Ticketmaster Mogul Says He Can Save Music

wow if saving the industry means controlling the industry then yes, its about to be completely saved. Reply

When an old guy in a suit proposes a deal so everyone will make more money the only one ending up making more money is the old guy in the suit. Reply

Note: Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., the biggest ticketing company in the world, is illegally conspiring to monopolize the resale market for sports, concert and show tickets, lawyers claimed in a suit filed after singer Bruce Springsteen complained about the company’s sales practices. Ticketmaster was sued for redirecting fans, including those trying to buy Springsteen tickets Feb. 2, to TicketsNow.com where the tickets were marked up by hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Ticketmaster gets a 15 percent cut from TicketsNow, which it owns, Paul Kiesel, lawyer for the plaintiff, said in the complaint filed Feb. 6 in Los Angeles federal court. “Ticketmaster profits twice as the result of the monopolistic scheme,” Kiesel, of Kiesel, Boucher & Larson LLP, said in the complaint, which seeks unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to stop the practice. “Defendants have illegally bilked event ticket purchasers out of millions of dollars.” Fan complaints that they were steered to TicketsNow when they tried to buy Springsteen tickets prompted a New Jersey congressman to call for a federal antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster’s sales practices. Attorneys general in that state and in Connecticut are looking into the matter. Springsteen, in a posting on his Web site, condemned Ticketmaster’s sales practice. “We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest,” Springsteen said. “The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you.” Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Justice Department will scour the proposed merger of Live Nation Inc. and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. for its competitive impact on live events, ticketing and promotion. “There is overlap in ticketing, there is overlap in venue- control and there is overlap in talent management,” said Robert Doyle, a Washington antitrust attorney and former Federal Trade Commission member. The antitrust investigation, announced yesterday, is the first test of the Obama administration’s stance on mergers and market consolidation. Lawyers said they’ll study how Christine Varney, the former FTC member chosen by President Barack Obama to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, handles the merger probe to size up future cases. A central question is whether Varney, 53, settles the case by requiring the new company to sell pieces of its business, or whether she challenges the combination because it creates barriers to competition through vertical integration of artist- management, concert promotion, venue control and ticketing......and.............................................. Reply