Future Free

Nobody likes getting ripped off. And nothing says you’re getting ripped off more than seeing double digit service fees which can often exceed the cost of the ticket itself.

I’m going to tell you how and why you’re getting ripped off, and tactics to fight back against Ticketmaster. To do this, we’re going to ask 3 questions. 

How does Ticketmaster rip you off? 

When you pay for a ticket as a consumer, you instinctively believe you’re directly paying the artist to perform. This may lead you to believe the artist will get the lion’s share of your money, but that is far from the case. Your money changes hands over and over, with each party taking a small percentage. Every party also has their own private contracts, creating nuances that can’t be understood by the general public. This leads us to our first problem.

1: You Don’t Know Who You’re Paying 

Ticketmaster was designed to be the bad guy to consumers, a bill collector. They charge the fees and distribute the cash behind closed doors. But there’s a new party that’s been quietly added to the chat: scalpers. Scalpers may refer to themselves as professional resellers, or ticket brokers. And they’re no different than the other parties in the process: they want a cut of your money.

Legitimizing resellers is problematic to put it mildly. 200-300% mark ups seem to make consumers everywhere universally outraged. So it was a groundbreaking story when CBC news discovered Ticketmaster had built a software for scalpers. They market it at an annual professional reseller convention in Vegas, and it’s called TradeDesk. TradeDesk allows scalpers to synchronize their multiple Ticketmaster accounts and change prices easily on various platforms. Ticketmaster also makes sure resellers are masked with anonymity. In their professional reseller handbook, they specify that resellers “not include text that allows them to be personally identifiable to other professional resellers or consumers.” This makes it much easier for the general public to not know they are buying from a professional scalper. 

Ticketmaster has an enormous conflict of interest. If they work with resellers, they will be able to “double dip” on ticket fees with each sale. To make matters worse, these service fees are often proportional. So that 200-300% mark up is not only helping the scalpers. It’s helping Ticketmaster too.

2: Ticketmaster Forces Bands To Come To Them 

And there’s a reason for that! As of 2010, Ticketmaster completed a merger with Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest concert promoter. If you’re a concert promoter, you deal with everyone behind the scenes: venues, sponsors, agents, artists themselves, it’s a long list. This merger was met with a lot of scrutiny by the Feds, but eventually the merger happened. 

Now Ticketmaster has exclusive ticketing rights at 80 of the top 100 venues in the U.S. In the top 10 venues, Ticketmaster has control of 9. They’re dominating the industry. Their chokehold on the best venues forces artists to lead their fans through the Ticketmaster marketplace. 

How have they been able to do this legally? They haven’t. In 2014 Ticketmaster settled a $397 million lawsuit for misleading fees. In 2018, Live Nation Entertainment settled a $110 million lawsuit with Songkick for (surprise surprise) anti-competitive behavior. That same year, their #2 competitor, AEG filed complaints that Ticketmaster was intimidating and punishing their venue clients for not using their services. As a result, the DOJ makes them submit frequent reports to curb any monopolistic behavior. Elsewhere in the world, Ticketmaster settled a $4.5 million suit by the Canadian Competition Bureau.

But unfortunately, these legal troubles have not been enough to create any meaningful alternatives for consumers. 

3: Ease of Transferability 

Tickets are a bit unique in that you can resell them to another party without a hitch. There’s a lot of pros to this feature, as you can usually make at least some of your money back when you have an event conflict.

But that ease of transferability comes with a hidden cost. Ever wonder why you can’t easily transfer your airline ticket to family members? Airlines know that ease of transferability is a pandora’s box . Once you make transferability the standard, you create a secondary market that rushes to capture the value of choice goods and services.

Many people suggest restricting transferability to stop scalpers in the concert industry. If it works for flights, why won’t it work for concerts? It’s not such such a crazy idea. Pearl Jam who famously feuded with Ticketmaster in the 90’s, has a unique policy where their tickets are restricted from resale, full stop.

However, it’s inevitable that last minute conflicts are going to happen for ticket purchasers. And when you restrict transferability, the probability of getting your money back goes to 0 during schedule conflicts. Ticketmaster says that they work with the secondary market because it’s a necessary evil. It’s a bit of a lose-lose here.

