When Pearl Jam Took on Ticketmaster (And Failed Miserably)

28 Jun

Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster Feud: Early Beginnings.

In the early 1990s, grunge transformed from an underground Seattle scene to the music defining a generation.

By 1992, Pearl Jam were so grateful for their success that they announced a free ‘thank you’ concert in Seattle during Labor Day weekend. However, Ticketmaster charged a $1 fee for the free passes that they gave out. It was the first rift in their relationship with the ticket service provider, and things were only about to get worse.

At the time, Ticketmaster was probably not worth fighting. A year earlier, Ticketmaster had taken over Ticketron, the company’s main competitor in ticket-buying services. So Pearl Jam continued to work with Ticketmaster on their 1993 tour.

But in November, things got incredibly heated.

The Children’s Charity Feud

Pearl Jam organized a charity concert for impoverished children. It was agreed that Pearl Jam would donate $20,000, and Ticketmaster’s Seattle representative agreed to match this donation with the service fees they charged. But minutes before the sale, things changed.

Pearl Jam claimed that Ticketmaster’s then CEO, Fred Rosen, allegedly intervened and said that this was unauthorized and asked for a $1 surcharge to be added.

Pearl Jam Manager Kelly Curtis said:

“The last-minute nature of that episode was a real eye-opener for us. Most people we deal with don’t do business that way — especially when it involves raising money for a good cause.”

Ticketmaster denied this sequence of events. According to them, Pearl Jam demanded at the last second that the service fee charge be increased by 50 cents so that Ticketmaster could increase its $20,000 share. Whatever the case, Ticketmaster donated $14,000 to the charity, and ticket prices did not change.

Clearly, Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster were not on good terms. Although Ticketmaster were powerful figures in the music industry, so were Pearl Jam. The group decided that if anyone could take on Ticketmaster, it would be them.

Pearl Jam’s Power Move

Pearl Jam’s 1993 album Vs. was the fastest-selling album of all time at the time of its release, selling over 950,000 copies in its first week.

However, they wanted to play concerts that their average fan could afford. During their 1993 tour, the band set concert tickets at a face value of $18, even though promoters told them they could have charged three times that. Pearl Jam was willing to lose millions of dollars in profits as a result.

One promoter told The LA Times:

“The minute they became a headliner, this band refused to compromise with anybody. Unlike a lot of other acts, Pearl Jam is not greedy. But they could care less about the middlemen in this business and anytime you disagree with them during a negotiation, they just tell you, ‘Hey, man, it’s either my way or the highway’.”

By 1994, Pearl Jam were arguably the biggest band in the world, and had the leverage to continue with their $20 ticket prices. They sent a letter to promoters asking to keep their ticket prices below $18 but with a $1.80 booking fee. This was completely at odds with Ticketmaster’s standard booking fee, roughly between $4 and $8. Pearl Jam also had tussles with Ticketmaster about removing advertising from the tickets, and displaying the booking fee on the ticket.

While Pearl Jam was the biggest band in the world at the time, most promoters turned them down. The problem was that these promoters had long-term and exclusive contracts with Ticketmaster.

But rather than backing down, Pearl Jam canceled its 1994 summer tour, which was sure to make headlines. And it wasn’t long before they were asked to speak before Congress.

Taking Ticketmaster to Congress

Pearl Jam were contacted by the Department of Justice, who encouraged them to make a complaint. It could be argued that Ticketmaster had an unfair monopoly in the live music industry. Ticketmaster, at this stage, had a 70% share in the market. So, Pearl Jam filed a complaint, and an investigation was opened.

Pearl Jam members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard testified before Congress. The band received support from other artists such as Garth Brooks, The Grateful Dead, R.E.M., Neil Young and Aerosmith, all of which would have been very popular in the mid-90s.

So, in June 1994, Ament and Gossard appeared before a Congressional subcommittee. Gossard told the press:

“This thing has been building up for a long time. And deep down, it’s really not about money. It’s about music. It’s about fairness. It’s about a band who believes good intentions can translate into sound business practices and a giant corporation that’s completely out of touch.”

Ticketmaster’s chief executive, Fred Rosen, responded by explaining how little money they make from each ticket. He showed financial statements revealing that they only made 15 cents per ticket.

Tim Collins, the manager of Aerosmith, also spoke during this hearing. Ticketmaster were imaginably not pleased when Collins said:

“Mussolini may have made the trains run on time, but not everyone could get a seat on the train.”

I think it goes without saying that Ticketmaster disagreed with the Mussolini comparison!

R.E.M.‘s manager, Bertis Downs, was a bit more measured in his testimony and said:

“At this point in 1994, for at least the last few years, there really isn’t any choice. If you want to do a major tour, a major arena-level tour in major markets, you have no choice.”

The hearings were even acknowledged by the White House. The TV presenter George Stephanopoulos, who back then was a senior adviser for President Clinton, said:

“We think the goal of making concert ticket prices affordable is a laudable one. It’s something we believe in.”

But despite the hype and attention surrounding the hearing, it all came to nothing. The investigation was closed, and nothing was changed. And according to Pearl Jam, they were being used.

