Speaker 1: NHS.
Speaker 2: Sorry for the words I said, Sorry that you were
a mislead. Sorry, but you won't.
Speaker 3: Believe I could ever change.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 4: Bridges burned.
Speaker 2: Bridges burned, and I can return cortics, and I.
Speaker 1: Can't go back.
Speaker 5: Oh my life.
Speaker 1: So lesson learned.
Speaker 4: When bridge is burned, When bridges burn.
Speaker 2: Take me back to yesterday, take away my sorrows, Give
to me my dreams today and all my tomorrows.
Speaker 1: Because I can't go.
Speaker 2: But I can't go back, and what I've done I
can't retract.
Speaker 6: But there's allways a lesson learns when bridges burn.
Speaker 4: And bridges burn.
Speaker 3: Feeding too forgotten all our memories, but my heart won't let.
Speaker 2: Them break away from me.
Speaker 7: If by chance you think of me, if I cross
your mind, I wish I could turn back the hands
of time. I wish I could turn back the hands
of time.
Speaker 1: Because I can't go on.
Speaker 2: But I can't go back, and what I've done I
can't retract.
Speaker 1: But there's always some lesson learns.
Speaker 4: When bridges burn and bridges burn, take me back to yesterday.
Take away my sawbrows. Gift to me my dreams today.
Speaker 2: And all my tomorrows, cause I can't go on. But
I can't go back. But I've done, I can't retract.
Speaker 1: But there's allways a lesson learn.
Speaker 4: When bridges burn, bridges bird.
Speaker 6: Yes, there is allays a lesson learn when priges burn,
bridges burn, silver lining in the clouds.
Speaker 1: What do you have for me?
Speaker 8: What a beautiful voice? Linda Avelinda, and that is called
bridges Burned? And I believe we have Linda with us
via the phone. Hello, Linda, Hello, how are you good?
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 9: Uh?
Speaker 8: Yeah, we were, Yeah, wonderful, wonderful voice you have. Tell
us about Well, let's let's start here. So first of all,
how do you say your last name? I want to
make sure I'm saying it correctly.
Speaker 10: Oh, you're saying it correctly, Linda?
Speaker 8: Okay? What was your was Avelinda? Or avea? Linda? But
where are you from? Linda?
Speaker 10: I am from Long Island? Are you up Nasall County?
Speaker 8: Okay? Okay, okay, very good, very good. So tell us
about that song, because I I strongly suspect a song
like that there's usually a story, right you don't You
probably didn't just think one day I'm going to write
a song about bridges Burned and the consequences of that,
and and you know the rumination that comes with that
when you're looking back. Is there a story behind the song.
Speaker 10: Yes, there's always a story behind all of my songs. Yeah,
this is the first one that I'm releasing. So this
story came about because somebody who I know said that
he's changed a lot over the years, but nobody believes him.
And he didn't say bridges burns, but automatically I thought,
you know, he burned a lot of bridges, you know.
And so all of my storngs start out with one line,
and if I could sing it to a good melody,
I just keep singing and singing in until the next
line comes. The next line comes. So it started out
with the first lines of the song, the first line
of the song, sorry for the words I said, And
then it just kept going from there.
Speaker 8: Now are you so are the lyrics from your own
point of view in dealing with this person or are
they more from his point of view? Are you writing?
Are you writing the song from the point of view this,
this person who is sorry for the thing?
Speaker 10: Yes, I'm writting the song from the point of view
of that person.
Speaker 8: Gotcha, gotcha? Now have they heard the.
Speaker 10: Song, yes, and it resonates with them. Okay, and I've
played it for you know, my friends and everything. And
one other person said that, wow, this person is somebody
you know this song it's just it tells a story
about somebody's life who he knows, you know, a woman.
So I think, you know, I guess we've all burned
bridges big and small in our lives, and I think
this song probably resonates with a lot of people.
Speaker 8: Well that's what I was thinking too, because obviously that's
very relatable. Everybody has. You know, sometimes people will say, oh,
you know, I live my life with no regrets or
you know, but we all have regrets and we all
have things that we look back on, whether there are
family relationships, friendships, romantic relationships, you know, or professional relationships
where maybe you you you burn a bridge out of
out of pride, you know, you don't want to admit
that maybe you were wrong about something, or or you
just didn't have the emotional maturity to handle the situation
or whatever it is, and then you kind of look
back and you go, wow, I really I really pushed
some people away or wrecked some relationships that in hindsight,
I probably shouldn't have, So I think we can all relate.
Speaker 11: To that, right, definitely.
Speaker 10: Definitely.
Speaker 8: Do you have a lot of people who've heard the song?
I mean, I know it's it's been out for a
short time, but I mean, do you have a lot
of people tell you that they can relate to, Like
they can think of specific instances from their own lives
that they can kind of could connect with the lyrics.
Speaker 10: Oh, definitely. They don't get into specifics, but they said
that they the song resonates with them, and you can
relate to the song.
