Grammy winning producer songwriter Jack Antonoff Slamed Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino’s latest claim that concert tickets are “underpriced”, calls the perspective “a sick way to look at it.”
In a post on social media, Antonoff marked a segment of Rapino’s comments on CNBC Sport and the Board’s Player Conference last week where he said,
“Music has been undervalued,” Rapino said, especially compared to sports. “In sports, I joke that it is like an honorary brand to spend 70 grand for a Knicks Courtside (seat). They beat me if we take out $ 800 for Beyoncé.”
He added, “We have a lot of track left. So when you read about ticket prices go up, the average concert price is still $ 72. Try to go to a Laker game for it, and there are 80 of them. The concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.”
Antonoff wrote: “This breaks my heart and is a really sick way to look at it. (The answer) is easy: selling a ticket for more than its nominal value should be illegal. Then there is no chaos and you give us back control instead of creating a bizarre free market for confusion among the audience that we love and care for.
“As always when I read such things, I call my people directly to think about new ideas around it,” he continued. “We will never stop doing it. It can be so simple if the people did not see the audience as a faceless group to blackmail money.”
Antonoff is best known as top producer for Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Lorde, Doja Cat and many others, but he regularly toured with the band paler.
Rapino made his statement just a few days before Federal Trade Commission sued Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster For what it called “illegal” ticket sales tactics. In the archive, FTC explained that the companies “quietly” with Scalpers that enabled them to “illegally buy” tickets to increase the profit.
Companies ‘illegal behavior frustrates the artists’ desire to maintain affordable ticket prices to suit the needs of ordinary American families and cost regular fans millions of dollars each year, “the mood reads.
The company is also sued by the US Justice Department to break the company over alleged violations of antitrust. The then lawyer Merrick Garland said in a statement that announced the mood: “We claim that Live Nation relies on illegal, anti -competitive behavior to exercise its monopolistic control over the live event industry in the United States at the expense of fans, artists, smaller promoters and arenoperators.”
Rapino has made such comments before. Last year he told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference that concerts are “extremely affordable” compared to sports events, with reference to statistics that “75% of tickets are under $ 100” and “half under $ 50.” In 2023 he told blogger Bob Lefsetz that artists could “charge a little more” for tickets.
The CEO’s choice of statistics seems to be selective. According to the industry trade publication Pollstar, the average fare for large tours reached record heights in 2024, an average of $ 123, with top tours such as Bad Bunny ($ 290), Justin Timberlake ($ 216), and Nicki Minaj ($ 149) Soaring well past Rapino quoted.
However, it is common for the ticket industry to be full of corruption, with scalpers and secondary ticket platforms that charge exponentially more than nominal value for tickets. Congress has tried many times over the years to force investigations into the industry, at little effect.
A rope for Live Nation did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
Living nation had moderately laid down a total income of $ 23 billion 2024, a slight increase above 2023’s $ 22.7 billion, which increased by 36% from 2022.
