r/SipsTea • u/lonewolff321 • 14h ago
SMH Charity begins at home... but not at the box office
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u/Lootthatbody 13h ago
For those unaware, grant cardone is an absolute scumbag. He’s a self reported billionaire who’s made his money selling sales classes to car dealerships. And, it’s all super old fashioned high pressure sales stuff that people actually hate.
I’m totally on board with the ‘eat the rich’ mentality, but I also understand that there are both different levels of rich and different varieties of rich. Billie speaks out and donates, grant is a maga grifter.
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u/NeedAmnesiaIthink 13h ago
He’s also a Scientologist which is fitting
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u/Lootthatbody 12h ago
Thanks for the add, I’ve heard that but never actually looked into whether it’s true or not, and tbh he’s already the cream of the crop of scumbags in my opinion so I’m not even worried about adding on Scientology.
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u/CallMeKingTurd 11h ago
Lol yeah the nerve of this motherfucker yapping about a $129 concert ticket when he charges upwards of $10k to suckers to attend his seminar just to tell them "10x everything and you'll get rich."
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u/BurnoutJoeB 6h ago
If somebody spends 10K to listen to that douche then IMO they deserve to lose it.
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u/storryeater 12h ago
There is a reason people rail against the existence of billionaires and not millionaires.
With luck and good art or content by being a top performer in a sport or a law, you can be a multimillionaire relatively ethically, even if one may argue it is build on the back of an unethical system depending on one's political beliefs. That does not mean millionaires are always ethical, but rather that they deserve the benefit of the doubt cuz they can be.
There is currently no way to be a billionaire ethically, and there won't be for a while unless inflation really gets out of hand. I suppose it may be theoretically possible with art if it becomes a humongous hit and you are kind of cuthroat about the rights, but even then I find it unlikely cuz the only person I know who seemingly achieved it also turned into a monster.
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u/Lootthatbody 12h ago
Yes, in case it needs to be said, that was my point in the different levels and types of wealth.
Athletes, actors, and musicians are in a different batch to me, when it comes to how they made their money. Because, there are still going to be team/stadium/studio owners, executives, and CEOs above them making money of their talent in addition to the general public.
I will say I do think there are SOME (very few) billionaires that are absolutely way more ethical than others, namely Bezos’ ex and Mark Cuban come to mind, but that just means they’d be the last to get eaten. I still think billionaires should be taxed to extinction, starting with the musks and trumps and the rest of the Epstein class.
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u/Chillpill411 11h ago
Agreed but just to show how fucked up things are: With the price of housing, one can become a millionaire just by inheriting a shithox house in southern California!
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u/Artmageddon 14h ago
“Hey Grant, not a fan of yours. I notice you’re a huge property owner and are pricing people out of homes since you can’t possible live in thousands of them yourself. Why not make them free”
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u/FacePalmate 13h ago
Billie’s ticket prices pay her as well as venue staff (yes and Ticketmaster bullshit fees etc). It’s literally how she gets paid. She performs, gets paid for it.
Billionaire gets paid by having money in the bank already. No labor needed anymore. Therefore billionaire can get off their lazy ass and be a productive part of society again.
US needs to reprioritize labor.
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u/DuntadaMan 7h ago
Hey now billionaires don't only make money from the bank. They also make it by gouging as much money out of their employees as they can while telling them they are lucky to be allowed to make them more money.
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u/QTown2pt-o 7h ago
The stock market crash finds a continuation in the takeover frenzy. It is no longer stocks and shares being bought, but companies being bought up. A virtual effervescence is created, with a potential impact on economic restructuring which, in spite of what is said, is purely speculative. The hope is that this enforced circulation will produce a broker's commission — exactly as on the Stock Exchange . Not even an objective profit exactly: the profit from speculation is not exactly surplus value, and what is at stake here is certainly not what is at stake in classical capitalism.
Speculation, like poker or roulette, has its own runaway logic, a chainreaction logic, a process of intensification [Steigerung], in which the thrill of the game and of bidding up the stakes plays a considerable role. This is why there is no point criticizing it on the basis of economic logic (this is what makes these phenomena so exciting: the economic being overtaken by a random, vertiginous form).
The game is such as to become suicidal: big companies end up buying back their own shares, which is nonsensical from the economic point of view: they end up mounting takeover bids for themselves! But this is all part of the same madness. In the case of takeovers, companies are not traded - do not circulate - as real capital, as units of production; they are traded as a quantity of shares, as a mere probability of production , which is enough to create a virtual movement within the economy. That this will be a prelude to other crashes is highly probable, for the same reasons as apply in the case of stocks and shares: things are circulating too quickly. We might imagine labour itself - labour power — moving into this speculative orbit too. The worker would no longer sell his labour power for a wage, as in the classic capitalist process, but sell his job itself, his employment. And he would buy others and sell them on again, as their stock went up or down on the Labour Exchange (the term would then assume its full meaning). It would not be so much a question of doing the jobs as keeping them circulating, creating a virtual movement of employment which substituted for the real movement of labour.
