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Comment by QuantumFunnel | Hacker News Reader

None of the big artists people want to see ever play at those venues

That's exactly my point: boycott the artists who contract with Live Nation. Your life won't be any less rich if you go see a local band instead of Taylor Swift. People have so many options now and yet they're afflicted with this weird FOMO.

That's not fair. Taylor Swift is so big because so many people resonate with her. They want to go see an artist they connect with. I get it, going to see the up-and-coming garage band with the DIY attitude at CBGBs has a comfy I'm-there-in-a-you-had-to-be-there-time, but not everyone finds that superior. Some just want to see the artist they like. And that's ok too.

Nope, I'm being completely fair. If you want to see Taylor Swift then expect to pay a lot for the privilege. Playing games with various ticket sales schemes isn't going to magically make a scarce luxury good affordable. I just get annoyed by entitled fans who think they have a moral right to cheap concert tickets due to loyalty or emotional connection or whatever.

And I have nothing against Taylor Swift. I actually like some of her music and I'm sure she puts on great live shows.

I think you either missed the point or are intentionally sidestepping the point. If I have a favorite band and they're reasonably large and I want to go see them live, it'd be a bonafide miracle if their show wasn't at a LiveNation venue. The local spots are simply too small to be a reasonable stop on tour for any moderately popular artist.

I agree that you should definitely go see local artists at local venues, but you can do that and still really want to take your dad to see Steve Hackett play a live show. It's not up to you to decide what enriches my life.

This essentially boycotts 99% of artists who are big enough to book a venue with more than 500-1000 people

It does, and I think they’re aware:

> Your life won't be any less rich if you go see a local band instead of Taylor Swift.

Do you disagree? If so, why?

Ah yes, the bands that can gather more than 1000 fans at a concert are all Taylor Swifts.

One of my favorite bands I've listened to since their first album is First Aid Kit. On their 10th anniversary they had several sold-out concerts at Globen [1] in Stockholm. Should've I just stopped immediately once they crossed the threshold of 100 fans worldwide? But they are a local band, they are Swedish.

In August I'm going to a concert of a Finnish band called Steve'n'Seagulls. They will play in Karlstad, a small Swedish town. They sell their tickets through Ticketmaster. Boycott I say! They are on the same level as Taylor Swift! (137k monthly listeners on Spotify, compared to Swift's 102 million).

Okay. What about bands that have been around since before Live Nation? Should I skip Radiohead, Guns'n'Roses and Sting because there's literally no way for them to tour except to book LiveNation-affiliated venues?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicii_Arena

> a Finnish band called Steve'n'Seagulls

I wonder if their name is a deep cut Nightwish reference, who are also Finnish: https://youtu.be/gg5_mlQOsUQ?t=17s

Brilliant :) No I wonder this, too

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