We love it whenever Stephen Colbert weighs in on music industry issues because it combines our two favourite things: music and Stephen Colbert weighing in on stuff. This time around, he went in hard on Ticketmaster.
To give you some backstory here, Ticketmaster recently lost a class action lawsuit brought about by ticket-buyers who were more than a little upset about those mysterious fees we inevitably get charged when buying tickets.
As a result, anyone who purchased tickets fem the company between 1999 and 2013 is entitled to claim a number of free ticket vouchers that can be redeemed for various events. According to Stereogum, they’re estimated to be giving away $5 million in free concert tickets.
Whilst the idea of free concert tickets sounds good in theory, Ticketmaster are copping it hard over the events they’re actually offering tickets to. Many of the events are already sold out and the rest seem to be a jumble of tribute bands and little-known rock acts.
If it sounds like they’re just giving away seat-filler tickets for shows that aren’t selling particularly well, that’s because that’s almost certainly what’s happening and Colbert decided to tacklele it during one of his most recent monologues.
The Late Show host does a bang-up job of summarising the situation surrounding the Ticketmaster suit and then sums it all up with, “If I want to see a lame Guns N’ Roses cover band, I’ll go see Guns N’ Roses.”
