Jack Antonoff is frustrated with the concert industry, which he says has fallen victim to large corporations trying to “monopolize the whole f–king thing.”
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In a musicians-on-musicians conversation with Hayley Williams published by Rolling Stone on Thursday (Oct. 16), the Bleachers frontman opened up about the way he’s seen live music change for the worse over the years. “I’ve seen it from every level,” he told the Paramore bandleader. “What f–ks me off is, why is drawing a few hundred people not an honest living?”
“You and your band can’t turn a profit, and then we have to watch the companies that own all these rooms and monopolize the whole f–king thing and post billions of earnings,” he continued. “Chill the f–k out, it’s working. Everyone wants to come. It’s not total anarchy.”
In response, Williams pointed out how major corporations co-opting the live music landscape has led to financial issues for smaller venues. “[It’s] killing me,” she told Antonoff. “My favorite street in Nashville has been just obliterated.”
“It’s so simple to me, and there’s one answer that’s never going to happen, which is [the corporations] have to make a little less money,” Antonoff replied. “I want everyone in that room [at a show] to feel like a f–king human being from beginning to end. I want it to be the best night ever. The last thing I want people to think about is how they’re treated. I remember growing up — a bad security guard? They’d be gone. It would never happen. There was such protection over the literal vibe.”
Antonoff is far from the only musician who has spoken out against unfair music industry standards, but he is one of the most vocal. In 2022, he called out venues for taxing artist merch, pointing out on X, “This is literally the only way you make money when you start out touring.”
At the Grammys the following year, he shared his feelings on dynamic ticket pricing. “If I can go online and buy a car and have it delivered to my house, why can’t I buy a f–king ticket at the price that the artist wants it to be?” he told reporters at the time. “And you know the reason why. And it’s not ’cause of artists.”
