The answer is capitalism, I know.
But it wasn’t always like this. Why the hell are they allowed to absolutely monopolize all shows and venues? How are there not laws on this?
Is stopping going to any shows the only way to fix this? If so, that wont happen. People are gonna go see their favorite bands (and ticketmonster knows it)
I wish this one was as easy as getting rid of all my streaming services - but they really fucked us over for live shows.
Libertarians who don’t understand monopsony are a dime a dozen.
Beyonce will just as happily take 50% of a $50 ticket as 5% of a $500 ticket. But she draws big crowds, which means the venues she can play are limited to the giant (municipally subsidized) stadiums. These stadium owners have conditional arrangements with Ticketmaster as a vendor for a whole host of business and political reasons. So Beyonce can’t perform in Houston at a location that seats over 10,000 without negotiating through Ticketmaster.
Since so many of these stadiums are publicly subsidized, one might argue that the public has an interest in regulating (or, if we want to go balls-to-the-wall socialist, owning and operating) the locations. At that point, the state or federal government might even have an interest in building and operating an exchange for booking venues and buying/selling tickets. And all of this could be done at-cost, which might allow the public to enjoy the benefits of entertainment venues without paying an enormous rent to private landlords.
But why kill the golden goose? The only people who really benefit from such a system are the worthless fucking proles, who don’t really matter and who can all get fucked. Social power brokers benefit immensely from the wealth these choke points in the entertainment economy create and from the exclusive access to popular artists that this leverage provides.