Trent Reznor weighs in on Ticket resellers/scalpers

In a candid and eye opening blog entry, Trent Reznor outlined his perspective on concert promotion, and ticket resellers/scalpers. Trent blasted TicketMaster and Live Nation for encouraging the secondary ticket markets and resellers such as stubhub.com. Reznor calls TicketMaster “a monopoly” that could put an end to ticket resellers/scalpers but chooses not to, citing that “they make a lot of money fueling the secondary market. TicketMaster even bought a re-seller site and often bounces you over to that site to buy tickets (TicketsNow.com)!” Reznor goes on to explain his position as an artist and contemplating charging more than face value for tickets. “If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front and are going to anyway thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do – simple as that.” Trent also recognizes his own hypocrisy in working with the concert promotion juggernauts he allegedly opposes but sees it as the only way to play the appropriate outdoor amphitheaters that are almost exclusively owned by LiveNation. “At this point in time it would be logistically too difficult to attempt to circumvent the venues / promoter / ticketing infrastructure”.