It’s hard to fathom now – in the age of Twitter and 24-hour news cycles – but in the mid-1990s Billboard was one of the only major publications to devote time and significant column space to Pearl Jam’s herculean battle with Ticketmaster over ticket prices and fees. And the reporter who stubbornly followed the story – about the hottest rock band taking on the world’s biggest concert ticket seller – every step of the way was Eric Boehlertthe music world muckraker turned media critic who died this week in a tragic bicycle accident.
In early 1994, Pearl Jam had been on a roll since the October release of their second album vs. and were mounting a second leg of a tour to support her when the band were disappointed with Ticketmaster’s service fee, which they deemed excessive. After the spring tour wrapped in a triumphant appearance on Saturday Night Live, they started thinking about summer dates – and another way to sell it. Below, Boehlert picks up the story and continues to follow it over the next year and a half.
“Eric was super smart, very creative, a diligent journalist and crazy about music”, Ken Schlager, Billboard’s former editor, said earlier this week. “In other words, he was perfect for Billboard.”
April 23, 1994: Pearl Jam tells promoters they are fed up with Ticketmaster’s service fees and would attempt to re-enact their summer tour with far lower prices and fees than Ticketmaster. In this front-page story, the band says they’ll “budge” and simply play in places like farm fields if promoters reject alternative ticket offers.
May 1994: Pearl Jam postpones its summer tour. In a later roundup for the magazine (July 8, 1995), Boehlert explains that the group had already filed a memo alleging that Ticketmaster’s exclusive contracts with theaters amounted to a monopoly in the market. (Ticketmaster has denied those accusations.)
June 11, 1994: Boehlert reports that Pearl Jam postponed its tour not because of exhaustion but because promoters rejected a price cap on tickets and the service fees that come with them. It is in this story that Boehlert confirms reports that the band’s attorneys had recently sent the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division a memo accusing Ticketmaster of pressuring promoters not to work with Pearl Jam on an alternative ticket office. The DOJ has confirmed that it is examining “the possibility of anti-competitive practices” by the ticketing industry as a whole.
June 25, 1994: Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis told Boehlert that the band is “committed to touring on cheap tickets”. Also in the issue, Billboard’s Bill Holland reports that a House subcommittee led by Rep. Gary Condit (you remember him ?) would investigate the Ticketmaster-Pearl Jam controversy and its “allegations of monopolistic business practices” by the ticket distributor.
July 9, 1994: Two numbers later Billboard gives Boehlert above-the-fold billing for a massive report titled “How David Became the Industry Goliath.” In it, the author gives a detailed and comprehensive account of Ticketmaster’s rise from Arizona-based software startup to ubiquitous ticketing giant. (Read to the end for a reference to a “home computer information network” called America Online.) Holland also reports on the House hearing and its first two witnesses: Pearl guitarist Jam Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament.
April 15, 1995: Pearl Jam uses a brand new company, ETM Entertainment Network, to sell and distribute tickets for its 1995 tour. The problem? Find venues that did not have an exclusive contract with Ticketmaster. Boehlert covers both PJ’s Risky Game and ETM’s “Big 1st Job.”
June 24, 1995: Frustrated at not being able to book enough mainstream venues that would work with ETM — and after several unconventional venues failed — a worn-out Pearl Jam admits he might need to return to Ticketmaster’s not-so-loving embrace. “We went as far as we could,” PJ manager Kelly Curtis told Boehlert. “At some point, it’s time to get back to music and play.”
July 8, 1995: Boehlert gives readers a play-by-play of the saga:
July 15, 1995: Janet Reno’s DOJ drops its year-long investigation into the ticketing industry, effectively awarding Ticketmaster the title belt as the “winner of his highly controversial heavyweight fight” with Pearl Jam. Boehlert notes that the DOJ may not have been convinced that Ticketmaster violated antitrust laws by entering into exclusive contracts with venues.
July 22, 1995: While it didn’t end well for Pearl Jam, its fight with Ticketmaster exposed long-standing complaints that TM had no real competition. Here, Boehlert continues – reporting on new king challengers, including Tele-charge, ProTix and… Dillard’s?
In October 1995, Boehlert was promoted to senior editor at Billboard. But a little over a month later, he was gone. Picked up by rolling stone where, of course, he continued to write on Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster.