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.
I’m boycotting Ticketmaster. I’m just not going to go to shows that force me to use them, even if they’re my favourite bands. I will buy my music on Bandcamp Fridays to support the bands instead.
TBH it’s difficult to use even if you wanted to, sometimes their site won’t even load unless I allow third party cookies, location data, mic and camera access, download their app, and stick their special dongle up my ass.
But the purchasers of tickets aren’t the people who pick the ticketing service. If we want tickets to be available from other services we need to actually get shows organized that sell tickets through them, not just not pay Ticketmaster.
What bands do you know? Do they want to come to your town?
I’m not sure what other ticket services we have. I would absolutely look at what shows those services offer if I know what services to look through.
Ticketweb is also owned by Ticketmaster.
The best way I see it is to buy directly from venues if its available by looking at their websites – and to consider buying tickets in-person if they allow it.
Ticketmaster owns a lot of venues
If enough people stop using Ticketmaster then it will become the profitable option for bands and venues to not deal with Ticketmaster even at risk of not being allowed to by Ticketmaster.
That seems much easier to pull off while also building a replacement infrastructure for ticketing and performances. The hypothetical more profitable option of not dealing with Ticketmaster needs to be manually built out: firms and practices don’t just manifest themselves as spontaneous crystallization of pure potential profitability.
Ticketmaster will not allow a replacement structure. Better to just boycott it and have venues sell tickets like Theatres do.
Imagine if two thirds of movies could only be seen at AMC theatres for years after release?
How do they propose to prevent it? They can’t stop me from starting a band, they can’t stop you from having me play at your house. Exclusivity agreements don’t work on the fundamentally disagreeable.
It’s already implemented: venues and bands that work with ticketmaster sign contracts of exclusivity. Any venue that doesn’t work only with ticketmaster can’t work with ticketmaster at all, which is not good for business when Ticketmaster is the de facto monopoly.
You can make a band and you can own a venue and you can choose not to use Ticketmaster, and you should I absolutely support that, but if you want to create an online ticket sales empire you would first have to prove you’re more capable of driving sales than Ticketmaster.
That’s why we need to show up with a bunch of Ticketmaster boycotters. Every successful social movement needs a carrot and a stick.
That’s literally what I said. That was my suggestion 5 comments up this chain, and you replied by saying it would be easier to make a replacement structure.