Diamond-certified rap-rock/nation star Child Rock has been serving to lead the cost within the ongoing U.S. administration’s investigations and subsequent lawsuit into ticketing practices in the US. A longtime thorn within the facet of concertgoers and artists, ticket scalping and value gouging have been rampant for many years and have solely escalated with the arrival of extra superior applied sciences.
Nevertheless, with income from album gross sales and streaming having largely dried up for a lot of artists, their livelihood is determined by working underneath the veritable monopolies of huge firms who personal massive swathes of venues and promote bigger scale excursions with allegedly misleading markups.
Rock, a longtime ally and proponent of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, has vowed to repair that alongside the Trump administration. He first met with U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi again in December of 2024. On the time of that assembly, Rock publicly acknowledged that they have been collectively getting down to, “assist repair the fiasco of shopping for live performance tickets. Gonna open a can of whoop ass on the bots, scalpers, venues, ticketing firms, managers and artists alike who rip off and deceive the general public with the horse sh*t that has gone on for many years and solely gotten worse.”
In March of of this 12 months, Rock attended the signing of a brand new government order signed by President Trump within the Oval Workplace. That order aimed to open an investigation into the matter of ‘price-gouging by middlemen’, whereas assessing the present state of the ticketing business. Moreover, that order, set out to make sure that there was ‘value transparency in any respect phases of the ticket-purchasing course of.’
The findings of that investigation resulted within the FTC submitting swimsuit in opposition to Reside Nation and Ticketmaster this previous September, alleging the businesses had employed, ‘misleading pricing ways and earned lots of of hundreds of thousands promoting tickets acquired illegally by brokers, costing shoppers billions of {dollars} in inflated costs and extra charges.’
In a social media video shared on his Instagram at this time, October 07th, Rock opened up about that government order and subsequent swimsuit, whereas additionally difficult different artists to return ahead in opposition to Reside Nation and Ticketmaster. He additionally personally singled out grunge legends Pearl Jam, who again in 1994, took authorized motion in opposition to Ticketmaster, alleging the corporate held a monopoly over ticket costs and clashed with the corporate over pricing complaints and alleged strongarm ways.
Rock‘s video additionally steered the utilization of the open supply system The Orb as a possible technique of fixing the problem of verifying human identities and curbing the utilization of scalper bots and different unscrupulous means to inflate ticket gross sales on the secondary market. Right here’s what Rock needed to say in full on this newest video [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“So there was among the folks within the enterprise speaking about ticketing, that when Trump — President Trump — did that government order with me within the Oval Workplace, that these, know-it-alls out in California we’re like, ‘Oh, they’re simply showboating. It actually did nothing.’
What he did was he ordered the FTC & the Division of Justice to go examine and see what the hell is happening with ticketing Nicely, guess what? They investigated and what occurred? They filed a f*cking lawsuit in opposition to Ticketmaster, as a result of clearly they came upon that these motherf*ckers are crooks, they usually’ve been crooks for many years. F*cking over the general public. F*cking over artists.
Now in some way, flip this cellphone round. In some way, I obtained certainly one of these world orbs, and that proves you’re a human. Comes with an app —World app, — you obtain it, proof of human, proof of humanity. This factor would lower the bots out, lower the scalpers out instantly. In some way, I obtained one in my f*cking home. However the ticketing firms can’t determine this out. You understand why? As a result of each time… when you purchase a ticket and go to a live performance, you might be their worst buyer.
They need that ticket to resell on their very own platform to allow them to f*ck everyone twice. They get the service fees. They get one other no matter, 17% or one thing, on prime all the opposite horse sh*t they’re dicking you round with. So like I stated from the start, I don’t know if breaking Ticketmaster up solves the issue. I’m undecided if this, if this orb solves it, nevertheless it’s a step in the proper route.
I do know this, not one of the ticketing firms, are utilizing it. In some way I obtained one in my f*cking home, however they’ll’t determine it out. They’re filled with sh*t. They may have stopped the bots years in the past. They may have fastened this f*cking drawback, they usually haven’t, as a result of they’re grasping f*cks.
So I hope they’ll all go down personally, proper to the f*cking backside. F*ck them. And I hope we will determine ticketing so us as artists, once we set a value we will get the tickets into the fingers of the followers on the costs we set. And I do know that’s not likely the… I’m a capitalist to the bone, and there’s some questions there. However these dangerous actors and all of the ticketing firms — not even scalpers, brokers, no matter you wish to name them — they’ve hid behind the disguise of capitalism for years. F*ck them.
That is one which we’d like some rules on, both a value cap, I’d say 10%, you possibly can’t resell a ticket for 10% or 10-15% like they do in some European international locations, or use this proof of human factor, no matter it takes. I shouldn’t be the one to determine it out. These motherfc*kers ought to, however they haven’t. They’ve raped us for f*cking years. F*ck them. I hope all of them go down.
However actually what hope for is we will repair ticketing for the followers. And by the best way, they’ve been f*cking the artist too, however I’m sort of second in that equation. I would like the followers to have the ability to go to a present on the costs I set for my tickets, and most artists do.
We’ll see if every other artists get onboard, by the best way, with this lawsuit and their administration, in the event that they wish to speak and inform them in regards to the bullsh*t that’s happening for many years. A number of them will puss out, straight up pussies, all these outlaw nation singers. There’ll be a bunch of f*cking pussies when they need to communicate up for his or her followers.
Let’s see if Pearl Jam steps up. They wished to repair ticketing years in the past. They in all probability received’t, as a result of they’ll be like, ‘Oh, we hate Donald Trump. We now have Trump derangement syndrome.’ All these different presidents may have f*cking carried out one thing. Bush, Obama, Clinton, they didn’t do sh*t. No person has. Trump did. Trump is, we’re. So, calling your bluffs proper now, let’s see what occurs. Rock on.”
