Secretly Recorded Phone Call Offers Window Into How Live Nation Helped Metallica and Other Artists Place Tickets Directly On Resale Market

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In February 2017, days before Metallica announced its WorldWired North American stadium tour, Live Nation president of U.S. concerts Bob Roux spoke by phone with a little-known wealth adviser turned event promoter who had been tasked by an associate of the band to sell 88,000 tickets directly on resale sites like StubHub, without giving fans a chance to buy them through normal channels at face value.

. Smith wrote back that "Ticketmaster does not have, and has never had, any product or program that allows ticket scalpers, or anyone else, to buy tickets ahead of fans."

Afterward, Roux entered separate discussions with DiCioccio about the straight-to-resale deal for the North American market, the type of decision Roux has the authority to make without seeking Rapino's approval on a particular deal, sources said. Such arrangements may be legal but are rarely discussed openly, given concerns about how fans will perceive them, touring executives tell.

A source familiar with the deal says the parties agreed that Metallica would get 40% of the resale revenue, Live Nation 40%, DiCioccio 12% and Millette 8%, though another source said Live Nation's share was lower. The executives also discussed concealing the sale so it seemed as though the tickets were being held for sponsors, with Roux saying, "I'd have to transfer them all at once into a sponsor hold and then ship them to some entity."

 

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Great reporting! Also a friend who was part of the class action lawsuit against LV that although the settlement to claimants totaled approx $17, you can only use in increments of $4.50 per ticket and they expire in 2020. So it looks like the settlement was a joke! Nice job LV!

Metallica Not a big deal, I only question why not just be upfront about it and charge more? I guess the sting of being labeled greedy from 20 yrs ago still bothers. Just not a good look makes it seem something devious was happening.

Good for Metallica and any other band that finds another way to profit off their music.

Also, can someone enlighten me? I know that the artist has the rights to do what they want with their allotment of tickets. Would “false demand” come into play here? Are the artist manipulating the demand, by doing this?

Hardcore Commercial Rock🤘This doesn’t surprise me at all. I would like to know, how much money they made off of interest for this same tour, by selling tickets a year in advance? Digging deep into the pockets of your customers, is not a good look!

The timing of this isn’t a coincidence. This is collusion and I suspect goes deeper than just this “representative”. Someone needs to dig deeper here...

gotta make up all that lost Napster money

DiCoccio’s doing. Not Metallica members.

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