Jean Baudrillard, Screened Out
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u/Kr155 14h ago
Ticket master has a monopoly and has pumped prices up like this for any and all major artists. Also Billie eilish has given free shows.
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u/Top_Paint7442 14h ago
they can only do this, because people are willing to pay it.
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u/Kythorian 12h ago
…that’s how all monopolies work, yes. It’s still a monopoly using the lack of competition to push prices up.
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u/Independent-Trust260 13h ago
Prices are set at the highest the market can bear. That's standard
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u/Kythorian 12h ago edited 11h ago
That’s supposed to only be one half of the formula. Sellers set prices at the highest the buyers market can bear AND buyers pick the cheapest options to force the price down to the lowest level the sellers market can bear. These two things should result in an equilibrium, but the existence of a monopoly removes the downward price pressure that should exist due to competition.
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u/sinful_clasp 14h ago
she literally donated $11.5M from that exact tour to charity, buut Grant wants her to pay the stadium staff in exposure.
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u/ultra_phoenix 14h ago
literally, tours are expensive. Who’s going to pay for catering, security, venue hire and so on!? grant cardone is a parasite himself
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u/JayWu31 13h ago
People struggle to understand that if a billionaire lost Billie Eilish's net worth, it would barely be a drop in the bucket for them.
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u/GMM85 9h ago
It’s not like she’s saying that billionaires should give away all their wealth. She’s just saying they shouldn’t be billionaires because they clearly don’t need all that wealth and should give some of the excess to charity.
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u/butt-holg 8h ago
Yeah it's the absurdity that some people could find $999 million not quite enough for their lifestyle
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u/BroShutUp 12h ago
And if billie eilish lost your(you, the person reading this) net worth it likely would be the smaller drop in the bucket for her.
Shes worth over 100 mil guys. She could legit spend over 2K A DAY for the next 100 years from her net worth and still be fine after.
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u/SledgeLaud 12h ago
Yup, that's how wealth inequality works. It ain't fair but at least with millionaires that inequality is tangible. We can understand and visualize that disparity and what they are costing society.
Billionaires are another magnitude above that. 1,000 seconds is about 16.5 minutes, 1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is over 31 years.
That degree of wealth inequality is hard to comprehend, never mind tackle meaningfully.
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u/HomeScoutInSpace 10h ago
I love this explanation, makes the dollar amount more comprehensible.
I don’t get how anyone can defend billionaires. As a society it’s crazy to say we need them don’t tax them, they offer jobs and generate wealth for others. If we tax them they’ll just leave. Fuck. Them.
Even 50m net worth is a disgusting level to live at. Generational wealth. I don’t know where the line should be but absolutely fuck billionaires and the people defending them
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u/MidnightNo1766 11h ago
Exactly this. The difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is the same difference between $1 and $1,000 if you have $1,000 and you give 11 of them away, it's literally a drop in the bucket. Most people tip more than this for a restaurant but billionaires will fight tooth and nail over every half percent loss to their income.
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u/Phenomenomix 14h ago
Venues essentially set the ticket prices. All the fees they charge both artists and attendees mean the ticket is probably already hitting $100 before anyone involved in the show gets paid
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u/hitsomethin 13h ago
Also that ticket price is remarkably low for a major artist right now. Obviously seats are going to range in price, but compare that to Taylor, Charlie XCX, Doja Cat, hell even the Gorillaz current tour. All of them are priced higher.
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u/mirhagk 11h ago
Also low ticket prices are useless for popular artists. All that would do is let scalpers make a profit. I'd much rather the artist make money than scalpers.
I don't know how much control the artist has over free tickets, but I would much rather see them give away a bunch of tickets in radio contests and whatnot, since those are much more likely to benefit someone who is a fan.
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u/farnsw0rth 11h ago
Concert prices are literally fucking insane right now for any halfway “major” artists.
It’s such a weird way to measure wealth disparity, but here we are. Price of beef, price of health care, price of concerts.
It was not terribly long ago that I paid $600 for a show - a show that was amazing and I was so glad I was so close - and thought “whoa that’s like bucket list level” …. And now that’s just the going rate.
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u/funk-the-funk 11h ago
the Gorillaz current tour
side complaint....whoever is running sound on the current Gorillaz tour needs to be shot out of a cannon into a sea of broken tweeters and busted subs
Ears bleeding does not help mask your awful production sound quality.
The band was amazing as always in spite of.
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u/Wide_Guitar_3558 14h ago
and doesn't he have more money than her?
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u/hoosreadytograduate 13h ago
Way more. Her net worth is estimated to be between 50-70 million and his is estimated to be from 300 million to over 1 billion
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u/Wide_Guitar_3558 13h ago
yeah then i see his reply completely ignored her point, lmfao
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u/MysteriousQuote4665 13h ago
If he's nearing the billion mark I daresay his reply was political.
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u/BeanserSoyze 13h ago
Which I mean is pretty validating for her asking wealthy people to give up some of their wealth. An 11 million dollar donation is a huge chunk of her net worth
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u/Then_Supermarket18 14h ago
What about when billionaires donate?