Speaker 8: Now, the person who the song is about, who inspired it?
So you said they like the song? Do they do
they realize it's about them?
Speaker 10: H yes, I told that person that it was about them.
Speaker 8: Okay, they don't.
Speaker 10: Want me to share their story specifically, right, right, person
knows that that song was inspired by you know, the
person's wife and what they said.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, it's it's good that it's good that you've
got a positive reaction because sometimes that can that can
really I can really backfire. Like Jenny, remember we uh
one of our conversations with Nancy Manet, she she did
a whole basically, you know a lot of one of
her albums is about her experiences with family members. Yes,
and when they hear the songs, they get angry with her. Yep.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, So you never know how that
might go. Now, this is so this is the first
single that you've released online.
Speaker 10: Yes, it's the first single that I've released online. I
started writing songs and lyrics late in life. I have
absolutely I don't play an instrument. I really have kind
of no musical background. I mean to go background was
kind of an elementary school, raising my hand as high
as I could to try and play that triangle. Remember
that triangle in school? You know, I never got picked of,
you know, either that or I got the rhythm sticks instead.
And then years ago I had a boyfriend and he
was a music teacher, and he got me into writing lyrics.
I you know, I've always been interested in writing. My
major in college was creative writing, but I never envisioned
that I would ever write a song. So I started
writing the lyrics. He would do some music, and then
we broke up, and you know, at the end, he's like,
I wanted to just sing your lyrics into the song
into your phone. So I'm like, okay, well these words
keep coming. What am I going to do now? So
I kept singing my lyrics and my songs into my phone,
and then I went and there was a guitar teacher.
I'm like, oh, maybe I'll learned how to play guitar
late in life, but that's really hard to do. So
they kind of turned into me bringing in my lyrics
and saying, hey, what do you think et cetera, et cetera,
And then I would just show up for the guitar
lessons with no guitar. I know you're ever going to
bring the guitar. I'm like, no, I have all these songs.
Speaker 8: Interesting. So then so that guitar teacher did they help you?
Did they help you develop these songs?
Speaker 10: Well, I kind of wanted I just wanted to, you know,
sometimes not with this song. This one kind of came
out just as virtually it is, But like other songs
that I just you know, I just wanted to learn
the format. I kept changing key when I was I
didn't know the rules of the songs of what you know,
song ran evens about. So I learned a little bit
about that. Not that to say that I don't break
the rules or anything, because I don't know them well enough,
which is a good thing, I think. But this song
pretty much came out, you know, the way it was.
Speaker 5: It is.
Speaker 8: So I'm curious how you learned to sing, because, like
I said, you have a beautiful voice. I mean, are
you self nowhere? When when you were talking just now
nowhere did you mention any kind of voice lessons? I mean,
how did you learn to sing? Are you self taught?
Some people the voice is like the one instrument where
some people are just you know, and it is an instrument, right,
it just happens to be a part of us physically.
But the voice is like the one instrument where some
people just seem to be able to to conduct that
instrument naturally without any training. Is that the case with you?
Speaker 10: Well, yes, I can't play an instrument, never had a
formal you know, voice lesson or anything. But sing about
when you write your own song, you're singing them to
what feels good and comfortable to you. You're not singing
somebody else's song to the songs that I've written. I'm
singing it, you know, to suit my own voice.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so you so, so you're naturally able to sing
that way? That's like, how how did you. I mean,
did you realize that about yourself from a young age
that you could sing? Or is that something that kind
of came as you were starting to write these songs
and bring them to your guitar teacher and say, hey,
what do you think? I mean?
Speaker 12: Is that?
Speaker 8: Is that something you always knew that you had or
did you develop that more recently when you started really
getting into writing.
Speaker 10: Yes, I never knew I had, you know that you know,
would be able to sing. Yeah, so when I started
singing my songs into my phone. Initially, when I found
out about this producer was just wonderful Voodoo v U
z U Studios in Port Jefferson and Long Island. I
sent him my song which I recorded. Over the song,
I'm like, well, you know, I'd like to hire a singer. Yeah, YadA, YadA.
He's like, no, you stayed in tea and that's really
hard to do with new music. It's like, we could
work with you. Oh wow, Okay, I'd rather sing my
own songs, of course, I would rather sing, But I
never even dreamed about it. I was all set to
hire a singer.
Speaker 8: How cool is that? Though, Like to get that kind
of validation where you're going into a situation where you're like,
I have the song, I want to hire someone to
sing it, and then the producer says, you know, why
don't you sing it? You know you're you're good enough.
You know the way you sing it is great. Why
don't you do it? I mean, that must have been
that must have been a pretty affirming moment for you.
I would imagine it.
Speaker 10: Was shocking and pleasantly surprised that he thought that. Yeah,
I'm like, okay, well, I'll give it a try, and
what's the worst that can happen if it doesn't sound good,
I'll hire a singer, right anyway.
