Springsteen blasts Ticketmaster for "abuse" of fans

Musician Bruce Springsteen performs during halftime for the NFL's Super Bowl XLIII football game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa, Florida February 1, 2009.

Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Bruce Springsteen and his manager, Jon Landau, criticized Ticketmaster for redirecting customers attempting to buy Springsteen concert tickets to the company's secondary ticketing site, TicketsNow.

On Monday, fans trying to make face-value purchases for tickets were instead sent to TicketsNow, "even when other seats remained available at face value," says a letter posted on BruceSpringsteen.net. "We condemn this practice."

"We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest," the post continues. "Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site."

Springsteen and Landau also voiced outrage at the proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which they say would return concert ticketing "to a near monopoly."

"The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you," they concluded. "We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours."

Springsteen, who Wednesday debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the Columbia album "Working on a Dream," begins a world tour April in San Jose, Calif.

Reuters/Billboard