Speaker 1: Wist though dissumption entangled in her mind.
Speaker 2: Get your hamper, hide, I see you stow your foots
your eyes and my I'm the beast and it happened.
Speaker 3: A fast.
Speaker 2: Holding no bias, drink you're a massive.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to break right, trying to be chumping?
Speaker 4: How fine?
Speaker 5: Becking me all may be? Tell me.
Speaker 1: Falling under phone? If that's snipulates it the best funes cycle.
Speaker 5: This sy in the cho.
Speaker 1: Falling on the fall and fast stipulated like the ball.
Speaker 6: See you flying nonst falling nonos, falling no nose, but.
Speaker 5: Fall in London.
Speaker 2: Tells me, don't you worry, You'll be happy.
Speaker 6: You'll be fine.
Speaker 1: Okay, tie.
Speaker 2: See through your for sal lies and rabble fast.
Speaker 5: Let me have the pre.
Speaker 6: You're holding on.
Speaker 2: By stay you're a messa.
Speaker 6: I'm trying to play bring trying to control me how
my recomos?
Speaker 1: Try me be telling me bring falling under phone? And
that's stipulating the best on the cycle of this set
in control falling London, scipuls.
Speaker 6: Falling nunders, fallen unders, fallen unders, fallen under.
Speaker 5: Fallen unders.
Speaker 3: That is falling under the newest from awaiting Abigail to
open up this week's Matt Connorton Unleashed and we did
play that for a specific purpose which we will explain
in just a few minutes.
Speaker 4: It's a big day, but welcome everybody.
Speaker 3: This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from
the studios of w m n H ninety five point three,
Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And of course you can stream
the show from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton dot com
slash live for all of your live streaming options, social
media links, contact and poshow archives, et cetera, et cetera.
Today is Saturday, March seven, twenty twenty six, and I
am not.
Speaker 4: Alone Jenny.
Speaker 5: Morning Sunshine.
Speaker 3: So Jenny is here of course at the news table.
And uh oh, do you want to mention your your
hat for those who are watching the video feed. You're
not usually leaving on camera during the show. You you've
been nowhere to but you're on your that's right. You
know how to hide, but you're not hiding this week.
Speaker 5: I'm proud of my fee. Yes, I've been playing with
perche uh huh, and yes it's my Norwegian hat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, very nice your faver color too. It is
it is read. It is my favorite color. That is true.
Speaker 5: I have a lot of fun making and I'm actually
making a few more just because they're fun to make.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very good, very good.
Speaker 3: So uh, we will talk about awaiting Abigail in a
couple of minutes, but we should mentioned first, Uh the
Mosaic of course, Mosaic Art Collective.
Speaker 5: My favorite gallery.
Speaker 3: You have yet another piece that is going to be
shown in an upcoming show at Mosaic here in Manchester.
Speaker 5: Yes, women Wise is the next exhibit, and that is
I'm proud to have a piece in it. This is
one that they're actually have done in collaboration.
Speaker 4: Forgive me, is it it's it's Women's month? Right or
what do we call it Women's month? For Women's month?
Speaker 5: Women's month?
Speaker 4: Isn't it Women's month? Isn't that?
Speaker 7: Why?
Speaker 4: Why word?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 4: It's women's reason?
Speaker 5: That sounds odd to me.
Speaker 3: They said it last night during Sporting History months, Women's
History months. It is probably there's there's so many months
it is.
Speaker 5: And the woman Whise opening reception is coming up on Saturday,
March fourteenth from five pm to seven pm. Please come
by and see Matt and I. We will definitely be there.
I am excited to be a part of this exhibit.
It is about equality then and equality now. It's looking
at women and the legacy of solidarity and self determination
and the ongoing fight for justice. So it's an exciting
show for certain. The Mosaic Art Collective work in conjunction
with the Quality Health Center to bring this show forward,
So it's gonna be really cool. It's gonna be really
interesting to see it. I'm excited to see. It's always
exciting and thrilling to get a piece into a durid show.
It's a confidence booster there that I'm finding I'm achieving now.
In the beginning, it was like, oh, my dad, they
really would put something of mine on the wall. And
I still have moments where I'll go in there and
I'm like, oh, my painting doesn't belong to wah with
these these are amazing. So there's there's a part of
that that's it's like a part of yourself that you're
putting on display. And in the last show uh They
which was called Peaceful Rebellion, I had a particular piece
up that was about healthcare justice and the Mosaic Art
Collective actually did a video one of the one of
the members there did a video about my painting and
what they found intriguing about it and the things that
caught their interest, and it was really amazing to see
it through somebody else's side. So I highly encourage you
to hear me. If you're an artist, definitely check out
the Mosaic Art Collective. The next call is uh is.
The next open call forgive me is called clear to Me,
and this is a meditation on light and shadow and
the quiet power of what surrounds the form. So it's
playing with light and dark and shadows and so forth.
The deadline to enter a piece is on March twentieth
at twelve am, So think about focusing on negative spaces
and balancing the light and the dark. And definitely, if
you're an artist, please enter your work. It's not expensive
and don't let money be a barrier. If you will
have a piece and you want to enter, contact the gallery.
