Will Our Nation Protect Live Music Fans?

 

Higher ticket prices.  

Less innovative concert experiences.

Those are just two of the things facing live music fans as we get closer to the pending decision on the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger.

Last week, The National Association of Ticket Brokers & The National Consumers League along with a legion of 50 U.S. representatives announced the launch of Ticketdisaster.org, a new conveniently streamlined site designed specifically to educate concert fans on the consequences of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger.

Ticketdisaster.org does a nice job of breaking down the key issues into 5 points explaining how the merger impacts fans, artists and promoters.

Here’s a quote from the site below. I highly encourage you to visit it. The site’s very straightforward and a quick read. It’s one of the best breakdowns of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster Merger that I’ve seen so far.

If you need reasons to check out the site and educate yourself about the merger, you should check it out for two reasons:

1)  If this merger gets approved it will forever change your live music experience.  Think of how much you spent (or didn’t) this year on concerts.  Like a lot of live music fans you probably had to reduce the amount of shows you went to because of high ticket prices. Or maybe you were forced to buy concessions that were ridiculously high. Either way, the amount of concerts you go to or the price you pay for a beer will be impacted by the merger decision.

2) This will be one of the biggest events/decisions in live concert history, which is the reason why I’ve been doing so many updates  this year on Live Fix. So if you love live music and this country, you’ll want to see how our government does or doesn’t protect live music fans.

Here’s how Ticketdisaster.org puts it:

“As the Department of Justice reaches the final round of reviewing this merger, only one question must be answered: will the merger lead to increased prices, poorer service, or less innovation? In this case, the answer is all of the above, which is why this merger needs to be blocked.”

On the same day Ticketdisaster.org was launched, along with other representatives and consumer advocacy groups, Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) who spoke out in July to the DOJ, went before the DOJ on Capitol Hill to speak out against the merger again saying:

“It continues to be my view that this merger represents the greatest and most urgent threat to music fans across this country, and, if approved, will have far reaching and long lasting negative consequences for concert goers and nearly everyone involved in the live music business.”

UPDATE:

British regulators approved  Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger for UK market.

What to expect next via Billboard.

So fellow concert fans…

Do you think Pascrell’s right?

Are there any positive things that can come out of the merger?