Eli5: why do bands have to use Ticketmaster?
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Its important to note that part of the service that Ticketmaster provides their clients IS being the bad guy. It used to be the case that customers never saw the ticketing fees – they were simply rolled into the overall price of the ticket, and then the production company would pay Ticketmaster directly, making it look like thats what the artist was charging. Ticketmaster split the fees off, meaning that the artist could publish cheaper rates for shows, making them seem more affordable even though you’d pay the same amount at the end. This was also good for them since Ticketmaster was now responsible for collecting the revenue from each ticket purchaser, so they had greater incentive to sell out shows since the more tickets sold, the more fees for them. And Ticketmaster would do all the work of regulating tickets and fraud and scalpers etc.
In exchange, the artist got to be the good guy, the cool one just here for the show, and ticketmaster the third party scapegoat corporate guy who could (and is) blamed for everything you dislike about the show or venue and getting/selling tickets. Thats what Ticketmaster signed up to do. It doesn’t mean they don’t provide an important service that needs to be done or reasonable rates to do it, and it doesn’t mean they dont do a good job, it means they purposely set it up to be hated because its better for everyone if the artist remains loveable.
(with all that said, yes they do overinflate fees and no they are not a great company lol. but they do do a lot more than people think they do and the negative PR they get is more purposeful than you’d think.)
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