Touring industry responds to Live Nation’s ‘all-in’ ticketing pledge

The touring industry reacted cautiously to Thursday’s White House announcement that Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and SeatGeek will at least partially adopt an “all-in” model that displays the full cost of a ticket, including fees upfront.

Stephen Parker, Executive Director of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) which represents independent venues and promoters, many of whom use Ticketmaster to sell tickets, applauded today’s announcement while pushing for additional reforms including the regulation of prices and deceptive practices as well as a ban on speculative tickets and deceptive websites.

“Up-front pricing should be the start of comprehensive ticketing reform that protects consumers from price gouging and deceptive practices by predatory resellers. Other needed reforms such as banning speculative tickets and deceptive websites would further protect consumers in the ticketing marketplace. We applaud the President for today’s meeting and look forward to working with his Administration and Congress to make comprehensive, bipartisan ticketing reform a reality.”

The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), the trade group for hundreds of independent booking agents and managers, and the thousands of touring musicians they represent, said that any all in pricing must also include an itemized breakdown of fees as well as a crackdown on excessive fees and ticket resales.

“We applaud President Biden’s announcement on ticket fee transparency as an important first step. NITO calls on all ticket sellers to clearly show fans the total price of a ticket up front but also provide an itemized breakdown so fans understand the ticket price set by the artist and the fees added by ticket sellers. Until Congress acts to eliminate excessive fees and secondary ticketing is carefully regulated, millions of consumers will still be the victim of predatory ticketing practices.”

MORE: Live Nation, Ticketmaster, SeatGeek to shift to all-in ticket pricing

Bruce Houghton