Robert ReichTicketmaster has exclusive deals with 80% of large venues in the country, allowing the company to set prices and gouge customers with fees.
Monopolization isn't just bad for the music industry, it's bad for the entire American economy.
Bob Patin 
🎹@rbreich I was first in for tickets about ten years ago, and the best I could get was the 30th row, thanks to Ticketmaster.
Miss Deary Me@bobpatin @rbreich Ticketmaster monopolise huge swathes of seats for every show & put them straight onto StubHub, leaving little for the venues & other third parties. So fewer & fewer tickets are available to the public at face value. And brace yourselves for demand driven pricing (not just TM) coming to a theatre near you soon. 😱
It's such an awful situation, because it will keep us from going to see some artists we've always wanted to see. Unless and until major artists like Taylor Swift put a stop to the stranglehold by Live Nation/Ticketmaster, lots of loyal fans are going to miss out.
The ONLY solution would be for Swift to find a way to sell her concert tickets without involving TM, and that's probably a logistical impossibility.
@bobpatin @rbreich At the end of the day, everyone involved wants their piece of the pie & there are shareholders to please. Plus, monopolies are efficient for the performer (the whole package). Money has become the priority, & so integrity goes out the window. It's good ole supply & demand & they'll make as much money as they can get away with. More fans will be priced out, yes, but as long as the tickets are sold, they don't care who to. It's tragic & will get worse.
Artists’ careers are built on their loyal fans. I toured all over the world with different artists for more than 20 years; we had fans who would show up for every show, year after year. There was a guy who came to every show in Lake , twice as night, for 9 days in a row.
Piss them off, turn your back on them, they’ll eventually go away—and the good times are over.
Giant stars need to band together and get rid of this corrupt system.