According to nme.com Jack Antonoff is one of many artists who are not happy with Tickmaster’s insane ticket prices and today the singer addressed his thoughts regard this never ending controversy. Last night at the Grammys Atonoff won Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and later on in the evening the musician expressed his thoughts regarding Ticketmaster’s high prices.
“The whole thing is incredibly tough. There’s no reason why – if I can go online and buy a car and have it delivered to my house, why can’t I buy a fcking ticket at the price that the artist wants it to be? So it’s that simple. And you know the reason why. It’s not ’cause of artists. So the one thing that I would say while holding a microphone is everybody’s got to chill on the artists.
Antonoff continues with “Because everyone’s trying to figure it out. We know who’s making it impossible.Look, I’ve asked very simple things of the industry. Let artists opt out of dynamic pricing. Stop taxing merch, and let artists sell tickets at a price that they actually believe. Don’t turn a live show into a free market. That’s really dirty.”
The artist adds “Charge what you think is fair. But if for one person $50 is nothing, and one person $50 is more than they could ever spend, you’re creating a situation where a different group can come together at one price. The second everything fluctuates is the second that everything goes K-shaped and turns into a weird free market. That’s not what we do.”
The Bleachers’s lead singer comments follows the previous frustrations fans have showed toward the ticket company when finding out that the ticket prices to see Bruce Springsteen reached up to $5,ooo. In answer to the fans outcry about the price of a ticket, Springsteen mentioned in a statement that he wanted to do “what everybody else is doing” and it was better for the money from higher priced tickets to go to the artists.
Another artist who has faced the negativity surrounding Ticketmaster’s pricing is Taylor Swift. Fans who tried to buy tickets at the pre-sale for Swift‘s upcoming Eras Tour encountered expensive tickets prices along with other issues on Ticketmaster’s website. Because of the difficulties, the company canceled the general sale when the website crashed.
The issues within the ticketing industry have been discussed in a recent hearing in the US congress where which numerous senators quoted Swift’s lyrics.
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna