John Oliver explains why concert tickets are so expensive, who’s making money off of them, and which One Direction is his favorite.
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Compared to the usual show topic, this almost felt like a feel-good story
It's unusual to see him not punching down.
The first part of the show was about Ukraine and the Don't say gay bill so definitely not a feel good episode but this one story was unusually light-hearted
Probably preparing us for a horror story next week
Yea
@@kalbininkas Bawww, poor little victim.
Pearl Jam didn't just try to tour without Ticketmaster, they tried to stop it from becoming the monopoly that it is. They even testified in front of Congress, trying to get ticket prices down to a level their fans could afford. No one backed them up, so here we are. But at least they're still trying to keep their concerts affordable and inclusive.
Factual. No one backed them up. Perhaps if social media was around they might have had more support.
I saw that ticketmaster-less tour that Pearl Jam had in the mid-90s at Soldier Field
Congress and States need to act on this issue.
@@PartlySunny74 Because governments need to intervene when fans are too unwilling to exercise market power? Nonsense. This isn't some necessity of life, and if people are unwilling to miss a concert to send a message, that's their problem. Save tax dollars and political capital for things that matter.
@@zweigackroyd7301 because people are stupid and they don't know they can fight for their rights and just assume that is just how things are. all those people complaining about expensive ticket prices probably still bought a ticket and watched the show, because they are not going to look for a cheaper show when they really want to watch their favorite artists. so the companies know that they can charge as much as they want. its still a company exploiting people ignorance and its the government job to protect people from their own ignorance. its just like the right to repair, people could just buy android instead, but a lot of people want to buy Iphones, and a lot of people want those Iphone buyers to be able to repair their phones, or they want to buy Iphones (because its still a amazing hardware), but want to be able to repair them, but they know they will never be able to talk with their wallets because Apple is huge, full of mindless minions, and don't give a fuck.
Arresting ticket scalpers who physically stand outside concerts with tickets to sell but then allowing corporations to do the same on an industrial basis is class warfare
If you regard corporations as a class then it's harder to identify things that are not class warfare.
@@ribbonsofnight what’s even worse is that corporations are considered “people” which John Oliver also did a segment on loooool
@@ribbonsofnight Well they are. At least the capitalists running them, who take almost all of the profit.
@@ribbonsofnight You clearly don't get it. The people buying and selling tickets in person are doing it entirely on their own with their own labor, whether or not that is a good thing. The big companies are owned mostly be rich investors that sap money away from people that are doing the work. That represents both classes, the proletariat (workers) and the bourgeoisie (the investment/capitalist/owner class). The class warfare bit is about how the bourgeoisie get to do something they ban the proletariat from doing.
Hold on, that happens in the USA too? I thought only in countries like mine, Mexico, that was the usual on the outside of big events.
HBO needs to open a virtual museum of all the unnecessary things John made them buy
there was an empty room at the Met last time I visited, let's have a Last Week Tonight exhibition there
YES
cant wait to see the ticket prices for that exhibition 😅
Virtual? I’d make a cross-country trek to see those wax presidents 😂
How do they keep Micky the Potato? It probably already spoiled since then... or ended as Micky the Meal.
So let me get this straight. I stand outside the venue and sell my ticket did $5 above market value, it's illegal. When the company itself holds tickets and then upcharges them by 100% or more... its a fine buisness practice. Man I hate how this world works.
You got it.
Become a LLC and resale them yourself for a lower price then the "man" and boom ruin their business plan
capitalism at its finest, look at oil companies rn and there's a perfect example for u
Let's stop spending our money in unless things like concerts
* I hate how America works In many other places that's illegal. In my country Uruguay almost all tickets are untransferable and reselling of any kind in forbidden.
It's so refreshing that you're, for once, doing a topic that only infuriates me mildly.
Right lol it can be so exhausting loving John’s work
Yes I was thinking about that too, it gets exhausting to look at horrible news even if in a comedy show
Last week’s was pretty grim. I’m not even a US citizen but it was pretty heartbreaking, especially at the end with the lady and her wrongful conviction. This one is almost sunshine and rainbows lmao
Infuriates me to the point I wrote to Congress Oversight Committee 5 years ago about exactly this.
While the impacts are less damaging than most issues he covers here, this still infuriates me to the nth degree as an avid concert go-er. Just another example of greed on a mass scale.
I don’t understand how they can justify calling them “service fees” when you’re LITERALLY PRINTING THE TICKETS YOURSELF
exactly! i can understand a £5 delivery fee for physical tickets (since a lot of the time they want to make sure the post is protected so you don’t get mad at them for a postal fuck up) but i still don’t understand where most of the fees come from!
Cinema tickets... That are on your phone using your power and display. How do they justify that? Adding $3 on top of the ticket price.
I had to pay extra for a ticket for them to overnight the ticket to me. The best part is I bought the tickets months before the show so if they would’ve sent the ticket when I bought it they could’ve charged less for shipping but since they wanted to wait to send my ticket the day before I needed it I had to pay extra. Delightful. A $20 ticket ended up being $50.
Ummm…the printing is the lowest cost part of the transaction. The website. The inventory management. Payment processing. Electronic content delivery. Digital rights management. The infrastructure to support all of the above are where the costs are. And, as someone who sells these solutions, I can tell you they aren’t cheap. Ticketmaster is a FOR PROFIT company - not a public trust or a charity. Hence, they are passing the costs onto YOU! If you don’t like it, DON’T use it.
@@jjgalletta66 they should just put that in the price of the ticket. And they don’t give you a choice to use something different because they created a monopoly basically. It’s shady business.
