So incase you haven’t heard Metallica has been named as one of the bands that participate in direct selling of their concert tickets to the secondary market. This is when a band takes a bunch of tickets before they are on sale to the public and puts them up for sale on sites like Stubhub & Seat Geek. This allows for premium tickets to go for hundreds if not thousands of dollars over face value. Live nation has admitted that they have given bands including Metallica these tickets for resale.
Apparently some 88,000 Metallica tickets ended up going directly to the secondary market according to Live Nation. This was set up between Tony DiCioccio, a representative of Metallica and live nation. Tony D is very close to the boys in Metallica, he is family to them. It’s been described if Metallica flew on a private jet with 5 seats, Tony would be the person who gets that 5th seat. A source familiar with the deal reportedly told Billboard the parties agreed that Metallica would get 40% of the resale revenue, Live Nation 40%, DiCioccio 12% and Millette 8%, though another source said Live Nation’s share was lower.
My two cents on Metallica being a band caught up in the Live Nation scandal is that the band themselves were not aware of this secondary ticket scandal. Yet Metallica is still responsible as a brand that they hired someone to do a job and he did it in a shady way to capitalize profits. Say I went on WEBN, locked myself in the studio & yelled cuss words for an hour on-air. WEBN hired me and in the end would be responsible for my actions. They’d have to take action against me. WEBN would face FCC fines and they’d be responsible for holding me accountable for the illegal action.
Metallica has given so much to the community. Metallica has held so many fan events at rock bottom prices. There have been shows they could have easily charged $500 or more for yet charged fans $19 for a special club show. They put S&M tixs on sale which hit the secondary market and then created a second show that went to fan club members only. The band was FURIOUS over this and made public statements on how this stuff was total crap.
In recent interviews Jaymz has talked about how people who do this ticket scam are soulless and that karma would get them. Hetfield is not a guy who talks sh*t. He doesn't have time for that nor cares for B/S.
I believe someone who was hired to do a job did the job in a shady way. Similar to something illegal like a radio dj giving free mentions for a business on air for free services without the knowledge of WEBN & the sales staff.
Perhaps Metallica did know. I don't know, just my 2cents. Metallica has been a band about the fans. Sure you may not like the napster thing but that was about their work & property, not about the fans. Metallica has spent 37 years working hard and kicking ass. They've started a charity to give back to world w/ the All Within My Hands Foundation.
We may never know if the band themselves knew about it. Like I said they're still responsible for it. If you want an opinion from professional people in the rock world who also love Metallica, check out Metal Up Your Podcast. They put out a recent episode going through things in a fair and balanced way. Skip to the 40ish minute mark for the main story.
I will always love Metallica and respect them for the way they do things. I really hope they fire DiCioccio and find a way to make sure this doesn’t happen on future tours. I hope Metallica will respond publicly and tell us their story on the subject. Either way I'm blasting some LIVE METALLICA from the 2019 World Wired Tour & living in the Metallica Consciousness.