I'm more afraid of what billionaires can do or wreck in society. Idgaf about fairness, they're going to enslave us
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u/khizoa 13h ago
Everybody here arguing about her 100 or whatever millions of dollars.
Meanwhile Elon cunt donated 330 MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS to Republican super pacs just for this mid term asking
THE BIGGEST INDIVIDUAL POLITICAL DONATION IN HISTORY
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u/wasmuthk 12h ago
Not really a "donation" is it? More of an "investment"
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u/severalmountains 12h ago
Reminds me when corporations willingly do illegal stuff because the legal repercussions cost less
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u/DJtheCrazed 11h ago
I recently heard - but have not confirmed - that a lot of those new online betting sites that you can bet on anything are illegal. But the consequence is a fine. They are paying millions in fines to operate but making billions. I guess the local Indian Casinos are super pissed about it so starting a massive lawsuit.
This was hearsay from someone that does IT at an Indian Casino but this reminded me of it.
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u/rabid-c-monkey 11h ago
Also her donation of 11 million is around 15% of her net worth. His political donation of 330 million represents .03% of his wealth, Thats a rounding error. .03% of my total wealth is enough for a tank of gas.
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u/Deezooooo 11h ago
A whole tank? Get a load of Mr Moneybags over here/s
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u/rabid-c-monkey 11h ago
Dude I was honestly so surprised it was more than a McDonald’s burger. But that was also including everything like an unvested 401k and my car. If I did my bank account it would be sad.
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u/MAGAHATESTHEUSA 12h ago
Cardone also doing a bunch of illegal shit with his business.
He even pushed Scientology training on his employees.
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u/ProfessionalRisk4206 13h ago
Mad, that billionaires exist.
Who looks at 100 million and thinks "this is not enough"?
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u/MrBurnz99 13h ago
Not only is it not enough, but they need 10x that amount, and you know what that’s not enough, they need 20… 30x that amount.
No one becomes a billionaire by accident just by working hard. Normal people take their foot off the gas after a certain amount of success. These folks will step over their own mother to make an extra dollar.
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u/Cattywompus-thirdeye 12h ago
Broken mentally ill mother fuckers that should be in a mental institution instead of the cover of Forbes.
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u/bow03 14h ago
going to be hunted by the zuk in his corporate city-state where AI and robots have replaced all human labor and money is just meant for corps to trade between each other
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u/Worth_Gap4226 13h ago
She didn't donate it. She sold certain tickets under the premise that the buyer pays a premium and the difference goes to charity.
Still a good cause and something I'd like other artists to do, but she wasn't out of pocket by it.
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u/Eespejo_Aagua 13h ago
Classic cardone logic, expecting stadium staff to work for free exposure
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u/binkleyz 14h ago
Honest question, not trolling.
Do the artists set the ticket price? I always imagined that that was set by the venue, and that the performers get a certain base rate plus a percentage of the ticket sales.
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u/KingOfWhateverr 13h ago
Hey, audio engineer and entertainment technician of too many years.
The answer is it depends:
In the smaller venue I worked we would set the ticket price, the artist would get a set minimum and they would get a bonus if they sold out. So it was on us to both set the price and get people in seats.At a higher level a lot of arenas have contracts with Ticketmaster as do a lot of sports teams and music artists. So the amount of power varies wildly per person and per agreement. It’s impossible to say, whether or not something entirely was caused or within the control of either the artist or the ticket seller. A lot of times artists have final say and a lot of negotiating power so that’s often why they can choose what they choose but if they signed a contractual deal to sell at a certain price or reach your minimum with a penalty, then they might be on the hook regardless
I wrote this for walking to my next worksite so forgive me if it’s a little rambly, I tried to edit on the subway.
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u/ElevationAV 6h ago
can confirm as a fellow entertainment tech and former tour manager for some bigger acts- artists have a huge influence over what their ticket prices get set at, and there have been several artists that also set maximum ticket prices, opting to take a lower amount of money in order for tickets to be more accessible
unfortunately with the way the reselling market works that often gets skirted around, especially when places like Ticketmaster release 'overflow' or other blocks of tickets direct to their resale sites
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u/Low_Letterhead232 13h ago
They don’t. It’s dictated by several factors like how much they rented the venue for, taxes in that city, and of course other overheads including the artist’s cut. Point is it’s priced to profit just like most things.
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u/Steve_the_Samurai 13h ago
But also they have sway and she is big enough to do that (or take a smaller cut). Not saying she should do that but there is some control with someone as popular.
So often though seats are bought and resold that it doesn't matter if the ticket costs $50 if the intent is to resell at $200
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u/ProfessionalRisk4206 13h ago
Yeah, Ticketmaster set their prices.
The executives were laughing about the prices and fees, before saying that they don't charge enough.
