Not a defense of Ticketmaster, but I worked for a large ticketing company and feel like it's important to point out what Ticketmaster does offer that a smaller ticketing company can't (and a big artist needs). For example, protection against online bots buying up tickets, a website with a waiting room to handle massive amounts of interested buyers, a website that won't crash for massive on-sales, ticket verification mechanisms (to discourage reselling on the secondary market), electronic ticket transfer via secondary market sites (so buyers don't get swindled and receive fake tickets), and so much more. There is a ton of technology enabled by Ticketmaster running in the background that enables these massive on-sales which usually run flawlessly (except Taylor Swift recently). IMHO, it doesn't justify the insane fees or ticket prices (though the prices of the tickets themselves are usually set by the artist, FWIW). I do agree with what's already been said about TM being a monopoly, etc. Again, not defending them in particular. Also worth noting, but would create an insanely long post if I get too in the weeds, is the revenue model in event ticketing. Often the ticketing company takes the upfront risk. Example: Ticketmaster says "X venue, I will pay you $20M over 4 years for exclusive rights to ticket your events." Then Ticketmaster has to earn back that $20M just to break even, and they earn it back solely via the fees. Imagine if Venue X books shitty artists no one has ever heard of... And ticket prices are $5 per seat for the Des Moines Rodeo or whatever they book. Makes it really hard for Ticketmaster to earn back that $20M. It's a lot of upfront risk... Doesn't always pay off for every venue/contract... And generally a weird business model that I'm not sure is used in many retail verticals.