"this whole ecosystem enriches a lot of people who do not contribute anything" This statement applies to far too many things.
Homeless Relief programs in a nutshell. $7.8 billion in California alone to companies who just pay themselves
Capitalism
Every time John does a story, I feel like it should be followed by monumental change even when he reminds me of the crushing reality that nothing ever changes.
Same!
yeah, thinking about the one from last week now…
Oh god yes, this.
It's sad knowing the biggest change that's happened as a result of this show was the change of the name of a sewage treatment plant in Danbury, Connecticut.
One of these days, people will stop pointing fingers at this person or that company and ask themselves the question no one is asking...how and why is this happening? Stop looking at the trees and start looking at the forest.
I feel like a lot of John's shows could be summarized as "money runs the world, you poor chumps are being exploited, and people are fucked up". One of my favorite shows though. He is just delightful and hilarious.
The problem with that attitude, though, is that WE have the money that they want. It's up to us whether to give it to them or not. We need to rediscover the power of the union - joining together to just say "Oh HELL no." When did we all turn into such wimps? Oh, yeah, I forgot - we're FREEEEEEE and we don't have to work with anyone else. smh
I'd rather say "greed is terrible, abuse reaching celling, and you poore fuckers can only watch"
Documenting the many, many ways people are being exploited is a valuable service.
@@AbsentWithoutLeaving I agree. Bring back the unions, they don't put up with this shit. Free-smh
He's drawing attention to these issues in a way that makes them palatable.
This article aged VERY well considering what just happened with Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift...well done.
what happened?
I know. Re-watching this video almost felt like a warning. But if Pearl Jam couldn't beat Ticketmaster in the 90s, what hope does Taylor Swift have?
@@sytherwusky same thing but taylor fans are louder
What article ? lol
Jon is a prophet
If I were a touring artist, I would protest it by naming my next tour “If You Paid More Than $30 for This You’ve Been Scammed Tour” then release official tickets for exactly $29.99.
LOL "30 bucks or you've been scammed"
Didn't metallica do something like that with one of their EPs? "The 6 dollar EP - If they try to charge more, steal it!" 😃
So you'd make your own fans feel ashamed for buying tickets to see you perform. Instead of being upset at the industry that forced some people to pay unreasonable prices for tickets, you'd rather make the victims of that industry feel like it's their fault. Nice.
That works if you’re a small artist, but bigger artists need the bigger venues and the majority of them are owned by LiveNation
That works if less than 5k people wanna see you perform. For bigger performers they need bigger venues which Ticketmaster owns a large number of and has strong armed the rest
The CEO of Ticketmaster in 2009 advocated itemizing all tickets and a union for musicians. He was out in a year.
Ouch
I presume it was the board who threw him out rather than customer backlash? Tell me more.
Who? Name?
Just musicians, or all types of performers? This matters immensely. What was his name?
@@Kas_Styles probably Sean Moriarty. He was the CEO until 2009.
I have to admit, at the end, I halfway expected him to announce that they'd made their own ticket-trading platform.
It wouldn't matter ticketmaster has contractual monopoly on venues
Like the church thing lol
@@Nalahmad1 It is amazing that this is a thing and allowed.
I was kinda expecting Drew to walk onto the stage and start her show.
@@Nalahmad1 aren’t monopolies illegal?
This is especially relevant after Robert Smith from the Cure managed to get Ticketmaster to refund people who bought Cure tickets for their upcoming US tour because the facility charges and all the other stuff was more expensive than the tickets themselves. More music artists need to take a stand against Ticketmaster.
Petition for John and the Last Week Tonight team to do a follow up episode focusing on Ticketmaster and their whole debacle with Taylor Swift’s 2023 tour
Yesss!!
What happened?
❤❤❤
Yes plz!
There is no "debacle" Morons keep paying the prices so they'll keep making them that expensive
I loved the Garth Brooks tour he did about 5 years ago... he flat out told scalpers to buy what they wanted and every time he sold out a show he would just add another and another. All tickets were $75 bucks to all shows... and he did like 11 shows in my city. This caused all the scalpers to get stuck holding all their tickets or to only be able to sell them for what they paid for them.
Okay that's genius.
This is simply increasing the supply to a point that there is no difference between the face value of the tickets and the actual value of the tickets. Most artists can’t do this though. IDK how Garth did it, but it’s exhausting to put on a show night after night, and it certainly is not a sustainable solution to the problem even for Garth. That’s why the supply is always limited in this market. Non-transferable tickets are a great idea, but Ticketmaster will not allow that to become common practice cuz it hurts their bottom line as a multi billion dollar company and the fans don’t have a billion dollars lol
@@ChengJiaStat The other option is move, set up and break down the sets in a new city every day to do a single concert... seems like Garth got more money, was able to stay in one place for 2 weeks, only had to set up the stage once for a ton more money and less work, less miles less gas. It's a win for him, for the venue, for his crew and for his fans.
@@ChengJiaStat Funny that is the law in Europe and Ticketmaster does exist here. It is possible to make legislation which protects consumers.
I've worked for a resale company for seven years. In my honest, and knowledgeable opinion, Garth Brooks's choice to do this is the single most effective choice a performer has ever made at combating high ticket prices. It's supply and demand as John Oliver concedes. The performer can manage the supply side of the equation by adding shows.
I'm so glad someone is finally talking about this. Ticketmaster and Live Nation have been committing highway robbery for decades.
People have been talking about this for decades.
Pretty much why I havent seen a concert for decades; im just not willing to pay those bastards a dime again.
Pearl jam?
@@hectorcornejo1468I attended a concert last year that had floor seats reselling for over $50,000. If you included fees the price came to $62,000. I couldn't believe it. I kept checking to see if someone bought them. Two days before the show the seats were gone. I had to buy nosebleeds becuz of some shady stuff that happened with TM and presales (that's a whole other story). I paid $75 for each tix. People were reselling the tix in my section for $800 - $1000. Crazy.
@@kkcamp02 I want to be surprised that anyone would pay something like that and be willing to be extorted....but honestly, nowadays I just cant anymore lol.
This video is really coming in handy to explain this whole Taylor Swift situation happening right now haha
who's back here rewatching this after the taylor swift ticketmaster fiasco?
I am.
This is the reason why Ticketmaster is frequently called “TicketBastard”. The fees that they slap on concert tickets are simply insane.
Yet people keep buying.
Burns: And to think, Smithers. You laughed when I bought TicketMaster. "Nobody's going to pay a 100% service charge." Smithers: Well, it's a policy that ensures a healthy mix of the rich and the ignorant, sir.
Insane but calculatedly brutal. Look at the careers of their bosses, e.g. Eric Baker (CEO of Viagogo). He graduated from Harvard, worked for McKinsey and Bain Capital. Those people find their ways of robbery in great manner without ever being charged. And they think of their customers as pittyful lowlifes.
So you and a million or so fans buy your next ticket and spend the time at the corporate offices and homes of ticket scalpers.
…the whole point of this was that it’s not totally their fault
i remember back in 2014 there was a "FREE" concert in LA but you had to get the tickets on ticketmaster... they charged like $16 for taxes and fees ON A FREE TICKET
I mean that’s still one hell of a deal if you think about it but still VERY misleading
They did provided a service. The artist may work for free, but they decided that they would not.
Must've been a typo. They meant FEE ticket.
@@ichijofestival2576 Ticket Master needs a class action lawsuit to set them straight! The ballz to charge fees on a "FREE" concert!
In a profit-based system, nothing much is ever actually free and if we keep using this messed up system, the profiteers are going to try to sell us fresh air.
This is what blew my mind. I looked up how much Eagle tickets went for in 1977 after Hotel California came out. Tickets were 10 dollars a piece, I made only 5 dollars a hour then and it took me 4 hours of work to buy 2 tickets. The average price to see them now is around 200 dollars a ticket so I would have to make 100 dollars a hour to be able to buy 2 tickets for 4 hours work, in 77 a person could get as close to the front of the stage as they cared too thanks to Festival Seating. This is insane. I would NOT pay 200 dollars for a Eagles ticket if they were playing in my back yard. UN-FN-REAL. 🤯
Peter frampton july 6 1976. 8$
@@tcfencing9772 Motley Crue, August 1985. $8 USD.
I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2002 for $35 at this really cool venue where I live. Front and center. Tickets for that same band at that same venue in the same spot for this tour this year are $700. Each. Imagine the fees on that, too. It’s disgusting.
I worked for TicketMaster in their IT department. Do you know where the tickets go? Employees get to purchase before they go on sale to the public for an additional X percent above face value. Not just secondary market, (which many employees got in the business of reselling tickets on the side).
Wow. That's nuts. And fucked up.
I'm old enough to remember the reason given for Ticketmaster's existence, was to protect us from scalpers.
Those were the days... * _Le sigh_ *
When I started going to concerts in the 70’s, $25 was high for a ticket. That’s what I paid for one of the World Series of Rock in Cleveland.
And Ticketmaster BECAME the scalpers. Nice job putting the wolves in charge of lamb protection.
The wolf is guarding the henhouse. The ticket buyers are the hens.
Right ?!? But you really pay for ease of mind . There was a time where fake tickets were way more prevalent and easier to pass off
I remember that commercial. He was basically like "I'm'a get a credit card and buy myself a personality." Because a personality is really just a collection of consumer choices, apparently.
For a credit card company, seeing a personality as a collection of consumer choices is absolutely on-brand.
you would be shocked at the amount of people that make the media they consume their personality. the shallowness of people knows no bounds.
And what does that tell you about the artists that allow themselves to be the "spokesperson" for such commercials?
kzhead.info/sun/p7hydLyCq6mZgq8/bejne.html
@@justadad6677 most probably that they don't give a shit and just want the quick money
I really really appreciate that he not only bought the potatoe but got a display case for it
My friend works at a ticketing company in Singapore and employees always get first priority to buy tickets to events. The ticketing company pays them a very low salary and the only way he can make good money is to buy tickets at cost price and resell them for 5 -10 times the original price. This is common practice at his workplace and lots of his colleagues make $1000's/month from doing this.
Imagine realizing its cheaper to fly to another country to see a show than attending it in the US.
Sadly Ticketmaster and Live Nation are global. I'm familiar with Barcelona and London, and when I see who's officially selling the tickets, ny heart sinks every time.
Starting to think a lot of things are cheaper in other countries compared to the US.
Same with a lot of medical procedures too.
@@TheStorytellerWolf yep and some of these things oliver is desrcribing are illegal in other places...
But is it actually?
As a musician, I love that John Oliver is bringing more attention to the fact that Ticketmaster is one of the most-hated companies ever. Thank you! Hopefully this catalyzes some sort of change!
Just don't go through Ticketmaster.
@@nickc247 Did...did you watch the episode? If you want to perform at the majority of larger venues then you don't have a choice.
@@kempolar9768 Except that's not true. Look it up.
@@nickc247 youre an incredible simple mind
@@jeffsmith9351 Incredibly simple because I suggested someone look stuff up instead of blindly believing the entire episode? If you say so.
this is why going to local shows is the best experience. admission is usually $5 - $20 and “pay what you can”
Nothing will convinced me to spend hundreds of $$ just to not being able to see the artist with my own eyes in front of me. People's are crazy
You could do another show, if you haven’t already, about making money in the music industry for musicians. I was listening to an interview the other week and I learned that musical acts who get offers to open don’t get their costs paid for, they have to pay logistics out of pocket. There’s a lot of things that are killing the music industry and that’s just one of many.
Now here's a thing... In Belgium where I live it's illegal to resell tickets to anything for more than you bought them. It's not even just fines it's jailtime.
And if it is a company such as Viagogo, StubHub or Mywayticket? It is also banned with jail time or just applied to individuals if it is at individual level such a stupid approach
Same in America for an individual but corporations are allowed bc you know, capitalism smh
Where I live it’s illegal to sell it for more than 10% above the original price, so crazy that these laws are not standard
@@markeastlack4180 Except college sports - students resell their college student football (sports in general) season tickets to certain games at extraordinary prices, no one is watching...as long as you are a student you can use the ticket. Big game tickets can go for $500-800 a pop, when the season ticket bundles go for $120-150...you can post the "for sale" on bulletin boards, or apps, with anonymity.
In Norway we actually have a law that prohibits reselling event tickets at a higher price than you bought it.
Used to be that way here too. I actually saw a family of 4 from out of town detained by a FL state trooper for paying $15 for a $10 ticket to a Yankees exhibition game. The kids were around ten years old, wife crying and husband stunned at the events unfolding. They let them go with a stern warning back around 2000. BTW the cops took the tickets from them also.
We have similar laws in the U.S. (though I'm not sure if it's at the federal/national level or individual state level). The problem is that the laws aren't enforced because reselling/scalping tickets at far more than face value has become a hugely profitable industry which is now run mainly by big businesses. In a similarly way, we have laws against gambling, including online gambling, but companies like Draft King (with which people gamble on "fantasy sports" leagues) are allowed to exist and, of course, state-sponsored gambling (state lotteries) are allowed). It seems to boil down to this -- if an individual does it, he'll be arrested., but if a big company does it, then law enforcement will ignore it.
We have that law too but it's not enforced.
@@stoneman28 Wait, shouldn't the _seller_ have been arrested?
@@rolfs2165 He was arrested but they didn't come down hard on the vacationing family.
I love the constant insistence by John that he loves boy bands.
I was so excited to go for my first concert as an adult - the Foo Fighters. They were supposed to come to my home city of Sydney, Australia in December 2022. I got my tickets and everything. I had to pay a 15% surcharge on Ticketmaster. But, after Taylor Hawkins passed away, it got cancelled right away, but my refund came almost 3 weeks later.
John was right when he said Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger should have never been allowed to happen but as we know there's no one to stop that type of thing anymore.
The eu often steps in. It over the last decade has prevented over 25 mergers between american companies after american authorities gave the go ahead. Even though they don't even have any jurisdiction over those companies at all. But just because the new merged company would be excluded from eu markets completely if it went trough the companies decided to not do it afteral because the cost of losing access would be to high. So somewhere there are still people looking out for you, even if it is only inderectly.
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 There's lots to dislike about the EU (swede so I know) but at least it tries to protect its citizens from greedy companies, shady drugs, chemicals and pollutants. Which I'm very thankful for.
It reminds me of when Sirius and XM merged. They actually had the audacity to claim that merging the only two satellite radio companies into a single company would INCREASE competition rather than decrease it. It also reminds me of the DOJ antitrust case against Microsoft. If I recall correctly, the "punishment" was that Microsoft had to offer discount vouchers for their own products, effectively guaranteeing additional sales, thereby increasing their power and profit rather than punishing them.
@@7Rendar yeah, but it is in bed and totally currupted by multinationals, and it's only goal is to make everyone poor by driving down wages because it is a hyper neoliberal communist institution. And it is a dictatorship because the only ones who can suggest legislation are appointed by the elected governments of member nations and the ones who make them are actually elected by the general public of all things. all designed to turn member states into vassal states under the dictatorship of the eu who have so much power that they can only process legislative proposals from it's subjects. Imagine having to live under such oppression, having someone actually looking out for your rights and preventing the powerfull from taking advantage of you. It's disgusting something like this is allowed to exist this day in age.
@@7Rendar and yes ofcourse, That was obvious sarcasm. As a reaction to your statement about there being a lot to dislike about the eu. 9 out 10 people can't answer the question if you ask them what they dislike specificly that has a negative impact in their lives. Their response eventually ends up sounding very much exactly like my previous post. Nothing personal, just a habbit that formed after so many years lol.
We desperately need a new Teddy Roosevelt who's willing to enforce antitrust laws to break up these oligopolies, not allow them to merge further.
Well the miraculous moment you get a Roosevelt (won't happen, the US' politicians pockets are too tied with corporations, and even in event of that sort of victory no law will pass through Congress) as soon as his time is up a Reagan will just ruin everything again
@@Brian-tn4cd Only if people are stupid enough to vote for another Reagan... oh, wait... we're fucked!
@@Brian-tn4cd From what I hear from the US Reagan is still considered one of the most popular presidents, but at the same time his decisions were terrible for basically every normal person. Why is he so popular, just because of his charisma?
They wouldn't exist in the first place if the public actually understand the purpose of regulations, and what happens in a pure capitalism system.
@@unluckygamer692 because for too long the American public has honestly picked their presidents on superficial minutiae, having been successfully brainwashed to believe in the red vs blue dichotomy as if those superficial differences aren't a ruse to cover the vast similarities between candidates we are forced to select from. I actually had someone tell me the other day "these gas prices are absolutely out of control. Thanks alot Joe. Where's Trump when you need him?", as if Trump being in office would have actually made any POSITIVE difference. Long story short, people like Reagan because they don't truly understand economics or politics, they bought the lie that "reaganomics" isn't simply the obliteration of corporate security checks and balances, and he was an actor. In truth, his entire career being based on playing characters before he took his new "role" as president has alot to do with it. You could probably say it comes down to charisma, and the wilful ignorance of the voting populace. It's really a travesty.
Well, this is timely
More people need to see this. I am still amazed when people are surprised there are no face value tickets available. This scam has been going on for years.
As a fan of kpop, I have SO many grudges with Ticketmaster... It's a regular thing to try to buy tickets on multiple devices just because of how much the website crashes. The fees are insane, and the resale prices are even crazier. I've seen whole empty sections at concerts before because they were all resale tickets that never got sold.
112% this!! The latest BTS shit is fucking absurd.... That is genuinely something I have been trying to collect info and screen shots on.
i paid $380 for a $250 seat because of ticketmasters fees for twice
Stop wasting money on overpaid "musicians". Problem solved.
@@OC-CPA Such fascinating and impartial insight.
@@DelinquentJoy Thanks. It comes naturally.
The best concert of my life was part of a free Jimmy Kimmel taping. Sure, I had to sit through an interview with the Kardashians, but then I was treated to 8 or 9 songs by The Killers in a smaller venue than I'd ever otherwise get to see them in. One of the most fun nights of my life.
wow KIller
That sounds cool. Except for the Kardashians.
@@midnightrambler8866 and Jimmy Kimmel
Hope you've all been vaccinated. With this medium, I pray we get along well at our convenience, as I don't want to be seen as a superstar but as a commoner in the society.
@@keanureeves6257whut? Are you actually trying to pretend you are Keanu Reeves? 😂 It's not working, buddy.
Waiting for a "Ticketmaster II" episode after Taylor Swift's recent tour debacle
rewatching this on 17/11/22 for no reason at all
With the recent BTS concert, Whole rows were available for resale on Ticketmaster before the reselling option was even available on people's accounts. How is that even possible? Only option is it's Ticketmaster themselves or a partner.
That's the first thing I thought of watching this, how the Vegas show didn't even have General Admission tickets. It's pretty low to let people assume it was those with ARMY memberships and pre-sale codes who caused that to happen.
@@lunacouer As someone who has purchased face value tickets to BTS concerts both before and after the pandemic, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas shows, I fully believe that only ARMY membership holders could easily sell out (at 4 tickets per account) four shows in Las Vegas. I mean, I wouldn't rule out Ticketmaster shenanigans completely, but I was not expecting tickets to be available for general admission. Not even every ARMY membership holder received a pre-sale code because of such high demand and the fact that - at least as of yet - BTS has not announced an actual tour, only single dates.
this was my first thought as well, surprised BTS was never mentioned in this piece considering the amount of shady shit ticketmaster has pulled with them recently
@@bedshann1893 i definitely agree army's can and do sell out. (I luckily received a code and bought tickets). But there's just no explanation for 2nd market tickets on Ticketmaster before I and everyone else had the option to sell our tickets on our account.
@@hood3243 Actually, because a friend and I ended up double-booking a few dates, she was able to sell (and transfer) tickets almost immediately (to a friend at cost, no profit) despite instructions that you wouldn't be able to transfer until the end of the week. It's definitely a loophole/work-around but I think compared to other tours - like Adele and Bieber, or and I completely agree with the Only Fans foot lady here, Bad Bunny, whose ticket mark-ups were the worst I've ever seen personally - I think there are far fewer true scalpers purchasing tickets those days. I have no idea what the solution is, and Ticketmaster should be categorized as a monopoly and broken up accordingly either way, but I think in the realm of shadiness BTS has a fraction of the issues that other major artists have. I just wish everything were more transparent. I'd like to know who I'm paying, but then again, I never buy second-hand tickets from anyone I don't know personally.
"Professional ticket brokers" are just scalpers. That's literally what they are. Buy up tickets, sell for an inflated price for profit.
Just another corporate industry doing what would land any private citizen in jail
Scalper isn't a bad word any more though. I remember reading a WSJ article breathlessly praising the business acumen of an upper class 16 year old making millions scalping PS5's.
In France, it is illegal to sell a ticket to more than the face value. Of course you can still do it on "black market", but on marketplace or others classified sites, these listings are deleted, because they are illegal. It highly reduces the speculation on high demand tickets.
That's called capitalism.
@Danger Disgusto Nice sentiment but difficult to put into law.
I bought two tickets to a Stevie Nicks back in September. I had to spend about $600 a person with all the fees added in for mediocre seats. My wife ended up getting hurt so we couldn’t go. Thanks to the Ticketmaster resale feature I was able to recoup about 50 cents on the dollar. Thanks guys.
I doubt don't what you wrote, but what were mediocre seats? Mid level? Upper level?
I saw Stevie in September. Luckily, she played an amphitheater show that had nothing to do with Ticketmaster. We had pretty good pavilion seats. Each ticket was about $180 all in. It goes to show how much worse Ticketmaster makes all our lives. I hope your wife is ok.
watching this after the eras tour presale
I saw The Police in 1984. Second row center on the floor. Sting and the band were right in front of me. They were one of the biggest acts in the world at the time. I was 18 years old and I spent $22 I had earned working in a grocery store on the ticket. That's about $60 in today's money. 60 bucks won't get you in to the concession stand for the big acts these days.
i am extremely jealous :(
That's reasonable. I paid $50 per ticket for U2's 360 Tour mid level in the Reliant Center (Houston), and with the size of that production, the largest ever up to that point, it was both the best seat in the house, and a reasonable price. I doubt you can find a deal like that just 13 years later.
