The Modern Ticketing Industry: Ticketmaster’s Past, Present, and Beyond
This case focuses, in particular, on the issues raised by the 2010 merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster Entertainment to form the conglomerate Live Nation Entertainment (LNE). The two companies became involved in artist management, venue management, and event ticketing. Ticketmaster (via LNE) dominated the market in the 2020s, selling some 500 million tickets annually to customers willing to spend their hard-earned dollars. In this study, students will learn about the many fees added to the face value of ticket prices in both the primary and secondary markets. They will also be exposed to the practice of dynamic pricing used by Live Nation and Ticketmaster in both the primary and secondary markets. Students will be presented with the answer provided by the AI ChatGPT bot when asked about the morality of a dynamic pricing strategy for live event ticket sales. They will then have to take a position for or against the breakup of the quasi-monopolistic Ticketmaster division of the LNE conglomerate.