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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Dorian Lynskey

Who is behind the great rock’n’roll ripoff? How Ticketmaster swallowed the live entertainment scene

Illustration of the T in Ticketmaster as a man holding lots of money

Even Donald Trump knows that the price of concert tickets is too damn high. Recently, flanked by the preposterously dressed Maga rocker Kid Rock, the president signed an executive order to protect fans from “crazy prices” by cracking down on scalpers and hidden fees. “Make America Fun Again,” Kid Rock declared.

It will take more than an executive order to resolve the ticketing industry’s most intractable problems. Scalpers, anyway, are an easy target with few friends. The fact is that, with or without them, top-flight concert tickets have never been harder to acquire or afford. As customer experiences go, it’s the pits.

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