“Ticket Masters” by Dean Budnick and Josh Baron covers everything you thought you ever wanted to know about ticketing in the concert industry – from Bill Graham to Live Nation. It’s a bit long and bogs down somewhat in the middle, but it’s quite fascinating.
Frankly, I thought that that the legislative process was an ugly one. The concert industry – perhaps due to the large amounts of cash involved – makes it look virtuous.
It corrects some common misconceptions about the Pearl Jam-Ticketmaster dispute and explains why the Grateful Dead were able to sell their own tickets for venues that otherwise had to use Ticketmaster (the chapter on the Grateful Dead ticketing is excellent). And it shows the limits of DOJ’s ability to effectively deal with certain monopolistic practices.
All-in-all, it’s a worthwhile read, especially if you wonder why you pay service charges, facility charges and delivery charges up the yin-yang when you buy an event ticket these days. (Hint: it’s because you don’t have a choice, unless you choose not to go to the show.)
A couple of recent NY Times articles (“Scalping Battle Puts Fans in the Middle” and “Can Ticketmaster’s Builder Now Unseat It?”) demonstrate its current relevance.
Read a Wall Street Journal review and an interview with the authors.