Joe Berchtold, President and CFO of Live Nation, Looks Like A Total Fool After The Senate Rips Him Apart For The Taylor Swift Ticket Debacle
Right out of the gate, the room is full of Swifties. These senators got in every single TS quote they could manage and it was hilarious. Joe Berchtold, President and CFO of Live Nation, was on the hot seat and 100%, very much alone. I've never felt such hate towards one person through a computer screen before but it's clear to me that:
1. Everyone hates Ticketmaster/Live Nation
2. Everyone agrees they are a Monopoly
3. Joe hasn't given an honest answer to a question in his entire life
I'll include a bunch of clips from the hearing, but it pretty much boils down to the fact that things need to change. When this will happen, we aren't sure, but the evidence stacked up against TM/LN is DEEP and people were coming at Joe with receipts that he didn't expect. No joke, I don't know if Joe thought this whole thing was going to be a farce? Like it would be laughed out of the building? He seemed flustered, unprepared and irritated with all of the questions. Why would someone in his position be worried as much as he clearly was? Lying. He was lying through his teeth! This man deflected more questions that anyone I've ever seen.
Our fighters today were Jack Groetzinger, CEO of Seatgeek, Jerry Mickelson, CEO and President of Jam Productions, Sal Nuzzo, SVP of The James Madison Institute, Kathleen Bradish, Vice President For Legal Advocacy at the American Antitrust Institute, and Clyde Lawrence, my new love, a Singer-Songwriter of the group Lawrence. Everyone came to bury Berchtold 6 feet under. Then of course we have the Senators, Lee, Hawley and Blackburn really putting some feet to the fire.
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And of course, some expertise from Ted Cruz:
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All in all I think if people weren't taking this seriously before, they are now. The entire room seemed to laugh about how absurdly blatant the monopoly that Ticketmaster has, is. I've never been more confident that TM/LN will get theirs.
In closing: