Re: Trends: Access to Concert Tickets has Continually Diminished (May 1, 2023)
Thank you for spotlighting the problems in the ticketing industry. Part of the solution to this vertical ticketing monopoly is for the federal government to require the separation of Live Nation from Ticketmaster.
Concert venues are unwilling to utilize a competing ticketing service out of fear that Live Nation will refuse to book its artists to perform at the venues who do so. Hence, Ticketmaster is left with almost unlimited power to raise prices and underinvest in technology and customer service, resulting in overpriced tickets and acute backlogs in event ticketing, e.g. Taylor Swift.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation are a perfect example of the anti-competitive outcomes of a vertical monopoly in a highly concentrated industry. This monopoly should be prohibited.
H. John Gilbertson is a member of the Dartmouth College Class of 1979.
