An angry Bruce Springsteen today ripped Ticketmaster Entertainment and its subsidiary TicketsNow for their initial handling of ticket sales to his upcoming tour, and he demanded the two stop rerouting customers from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow when tickets sell out.
In a letter on his Web site, The Boss echoes sentiments logged by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, who has called on the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to investigate the relationship between the two companies. Ticketmaster bought TicketsNow, one of the nation’s largest secondary ticket companies, last year and the two repeatedly have been questioned about the relationship.
Below is the text of the letter, and in addition to criticizing their handling of ticket sales, Springsteen also weighs in against a proposed merger between Ticketmaster and live entertainment giant Live Nation:
A LETTER TO OUR FANS:
We know there was much confusion regarding Ticketmaster and TicketsNow during last Monday’s on-sale dates. We were as confused as you were, as we were given no advance notice of the major changes in the Ticketmaster-TicketsNow world. (Bear in mind that we are not clients of any ticketing company, and that all those arrangements are between venues and ticketing companies.)
Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice.
We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest. Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.
We know the many cynical arguments some make in favor of the Ticketmaster system: There are rumors that some artists or managers participate in Ticketmaster charges–we do not. There are rumors that some artists or managers are receiving a percentage of the amount above face value at secondary outlets like TicketsNow–we do not. Some artists or managers may not perceive there to be a conflict between having the distributor of their tickets in effect “scalping” those same tickets through a secondary company like TicketsNow–we do.
While many of you have sent notes to us and your local promoters, you may also send accurate informational letters to Albert Lopez of Ticketmaster and he will try to address your questions.
A final point for now: the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing. Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives.
The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours.
Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team
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that why he’s the boss
It’s about time an artist stood up to Ticketmaster. They’ve been afraid too ever since Pearl Jam did it and can’t get shows anywhere now.
New Jersey AG investigating too. http://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/press/brucetix.htm
Go Bruce!
I agree with the Boss on this. We definitely need government intervention and possibly a regulation of ticket prices. Look at what happened to the collapse of the banking industry in the US. Some of the causes were greed and lack of regulation. These seem to be happening also in the ticket industry now.
First of all, those seats that appear on TicketsNow are acquired either FROM Ticketmaster or BY Ticketmaster. When the case is the latter, TM gets them from the promoter, which gets them from Bruce Springsteen’s management. If the “Boss” has a problem with his tickets ending up on TicketsNow, then he could a) only play non-TM venues, and/or b) handle all his ticket distribution and promotions in-house. Of course, both of those options would result in less money for Springsteen, and I doubt he’s willing to really stand for his principles if it means a dent in his wallet.
As for the idiot who said the government should regulate ticket prices, are you kidding me? First, it has never worked in the past and with the transparency in the secondary market now and eBay, StubHub, and TicketsNow, there are far too many ways for people to sell tickets at market value and it’s almost impossible to enforce. I always found it funny that everyone wants to regulate the secondary market, but not the primary one. If Madonna gets to charge $ 500 for a ticket to one of her concerts, I can charge $ 500 for a ticket to a Coldplay concert.
He is just trying to look like the good guy…He has no idea whats going on…just sing Born in the USA and shut up!
Speaking from the vantange or disadvantage point of the consumer, something smells rotten here. I had two PCs logged on to Ticketmaster at 9am NY time monday. I could not get through on either one and after 5 min, the site said down for maintenance and when i tried again, it flipped me over to Ticketsnow. This was at 9:12am. Lets be honest….3 shows in the NY Metro area do not sell out 100% in twelve minutes, and even if they do, do you think these same people could get hundreds of tickets logged on to TicketsNow in the same 12 minutes? Sounds to me like Ticketmaster either held the majority of good seats for later sale or more likely they grabbed most of the tickets themselves and hope to resell them at a higher price. Is there a way to determine WHO the reseller is on TicketsNow? That would be interesting….
The timing of this is very very disturbing. I saw Bruce 4x last yr and never had a problem getting tickets to any single show.
this person saying shut up to the boss should be shot. the boss does not like his fans to be ripped off for his contert tickets so he should say something about how ticket master handles his contert tickets.
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