Billie Eilish, Lorde, Dave Matthews and Julien Baker join 250+ artists to advocate for ticketing reform

Last week, almost 300 popular artists – including Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Cyndi Lauper, Dave Matthews, Goose, Julien Baker, and Lorde – signed a letter addressed to the Senate Commerce Committee urging them to support a bill that would reform the concert ticketing system.

The letter, part of the National Independent Venue Association’s Fix the Tix campaign, lists illegal bots, speculative ticket listings, and dishonest advertising as key issues harming relationships between artists and fans. “When predatory resellers scoop up face value tickets ahead of fans in order to resell at inflated prices on the secondary market, artists lose the ability to connect with their fans who cannot afford to attend,” states the letter.

This comes not two weeks in the aftermath of a Wall Street Journal article citing anonymous sources reported the US Justice Department’s intention to file an antitrust suit against Live Nation Entertainment. Although specific details haven’t been released, the lawsuit is expected to claim Live Nation leveraged its monopoly of the ticketing market to harm competition for live events.

While it is worth noting Live Nation has expressed past support for the Fans First Act, a piece of legislation introduced by Texas Senator John Cornyn that prioritizes transparent ticket sales and consumer protection, this new letter echoes scrutiny that Live Nation has received in the past.

Live music fans have been speaking out about the ticketing market since the 1990s, when artists like Pearl Jam famously took a stand against Ticketmaster; the Seattle grunge icons attempted to tour without playing Ticketmaster-affiliated venues. Criticisms resurfaced in 2010 when Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster to become the country’s biggest ticketing website and ticket promoter. In 2019, the DOJ revised and extended the 2010 agreement, providing additional restrictions on Live Nation through 2025 that blocked the company from coercing venues into using Ticketmaster.

The ticketing system made headlines again in 2022 during ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, when system failures, inflated prices, and astronomical secondary market prices left many fans unable to purchase tickets. This led to a lawsuit by Taylor Swift fans against the company alleging “unlawful conduct.”

In a 2023 hearing following the suit, the president and CFO of Live Nation Joe Berchtold defended the company’s practices, arguing that Live Nation is not responsible for setting ticket prices, nor does it determine the number of tickets available for sale.

The Taylor Swift ticket debacle is a well-known example of the issues lawmakers and musicians are calling attention to, namely limited vendor options and bots snatching tickets with inhuman speed that lead to inflated prices and barriers for fans to be able to see their favorite artists live. Although Ticketmaster claims to have measures against bots, it’s a common experience to arrive early to a presale only to find half of the tickets gone in under a minute.

So, where does this leave us? A cynical Reddit user jokes that we can expect an “antitrust defense fee” added to future ticket sales, but those in a more optimistic mood can hope that these movements mark the beginning of a change in the ticketing industry.

“As artists and members of the music community, we rely on touring for our livelihood, and we value music fans above all else,” states the letter, on behalf of all the artists who signed it.