Last, is an email from the Promowest team in Cincinnati, Ohio (read it here). That email chain begins July 15, 2021 with Marissa McClellan noting a recent research her team conducted “comparing AXS and Ticketmaster fees and AXS fees are higher in every instance, even if our ticket price is lower.”
McClellan noted that the “Fees are price gouging and overpriced” and notes “People are complaining way more about fees than they ever complained about Ticketmaster.”
The emails work their way up the chain to Mueller who responds “I doubt the customers like AXS any less than TM,” adding “And we did a price analysis against TM” and “your fees are not materially higher. I'm not calling out Marissa but the below feels more like editorial tome than an analysis.”
Scott Stienecker from Promowest then responds “I have the ticketmaster chart and AXS side by side. AXS is a bit high and we wanted to be less.” The two men then agree to meet and discuss the pricing in the future.
As a bonus, I’m going to include in this article an email between Mueller and David Marcus on Dec. 3, 2018 (read it here) that was included in a separate email dump from the states. This email begins with a message from AEG’s Cody Lauzier, flagging “very significant Bot attacks in the last few weeks.”
The bot attacks appear to have been linked to a Panic at the Disco show where 800 tickets were rapidly bought up by suspicious accounts.
“We have sent through requests to the Fraud Prevention folks on your end but we would like to discuss with your end what your folks can help to identify bad actors/eliminate/diminish what we are experiencing,” Lauzier wrote.
Marcus responded “This is the first I'm hearing of this, and I'm sorry. What is happening specifically? Who were you speaking with on Fraud Prevention?” and asked his assistant to schedule time to discuss.
That seemed to anger Mueller, who was copied on the exchange and wrote “Please stop with the verified fan routine Dave. Ho\v about you guys find away not to have 800 tickets sold to a scalper on a random Monday day that doesn't require the fan to register this that and the other all the while giving TM exponentially more data. Less hoops, more legitimacy in the transaction.”
Marcus responded “That email was bullshit”
Mueller replied “Was it? I kinda thought your smelled of it. When a client has to alert you to the bot activity and the response is add more layers? When is the system going to start working on primary level and weed out the activity? Verified fan is an obvious tilt towards TM and puts fans through extra steps they shouldn't be asked to do. Not to mention the charges ... I've told you before I don't but Verified Fan as concept. You throwing it out as the solution is just teeing it up for this kind of response.”
Marcus ended the conversation writing “I'm not gonna yell back and forth over email. We sell anywhere from a few hundred thousand to half a million or more tickets a day. That you sold 800 tickets on a hot tour one day isn't something we notice. If it's a problem you can pick up the phone and we can try to find solutions.”
Before signing off, he wrote “VF isn't an upcharge. Hasn't been since Feb. You think you've got answers we'd love to hear em.”
====
If you want to understand what is happening with the Live Nation antitrust trial, then peek into the laptop of Live Nation executive Rick Mueller, whose company emails have come into focus midway through the company’s landmark antitrust trial.
Lawyers for both Live Nation and the state attorneys general still litigating the concert promoter’s landmark antitrust case closed the third week of the case by highlighting emails either to or from the Live Nation executive, who worked at rival AEG from 2011 to 2024.
For attorney Adam Gitlin, representing the states alongside lead counsel Jeffrey Kessler (who was out of court Friday attending to a medical issue), the emails support the plaintiffs’ larger theory of the case, which is that Live Nation uses content to prop up the technological shortcomings of Ticketmaster. Gitlin believes that venues are not signing with rivals like AXS or Seatgeek out of fear that Live Nation will stop bringing touring content to their facilities.
Not so fast, argue lawyers for Live Nation, who say AXS isn’t winning business from venues because AXS’ technology is terrible and crashes all the time. It’s so bad, Live Nation’s lawyers say, that AEG promoters are openly rebelling against having to use the AXS platform, pointing to emails from high-ranking AEG executives to Mueller constantly criticizing the ticketing service.
On Friday, Mueller was called to the stand to help sort through the emails, starting with a July 21 email (read it here) to AXS executives letting them know they faced long odds in winning the ticketing contract for a major tribal casino showroom in Southern California. The day prior, AXS executive Stephanie Streeter had sent an optimistic email to AEG and AXS officials saying she felt good about winning the Yaamava’ Theater contract at the San Manuel Casino, noting “everyone of their larger team wants to go with AXS, as they like us and our tech better and they have a bad taste in their from TM over the years giving them a really shitty deal and service.”
The following day, Mueller delivered the bad news, writing “Got the official word they are going LN for booking, my guess is they will go with TM as a result.” Gitlin tried to argue that this email is an example of AXS offering a superior ticketing product to Ticketmaster, only to lose the contract when touring content came into play. The problem with that theory is it relies heavily on Streeter’s opinion—maybe AXS wasn’t as close to winning the business as Streeter thought.
The second piece of evidence (read it here) Gitlin introduced was a letter Mueller sent to the Irvine (California) City Council on May 23, 2023, arguing for city officials to drop their plans to work with Live Nation to build a new amphitheater in the Orange County city.