Friday, Feb.14, 1986. ZZ TOP Afterburner tour. Row 15, center stage on the floor. Sold out. I was 16 and spent a whopping $13 bucks at the box office two months prior to get my ticket that I had worked washing dishes at a pizza joint and working on a farm to afford. ZZ was a hot act in the mid 80's too and the price would be about $36 USD today. Fuck Ticketmaster.
One thing he did not mention is because Ticketmaster runs its own resale program, it then profits twice on sales of those tickets. Great video, John!
He literally mentioned Ticketmaster as a resale platform at 10:37.
Watching this while i wait in the Ticketmaster presale queue for the Taylor Swift Eras tour
You missed out on talking about their absolutely ridiculous Platinum Tickets. There Ticketmaster ain't even hiding any overpricing. 100 USD Tickets are suddenly priced at multiple thousands BY TICKETMASTER THEMSELVES and I do know of people who accidentally bought these in the panic of getting Tickets at all. For Stray Kids (Kpop) almost all tickets had been bought by bots and even if you had amazing spots in the queue, you couldn't get tickets. Like I got in after 2 min but nope, everything gone already
This was such a peak Oliver show. Perfect disses, perfect information, and great att hate. And not morbid.
Essentially buying one ticket to see the artist and one ticket to get into the building and another ticket for permission to buy the ticket
"another ticket for permission to buy the ticket" is what it feels like when i have to pay $22 just to join the BTS fanclub to be allowed to pre-register for ticket sales. it doesn't even guarantee i'll actually get a ticket, much less a good seat (sorry ARMY but yes there ARE bad seats at a BTS show, namely the ones where you can't tell if you're just watching backup dancers on stage while a pre-recorded performance is played on the jumbotron). and some people pay for the fanclub membership and don't even get a code to enter the presale.
@@dietotaku Now I understand why their Las Vegas show sold out in 4 hours (all four shows!). It's insane, getting tickets for these big artists gets more and more difficult, you have to put away two hours of your time, and all sorts of manoeuvring, wait in line and you don't even know if you'll even get a ticket, plus they don't tell you how much fees will cost upfront so you don't even know if you can get a good seat. It's madness.
Dan Davis. I am an artist and you wouldn't believe what it takes to get your art work shown in a gallery. First they take half or more of any sales. All the freaky art investors have their dirty little hands out so they can hide their money through art. A commodity to them. What I do, what I make means much more to me than to them.
this pice age like wine.great.
I appreciate you John Oliver so much. Since I started paying for you tube without ads I listen to you even more. Thank you.
Ticketmaster is why I feel glad I'm a fan of extreme metal, where the venues are small, tickets are sometimes available at the door, and they're inexpensive. The last show I went to was $35 and I bought my ticket day-of.
that's just one of the many benefits of being able to think for yourself and develop your own unique tastes! Cheers!
Ef mainstream indeed
Fortunately some of the artists playing the Blues are in the same situation. Thank god that one can hear the Blues to make certain that's how I'm feeling. Lol
And even then the fees are somewhat small since they can't get away with a lot. I saw Mayhem for $35 plus $13 in fees which is still BS but it's a lot lower than the numbers John showed in this segment
I've bought Ticketmaster tickets once or twice, but the most musicians I like are local ones who only play on small night clubs. And the experience is so much better than that giant stadiums concerts.
It’s 9 AM and I just witnessed John Oliver putting on lip gloss while dissing an online ticket buying service. It’s going to be a very, very good day.
When BTS announced tours in LA and Vegas, tickets were bought by scalpers and being sold literally for 20x the price. I saw a floorseat ticket that originally would be $450 for $25,000. Wish I was joking. BTS opened the first day only to their fanclub members and they said 100% of the tickets will be available to them. Even then we couldn't get seats and hundreds of tickets showed up on reseller websites for obnoxious prices within minutes. I really don't know how this is ok and it is so frustrating and clearly something that should be made illegal!!
Same with TXT- the original tickets weren’t that bad but the resellers on Ticketmaster are putting the tickets in the thousands- they haven’t even opened fan resellers- so Ticketmaster probably bought the tickets from the original platforms stealing all the tickets from the fans…
Revisiting this in light of the eras tour ticketgate occurring today
I’m going to start putting outrageous auctions on eBay in the hopes John buys one. Not for the money, just for the clout. :D
Make sure they're furry porn if you want to make absolutely sure.
I'd do it for the money.
What's wrong w/ clout AND money 🤷♂️
“LWT Phishing”?
Would not even judge. It's a brilliant plan.
I really like what Wacken does. Every Ticket has a name on it, and tickets can only be resold through them/with their blessing, since only they can change it. Upselling them on other websites risks lawsuits and voiding the tickets. No scalpers possible
Go Wacken Festival 🤘
Really cool. Never had heard of another festival besides the Fusion that does this.
Who's Wacken?
@@nellies-taekook-journals IIRC, Wacken is a multiple-day, outdoor metal festival in German.
Scalping still happens. Also, how? Also, Ticketmaster and the Bands both suck. Especially legacy acts.
You missed one major detail. Just before the pandemic, ticketmaster changed their interface to no longer select the 2 best seats and hold them for 2 minutes while you decide to purchase. Instead it is a free for all that favors bots.
When you're here after the Eras Tour cluster fuck
3:30 the pure joy he gets from hating on AT&T is unrivaled.
