Metallica Called Out For Their Past Dealings with Ticketmaster on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” 


John Oliver’s program Last Week Tonight With John Oliver took on Ticketmaster/Live Nation on the show this week, calling out corrupt practices, shady fees, price gouging and the creation and manipulation of the secondary market for tickets. In addition to resellers such as Stubhub and Seatgeek and others, Olvier pointed out the common practice where bands do not release swaths of tickets to each to the public, but hold them back to charge huge sums as resale tickets that were never publicly available in the first place. Among the artists called out: Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey and Metallica. Famously Metallica was outed after their original “S&M2” at the Chase Center in 2019 sold out in minutes as scalpers bought most of the tickets, with resales in the $1000s. Many top bands like Metallica have their own operative that works with Ticketmaster/Live Nation to choose the best seats at every show, so they can in effect “scalp their own tickets.” In fairness to Metallica, they did put on a second show geared toward fanclub and sales to real fans, as opposed to scalpers and bots. Ghost Cult covered that story extensively, which you can read here and even the US Congress reviewed the scandal. Continue reading


ALBUM REVIEW: Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man


If there’s one name in the annals of rock history known to absolutely everyone, it’s Ozzy Osbourne. It doesn’t matter if you know him from his time with Black Sabbath, his solo career, his reality TV series, his wife, the bat story, or any of the other utterly insane stories which usually start with the excessive consumption of alcohol, or use of illegal substances. The fact is you know the name, you know the face, and you know the legend.Continue reading


Dumb and Dumbest #215: Tool (G-Money Returns)


 

Some bands have to hustle and grind to get their name out there, and other bands like Tool, for better or worse, get to build a mystery. Dumb and Dumbest Podcast number #215 is streaming now and it’s all about Tool (G-Money Returns)! Hosted by Matt Bacon (Dropout Media, Ripple Music, Prophecy Productions) and Publicist Curtis Dewar (Dewar PR), in addition to the podcast, Matt and Curtis host The Music Marketing Challenge, a low-cost, super high-value private training to bands and artists. Get hands-on practical experience to market your band like a pro today! Message them at the links below. Continue reading