There are ways for people to be able to get
scholarships to enter in their pieces of work. If you
want to enter in a piece, it's ten dollars. You
can go right to the Mosaic Arcollective dot com and
you can see there all of the calls when there's
something open. It's super easy to put a piece in,
easy to fill out form, just some basic information about
it and you can put it in an artist statement
if you want to, but you're not required to. It's
optional and it's a great place to check out. Community
wise too. Up Coming at the Mosaic Art Collection our
collector excuse me right now, there's a show up called
the Dshon Community Art Wall, and that is going to
be on view for a little while longer. But I
wanted to also share with you that they do events,
not just putting pictures on the wall, but inviting you
to come in to the gallery and be in a
community environment having a studio. So they have community studio
nights where you can join people who are you, bring
something you're working on, or just show up. There's going
to be some materials there. You can talk to other artists,
check out what they're working on, and get feedback if
you want, on what you're working on, maybe ask other
people their opinions on things. So it's a great opportunity
to be in community with other artists. The next one
is coming up on March eighteenth, and that runs from
five thirty pm to seven thirty pm, and I can
tell you there are fifteen seats open at this moment.
To sign up for that, you sign up through the
mosaic Arcollective dot com website and always be aware that
there are other things. Matt and I recently went there
and we were part of a community event where they
were talking about how art reflects humanity and how it
connects into parts of our history to present day. And
these three people really just tried to bring to life
the things that encourage them to create art or give
them a reason to. You know, some people like when
I create. Now, some artists are professional artists, are creating
works that they are wanting to sell perhaps or maybe
something else. But for some of us, like for me,
I'm just an amateur. I just like to create, and
it's not about whether I'm gonna sell the painting or not.
Like if I'm lucky to sell something that's amazing, I
will say that it is amazing to have something sell
off of the gallery walls and a portion of that
goes back to the gallery, so it gives you a
little bit more connection there. But just to be able
to create something that's powerful or means something to you,
or brings out something for you. So a lot for
me is healthcare and advocacy and those are the you know,
the things that I'm involved in are maybe helping people
fight their insurance to get their treatments. That comes out
in my art and as well as illness as well
as being somebody who is never going to be healthy again.
I have incurable ailments and that reflects into the art
and when you connect to somebody else over it, it's
really amazing. And we experience that with musicians.
Speaker 4: All the time, right, you know, we talk about that
all the time on the show.
Speaker 5: Yeah, something that they say and how it connects into
you and just brings you into that song and you
have a deeper for you. It brings that meaning to you.
And you know, we all listen to our music. We
listen when we're angry or when we're sad. But it's
amazing to connect with an artist. And you can do that,
whether as a painting on the wall, whether it's a
statue creation, some people do ceramics or alternative media. At
the last show, there was an amazing one that a
woman had done who had created this like birthday cake
for America with two hundred and fifty candles and then
she wrote point and information on each and every one
of those candles. And what was interesting too about her
piece was we heard her talk she's actually the plan
is to destroy it. The end result of this art
piece is to light those candles and capture it burning away.
So there's more to her piece than just having it
sit in a museum or sell. In her case, it's
an action. Then there's power in the action that she's
going to do and how that's going to come forward.
So I mean, we're really lucky in New Hampshire, but
especially in Manchester to have an incredible gallery like this
who sometimes they have musicians in too that we've been
there for when they've had musicians in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they still plan to in the future.
Speaker 5: But it's a smaller space, so you think lower, you know,
you know, you like, we're not going to bring a
battle band in there, as much as they might like to.
It's just not the space for it. But we've seen
some interesting artists there over the years, from violinists to
guitar players to storytellers. You just it's a great environment
to get involved in and they can volunteer there as well,
and be a part of things like gallery sitting, So
definitely check out the mosaic our Collective dot com. I
hope that you will come to the next opening, Matt
and I will be there to be there.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know this about me. I'm
not a woman.
Speaker 5: Listen you really, this is where you're gonna go with this.
I'm just saying, this is where you're gonna go with it.
We're exploring women's history. We're exploring how women who have
struggled for the right to vote, who have struggled for
uh equality in the job site, who currently struggle to
exist in environments where it has been predominantly men, like
in the fire service. And you're gonna go walk in
the door. Listen to you, you are walking home. I
have the car keys in my pocket. What you're going
to do about that? Okay, ahead, test the one fob
that we have one we have? Yeah, I know right,
I won't get far. The car will like go, oh,
there's no more farm. We're shutting off now?
Speaker 7: Is that?
Speaker 5: What ever? Do doesn't like to shut off? If I
get like, I could start it with you outside and
start to drive away.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know that works. Actually, no, no, very exciting.
So I remind people to date again for the show.
Uh did you say March fourteenth? I feel like I
feel like it was March fourteenth. I just want to
make sure people know.
Speaker 5: I am off. I clicked on the wrong pace.
Speaker 4: While you're looking for that.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna be honest and say I clicked on the
wrong page.
Speaker 4: I think it was the fourteenth.
Speaker 5: I think you're right.
Speaker 4: Would be next next, So next Saturday, so one week
from today.
Speaker 5: Which makes sense because you drop my painting off today.
I have a painting in this upcoming show. It's called
The Cell.
Speaker 4: I dropped it off two days ago. Two days ago,
I didn't drop it off. You said I dropped it
off today.
Speaker 5: I meant to say, listen, you're picking on me today.
Speaker 4: No, you haven't had you haven't had any coffee.
Speaker 5: I am desperate for coffee. It's in root. So it's Saturday,
March fourteenth, March fourteenth. Yeh, March fourteenth, from five pm
to seven pm is the Woman Wise opening reception. I
really do hope that you will come and see me,
whether or not Matt will be in the room remains
to be seen. You might be in the doghouse. We'll
let you know.
Speaker 4: H huh. No, very exciting, very exciting, and congratulations of course.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: Do you realize this is Women's History Month? Do you
realize that it was very only in our parents' generation
that women had won the right to have a quality
in the workplace, that women have been only able to
open a bank account without a male signature.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, in the seventies, correct that that happened. Yeah,
I know.