Speaker 8: You know, yeah, Oh that's fantastic. So that studio they
did all the the the what's the name of the
studio again, Voodoo.
Speaker 10: It's stilled the like Victor, you like Umbrella, d like David,
you like Umbrella?
Speaker 8: Okay?
Speaker 10: Studios in Port Jefferson, Okay, okay.
Speaker 8: And then, uh, now have you just recorded the one
song there? Or do you do you intend to because
obviously because I assume you're going to be recording more
singles in the future.
Speaker 10: Yes, I have about four others that are ready to
be mastered.
Speaker 8: Oh excellent, Yes, and I never know.
Speaker 10: I'm always thinking, okay, though, that might be the last
song I'm writing. And then and then a lot of
my songs they come from either something from someone has said,
like this song, it could be a mishurt lyric. I'll
get a line and it's totally miss hurt lyrics. And
then I'll set the radio off right away and I'm like, okay,
I've been driving the car. That's when you get your
best ideas. I'm like, yet light, red light, and you
want it to last really long, the red life of course,
when you wanted to last only just it turns green
right away, right, And so I either put recording, you know,
my phone on and start singing it, or I have
a pad and paper next to me and start writing it.
So my best ideas come when i'm driving and you know,
it's hard to write things down, and when i'm doing dishes, Yeah,
I'm doing this very bad days that like I'm starting
to do that. This is something will come to me
and I have plans and literally I have to sit
down until the words stop, you know, because if you
put it off until later, they're gone.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good a good problem to have, though,
that you've got all these ideas, and so you've got
so you've got four more that you're planning to record,
and then so do you intend to h they recorded,
they're just ready to be mastered. Oh there, Oh they're
already Oh they're already recorded. They're ready to be mastered.
Oh that's fantastic. And will these will these be? Will
these be released as singles? Or do you intend to
put out an EP or an album or what's what's
kind of the long term plan?
Speaker 10: Well, I come, I'm just winging it because I don't
know what I'm doing. But uh sure, sometimes like going
to keep taking that next step and you figure out
as I go along. I guess I'll release them as singles.
Speaker 8: I guess, yeah, yeah, No, that's that's fantastic. You know,
we live in a time when you have so many
different options in terms of how you release music. If
you want to do an album, if you want to
do an EP, if you just want to do singles.
You know, some artists now they'll release a series of
singles that eventually coalesce into an EP or an album,
which is kind of the inverse of how it used
to be. You know, when I was growing up, it
was you know, the album and it would have a
series of singles. Now some artists are doing the inversion
of that, but you can you know, there are no
you know, you were talking about rules and breaking the
rules of songwriting, and you know, there's really no rules
to how you release music anymore either in terms of
I mean, there are things that you can do promotionally,
that you should do promotionally, but as far as but
as far as some sort of a schedule, uh, in
terms of how you release the music and in what format.
You know, there's you've got You've got a lot of
freedom now in the industry, uh, in terms of how
you do that. So uh, we will be uh, we
will be watching with great interest to see how your
your career progresses. Do you do you have any kind
of do you have any kind of an idea of
when the next single is going to be out? After
the mastering's done, I assume it'll be ready to go, right, Oh,
give this a.
Speaker 10: Couple of months, I think maybe before months, and I know, yeah,
release the next one.
Speaker 8: Yeah, fantastic, fantastic, thank you.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Did you grow up in New York?
Speaker 10: I grew up in Brooklyn. For thirteen years, and then
I moved to Queens, which is another borough in New
York City, Brooklyn and Queens. And then I moved out
to Long Island and just you know, a little more trees,
more parks and stuff like that. I really like Long Island.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, but it sounds like you're a real New Yorker.
You've you've been there, You've been there most of your
if not your whole life, right, yes, the whole life.
Speaker 10: Yeah, definitely a real New.
Speaker 8: New York excellent. Well, there's a lot of great music
that comes out of that area, So you're in a
You're in a good place, that's for sure. That's for sure. Well, Linda,
let's let me ask you this and again, congratulations on
the single Bridges Burned. And where should you know because
you are going to be releasing new music in the
future in addition to this, so where should people go online?
Where's the best place for people to go online to
keep up with everything that you're doing, so that so
that they know when when new new music is coming out?
Speaker 10: Okay, well, I am on Instagram at Linda Avalanda. I
guess because I literally just started Instagram three weeks ago. Okay,
had no online presence before releasing this. Oh wow, I
do have a I do have a YouTube video. Yes,
you have to put in probably my name first, Linda Avalanza,
then bridges Burned. If you do it the other way,
the things will come up. And my song is out
on all of the streaming services yep, so people can access.
Speaker 8: My song there, yep. Excellent, excellent. Well, you're off to
a great start. And when the next UH single is
ready to be released, I hope that you'll send it
to us and you know we'd love to give it
a spin here and have you back on to talk
some more.
Speaker 10: Well, definitely, thank you so much.
Speaker 8: All right, Linda Avalinda, congratulations again on the single and
we'll let you go, but thank you for joining us today.
Thank you all right, you got it, Bye bye, Thank
you you too. All right. That is Linda Avelinda again
if you missed it, we played her her new single
Bridges Burned, and I look forward to hearing more from
her in the future. If you are listening live, we
are live on WM and H ninety five point three
FM in Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. The date is August
twenty third, twenty twenty five and this is Matt Connorton Unleashed,
So I don't go away. We've got plenty more to come.
And at the top of the show today we did
a little the new single from Jersey Calling, a great
band from Philly, and this is We're gonna play this again.
This is called working Class Punk, and this is so
good and we're gonna have them on to talk about
it soon. But this is the first time this has
been played on American radio. Here we go. You're listening
to Matt Connorton Unleashed on.
Speaker 9: WM and H ninety five point three.
Speaker 8: And now the world radio premiere of the new single
from Jersey Calling. This is called working Class Punk.
Speaker 9: Why me at six am looks like got over, slept again?
Jud got me dressed in on the door in and
it's like trapping at its worst. Swear to God it
must be cursed joined.
Speaker 5: The resident of dailout.
Speaker 1: Was screaming, suns.
Speaker 12: Go work, go to work, Go to work, Go to work,
work so you can't feel the hurt till it makes
you go berserve.
Speaker 11: Go to work, go to work, go to.
Speaker 9: Work, go to head in the closet, your face covered.
Speaker 5: In dir go to work.
Speaker 9: The bun gives me a shout, says I'm just a
burnt out my altress to the confederations him down.
Speaker 13: So I say, hey, you're right, old man, flip.
Speaker 5: The burden of a ram. But there's now as get
a taste out of the love.
Speaker 14: That's a redo in my straining sounds that let that say, wow,
trying to tool.
Speaker 11: Go work, go to work, go to work, go to work.
Speaker 5: What do you get?
Speaker 12: Feel the hurtile it makes you go preserve go.
Speaker 11: To work, go to work, go to work, go to work.
Speaker 9: Head in the cloudst your race, cupboard and day, go
to work.
Speaker 5: Four three where you win? You Yeah?
Speaker 13: How that bo screaming south time that the s low we.
Speaker 5: By going that as of to.
Speaker 15: Go to work, Go to work, Go to work, go
to work, work so you can't feel the herd till
it makes you go berserk.
Speaker 11: No work, go to work, go to work, go to.
Speaker 13: Work, head in the clouds with your face covered in.
Speaker 5: Count and watch out the work got you work? What
do you get?
Speaker 16: Filin said it makes you come beside came walking doll
you way do you work?
Speaker 5: Work? And in my confid go face common in jockey,
don't go work. I got got a fading you.
Speaker 12: Somebody somebody to keep bott say to you know what's
coming in my bow?
Speaker 8: The lights up, bun, It's time to go.
Speaker 5: Why did I keep my playing?
Speaker 12: No Stephen began, y'all izob man wasted?
Speaker 5: Yeah no your car man die, y'all stopping sell the
why he even got up through the world, say.
Speaker 12: We'll come and geez, I'm starting some days to deal
in nothing.
Speaker 1: All aptide is going.
Speaker 17: Man, You're not to your car one days a monthday
feeling you start going to blain seat dealers.
Speaker 12: No waste against y'all be a slipping Yeah no your
come man.
Speaker 5: The gotta stop us settling.
Speaker 18: Ya yaga is all.
Speaker 16: Y'all, BA, saybody comes out of bust out this buddy,
yap brain.
Speaker 5: Still up it. I'll see if the same y'all gotta out.
Speaker 16: Y'all BA, let's stay buy jims outs like.
Speaker 5: This buddy, y'all braid see this same. I gotta be
you know, t't me take your boy.
Speaker 11: You know you're got.
Speaker 5: On shirt boy, got they got you want anything to
do that. I don't want to be like you.
Speaker 17: I recognize you from the persons should have known better.
She's found for a while now probably trying to go.
I said a lot of back chun.
Speaker 5: No way, Hill, don't wait, chow that ain't long, guy
that ain't long?
Speaker 11: No brody r.
Speaker 5: That ain't a long guy? How do you love? God?
Speaker 13: Can say, I ain't hit the reset, but I don't.
Speaker 5: Want to start.
Speaker 17: John said, ain't no, please start choke.
Speaker 5: Let me start like you start.
Speaker 17: Say he wasn't what your mont's said, Joy, John is seven.
Speaker 13: We can't waste some min and we want to waste
some minutes.
Speaker 5: Joy, some man, don't wait, chill that ain't Oh God,
how long.
Speaker 1: My black yard?
Speaker 5: Guy that ain't a long? Guy that ain't long?
Speaker 10: M h.
Speaker 7: I've got that sick jim feeling? What out off we
used to feeling.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do.
Speaker 11: I still love shop you.
Speaker 13: I got that sick.
Speaker 11: Jet figure out right down.
Speaker 13: No, I don't know what sometime so.
Speaker 5: No way that a long long? No body that ain't long?
That long?
Speaker 13: I got that, said Jeff very but I always to him.
I said, no, what so su sell?
Speaker 5: How they sell? Yow?
Speaker 13: We're back from the Grand Corners.
Speaker 11: All right.
Speaker 8: Matt Connorton Unleashed is live from the studios of WMNH
ninety five. Point three in Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And
of course you can stream the show from anywhere. Go
to Matt connorton dot com slash live for all your
live streaming options, social media links, contact infoshore, archives, et cetera,
et cetera if you are listening live. Today is Saturday,
August twenty third, twenty twenty five. Jenny is here of
course at the news table, President account and we want
to mention again a big event next weekend, a big
festival happening at the Strand Theater in Dover, New Hampshire.
Our friends in the band Vices Inc. They put this
show on every year, and this is August. It's three
days August twenty ninth, thirtieth and thirty first, so it
is Labor Day weekend. Let's see. I'm gonna give you
the full here. A lot of these bands have been
on the show. Let's see Vice's Inc. Of course, a
signal to noise. Sepsis, of course, we've had Sepsus on
many times. Trall they were on recently Scarecrow Hill, They've
been on euphemea jony earthquake band, Night Fury under the Horizon.
Of course we Love Under the Horizon, The Roscoes, Lions
and Lavender, Battle Mode, House Lights. They've been on the show,
The Shirts and Shoes, Alaska Angels, Let's See the Carrot Flowers,
Plague Dad has been on the show Love Plague Dad,
The Living Space, Boyd and the Monkeys, Willie DeNardo and
the corporates Mango, Cash, Manuel, Separator, Silver Cord, Mother, Nimbus, Trading, Tombstones.
They've been on the show Love Them, Decaine, Continuum, Cellar Door,
Crian Caleb was on just recently Fine Pioneer Brady's Grown
Up Time, The Joe Bilander, Shred Trio, Peter Gay, Adam Vatali,
Jake Hebert and twenty five percent Vegan. So doors open
on the twenty ninth at eleven am uh and then
Saturday also at eleven am, and then Sunday the thirty
first at noon. It is an all ages show and
you can go to vices Fest twenty twenty three dot
event brite dot com to get the tickets directly there,
or just go to vices fest dot com and vice
Fest twenty twenty five. So Jenny and I were invited,
but it's hard to already get away for a three
day festival with all of our other commitments like this
radio show for example. So but but we we do
support what they're uh, what they're doing. Oh and I
didn't realize this earlier too. There's also going to be
stand up comedy between sets provided by Jen Rose, So
comedian Jen Rose will be there too. That sounds fun. Yeah, yeah,
so I'm sure they'll I'm sure they'll have a very
successful event. So yeah, that's a big commitment to three days.
Oh boy. So speaking of events and ticket prices and
you know, we actually we kind of mentioned that we
didn't get into this part of it when we were
talking to Charles about WWE and uh, you know how
expensive it is with all the streaming services and everything,
but also ticket price is very expensive. And of course
when you buy tickets to go to a WW event,
you're going to be buying them through you know, Live
Nation slash Ticketmaster. There is some news now we've talked
a lot about over the past couple of years on
the show about tickets and ticket prices and how you know,
the monopoly that Live Nation has on ticket prices and
how expensive it is getting has become uh to go
see live shows digital Music News has a story up.
Major law firms seek class certification in Live Nation Ticketmaster suit.
Uh say, the companies used their decade plus monopoly to
raise prices, and of course that is nothing new. Everybody
in the industry knows that that goes on. It's very,
very difficult to compete with Live Nation slash Ticketmaster. You know,
it's the same company. The two names are interchangeable, and
when whenever anyone has tried, they haven't gotten very far.
I still remember, Jesus goes back a long time now,
But remember when Pearl Jam tried it, yep, and they
started working with I don't even remember the name of
the company they were working with, but they started working
with a different company I cannot remember. I can't remember either,
but you know, and they went and they testified before Congress.
A couple of the members testified before Congress about the matter.
But uh, the issue that they ran into was not
only they tried to use a different ticketing service. Not
only though does part of why Live Nation is able
to maintain their stranglehold on all of this is because
they don't just control the ticketing process, but they also
control a lot of a lot of these buildings. So
if you say, and by the way, this was pre merger,
but if you are you know, even a band is popular,
is Pearl Jam at that time? You know, this was
back in the nineties when this happened. If you decide,
you know, you're gonna flip the bird Ticketmaster and say
we're gonna do this without you, you've still got the
problem of they not only control the ticketing process, they
control the buildings. They have exclusive relationships with these promoters,
or even if they don't have exclusive relationships on paper.
You know, if you're a promoter, you do not want
to do something that's going to anger this organization, in
this case Ticketmaster, that you depend on, that you have
to work with, by suddenly you're putting on shows working
with this other company. So Pearl Jam ended up. They
had to finally give up, They had to give up
on the whole thing because and just go back to
working with Ticketmaster because they were running into a problem.
Not only was it you know, they're using this this
small sort of upstart company to sell their tickets, but
there's venues, all these venues they say suddenly can't play yep,
because Ticketmaster controls the venues. So it's very difficult to
break this monopoly and to break through. So here's what's
happening now. This is the latest. This story just went
up yesterday on Digitalmusicnews dot com, which is a great
site by the way, if you're interested in this subjector
or anything involving the music industry. Major law firms are
once again pushing for class certification in a high stakes
lawsuit centering on the alleged anti competitive business practices of
Live Nation and its Ticketmasters subsidiary. Let's see it says
here attorneys with Quinn, Emanuel, Erkhart, and Sullivan. That's a
mouthful as well as Keller Postman just recently asked the
court for class certification in the complaint, which technically dates
back to twenty twenty two. And I think we've talked
about this case specifically on the show. So back in
the twenty twenty two action, the plaintiffs maintained that Live
Nation and Ticketmaster had since updated their arbitration agreement in
ways that renders it unenforceable. Okay. Next part of this
fast forward passed multiple twists and turns to October twenty
twenty four, when the Ninth Circuit then upheld a District
Court ruling rejecting Ticketmaster's attempt to compel arbitration via quote
an arbitrator employed by a newly created entity, new era
ADR using novel and unusual expedited mass arbitration procedures unquote,
letting the October ruling summary take the wheel in the
interest of brevity. The relevant quote panel held that the
delegation clause of the arbitration agreement and the arbitration agreement
as a whole were unconscionable and unenforceable under California law unquote.
For this will all make sense eventually, we just got
to get to it, okay. So for a company Live
Nation in this case that's face and is facing a
number of suits from ticked off consumers, the development was,
of course significant. The promoter moved forward with a Supreme
Court petition as well, with Live Nations slash Ticketmaster lacking
quote the shield of an enforceable arbitration agreement unquote. The
Columbia Law Journal of the Arts summed up quote it
seems the plaintiffs are free to bring their antitrust case unquote.
Speaker 19: So just to clarify for people too, a class certification
is a legal step that comes before the actual class
action lawsuit. It's when you go to court and you
prove to the court that you've got numerous people, that
there's commonality between it all, that there's adequate representation, that
you meet all of the essential parts to go forward
with a class astion lawsuit. So this is a critical
for a.
Speaker 8: Step, right right, let's see. Okay, the next part of
this enter the initially mentioned attempt to secure class certification,
with a related hearing schedule to take place on the
morning of December fourth, so closer to the present. The
filing largely recaps the alleged consumer harm resulting from the
practices of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Okay, this gets to
the heart of the matter. Admittedly, as recent years have
delivered more than a few qualms with and suits against
the defendants, not to mention an ongoing doj antitrust action
looking to split ticket Master from Live Nation, the underlying
arguments don't exactly break new ground. The legal text reads,
in part quote to backstop their exclusive dealing, defendants have
leveraged their dominance in concert promotion to coerce venues. This
is what I was referring to earlier. This is a
problem Pearl Jam ran into to coerce venues into exclusive
ticketing deals with Ticketmaster. Major venues rely on concert promoters
to rent their space and sell tickets. Defendants exploit this
dependence by tying Ticketmaster services to Live Nation promoted conscer.
It's unquote. I mean, look, let's call it what it is.
They own. They own the concert industry. They own, they
own it, and that's the problem.
Speaker 19: Yeah, and then that translates into these enormous ticket prices.
I mentioned it earlier. The artist young Blood, he there's
an interview out there with him talking about how ridiculous
prices are and how he was really freaked out when
he found out that people who were getting up front
were paying three hundred dollars a ticket yeah to see him,
and he thought that was really grotesque. And a lot
of artists do. But they're stuck between a rock and
a hard place. You want to go to, you want
to do a concert, you gotta have a venue. And
if the venues got the exclusivity contract with Ticketmaster to
do all the ticket sales, you can't do anything.
Speaker 8: And even if there is no agreement, even if there
is no exclusivity agreement, they're still going to lean on you, right,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 19: And if that's where the venue is going anyway, like
that's where they're doing it. And it probably simplicity they have.
It's easier to put a concert up and sell the
tickets through them than it is for the individual venues
to do it themselves, which requires more employees or what
have you. So, yeah, they've used to be venues told
sold their own tickets years ago. Yeah, years and years ago,
But now that's completely pretty much unheard of. You you
got to go to a ticket math where else do
you go to get a ticket?
Speaker 8: I mean for small for you know, if you're a
small promoter like so so for example, we were just
talking about vices Fest. You know, you go to you
go to the vice's best website and you can buy tickets,
but you know through you know, because you do have
services like event right and so forth. But but if
you're if.
Speaker 19: You're a venue that doesn't put a requirement.
