21/09/2025
This whole story getting worse and worse is an inevitable result of unchecked capitalism. We cannot imagine a world where money, the main thing we surrender our society to, determines alone who gets a ticket to a music performance. If Glastonbury tickets were actually sold at _market value_, it would lock out the type of person for whom Glastonbury is actually intended. £1000 a ticket? £2000? The cultural shift would be unsustainable.
Seems to me that we need to get serious about an organised alternative economic system for the arts. Anything in this world that builds a good reputation eventually gets captured and exploited by people with deep enough pockets. You can't buy your way out of a driving ban once you've "spent" your 12 points, but with the kind of money an increasing number of billionaires have, you can buy up almost any success, turn it into a rent-seeking operation, and ensh*ttify it into the ground while looking for the next cycle with which to build the yacht fund.
F**k Live Nation (Noisily), f**k KKR (Awakenings, Boiler Room), and f**k Unilever (Ben & Jerry's, off-theme I know but topical...)
FTC sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation for turning “blind eye” to scalpers.