You know how shitty the last two years have become when LWT tackling unfair ticket practices could be considered a lighthearted topic.
love this show so much
I really appreciate how he actually proposes solutions instead if just saying there's a problem and...
I'm glad he mentioned Pearl Jam, they have been fighting ticket prices for long
I hadn't used Ticketmaster in years when I was "forced" to use them for a show I wanted to see in 2020. Never again. Outrageous fees and not even a "print your own" option - you had to use their app at the venue. (Not that there could possibly be any problems with that!) When the pandemic "postponed" the show, my tickets were rescheduled for a night I couldn't attend, but there was no feasible way for me to sell my tickets. (Maybe if I were a big name scalper???) About the only good thing that came out of the pandemic was that the show was eventually cancelled and I got a full refund.
Yep, TM is a joke, I start with with resellers for decades, TM offers for Z or row JJ at the same time a reseller offers row G, it is not worth been looking.
You actually got a refund? Shocking,
But in the meanwhile, they profited from using the money you had paid and was in their account before the refund.
You weren't forced. A concert is a complete luxury. You 100% chose to see it.
@@mantisbog Is that not obvious enough without you saying so?
18:40 this is exactly how it should be. ticketmaster claimed the point of giving them a place to resell tickets was so fans could "recoup the cost" of the ticket. being allowed to charge 100s or 1000s of % over the original price isn't simply recouping.
hey, swifties
I just want to give credit to artists who make their tickets easily accessible through fan clubs and things of that sort. I bought Tyler, the Creator tickets in presale recently through his fan service and it was really easy, not to mention free, and he made it easily accessible to all of his fans. More artists need to operate in that manner.
Except those are tickets that didn’t get sold to the general public, meaning fewer tickets for the gp, meaning more scalpers/ticket brokers get tickets through bots before fans, and then resell them super high. John even mentions fan club and credit card promotions being part of the problem.
This could be extended to scalping in general. Try to buy a game console, GPU, sneakers, etc, and you find a lot of people who think they've found a "hustle" when they're just botting inventory and reselling at a markup. We're at a point where legislation is needed to deal with bot purchasing.
Keep electing Republicans and that legislation will never come cause you know capitalism good and corruption and greed good
I've pretty much given up on rebuilding my PC due to scalpers.
@@grindcoreninja6527 yeah I bit the bullet and bought a gpu at like 200% Msrp. Because it's not gonna end anytime soon
100%. Getting a PS5 or a new GPU is damn near impossible nowadays because of bots scooping them up the second stock goes live.
@@grindcoreninja6527 same, still rocking a Nvidia 970 GPU... Have the money to upgrade right this second and can't.
You all know why I’m here
this video hits a lil different today doesn't it swifties
This is why i love John Oliver, he tells us about things many of us notice and wonder about but that no one is really bringing out to spotlight.
I never noticed any Mickey shaped potatoes before in my entire life.
At least Pearl Jam is trying to cut costs for their fans, even if they had to work with Ticketmaster to do it. Kudos to them. I hope more artists follow their example. It seems like the only way to fix things, because given the current state of affairs in America, Congress is more likely to try to get a cut of the profits themselves than actually put in restrictions.
Without ticketmaster, you mean?
@@thisisntsergio1352 Unless I misunderstood, I thought John said Pearl Jam worked with Ticketmaster to create an online marketplace where fans could resell tickets with no profit/fees. Although I’d love it if artists could cut Ticketmaster out. They have a monopoly on live events at the moment, and them being hated by everyone is richly deserved.
I guess I'm lucky as a metal fan..? Concerts have just been 20/30/40 since I was in high school haha..for like 20 years. not just lesser known local bands but even the best acts like Watain, Amon Amarth, Behemoth.. actual talented bands way better than paying half a grand to go see Justin Bieber's douchey show haha
Can't even get congress people to ban themselves from directly trading stocks, pretty sure concert tickets are f*****d
Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if Ticketmaster already donates to various politicians.
14:16 OMG the tiny spotlight cue killed me
This is exactly why I go directly to the venues to buy tickets if I’m seeing a show in the town i live in. Unfortunately a lot of people only play in the two major cities that are both five hours away so i miss a lot of shows because the fees on top of the ticket price plus travel food and accommodations make it pretty unaffordable :/
You know that if, say, the stagehands' union wanted to add $10 per ticket for anything that might benefit the people _actually making the creative ideas of the artists into a physical show..._ healthcare, cost of living wage increase, parental leave; Ticketmaster would spend a fortune on what would surely be a wildly successful public relations campaign to make sure every concertgoer feels outrage over that ten bucks. It's insane the lengths to which the wealthy will go, just to avoid responsibility... or, really, to escape acting good or decent towards any non-wealthy people.
I do so like the local chapter of IATSE (worked at an arena and got to know some of them). That said even if you work for the venue the event is held at you have to but tickets to see the show and there is no discount for you. Also, rules forbid you speaking to the performer unless spoken to first (so much for being polite unless they speak to you first).
Did that $10 surcharge idea happen?
And believe they have the God-given right based on their “higher station” in life.
@Plooky Tooth 🤡
Those who have money, have power when the majority do not have it. Eat the rich.
Thank you for talking about this. It's evil and heartless. I recently paid an astronomical amount (for nosebleed seats) just for my brother and I to go a show that we've been waiting literal years to see. What's sad is that as a consumer, you have no choice but to deal with these crooks.There's no protection and no limit to the insane mark-up prices. Let's just say, no more shows for me for a while after this one.
Well shit, what was the show?
Vote for people who will regulate businesses and then you'll have a choice.
