Woe be the concert fan: Ticketmaster/Live Nation merge

It finally happened, and the live music fan is worse off for it.

The Justice Department dealt a hefty blow to concertgoers everywhere when it approved the merger between Ticket(bastard)master and Live Nation on Monday, forming a company that owns 140 concert venues, dominates the ticket-selling market and manages some of the world’s biggest bands. In a statement after the announcement, Ticketmaster Chief Executive Officer Irving Azoff (who also manages the Eagles) said the creation of Live Nation Entertainment is “a great win for fans.”

Of course he’s just one big fucking liar. I hate the fucking Eagles.

As I wrote about a few months ago, the merger will only bolster LNE’s hold on all aspects of the music business, and will make going to concerts something only the wealthy can afford. The DOJ tried to impose some limits on the merger, saying Ticketmaster must license its ticketing software to its largest customer as well as sell Paciolan. Paciolan is an online scalping company owned by Ticketmaster, and it’s mind-numbing to know Ticketmaster owned a company that was selling its own tickets (which in some cases it held from consumers at the outset – see Bruce Springsteen) at prices several times the cost of the original price.

LNE will also not be allowed to retaliate against any concert site that sells tickets with a competitor for 10 years. Of course, there’s not many concert sites left that are not part of LNE.

There is no way concert tickets will go down, and for any of these jokers at LNE to say so is disingenuous and insulting. Are we really that stupid? You got into business together to make less money? And I’m sure the bands, some of which are implicit in this scam on the music fan (I’m looking at U2), will make sure to lower their ticket prices for fans. Of course they will. Right?

I’ve long since eschewed larger concerts, since they are so expensive and difficult to get good seats to. There may be a few I might consider seeing in the future (R.E.M., maybe if those Smiths get their shit together), but maybe not. Dropping a few hundred dollars for a few hours of entertainment sounds more fun in a cathouse than a Live Nation venue, even if they have something in common.

Both ways you get screwed