www.ticketnews.com: Longtime concert promoter Tommy Dorfman is urging the federal court reviewing the Justice Department’s settlement with Live Nation and Ticketmaster to reject the agreement, arguing that specific exceptions involving venue rebates and music festivals could preserve the same kind of industry leverage he says destroyed his own festival business.
2 comments:
This filing makes complete sense to me. I especially agree with Dorfman's Criticism of the Motions exclusion of festivals, as to me those are the most obvious live entertainment events and are often the ones scalped the most quickly making it impossible for fans to obtain tickets for a fair price. I really worry about the future of the entertainment industry if this merger is allowed to go through as ticket prices are already prohibitively expensive for many things such as festivals Broadway and other forms of Live Events, in part because of the actions of both parties. If they are allowed to merge and no longer have to compete with really any other ticket retailer as there is no comparable retailer in the space, what will happen to the price for the average consumer? Hopefully this motion is taken with the seriousness it deserves as often motions of this nature are overlooked.
I think that what Dorfman is fighting for is really great. For years, as I have developed a music taste much like my fathers, I always ask “oh did you see so and so in a concert in the 80s?” and every time, he answers with something along the lines of, yep, saw them 3 nights in a row for $10 each. Now even comparing 1985 money to now, that is absolutely nothing compared to what we are being charged today. I so much as peaked at Harry Styles tickets when they came out, only to find them to be so absurdly priced I could hardly believe it. To see a promoter, someone who works on the side that has long been the enemy, fighting for this change too is so refreshing. His case seems very thorough, well researched, and long awaited. Hopefully the department of justice will recognize that a shift in the way concert tickets are priced and how venues charge is necessary.
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