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u/s6_maestro 14h ago
Live events are the biggest source of profits for musicians, both popular and not. Artists once pocketed upward of 40% on ticket sales. I don't know if it's still like that, I'm guessing it still is, but usually artists get the biggest raw cut in live revenues. I don't know about setting ticket prices tho, I don't think it's common and I'm guessing that's decided by the label in conjunction with the venue's owners
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u/Financial_Cost_572 13h ago
not anymore look up the monopolisation of the eventvenues in the US and also worldwide.
Most Venues are now mostly owned or under contract by the same comglomerate that owns the ticket sales sites and the music labels. Thats also the reason for the service fees since those go straight to the Ticketsite or the Venue.
Its all a way to increase the overall cost while reducing the artist cut.
Its the same Spiel as with the broken CD fee where Artist have to pay money for the CDs that broke in production(wich the studio owns) even when the single was only released digitally.
The whole Music/Entertainment Buisness is a small global Oligarchy of Companys owing parts of the whole "supply chain".Check out who the biggest Investors into Spotify are.
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u/Ztflowsbest 12h ago
Chinese technology giant Tencent, and major investment firms such as BlackRock and Morgan Stanley.
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u/Financial_Cost_572 11h ago
Tencent is a good example of how tangled this is. A Tencent-led consortium bought about 10% of Universal Music Group in 2020, and Tencent also holds about 8% of Spotify. The Spotify shares are voted by Spotify’s founder, so it’s mostly an economic stake.
BlackRock and Morgan Stanley are big Spotify shareholders too (around 5% and 3.5%), but they hold those mostly through funds on behalf of their clients. The same firms hold stakes in Universal and Warner, so the money behind the labels and the streaming service overlaps a lot.
The labels also got Spotify shares as part of their original licensing deals. Sony sold about half. Where a label still holds shares, it earns twice: a cut of streaming revenue as the licensor, and a share of Spotify’s profits as a shareholder. Artists only see a slice of the first.
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u/NearSightedPicasso 13h ago
"Artists once pocketed upward of 40% on ticket sales."
Well, depending on the contract, this is "the artist" as a corporation. So, backing band, touring crew, any specialized equipment, logistical help, and then managers and agents, are often out of the artist's share.
Here's a good breakdown of it from a real perspective: https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/01/30/transcript-next-clyde-lawrence-jordan-cohen/
That band takes home 14% at the end of the day, which is less than $1 on each ticket sale for each member of the band. Eilish probably takes home more than that, but in the end it is nowhere near 40% of ticket sales. Merch is where she probably makes most of her money, not ticket sales.
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u/jm123457 12h ago
As someone who worked in PRO (performance royalties ) it highly depends on the artist themselves . Someone like Taylor swift can command a massive amount (60-85%) of ticket sales . A lower level artist less so . At one point at Dave Matthew’s peak he used to claim 110% of ticket sales which meant he even got 10% of concessions .
And yes they make a fortune on merchandise too . But touring is where artist make the most money for sure .
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u/medigapguy 13h ago
I find it mind-blowing that the billionaires have successfully got poor people to defend them while taking from them at the same time.
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u/Dizzy_Today_3523 13h ago
That's what happens when years of training and brainwashing is done correctly
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u/No_Lie_Bi_Bi_Bi 14h ago
Anybody who thinks that being a multi-millionaire is comparable to a billionaire really does not understand the scale difference
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u/BigBoyYuyuh 13h ago
Know the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars? A billion dollars.
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u/Mr_Martyr_ 13h ago
Here is the real difference between a million and a billion in something measurable.
How many days do you think a million seconds are? The answer is: 11.5 Days
Now, how long do you think a Billion seconds are? The answer is: 31.5 Years
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u/yourfavteamsucks 12h ago
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u/maneki_neko89 12h ago
I was looking for this link. I think the data needs to be updated though to reflect Musk’s absolute insane valuation.
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u/Frankenberg91 13h ago
Know the difference between me and a millionaire? A million dollars.
It’s all perspective, once you hit even 5+ mil you have enough to never work again or worry about money.
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u/king_lloyd11 13h ago
And anyone who thinks simply making money is the same as hoarding the wealth comparable to that of small nations is being wilfully obtuse or is just thick between the ears.
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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 10h ago edited 10h ago
Also, a nuanced point here is that our problem isn't that certian people make way more money than others. It's inevitable that different people are going to have drastically different wealth generation.
The actual problem in the USA is that we aren't implementing mechanisms, like taxes and public services (e.g. universal healthcare), that forcefully take wealth from those who have plenty of it and bring it downward who people need more of it.
I'm preaching to the choir here. My point is just that Jeff Bezos generating billions and billions of wealthy each year isn't the problem. The problem is that the USA government is not taking his money from him and giving it to people who need it. So it's okay that tickets to a luxury service like a concert are expensive, because it makes sense that they'd be expensive. We could just tax the people getting rich of it in a way that is best overall for society.
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u/Gryffinsmore 14h ago
And anyone who thinks a multi millionaire is comparable to your average worker in America also really does not understand scale.
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u/ourquestions 14h ago
Shes 10% of the way to being a billionaire, im about 1‰ of the way of being a millionaire.
