Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and many liberal Democrats have two things in common, and perhaps only two: They hate the way concert and sports ticket sales work — specifically the company selling most of them, Ticketmaster — and they love Taylor Swift. Or, at least, they acknowledge that ingratiating themselves to Swift’s fan army as she sells out stadiums in their states is an efficient way to build up constituent support.
Over the past couple of months, Cruz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Massachusetts Sen. John Velis (D-Hampden and Hampshire) and others have presented a variety of bills intended to reform the ticket-selling business, invoking Swift and fans’ displeasure with Ticketmaster’s Eras Tour on-sale fiasco in November, when more than 100,000 fans were kicked out of the online sale queue. Following a Senate subcommittee hearing focused on Ticketmaster in January, politicians clearly see positioning themselves against the ticketing giant and attaching themselves to Swift’s millions of passionate fans as a winning combination. They’re even naming their bills after her.
“There’s a growing awareness of the problem, and the Taylor Swift concert debacle played a part in focusing a lot of attention on the issue,” Cruz tells Billboard, adding that his 12-year-old daughter recently attended an Eras Tour show.
That debacle, Ticketmaster declared at the time, was due to unprecedented levels of illegal bots attacking the online sale. But that claim did little to satisfy fans and politicians, who during a January Senate hearing instead chose to focus on monopolistic behavior by Ticketmaster and its owner, promoter Live Nation, often referencing Swift lyrics between swipes at the company. Since then, the rhetoric has changed slightly. While politicians continue to scrutinize the concert giant — Klobuchar says the Department of Justice is investigating Live Nation and Ticketmaster for possible violations of their 2010 consent decree — senators and congresspeople at federal and state levels are proposing solutions to potentially more manageable issues.
In Massachusetts, Velis and his co-sponsor, Rep. Dan Carey (D-Easthampton), have introduced what they nicknamed the “Taylor Swift bill,” which aims to abolish hidden ticket fees and require sellers such as Ticketmaster and SeatGeek to disclose service charges and costs upfront. A similar law already exists in New York state, and Live Nation actually supports the issue — including it in the company’s own proposed legislation outline. “Taylor Swift obviously sells out every concert,” Velis says, “but she’s also got this support ecosystem that lends itself to, ‘If you want to do something about this, why not use something that’s absolutely going to get the public’s attention?’”
But at a time when opposing Ticketmaster is good politics, one source in touring suggested politicians do not want to be seen aligning with the corporate giant. That political strategy may even be holding back legislation on other subjects where there’s popular consensus. Other bills, like the one Klobuchar and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced in April, limit exclusive deals with venues and therefore more directly target Ticketmaster.
Velis said he and Carey plan to meet with Ticketmaster executives in the coming weeks to discuss their bill. “The more you can firm up a piece of legislation to get rid of unintended consequences, you’re better off,” Velis says. “That being said, as it relates to just telling a consumer, ‘This is what you’re going to spend if you want to go to this concert’ — I can’t think of anything remotely close to approaching how someone can convince me that’s not a good idea.”
To help wade through the many different pro-Swift, Ticketmaster-targeting bills out there, here’s a rundown of what they each intend to achieve — and what each legislator gets out of sponsoring them:
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Unlocking Tickets Markets Act, in the U.S. Senate
SPONSORS: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
FOCUS: Improve competition among ticket-sellers, particularly Ticketmaster, which, according to its sponsors, has a 70-to-80% market share and is guilty of “clear excesses and abuses.” The bill would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to prevent “excessively long” exclusive contracts and open the market to more ticket-selling companies.
However, limiting long-term, guaranteed contracts could be costly to venues. In this scenario, venues’ exclusive ticketing rights, typically valued between six and seven figures annually, would drop to zero. To make up for that loss, they could wind up raising service charges even higher. “If we get rid of those contracts, then there’s a cost to pay,” says Luke Froeb, a Vanderbilt University chaired professor who was chief economist at the Federal Trade Commission from 2003 to 2005. “We’re going to see less investment in the theaters up front.”
POLITICAL GAIN: Klobuchar, who supports greater enforcement of antitrust laws, tells Billboard she was “concerned” about the 2010 Justice Department approval of the merger between top promoter Live Nation and ticket-selling giant Ticketmaster. “What’s happened now,” she adds, by phone from a car in northern Minnesota, “is they’ve gotten bigger and bigger and more dominant with these long-term contracts. You’ve got them having a clear monopoly over ticket sales, then promoting the concerts for venues they don’t own, locking them in.
“You’ve got a situation where 70% of primary ticket sales are there, and at major concert venues, it’s over 80%. That’s just ticket sales,” she continues. “They also have 90% of Billboard‘s Top 40 tours, as well as NBA, NHL and NFL. That’s just one part of their monopoly.” She says President Biden’s Justice Department “appears to be doing an extensive investigation” and “you’re going to see some action from the Justice Department if I had a guess.” She adds, “At the same time, we should be passing bills that help consumers, and that’s what you’re seeing.”
