Ticketing
Did Taylor Swift Really Have a Choice to Work With Ticketmaster?
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...
The Ledger: Concert Companies Are Maintaining a Rosy Outlook for the Rest of 2022
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Strong demand for live music is not a surprise given fans’ time away from concerts in 2020 and 2021. But it’s not straightforward, either. Fans are dealing with inflation and high gas and airfare costs. Companies face staffing shortages and higher costs. Artists are flooding markets’ venues seeking to recapture lost business. Still, judging from some companies’ statements around their latest quarterly results, indications point to an exceptional second half of the year. Live Nation’s second quarter earnings showed a company is primed for a record year. Live Nation sold more than 100 million tickets to its concerts this ...
NFT utility to remedy ticketing dilemmas? Experts weigh in
The 2022 Champions League final will have a checkered position in the competition’s history book. Real Madrid emerged victorious over Liverpool inside the Stade de France, but the pandemonium outside the stadium before kick-off highlights the need for innovative solutions to events ticketing. Counterfeit tickets played a massive role in the chaotic scenes that played out in the French capital in June 2022, as fans broke into the stadium precinct while authorities rebuffed many. French authorities estimated that 35,000 people had arrived at France’s national stadium with fake tickets or none at all, in addition to the 75,000 fans that had legitimate tickets for the grand final. Black market ticket sales and touting have been part and parcel of the sporting and events world for decades, but ...
Italian Regulator Fines Viagogo 23M Euros for Inflating Ticket Prices to Maneskin, Dua Lipa Concerts
LONDON —Italy’s communications regulator has fined Viagogo 23.5 million euros ($24.8 million) for selling tickets to concerts by rock and pop stars like Maneskin, Pearl Jam and Dua Lipa at vastly inflated rates, thereby violating the country’s strict rules around the resale of concert tickets. Following a board meeting on June 23, Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), a government regulator that oversees Italy’s telecommunications, audio visual and publishing industries, also ordered the secondary ticketing company to remove all “illegal content” listed on its platform within seven days. The fine follows an investigation by AGCOM and Italy’s financial crime enforcement agency, the Guardia di Finanza, which looked at tickets for 131 events listed on www.viagogo.it. As well a...
New York State to Ban Hidden Fees on Concert Tickets
New York legislation requiring ticketing companies to display “all-in” ticket prices now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature after passing the state senate on Thursday and the assembly on Friday (June 3). Those and other new rules are meant to bring “honesty” into the ticket market, the bill’s sponsor, James Skoufis (D-Hudson Valley), chair of the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee, tells Billboard. Hochul must sign the bill before the existing law expires on July 1. Most notably, the bill requires primary or resale web pages for events in New York to disclose an “all-in” price that includes the ticket price inclusive of all ancillary fees, and show “in a clear and conspicuous manner” the portion of the price that represents a service charge or any other fee. The fi...
CTS Eventim Revenues Grew Nearly 60% in 2021 With Help of Economic Aid
German ticketer and concert promoter CTS Eventim generated revenue of 407.8 million euros ($449 million) in 2021 – half of which came from government COVID-19-related economic aid, the company announced Thursday (March 24). That was up 58.8% from 256.8 million euros ($283 million) in 2020 but less than one-third of its revenues of 1.44 billion euros ($1.54 billion) in 2019 and less than half of the 1 billion-plus euros it achieved in both 2017 and 2018. Ticketing revenue of 224.1 million euros was 39.7% above 126.6 million euros in 2020 but less than half of pre-pandemic levels in 2018 (447.1 million euros, $492 million) and 2019 (481.6 million euros, $530 million). The segment’s revenues were helped by 112.2 million euros ($124 million) of COVID-19 economic aid from Germany and other gove...
Punk Show Promoter Charges $18 for Fans Who Are Vaccinated, $1,000 for Those Who Are Not
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-29T14:59:29+00:00“>May 29, 2021 | 10:59am ET A Florida concert promoter has come up with a way to ensure that most, if not all, people attending an upcoming punk show will be vaccinated. He has instituted a price of $18 per ticket for those who have fully received the COVID-19 vaccination, and $999.99 for those who have not. Promoter Paul Williams of Leadfoot Productions is putting on a June 26th punk show at VFW Post #39 in St. Petersburg, Florida. The lineup features the bands Teenage Bottlerocket, MakeWar, and Rutterkin. In explaining the ticket price disparity, Williams told local ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa Bay, “We’re just trying to do a show safely. And they should go out ...
