Hacker News Reader

Comment by blackhaj7 | Hacker News Reader

It’s mad in the US. Beyond just the ticket prices, the booking fees are out of control. I wanted to buy a ticket to a music event and the booking fee was $30!

In the UK, booking fees above £5 are considered an obscenity and would put people off buying a ticket.

I am surprised more artists don’t refuse to work with ticketing companies who extort customers like this. Seems like an easy way to garner loyalty from fans (beyond being morally right).

Although, I imagine - like the healthcare system - the whole food chain (music labels, artists) are all in on the scam

View on HN

> I am surprised more artists don’t refuse to work with ticketing companies who extort customers like this. Seems like an easy way to garner loyalty from fans (beyond being morally right).

There’s ongoing antitrust litigation about this. Ticketmaster has exclusive contracts with many venues, and in most scenarios artists aren’t going to have a menu of a dozen different venues they could realistically pick.

(https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-live-...)

Yesterday, a friend and I tried to buy tickets for a show. Each ticket was $40. The total came to over $110. That’s nearly the price of three tickets!

Thanks for saving us money by making us think twice about buying these tickets, Ticketmaster!

> artists refuse

The fees are split into thirds—TM, the venue, and artist. Which makes the artist appear that they wanted lower prices while also still getting more money. Lower album sales than in the past is also a factor.

That's why it has worked so well.

The problem is even if Ticketmaster is split up, a future administration will allow them to put themselves back together again.

> problem is even if Ticketmaster is split up, a future administration will allow them to put themselves back together again

This is in the same category of technically correct but imaginary problem as if I take this medicine I will still eventually die. Or, if I repair my windshield it will one day break again.

If it’s a problem, and the solution is better than its cost, it’s worth solving. Even if that doesn’t solve it perfectly forever. I’d like to say perfect is the enemy of the good, but you’re defining perfection so unrealistically as to require disproving the heat death of the universe.

> it already having happened

I see three providers at the bottom and one at the top. 3 > 1 [1].

Also, a lot in the middle, which was fortunate, since it’s around when dial-up and cell phones were becominh a thing.

[1] citation needed

Your comment hits home, I come across this reasoning a lot at work. I propose to improve a part of the product, something for most users. And I usually face a littany of "yeah but it will not solve this guy's edge case so it is not good".

That’s not what I was saying at all. AT&T, for instance, has mostly reassembled itself. I’m in favor of breaking them up but steps should be taken to prevent the problem from happening in the future.

My mom used to always say: Why bother wiping your ass, if your going to take another shit tomorrow.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com