit filed earlier this month, Tuesday’s lawsuit alleges that Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which merged in 2010, represent a monopoly in both the primary and second...
Taylor Swift isn’t the only artist with greater demand than Ticketmaster can handle. The government of Mexico said it would fine Ticketmaster for its alleged mismanagement of ticket sales to Bad Bunny’s recent concerts in Mexico City, where hundreds of people were denied entry due to having “counterfeit” tickets. Bad Bunny’s Mexico City concerts on December 9th and 10th were the last two dates in his “El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo” tour, and around 80,000 people were in attendance. Many more people found themselves stuck outside the venue after being sold an “unprecedented number” of fake tickets to the shows. “This caused an unusual overcrowding and the intermittent operation of our system, which generated confusion and complicated entrance to the stadium, with the unfortunate consequence that...
Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” broke Ticketmaster when its pre-sale launched, so much so that the general sale never even occurred. Now, scorned Swifties are suing the ticketing platform over its alleged mismanagement of the sale. As TMZ reports, a group of Swift fans initiated the lawsuit in Los Angeles County, where Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation is based. Alleging fraud, price fixing, and antitrust violations, the suit accuses Ticketmaster of, at best, being ill-prepared for the demand “The Eras Tour” would spur, and at worst, “intentional deception.” For instance, representatives for the company said that they had only planned for 1.5 million fans to buy tickets during the November 15th pre-sale, with a waitlist designed for an additional two million prospective buyers. Inst...
Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” broke Ticketmaster when its pre-sale launched, so much so that the general sale never even occurred. Now, scorned Swifties are suing the ticketing platform over its alleged mismanagement of the sale. As TMZ reports, a group of Swift fans initiated the lawsuit in Los Angeles County, where Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation is based. Alleging fraud, price fixing, and antitrust violations, the suit accuses Ticketmaster of, at best, being ill-prepared for the demand “The Eras Tour” would spur, and at worst, “intentional deception.” For instance, representatives for the company said that they had only planned for 1.5 million fans to buy tickets during the November 15th pre-sale, with a waitlist designed for an additional two million prospective buyers. Inst...
Following a frustrating Ticketmaster pre-sale for Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have announced that a congressional antitrust panel will hold hearings on a lack of competition in the live music and ticketing industries, Variety reports. Klobuchar had previously called for hearings last week. Dates and witnesses will be set at a future time. Pre-sale for “The Eras Tour” began on November 15th, and demand almost immediately outstripped the capacity of Ticketmaster’s website. The ticket portal crashed for many users, while others experienced lengthy delays, and by November 17th, the company was forced to cancel general on-sale due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket...
Ticketmaster has issued a formal apology to Taylor Swift and her fans following the chaotic ticket sales process for her 2023 Eras Tour. The ticketing giant took to social media on Friday night (Nov. 18) to share a brief apology message, along with a link to a lengthier explanation on its website about why legions of Swifties weren’t able to buy tickets. “We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans — especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets,” Ticketmaster tweeted. “We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened.” We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets. We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain wh...
After Swifties battled — and ultimately lost — a vicious war with Ticketmaster earlier this week on their quest for access to “The Eras Tour,” Taylor Swift has issued a statement on the resulting chaos that led to the cancelation of general ticket on-sale. “It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans. We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do,” Swift wrote in a post on her Instagram story November 18th. “It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes...
The US Justice Department has reportedly opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation. According to the New York Times, the Justice Department’s antitrust division has “contacted music venues and players in the ticket market, asking about Live Nation’s practices and the wider dynamics of the industry.” Specific questions have centered around whether Live Nation has honored a consent decree the company made with the Justice Department upon its merger with Ticketmaster in 2010, in which Live Nation promised not to punish concert venues who used competing ticket platforms by withholding access to Live Nation-promoted tours. The Justice Department previously found evidence of Live Nation engaging in such behavior after launching an investigation in 2018. Under terms of the ensuing settle...
Unlike Ticketmaster, there’s no bad blood between Taylor Swift and ILLENIUM. She’s tapped the Grammy-nominated dance music superstar for an official remix of “Anti-Hero,” the lead single from her 10th studio album, Midnights. And ILLENIUM does what he does best, transforming the synth-pop track into a soaring future bass anthem. The high-profile remix arrives as ILLENIUM records his fifth album, which he revealed in September. Take a listen below. Meanwhile, Midnights has broken all kinds of records, becoming Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day after its release. But it hasn’t come without controversy. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles Swift partnered with Ticketmaster to offer her superfans early access to tickets for her “Eras̶...
Maybe Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei’s statement that Taylor Swift and promoter AEG “chose” to work with Ticketmaster for her calamitous onsale earlier this week should have come with an asterisk. On Thursday (Nov. 17), Maffei attempted to correct criticisms about Ticketmaster and its owner Live Nation operating as a monopoly by pointing out that Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour “is not actually a Live Nation promoted concert” but rather “promoted by one of our largest competitors.” Maffei — who is also the president of Live Nation’s largest shareholder Liberty Media — continued: “AEG who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because, in reality, we are the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world. Even our competitors want to come on our platform.” The...
Ticketmaster has canceled the general on-sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” that was scheduled to begin Friday, November 18th. “Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled,” the company wrote in a social media statement. Pre-sale for “The Eras Tour” began on Tuesday, November 15th, and quickly overwhelmed Ticketmaster’s website. Representatives for the company said that 14 million people attempted to book seats, while they had only planned for 1.5 million fans to purchase tickets with a waitlist designed for an additional two million prospective buyers. Ticketmaster also wasn’t prepared for the sheer volume of bots ...