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u/Mke_already 14h ago
If you make $100,000 a year and never get taxed it’d take you 100 years to make $10,000,000 in your lifetime.
If you make $10,000,000 a year and never get taxed it’d take you 100 years to make a billion dollars.
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u/fluffymugwort 14h ago
The guy’s a charlatan. Whatever you think of Billie, billionaires could be doing far more good with their money than they are, without even having to give it all away.
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u/ChimPhun 13h ago
Item hoarding: considered a bad thing by most. Money hoarding: worshipped by the weakminded.
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u/Tengo_Caldero 14h ago
I don't give any weight to criticism of anyone speaking out against oligarcy.
Any time someone with some capacity to make an impact tries to criticize the levers of power, there's always these whataboutism arguments trying to invalidate their point by pointing out they're not poor. It's ridiculous. All people who dare to speak out against the abuse that happens in the world deserves to have their message shared.
I swear, the powers that be do the most to keep the rest of us pitted against one another.
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u/Forgettable39 13h ago
There is no one who will be without criticism so yea this idea that some people are only willing to accept criticism from perfect individuals is silly.
If you are rich and speak out, you are a hypocrite.
If you are poor and speak out, you are just jealous.
Exhausting.
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u/Primary_Durian4866 11h ago
I love this quote but hate the person.
"When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I'm rich and I complain about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm beginning to think they just don't want to talk about inequality."
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u/Easy-Bathroom-2914 11h ago
its crazy watching it happen in this thread. i dunno if its bots or just really indoctrinated people… but the knee jerk reaction to punch sideways or down but never ever up is something that never stops feeling surreal to me. like… im sorry but thats a learned reaction. regular people being mentally unable to hold oligarchs accountable is a tremendous achievement for those rich few.
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u/ksm077 13h ago
I agree. What’s tough is that it’s taken out of context and people don’t do the math.
Billie is worth roughly 60 million. She’s on record giving away 12 million, roughly 22% of her net worth.
These are estimates and the line is blurred. But giving away 20% of your net worth is pretty commendable.
Would love to see the billionaires giving away 10 or 20% of their net worth
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u/No-Contribution-8186 13h ago
It cost a lot of money to make her music sound that bad.
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u/KermitHendrix 13h ago
The what aboutism when she actually does the leg work, donates her money to charity. The way that she is able to do that is selling concert tickets and music, but artists don't set the price, since it's america it's probably set by those ticketmaster/live nations fucks who are systematically making your concerts more expensive and make it impossible for artists to try cheaper locations etc
John Oliver did an entire segment on it
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u/Leodip 12h ago
I would just point out that the whataboutism is even wronger than that in this context, since she was saying "give away the money you make" and he said "don't make money", which is such a stupid response that it's not even funny.
Concert tickets are a luxury, and thus people that can afford them go to those. If you give the ticket away for free, you are only helping whoever is sitting on that seat. If you sell tickets at full price and give away to charity the money you make by selling those, you are actually helping the poor.
I'm not aware of how much she actually donates, but I'm now aware of how much of a dumb dipshit Grant Cardone is.
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u/BernieTheDachshund 9h ago
IIRC he's a scientologist, so add more stupidity and selfishness to that. The celebrities get free slave labor from the org.
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u/MountainousDuck 13h ago
Fuck ticketmaster and live nation forever, but the artists absolutely do set the ticket price. One of the major services that Ticketmaster provides for artists is being the punching bag taking all the blame for the insane ticket prices some artists charge.
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u/BlaineTog 11h ago
Artists can choose to push the price up, but they can't choose to drop it below a certain threshold. Ticketmaster isn't going to let them sell each seat for $10.
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u/BigMax 13h ago
"We should tax the ultra wealthy" is not "everything should be free for everyone.
Don't let the oligarchs create these bogus arguments to imply that no one is ever allowed to speak up for a better society without first swearing a vow of poverty. It's a false dichotomy.
You can have some money for yourself and still seek to make the world, the country, our government, our society better.
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u/greis09 12h ago
"I think that billionaire shouldn't exist" "Why don't you and your whole production crew work for free?" And people think that his response make sense?
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u/Atari774 13h ago
As if the artist themselves decides the ticket price. Usually it’s the stadium or theater they’re playing at that sets the price, along with the record label that the artist works with. There have been many bands who tried to reduce their ticket prices and places like Ticketmaster just refused to sell tickets to their events. So the artist can’t do much about it unless they own their own stadium.
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u/ceegee84 13h ago
If artists genuinely care about what price their fans have to pay, they have it stipulated in their contracts with the promoters and ticketmaster.
The Cure are a prime example of this - they had an allocation of lower priced tickets for each gig on a recent tour, but ticketmaster tacked on an inflated booking fee ($20 tickets with $25 fees added on) Robert Smith lost his shit with Ticketmaster and made sure fans got a partial refund of the fees.