Jeff Ament said:

“The Department of Justice used us to look hip. Stone and I spent a week with our lawyer, John Hoyt; he was drilling us with serious questions that we were [supposedly] going to get asked, and then it didn’t feel like we got to utilize any of it. It made me a lot more cynical about what goes on with the government.”

A Ticketmaster spokesperson said:

“Getting attacked by a superstar rock band is a lot like being accused of kicking your dog: There’s a general presumption of guilt until proven innocent. Luckily the facts were on our side, and we prevailed.”

But Pearl Jam dug their heels in further and refused to admit defeat. In 1995, they decided to go on tour again, but this time, they would avoid Ticketmaster venues.

A Tour Without Ticketmaster

Instead of playing in stadiums and theatres, they performed in fairgrounds, soccer fields, and state parks. It wasn’t ideal, but they stuck to their guns.

On their 1995 tour, Pearl Jam were the biggest rockstars on the planet, but things were far from glamorous. Eddie Vedder said:

“We were having week-long meetings about chain-link fences and porta potties.”

Guitarist Mike McCready said:

“Because we would only play in non-Ticketmaster venues, we had to go to these really out-of-the way places .We had to handle everything ourselves. I remember taking calls about portaloos. It was an ordeal.”

Without the backing of a corporate entity like Ticketmaster, cracks began to emerge. Their show at the Wolf Mountain Amphitheater in Salt Lake City was canceled because of a downpour of rain. And in San Diego, the sheriff called it off because of security problems. Ten concerts in total were either canceled, moved, or rescheduled.

The band decided that two canceled Del Mar concerts would now occur at the San Diego Sports Arena, a Ticketmaster associate venue. It was time to admit defeat.

This is part of why Ticketmaster has become a dominant force in the market. Being associated with Ticketmaster gives venues, artists, and consumers confidence that the show will go ahead as planned.

Pearl Jam eventually had to take the ‘L.’ The tour forced them to end their boycott of Ticketmaster, but admitted that they didn’t have much of a choice.

Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis said:

“It’s been like David against Goliath since the first day we decided to take them on, but unfortunately, this time out, the giant won.”

Pearl Jam lost, but this didn’t stop many smaller artists from protesting their dominance, while Ticketmaster became stronger.

Ticketmaster’s Continued Dominance

Following Pearl Jam’s defeat, Ticketmaster’s foothold in the live entertainment industry grew even bigger.

In 2000, Ticketmaster bought out its competitor TicketWeb, giving it an even greater share in the market. In 2007, many of Ticketmaster’s critics saw a glimmer of hope when the major promotions company Live Nation said that it had plans to set up its own rival ticket service provider.

Instead, the exact opposite happened. In 2010, Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged to become one company.

In 2023, there was a huge backlash against Ticketmaster regarding the prices of concerts, with some Taylor Swift tickets going for five figures. Ticketmaster now has a dynamic pricing model, where algorithms are used to decide the price based on data. In the same way that flight tickets are sold, prices depend on how much people will presumably pay for them.

Fred Rosen, who was chairman of Ticketmaster until 1998, recently said:

“I have no sympathy for people whining about high ticket prices. They helped create this situation where artists have to make all their money on tour. Artists and the market set the prices, and you can’t pay a Motel 6 price and stay at the Four Seasons.”

Rosen is correct that this is the market, and they are charging these amounts because people will pay for them. He is also sadly correct that because people do not buy records, musicians have to make most of their money through touring. However, whether it is a free and fair market is open to discussion.

When tickets went on sale for Taylor Swift’s Era tour, Ticketmaster’s website crashed, which was a disaster for her fans. But Taylor Swift has no choice if she wants to pick a different ticket provider.

All she needed to do was look at Pearl Jam, a band that had despised the company since the early 90s, but their 2023 tour was done through their old and familiar foe, Ticketmaster.

Thanks for reading.

Sources

https://medium.com/@merbaran/a-genre-from-seattle-big-4-of-grunge-rock-13733f540d02
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-30-ca-10438-story.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/pearl-jam-ticketmaster-1995-boycott-booking-fees-gigs-ticket-prices-a8989516.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-28-ca-50571-story.html
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/1994-when-pearl-jam-took-ticketmaster-look-back/UFQFVWKQPJB63FWUAVNRQCMSV4/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taking-on-ticketmaster-67440/
https://time.com/6249730/ticketmaster-taylor-swift-hearing-congress/
https://bertisdowns.com/2016/01/10/congressional-testimony-pearl-jam-ticketmaster-hearings-1994/
https://www.spin.com/2017/08/pearl-jam-oral-history-2001/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/06/15/pearl-jam-ends-ticketmaster-boycott/e12dc7d6-2914-4b29-bbab-2a50d8dec45d/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-15-fi-13424-story.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NosIUgj1nk&pp=ygUddGlja2V0bWFzdGVyIGkgaGF0ZSBwZWFybCBqYW0%3D
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-01-23/ticketmaster-live-nation-taylor-swift-pearl-jam

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