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Live Nation / Ticketmaster is also an excellent example of a bad for consumers monopoly.


Pardon my ignorance here, as I don't actually attend concerts, but to play something of devil's advocate...

Isn't the secondary market for tickets- scalpers and such- significantly more expensive than what Ticketmaster is selling the tickets for? Which is to say, aren't the tickets sold below market value?

I'm not entirely clear on how there being more competition would help consumers.


Ticketmaster enables "scalping" by offering a secondary market on their own platform. They have a vested interest in this, and due to a lack of real competition they have no reason to realign incentives. Meaningful competitors could do all sorts of things that make a difference in this area.

Consumers are also the people running the concerts themselves (performers and whatnot) who have bad experiences with Ticketmaster but don't really have an alternative. Lower fees, non-exclusivity terms, etc.


Keep in mind that effectively TM/LN sells tickets on the secondary market.

Just because tickets are on the "resale" market doesn't mean they were bought by Jane Doe and she can't go anymore so she's re-listing them. For some concerts only 8% of the tickets are actually available at the listed price, the remaining 92% are all available either as a special offer (credit cards) or given to various individuals associated with the event (such as the headliner) who can then immediately put them up for resale.




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