Spamming Concert Promoter Says Ticket Buyers Asked For It

Live Nation, a concert promoter whose spamming ways helped inspire THREAT LEVEL's collaborative ranking of companies with the worst privacy practices, wrote in today to address my original email complaint to them, and says I asked for their spam.

I was annoyed at the company because I bought tickets, via Ticketmaster {SHUDDER}, to an event the company is promoting (Sonic Youth doing all of Daydream Nation). That purchase landed me a prime spot on both companies' spamming lists with no chance to opt-out before the fact.

But according to Live Nation:

[..] You received our Concert Update e-mail because you previously provided your e-mail address to us (i) in connection with the purchase of tickets to a Live Nation event which any customer can opt out of at the end of his/her purchase or (ii) when you registered on one of our websites to receive these concert e-mails.

Should you have any further questions on our privacy policy, please go to: http://www.livenation.com/company/getPrivacy

Kindest regards, LiveNation.com Newsletter Customer Service (empahsis added)

What a nice response, though it's just flat out false.

Ticket buyers have no choice. I just checked it again with a Cat Power/Built to Spill show Live Nation is promoting. When you go to buy a ticket and have to make a profile, Ticketmaster gives you this 'notice':

By purchasing a ticket to an event, or completing this registration form in order to be able to purchase a ticket to an event or to bid in an auction, you indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster sharing your e-mail address and other information with those involved in the event (e.g., venues, teams, artists' representatives and fan clubs, promoters and leagues), and that you consent to those involved in the event using your information to contact you by e-mail or other means to send you marketing or other messages or using or disclosing your information in other ways. Please contact them directly to learn about their policies. By completing this registration form, you also indicate that you consent to Ticketmaster contacting you by e-mail or other means to send you marketing or other messages and using and disclosing the information you submit, as described in the Ticketmaster Privacy Policy.

And right before you buy you get this fine print dandy:

By ordering a ticket to this event, you are consenting to Ticketmaster sharing your email address and other information with those involved in this event (e.g., venues, teams, artists' representatives and fan clubs, promoters and leagues), and you are consenting to those involved in this event using your information to contact you by email or other means to send you marketing or other messages or using or disclosing your information in other ways. Please contact them directly to learn about their policies. By ordering a ticket to this event you also agree that Ticketmaster may send promotional emails to you unless you elect otherwise in My Account.

There's no click box to opt-in. There's not even an already clicked box you can opt-out of. Instead I have to wait for spam to come and then opt-out – which is usually not a good practice since it just confirms to spammers that don't follow CAN-SPAM that they found a live address.

I don't know for a fact that their support people know they are making up their own facts, so I'll refrain from calling them liars. Spammers who respond to complaints with fake facts, yes. Liars? That remains to be seen.

Photo: Kate Bolin