US Justice Department to Seek Breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
US Justice Department to Seek Breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster
Paywall-free link: https://archive.ph/eGuHC
Oh fuck yes, finally.
Only took 20 fucking years…
Queue Justice Thomas being seen, coincidentally, attending a large number of concerts with long-time friends on the Ticketmaster board...
Time to grab a 25 dollar bucket of popcorn from the refreshments stand and watch the fireworks from my 300 dollar chair right behind a support pillar.
Yeah and after we leave the movie theater we'll go to a concert, so save up!
Hang on, let me check my credit rating.
I think this is great.
What is really needed is the end of monopoly on the venues. As long as that is in place, this won't do much for ticket prices.
Even just removing dynamic pricing, prohibiting ticket resales from going above original price, and removing extra fees (for upgrades and resales) will solve most of the issues.
I get it, but if they own the major venues in every town...they can still set their own prices.
The ticket companies shouldn't have ownership of the venue.
Pearl Jam fought them for years but had to stop because they owned every stadium and large venue, and that was 30+ years ago when they were just one company.
They’re why I don’t go to concerts. But we shall see.
Same, they are an absolutely horrible company. Far beyond the "normal" late-stage capitalism we see with other companies.
I've never been to a rock concert because I've heard precisely one story from someone who truly had a great time compared to what they might have had in a smaller venue and that was because they had good seats.
If the amount of enjoyment you're going to get out of a band is directly proportional to how much you're willing to pay, fuck that.
Is it really? Or do you just not like attending live events?
I've been to so many shows I can't even imagine letting a shitty corporation stand in the way of something I enjoy so much.
Gotta say, I'm not terribly hopeful about this.
"The cattle ranchers are in charge, Coop"
So Pearl Jam isn’t just a dumb group of kids that know nothing?
They got Taylor Swift on their side after the last Eras tour fiasco.
How the fuck were they even allowed to merge? It’s the definition of a god damn monopoly.
Politicians and justices are bought by the same corporations who are becoming monopolies.
Other than pure corruption, there's a lot of issues with plain old tech illiteracy. Going to bat against a legal team specifically trained to talk circles around aging justices and politicians is a real losing formula. This was on full display during the Cambridge Analytica trial.
It turns out you can choose whatever laws you want if you give a few tens of thousands to some Congressmen or an RV to Clarence Thomas.
Yeah, I'll believe it after it's done. I'm not expecting progress in my lifetime.
Hey, we've gotten a series of pretty big wins from Lina Khan - yea, a lot of shit is broken and it'll take a while to fix it... but some people really are trying.
Yet again, the swifties take a win. Those fans are a force of nature.
They better come out and vote in ROEvember as well
I think Congress would have to pass regulation to see any improvement and a reasonable level of competition. If this breakup just results in regional monopolies instead of national ones with the same exclusionary contracts with venues, it'll result in a distinction without a difference.
Yes, obviously they broke the settlement that allowed the merger in the first place r.e. exclusionary contracts, but if they break up the company, they'll be allowing the successor companies to set up exclusionary contracts themselves.
Now do Google, Amazon, FB, etc.
They mention every company you listed in the article…
“Biden’s Justice Department has already filed twin monopolization cases against Google and in March sued Apple Inc. for allegedly thwarting innovation on its iPhone. The Federal Trade Commission, which jointly enforces the antitrust laws, is seeking to force Meta Platforms Inc. to sell off its Instagram and WhatsApp units and sued Amazon last year for monopolization of online marketplace services.”
This is helpful, thank you. I was only able to read the first paragraph or so before it cut out and said I needed to make an account, so I just stopped there.