Kid Rock isn’t afraid to speak his mind about what’s troubling him.
Now he’s taking off the gloves against one of the worst aspects of concerts.
And Kid Rock called for one major change to concerts had music fans jumping for joy.
A ticket to virtually any major concert or festival is going to come from Ticketmaster or its parent company, Live Nation.
They’ve come under fire for charging outrageous fees for ticket sales and botching the sale of tickets to concerts by Taylor Swift, Tyler Childers, and Beyonce.
That’s why the company was grilled by Republicans and Democrats during a Senate hearing last year for its business practices.
Kid Rock calls Ticketmaster a monopoly
Musician Kick Rock appeared on the podcast This Past Weekend with Theo Von where he revealed that he reached out to politicians in Tennessee about taking action against Ticketmaster.
“I’ve actually talked to several of them about really taking a hard look at Ticketmaster. They have a monopoly. And even though I make a lot of money for them and I love the people at Live Nation – we’ve done great business together – I’m like, this is f***ed up. I’ll be the first one to admit, I’m overpaid. There’s no reason to make this much money. But I can’t control it, because the market dictated, and Ticketmaster,” Kid Rock explained.
Kid Rock explained that Ticketmaster is making a fortune from reselling tickets to its concerts.
“They made over a billion dollars in the secondary market last year. That means if you buy a ticket and go to a concert, you’re their worst customer,” Kid Rock said. “They want that ticket to resell, and resell, and keep getting that money on it.”
The resell market for tickets to major concerts like Taylor Swift sees fans pay a massive markup to get in the door.
“And I know people that do this that used to work at big banks, with Goldman Sachs, they do this full time and it’s nothing illegal. They go on . . . and they buy as many tickets as they can to like 10, 15 of the hottest shows in the world, and they just resell them for a markup. And they’re making more money than they were being at a huge bank,” Kid Rock stated.
Congress needs to act to protect consumers against Ticketmaster
Kid Rock said that politicians needed to take action against Ticketmaster unless the company does the right thing.
“We need these politicians to change it, or they need to straighten up. Ticketmaster needs to do the right thing. Because they’re claiming it’s the right thing, this ‘verified fan’ and all this s***, but guess what? The artist don’t get any of that. It’s f***ing highway robbery . . . And Joe Biden’s out there talking about like, ‘Oh, we got it under control.’ All he did was make them print what the fee is. Not change it. No, you just gotta tell people where you’re f***ing them. All you gotta do is put that on there. It’s bananas,” Kid Rock said.
Musicians revolting against Ticketmaster could be the first step to seeing a worthy alternative arise as competition.