This Injustice Must End: The Ticketmaster Monopoly

The Consumerist » Uncle Sam Cool With Live Nation/Ticketmaster Monopoly:
Time to break TicketMaster’s monopoly?
More on Ticketmaster’s legal ‘ticket scalping’ | AEIdeas:
The Ticketmaster Monopoly - Geek.com Stuff - Geek.com:
'via Blog this'

Above are links to sites where others have posted and made information available about the ridiculous injustice that exists in the United States of America today.

 Ticketmaster has a monopoly on the ticketing of music and entertainment events all across the country. If you want to go to a concert for your favorite band, you have to go  through Ticketmaster to get those tickets. Now I say this because even if you go to a different company that will purchase the tickets for you, they have to go through Ticketmaster to get those tickets.  What's truly sad about this is that our government can see and knows that this is a monopoly but refuses to make any moves to change it.  Why this is, baffles me.   I don't want to assume corruption or bribes through campaign contributions or just negligence on our state legislature-rs, but and answer needs to be found and changes must be made.

   I have a frame at home that holds all of the concert tickets for the shows I have attended since I was in High School.  Almost every single one of them has the Ticketmaster logo on them. Many of them were purchased through ticket-vendors around town. The more recent ones were purchased online. Which is always, even if going through my favorite bands website, routed to Ticketmaster.
   The ticket prices are usually acceptable amounts that I'm willing to pay. I don't even go for different then general seating because I usually can get great seats. What is ridiculous is the charges that come after the ticket purchase; Convenience charge, Handling charge, etc... In the end you've paid for your ticket and your halfway to paying for a second ticket. Plus the amounts are not even reasonable considering the amount of people attending these events. I can understand service charges for purchasing online but the amount is completely unreasonable. Even if the show doesn't sell out, Ticketmaster is making a gigantic profit just off of the additional charges. What's worse is that if you average out how many concerts are held every year and you add up those additional charges, Ticketmaster keeps that for themselves and doesn't share with the performers or the venues.

   More than anything else. The people are the ones who are screwed out of their enjoyment. This all comes back harder on the people who have to pay to go to the show. There is the enormous price on the tickets, then the high prices for food and drink at the venue as well as parking and transportation to the venue.  Ticketmaster can be placed as the Primary suspect for the current state of the Entertainment and Music Concert Tours that go one throughout the country today.  All the prices for the shows are stemmed from Ticketmaster not sharing it's profits with the partners of its ticketed events.

  What's worse is that Ticketmaster takes jobs off the market that could exist as part of the normal consumer market.  Ticketmaster is the only game in town when it comes to ticketing for events.  If there were 2 or 3 companies that could offer tickets besides Ticketmaster, there would be a major change in how the economy of concerts and events was handled. First off, if you look at the size of Ticketmaster's employment; slice it in half and you see how many jobs would be available if another company existed in the market.  That's around a 1,000 jobs right there. When Live Nation was started, it looked like a change in the concert music scene. Many were hopeful that Live Nation would finally change how Ticketmaster did business and force them to change their ways.  But then Ticketmaster's partnership with Live Nation took that all away.

  It is a classic story of how a single company has used and abused the people for it's own selfish needs instead of the promotion of entertainment and art in our country. The only way this story ends, is that the people need to stand against this tyranny and force a change for the betterment of our economy and our low job rates. By forcing Ticketmaster to break up it's company and release Live Nation as a independent ticketing vendor, will we see a change in the amounts we have to pay for events as well as a change in how these events are handled.
 This only happens if you make that change. So go online and post your opinion. Contact your state official's and refuse to use Ticketmaster for your concert going needs. Before change can happen, you have to push for the change.

My letter sent today to Illinois Representatives Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk

 Below is a letter I sent today to my state representatives in Illinois, requesting their support for: 

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

 

This information came from posts on Facebook and online at several blogs and forums. After reading it I realized that this needs to be passed on as far as it can go so that all United States citizens can contact their state representatives in Washington and help protect their rights.

Sir,
  As you know there is a new 28th amendment to be voted on soon. I would like this to be pushed forward. "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ."
 
The article below disturbs me and I'm afraid that the people of the citizens, including my self, have been taken advantage of for too long by the unfortunate self-serving politicians in Washington.

I challenge you to read this and NOT have the will to pass it on to all your friends!

No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense..

Monday we learned that the staffers of Congress family members are exempt from having to pay back student loans. This will get national attention if news networks will broadcast it. When you add this to the below, just where will all of it stop?
This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on.

This is an idea that we should address.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed while citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.

If each person that receives this will share it, in three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ."
By: Patrick J Hunt

  These kinds of actions that the politicians in congress have been passing amendments for their own needs and not the needs of our Citizens as well as the members of our armed forces is unforgivable.
 I'm hopeful that I can count you as not someone who would support legislature that benefits all citizens and not just you and your fellow politicians. As with our men and women in the armed forces of the United States of America, Service is it's own reward.
 Thank you for your attention,
Tom Shields