After finding themselves at the front of consumer and artist backlash, Live Nation CEO addresses the most recent public criticism against Ticketmaster that started with The Cure’s Robert Smith calling the company’s dynamic pricing, “a bit of a scam”. Which further led Smith and Ticketmaster to negotiate small reimbursements to verified buyers to combat the high ticket fees. Asking Ticketmaster to explain themselves for the increasing ticket prices for the tours of many different artists.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Live Nation CEO, Michael Rapino, weighed in on podcast interview with Bob Lefsetz saying, “We were proud of Ticketmaster’s side, we did a ton of work with Robert, making sure [tickets] were non-transferable, that it would be a face value [ticket] exchange and verified, doing all we could to put all the roadblocks to deliver his ticket prices to the fans.”, he continued, “I couldn’t defend in any version that we were going to add a $20 service fee to a $20 ticket. We made a decision that we would spend some money, give back the $10, and get it to a reasonable place for those fans.”

Although agreeing with the heavy service fees, Rapino argued, “It’s a magic moment, maybe twice a year – way cheaper than Disneyland, or the Super Bowl, or the NFL or the NBA playoffs, or an expensive night out,” Rapino said. “So it’s really cheap overall”. Calling the ticket industry “misunderstood”, he clarified that ticket pricing is set by the artists rather than the ticket company themselves. 

Despite this evolution in conversation between the artist and ticket distributor, it seems that the voices of those truly affected by increasing are still yet to be heard.