Speaker 5: Women couldn't buy a house on their own or get
a loan on their own without a male co signer.
These things only occurred in the nineteen seventies, nineteen sixties.
This is that is true history.
Speaker 4: That is true.
Speaker 3: Well, so that also relates to the show tonight. Because
tonight and this is why I love this. This is
why we opened within the newest single from Awaiting Abigail,
Because tonight it's rock and women of metal. And this
is happening at a venue that I've never been before,
The Magic Room in Norwood, mass Mike, who is you know,
the band dad so to speak of under the Horizon.
He initially contacted me about this and said, Awaiting Abigail
wanted to put us on the guest list because it's
all female fronted metal bands tonight. It's awaiting Abigail under
the Horizon, Sex Coffee, who I'm not familiar with, and
they are all opening for sepsis, and of course sepsis
we're very familiar with and our listeners are very familiar with,
and they're playing tonight at the Magic Room the show.
The show is from seven to eleven, so doors open
at six, and so Jenny and I are on the
guest list.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, I am.
Speaker 5: Really sad about this. Do you have no idea how
sad I am about that?
Speaker 4: Jenny cannot go with me.
Speaker 5: I am not allowed to go.
Speaker 4: Do you want you want to explain?
Speaker 5: So I got a really nasty upper respiratory thing almost
three weeks ago. Yeah, and it so it somehow got
into my ear and I developed an ear infection for
the first time since I was a child. And since
that happened, my ear has felt like it's underwater, it's blocked,
and I have a very high pitch consistent tonights. That
is horrific. So as much as I tried to figure
out if I could put enough headsets on with ear plugs,
I would probably end up with really bad bad tonightis
what I have right now is really really bad.
Speaker 4: This first before you, Yeah, and I guess it could take.
Speaker 5: A few more. I'm going onto It's been almost three
weeks my ear has been like this, and I guess
it could take more. It can take like six weeks
for this to resolve. Even though I finished the antibiotics,
you know, a week ago, I'm still stuck with this.
Speaker 4: It's horrible.
Speaker 5: So I can't hear anything out of my right ear.
Even with my hearing aid, I can faintly detect the
tone of it turning on. Yeah, if that gives you
any dear, how profoundly deaf I am right now in
my right ear. So I actually don't have the headset
on my ear. We have it on the other ear
I have, Yes, I don't have it on the infected side,
which is actually.
Speaker 4: How a lot of people wear their headphones anyway. In
a radio studio, I don't. I put them both on, but.
Speaker 5: Some you don't always put them both.
Speaker 4: Well, it depends. It depends on what's happening in the room.
Speaker 5: We might have one ear out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, some people never put them both on. For whatever reason.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, so I'm not. I do not have that
on my ear.
Speaker 4: I am afraid of what it could do. Yeah, yeah,
tonight is awful.
Speaker 5: The feeling of being constantly underwater is the cut me
walking into things like it's messing with my balance.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just awful.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited to see a waiting Abigail because I
wanted to see. They're a great band from Texas. They've
been on the show, I think a couple times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but they have awesome t shirts.
Speaker 3: Great great Texas band. But they're touring up here in
the Northeast. Last night they were at the Stone Church.
Speaker 5: Uh and uh not not like I get an opportunity
to see them all the time.
Speaker 4: I'm really sad.
Speaker 8: I know.
Speaker 4: It's a bummer. Yeahs u Uh.
Speaker 3: Last night they were at the Stone Church in Vermont,
not not the New Hampshire one, but the one in Vermont.
And then uh yeah, so tonight they're gonna be in Norwood,
Mass And then I think they go back to Texas.
But yeah, they're gonna be with uh of course under
the Horizon who he loved. They've been on the show
with us many times. Love them incredible live if you
haven't seen them in a Sepsis. Of course, everyone knows
that incredible Cepis and Sex Coffee I have not heard before.
Speaker 5: I even had my yellow in black hair hair ties
out ready to know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because twas not meant to be.
Speaker 5: Very sad, and I am curious about this new band
because new to us. To us, Sex Coffee is new
to us.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Obviously Coffee is not just my name, it's a way
of life. So I'm super interested into hearing what that
band is like. Yeah, I'm sure you will take good
pictures of video for me to be able to see.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, absolutely, But if you're.
Speaker 5: Going I mean hopefully, well, actually, I'm sure I have
no doubt there are going to be people there that
know you. Yeah, so come up and say hi to
Matt if you go onto the show tonight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because aside from Sex Coffee, therese are bands that
have all been on the show multiple times and our
listeners are very familiar.
Speaker 5: We are original o G sponsors of Swarmy Fest every year.
Speaker 4: That's true too, Swarmy Fast you were always involved in.
Speaker 5: Yep, absolutely, which is why I have b things, huh,
I have?
Speaker 4: Yeah, because the swarm the swarm. Yeah, that's right. People
might not know what you meant.
Speaker 5: Well, you have to check out Stepsist to find out
about the swarm And if you want to be a
swarmy yes you can come to Swarmy Fest, but definitely
go see Undo the Horizon, Waiting, Abigail Sex Coffee, and
Stepsist tonight. That is such a great lineup yep. Yes,
and definitely very fitting for this month, during Women's History
Month to have all female fronted bands to entertain you
this evening.
Speaker 3: But I'm especially curious to see Stepsist tonight because I
and it didn't occur to me until we were sitting
here about to start the show. Last we knew, Uh,
Zachie b was no longer playing bass. I don't know
who's playing bass, So that'll be interesting.
