Kid Rock’s Advocacy for Concert Ticket Reform
Kid Rock recently met with Donald Trump’s Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi to discuss the pressing issues in the concert ticket industry.
The “All Summer Long” artist took to his official Instagram account to share a moment with Bondi, expressing his commitment to collaborate with her and the administration to tackle ongoing ticketing challenges.
“What a pleasure to break bread with our future Attorney General @pambondi,” he captioned his post. “I look forward to working with her and the entire administration to help fix the concert ticket fiasco. I’m going to attack the bots, scalpers, venues, ticketing companies, managers, and artists who are ripping off and scamming the public with crap that has been going on for decades and getting worse.”
Concerns Over Ticketmaster’s Practices
He further stated: “Whoever is in charge of this wants to help fix it, get your ass to the table, otherwise, fuck off and find out. Kid Rock #MAGA”
Ticketmaster has faced scrutiny in recent years, particularly during the ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour in 2022, where the platform experienced “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets.
In response, Swift expressed her frustration with the situation saying, “Well. It goes without saying that I care very much about my fans. (…) I find it really hard to trust a third party with that kind of relationship and loyalty, and it’s painful for me to just watch mistakes happen without any recourse. There are many reasons why people have had such a difficult time getting tickets, and I am trying to figure out how this situation can be improved in the future.”
Swift commented on the astonishing number of tickets sold, saying, “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them several times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured that they could. It’s really amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really infuriates me that so many of them feel like they had to endure several bear attacks to get them.”
In the same year, Ticketmaster implemented its dynamic pricing strategy, resulting in ticket prices fluctuating based on demand. The company explained that tickets are “market priced” and “may increase or decrease at any time based on demand,” similar to airline tickets and hotel pricing.
Fans attempting to purchase tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s 2023 tour have voiced their dissatisfaction with the dynamic pricing, reporting costs reaching up to $5,000 (£4,152).
At that time, Ticketmaster defended its pricing model, indicating that only 11.2 percent of Springsteen tickets sold were platinum, and merely 1.3 percent were priced at $1,000 (£830) or more. They stated that the average ticket price for Springsteen was $262 (£217).
In a notable legal move, Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice in April, claiming that concert advertising and ticket sales were negatively impacting competition within the live music sector.
This issue was initially brought to light in a Wall Street Journal article, asserting that after the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010, the combined entity controlled over 80 percent of the U.S. ticketing market, effectively creating a monopoly.
In response, Dan Wall, the head of corporate operations at Live Nation, argued that the company faces increased competition, stating, “If you have to focus on one part of the market to claim a monopoly, there isn’t one.”
In related updates, Kid Rock had previously shared his thoughts following Donald Trump’s election victory, emphasizing that “now is not the time to gloat.”
https://www.nme.com/news/music/kid-rock-meets-with-donald-trumps-attorney-general-nominee-with-plan-to-open-a-can-of-whoop-ass-on-gig-ticket-industry-3823199?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kid-rock-meets-with-donald-trumps-attorney-general-nominee-with-plan-to-open-a-can-of-whoop-ass-on-gig-ticket-industry
