Live Nation Flips, Urges Congress to pass FAIR Ticketing Act
After months of turmoil, Congressional hearings, comments from the White House, and millions of angry fans, Live Nation has flipped its opinion and is now asking Congress to pass the FAIR Ticketing Act. This comes after two monumental meltdowns regarding ticket access, both of them being arena tours for two of the biggest stars in music, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Live Nation and its CEO Michael Rapino have faced staunch criticism over the practices of live venue ownership and the ticketing process, and he will continue to face backlash until something is done. “The ticketing industry is more competitive than ever, and our market share has gone down, not up, since the Ticketmaster merger,” Rapino said in Live Nation’s Q4 earnings reports.
Although there is no draft of the FAIR Ticketing Act, but Live Nation has written out five main points for the draft, and they listed the three key ones in the article.
Live Nation is asking Congress to attempt to reduce scalping success by allowing the artists to determine the “resale rules” for their own tickets, guaranteeing the “ability to use face-value exchanges and limited transfer.”
The House and the Senate should “crackdown on resale sites that are safe havens for scalpers.”
All-in pricing (pricing that displays ticket total cost, including fees, as opposed to at the checkout screen) should be mandated nationally.
Sounds like Live Nation is trying to point the finger somewhere else and take the heat off their case. That is not going to happen.
SourcesLive Nation Urges Congress to Pass a 'FAIR Ticketing Act' (digitalmusicnews.com)
U.S. Senators Klobuchar, Lee Urge DOJ Action vs. Ticketmaster (digitalmusicnews.com)
White House Pushes Legislation Targeting Ticket Fees (digitalmusicnews.com)
