Q&A: Jacki Becker on the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger

Jacki Becker, show promoter with Up to Eleven, was cool enough to take some time out of her very busy schedule of bringing you shows to talk about the recent merger ‘twixt Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

Are you worried about having any of your shows snaked by a larger corporation, or does Up to Eleven keep it small enough for there to be little chance of interference? I.e., do you ever do shows in venues large enough to where Live Nation might have an interest?

Well, I have a very amicable relationship with both Ticketmaster and Live Nation. As a small indie promoter, I tend to fly under the radar with most of my acts. However, when bands get larger, Live Nation has always been very fair in making sure the promoter who has been active for years with a band in our area still maintains some promotional rights to that band. I can’t say anything about the rest of the country, but where I work and promote, Live Nation has been pretty A-OK with working with me.

How do you feel about the possibility of Live Nation having access to the sales data from the shows which you sell tickets for through Ticketmaster?

Hmmn…I guess I was unaware that it would be legal and allowed for Ticketmaster to show my information to Live Nation under this deal. That seems to be highly illegal if it were to happen.

People like Seth Hurwitz of Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club suggested on last week’s Sound Opinions it’s just a matter of a walk down a hallway and asking “Hey, how’re those [Band X] tickets selling for them?”

Haha. Well, again — I just sure hope that never happens for oh-so-many reasons.

Have you ever run into Ticketmaster issues before? Or Live Nation, for that matter?

Again, Ticketmaster has always been fair to me — they respect that I am a small promoter and I am able to keep my charges lower for those reasons.

Any other opinions you may have on the matter?

I guess the only thing that I wonder about with all of this happening is…is music heading the way of movie theaters of the ’50s? What happens when one organization begins to own everything? It leads often to a lessening of creativity and an ability to walk out from underneath this massive umbrella which has now covers a large part of the music industry. When creativity is stifled or swayed because money talks, that is when we will begin to see the beginning of the end of truly independent and creative music. I certainly hope for so many many reasons that this does not happen.