Speaker 5: Due to medical reasons. Yeah, the step aside, WHI.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the last time they were on the show, we
talked about it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so Zak he was here, Yeah, yeah, I'm sure
we will see him. Oh, I hope so, but yeah,
I'm wondering what the configuration is looking. And they've got
some new music coming that they're going to be playing,
I'm sure. Yeah, and now they have keyboards. Yeah, Lexi
on keyboards.
Speaker 4: Yep, so that'll be.
Speaker 5: Tonight, screams and yeah, I mean it's they got interesting
vocals and that they are. They're basically three of them
that take in parts of the vocals, take lead on
parts of the vocals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that will be tonight. Uh we should mention too.
Speaker 3: So coming up, if you are listening live on Saturday,
in the second hour, we have per and Pores.
Speaker 5: I'm so excited for this.
Speaker 4: We'll be here.
Speaker 3: And then in the third hour we're gonna be talking
with loud George, another great band from the UK. Very
excited about that. We do have some music news in
the meantime. Should we start with the Taylor Swift part
of this?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 3: This involves Live Nation and Ticketmaster and lawsuits and controversies
and and as I always say, whenever we talk about
this stuff, you know, it seems like, uh, Live Nation
and Ticketmaster comes up a lot on the show when
we talk about music news and lawsuits and litigation and
Department of Justice investigations and so forth.
Speaker 4: They're always in the news. But this is the article
that you sent me.
Speaker 3: This is from UH Complete four Yeah, Complete Music Update
dot Com.
Speaker 4: Yep, this just this just went up a couple of
days ago.
Speaker 3: Taylor Swift and Barclays Center ticketing controversies prove monopolist Live
Nation is damaging live music. Department of Justice tells jury.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: The Live Nation antitrust trial got properly under way this week,
with lawyers for the US Department of Justice and the
Live Giant delivering their opening statements. Ticketing dramas involving Taylor
Swift and New York's Barclays Center were a key part
of the proceedings. So let's take a look at this. So,
according to this article, the concert ticket industry is broken.
In fact, the concert industry itself is broken, and because
both concerts and ticketing are controlled by a monopolist, and
that monopolist is Live Nation. Those were the bold words
of US Department of Justice lawyer David Dahlquist on day
one of the big Live Nation antitrust trial in New
York yesterday.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. Well, so this would have been the third
because this article law went up on the fourth a trial.
Speaker 3: The Live Giants, lawyers and lobbyists tried very hard, indeed,
to ensure what never happen. According to the DOJ, an
Attorneys General for forty US states. So forty US states
are participating in this Live Nation and it's Ticketmaster subsidiary
unlawfully exploit their market dominance at shows, venues, and ticketing
to the detriment of artists, fans, and the wider music community.
Live Nation strongly denies all these allegations, of course, and
it's now for a jury to hear arguments from both
sides and decide who is right. By the way, this
is a side note. It is surprising, and I think
we talked about this before that the Department of Justice
under the current administration actually cares about any of this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but they but they do so good.
Speaker 5: I'm happily surprised that that it is on the radar
because we've talked about this for years and the artists
are the ones who get ripped.
Speaker 3: Off well, and you know, the consumers well, I mean
we've talked about course that's the shady the shady practices
of uh.
Speaker 5: But it's like you always I always think about the
artists like they bust their took us as they go
from state to state, pilon and show and it's like
they get pennies on the dollar for the tickets. The
people are coming to see them, right, But it's the
people selling everything that make the majority of the money. Boy,
that sounds like healthcare.
Speaker 4: Well they make uh, they make the money on merch.
Merch is where the money is for the artists. It's
not on it's not on ticket sales.
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, it's not include it doesn't include ticket sales and
it should.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 5: There are some artists that try to rebel.
Speaker 3: So it says here from the off Dolquist and the
other Dave Live Nations legal Rep. Dave Marriott of Latham
and Watkins Watkins, ll P began the battle of the
stats because both Daves have stats to hand, uh to hand,
which they claim prove that they are right. Yes, both
sides are represented by Dave, both of whom claim the
stats back up their case, which isn't at all confusing.
According to DOJ Dave aka mister Dahlquist, the author of
this article was having.
Speaker 4: A little too much fun with this, Dave.
Speaker 5: That's a little too much.
Speaker 4: Little it's actually a little annoying. It makes a thing.
Speaker 5: It is not helpful.
Speaker 3: According to Dajo, DOJ Dave aka mister Dlquist, Live Nation
controls eighty six percent of large concert ticketing in the oh,
that's not a monopoly of large concert two No, not
at all in the US and seventy eight percent of
the country's amphitheater venues, which we can all agree sounds
like something we should be worried about. But of ticketing
at large, Ticketmaster has a forty percent market share and
for venues twenty percent. Live Nation Dave or mister Marriott
countered one of Live's Nation's key arguments is that the
DOJ is slice the entertainment market up into artificial segments
in order to make it look like the Live Giant
is much more dominant than it really is. It seems
likely that this stat bickering will continue throughout the trial,
though what jury's really like His stories and yesterday's opening
statements had two good stories to tell, which illustrate the
tangible negative impact of Live Nations monopoly or not, depending
on which Dave you believe.
Speaker 4: Story one.
Speaker 3: Once upon a time, there was an arena venue in
New York called the Barclays Center, and one day it
decided to change its ticketing provider from Ticketmaster to seat Geek,
except the next day, well about eighteen months later, it
switched back to Ticketmaster.
Speaker 4: So what happened?
