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Hard to care what happens to a company like TicketMaster. As you build your company, ask yourself how they ended up like this. Do you think the founders had th

Hard to care what happens to a company like TicketMaster. As you build your company, ask yourself how they ended up like this. Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started (everyone hating them and seeing them as an evil money grab)? They probably started with a different ethos. A good reminder that what we do can change - we need to instill our values into the basics of everything we build, otherwise we'll just be building the next TicketMaster, Oracle, or Meta. As far as I know, we get one go. Let's build things that matter and make the world a better place. Greed will even ruin concerts otherwise.

pavel_lishin 1y ago
Oh, the shows are great. But the ticket purchasing experience is only slightly better than a root canal, and is typically more expensive.
- bobthepanda 1y ago
  It's hard to sympathize with the experience between scalping, which is bad, but also now there's all sorts of priority queues for people with various levels of pay-to-play which are pretty distasteful. AMEX presale, cell carrier presale, etc. all feels terrible. And the show is fun but my local arena renovated within the last decade and now feels like an airport terminal with all the tiered lounges, ripoff concessions even for an arena (I saw a $48 espresso martini), etc. Similar to how I hear that Disney has basically made going to its resorts and scheduling Fastpass basically a second job.
  - billylo 1y ago
    FIFA world cup has been selling opportunities for Right-to-buy. Monopolistic behavior.
  - pavel_lishin 1y ago
    Oh, for what it's worth, I might only go to an arena show once or twice more in my life, to see those "would like to see them in my lifetime before they break up or die" bands.
    - bobthepanda 1y ago
      Unfortunately, in my city the arena is now the medium size venue, between "slightly larger than a large nightclub" and "a whole stadium for multiple tens of thousands of people"
leetrout 1y ago
> Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started? Maybe not this _exact_ outcome but largely yes I suspect they did. Capitalists rent seeking all the way through their history and if you put money first in any business venture you will always feel pressure to enshitify. See 1994 Pearl Jam vs TM and monopolistic behavior 30 years ago.
- leakycap 1y ago
  > Maybe not this _exact_ outcome but largely yes I suspect they did. Sorry, this simply isn't the case. Before TM, the best available ticket was whatever the vendor you were dealing with had in their inventory. TicketMaster was started by 3 people who wanted to make the process of getting the "best available" ticket easier than going to all the disconnected ticket-sellers and finding out who had the best ticket. The company changed models in the 1980s when a new owner took over who was solely focused on revenue. > See 1994 Pearl Jam vs TM and monopolistic behavior 30 years ago. Your takeaway seems different than mine. I see a company who could have changed or been regulated 30 years ago. Now they'll slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system. Finding someone who likes TicketMaster today is impossible. When TM launched, everyone loved it. What a loss. As many of us here have a role in how our companies are built and what they become, it is worth asking how TM lost its way and how we can avoid bringing the same level of gross, enshittified capitalism into the world with what we build.
  - jnsie 1y ago
    > Now they'll slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system. I highly doubt it. The merger with LiveNation made them much more than a ticketing service. They now also handle artist management, concert promotion, and venue ownership. In fact "Live Nation-Ticketmaster maintains "monopoly control" over the top 100 amphitheaters and 100 arenas worldwide" [1] [1] https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/new-report-exposes-live-nation-ticketmasters-monopoly-control-of-top-arenas-and-amphitheaters-worldwide/ https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/new-report-ex...
    - 1y ago
fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
Took my daughter to see something recently. Show was good, venue was fine. Buying the tickets was fast and easy, they were just expensive af scalped tickets.
mrits 1y ago
I’m not sure what Ticketmaster has to do with the show experience. But to answer your question, last week. I have another concert tonight
- optimalsolver 1y ago
  Which one?
  - mrits 1y ago
    Benson Boone
    - optimalsolver 1y ago
      Thanks!
charcircuit 1y ago
2 months ago and the experience was great. Ordering tickets through ticket master was easy and everything went smoothly using the ticket to enter the venue was also smooth.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
quickthrowman 1y ago
I go to a few concerts a year and enjoy them, but the only Ticketmaster concert I’ve ever been to was last year. I paid $115 each (with fees!) for good floor seats to see Weezer, Dinosaur Jr, and the Flaming Lips in 2024. The multi hundred or multi thousand dollar event tickets are insane, I’d never pay that much for a concert. I am lucky to have local independent music venues (First Avenue in Mpls, they own a few local venues) with sub $100 ticket prices that have acts I want to see, which isn’t the case for everyone. Taylor Swift fans (for example) are squeezed as hard as possible for every penny, I think it’s absolutely disgusting.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y ago
  I regularly go to smaller local venues to see shows. It usually costs ~$40, but even there the tickets are sold by Ticketweb, which of course is owned by Ticketmaster. It's cheaper, but it's impossible to get away from the evil empire.
- magicalhippo 1y ago
  Here in Oslo Norway, Ticketmaster is almost everywhere. Yet the local venues, Ticketmaster ones included, have tons of shows in the $30-50 range. That's for venues with a capacity for 500-1500 people. We have larger venues for larger artists, almost always international ones, and there ticket prices are often starting at around $80-100 and quickly go way up if you want a good location. However personally I found I enjoy the sub-$40 concerts the most. Mainly because the smaller venue lets you get close, sound is usually much better and quite often I find a lot more passion on stage at these venues, which turns into more memorable experiences. And if the concert ends up not being my thing or just not that great, then I've just wasted the price of a few beers so no big deal. One thing that keeps Ticketmaster in its reins here in Norway is our legislation, which limits the kind of processing fee shenanigans and similar they can do. Also scalpers became much less of a problem after they introduced a law that you can't charge more than the original price when reselling tickets.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- JohnFen 1y ago
snthd 1y ago
>A good reminder that what we do can change - we need to instill our values into the basics of everything we build, otherwise we'll just be building the next TicketMaster, Oracle, or Meta. Both Ellison and Zuckerberg still control their respective companies. The problem is not that they didn't instill their values. In the case of ticketmaster, they just plain sold out. https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/ticketmaster https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economi... >Ticketmaster's fate was changed in 1982, when Chicago investor Jay Pritzker purchased it. Pritzker, the wealthy owner of the Hyatt Hotel chain, paid $4 million for the entire company.

