Did Free Eras Tour Tickets Tilt California’s Reform Fight?
Tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour have been central to the massive reckoning going on within the live entertainment business since they went on sale. The infamous meltdown by Ticketmaster during the sales process for that tour in the fall of 2022 led to massive attention to the “broken” ticketing system in the U.S.
That attention has manifested in a contentious senate hearing in early 2023, legislative battles at both the federal and state level aimed at fixing that system, and even a recently filed antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice aimed at breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s dominant (and allegedly monopolistic) share of the market.
But, a set of tickets to one specific show may be central to a dramatic shift in the legislative fight in the most populous state in the country, California.
According to analysis from POLITICO published this week, lawmakers in Live Nation’s home state have received thousands of dollars worth of tickets to events as they have listened to calls from all sides for how the ticketing ecosystem should be changed. Among them were tickets given by the San Francisco 49ers to San Francisco-area Democrat Rebecca Bauer-Kahan in July 2023 – the same date Swift was performing one of her multiple dates at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Those tickets, valued at the maximum of $590 according to campaign disclosures, sit at the core of one committee’s outsized role in shifting the conversation.
Bauer-Kahan is a co-chair of California’s Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection . In recent months, that one committee has forced through amendments to multiple bills drafted in the wake of the Swift fiasco. Initially aimed at bringing new competition and consumer protections to the industry, the bills as amended became so tilted towards Live Nation/Ticketmaster’s legislative priorities (and by extension music management companies and stadium clients of theirs), that they lost the support of the consumer organizations that had pushed for them, and were shelved by their authors.
FURTHER READING | How a Ticketmaster bill apparently went off the rails (Capitol Weekly)
“I have decided to put this bill on hold to make sure the policy advances thoughtfully and with consumer interests at the forefront,” said Democrat Buffy Wicks, whose AB 2808 was initially designed to blow open the exclusive ticketing ecosystem by requiring competition in primary sales, but lost all support due to industry-driven amendments from the privacy committee. “Loosening the hold of a massive entertainment monopoly that controls not only the ticket-buying experience, but also the success of artists and independent venues, is more than a one-year undertaking. Especially in this environment where our focus needs to be on the state budget and services for Californians.”
At the same time it derailed the bills designed to encourage competition through its amendments, Bauer-Kahan’s committee threw its support behind SB 785, which is aligned with the Live Nation “FAIR Ticketing” and NIVA “Fix The Tix” legislative agendas – effectively two sides of the same coin.
FURTHER READING | Irving Azoff-Led Coalition Fights “BOSS and SWIFT Act” Reforms
Supporters of SB 785 at a July hearing before the Privacy committee included multiple members of NIVA, but also the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Rams, AEG, San Jose Sharks, Live Nation Entertainment, and the Music Artists Coalition. Opponents included Robert Herrell of the Consumer Federation of California – who worked closely with Wicks on AB 2808 – and Diana Moss of the Progressive Policy Institute.
“Live Nation/Ticketmaster is the subject of a long awaited antitrust case, yet continues to deploy all means to protect its monopoly,” Moss testified before the committee. “Live Nation has turned to backing legislation that would impair competition in the resale market.”
Though she did not give testimony at the hearing beyond indicating her organization supported 785, Jordan Curley’s appearing on behalf of the Music Artists Coalition is also notable – since she had previously served as Bauer-Kahan’s Chief of Staff. MAC has been one of the key groups supporting the Live Nation/Fix The Tix agenda at both the local and federal level, and Capitol Weekly indicated it is largely a “front group” for Ticketmaster, based on conversations it has had with people involved in the legislative fight.
The connections between MAC and Live Nation/Irving Azoff are extensive, per Capitol Weekly:
Consider the Music Artists Coalition, an industry group representing music creators who were involved in lobbying on Wick’s bill. At least seven of the 17 members of the Music Artists Coalition board have connections to Ticketmaster:
Businessman Irving Azoff, the former CEO of Ticketmaster whose new company the Oak View Group acts as a “pimp” for Ticketmaster, according to The American Prospect;
Susan Genco, co-president of another of Azoff’s businesses, The Azoff Company;
Ali Harnell, who works for Live Nation;
Coran Capshaw, founder of the artist management company Red Light Management, who owns a stake in Live Nation;
Attorney Elliot Groffman, who works for Red Light Management;
Pop star Meghan Trainor and singer-songwriter Maren Morris, who both run ticketing for their live events through Ticketmaster.
The connections go even deeper than that, based on TicketNews analysis of the MAC board. Performers on the board include Don Henley (longtime client of Irving Azoff), Dave Matthews (longtime client of Coran Capshaw), while Morris is managed by Capshaw and Trainor is managed by Azoff. Former MAC president Jack Quinn and board member Jordan Bromley were both partners at Manatt Phelps & Phelps, a law firm with ties to Azoff and Henley. Kristen Foster is a PR flack with ties to a huge number artists managed by Azoff or Live Nation, including fellow MAC board member Anderson .Paak.
In response to POLITICO’s report, Bauer-Kahan did not discuss her former Chief of Staff’s role with the lobbying organization or the bill itself. In a statement, she defended the committee’s actions as being taken with the California consumer in mind.
“The committee will do our best to protect consumers and ensure that we are focusing on all aspects of the market that cause pain points: from the primary market, to the brokers that are gouging consumers, to the secondary market that enables that process,” she said. Her office did not respond to a request for comment from TicketNews as of Tuesday afternoon.
Neither Curley nor MAC responded to POLITICO’s requests for comment for their report.
Currently, SB 785 is awaiting its next hearing, having been referred to the Committee on Appropriations. It passed out of Bauer-Kahan’s committee by a 9-0 vote, having been amended by its own author in response to concerns that some of its most Ticketmaster-friendly provisions would actively interfere with California’s participation in the antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Is it possible that a pair of tickets to a hot concert and a former staff member working for one of the lobbying groups could have played a major role in this outcome? POLITICO’s report included a nugget on the potential impact of such a gift from Daniel Schnur, an expert on government ethics and former chair of the Fair Political Practices Commission:
“If I send money to a legislator’s campaign account, I get a thank you note. If I attend a reception, I get a handshake. If I take them out to lunch or dinner, I get a conversation,” Schnur said. “But if I get them tickets for a concert or a basketball game, I now have a friend who takes my phone calls.”