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BOSS and SWIFT Act, or Better Oversight of Stub Sales and Strengthening Well Informed and Fair Transactions for Audiences of Concert Ticketing Act, proposed in the U.S. House
SPONSORS: Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.)
FOCUS: Require ticket-sellers to disclose the total cost, including fees, “from the first time a ticket price is displayed and anytime thereafter”; reveal the total number of tickets offered for sale within seven days of an event; and prohibit “unauthorized insiders,” such as promoter or venue employees, from reselling tickets at jacked-up prices.
The bill’s opponents include the Fix the Tix coalition, led by Eagles manager and former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff as well as the National Independent Venue Association, which says it would “increase ticket prices, enshrine deceptive practices like speculative tickets, and cause an even worse ticket-buying experience for true fans.” A key issue for Fix the Tix is the section of the BOSS Act that would “not restrict or hinder” any purchaser from reselling a ticket independently — which would, effectively, legalize scalping and prevent artists, venues and Ticketmaster from doing anything about it. Still, Fix the Tix has yet to issue an alternative proposal, other than to “protect fans from price gouging and deceptive and predatory ticketing practices.”
POLITICAL GAIN: Pascrell, a liberal Democrat and consumer advocate who rails against scams, has aligned himself with music fans since 2009 when he opposed the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. He frequently uses home-state hero Bruce Springsteen’s image to bash Ticketmaster for political points. This bill, initially proposed in a different form in 2009, attempts to expand his ticket-reforming coalition to Swift’s fan army. Pallone, too, has advocated for transparency in the ticket industry, calling for an investigation into “deceptive practices” in 2019.
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TICKET Act, or Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act, in the U.S. Senate
SPONSORS: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), both members of the Senate Commerce Committee.
FOCUS: Require ticket sales to display the full price, including service fees, in advertising and marketing materials. And require sellers to disclose “speculative tickets,” in which they do not actually possess the tickets when making the sales. Froeb, the Vanderbilt economics professor, supports the “all-in” price-transparency idea, comparing it to the mortgage industry — the FTC regulated the home-loan-closing process so consumers can avoid “all these ancillary fees” during last-minute signings such as title insurance. “That can have potentially beneficial effects,” he says. “The mortgage market works better because of that.”
POLITICAL GAIN: For Cantwell, a progressive Democrat in a blue state, it’s another notch on her consumer-protection belt — her issues include affordable housing, clean water and infrastructure investment. For Cruz, bashing Ticketmaster is a rare chance to attach himself to a cause less divisive than, say, his longtime pro-life crusade, his intense hatred of the Affordable Care Act or his vocal opposition to federal Hurricane Sandy relief just before asking Congress for billions of dollars in Hurricane Harvey aid for his home state. He tells Billboard: “In the 11 years I’ve served in the Senate, the approach I’ve taken is to fight for the rights of Texans. A significant part of that has been looking for areas of bipartisan cooperation, where we can help solve a problem.”
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Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act, or TICKET Act
SPONSORS: Reps. Jan. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.).
FOCUS: A House version of the Cruz-Cantwell bill that would require ticket-sellers to state the all-in price (in advertising and marketing, as well as the online buying process) in advance of any sale.
POLITICAL GAIN: The Democrats are supporting their Senate colleagues, as well as President Biden and his crusade against “junk fees.” Also, they’re invoking Taylor Swift — of course. In a statement, Schakowsky said, “With every ticketing debacle, from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, and so many more, [fans’] frustration grows.”
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An Act Ensuring Transparent Ticket Pricing, proposed in the Massachusetts State House
SPONSORS: Rep. Dan Carey and Sen. John Velis, both Democrats.
FOCUS: Require ticket-sellers, including Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, to disclose all service charges and fees up front before buyers choose the ticket they want. “Some people will e-mail me and say, ‘What the heck, you’re not getting rid of the junk fees!’” Carey says. “That’s not what this bill amounts to do. It’s just about the transparency.”
POLITICAL GAIN: Carey wrote the bill last summer and the two legislators introduced identical versions in the state House and Senate in late May, a few days after Taylor Swift performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. They refer to it as the “Taylor Swift Bill” because Swift is bipartisan and commands broad support, Carey says. “Music is not partisan.”
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Assembly Bill 8, proposed in the California State Assembly
SPONSORS: Assemblymembers Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) and others.
FOCUS: Like the Massachusetts bill and the Cruz-Cantwell TICKET Act in U.S. Congress, Bill 8 would mandate that ticket sellers divulge the total price upfront, including fees and charges. “This bait-and-surcharge business is wolfish and unfair to consumers,” Friedman declared earlier this year.
POLITICAL GAIN: Liberal members of the largest blue-state legislature rack up easy political points by linking themselves to President Biden (who asked state and U.S. officials to oppose hidden fees in various industries in his State of the Union address in February) and Taylor Swift, as well as opposing the company concert fans love to hate: Ticketmaster.
