Overview

In the spring of 1975, at the same time the Apple founders took up residence in the Jobs family garage, a trio of neophyte businessmen backed an old Chrysler onto a sun-baked Arizona driveway and convened in their new facility. The garage start-up, optimistically (yet prophetically) dubbed Ticketmaster, would come to achieve such market dominance over the decades to follow, that some critics would denounce the company as an unlawful monopoly. Yet its path to the top was far from inevitable. Ticket Masters is based on first-person interivews with the key players.

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9781550229493

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Reviews

<p> [A] lively, sprawling chronology of the concert-ticket sales business . . . Budnick and Baron offer information in accessible language fortified with verbatim dialogue from a pantheon of music-industry brass. -- Kirkus Reviews (April 15, 2011)

A fascinating insider's portrait of the music business once all of the pulsing lights, fog machines and sound equipment have been turned off. -- Maclean's (June 27, 2011)

"""For anyone who's ever suffered rock concert sticker shock -- and we all have -- Dean Budnick and Josh Baron's Ticket Masters is the best seat in the house to the show behind the show: and inside look at those inexhaustible high-wire artists, corporate jugglers, and ringmasters who are always chasing one more deal, one more concession, one more buck in the empire burlesque that is the multi-billion-dollar rock concert business."" -- Fred Goodman, author of Fortune's Fool and The Mansion on the Hill"

In other hands, this book could have been dull and academic, but it reads like an adventure story, full of colorful characters, shady transactions, and surprising twists and turns. For everyone who has been dumbstruck by the extra fees added to the price of admission, this book is just the ticket. Highly recommended for eventgoers everywhere. -- Library Journal (May 1, 2011) A clear, comprehensive look at a murky business, the book is also an encyclopedia of information about the rise, decline and rebirth of the live music industry. -- Wall Street Journal (May 28, 2011) Fascinating. . . . [The authors] delve deep into every aspect of the tour biz, from the rise of computerized ticketing to the consolidation of concert promoters. -- Rolling Stone (June 9, 2011) A fascinating insider's portrait of the music business once all of the pulsing lights, fog machines and sound equipment have been turned off. -- Maclean's (June 27, 2011) Budnick and Baron did a tremendous job in chronicling the history of the U.S. and Canadian concert business and how the business models have changed. . . . Ticket Masters is an excellent book for music historians and business geeks alike. --www.boomerocity.com Ticket Masters covers a lot of terrain, and a lot of terrain in fine and meticulous detail. --Douglas J. Johnston, Winnipeg Free Press Who turned concert ticketing into a monstrous machine for bleeding music fans dry? Dean Budnick and Josh Baron of Relix chronicle the rise of the Ticketmaster juggernaut -- and hell-spawn like Clear Channel, StubHub, and Live Nation -- by following the money with the dogged persistence of detectives and a knack for turning bottom-line history into engaging narrative . . . If you wonder why you're paying ten times as much for overblown, cross-promoted spectacles that are one-tenth as satisfying as the rock and roll of your youth, you need to read this book. -- Steve Silberman, Editor, Wired magazine [A] lively, sprawling chronology of the concert-ticket sales business . . . Budnick and Baron offer information in accessible language fortified with verbatim dialogue from a pantheon of music-industry brass. -- Kirkus Reviews (April 15, 2011)

Author Information

Dean Budnick is the executive editor of Relix magazine, the founder of www.jambands.com, and the author of Jam Bands and The Phishing Manual. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard's History of American Civilization program and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. Josh Baron is the editor in chief of Relix magazine and contributes to a variety of media outlets on music and ticketing. They both live in New York City.

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