Ticketmaster Not Going To Keep Monopoly On Ripping You Off

Ticketmaster sucks, everyone can agree on that. A ten dollar ticket to a concert ends up being nearly twenty, and there's nothing you can do but put out and shut up. Well, the tyrannical reign of Ticketmaster might just be coming to an end.

Live Nation, an LA-based live event promotion and production company, announced plans to launch a global ticketing service, beginning January 1, 2009. They're hookinp up with Eventim, who already covers the UK and Europe, and which Live Nation CEO, Michael Rapino, calls "the most technologically sophisticated ticketing platform in the world." Wow, that's pretty impressive, wonder what is it that makes it so "sophisticated." Yahoo! News reports that "the new ticketing platform will allow Live Nation to control customer data, to create enhanced ticket-based concert products and to capitalize on expanded distribution channels and sponsorship opportunities." Control customer data? Concert Products? This all sounds like a great way for Live Nation to make money, but of course at the expense of the consumer. A little wikipedia research also turns up that Live Nation is owned by Clear Channel Communications, you know, that company that owns basically every radio station in the country, along with a handful of XM radio an t.v. stations. Something about that discovery isn't exactly comforting.

For what seems like forever, anyone that's ever bought a ticket has bemoaned the excessive "service charges" Ticketmaster imposes on concert-goers. Pearl Jam tried to bring an anti-trust law suit against the ticket giant, as in lots of cases Ticketmaster is the only way to obtain tickets to an event. Pearl Jam, and along with them, the little guy, lost. Now Ticketmaster looks to be getting some serious competition, but who's to say that Live Nation isn't going to rob us blind too?