Jack Antonoff has addressed the latest controversy round skyrocketing ticket costs at big-name reveals.
There was a very notable outcry surrounding the ticket costs on Bruce Springsteen‘s present world tour, with studies that some followers have been being charged as much as $5,000 (£4152) every because of Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” mannequin. Springsteen defended the pricing technique, saying that he needed to do “what all people else is doing” and that it was higher for the cash from greater priced tickets to go to the artists slightly than to touts.
In response, the long-running Springsteen fanzine Backstreets shut down after 43 years of operation, citing their disillusionment with the system.
Followers making an attempt to purchase tickets within the pre-sale for Taylor Swift‘s ‘Eras’ tour additionally encountered hyper-inflated costs amongst quite a few different points with Ticketmaster, who ended up cancelling the final sale after the positioning buckled as a consequence of “traditionally unprecedented demand”. The problems with the broader ticketing business have been mentioned in a latest listening to within the US congress, wherein quite a few senators quoted Swift’s lyrics.
Now Antonoff, who has labored with each artists, has weighed in on the controversy, saying that he believes the blame lies not with artists however with the business itself.
Talking on the Grammy Awards ceremony final night time (February 5), the place he gained the award for Producer Of The 12 months, Non-Classical, Antonoff stated: “The entire thing is extremely powerful. There’s no cause why – if I can go browsing and purchase a automobile and have it delivered to my home, why can’t I purchase a fucking ticket on the value that the artist needs it to be? So it’s that easy.
“And you realize the rationale why. It’s not ’explanation for artists. So the one factor that I’d say whereas holding a microphone is all people’s obtained to relax on the artists. As a result of everybody’s making an attempt to determine it out. We all know who’s making it unattainable.
“Look, I’ve requested quite simple issues of the business. Let artists choose out of dynamic pricing. Cease taxing merch, and let artists promote tickets at a value that they really imagine. Don’t flip a stay present right into a free market. That’s actually soiled.”
He continued: “Cost what you suppose is honest. But when for one individual $50 is nothing, and one individual $50 is greater than they may ever spend, you’re making a scenario the place a unique group can come collectively at one value. The second every part fluctuates is the second that every part goes Okay-shaped and turns right into a bizarre free market. That’s not what we do.”
The Bleachers frontman additionally touched on the way in which that artists, songwriters and performers receives a commission. “What number of broke artists have you learnt? What number of broke individuals who work within the business have you learnt? So there’s issues in every single place. I got here up in touring, and the touring business, which I really know finest, is definitely an attention-grabbing instance of what’s fallacious,” he stated.
“Whenever you play a present, you carry the disgrace that you simply determined to be an artist, so that you’re simply pleased to do it as a result of folks let you know that you simply’re so fortunate. You stroll right into a room, all people in that room is being paid an honest wage in addition to you. It’s a must to turn out to be so profitable earlier than you may prove a dwelling. The identical for producers, similar factor for writers, similar factor for artists, similar factor for everybody.”
Antonoff beforehand referred to as out venues to “cease taxing” merch gross sales, saying it’s “actually the one approach you make cash once you begin out touring.”