Bruce Springsteen has angrily spoken out against ticketing giant Ticketmaster after fans were redirected to a ‘scalper’ site owned by the corporation.
Tickets are sold on the site TicketsNow by licensed brokers, as well as individual sellers, and all tickets are 100% authentic.
The debacle with Springsteen began when consumers attempting to buy tickets on Monday (February 2) for two of his shows were directed to the more expensive tickets sold on TicketsNow, almost immediately after the tickets went on sale. The tickets listed on TicketsNow were three or four times the price.
Springsteen responded to the situation in a letter in which he assured fans that he was as angry as they were about the scam.
He said: “We were as confused as you were, as we were given no advance notice of the major changes in the Ticketmaster-TicketsNow world. (Bear in mind that we are not clients of any ticketing company, and that all those arrangements are between venues and ticketing companies).
“Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice.
“We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest…TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.
“There are rumours that some artists or managers participate in Ticketmaster charges – we do not. There are rumours that some artists or managers are receiving a percentage of the amount above face value at secondary outlets like TicketsNow – we do not.”
The latter also warned fans that a possible single-system of ticketing between Live Nation and Ticketmaster would also be detrimental to fair ticket pricing.
He added: “A final point for now: the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing. Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives.
“The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours.
“Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team.”
Ticketmaster issued an open letter of apology to Springsteen and his team, saying it was “genuinely trying to do the right thing for fans in providing more choices when the tickets they requested from the primary onsale were not available.”
The company says it “clearly missed the mark” and “to make sure there is no misunderstanding in the future, we also publicly state that we will never again link to TicketsNow in a manner that can possibly create any confusion during a high-demand on-sale”.
–By our New York staff.