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Senators of the United States are expected to grill Ticketmaster on Friday, questioning whether the company’s dominance in the ticketing industry led to a regular breakdown last year when the sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets.
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, said the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will focus on consolidation in the entertainment and live ticketing industry and how it harms customers.
“For too long, consumers have faced high costs, long waits and website failures, and Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company faces insufficient pressure to innovate and improve,” Klobuchar said in a statement before the hearing.
Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket seller, processing 500 million tickets a year in more than 30 countries. About 70 percent of tickets for major concert venues in the U.S. are sold through Ticketmaster, according to data in a federal lawsuit filed by consumers last year.
In 2010, Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation, a Beverly Hills, California-based entertainment company that produces live shows, festivals and concert tours. Live Nation president and chief financial officer Joe Berchtold is among those scheduled to testify on Tuesday.
Front burner29:14Taylor Swift Ticketmaster problem
Last week, Ticketmaster pre-sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour quickly devolved into chaos, with the site crashing, many people waiting eight hours or more in online queues, and tickets going up to $40,000 US on secondary sales sites like Stubhub. This is far from the first incident that has sparked widespread anger against Ticketmaster. The exorbitant prices for Blink-182 and Bruce Springsteen concerts have become one of the sore spots. But the Swift fiasco shone a new light on the company’s virtual monopoly over wide swathes of the live music industry, prompting many – including some US legislators – to call for the company to be investigated and broken up. Now, Jason Koebler – editor-in-chief of Motherboard, tech site VICE – joins Front Burner to break it all down.
In mid-November, the Ticketmaster site crashed during a presale event for Swift’s upcoming stadium tour. The company said its site was overwhelmed by fans and bot attacks. Many people have lost their tickets after waiting in line for hours online.
Ticketmaster required fans to register for the presale, and more than 3.5 million people did. The company said it was the largest registration in its history.
Ticketmaster ended up canceling a planned sale of tickets to the general public due to insufficient inventory.
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