But if transferability is a necessary evil, why don’t venues just price their tickets higher so scalpers make less? Wouldn’t the scalper market be priced out? This leads me to our next question.

Why do they rip you off? 

It’s time to reevaluate how you think about the Ticket industry. 

Radical Statement 1: Concerts Tickets are Underpriced (Intentionally) 

If this statement fills you with rage, let me explain. There’s often a gap between the face value ticket sold by Ticketmaster on behalf of venues, and the secondary market. That gap is where the prices skyrocket. 

You may think of this as unfair and ridiculous, but it’s not. People will pay those prices, and it’s why professional resellers can make it a profession. They are fulfilling a demand at the maximum price they can. As a result, the scalpers are hated by everyone. 

However, where does that leave Ticketmaster? If their tickets are being resold 2-3x their price, why don’t they just raise the initial face value? They don’t do this for several reasons: 

1: Artists don’t want bad PR from fans thinking they’ve been ripped off. 

Bad PR can do much more damage than not making a few extra bucks from a concert. Bad PR can follow you for years, and Artists are rightfully wary of not wanting to stain their reputation. 

2. Artists like the clout of “selling out” fast. 

When you sell out a concert fast, the assumption is that your clout is off the charts. This is great PR. However “there’s no such thing as a sold out show anymore” says Alan Cross, a Canadian music journalist with 40 years in the biz. The good PR from a sold out show is an illusion. It’s created by professional scalpers and ticket hold backs for credit card companies, venues, fan clubs, and sometimes the artists themselves. According to a NY investigative report, “Over half of the available tickets for the top grossing shows in 2012-2015 were either put on hold and reserved for a variety of industry insiders….or reserved for “pre sale” events available to non-public groups.”

These holdbacks are done in part to address the all important question: What is the right price?  To Ticketmaster, this is an old problem. And to economists, an auction is an elegant way to answer this question with every consumer getting a fair shot. Has Ticketmaster given this a try? They have! According to the podcast Freakanomics, this was tried in the early 2000’s. The process was lengthy, and consumers actually hated it, according to David Marcus, the Executive VP for Global Music at Ticketmaster.  “It had no instant gratification. And it just couldn’t hold consumer attention.”

Radical statement #2: Ticketmaster is a better company than you think

If you can set aside all of your grudges with Ticketmaster about those fees, their platform does work. When you receive a ticket, it will be legitimate. And if it’s not, you have significant protections to get your money back. Ticketmaster has also been working on a program to get tickets into the right hands via their “verified fan program.” In this program fans plead their case to an algorithm, completing a series of tasks that lets Ticketmaster know you are not a bot. Successful fans will be entered into a raffle for a special presale code, that should in theory, give you a shot at an affordable ticket. 

Ticketmaster is also quick to point out that having proprietary broker software is not unique to their company. Stubhub has a similar broker software called “Ticker Utils” and Vivid Seat’s “Skybox.” That’s the good! 

Time for the bad: The verified fan process can be exasperating for fans, since it is still a total gamble. And even if you win the presale raffle, you may be met with enormous lines of 2,000+ accounts, leading some to doubt the exclusivity of the presale code handouts. Ticketmaster has also started mirroring reseller tactics, offering “Platinum Tickets” whose face values can fluctuate at their choosing. Yikes. 

What can you do about this? I’m glad you asked. 

How can you fight back? 

The way I see it, you have two options. 

