Concerned for Concerts; when creativity meets ticketed tyranny
“No one thought that ticketing was a business, I thought it was a business. I'm not ashamed of that.”
Fred Rosen,
CEO of Ticketmaster,1982-1998.
Elvis Presley used to cost a buck fifty; adjusting for inflation, that's 20 dollars and a little under seventeen quid today; forget Elvis’s hip thrusts, you'd be dancing like the devil too with that affordability.
The aim of going on tour never used to be about making profits; it was rather about marketing the album, the vinyl and eventual CD, which could then earn the artist money. It was also just a chance to see fans live. However, in the age of streaming, artists make seemly cents off their songs, only five percent of their income stemming from streaming, while consumers get access to as much as they want…as long as it comes with ads, subscription fees and artists inflating their concerts with dynamic pricing because they believe in the cash cow and can no longer trust stability, that it. But ‘convenience’ was never really our choice; the corporations made that choice for us, and it all began in the 90’s. This article will track the sorry song of how helping scalpers, selling beverages, and getting sponsorships have made corporate concert promotion more concerned with the corporate image than the singers inside: the impacts have been costly, contorting the freedom of concerts into a ‘luxury status event.’
Once upon a time, concert tickets could only be sold through newsagents, call centres and box offices. Then came online ticketing; then came Ticketmaster. Instead of charging venues, the innovative ‘service-charge’ was created for customers. Instead of having rival ticketing vendors, Ticketmaster ate up all the competition, and instead of being held legally accountable, Ticketmaster made friends with government officials to keep cases within its favour. For example, there was Pearl Jam’s iconic lawsuit against Ticketmaster in 1994, fighting for the right to choose their own prices, remembering “what it meant to be young, being a teenage fan, and to not have a lot of money.” There is evidence to suggest that Ticketmaster politically manoeuvred the case and used Mickey Canter, a close Clinton confidant, to keep tabs on it the whole way through. The case was dropped, and with Pearl Jam failing to perform the tour without them, eventually the band had to return to Ticketmaster; as the lead singer Eddy Vetter put it, they had been ‘stomped on’ by corporate greed, up close and personal.
This was the first instance to highlight that if you were unhappy with Ticketmaster running your event, there was little you could do, and you had to face the slings of service charges for your own fans. Their dominance would only grow stronger, and the numbers on tickets would only grow longer.
By the early 2000s, Ticketmaster was responsible for close to all ticketing and ‘Live Nation’ was responsible for the rest, managing venues, promotion and facilities. In 2009, the greatest media company in the world was thus created through the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Once again, independent venues were being squashed out and choice for bands and promoters were being reduced; now Live Nation owned almost every venue and so if you wanted to play there, you had to use Ticketmaster and with no competition the price of… tea towels, for instance, could be 250 dollars if they wanted to make it so (and they were, they did.)
Even when gigs were held at uncontrolled venues, Ticketmaster still controlled the secondary market where teams of scalpers would resell them for higher prices. Throughout the 2010s, the corporate attitude to concerts emphasised commodification over culture. Live Nation cared less about filling venues than profiting from sponsorships, refreshments and scalpers buying tickets that could not be re-bought and so led to empty spaces where fans who actually cared…could have stood.
It only got harder for indie venues to let alone compete, let alone survive, after the Covid-19 quarantine; it only got more expensive, too, for everyone. Obviously, tickets had to be more expensive during the regulations of a pandemic; however, that ship has now sailed, but tickets still soar. Porta-potties with hand sanitiser are now expected by festival goers, and even this increase inflates the budget by thousands. The promoter makes 15% from the concert; after all the money spent, it is no surprise that they are boosted yet again. Simply put, Covid and Corporations were the couple to concern concertgoers critically … and now we’re here in 2026.
But… remain hopeful, go to the indie disco, and find somewhere affordable to knock your socks off silly. Tickets shouldn’t be status symbols. Don’t let the fomo fool you, music is where you move to.
Written By: Ben Lynch @ben_lynch_
Edited by Shaunamay Martin Bohan @f4wnfatale
