Ticketmaster is not having a great 2023. With ticket prices rising (see: Bruce Springsteen) and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour crashing its system, leading to a Congressional hearing for the ticketing giant, things haven’t been going great for the company.
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But to combat that and to perhaps aid its standing in the public eye, the retail outfit, which is owned by Live Nation, has pledged more transparency on fees moving forward. Also in Ticketmaster’s crosshairs are resale scalpers.
“We all want to know what is the true cost to see the show when we start shopping,” said Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino during a recent investor call, according to Billboard.
[RELATED: Ticketmaster Explains Taylor Ticket Mess to Congress]
Rapino also explained that he wants ticket price transparency to be “mandated tomorrow across the board” so that it can “relieve a lot of stress [and] the consumer’s perception that there’s this magical extra fee added on.”
The statement comes at a time when many ticket buyers complain that when they buy a ticket to a show, right before they pay for it, the cost jumps some $10, $20, or even more.
In order to dissuade scalping, Ticketmaster has spoken out against “drip pricing” earlier this year and offered support for the FAIR Ticketing Act, which pushes against scalping. Ticketmaster has also been fined internationally recently for using the drip pricing method and settling some other legal woes in the past, too.
In other ticketing news, former baseball All-Star, Alex Rodriguez, recently raised $20 million for his startup, Jump, an alternative ticketing outfit meant to compete against Ticketmaster.
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