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AEG might be ending its association with Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster is a single one of the problems with visiting live performances these days. Everyone talks about how pricey tickets to live performances have become thanks to all the surcharges imposed by Ticketmaster Entertainment.

It seems as though Ticketmaster may become a bit less dominant now, though. AEG is considering replacing Ticketmaster with Tickets.com (it is owned by Major League Baseball and Veritix Inc). However, AEG says that it might modify its mind if Ticketmaster and Live Nation join into one corporation.

If Life Nation and Ticketmaster to combine, then almost all the concerts in the United States will be ticketed through Ticketmaster and everyone can pay preposterous costs if they want to go see their beloved acts live.

AEG accounts for barely under 10% of all of Ticketmaster’s sales.

It seems as though AEG has a little bit of time to think it over however. The report to Bloomberg stated that the contract connecting the two companies doesn’t even conclude until July 2012.

I have not purchased a ticket from Ticketmaster ever since I was 14 and went to see Nsync live. Since then, all of the concerts I have seen have been in bars and tiny venues that did not have a ticketing system like this, or they were free of charge. I recollect, even then, that the tickets were quite costly and the fees that were tacked on to each ticket were simply outrageous. I think that a $20 surcharge for “Ticketmaster fees” is too much when the ticket only costs $30.

Earlier this summer Live Nation really reduced the surcharges it charged for tickets because people weren’t attending concerts like they used to. It was partially because tickets were too high-priced and also for the reason that people didn’t have the money that they once did.

I wish that venues would wholesale their own tickets more willingly than going by way of a third party system like Ticketmaster. Enough people have the internet now that no one has to wait in lines outside their local grocery store waiting for tickets to go on sale (which is what we were required to do when the Nsync tickets went on sale…it was in 1999 when I bought the tickets therefore give me a break!).