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Concert Tickets May Go To Highest Bidder

Have you heard? Ticketmaster and LiveNation may be merging. By the time I write this, it may already have happened.

If you follow this kind of stuff – then you may know that recently LiveNation stock has pretty much plummeted, and they have had to pay U2 around $19 million due to a deal they signed with them last year. [Formerly I had this as Madonna – who has a similar deal, but so far the only payout is to U2 – Madonna’s payout will come later this year]

LiveNAtion had plans to take over its own ticketing operations so they could stop paying Ticketmaster ridiculous amounts of cash for every event they did. Apparently, Ticketmaster did not like that idea so much – and now the two may merge.

Yeah, there’s an ongoing investigation into Ticketmaster practices about tickets being “sold out” within minutes, and then immediately being available to highest bidders on Ticketmaster’s own Ticketsnow.com.

To me, what all this means is that no matter who or what you want tickets for – you will have have to be the highest bidder. No more preferential tickets for those who waited all night in the rain outside the venue. We all knew those days were gone, anyhow. But now, even if you are the “first” online or on the phone – you will probably be redirected to an auction site along with ever other fan.

I am asking all bands from this point on, to go back to managing and selling their own tickets. Or, pay the venue – or another local merchant to do it for them. Screw Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

My only question is – will it be Live Master, or Ticket Nation? Either way, I think the fans are up the proverbial creek. Let’s hope someone does something about it and starts passing out paddles. Soon.

Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger Could Raise Ticket Prices | Epicenter from Wired.com.