Speaker 8: On them, how the ticket right, it's the Strand and Dover,
it's not a you know, it's not an arena. But
if you're in an arena or even even a lot
of theaters, you know, this is this is what you're
dealing with, It says here. Ultimately, this alleged misconduct class
members those who bought tickets in or after twenty ten
and therefore coughed up quote associated primary ticketing fees for
an event at a major concert venue unquote, to pay
more than they would have in a competitive market. Per
the document, Live Nation and Ticketmaster quote used their decade
plus monopoly to raise prices, stifle competition, and output into
grade service quality by squashing rivals and innovation impacts that
each class member felt unquote. The filing says, can.
Speaker 19: We say grotesque greed again? It's the theme of the day.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, gro tesque greed. That's what it like.
They're not happy making money. They got to really take
every dime out of the person's pocket that they can get. Well,
it's it's sad, and it also disenfranchises so many people
from being able to see artists. Because you get spent
three hundred dollars on the ticket, it's gonna cost you
two hudred dollars for groceries for the week. So yeah,
you don't really have three hundred discs laying around for
the average Joe, The average working man is getting the
shaft on being able to go to concerts unless they
play for Nosebleeder Sea. It's you know, you get your
fifty bucks set up in the mesona behind a poll.
You can't see anything, but you can hear it.
Speaker 9: Right.
Speaker 19: Yeah, it's not about quality for the customer anymore.
Speaker 16: Is it.
Speaker 8: It also says here it'll be worth noting. I'm sorry,
it'll be worth tracking the push for class certification moving
forward right now. Discovery is ongoing and the plaintiff's council
reiterated plans to prove their arguments with, among other things,
testimony from Live Nation, ticketmaster competitors, and market participants to boot.
So that is from Digitalmusic News dot com. So that's
where that stands. But there's another element here. This is
from hypebot dot com, another site that has a lot
of industry related news on it that's very interesting. So,
and this just went up. This just went up a
last couple days. Could state attorneys general use RICO to
stop ticket scalpers and bots? Now the reason so part
of what and the other article didn't get into this
part of it, but part of what is so in
city and we've talked about this on the show. Part
of what is so insidious about the ticketing business is
how is the secondary market and how so? And there's
multi levels to this. But part of how that works
is scalpers buy up these tickets and then resell them
on their own sites ridiculous prices, right right. So so
now you can't get so now the show has sold
out through Ticketmaster, but now you can get it at
a much higher price on one of these secondary sites.
But here's the kicker. Some of these secondary sites are
literally they're actually owned by Live Nation.
Speaker 19: Stop it really.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we've talked about that on the show before. Oh yeah, yeah,
that's how that's how much they've rigged the game legal,
you know, until the Justice Department says they can't do
it anymore. No, it's it's all. It's all legal U
at least for now. So so this story is also
interesting because it talks about scalpers and bots. So again
this is from Hypebot. The Federal Trade Commission has filed
the lawsuit in federal Court UH in Maryland against Key
Investment Group, a ticket reseller operating under names like epic Seats,
total tickets, dot Com, and totally Ticks. The FTC alleges
that between November one, twenty twenty two, and December thirtieth,
twenty twenty three, the company used thousands of fictitious or
purchased Ticketmaster accounts, along with spoofed IP addresses, proxy networks,
virtual credit cards, and simbach setups to evade purchasing limits
on high demand events, including and we definitely talked about this,
including Taylor Swift's eras tour. Oh yeah, remember all the
controverts remember that now? Yep? Yep. All together the defendants
purchased three hundred seventy nine thousand, seven hundred and seventy
six tickets at a cost of nearly fifty seven million,
reselling many for approximately sixty four million. Notably, two hundred
seventy three tickets for one Swift concert were acquired via
forty nine different accounts, far exceeding the sixth ticket per
event limit. And by the way, just some quick math.
I'm not good at math, but that's that's what a
seven million dollar profit.
Speaker 19: Us ruin music for everybody else.
