Tuesday 12/20/2011 by jackl

TICKETMASTER SETTLEMENT WILL BE GOOD FOR CONCERT GOERS, ESPECIALLY CLUB ACTS

"In the last few weeks, nearly every warm-blooded American who’s ponied up for a big-ticket event in the 21st century has received an email alerting them to a proposed settlement of a lawsuit against Ticketmaster few had ever heard of.

Particularly in the wake of Ticketmaster’s controversial merger with concert promoter Live Nation two years ago, the near-monopolist has earned a poor reputation for its high online purchase fees and bad relationships with venues and consumers. While the settlement may offer a measure of public retribution for its unhappy customers, it’s not going to line their pockets—but it might be a wake-up call for a troubled industry."

-Good magazine (12/13/11)

According to the net magazine "Good" (familiar to Starbucks customers who use the wi-fi service at their store networks), the Ticketmaster class action lawsuit will be good for consumers. If you bought any online TM tickets between 1999 and 2011, you should have already received an email or several in the past few weeks explaining the somewhat confusing small credits you will receiving as long as you don't "opt out" of the class action settlement (which you do by simply doing nothing -- you theoretically might have an opportunity to bring your own separate lawsuit against TM, which is obviously a far-fetched idea).

It's not so much that the small $1.50 discounts on the next 17 tickets that you buy through TM (and the $3 credits for express UPS shipping if you did that), but that the lawsuit settlement will allow more competition into the online ticket sales arena, generally lowering those too damn high "convenience" (service) charges and advance delivery charges through robust competition among a number of smaller, scrappier ticket selling companies. This will be especially helpful for advance sales of smaller acts in clubs, where TM "convenience fees" and advance mail requirements often approach or exceed the modest costs of the $10 - 30 tickets themselves.

More information in the Good article here about the good implications for fans on overall bottom line ticket prices in the future.

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Comments

, comment by MrMinersBrother
MrMinersBrother Stick it to the man
, comment by Dino_Spumoni
Dino_Spumoni Ha. anybody on here get an email? i sure haven't and i've bought countless tickets from that horrible company.
, comment by bakestar08
bakestar08 Let's help MusicToday make our lives easier...If Phish tickets were sold the old fashioned mail order way we might actually have a chance of getting them and then WE the fans would have to have our shit together with the money orders and self addressed stamped envelopes and whatnot. The people at smaller companies like MusicToday and ETix are trying to tackle this beast but they need our help. Pearl Jam took these bastards on and in my opinion are still winning...Down with Ticketmaster (or Ticketslave, or Ticketbastard...whichever you prefer)
, comment by jackl
jackl Yes, I got an email on 12/4 which is reproduced here http://bit.ly/s68CEY .

It may have gone in your spam filter. They may still be sending them out.

You can go to this website if you changed your email address from what you may have used in the past to get the ticket orders:

http://ticketfeelitigation.com/ (see the sidebar, there's contact information too)

and

http://ticketfeelitigation.com/docs/Email_Notice.pdf />
, comment by BoomboxMike
BoomboxMike $1.50? Sweet! Basically means for each of the next 17 concerts I attend I get a free McDouble or Jr Bacon from Wendy's. Can't argue with that. I got my email on 12/8 but did not know about it till I read this post. Thanks!
, comment by frantic0blivion
frantic0blivion heh, yeah i just deleted my notification today. had been sitting in the inbox for a few weeks.

when i first read it i was actually insulted. oh great, i get a buck fit-y discount (max 17) when i choose to do business with them again, rather than a cumulative amount for the dozens of transactions i've made over the years? no thanks. what a backhanded restitution. think i'll just not do business with them any more.

as far as i see it, the only way to combat this monopoly is to not give them your money. not realistic, i know, since a vast majority of the venues the band plays are in on this scam. hey redlight/capshaw, i do think you've done some good with phish 3.0, but i was never really happy to have you managing the band in the first place & would urge you to be proactive against this nonsense. too bad you're also part of the machine...

trey at heinz hall will be awesome though
, comment by IamHIGHdrogen
IamHIGHdrogen I, too, received this email recently as a result of the hundreds of purchases I made from them. I have, up until now, basically disregarded it. Is there something I need to DO like respond??? Or just play it as it lys and see how this mess shakes out? Aka does this require action on my part that may benefit me in any way? I am SO highdrogen right now...
, comment by jackl
jackl @IamHIGHdrogen said:
I, too, received this email recently as a result of the hundreds of purchases I made from them. I have, up until now, basically disregarded it. Is there something I need to DO like respond??? Or just play it as it lys and see how this mess shakes out? Aka does this require action on my part that may benefit me in any way? I am SO highdrogen right now...
No, you don't need to do anything now or in the future. If and when you buy tickets from TM by email, you will get a small credit on the service charges and UPS if you didn't use will call, for the next 17 tickets you purchase (as long as you use/used the same email address). It's not a lump sum credit, you have to buy more TM tickets and get a small discount.

The point of the article is that the lawsuit also opened up the industry to more competition, so service charges will tend to be lower in the future. This should be a bigger savings overall to people than the small rebates TM will offer its email customers for tickets they bought over the past 12 years.
, comment by SplitOpenNBill
SplitOpenNBill Damn the man, save the empire.
, comment by cmcella10
cmcella10 I got the email a couple days ago too, sure it's nothing substantial up front, but def should be good in the long run. And, at bakestar08, Im not positive, and too lazy to look it up right now but I think musictoday is a subsidiary of ticketmaster and live nation, sooo they too are part of the machine
, comment by hooter
hooter "...though Ticketmaster’s relationships with the biggest tours, promoters and venues has kept them on top"

Get on top!
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