(CelebrityAccess) – Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has turned his attention and quick wit towards Ticketmaster (TM) and their ridiculously inflated ticket prices. He succeeds in bringing humor to a situation that for the fans, is just not funny.
Oliver breaks down how TM, scalpers, and even some artists contribute to and perpetuate the problem. He spends a good deal talking about TM fees and how they’re determined (TM, the artist, promotion company, etc.) He uses Eddie Vedder’s tour as an example of what happens when you try to book a tour without TM. Oliver ran through a plethora of issues on how concert tickets are currently sold and distributed.
“Ticketmaster is one of the most hated companies on Earth, which is really impressive cause remember, this is a planet in which AT&T also exists” – John Oliver
He explains how scalpers should shoulder a lot of the blame, but notes that some artists often release only a small percentage of concert tickets directly to the public, while the rest are released to secondary markets – on purpose. He continually states how the ticket process is NOT fan-friendly (even sharing videos from live music fans talking about the cost of attending live shows) but caters to the brokers and brokers only.
More to come on this story from our contributing writer, Bob Lefsetz, but for your viewing pleasure is the video of Oliver speaking HIS truth … and he makes a ton of sense.
