MAGA culture warrior Kid Rock is not the first musical artist I'd expect to be out there busting trusts, but credit is due: The man born Bob Ritchie has been a vocal supporter of the Federal Trade Commission's deceptive practices lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, in which the government argued that the live music behemoths have quietly colluded with scalpers to collect more profits on aftermarket ticket sales. He was in the Oval Office with Donald Trump when the president signed an executive order directing the FTC to launch an investigation. In a video posted in October, he urged his political adversaries Pearl Jam — who famously crusaded against Ticketmaster in the '90s — to throw their support behind the case.
Wednesday, Mr. Ritchie continued his quest to get the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly broken up, testifying before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation as part of a hearing called "Fees Rolled on All Summer Long: Examining the Live Entertainment Industry." Speaking to the subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy, the rap-rocker-turned-country-singer said Live Nation and Ticketmaster "fooled" the government into approving their 2010 merger, Billboard reports.
Dan Wall, Live Nation's VP for legal affairs, also testified at the hearing. Wall denied that Live Nation and Ticketmaster have a monopoly, arguing that the FTC has overstated their market share. He said the company "consistently stands with artists, with venues and with fans and in opposition to ticket brokers and other resale marketplaces," pointing out that Ticketmaster banned brokers from operating multiple accounts following the FTC lawsuit. He also asserted, "Our bot defenses are second to none in the world."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, pushed back on Wall's statements, noting that she was "quite disappointed" with the findings in the FTC's report, including one internal email in which a Ticketmaster employee said the company "turn(s) a blind eye" to bots and scalpers "as a matter of policy." Blackburn wondered aloud why the company would have to turn a blind eye if nothing sketchy was going on; Wall replied that the line had been taken out of context.
In his own opening statement, Rock told the subcommittee, "Independent venues have been crushed. Artists have lost leverage. Fans are paying more than ever and getting blamed for it. This wasn't an experiment — it was a monopoly dressed up as innovation." He described the Live Nation/Ticketmaster arrangement as a "cartel" and suggested that even if Live Nation and Ticketmaster are broken up, the government would also need to institute a 10% limit on resale ticket pricing to truly solve the problem. "I'm a capitalist, I’m a deregulation guy," he said, "but there’s no other way around this but to put a price cap on this."
