Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Bruce Springsteen and his manager Jon Landau are blasting
Ticketmaster for redirecting customers attempting to buy
Springsteen tickets to their secondary ticketing site,
TicketsNow.
On Monday, fans trying to make face-value purchases for tickets
were instead sent to TicketsNow, "even when other seats remained
available at face value," says a letter posted on
BruceSpringsteen.net. "We condemn this
practice."
"We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest," the post
continues. "Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good,
fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing
charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people
who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately,
speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from
Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and
Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its
unwanted material from their and our site."
Springsteen and Landau also voiced outrage at the proposed merger
between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which they say would return
concert ticketing "to a near monopoly."
"The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as
furious as it has made many of you," they concluded. "We will
continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that
these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours."
Springsteen, who today debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 with
the Columbia album "Working on a Dream," begins a world tour April
in San Jose, Calif.