Official Statement From Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster strongly supports ticketing reforms that will benefit artists and fans, prevent fraud, and clean up fraudulent practices in resale markets. These basic steps should be the things everyone agrees on, including mandating all-in pricing and outlawing speculative ticketing. We stand ready to work with the President and Congress on many common sense ticketing reforms, while also speaking out against proposed legislation that would benefit scalpers over artists and fans.”
Additional Context:
The industry hasn’t done a great job of explaining fees, and where they go. Primary ticketing companies, including Ticketmaster, do not unilaterally set service fees. In most cases, venues set and keep the majority of ticketing fees.
The Full Picture
While Ticketmaster doesn’t control or keep most fees, we do believe consumers should see the full retail cost of tickets upfront. Most products and experiences – from sneaker sales to dinner services – don’t break out all the vendor costs required to bring their product to life. The price you see upfront, is the price you pay. Ticketing needs to do the same thing and move to “all-in” pricing across the board so that the total price you have to pay to get in the door is clear right up front.
Where Fees Go
While only a portion of the fees collected go to Ticketmaster, what we do keep largely goes toward operating costs for our technology and our people. Similarly, venues have a lot of expenses, including employing staff and keeping up with the rising costs to put on shows including building upgrades, insurance, paying suppliers and more. If these fees went down, venues may have to charge artists more nightly rent, which would likely result in higher face value ticket prices.
A Better Approach? No Surprises with Upfront All-in Pricing
We continue to advocate for an industry wide mandate of upfront pricing, so fans see the full face value and fee cost upfront. This only works if all ticketing marketplaces go all-in together, so that consumers truly have accurate comparisons as they shop for tickets. We already support all-in pricing in New York state and we are actively engaging with policymakers and advocating for these changes nationwide.
We’ll Continue Advocating for Change
Ticketmaster has long supported common sense reforms including all-in pricing, banning deceptive practices like speculative ticketing, and more enforcement against criminals breaking the BOTS Act:
