I believe there’s been a glitch. After Ticketmaster turned the pre-sale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras tour into an authorized shit show (e.g. fans waiting in virtual lines for hours and tens of millions getting shut out of tickets while bots scooped up seats), members of Congress from either side of the aisle appear to be possibly, actually working together against a standard enemy.
Back in November, Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote a letter to Live Nation Entertainment—the corporate that resulted after ticketing giant Ticketmaster combined with the powerful venue operator Live Nation—saying the merger “insulates” the corporate “from the competitive pressures that typically push corporations to innovate and improve their services.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it plainly when she tweeted: “Day by day reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s [sic] merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, they usually have to be reigned in. Break them up.” (Swift herself wrote in an Instagram Story that it was “excruciating for me to only watch mistakes occur with no recourse.”)
Then on Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee called a hearing to query Live Nation Entertainment, and each Democrats and Republicans were quick with their criticism and cringey-yet-impressive lyrical puns. The hearing focused on the corporate’s “monopolistic” practices, in accordance with The Wrap, which have resulted in high ticket prices and poor distribution technology. Republican Sen. John Kennedy told Joe Berchtold, the president and chief financial officer for Live Nation Entertainment: “The way in which your organization handled the ticket sales with Ms. Swift was a debacle.” Fellow GOP Sen. Josh Hawley echoed the sentiment. “You, in a monopoly, are forcing everyone to come back into your ecosystem,” he said. “I just don’t see how consumers win on this exchange.” Per The Wrap, Sen. Richard Blumenthal identified the committee’s bipartisanship, telling Berchtold: “You will have brought together Republicans and Democrats in a fully unified cause.”
As Swift might sing, this show of solidarity is as rare because the glimmer of a comet within the sky. Now let’s just hope it ends with higher concert tickets.
Madison is a senior author/editor at ELLE.com, covering news, politics, and culture. When she’s not on the web, you’ll be able to most probably find her taking a nap or eating banana bread.
