TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Liner Notes

A weekly column by Tampa Tribune pop music critic Curtis Ross

ADVERTISEMENT

By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 19, 2009

When Madonna played in Miami last year, top ticket prices were $390.

That's $390 before Ticketmaster added on its "service" and "convenience" charges.

Live Nation recently got in the game as the exclusive ticket outlet for its own venues, including Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa.

That's sort of competition, right? Should bring down ticket costs, especially those annoying add-on fees?

Think again. Go to livenation

.com and try to buy a lawn seat for Nickelback. Face value is $29.50. By the time parking and "ticket fees," whatever those are, get added on, you're looking at $47.60. That's about 60 percent more than face value.

Talking about the break with Ticketmaster last year, Live Nation's Nathan Hubbard said, as quoted in Rolling Stone, "The current model is broken, pretending a ticket is $75 when the fan understands the ticket is $100."

You might assume from that statement that Live Nation intended to fix that. Nah.

It's probably the people buying the cheaper tickets that Live Nation and Ticketmaster most want to keep in the dark. After all, what's another $20 if you're spending close to $400 already? When you think you're spending $30 and it comes out closer to $50, it's a different story.

Now Live Nation and Ticketmaster want to merge. If it happens, one corporation will control not only concert tickets for nearly every major venue in the country, it will also control some of the biggest artists: Madonna, U2 and Jay-Z all have signed big-bucks deals with Live Nation.

Live Master or whatever they call it will be free to charge anything it wants, as long as there still are people rich and/or gullible enough to pay them. And as long as performers think so little of their fans that they allow it to continue. Because ultimately it's the performers who determine what can and can't be charged. Madonna, U2 and Jay-Z have told you whose side they're on. Who's next?

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT