Live Nation Kills Convenience Fees for Certain Concerts

[sjmike]

Live Nation, a major player in the live music scene, announced that it will sell tickets to several summer amphitheater events without the notorious, widely-misunderstood service charges that charge people large sums of money for the privilege of doing a bit of light cashier work.

For the 24 hours starting Wednesday at 12:01 am in each time zone, fans can visit LiveNation.com to purchase lawn tickets to outdoor shows by Coldplay, No Doubt, Def Leppard, Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, and other headliners, paying only the price of the ticket. On subsequent Wednesdays this summer, other shows will be available without fees.

Live Nation says it’s doing this because its business is healthy, and “summer concerts are great escapes for tough times,” as Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino put it. Another reason might be that the company currently seeks regulatory approval for a merger with Ticketmaster — and when people think of Ticketmaster, they think of how much they hate those “convenience” fees.

“We’re having a great summer, but we also wake up every day living the same realities that every American does, which is it’s very tough, tough economy out there,” said Live Nation global music CEO Jason Garner, who pulls in $1.3 million per year in salary and bonuses. “We wanted to take one day this year and then really give back to music fans, and make it a little bit easier for them to connect with artists they love. Wednesday, June 3rd will be the single largest sale in the history of the concert business — five million lawn tickets for our amphitheaters.”

While we’re on the topic of convenience fees, please bear with me as I clear up a big misconception. Live Nation and Ticketmaster are not the only parties who profit from these fees. Rather, convenience fees and other service charges are split between the venue, promoter, band, manager, record label, and/or other entities. Although it might be fun to blame Live Nation and Ticketmaster for the fees, it would be more fair to divide your displeasure between those parties.

I asked Garner whether Live Nation, with or without Ticketmaster, has plans to explain these fees to consumers, so that they know who to blame. But he seemed not to mind that the confusion exists, because that way, fans blame Live Nation for the fees, rather than bands. “I don’t know that the music fan understands it or not — I don’t know if they should. I think it’s our job to figure out the best way to connect the music fan to the artists they love. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the future (with these fees), but I do know that this is a nice, positive step in the right direction. We can’t do it everyday, but on June 3rd, you can get a ticket with no fees. That’s never been done before.”

Here’s a list of shows you can attend this summer without paying convenience fees, if you buy your lawn ticket(s) from Live Nation on Wednesday:

• * Aerosmith
  * blink-182
  * Coldplay
  * No Doubt
  * Nickelback
  * Depeche Mode
  * Toby Keith
  * Brad Paisley
  * Crosby Stills & Nash
  * Crue Fest 2
  * Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick
  * Jason Mraz
  * Kid Rock & Lynyrd Skynyrd
  * Incubus
  * New Kids on the Block
  * Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction
  * Phish
  * Rascall Flats with Darius Rucker
  * The Allman Brothers Band
  * The Fray
  * The Killers

[King_Nothing]

It's too bad more than half of those acts are complete jokes.
But I hope this is a step in the right direction, do away with bullshit fees.

[maidencolorado]

It's too bad more than half of those acts are complete jokes.
But I hope this is a step in the right direction, do away with bullshit fees.

I don't think that's their intent. They are trying to make themselves look generous, especially with the merger looming.

Live Nation says it’s doing this because its business is healthy... ...CEO Jason Garner, who pulls in $1.3 million per year in salary and bonuses.

At $8.00 per ticket in bs fees and $6.95 shipping for what should cost less than $0.50, I guess the company is doing OK. I'm glad that a lot of shows I attend either have bands sell the tickets or there are other outlets for them without the insane fees. Unfortunately, you want to see a bigger act, you've got to deal with these guys.

[King_Nothing]

It hurt this year getting AC/DC, Metallica & Slayer/Megadeth tickets via Shiticketmaster. I bet if I add it up there is over $200 in BS fees spread out across the 8 tickets I bought for all 3 of those shows.

Metallica x4
AC/DC x2
Slayer x2

[even13flow]

Yeah it's a step in the right direction but lawn only seats? That's not where I wanna be.

[maidencolorado]

^^^

Exactly. Now that I've had a bit to think about it, the shows I've been to recently haven't sold really well on the lawn. You've got your people who will get lawn for anything, but given a choice, I'm in the pavilion. Another ploy to try to sell the tickets that aren't otherwise selling. Gotta figure they'd rather eat the convenience overcharges than not sell the ticket at all.

[Bob Garage]

(IMO) its nothing more than a stunt to sell tickets to shows that are selling poorly.

Sonisphere @ knebworth has done the same thing. Tickets are selling extremly poorly and so they've dropped the booking fee in an attempt to sell more tickets.

Live Nation may claim that "business is healthy" but in the current financial climate people are going to less gigs than before and the dropping of the fees is an attempt to tempt back those cutting back on gigs.