Speaker 3: I mean, we know there was an angry phone call
involving Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino. But did Live Nation
actually use its dominance in arena level touring to force
the arena to return to its ticketing business or was
seat geek just not up to the task for providing
primary ticketing for New York's big arena venue. So, in
other words, you know, did Live Nation somehow strong arm
the Barclays Center and in doing so, did they potentially
do something illegal? So, getting back to the article, according
to DOJ lawyer Dohlquist, while management at Barclays Center wanted
to use seat geek for their ticketing, it became very
clear of that quote if they didn't use Ticketmaster, Live
Nation's touring division wouldn't send them any concerts unquote. So basically,
when Barclay Center moved its ticketing to seat geek, quote,
Live Nation punished them and they were forced to go
back to Ticketmaster unquote.
Speaker 4: Before we go.
Speaker 3: Any further, that raises a question, is that is that
where is the line between between just being hardball hardcore
business people. Where's the line between that and just being
outright predatory? And I don't know the answer.
Speaker 5: I think they crossed it a while ago. I think
they are predatory.
Speaker 3: Is is that but that example, specifically, Okay, you're not
going to use our ticketing business. We're just not going
to send you anymore because we're this powerful. We're just
not going to send you any more big shows, right?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 4: I mean? Technically, are you going? Is your order here?
Your coffee order? Yes, okay, Jenny's going to get her
coffee order. But I just but I just I pose
that question, like, like.
Speaker 3: Where is the line between you know, just playing hardball
and actually doing something that would be considered predatory and
therefore potentially illegal or at least leaving you vulnerable in
some sort of civil action. I asked that question. I'm
not a legal expert of any kind. Uh So I
don't know the answer. I'm just asking, and I guess
you know it's subjective. But okay, getting back to the article.
Speaker 4: But the Live Nation chief.
Speaker 3: Never threatened to stop concerts being promoted by his company's
Story division from being staged at the New York Arena
and the Barclay Center ultimately returned to Ticketmaster quote not
because of any threats, but because seat geek fell down
on the job unquote. Okay, story number two. Once upon
a time there was a singer called Taylor Swift who
decided to sing some of her songs on an airas tour.
She appointed Ticketmaster to send her tickets, but on the
day the tickets went on sale, Oh to sell her
tickets rather, But on the day the tickets went on sale,
everything crashed, resulting in a lot of very angry Swift fans.
I remember that we talked about that on the show,
Oh Dear. But here's the question. Did it all go
wrong because the Live Nation ticketing company got complacent because
it enjoys a virtual monopoly over concert ticketing and as
a result failed to build a decent it infrastructure. Or
was the demand for Swift's tickets, including from dubious bot
using ticket touts, at an unprecedented high and there isn't
a ticketing platform in the world that could have copied
in those circumstances. By the way, I tend to think that,
you know, I mean, if anyone has the necessary infrastructure
to handle the demand for a big tour like that,
it would be Live Nation and Ticketmaster, right, So probably
the there just isn't a ticketing platform in the world
that could have handled that without crashing. But I do
remember we covered that on the show. Okay, continuing on
with the article, well, according to Dohlquist, the Swift debacle
was simply emblematic of a company that has little competitive
incentive to build a consumer friendly ticketing product that is
fit for purpose. He said, quote, their technology is held
together by duct tape. They have prioritized growth over maintaining
their systems unquote. And by the way, that's very common,
very common in business. A lot of tech companies or
companies that rely on tech will do that, you know.
They they they're so focused on growing and growing and
growing their market share that maybe some of their infrastructure
is left to not keep up with what they're trying
to do, and they you know, and sometimes websites crash
as a result of it.
Speaker 4: It happens. Okay.
Speaker 3: So Marriott countered that, yes, the Taylor Swift launch was
a debacle, and Ticketmaster never has denied that fact.
Speaker 4: But this was the single largest on sale ever for
her tour.
Speaker 3: Taylor Swift and the cyber attacks by touts and other
rogue parties created challenges that no other ticketing company could
have dealt with.
Speaker 4: Any better.
Speaker 3: The Barclay Center bust up and Taylor Swift the Taylor
Swift on sale are likely to be referenced throughout the trial,
with the DOJ keen to present these events as tangible
proof of live Music's monopoly problem, while Live Nation will
insist these are instead incidents that have been misrepresented. Ultimately,
the case swings on whether there is enough evidence to
show that Live Nation routinely ties its venue management, tour promotions,
and ticketing services together in a way that specifically violates
US laws at a federal or state level. Though a
jury is involved, the stats and stories will likely be
a key part of the narrative as the proceedings progress
and the two daves present their respective arguments. Okay, now
we have a second article.
Speaker 4: That kind of.
Speaker 3: Expands on that because it's directly related to that. Now,
this is from Digital Music News, which is one of
my favorite websites to get music news from. Check this out,
and it's got kind of a provocative title to this article.
What is Live Nation retaliation insurance? You don't want to know?
That's that's the title of this article. Yeah, yeah, so
you know, because we're talking about Live Nation and there
what could be considered predatory business practices. Okay, and again
this is from Digital Musicnews dot com. Former BSEE Global
CEO John Abemont. I should have pre read this, Abamandi,
I think isn't the only one to deliver testimony that
Live Nation retaliated when his venue explored a compelling I'm sorry,
a competing proposal. Here's the latest with the federal antitrust lot.
So again, this referred to the article. This refers to
the lawsuit we were talking about in the other article.
With the federal antitrust trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster
in full swing, venue owners are testifying that Live Nation
weaponized major tour dates to keep them from switching their
ticketing to a competitor.
