During a recent discussion with Theo Von, Kid Rock voiced his discontent with Ticketmaster‘s dominant control over ticket sales, emphasizing his reservations regarding the company’s fees. Despite his advocacy for capitalism, the musician asserts the necessity of curbing Ticketmaster’s fee structure.
He said: “I just saw Eddie Vedder recently at an event, and PEARL JAM was the first people that really went down this rabbit hole. And I just talked to him briefly. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m kind of going down that rabbit hole again.’ If you wanna get on board…’ ‘Cause this needs to be – You know, he’s obviously liberal and you know where my politics stand but I go, ‘This is something where I think we can get together on.’ Because we’re doing this for the people. For fans. Try to make things better, you know.”
Ticketmaster faced significant criticism in 2022 when certain tickets for Bruce Springsteen and THE E-STREET BAND‘s tour were sold for over $5,000, attributed to surge pricing.
In response to the backlash, the company stated that less than 1.3% of tickets sold exceeded $1,000. However, fans and artists continue to denounce its monopolistic pricing tactics up to the present.
PEARL JAM started a conflict with Ticketmaster over ticket charges back in 1994. They aimed to limit additional fees for their shows to $1.80 on top of the $18 ticket price, but the company declined their request.
Consequently, the band ceased collaboration with Ticketmaster for their tours, resulting in an estimated loss of about $2 million. However, they eventually reached a compromise in 2022.