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u/Atari774 12h ago
A better solution would be to break up the monopoly that is Ticketmaster. They add so many fees because they’re one of the only companies managing online ticket sales for most music shows nationwide. Refusing to work with them means not being able to play in most stadiums and arenas. The government usually steps in when this level of monopolization takes place, but they’re doing nothing about it.
Also, while Robert Smith did get Ticketmaster to issue refunds, it was a very partial refund. They only gave back $10 at most per person, and only to those who paid for higher priced tickets (which got up to $170 in some cases due to Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing”). So it’s not like they paid back anywhere near the amount they made in fees.
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u/braindamage28 12h ago
This is the correct answer. Don’t blame the artist or even compare artists unless you are familiar with the industry. Blame the Ticketmaster and Live Nation monopolies on the industry.
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u/NoPantsDeLeon 14h ago
People say I'm a nice guy but I'm poor af, so I'll sacrifice myself for the social experience of becoming a billionaire and see if it changes me. You can start donating money!
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u/DukeSmileDevs 14h ago edited 14h ago
AFAIK almost every venue is owned or exclusively rent to the same 2 event companies.
Its basicly impossible for any act to have a concert / show anywhere without running into those 2 companies that dicate the prices.
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u/Mad_Ronin_Grrrr 14h ago
Not gonna defend Billie Eilish but I didn't think the artists set the ticket prices. Maybe he should have a talk with Ticketmaster?
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u/LynxHistorical3 14h ago
Artists can influence pricing, but Ticketmaster definitely deserves a chunk of the blame.
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u/1maginaryApple 14h ago
Wasn't it The Cure that kind of forced Ticketmaster to have low price tickets starting at about 20$ to just see Ticketmaster increasing service fee to get the ticket price they wanted.
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u/MsDestroyer900 13h ago
I don't know in the size of someone like Billie. But having done music prod, having been done the concerts before, and also having arranged concerts for local celebrities, the artists just get paid up front and sign the contract and are told to "do their thing". The money people, and the organizers are the ones who handle ticket pricing.
Maybe since Billie is the face of this tour she can force an ultimatum where the seats are free? Dunno.
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u/DelayedIntentions 11h ago
Billionaires like Cardone are part of why rents are so high. He’s a real estate investor that’s whole thing is using debt to buy apartments and raise rents. Eilish is an entertainer, she’s not charging $129 for a necessary service.
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u/Manmade_Chaos 11h ago
Not a major fan of Billie…. But she ain’t dictating the ticket prices, artists haven’t for a long time.
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u/drunkerton 9h ago
But she could just get a use permit in a city and play a free show
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u/Reggaenald 4h ago
Well she’s not the only person working that concert, so free isn’t an option, she can’t make that decision for everyone or pay for everything herself.
But she could forgo her cut…
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u/GnosticNoodle33 3h ago
Well she can just fund the concert herself then. Pay all the staff, venue, free tickets. Im sure everyone would love that
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u/LowSkyOrbit 2h ago
She or her label is paying for all the staff, backup band, and venue rental. She or her label makes money on the ticket sales.
If I recall merch sales are where musicians make the most money while touring.
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u/onlyhav 14h ago
A man with a 100, 000 car net worth asking why the person with 1000 car net worth only donated 100 cars to charity (which she did right before the tour).
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u/saxandsolenoids 12h ago
Btw Grant Cardone is known for being a fraudster himself, his company Cardone Capital crowdfunds investment capital via social media. In June 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the lawsuit, ruling that social media statements and omissions regarding SEC comment letters can expose Cardone and Cardone Capital to statutory liability.
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u/MurphysLawTeam 8h ago
Using her 70 million net worth as the common anchor point. She has a stronger ratio connection with a billionaire than you. In a ratio of (average American/billie Elise/billionaire) its 0.000671 : 1 : 14.286. She is just showing how the is no limit to envy.
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u/FuckJanice 13h ago
Unless she pulls a Pearl Jam, I'm not sure why anyone would defend her.
"In 1994, Pearl Jam took a stand against Ticketmaster because they believed concert tickets were becoming too expensive for ordinary fans. The band wanted to keep ticket prices around $18 and limit service fees to $1.80, but Ticketmaster's fees made that difficult. Rather than give in, Pearl Jam refused to use Ticketmaster-controlled venues, even though it meant canceling shows and losing millions in potential revenue. They testified before Congress and attempted to organize an alternative tour, but struggled because Ticketmaster had exclusive agreements with many major venues. Pearl Jam ultimately lost the battle, but they were willing to sacrifice substantial income to keep concerts affordable for their fans."
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u/ArmenianThunderGod 13h ago
Pearl Jam lost, and that was in 1994. Ticketmaster's influence, monopoly, and lobbying ability has grown significantly since then.
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u/meechs_peaches 13h ago
Pearl Jam lost though. She gives a lot to charity from that revenue.
Also, the Biden administration went after Ticketmaster for antitrust. Trump let the off with a small settlement when they were initially looking at being broken up.
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u/H0SS_AGAINST 13h ago
Bingo bango.
Lina was awesome, finally doing what was long over due in a lot of cases. Then lwe decided winning on day one was more important.