“The concert seasons at the current Five Points amphitheatre have been limited broad-scale programming from Ticketmaster/Live Nation, the same uninspired concerts they run through their chain of amphitheatres across the country,” Mueller wrote. “It’s a fantastic tool for Ticketmaster/Live Nation to generate the exorbitant ticket fees and big sponsor dollars that power their company... but maybe it’s not good for music fans or the people of Irvine. Why would Irvine subsidize Ticketmaster’s profits especially when
you've already seen what Ticketmaster/Live Nation has to offer? Why would you give over control of a $110 million city asset to one private company and end up with the wrong venue and so few shows?”
This email, like the San Manuel email, doesn’t really prove anything other than the fact that Mueller was a competitive executive who had negative views of Live Nation when he worked at AEG. Now that he works at Live Nation, his opinion has likely evolved on the topic.
The last two emails were with agents, including this one sent to CAA’s Carole Kinzel and this one sent to promoter Barrie Marshall, both dealing with hiccups in the Ticketmaster system. They don’t show much other than Ticketmaster messing up on pricing and Mueller promising to follow up with the company to get a resolution.
Next are the emails provided by Live Nation of AEG employees complaining about AXS to Mueller. These emails are a little more telling, showing frustration with being forced to use a tool many at AEG think is ineffective.
The first email (read it here) is dated Aug. 26 and comes from John Moore with Bowery Presents, responding to a request for highlights from the year from Mueller. Moore responds, “I know these are highlights but are we going to discuss lowlights like AXS? I mean really, is there a plan? It's the worst ticketing service, pathetic.”
He then goes on to note he spoke to a manager who told him “how awful AXS is and I asked for a comparison to his TM experiences and said he thought AXS was/ is #3 in a 2 horse race.” Moore then called AXS “a horrible burden that affects our business.”
Not exactly a rave review. Mueller responded by saying, “John, it's probably better if we discuss on the phone because emails like this aren't helpful.” He later noted, “Complaining about it without contributing to the solution is a waste of time. We aren't doing a deal with TM ... they are our competitor and the government wouldn't allow it.”
Next on the list is a 2022 email from Mike Luba (read it here), who runs Forest Hills in Queens, N.Y. Luba tells Mueller that “the AXS system still mostly stinks at simple, basic things that should never be happening.” Copied on that email is Rob Pohly from Samlyn Capital, who notes, “This is why Ticketmaster is better.”
Finally, Mueller gets the last word and notes, “AXS is not a piece of shit, I’m bored with the rhetoric here.”
Last is an email from the Promowest team in Cincinnati, Ohio (read it here). That email chain begins July 15, 2021, with Marissa McClellan noting recent research her team conducted “comparing AXS and Ticketmaster fees and AXS fees are higher in every instance, even if our ticket price is lower.”
McClellan noted that the “Fees are price gouging and overpriced” and adds, “People are complaining way more about fees than they ever complained about Ticketmaster.”
The emails work their way up the chain to Mueller, who responds, “I doubt the customers like AXS any less than TM,” adding, “And we did a price analysis against TM” and “your fees are not materially higher. I'm not calling out Marissa but the below feels more like editorial tone than an analysis.”
Scott Stienecker from Promowest then responds, “I have the ticketmaster chart and AXS side by side. AXS is a bit high and we wanted to be less.” The two men then agree to meet and discuss the pricing in the future.
As a bonus, I’m going to include in this article an email between Mueller and David Marcus on Dec. 3, 2018 (read it here) that was included in a separate email dump from the states. This email begins with a message from AEG’s Cody Lauzier, flagging “very significant Bot attacks in the last few weeks.”
The bot attacks appear to have been linked to a Panic at the Disco show where 800 tickets were rapidly bought up by suspicious accounts.
“We have sent through requests to the Fraud Prevention folks on your end but we would like to discuss with your end what your folks can help to identify bad actors/eliminate/diminish what we are experiencing,” Lauzier wrote.
Marcus responded, “This is the first I'm hearing of this, and I'm sorry. What is happening specifically? Who were you speaking with on Fraud Prevention?” and asked his assistant to schedule time to discuss.
That seemed to anger Mueller, who was copied on the exchange and wrote, “Please stop with the verified fan routine Dave. Ho\v about you guys find away not to have 800 tickets sold to a scalper on a random Monday day that doesn't require the fan to register this that and the other all the while giving TM exponentially more data. Less hoops, more legitimacy in the transaction.”
Marcus responded, “That email was bullshit.”
Mueller replied, “Was it? I kinda thought your smelled of it. When a client has to alert you to the bot activity and the response is add more layers? When is the system going to start working on primary level and weed out the activity? Verified fan is an obvious tilt towards TM and puts fans through extra steps they shouldn't be asked to do. Not to mention the charges ... I've told you before I don't but Verified Fan as concept. You throwing it out as the solution is just teeing it up for this kind of response.”
Marcus ended the conversation writing, “I'm not gonna yell back and forth over email. We sell anywhere from a few hundred thousand to half a million or more tickets a day. That you sold 800 tickets on a hot tour one day isn't something we notice. If it's a problem you can pick up the phone and we can try to find solutions.”
Before signing off, he wrote, “VF isn't an upcharge. Hasn't been since Feb. You think you've got answers we'd love to hear em.”
