Live Nation Extends “No Service Fee” Promotion

Word hit the news today that the Live Nation is extending the “no service fee” non-promotion promotion, and if you read what we discussed last week, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you at all.

Actually, I’m kinda flattered Live Nation took my advice:  there should never be service fees at a Live Nation ticketed Live Nation venue.

Some people, including AP writer Ryan Nakashima, clued into the same thing .  Here’s the key tidbit from the his AP article:

“The move to drop service fees was made possible after Live Nation launched its own ticketing platform in January. Typically, service fees help pay the ticket-selling company — which is usually Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.”

A number of people read the piece I wrote last week, and I know that some of them misinterpreted what I said to mean that I was bashing Live Nation and they “shouldn’t” charge service fees in the sense that it was wrong to do it or gouging or whatever interpretation you’d like to put on that.

But that’s not at all what I meant.  As you probably know if you’ve hung out here long enough, I believe strongly that the market drives prices, and exorbitant fees or any other charge comes at a cost to the seller in lower volume.  It’s really basic economics.
No, what I was trying to say (and which Ryan at the AP also gets) is that Live Nation charging service fees for a Live Nation venue is like the government charging you sales tax when you pay your vehicle registration fee.  Or like a grocery store charging you for bags.  There’s simply no need because all the money is going to the same place and it should just be baked into the price.

Note, however, that this isn’t the case in a post-LN-TM merger world where the venues are not Live Nation venues.  In that case, you still have entities (the venues not owned or managed by LN) who need to get paid separately from the ticketing agency, which will in all likelihood be Ticketmaster.

So my point was neither a praise of Live Nation nor a criticism.  Just an observation of industry structure.

On the other hand, good for them! They get a “win” with customers by dropping service fees while at the same time rationalizing their pricing.