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u/CarbonInTheWind 12h ago edited 9h ago
She's worth 50-70 million. That's a ton of money but the difference between 70 million and a billion is roughly a billion dollars.
We now have 20 people worth more than 100 billion dollars. One of whom is worth a TRILLION bucks.
How much more of the collective wealth are we going to allow a handful of people to horde before the masses start taking drastic measures? This has happened many times throughout history so it's no secret what happens if this continues to get worse.
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u/One_Neighborhood9676 12h ago
I'm surprised I've not been banned for saying this so often over the last year but I feel like people are going to snap and we'll handle this the way the french peasants used to handle corruption
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u/1nce_Again 11h ago
Its never going to happen. I hear this sentiment all the time, especially from non US people saying us Americans should revolt and raise up against trump and his corrupt government. Sure, id love to. Unfortunately it will never happen as people's first instinct and responsibility is survival and protecting their family, and you kind of need a job and to not be in prison to do those things. Unless the vast majority of the country unite and revolt together and losing your job and being arrested becomes less of a risk, it will never happen
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u/BlackbuckDeer 11h ago
Everybody on this thread keeps repeating the same shit. Yes we know how much a billion dollars is. Y'all are taking it too far now. Saying 70 million is basically nothing compared to a billion is massively overcompensating. 70 million is 7% of a billion. That's not negligible.
70 million is still far far more than what's necessary for a decently comfortable life.
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u/ElevationAV 6h ago
Someone having $5m can live the equivalent lifestyle of making $200k/year today indefinitely without working, including adjustments for inflation, which puts them in the top 5% income earners in the US.
At 20m they're in the top 1% indefinitely without working.
At 70m (her estimated net worth), they're in the top 0.1% indefinitely without working and have reached a point where money doesn't matter anymore.
She is worth 7% of a billion at 24 years old, most billionaires are in their 60s.
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u/BerrySpecific720 13h ago
So most of us are running our asses off to avoid scarcity.
Billionaires have the opposite problem. They’re making so much money they couldn’t possibly spend it on goods and services.
So the system breaks. We struggle to earn. They struggle to use.
Our famine is their feast. For ever.
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u/Lovableegirl03 14h ago
Artists shouldn't be expected to make every ticket free just because they're wealthy, but it's fair to question why concert tickets are so expensive.
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u/Much_Substance_6017 14h ago
My (slightly) educated guess is the duopoly that is Ticketmaster/Line Nation and AXS.
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u/OstrichGrouchy7749 14h ago
The other thing is that they are selling their services to make money.
Billionaires are pretty much doing nothing and leveraging their money to make more money.
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u/Adorable_Echo_4317 14h ago
Parasite on Parasite violence
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u/Petal_Prettty 14h ago
People really need to learn the difference between being rich and being responsible for paying everyone's bills.
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u/Hood-ini 14h ago
People need to learn the difference between millionaire and billionaire.
Do you understand that the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is basically a billion ?
The average American’s wealth is closer to Billie Eilish (estimated between 40 and 100 millions) than Billie is close to the average billionaire.
Know your enemy, billionaires shouldn’t exist.
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u/Robinthehutt 14h ago
Grant Cardone too so parasite on parasite on parasite actually
Tapeworm cubed
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u/weltvonalex 14h ago edited 13h ago
130 Bucks for the cheapest seats....... are you kidding me??
Edit: Forget it, saw who posted that, the uber Scammer himself, scumbag Grant Cardone. A humanoid made out of shit and acts like a human.
I still think 130 bucks is expensive for a concert but nothing Grant says has any value, he is a Moron.
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u/piratecheese13 14h ago
Honestly, even if she was to start giving things away, giving away tickets to entire concerts ain’t it.
Food banks, shelters and scholarships are the way to go here
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u/Realistic_Low8324 13h ago
if she made her tickets free and was using ticket master they would add a sur-charge of about 300 per ticket
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u/Noobins_ 5h ago
The difference between a million and a billion, is roughly a billion
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u/MeBoiledDown 13h ago
The venue isn’t free. Cleanup after the event isn’t free. Staff isn’t free. What a dumbass question.
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u/tifastan97 13h ago
Those ticket prices also pay up the salary of all the workers, technicians, designers, band, dancers, security etc etc, but I get the sentiment ig
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u/xChoke1x 14h ago
What a dumb fuckin analogy. Hey because you have money, make your tickets free isnt the same as, hey because you have hundreds of billions of dollars, maybe reinvest that back into humanity for the greater good.
If you don't see the difference, you're the problem.
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u/RyCo1234 13h ago
She gave away like 11 million dollars from her tour to a cause. I think she's doing alright.. don't really understand the hate.
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u/RecoveredAlive 13h ago
Successful psyop ran by the one percent using bots and rubes to push protection while they continue to control 90+ percent of the economy and not end up with their heads in baskets
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u/Twisbi 13h ago
She raised prices on tickets and donated the difference, she did not give anything away, her fans paid extra and she put her name on it .