Speaker 4: Again, like seat Geek, the Barclay Center tried to do.
Digital Music News.
Speaker 3: Covered testimony from former BSE Global CEO John Abamandi relating
to a planned Billie Eilish show at the Barclay Center
that Live Nation allegedly rug pulled. Now Mitch Helgerson, chief
revenue officer for the Minnesota Wild, has lobbied so I'm sorry,
has lobbed similar allegations against the Live Events Juggernaut. According
to Helgerson when is Music Venue explored a proposal from
Live Nation competitor Seat Geek during contract negotiations, a Ticketmaster
executive warned him that Live Nation could just move its
shows to a competing ve Helgerson called this a credible
threat and noted that losing those shows would have been catastrophic.
And again, I just raised the question, is that is
that just hardball, hardball business tactics, or is that does
that cross the line?
Speaker 4: Is it predatory? When Sekhek heard the news, they were
apparently keenly aware of Live Nation strategy, offering the wild
what it literally referred to as a Live Nation retaliation insurance,
that is, a promise to compensate the venue if concerts
were pulled. Well, good on see Geek for stepping up,
I guess, but how do you uh, how do you
even do that? Though?
Speaker 3: How how could they put like, if all these events
are pulled, how are they going to compensate the venue?
Speaker 4: Interesting? But even with that, getting back.
Speaker 3: To the article, but even with that offer, and even
though the Sea Geek proposal would have ranked would have
raked in an additional million dollars a year for the venue,
the while hockey team ultimately chose to stay with Ticketmaster.
Speaker 4: Still, the most damning part.
Speaker 3: Is that if seat geek has a policy it refers to,
even colloquially as Live Nation retaliation insurance, then the company's
reputation as a monopoly seems correctly placed. Of course, Live
Nation has fervently pushed back against these allegations. In the
similar ones posited by Abamandi on cross examination, there was
a lot of emphasis on the complexity of switching ticketing platforms,
that seat geek had real usability shortcomings. In that Abamandi's case,
he already had personal relationships with seat Geek execs. However,
none of this explains why the Billie Eilis show in
New York ended up twenty miles away after so called
thinly veiled frets from Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Nor does
it explain why the Minnesota Wild would leave a million
dollars a year on the table if not out of
fear of retaliation. It's only been the first week of
the trial, which is expected to last about six weeks.
Time will tell if the jury ultimately agrees with the
government's assertion that Live Nation has in fact becomes such
a dominant force that it can essentially bully the rest
of the industry into taking a knee. But if Abamandi
and Helgerson's testimonies are any indication, the first week isn't
looking good for Live Nation. So that is from Digitalmusicnews
dot com. And again you know the Live Nation and
Ticketmaster there. For as long as I can remember, this
is not a recent thing. For as long as I
can remember, they've always been in the news attached to
some sort of controversy investigation, very often over over predatory
business practices or alleged predatory business practices. One more little
bit of a piece to this. This is not directly
relate to this specific trial, but this is from Music
Businessworldwide dot com.
Speaker 4: It does relate to ticketing.
Speaker 3: Music industry groups push us Senate to Titan Ticket Act
and cap resale fees at ten percent. So this is short,
but this will kind of put a put a cap
pun fully intended in this case on this what we've
been talking about this morning. So again this is from
Music Business Worldwide dot com, one of my favorite websites
for music industry news. By the way, this is another
great site if you're interested in this stuff. A group
of music and live music Organizations is pressing the Senate
to titan federal ticketing legislation, arguing that the current version
of the Ticket Act is insufficient in protecting fans.
Speaker 4: The fix.
Speaker 3: The TICS coalition, led by the National Independent Venue Association,
wrote an open letter to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation calling for changes to the Ticket Act. The
letter was addressed to Chairman Ted Cruz, ranking Member Maria Cantwell,
Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, and ranking Member John Hickenlooper. They wrote, quote,
when federal policy falls short, fans pay the price. They
lose money and cur unnecessary travel costs and waste time.
They missed the show they planned around, and they often
blame the artists, venue, or team rather than the reseller
or platform that misled them. Meanwhile, scalpers and speculative sellers
assume none of the risk and face few meaningful consequences.
Unquote and by the way, just to just to you know,
remind people if you don't know when we're talking about
resellers and scalpers, you know there's all these we call
them the secondary market. Very often, when these tickets go
on sale through Live Nation and Ticketmaster, you might notice,
and this has been going on literally for decades. Shows
seem to sell out, big, big tours, seem to sell
out very very quickly, And you might ask yourself, how
is it possible that these shows sell out so quickly,
even with the Internet, how can so many people log
on and buy so many tickets at once? Well, very
often it's it's it's these resellers, these secondary market ticket sellers,
who buy up a lot of tickets and then once
the show is quote unquote sold out, now, all of
a sudden, these secondary market resellers, Oh they've got tickets
at a significantly higher price, but they've got tickets for you.
So it is a form of skelping. They are, it
is a form of scalping. They use bots to buy
up tickets. Ticketmaster, for their part, they have policies that
you can only buy so many tickets at a time.
But as we've discussed on the show, it is no
secret that those policies are not necessarily consistently enforced by
the very technology that is supposed to prevent scalpers and
bots from buying up all these tickets at once. So
it's a dirty business. The ticketing business is a dirty business.
Speaker 5: I can remember when I was a kid, going with
my mom and camping out on the sidewalk in a
line with other people outside a ticket master, waiting for
the moment that the door would open. And back in
the day, the only way you could buy tickets was
in person or on the phone, so it was harder
for scalpers. They still did it.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they still did it, but it was.
