When loyal fans enjoy supporting a music artist, the concert that the artist performs is the most exhilarating part about being a fan. That’s why it’s disappointing that it’s such a hassle to be able to attend the show. Ticketmaster is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California. Lately there has been a lot of controversy and aggression towards the site from fans for intentional deception, fraud, price fixing, violations of antitrust law and various other laws.

Lou Lou Morris (12) expressed the problems towards Ticketmaster and how much difficulty goes into using the company.

“I used Ticketmaster for a Taylor Swift concert, and the presale system was really stressful. It took seven hours, but I did get the tickets, and then I had to pay all the extra fees they added on at the end which was the most annoying part,” Morris said.

Ticketmaster controls over 70 percent of the ticketing and live event markets. It spans from artist management through concert promotion through venue management down to primary ticketing and now, secondary ticketing, all the way down to the consumer-facing fan markets. The problem with a company so big and popular is that it can set any rules it wants, and everyone has to go along because there’s nowhere else to go. There’s no competition and they know that providing services to keep people happy is not something they have to do to keep the company going. Ticketmaster is a company that people associate with monopolies because the strongest competitor is unable to compete at the same level as the superior company.

Tristan Rodgers (12) has also had first-hand experience with Ticketmaster while trying to secure basketball tickets.

“When I scanned the barcode, that didn’t work, and the fees were really expensive. I went to a Hornets game with me and my friends, but they barely got the tickets, which was stressful. The most annoying part was how we couldn’t even find seats together. I thought getting tickets through Ticketmaster would be a laid-back process, but I was so wrong,” Rodgers said.

The fees can be extremely high, which makes customers struggle to secure tickets. Sometimes the company often charges fees that don’t have a clear reason. In some instances, fans who heard about their favorite artist’s ticket sales were determined to wait through long hours or even days for the tickets. The website often ends up crashing and prices start to shift only to end up without tickets. The average ticket price for concerts are $600, and one seat can be up to $3,000.

Jenna Kunak (12) experienced disappointment while purchasing a ticket from Ticketmaster.

“The website glitches a lot and the ticket prices were so much higher than the original site. I was looking at the price to check out, and it nearly doubled, so next time I need tickets for something, I’ll probably use a different site,” Kunak said.