Sunday, October 18, 2009
Live Nation, Ticketmaster working out deal with U.S.
Reuters: "Live Nation Inc and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc are in negotiations with U.S. regulators to come up with concessions that would allow a merger between the two most powerful companies in the live music business, people familiar with the talks said."
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8 comments:
This merger is most certainly going to raise ticket prices and cause a lot of frustration among patrons. Having worked for a theatre with a TicketMaster contract, they were already a vast company and difficult to work with, so the impending merger will only add to that scale. Most major touring shows and performers have their own contracts with TicketMaster, who sets the ticket prices. Venues are unable to adjust ticket prices or offer any discounts unless they are approved through TicketMaster. TicketMaster is able to charge large ticket purchasing fees that get passed along to the patron and now with less competition, there is no reason for these fees not to go up from a business perspective, so I expect to see them doing so.
I'm really concerned about what this merger would mean to people who are potential patrons of theatre and live concerts. In my opinion, current ticket prices are almost ridiculous. There have been occasions where I almost bought tickets to various shows based on the ticket price, only to be reminded of "convenience charges" and such, which can really add up, especially for multiple tickets. I am very afraid of these charges going up even more if this merger happens, due to the fact that these two companies are the two largest ticket sellers.
While I'm glad that they're making them sell the legalized scalping service ("tickets now") they've been doing for so long, I still feel that this is exactly why the FTC was created. Look at how well other monopolies in the music industry are going and ask if we want live music to join the same backwards thinking, anti-competitive attitude that the recorded music industry has adopted.
I would love to see a viable option for another company to compete with TicketMaster, especially with both of them able to sell tickets for the same shows. Unfortunately the way that the systems are structured they need an exclusive arrangement to sell the tickets, if someone else goes in to sell some things can get out of sync and the same tickets can be sold twice or more in the confusion. This is on top of TM's unwillingness to even consider letting someone else come in on what they consider to be their turf.
It will be interesting to see how this works out in the next couple of weeks. It would be convenient to go to one place to buy all of your tickets for music, sporting and other events, but like the article pointed out, ticket prices may go up with the merger. Like the article said, it will be interesting to see what the Obama administration says about this merger. In terms of business, it makes sense for the companies to merge and it will make them more powerful in the music business.
This is just going to be unfair to everyone who has to buy tickets. As the article said, tickets are just going to be more expensive, and it's not going to be fair to the customers. It's not right for two companies to form a monopoly, which is basically what ticketmaster and Live Nation are doing. There are going to be many angry people. I can understand why they are doing this though. It is great for their businesses and will help them make a lot of money at a time when that is not the easiest thing to do.
The idea of the merger between these two giants in the ticket selling industry would be a major concern. It seems that they would have the ability to jack up prices higher than they already are, and I think, as the article note, major concessions need to be made in order for other companies to remain competitive. It just seems like an unnecessary merger so that the two companies together can have greater control of the market and not have to compete with each other.
I remember when the Bruce Springsteen article came out last year. The biggist problem with that was less about the merger and more about the fact that TicketMaster already had a type of monopoly. I think that Ticketmaster is pretty much a monopoly of its own, and that other companies should be allowed to get some of concerts/events etc. That being said, Tom raises a good point about each event not having more than one seller or seats would be a problem. SO, maybe the solution is the venues/artists set prices and it doesn't matter what website it goes through? I'm not sure if price fixing is a good answer, but it beats the pricefixing that would be concealed if the two companies merged
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