pavel_lishin 1y ago

Oh, the shows are great. But the ticket purchasing experience is only slightly better than a root canal, and is typically more expensive.

bobthepanda 1y ago
It's hard to sympathize with the experience between scalping, which is bad, but also now there's all sorts of priority queues for people with various levels of pay-to-play which are pretty distasteful. AMEX presale, cell carrier presale, etc. all feels terrible. And the show is fun but my local arena renovated within the last decade and now feels like an airport terminal with all the tiered lounges, ripoff concessions even for an arena (I saw a $48 espresso martini), etc. Similar to how I hear that Disney has basically made going to its resorts and scheduling Fastpass basically a second job.
- billylo 1y ago
  FIFA world cup has been selling opportunities for Right-to-buy. Monopolistic behavior.
- pavel_lishin 1y ago
  Oh, for what it's worth, I might only go to an arena show once or twice more in my life, to see those "would like to see them in my lifetime before they break up or die" bands.
  - bobthepanda 1y ago
    Unfortunately, in my city the arena is now the medium size venue, between "slightly larger than a large nightclub" and "a whole stadium for multiple tens of thousands of people"

leetrout 1y ago

> Do you think the founders had this outcome in mind when they started? Maybe not this _exact_ outcome but largely yes I suspect they did. Capitalists rent seeking all the way through their history and if you put money first in any business venture you will always feel pressure to enshitify. See 1994 Pearl Jam vs TM and monopolistic behavior 30 years ago.

