ticketmaster said it had learned a “valuable lesson” from last year Taylor Swift concert sales failureIt won’t be enough to win over US politicians, however, arguing that the company has too much control of the live event market.
On Tuesday, a top executive of Ticketmaster’s parent company live nation The entertainer appeared in the US Senate to argue that he did not have a monopoly on ticket sales. The company has also denied breaking any antitrust laws.
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In written testimony presented before Tuesday’s trial, Live Nation claimed Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift sales were targeted by software bots illegally obtained ticket and reprimanded curious fans. These bots were able to flip and resell tickets purchased in bulk for astronomical prices.
In November 2022, a chaotic pre-sale for Swift’s 2023 Eras Stadium tour left thousands of fans without admission. Although Ticketmaster required fans to register for pre-sales in an effort to prevent cyber attacks, fans experienced site crashes and hours-long online queue times.
The company claims that it is more 3.5 million people Registered for pre sale. In a statement, Ticketmaster wrote that it sold more than two million tickets and generated 3.5 billion system requests, four times its previous peak.
As a result, Ticketmaster had to cancel planned general ticket sales due to a lack of remaining inventory.
after bad sales, Swift said it was “excruciating For me without any support just watching mistakes happen.
Taylor Swift posted a statement on her Instagram account on November 17, 2022, about the cancellation of the Ticketmaster sale.
Instagram / @taylorswift
“We apologize to the fans, we apologize to Ms. Swift, we need to do better and we will do better,” Live Nation President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold said during Tuesday’s hearing.
“Ultimately, there are many things we could have done better, including staggering sales in the long term and improving fan expectations for getting tickets.”
Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010, reportedly resulting in more than 70 percent control The primary ticketing and live event venue market.
Berchtold asked lawmakers to focus on legislation dealing with ticket scalping and other fraudulent practices, such as third-party listings for tickets that are not yet on sale.
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Live Nation said in November The reason it has such a dominant role in the market is because of “the huge gap that exists between the quality of Ticketmaster’s system and the next best primary ticketing system.”
Jack Grotzinger, co-founder of ticket sales platform SeatGeek, said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday that current ticket sales methods are “archaic and ripe for innovation.”
He told lawmakers, “As long as Live Nation remains both the leading concert promoter and ticketer of major venues in America, there will continue to be a lack of competition and conflict in the industry.”
, With Reuters files
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