Speaker 5: Harder on them because you only had those two avenues.
And you know, I did this with my mom. We
went to see Prince. It was the most amazing experience.
But nowadays, with the technology, they should be able to
tell like, okay, IP address, we've got bots here because
so and so. You know, there's like four bots in
here buying X number of tickets at the same time
from the same IP address. But that doesn't necessarily happen.
And do they really care? Do they really care? Because
what they want is a fast buck. They want the
biggest profit that they can get. They want every ticket
to sell. Absolutely. So as long as they're selling, hey,
they're meeting their their margins. You know, they're making their profit.
And the heck with the venue, you know, to heck
with the with the band, to heck with the people,
because you know it sounds like healthcare. You know, it's
the big guys. These guys have multimillion dollar salaries. They
make a ton of money. You know, there's shareholders that
they make a ton of money. And it's always about
how much more can you make me? How much more
can you make me? Because it's never enough. Then, you know,
million dollar profit not enough, make me more? Five million
dollar profit not enough, make me more. That's what happens.
And they don't care. I don't believe that they care.
And the reason I say that is because I can
remember for all of my adult life, this has been
a topic consistently. There's been core case after corek, There's
been DJ investigations nationally as well as states. We've been
talking about this and hearing about this for as long
as Ticketmaster has existed. Yes, yes, and they have consistently
gotten away and found way is to skirt around the
laws that they have the monopoly on sales of tickets.
Speaker 4: Period.
Speaker 5: They just do. That's a fact.
Speaker 4: Even Pearl Jam had to back down in the nineties
when they tried to.
Speaker 5: They tried, they tried, and they're not the artists that
have said, well, I'm not going to sell my tickets
to them because I don't like the way they do business.
And they try, they try, but then they end up
having to go back. Why because all the venues are
using that and they're not giving them there's no alternative
way for them to do it. That they get to
hold this monopoly. They have a stranglehold on ticket sales.
And I find it interesting. Did you get to the
bottom part. I don't know if I missed. Did you
get to the bottom part of that article?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: About halfway through?
Speaker 5: Oh, okay, I'm going to hold off on my additional comment.
Speaker 3: Okay, so yeah, a little bit more to this again.
This is from Music Businessworldwide dot com. So it says
the push comes over a month after a January twenty
eight Senate Committee Herey Subcommittee hearing where Blackburn led a
panel of lawmakers and pressing Live Nation to do more
to clamp down on ticket scalping. Live Nations Executive vice
president of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Dan Wall was present
at the hearing, alongside musician Kid Rock and other stakeholders
the coalition, whose signatories include the Recording Academy SAG. After
a event, Bright and American Federation of Musicians and more
than a dozen other organizations said the bill contains gaps
that bad actors will continue to exploit. They wrote, quote,
the Ticket Act is a step forward, but without a
complete ban on speculative ticketing and forceable limits on resale
pricing and fees and robust end to end price tream transparency,
bad actors will continue to exploit gaps in the law
at the expense of fans and communities. On pricing transparency,
the groups are demanding disclosure of the base ticket price
and every associated fee to appear from the moment a
customer selects a ticket, not just at checkout.
Speaker 4: Quote.
Speaker 3: Not requiring ticket price and ticket fees broken out in
a is a shortcoming of the Federal Trade Commissions all
in Pricing rule, and we are looking to Congress directify
it unquote. On speculative ticketing, the coalition is called for
a prohibition without exception, they wrote, quote, as multiple witnesses testified,
tickets that do not exist, are not in the seller's possession,
or are marketed through so called concierge or seat saver
schemes are not a service. They are deception unquote and
predatory tend to agree.
Speaker 5: Predatory as well. Yeah, you're desperate to go see somebody
and something like that pops up, you snag it. You
don't even Sometimes people don't even realize how much they
got ripped off until later on when they find out
what the prices truly were, or they talk to somebody
else and they got geez, I spent three hundred dollars
more than that? How come? Whoa conchier's service? It really isn't.
It's just a fancy word for a scalper. It really is.
And the problem has been consistent in that every time
there's legislation to try and regulate this issue, it gets
defeated or it doesn't even make it for a vote.
You know, I'm hopeful that Okay, the DJ is actually
on this and forty states out of fifties awful lot.
You know, should in Congress do something when this has
been a consistent issue time and again, bill after bill
of trying to rain this in to make sure that
you know, people aren't just getting ripped off because the
system doesn't isn't is still not protective of the consumer
and the artist. It protects the scalper more than it
does the consumer. And the artist because the safeguards aren't in.
Speaker 4: Place, it says here.
Speaker 3: The letter also calls for deleting the bills services permitted
provision and proposes direct by the Act so that a
ticket issuer, oh quote, a ticket issuer, secondary market ticket issuer,
or secondary market ticket exchange that does not have actual
or constructive possession of an event ticket shall not sell,
offer for sale, or advertise for sale such an event
ticket unquote. The third demand is for a ban on reselling.
This is the important part of this whole thing.
Speaker 5: Isn't this weird though? That you have to create a
band to say you can't sell something you don't have.
Speaker 4: I know, right, that's wild. Yeah, that should be a.
Speaker 5: Basic consumer law. How do you sell something you don't have? Right?
Speaker 4: Right? That has a loophole.
Speaker 3: The third demand is for a ban on reselling if
tickets above the original total cost, and for a cap
of all resale fees no more than ten percent quote.
