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Business Daily

Is the ticket industry broken?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4796 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

2023 was a record year of live music, with an all-time high in worldwide ticket sales.

Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s world tours broke records, however fans trying to get tickets faced big problems.

We hear from musicians, fans and global ticket selling giant Live Nation (of which Ticketmaster is a part) to find out what’s happening, and if it is broken, what is being done to fix it?

Produced and presented by Sam Gruet

(Image: Beyoncé performs onstage during the Renaissance World Tour in October 2023, Kansas City, Missouri. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

2020 was a record year of live music.

0:09.0

With an all-time high in attendance and ticket sales worldwide,

0:15.0

according to Global Entertainment Giant Live Nation.

0:19.0

Moments like Beyonce and Taylor Swift's mega world tours.

0:24.6

Not to stay the obvious, but Taylor Swift has made her mark on the music industry.

0:29.6

Beyonce could clear more than $2 billion from her world tour.

0:32.6

She's making major economic waves with her sold-out Ares tour.

0:41.3

But with big events has come even bigger problems.

0:45.2

Tonight, Ticketmaster is facing a heap of criticism from Taylor Swift fans who tried to buy pre-sale tickets for her tour today.

0:48.5

Many face technical issues, long virtual lines, and now sky sky high resale prices.

0:54.6

But we are not here today because Live Nation Ticketmaster's conduct is inconvenient or

1:00.6

frustrating. We are here because, as we allege, that conduct is anti-competitive and illegal.

1:07.9

I'm journalist Sam Gruet and in this edition of Business Daily, I'll be asking,

1:12.6

is the ticket industry broken?

1:14.7

Whenever GA opens up if you don't have an advance code, it feels like you're just fighting

1:18.5

for your life.

1:19.6

We'll meet musicians.

1:20.7

I think when people are happy, they usually, you know, they don't come and comment

1:23.8

on our Instagram, like, thanks very much for the greatly priced ticket.

1:28.0

Here from fans.

1:29.1

Like, I used to go to concerts all the time.

1:30.7

Before, I used to just, like, see who was coming through town, go buy tickets from, like,

...

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