Trent Reznor Blasts Ticketmaster And The Artists Who Defend It

We love Trent. Fight the fight. Fight the power.

One of the best things to come out of all the recent press on Ticketmaster’s business practices is an examination of the legal ticket resale market. A recent story in the WSJ, for example, outlined how Ticketmaster sets aside 10% of the best seats in a venue for the artist, enabling him to resell them at a huge markup in the secondary “TicketExchange Marketplace.” In other words, artists are scalping their own tickets with Ticketmaster’s help. Not always, of course, but “more often than not” according to a post today by Trent Reznor on the NIN forum. In it Trent explains what happens to the premium seats NIN are allotted: they are passed on to fans in pre-sale, with stringent ID guidelines to ensure they are not resold (“I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it’s not something we morally feel is the right thing to do.”). He also acknowledges that by playing TM and LiveNation venues on the upcoming NIN tour, he is getting into bed with these guys (“I’ve learned to choose my fights and at this point in time…”). Also of note: “Be suspect of artists singing the praises of the Live Nation / TicketMaster merger. What’s in it for them?” Cough. Trent’s entire missive after the jump. – From Stereo Gum