150 bucks in service fees for 2 Rams tickets here in LA at checkout. Each ticket was 260. I did not buy them after seeing the service fee.
Ticketmaster used to be a service to buy tickets from locations you wouldn't normally get them from, like record stores. Before online ticket sales were a thing, you were paying fees for the convenient of not having to travel to the venue's box office. It was nice to have the option, but it quickly became the only option!
YES THANK YOU I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS. My parents saw shows in the 80s and 90s for 20-30 a pop. Im forced to carve out copious amounts of money to get tickets from scalpers. And the fees. wtf
Imagine getting tickets, after jumping through hoops, sacrificing your husband's feet, paying the scalper and all the fees, and then getting to the concert to find a TALL dude standing and dancing in front of you, totally blocking your view. My one and only concert experience.
well, that tall guy also sold someone elses feet and not his own I guess..
Damn that sucks, especially if it was for a bieber concert :///
Pretty much why I stopped going to see live rock or pop shows. The audience is too loud and rude for my patience. I came to see and hear the artists, not the audience!!
Welcome to the general concert experience
@@nickc247 I mostly go to classical or jazz concerts by local artists. The tickets cost what they cost, no scalpers, the audience is polite, you can actually hear the music, and your money is supporting the musicians and local venues, not some corporation. That's my general concert experience, thank heavens.
This is why I love being a Phish fan. You can just go to the venue and people are literally standing outside, giving away tickets for free. I've even heard a story of them being strung up in a tree for people to take what they need.
Definitely what I'm doing this summer. Usually I try to get something during lottery but prices were crazy + no ticket art 😭
You spelled Ween wrong
That’s bc phish sucks
The only downside with that plan is that you end up with a ticket to see phish
Billy breathes was a listenable album
Came back to watch this again after hearing about Taylor Swift. With her popularity, I'm glad she's brought more awareness to this.
"Stop it right now! And forever." Excellent!🤣
I’m from Seattle and remember when Ben Haggerty got a financial backer so he could buy every ticket to three days in a row at The Showbox Market. He then went and distributed them with his music at High Schools, knowing there aren’t many all ages shows, and the papers read “Macklemore Sells Out The Showbox Three Days In A Row!” Brilliant marketing campaign.
I remember grabbing a couple tickets last minute to Earth Wind and Fire for $10 each, the fees were over $11 and I couldn’t stop laughing at the fact the fees were more than a ticket. I wish they would at least go the route air travel has gone… disclosing a bit more up front and less at checkout where you are dealing with a countdown clock.
Those countdowns are the worst... 😑
Hope you've all been vaccinated. With this medium, I pray we get along well at our convenience, as I don't want to be seen as a superstar but as a commoner in the society.
Great episode! That friggen potato gets me all seriousness aside 😆
3:25 John knew shit was about to go bad and nobody listened
When Ed Sheeran was in Czech Republic there was a limit on the number of tickets you could buy and they were under a name as well so you couldn't resell them. They actually checked our IDs when entering the venue. I think there were other artists doing this as well. This seems like a good way forward...
Ticketmaster does this too
Tori Amos tried it in 1998 but it was poorly implemented. It could have worked if she had ID checks too but her IT was poorly implemented. Checking in took forever. When I go to a beerfest it is done correctly so it could be done if they really wanted.
How do you buy tickets as a gift under that systen? Do you buy it under the intended recipient's name?
@@Hermititis if you know what specific venue it is, sometimes you are better off going to that venue to buy the voucher. Certain venues are like that. If not and you have the time I recommend calling customer service because the answer can depend on the country and venue. I know people who bought ticketmaster vouchers without knowing they could only be used at the venue they got them
Ticketmaster had me in tears trying to buy tickets to BTS
They’ll do a tour. Don’t worry too much.
Ohh. Taylor’s recent tour made this so apparently evident. 😢
No one expecting John Oliver take over Beauty KZhead as an MUA right there at 8:00 I see you Fenty Gloss Bomb in shade "Glass Slipper" lmao
So, basically, "re-sellers" are scalpers, except they're not staying outside the venue. That makes them "legal?" Or, put another way: So, now scalping is legal as long as you don't do it on the street, for cash...?
You can do it on the street too in Florida. That's what happened with the Miami GP for F1. Besides the normal online scalping shenanigans, there are large sophisticated scalping networks that buy/sell at the venue.
I believe it would be more accurate to say "scalping is legal as long as it's done by the wealthy, powerful, or connected".
@@RobertBarton86 those miami gp ticket prices were outrageous before the scalpers... I can't even. If I were spending that much for the F1 circus, it would be Japan, Belgium or Italy.
Scalping in the street is legal many places too.
@@RobertBarton86 when i got the ticket for Belgian GP few years ago, they put my name on it and they checked my ID when o get in. Then i got the tag with my name on it. so selling Formula 1 Ticket outside the gate won’t happen in Europe.
The audience cheering while being insulted is one of my favorite feelings as a fellow performer. It's a huge risk to be confrontational with your audience and when they're good sports it's such a delight.
One of the problems with this and other left-leaning programs is that the audience always thinks they're talking about Republicans/non-Democrats who do not watch the shows. They refuse to see that the mirror is facing them.
@@FaydOgolon What the absolute fuck does that have to do with my comment? I'm talking about the relationship between comedians and their audience in performance, start your own thread baiting people to argue if you're lonely.
@@FaydOgolon Someone *CLEARLY* didn't get the joke.
@@FaydOgolon this isn't so much pot to kettle as it is pure projection
Lmao now the taylor swift thing and this is sooo relevant...
who watching this about the taylor swift tour sale