Thanks to Ticketmaster, I won’t be at the International Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara
Instead of the concerts I went to last week, I would like to talk with you this week about two
companies we all deal with, Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which are actually one company
called Live Nation Entertainment. The two companies have merged and are owned by Liberty
Media, whose CEO also owns Formula One, SiriusXM, and the Atlanta Braves.
This conglomerate has interests in or owns many venues around the US and has contracts with
many others limiting them to Ticketmaster as a ticket sales outlet. Some artists complain that
Ticketmaster’s exclusive contracts exploit venues and artists, but Ticketmaster denies this. And
of, course there is no shortage of complaints about ticket prices and scalpers for concerts under
Ticketmaster.
According to TicketNews, concert ticket prices for top artists have risen up to 20% since the end
of Covid restrictions, with floor tickets for some top artists going for up to $900, plus fees. Fans
are not happy about the prices and they are not happy about dynamic pricing which can change
minute by minute while you are buying tickets. It is no mystery why the billion-dollar Live
Nation Entertainment is taking in record profits.
So what does that mean on the ground? High prices and incompetence in my experience.
The International Mariachi Festival is coming soon in Guadalajara. This is a big deal with 10,000
people, 500 Mariachis from around the world (Japan has mariachis – who knew?), folk dancing,
and mucho parties. My wife and I go, but usually don’t buy tickets in advance. We get in line for
box office sales and if there are tickets, great, if not, we go to the free concerts in the Plaza. This
time we decided to splurge and buy VIP seats in the Teatro Degollado, one of the most beautiful
of Guadalajara’s concert venues. But tickets were only available from guess who, Ticketmaster.
First, Ticketmaster wanted me to sign into my account. Do I have an account? I guess I did
years ago because it would not let me create a new one. But I didn’t know the password, so
after several tries, and two-factor authentication texts later, I got into my account, ordered my
ridiculously expensive seats, and went to checkout.
Not so fast; there are fees. Fees for using Ticketmaster, fees for telling Ticketmaster how I
wanted to get my tickets, fees for getting my tickets, and a mystery fee just because they could.
Ok, so it is only this time, I will do it. On to payment.
I put in my credit card information and….Sorry, we only take US credit cards and US
addresses.
But it is a US credit card; my delivery address is in Mexico…. Sorry, no can do.
This is an international event designed to attract people from around the world. What genius
decided that they all had to have US credit cards with a US address? That is incompetence.
I found a workaround in an obscure little button for a non-US address (I will bet most of the
people attending have non-US addresses since they live in Mexico). I clicked on the non-US
address button and it took me back to a payment page. I started to enter my information again
and a message popped up: Sorry you took too long to give us your money. Start again (not
quite what the message was, but you get the idea).
Well, screw Ticketmaster. I did not start again. I found two free local mariachi concerts which I
will attend and use my press pass to get up front to shoot good videos to show you. And I will never use Ticketmaster again…really.
