Kid Rock meets with Donald Trump’s Attorney General nominee with plan to “open a can of whoop ass” on gig ticket industry
Kid Rock has met with Donald Trump’s Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi to take aim at the current state of the concert-ticket industry.
The ‘All Summer Long’ singer took to his official Instagram page and shared a photo of him alongside Bondi, explaining that he plans to work closely with the Attorney General nominee and the whole administration to work on the current issues surrounding ticket purchasing.
“What a treat to break bread with our soon to be Attorney General @pambondi,” began the caption of his post. “I look forward to working with her and the whole administration to help fix the fiasco of buying concert tickets. Gonna open a can of whoop ass on the bots, scalpers, venues, ticketing companies, managers and artists alike who rip off and deceive the public with the horse shit that has gone on for decades and only gotten worse.”
He continued: “Whoever in charge that wants to help fix this, get your ass to the table, otherwise, Fuck Around and Find Out. Kid Rock #MAGA”
Ticketmaster has been at the helm of controversy these past couple of years. In 2022, during the sale of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour concert tickets, the ticketing services provider revealed that the website experienced “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets to the North American leg of the ‘Bejeweled’ singer’s tour.
Swift went on to respond with a statement that read: “Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans. […] It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse. There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.
“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
That same year, Ticketmaster introduced their dynamic pricing scheme which goes on to increase ticket prices based on demand. The company has clarified on their website previously that tickets that are “market-priced” and “may increase or decrease at any time, based on demand. This is similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold.”
Fans who were attempting to purchase tickets to Bruce Springsteen‘s 2023 tour shared their complaints with the dynamic ticket pricing, with some trying to score tickets being asked to pay up to $5000 (£4152).
At the time, Ticketmaster went on to defend the model saying that only 11.2 per cent of the Springsteen tickets sold were platinum, and only 1.3 per cent were $1000 (£830) or more. They also said the average price for a Springsteen ticket was $262 (£217).
Back in April, Live Nation – the parent company of Ticketmaster – was sued by the US Justice Department after they claimed that the concert promotion and ticketing operations have undermined competition in the live music industry.
The story was first reported in the Wall Street Journal, and alleged that following the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the enterprise has gone on to control more than 80 per cent of the market for ticket sales in the US, meaning that it has become a monopoly.
In response to the report, Live Nation’s head of corporate affairs, Dan Wall, argued that the company in fact has more competition than ever. “If you have to hone in on one slice of the market in order to allege a monopoly, then there isn’t one,” he said.
In other news, Kid Rock previously shared a message following Donald Trump’s election victory and said it was “not the time to gloat”.
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Anagricel Duran
NME
