Mad at Ticketmaster? Pearl Jam Has You Beat by 28 Years.

[Ptah]

This week’s debacle with the sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s upcoming “The Eras Tour” has already caused such an uproar, United States Senators and Congressmen are calling for investigations, while the Justice Department has reportedly opened a probe into the matter. It comes on the same week many Tyler Childers fans were also left jilted looking for concert tickets.

But this is not the first time that Ticketmaster practices have raised such an uproar that elements of the Federal government have chosen to get involved, and even well before the merger of Ticketmaster and live concert promoter and venue owner LiveNation in 2010.

In 1994, the Seattle-based grunge band Pearl Jam was one of the biggest things in all of music. Their debut album Ten released in 1991 became one of the most successful releases in history (now 13x Platinum), and their 1993 followup Vs. sold over 950,000 copies in its first week, which set a record for the most copies sold in a debut week—a record that would stand until Garth Brooks bested them with Double Live in 1998.

Amid the band’s incredible success, the Pearl Jam members decided to reign in the commercial aspects of their career to keep themselves grounded, and center the attention on the music itself. They ceased making videos for their singles. They refused to grant interviews to the press or submit for flashy photo shoots. They also decided they wanted to keep concert tickets affordable so their fans could see them no matter what. This ran Pearl Jam afoul of Ticketmaster, which ultimately shaped the very destiny of Pearl Jam in subsequent years, including when and how they released music, and even the band’s lineup.

https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/mad-at-ticketmaster-pearl-jam-has-you-beat-by-28-years/

[Initech]

1. Go after 3rd party bot reselling. That's the real problem right now.

[Celerity]

2. better grunge: Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger Private Remaster (Free download as well)

https://soundcloud.com/avalon-lynd/badmotorfinger-private-remaster

[sueh]

3. Thanks to Ticketmaster prices I have not been to a live concert in

many years. I appreciate Pearl Jam's efforts to keep ticket prices affordable. I hope the Senate hearings lead to the breakup of Ticketmaster and all of the venues they own

[SYFROYH]

4. The Grateful Dead did their part to undermine ticketmaster. Not so much these days, but they tried

They gave deadheads the chance to send in money orders for tickets. Their envelopes were legendary.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

5. Love these.

[Ptah]

7. Nice!

[Just A Box Of Rain]

6. The Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger should never have been approved in the first place.

Anyone looking at the likely results of such a merger rationally would have predicted the anti-competitive results that followed.

The time is overdue for a break-up of this near-monopoly.

[SoCalDavidS]

8. These Hearings Are A Dog & Pony Show

Don't expect Anything substantial to come out of them.

The last 30 years are littered with bands and politicians who have tried to neuter Ticketbastard, and all that's happened is they've become even stronger.

Much like the gun industry and the NRA.

[Beatlelvr]

9. I think Springsteen tried to keep prices down

But I went through the 2 hours on hold thing trying to get Adele tix 3 yrs ago for an LA concert. My friend and I were both on the phone, got promises of " just stay on, you will be connected soon". Then " all tickets are sold out". ITS THE DAMN TICKET COMPANIES WHO GRAB THEM UP
SO NOT MANY LEFT FOR INDIVIDUALS TRYING FOR A COUPLE TICKETS.
Also, how is this not just scalping on a large scale?