leakycap 1y ago
> Maybe not this _exact_ outcome but largely yes I suspect they did. Sorry, this simply isn't the case. Before TM, the best available ticket was whatever the vendor you were dealing with had in their inventory. TicketMaster was started by 3 people who wanted to make the process of getting the "best available" ticket easier than going to all the disconnected ticket-sellers and finding out who had the best ticket. The company changed models in the 1980s when a new owner took over who was solely focused on revenue. > See 1994 Pearl Jam vs TM and monopolistic behavior 30 years ago. Your takeaway seems different than mine. I see a company who could have changed or been regulated 30 years ago. Now they'll slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system. Finding someone who likes TicketMaster today is impossible. When TM launched, everyone loved it. What a loss. As many of us here have a role in how our companies are built and what they become, it is worth asking how TM lost its way and how we can avoid bringing the same level of gross, enshittified capitalism into the world with what we build.
- jnsie 1y ago
  > Now they'll slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system. I highly doubt it. The merger with LiveNation made them much more than a ticketing service. They now also handle artist management, concert promotion, and venue ownership. In fact "Live Nation-Ticketmaster maintains "monopoly control" over the top 100 amphitheaters and 100 arenas worldwide" [1] [1] https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/new-report-exposes-live-nation-ticketmasters-monopoly-control-of-top-arenas-and-amphitheaters-worldwide/ https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/new-report-ex...
  - 1y ago

fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago

Took my daughter to see something recently. Show was good, venue was fine. Buying the tickets was fast and easy, they were just expensive af scalped tickets.

mrits 1y ago

I’m not sure what Ticketmaster has to do with the show experience. But to answer your question, last week. I have another concert tonight

optimalsolver 1y ago
Which one?
- mrits 1y ago
  Benson Boone
  - optimalsolver 1y ago
    Thanks!

charcircuit 1y ago

2 months ago and the experience was great. Ordering tickets through ticket master was easy and everything went smoothly using the ticket to enter the venue was also smooth.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

quickthrowman 1y ago

I go to a few concerts a year and enjoy them, but the only Ticketmaster concert I’ve ever been to was last year. I paid $115 each (with fees!) for good floor seats to see Weezer, Dinosaur Jr, and the Flaming Lips in 2024. The multi hundred or multi thousand dollar event tickets are insane, I’d never pay that much for a concert. I am lucky to have local independent music venues (First Avenue in Mpls, they own a few local venues) with sub $100 ticket prices that have acts I want to see, which isn’t the case for everyone. Taylor Swift fans (for example) are squeezed as hard as possible for every penny, I think it’s absolutely disgusting.

SketchySeaBeast 1y ago
I regularly go to smaller local venues to see shows. It usually costs ~$40, but even there the tickets are sold by Ticketweb, which of course is owned by Ticketmaster. It's cheaper, but it's impossible to get away from the evil empire.
magicalhippo 1y ago
Here in Oslo Norway, Ticketmaster is almost everywhere. Yet the local venues, Ticketmaster ones included, have tons of shows in the $30-50 range. That's for venues with a capacity for 500-1500 people. We have larger venues for larger artists, almost always international ones, and there ticket prices are often starting at around $80-100 and quickly go way up if you want a good location. However personally I found I enjoy the sub-$40 concerts the most. Mainly because the smaller venue lets you get close, sound is usually much better and quite often I find a lot more passion on stage at these venues, which turns into more memorable experiences. And if the concert ends up not being my thing or just not that great, then I've just wasted the price of a few beers so no big deal. One thing that keeps Ticketmaster in its reins here in Norway is our legislation, which limits the kind of processing fee shenanigans and similar they can do. Also scalpers became much less of a problem after they introduced a law that you can't charge more than the original price when reselling tickets.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
JohnFen 1y ago

snthd 1y ago

>A good reminder that what we do can change - we need to instill our values into the basics of everything we build, otherwise we'll just be building the next TicketMaster, Oracle, or Meta. Both Ellison and Zuckerberg still control their respective companies. The problem is not that they didn't instill their values. In the case of ticketmaster, they just plain sold out. https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/ticketmaster https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economi... >Ticketmaster's fate was changed in 1982, when Chicago investor Jay Pritzker purchased it. Pritzker, the wealthy owner of the Hyatt Hotel chain, paid $4 million for the entire company.