Speaker 8: Yep. The FTC alleges violations of both the Better Online
Ticket Sales Act or BOTS, which prohibits circumventing online ticketing
controls and the broader FTC Act prohibiting unfair or deceptive
business practices. Key Investment Group's defenses are likely to be
that the company employs human buyers, not bots, and therefore
the FDC is misapplying the Bots Act, and that the
lawsuit risks dismantling the secondary ticket market and ending competition
benefiting only major corporate players. Now so I'm guessing then,
So what that means is so Key Investments Group defense
will be, well, you know these fictitious accounts, these are
actual human beings operating the fictitious accounts, therefore is not
covered by the Bots Act. That'll be their defense. Let's
see the loophole. Yeah, a loophole exactly. The case is
part of an expanded federal court federal effort rather spurred
by an executive order from March twenty twenty five, issued
after President Trump met with kid Rock to promote transparency
and fairness in ticket resale markets and to curb predatory
resale tactics. Well that's something I support a blind dog,
that's right. The FTC's action reflects growing regulatory scrutiny of
ticketing practices that disadvantages ordinary consumers at both the federal
and state levels. Recall that the authors of the Obama
era Bots Act were recently complaining that the FTC had
rarely enforced that law. It seems unlikely that the FTC's
enforcement action against Key Investment Group would have occurred without
the broader policy momentum catalyzed by President Trump's executive Order
targeting ticket scalping and abusive resale practices. That order directed
federal agencies, including the FTCN, DOJ, to prioritize investigations and
enforcement actions addressing deceptive or anti competitive conduct in the
live events and ticketing industries. The executive like what you
said about a blind dog or a broken clock. The
executive order was followed by public consultation processes jointly initiated
by the DOJ and FDC to gather information on how
ticket resellers were impacting consumer access and market fairness. These
actions created a clear regulatory mandate to pursue high profile
investigations like the one brought against Key Investment Group. I
don't know if we have time to get through all
of this just a little bit more. We don't have
to think to go through the whole thing, but so
the elements of a recocase. So how does this become
a recocase racketeering? If the FTC case sounds like racketeering,
that's because it is. To make a reco case, Federal
or state prosecutors must show one enterprise a structured association
formal or informal, two pattern of racketeering activity, at least
two participate I'm sorry, at least two predicate crimes within
ten years, Three predicate acts crimes like wire fraud, mail fraud,
computer fraud, access device fraud, or identity theft. And continuity
conduct that is ongoing or opposes a threat of continuing harm.
The FDC's complaint practically hands this up on a silver platter,
multiple interlocking LLCs. You've got Key Investment Group, Total Tickets,
dot Com totally takes front Rows Tickets, WLKE Investments plus
individual managers provide the enterprise. The use of fake accounts, bots,
and deceptive transactions can likely be recast as wire fraud
and computer fraud. The classic reco predicates, and the continuity
is obvious. The complaint says the conduct has persisted from
twenty sixteen through today. So I'm gonna kind of skip
down here. Because we're running out of time. The FDC's
complaint seeks civil penalties and injunctions, but a state recoaction
could carry treble damages, asset forfeitures, and potentially criminal exposure.
That shift in remedies would change the incentives dramatically for
defendants who have so far treated civil finds as a
cost of doing business, and beyond punishment, it would send
a signal ticket bodying isn't just unfair, it's racketeering. So
there's more to the article. We don't have time to
get through the rest of it, but I encourage you
to check out hypebot dot com. Very interesting. And that is,
by the way, how a lot of businesses get around things.
Like you know, if something is is uh illegal but
not necessarily a crime, but just there are potential fines involved. Yeah,
you can say, okay, well that's the cost of doing
business if I have to pay this fine, but the
fine is well, that's the thing. It's like a tax
to them exactly if the fine is say okay, I
got to pay this two hundred thousand dollars fine, but
I made but I made seven million on the transaction.
Who cares?
Speaker 19: I paid a tax?
Speaker 8: Cost of doing this exactly business that's so terrible.
Speaker 19: So on that note, it's thee all these subsidiaries, it's
all the different versions of themselves.
Speaker 8: Yes, yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 19: And healthcare does the same thing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, there you go, there you go. All right, we
got to begin to wrap up. But thank you to
everybody who joined us today. Of course in the first
hour where were joined by scal a great band from
the UK, and the second hour Charles Richardson. Always loved
having Charles on. And in the third hour Linda Avelinda
and her new single Burning Bridges and really enjoyed speaking
with her or Bridges burned. I think actually, if you burned,
I think I'm pardon me. I believe I'm suffering from
adult onset dyslexia.
Speaker 10: So uh.
Speaker 8: Jenny, again, congratulations on the article on Common Dreams. If
you want to mention that again.
Speaker 19: Lei, I am proud to have my first byline on
Common Dreams. You can check out the article on their website.
You can also check me out on my website at
Jencoffee dot com j E. N N C O F
f Ey dot com. And don't forget the mosaic. Our
collective has an open call right now for art for
the Full Circus, Full Circus, Full Circle for the Full
Circle Art Show. The deadline is next week Saturday, so
get your pieces in love to see you on the
our alls. Check out mosaic Arcollective dot com.
Speaker 8: Very good, let's see, And of course you can go
to Gencoffee dot com for more information on Jenny. You
can go to my website Matt Connorton dot com for
more information on me if you want to keep up
with everything I'm doing. I do believe we're doing another
Tough Pumps podcast on Sunday, Eric Pilcher and I and oh,
I should let this out of the bag just quickly.
If you're a fan of Eric Pilcher's classic film reviews,
those are finally coming back, so we'll have more information
about that in the near future as well. All Right,
we gotta wrap up. If you missed any part of
today's show, it will be up in just a little
bit Wmnhradio dot org and of course at my website
Matt Connorton dot com. And that's it for us for now.
Did we forget anything? All right, We'll talk to y'all
a little bit later. Bye everybody, Bye.
Speaker 11: Bye.
Speaker 8: You're listening to macconnorton Unleashed on wm n H ninety
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