Across the country, fans are being priced out of live events,
not because artists or venues raised prices, but because resale
markets allow unlimited markups and excessive fees divorced from any
added value or risk. A federal prohibition on resale above
the original total cost, combined with a strict cap on
resale fees, would directly address price gouging, align incentives toward
real fan access, and ensure that tickets end up in
the hands of fans, not industrial speculators. A companion House
bill HR fourteen oh two pass House of Representatives with
overwhelming bipartisan support in April twenty twenty five, and was
placed on the Senate calendar in September.
Speaker 4: S two eighty one. The Senate's own version remains in committee.
So there you go.
Speaker 5: So if that's not bad enough, then you have all
of the quote unquote threats yeah, to the to the
venues that there's accusations of yeah, you know, like about
the Billie Eilish part. Oh yeah, where the what was it?
The show is in New York. The show was supposed
to be in New York, but it ended up twenty
miles away. After there was some kind of a thinly
veiled threat from Live Nations slash Ticketmaster, because I remember
Live Ation and Ticketmaster are the same thing, right, they
really are. It's not two different things. These are They're
own by the same people, just two different flags. They
sit underneath. So if you're going to Live Nation, you
are buying from Ticketmaster, period. Right, So don't think that
those terms aren't aren't interchangeable, because they are. Or wherein
they talked about the Minnesota Wild would walk away from
a million dollar deal out of fear of being retaliated
against by Live Nation Ticketmaster. Right, you know, so if
it's not bad enough, what we just said is already
happening to consumers. This this other side. It's almost like
a mafia attitude with ticket sales. These companies are like, yeah,
you must come to the dawn to get permission to
sell this or something like right, because it is you know,
if you're not selling your tickets through us, we're going
to threaten to never sell your venue's tickets again.
Speaker 4: You will get nobody.
Speaker 5: You know. This is it's it's beyond wrong now. It's
it went from the from being a monopulate to now
being a mafia. I'm sorry, but that's how it is.
It's if you're if people are afraid, that's yeah, the
fear is coming from that. It's it's ridiculous. We've been
saying this for years. This is not about the free market.
The free market isn't fixing this. That's making it worse.
What will fix it is to have regulation that doesn't
allow because we have to apparently create a new law
because apparently existing law doesn't prevent somebody from selling something
they don't even have. Yeah, I know, I am selling
a hundred tickets to this concert at a three hundred
dollars market concierge and I haven't even bought the tickets yet. Well,
I don't even have them in my hand yet.
Speaker 3: The only thing though, that does that does happen in
other sectors. I mean, you know, well even in the
music industry, like you know, artists will you know, put
things on pre sale that aren't necessarily available.
Speaker 5: Yet, you know what I mean, they have their own tickets,
that isn't But I just mean, like you can, you know,
sometimes you can buy a single or thing. Yeah that's
an orange. I don't either sell it. You're selling something.
Speaker 3: But I'm just that you have you have it, but
you might not have it yet, is what I'm saying.
So you might be working on something that you're or
if you're crowdfunding something a project or something.
Speaker 4: So there are other examples.
Speaker 5: Huge difference to that in saying I have one hundred tickets. No,
I agree, and I don't actually have the tickets. And
that's what the article is super clear about, is that
in a lot of these secondary markets, they're getting their
hands on nothing but your money, right, and then they're
getting this huge markup, and then they just take a
small portion out of your money and go and actually
buy the ticket you could have bought for that price,
but they swindled you. And these companies get get better
and better at it. In any industry, you'll see, like now,
when you go in and put in a search for something,
they're buying sponsored spots that get them to pop up
to the top. And most of the time we click
on what's the first thing we see, right, pay it.
Don't do that anymore. Take a look at it. Always look.
This is what I do now is I always look
at what comes up first, and I look for the
word sponsored, so I know that's a yes, at least
it's labeled.
Speaker 4: But you can look for that same thing if you
google something.
Speaker 5: Right exactly look for that word sponsored, and then you
know that person paid to have that there. It's not
that they came up first because of ratings or because a.
Speaker 4: Problem with that, especially since it's labeled.
Speaker 5: I'm just saying pay attention, yeah, because that's just because
it comes up first, doesn't mean that's where you should click,
you know, check out what comes up down underneath the
sponsored stuff. The venue itself could potentially be selling tickets, right,
you know, like the box office in Conquered, they don't
they sell them right at the window.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can.
Speaker 5: You can go and buy a ticket in person at
their window. You don't have to go through ticket Master
or a Live Nation.
Speaker 4: To do that, right, Most venues still do that at least, Yeah.
Speaker 5: So look for that. Yeah, don't just snag that first one.
Watch out for those sponsored Those are ads. They're trying
to get you to click on them. Yeah, So take
a moment to Peru's and if you can have the
option of buying directly from the venue or the artist,
do it, right, Absolutely do it because that way, you know,
the money is actually going to go back to the
artists and the venue. Actually, like these places are actually
making the money versus Ticketmaster buying it. And right, yeah,
you're basically feeding the multi millionaires that fly in private
jets that they don't want to fly with you on
commercial flight because they don't want to fly with the peasants.
This is who we're up against, these giant people who
have multi you know, they have giant houses, billionaires, and
it's all about increasing that profit for them more and
more and more and more and more. It's never going
to be enough. So we have to curb this by
encouraging this kind of legislation to protect the artists and
to get the money to go where it really should be.
The bands that pay, you know, they pay in their
blood and sweat from thousands of hours of practicing and
go to put on a concert. You want the money
to go to them as much as possible, So look
for the options before you go and buy from Ticketmaster.
If there is an alternative that is directly from the
artist or directly from the venue, that might be a
better bet for your dollar, and it might be better priced.
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