Option 1: Play the Game and Remember the Cardinal Rules

1. Be willing to walk away 

     To get a good deal, you have to be willing to walk away. Set your price maximum and stick to it. This has become increasingly hard to do with Ticketmaster and resell sites using “drip pricing.” This is when companies show you the pre-fee price first, and hit you with the fees at the last stage of the check out. Studies have shown that consumers may spend 20% more with this model. This used to be the case with Airlines until 2010 when Federal Legislation made it illegal. If you live in New York, you will be able to see the price included by default. But for the rest of us, make sure to filter tickets with fees! (Ticketmaster + Stubhub let you do this) 

2. Be willing to wait (There is no such thing as a sold out show) 

Let’s write that again: There is no such thing as a sold out show. There are always going to be “ticket holdbacks” during each sale, but eventually, the majority of those holdbacks will see the market due to tickets being a perishable commodity. Once the clock hits midnight, the tickets are worthless. So don’t panic during a presale when the seats you want aren’t there. At the general on sale, don’t panic then either! Create a routine of checking all resale sites. Join Facebook and Reddit groups for ticket sales in your city! And if all else fails, go to the box office day of and try your luck. You’ll be spared those crazy online service fees! 

3. Be willing to plan. 

To reduce stress, acknowledge to yourself that you’re making the best of a bad situation. The less you optimize the process, the more frustration you are going to feel. Optimize via the actions below:

Get Presale codes. 

Nowadays, there’s a “presale to the presale.” If you’re not tuning in, you risk losing the best deal. Many concert pros recommend following your artists and venues on social media to watch for presale drops. You can also join venue email lists to cast a wider net.

Know what seats you want.

Knowing your preferred seating sections is just as important as your max spend. Look up the venue seating chart on google images, and identify at least 5 sections. Timing is everything here. The more research you do beforehand, the better your odds will be when it counts most.

Get a Credit Card.

Credit cards are like knives. Very dangerous, but VERY useful. Having a credit card and paying it off early has a host of benefits, but in this context we’re talking about chargebacks. 

By law, when you use a credit card, there is a built in process to dispute transactions under the Fair Credit Billing Act. That’s a chargeback! And most credit networks actually give you more rights than they need to, because you are their customer. They want you to stay happy! 

Here’s the skinny: Chargebacks are really hard to beat. If you don’t get your goods and services as described, your credit card issuer can quite literally snatch your money back from the merchant. 

But with great power comes great responsibility. Here’s what you have to do: 

• Email the respecting company of your good or service. Let them know you want a refund and why. Mention that you are considering a chargeback. Do this even if they say they don’t give refunds. Since most companies’ customer service is terrible, you probably won’t get a response. You are simply making a paper trail for your bank. Wait 1 week, and then dispute the transaction in your banking app or via phone. 
• Then it’s pretty much out of your hands! This is a completely free process to you, but make sure to confirm the following with your bank: Payments are not required on the disputed amount during the investigation. And they will not charge you interest on the amount if you lose the dispute. 
• If you think it’s too late for a chargeback. It’s not. Policies vary by card issuer, but it’s usually 120 days from the original transaction or promised delivery date. Delayed concert? You’re in luck.
• Even if you DON’T have a credit card, I’ve found that mentioning the word chargeback triggers a lot of trauma for merchants. Chargeback investigations are a losing game for them, and they want the easy way out. Even though Debit card chargebacks have less power, they still may invoke the same fear. I’ve had companies completely switch up their tone when I say the magic word. 

Option 2: Create a new Game 

As the home of show business, NY is on the forefront of ticket marketplace regulations. Their ticketing law (Article 25) expires every few years by design requiring renewal and updates. 

As of June 2022, NY just released their latest update where consumers are shown the full ticket price up front by default. It also makes it illegal to have a delivery fee for online tickets, and increases fines for bad actors who use bot software. 

The 113 page report from the prior year that led to all those updates, specified that “Outside of Federal Legislation from 2016…virtually all matters related to live ticketing events are controlled by state and local jurisdictions.” 

That legislation from 2016 is known as the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) act. Only 3 people have been prosecuted for breaking it. If you think more than 3 people are skirting the rules, and want better enforcement of the law, contact your local representative and ask for the below: 

Price Tracking Tools 

Prices including Fees by Default 

Original Face Value Shown to Buyer 

Transparency about reseller activity, and seller profiles

Making laws and enforcing them are two different animals. These tools in my opinion will give more power to the consumer, and help the little guy have more rights against giant corporations. 

That’s all for now! I hope you found this information useful and best of luck out there. 

Disclaimer: I’m not a financial advisor. This is not professional financial advice. Call your bank if you have any questions.