When grunge broke in late 1991/ early 1992, four bands were at the forefront of the movement. There was the breakthrough act Nirvana, the first act signed to a label, Soundgarden, the heavy act Alice in Chains, and the people’s band Pearl Jam. Of those four, Pearl Jam is the most popular and has been touring the longest. Yes, Alice in Chains is still touring, but they had a hiatus when their original singer, Layne Staley, died.
Although Pearl Jam is the biggest band from that era, it doesn’t mean that they came away unscathed. Where difficult albums or drugs usually put bands on the brink, for PJ, it was a tour when they were at the height of their powers that almost broke them up. They decided to use their power as the biggest band in the world to take on the biggest ticket provider: Ticketmaster. This week, The Beat Marches On to 6th May 1995, when Pearl Jam takes Ticketmaster to court over monopolising the ticket industry.
Pearl Jam formed after the singer of Mother Love Bone, Andrew Wood, became one of the first casualties of the Seattle scene in 1990 (for more information see here 56: Singer, Pioneer, and Vulnerability – Beat Marches On) They decided to carry on after recording a tribute album to the fallen singer called Temple Of The Dog.
The band quickly rose to the top after the grunge explosion in 1992 when Nirvana broke through and Nevermind went to number one on the Billboard album charts, dethroning the prince of pop, Michael Jackson.
Pearl Jam’s debut, Ten, became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, selling over 15,000,000 copies. It included singles such as Even Flow and Alive which are still played on classic rock radio to this day and remain fan favourites. The follow-up album Vs broke the record for most copies sold in the first week at the time. By the time the third album, Vitalogy, was released (which was the second fastest-selling album, only after Vs), they had secured their place as one of the world’s biggest bands.
Despite the band’s popularity, they hadn’t forgotten about their fans. They realised that not all of their fans could afford high ticket prices. It was the fans that got them to where they are, and they wanted to reward them by providing affordable tickets. The company who were selling the tickets, however, didn’t agree.
It’s safe to say that no one likes Ticketmaster. The recent debacles of selling tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and the Oasis reunion have not done the company any favours. The artists raised complaints about this to the company, but they did nothing. Add that to having the website crash whenever the mass demand for tickets reaches over a couple of thousand, they have recently added dynamic pricing, which increases the ticket price when there is high demand. First instituted by Uber to entice more drivers to the area where the demand is, it works for that style of business as there are always more drivers around, but you can’t do that in venues, you can’t magically expand the building’s capacity on a whim.
The tensions with Pearl Jam had been growing for some time before the boycott, almost starting as soon as the band shot up the charts. In 1992, the band wanted to do a free thank-you concert to the Seattle fans, but Ticketmaster decided to charge a $1 fee for the free concert, which upset the band.
A year later, the group organised a charity concert in their home city of Seattle for deprived children, in which they would donate $20,000. Seattle’s Ticketmaster representative said they would match the donation as a goodwill gesture. The company’s CEO, Fred Rosen, decided at the last minute to add an extra dollar surcharge. Last minute was literary the week they were due to go on sale.
Upset by the two previous money grabs of Ticketmaster, tensions were running high between them and Pearl Jam. When the band wanted to tour again in support of their third album, Vitalogy, they only wanted to charge $18 for a ticket and requested a $1.80 booking fee. This was less than 25% of what was usually charged. Neither side was backing down, so when the company wouldn’t agree to the quoted prices, PJ backed out of the tour.
Instead of relying on Ticketmaster, Pearl Jam arranged their tour, but it wasn’t made easy for them, however, as the corporate giant used their influence in the industry to have venues refuse to allow the band to use them. The band soon realised they had bitten off more than they could chew. They had to find venues that would be big enough to support their mass appeal. This meant using national parks and high school playing fields. Frontman of the band Eddie Vedder said, reflecting on the incident to Louder Sound ‘We spent more time on where to put the Portaloos than when it came to the setlist’
The self-planned tour was a disaster. Many fans complained about the difficulty of obtaining tickets. Many dates had to be cancelled due to logistical problems with the band’s equipment. The estimated loss Pearl Jam took is around $ 2 million.
The US government took an interest in the band’s stance against Ticketmaster and launched an investigation into the company’s monopolisation of the ticket selling industry. They even called them as witnesses before the Senate. Nothing came of the investigation despite support from other artists such as Garth Brooks, The Grateful Dead, REM, Neil Young (who would collaborate with PJ) and Aerosmith. The band thought they were used by the government.
Pearl Jam knew they had to swallow their pride and come crawling back to Ticketmaster, however not without their own stipulations. They have a bigger say on prices for tickets, they introduced the Ten Club, a premium service for the most devoted of fans to get first access to tickets, and they also allow the fans recording the live shows and sharing them on fan forums a la The Grateful Dead.
Ticketmaster is still the largest provider of tickets and venues in the industry. The way they handled Taylor Swift’s Eras tour brought them to the attention of the US government again, and they were subsequently investigated, ending in an antitrust lawsuit against the company, which is still ongoing.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for eight years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
The moment Pearl Jam went to war with Ticketmaster
Eddie Vedder on Pearl Jam’s battle with Ticketmaster, 30 years on | Louder
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