Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said recent ticket sales for Oasis’ 2025 reunion tour were the “biggest sales in history” and the “highest demand in history.”
While attending the Bloomberg Screen Time conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday (October 9), Rapinoe also revealed that Live Nation’s ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, was attacked by “billions” of bots during sales.
He also said that scalpers were selling $6,000 Oasis Show Tickets – Even before tickets officially go on sale.
Bots — high-speed, automated programs that buy large quantities of tickets as they go on sale — have been a problem for the live music industry and music fans since ticket sales became an online business, with Ticketmaster often taking the blame when regular ticket buyers discovered Tickets for one concert were sold out within minutes of going on sale.
“They’re a $12 billion professional enterprise trying to grab seats. So it’s an arms race where we’re trying to stop them, keep them in the door, keep them from holding tickets,” Rapinoe said.
To that end, Ticketmaster has taken steps to stop bots, including requiring ticket buyers to register in advance before tickets go on sale.
Last year, Rapinoe said Ticketmaster’s efforts to stop bots were behind the collapse of the ticketing system. Taylor SwiftA journey through the ages.
Much like that incident, recent Oasis ticket sales have drawn dissatisfaction from fans and criticism from Ticketmaster. Many ticket buyers were dissatisfied with the “dynamic pricing” system used to sell tickets for Oasis UK shows.
Dynamic pricing adjusts ticket prices instantly based on demand. In the Oasis pre-sale, the price of some tickets more than doubled during the pre-sale period.
Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model is now the subject of an investigation by the UK’s competition authority.
Earlier this month, Oasis announced it would not use dynamic pricing in ticket sales for next summer’s North American tour.
In X’s statement, the band also said Ticketmaster’s system may not be able to manage the dynamic pricing of high-demand tours.
“When unprecedented demand for tickets (tickets for an entire tour may be sold multiple times when they go on sale) is combined with technology that is unable to meet this demand, it becomes less efficient and can result in an unacceptable experience for fans.” The band’s X account name.
Rapinoe, speaking at a Bloomberg conference, said Ticketmaster’s system handles Oasis ticket sales well.
“We have the best platform in the world. It’s very difficult when there are 10 billion bots attacking your system [the start of sales] Stealing your votes… I’m glad the system isn’t broken. We stopped them. We’re done.
Here are three more things Rapinoe said at the Bloomberg conference:
Scalpers sold $6,000 in Oasis tickets before they went on sale — here’s why the secondary market needs reform
Rapino and Live Nation have long pushed for reform of the secondary ticket market — an industry term used to describe ticket resellers such as scalpers and reseller platforms such as stub hub.
Rapinoe proposes a rule limiting the price resellers can charge for tickets 20% higher than the original ticket price.
“For fans, spending $4,000 is frustrating Bruce Springsteen Say, ‘You know what, I just want to charge $300 for the front row.’ But no, the fans won’t pay $300 to get it, the bots will, and then they’ll charge you $3,000,” Rapinoe said.
Oasis tickets are being sold on the secondary market, he said $6,000 Buy them even before they become available. This is the result of “speculative ticketing” – resellers selling tickets they don’t even own yet, assuming they’ll be able to get them (perhaps via bots) when they go on sale.
“you go Seat Geek or StubHub, like “Buy Now!” Tickets are limited! They didn’t even have tickets…so the fans were confused,” Rapinoe said.
(Speculative ticketing is now a focus for lawmakers: Last spring, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Transparency in Ticketing Charges at Critical Events (TICKET) Act, which would, among other things, ban speculative ticketing.)
“You shouldn’t have a middleman who has no investment in the business[ing] Get any money out of it.
Michael Rapinoe, Live Nation
Rapinoe has long argued that the solution to the problem of bots and scalpers is to raise prices to a level the market will bear, as other businesses have done — but he recognizes that this is unrealistic in the live music industry .
“If you really want to solve this problem, just charge the market [prices]. Then there will be no second chance. Well, artists don’t do that because they’re worried about their fans. So they’re going to sacrifice revenue, which is unheard of for a business,” Rapinoe said.
“You shouldn’t have a middleman who has no investment in the business[ing] Get any money out of it. so we will like [to] Regulate it in a sense, with a cap of 20%. some people can [still] “Make a little money,” Rapinoe suggested, but artists and promoters will get “the biggest piece.”
Artists are brand managers, and “as a brand manager… you can’t charge $3,000 to sit in the front row and watch your fans. The problem is, scalpers and everyone else do that,” he said.
“That artist is checking SeatGeek and StubHub every day and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, some scalper made four bucks and I paid all the fees, and I, the artist… they have to pay Ninety percent of the meaning of life comes from roads, so this is their financial business.
Rapinoe says the challenge for artists and the live music industry is “finding that line” [concerts are] Accessible, [where] Fans feel [the artist]”.
Artists don’t feel like they’re cheating fans, but prices are rising, “which creates a lot of social news and tension… What’s the right price?” [where] Can you supply and keep fans happy?
Without the Ticketmaster acquisition, Live Nation wouldn’t exist today
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster came up during the conference.
Rapino and Live Nation argue that their businesses are not monopolies, noting that Live Nation does not enjoy the huge profits that monopolies can extract from the market and that Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices.
But at the Bloomberg conference, Rapinoe made a unique argument for why Live Nation’s acquisition of Ticketmaster was a good business move: If Live Nation hadn’t made the move, he said, it might not exist at all today.
Before the Ticketmaster acquisition, Live Nation was a relatively small company, and “promoters weren’t talking about us. You didn’t even need to answer my phone,” Rapinoe said.
“If I hadn’t bought Ticketmaster 12 or 13 years ago and continued to be a middleman … I wouldn’t be here today.”
Michael Rapinoe, Live Nation
“When we started building, I said to the board, ‘Man, we have to go direct to consumer,'” he said. If Live Nation remained a B2B business, “we would be screwed. The artists would take all the money.” [so will] Who knows the customer best…”
“If I hadn’t bought Ticketmaster 12 or 13 years ago and continued to be a middleman…I wouldn’t be here today. Our business would have ended because as a single-minded promoter, you can’t survive. You A business needs to be built.
“We have 900 sponsors. If I didn’t own the customers, didn’t own the data, didn’t know the customers, I wouldn’t have 900 sponsors… So I’m proud of the path we’re on.
Live Nation won’t be entering China anytime soon
In recent years, Live Nation has focused on expanding beyond its home market of the United States, aggressively pushing into Asia and Latin America, where the company has been building its own venues — a lack of suitable venues for those who create There is a “gap” for artists that the company can fill.
At the Bloomberg event, Rapino pointed to some markets where he believes Live Nation has above-average potential for the future, namely Africa and India.
“We think Africa is going to be a big industry,” he said.
What about India? “We just sold out Lollapalooza for the first time in Indian history. Three Coldplay stadiums in one second.
“I don’t want to do China… they won’t let most artists in because they censor all the lyrics. Not a good business.
Michael Rapinoe, Live Nation
He points out that in these developing markets, concert ticket prices are now comparable to those in Western countries.
“It used to be [that] Maybe you can participate in these markets, but your fees will be much lower. But now, “these stadiums are generating almost the same total revenue as Detroit… There’s demand from consumers in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East. The pricing is there.”
“Other buildings don’t exist… We talk about buildings because most countries have football stadiums. They don’t have NBA, NHL teams, so they probably don’t have arenas and they don’t have any great venues. But that’s coming.
As for the markets Rapinoe doesn’t want to enter?
“I don’t want to be China. It’s too difficult,” he said. “They won’t let most artists in because they censor all the lyrics. Not a good business.global music business
