Jack Antonoff at the Grammys: “Why Can’t I Buy a f***ing Ticket at the Price That the Artist Wants?”

On the heels of winning the award for Producer of the Year at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday night (Feb. 5), Jack Antonoff addressed the controversy surrounding skyrocketing ticket prices.

Antonoff, a frequent collaborator of Taylor Swift, has been throwing his two cents in on the subject for a few months now, particularly after Swift’s Eras Tour Ticketmaster debacle. That issue, on top of their dynamic pricing model (which has caused tickets to reach unprecedented sums), has Antonoff begging for the music industry to get back on the right course.

While in the press room accepting his award, Antonoff made it clear he believes that the issue lies not with the artist but with the industry itself.

“The whole thing is incredibly tough,” he said. “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 fucking ticket at the price that the artist wants it to be? So it’s that simple.

“And you know the reason why,” he continued. “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. Because everyone’s trying to figure it out. We know who’s making it impossible.”

He cited Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model as the main agitator of the problem. The issue of dynamic pricing was brought to the public via Bruce Springsteen‘s most recent tour. The Boss’ tickets were going for $5,000 thanks to the pricing model, which was first implemented to squeeze out scalpers.

“Look, I’ve asked very simple things of the industry,” Antonoff continued. “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.

“Charge what you think is fair,” he added. “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 U.S. Justice Department has opened up an antitrust investigation against Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, in light of their recent controversies. The investigation will decide whether or not Live Nation has abused its power in the live music industry.

Watch a clip of Antonoff’s comments, below.

Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for The Recording Academy