Tickets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Pearl Jam didn't just try to tour without Ticketmaster, they tried to stop it from becoming the monopoly that it is. They even testified in front of Congress, trying to get ticket prices down to a level their fans could afford. No one backed them up, so here we are. But at least they're still trying to keep their concerts affordable and inclusive.

So let me get this straight. I stand outside the venue and sell my ticket did $5 above market value, it's illegal. When the company itself holds tickets and then upcharges them by 100% or more... its a fine buisness practice. Man I hate how this world works.

Arresting ticket scalpers who physically stand outside concerts with tickets to sell but then allowing corporations to do the same on an industrial basis is class warfare

HBO needs to open a virtual museum of all the unnecessary things John made them buy

Compared to the usual show topic, this almost felt like a feel-good story

I loved the Garth Brooks tour he did about 5 years ago... he flat out told scalpers to buy what they wanted and every time he sold out a show he would just add another and another. All tickets were $75 bucks to all shows... and he did like 11 shows in my city. This caused all the scalpers to get stuck holding all their tickets or to only be able to sell them for what they paid for them.

I don’t understand how they can justify calling them “service fees” when you’re LITERALLY PRINTING THE TICKETS YOURSELF

This article aged VERY well considering what just happened with Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift...well done.

Every time John does a story, I feel like it should be followed by monumental change even when he reminds me of the crushing reality that nothing ever changes.

The CEO of Ticketmaster in 2009 advocated itemizing all tickets and a union for musicians. He was out in a year.

"this whole ecosystem enriches a lot of people who do not contribute anything" This statement applies to far too many things.

If I were a touring artist, I would protest it by naming my next tour “If You Paid More Than $30 for This You’ve Been Scammed Tour” then release official tickets for exactly $29.99.

It's so refreshing that you're, for once, doing a topic that only infuriates me mildly.

I feel like a lot of John's shows could be summarized as "money runs the world, you poor chumps are being exploited, and people are fucked up". One of my favorite shows though. He is just delightful and hilarious.

This is especially relevant after Robert Smith from the Cure managed to get Ticketmaster to refund people who bought Cure tickets for their upcoming US tour because the facility charges and all the other stuff was more expensive than the tickets themselves. More music artists need to take a stand against Ticketmaster.

Petition for John and the Last Week Tonight team to do a follow up episode focusing on Ticketmaster and their whole debacle with Taylor Swift’s 2023 tour

This is the reason why Ticketmaster is frequently called “TicketBastard”. The fees that they slap on concert tickets are simply insane.

I have to admit, at the end, I halfway expected him to announce that they'd made their own ticket-trading platform.

This video is really coming in handy to explain this whole Taylor Swift situation happening right now haha

This is what blew my mind. I looked up how much Eagle tickets went for in 1977 after Hotel California came out. Tickets were 10 dollars a piece, I made only 5 dollars a hour then and it took me 4 hours of work to buy 2 tickets. The average price to see them now is around 200 dollars a ticket so I would have to make 100 dollars a hour to be able to buy 2 tickets for 4 hours work, in 77 a person could get as close to the front of the stage as they cared too thanks to Festival Seating. This is insane. I would NOT pay 200 dollars for a Eagles ticket if they were playing in my back yard. UN-FN-REAL. 🤯