Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams has long been considered by many to be a voice of reason — and her latest lesson joins the chorus of artists lamenting Ticketmaster's monopolization of the live music industry.
In Dublin on the first night of their UK and Europe tour behind This Is Why last Thursday (April 13), Williams addressed the crowd with palpable gratitude for everyone who showed up in this economy of massive service fees on tickets and accusations of price gouging.
"I wanna say one more time how special it is that you've all made it tonight," she said. "We don't take it lightly. We know, honestly, especially now, it's a huge sacrifice to come to a show because Ticketmaster won't get their shit together."
The singer-songwriter added, "We've put a lot of pressure on ourselves too, because we were like, 'People are spending money that they don't have to come and hang out with us and we better give them something that's worth that.' We just love you so much."
In Dublin on the first night of their UK and Europe tour behind This Is Why last Thursday (April 13), Williams addressed the crowd with palpable gratitude for everyone who showed up in this economy of massive service fees on tickets and accusations of price gouging.
"I wanna say one more time how special it is that you've all made it tonight," she said. "We don't take it lightly. We know, honestly, especially now, it's a huge sacrifice to come to a show because Ticketmaster won't get their shit together."
The singer-songwriter added, "We've put a lot of pressure on ourselves too, because we were like, 'People are spending money that they don't have to come and hang out with us and we better give them something that's worth that.' We just love you so much."
Of course, there have been rumblings about Ticketmaster's shady doings for years, but things really came to a head last November during Erasgate: the chaotic Taylor Swift presale that has since produced several lawsuits against the corporation.
More recently, the Cure have been transparent in their attempts to prevent scalping and make their tour affordable for all fans, even managing to convince the company to refund some service fees — an ordeal that prompted Neil Young to declare that "touring is broken."
Williams's second point about how this impacts touring musicians recalls earlier comments from Jack Antonoff about the lack of control artists have in the situation. "If I can go online and buy a car and have it delivered to my house, why can't I buy a fucking ticket at the price that the artist wants it to be?" the superproducer questioned before adding, "We know who's making it impossible."
Meanwhile, touring is more expensive for performers than it's ever been, with Roger Daltrey recently revealing that it's currently too much of a financial risk for the Who to tour internationally amid the ongoing pandemic.