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u/Bright-Dependent6339 14h ago edited 14h ago
Grant Cardone is a huge piece of shit in general too. like at least 7 courics.
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u/Spongeh303 12h ago
Ah yes, Grant Cardone the caregiving billionaire who donates his wealth to the family destroying cult of Scientology, and was hopeful to refer Logan Paul to the “church” because he would get commission
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u/Aunt_Vagina1 11h ago edited 9h ago
Fuck I'm so sick of people not understanding the difference between a B and a M. Billie Eilish is worth $50M. Is that a lot more than me and you? Yes. But that's 5% of a Billion. FIVE PERCENT! So telling someone they should work for free because they say Billionaires are too rich, is way stupider than even this, but its like saying, "Why are you complaining about this meal costing $100, don't you have $5 in your pocket right now?"
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u/soupasajin 10h ago
$129 cheapest seat is still an issue though.
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u/Individual_Smell_904 9h ago
Does she even get a say in ticket pricing? I assume these are shows at expensive venues, and she has a big crew that also needs to be paid.
She's allowed to criticize capitalism while also being subjected to it's rules
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u/NewACCTwhoDISENTERRY 10h ago
The best example i saw was actually YMS talking randomly.
I have half a burger. Its not enough. Someone like Billie Ellish has a few meals. People are mad.
The fucks at the top have literally enough burgers to feed the world, own the burger manufacturing, and will tell you to be mad at folks eating like regular humans.
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u/BEEF_Toad 8h ago
The best way to put it into perspective I've seen was this:
1 million seconds is approx. 11 days.
1 billion seconds is approx. 31.7 years.
1 trillion seconds is approx. 31,700 years.
No one needs a billion/trillion dollars under any circumstance. Nor has anyone ever actually earned that much money. They've taken it by abusing other people.
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u/einhorn_is_parkey 3h ago
The one that really hit home for me was something along the lines of. If you made 200k dollars per year, didn’t spend a single cent on anything and saved it all. It would take you from the time of the pharaohs until now to save a billion dollars.
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u/RockstarAgent 10h ago
Also he’s forgetting that even if she wanted to work for free, someone’s gotta pay the venue and workers and etc.
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u/philatio11 9h ago
Artists have almost no control over ticket prices anymore. The music business at her level is dominated by a few large monopolies and unions that control everything from venues to loadout to merch to ticketing. If she wanted to work for completely free the ticket price might go all the way down to $125.
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u/surrend077 10h ago
She could literally go buy 50 houses in Lousiana tomorrow and she wouldn't even feel it in her pocketbook.
If you're going to have wealth inequality as a platform, it helps to not be in the .01%.
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u/LadyAvocadoToast 14h ago
She doesn't set the price, the venue does. Then her production team takes a cut, the management company takes a cut. And genuinely artists tend to set prices like this because the cost of the production itself is high., (Never been to one of her show but bigs tend to throw a lot of money at each show.
Setting appropriately high prices also help ticket markets manage better. If they didn't sell out so fast, the price would be lowered. And if the tickets were cheaper you'd be bitching about how they sell out too fast instead.
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u/councilmanbilder 14h ago
That $129 goes to more than just the artist, including the salary of the members of the community that staff the arena.
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u/santadogg 13h ago
Who pays the staff and ushers and security grant? Or don’t people deserve a living wage?
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u/SweetButPsycho30 13h ago
She is great and she gave a lot to the charity and to the things that matters if not by donating it by advocating. She doesn't have to give all her wealth and become homeless or stop eating money for yall to believe her and call her authentic.
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u/kon--- 14h ago edited 12h ago
Grant there doing false equavalents which for some reason is unavoidable from that crowd.
Right so, unless a performer is doing all their own set up and tear down, there's a shit-ton of crew to pay. A tour functions as a small business employer. Also, there's anicillary logistic support to fund, like...food, hotels, accounting and lawyers. Bonus, the tour promoter and venue also get a cut. A big cut.
foh, Grant.
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u/bass-squirrel 14h ago
Doesn’t she give away a lot in charity? And I mean real c harity, not a Billie eilish foundation for tax evasion?
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u/DickManning 13h ago
surprisingly her net worth is less than 70M and on her last tour she donated 11.5M of the proceeds to charity so it does seem like she practices what she preaches
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u/Tall-Communication34 8h ago
It’s crazy how hypocritical so many of the entertainers are. Springsteen has a “B” to start his net worth. Constantly criticizes other wealthy people for being wealthy.
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u/innovativesolsoh 13h ago
I wouldn’t call myself a Billie stan or anything, but her tickets are paying for staff. I can’t speak to whether she pays them poorly, fairly, or generously…
Billionaires, however, we can absolutely point to the majority of them achieving that much money by paying the absolute minimum they can get away with, and still stealing wages.
I bet you anything that poorer city probably has a not insignificant amount of people working one or more full time jobs just to be one major unexpected expense away from food or home insecurity…
Meanwhile, your family could live luxuriously off the interest of a single billion dollars for many generations even if not a single one did anything but sit on it.
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