Is Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan a ‘Pretend Product’? CEO Asks

Photo Credit: Michael Rapino for Live Nation

Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan offering is little more than a sales pitch to give the illusion of protecting against scalpers, CEO Michael Rapino says.

Surprisingly, the private Slack conversations between two Live Nation employees haven’t been the juiciest reveal to come out of the USA vs. Live Nation trial. A 2021 email exchange between Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and Ticketmaster executive David Marcus reveal that Verified Fan, one of the platform’s most talked-about anti-scalper measures, might not actually be protecting fans as much as the company would have fans believe. Instead, Rapino positions it as something that the company can pitch to artists and agents to assuage concerns about the secondary market.

The exchange centers on an angry email from a fan complaining about Verified Fan tickets going for exorbitant prices once he was able to get into the queue to purchase. He refers to so-called platinum tickets as “total bullshit and legalized scalping,” asking Rapino by name how he sleeps at night “knowing that you are stealing the fan’s money every day.”

Rapino asks Marcus what Verified Fan (VF) is now, “given [that] all tickets end up on scalper site[s]? Is it [a] pretend product to convince [artists, management, and agents] that we stopped scalpers?”

Marcus rejects that assessment and explains that it “allows us to accurately predict demand for each show” which helps especially with dynamic pricing, and “allows us to manage queues much better and dramatically reduce bots.” He adds that it “decreases scalping,” but has never eliminated it.

Rapino answers with another question: “Why do we care what ends up on secondary? We have secondary; we want to be in secondary.”

Marcus explains that while they do want to be in the secondary market, “when we don’t focus on getting fans tickets first, the brokers and bots cripple us, and the artists and fans get frustrated.” Ultimately, he says, “it’s just a metric that tells us if we can tell the difference between a fan and a broker.”

“I don’t want to balance artists, fans, and brokers,” says Rapino. “That’s why we lose on secondary—we are not winning with any of the three.”

Marcus assures him that they only use Verified Fan when artists request it. “Some artists love it,” he says, including Dead & Company, Billie Eilish, and PJ Harvey. Others “don’t need or want it,” such as Garth Brooks, Beyonce, and The Weeknd.

“VF adds a really useful component when it’s used,” explains Marcus. “Demand prediction is incredibly valuable—promoters use it to add shows before onsale. Putting fans at front of queue improves sales momentum—VF sales have higher conversion, more tickets per minute, and more tickets per order.”

Rapino counters that “it’s just to tell artist agents that you tried to stop scalpers,” and that he spoke to Dead & Company’s managers, and “they don’t care about [Verified Fan] at all… So who did want it?”

Marcus tells him that “Dead were first VF client ever. Have used it on every tour since 2016.”

Rapino seems to be tired of arguing his point and asks if Marcus is “getting my larger strategic push here?” Marcus answers, “Totally. Just trying to be responsive to your direct questions.”

It’s an important distinction, and one that the states have pointed to in their trial against the ticketing and live event company. The states used this exchange between the two executives to suggest that Ticketmaster wanted to put itself in a position to capture more of the resale ecosystem too—something that has long been argued in the debate over whether Live Nation/Ticketmaster is a monopoly. Digital Music News’ exposé on ticket brokers highlights how the now defunct TradeDesk platform was Live Nation’s attempt to capture the secondary market.

The jury is currently deliberating the case, with closing arguments having been delivered last week. Regardless of the outcome, documents revealed during the trial paint the company as caring far less about “protecting fans” and more about direct market control.

Whether this will result in the two companies being broken up remains a major question; it’s still possible, but experts remain unconvinced. That’s especially evident given the Justice Department’s settlement with the company ahead of the states’ trial.