Ticketmaster on LinkedIn / John Shearer/Getty Images
- Ticketmaster is hiring a Director of Social, and the company is asking bravery of the new hire.
- The job listing comes months after ticket-selling chaos at the hands of Ticketmaster.
- In addition to more than a decade of experience, applicants should be "brave" and "resilient."
Ticketmaster is hiring a new Director of Social and — after months of concert chaos that have frustrated fans and sparked a congressional probe — the company is requiring the new hire to be "brave," according to the job listing.
Posted five days ago on LinkedIn, Ticketmaster is searching for a social media expert to take over its North America marketing leadership team.
The job listing describes the role as a "creative lead for social content strategy."
The job requires over a decade of relevant experience and "exceptional communication" skills.
The ideal candidate should be "Imaginative. Brave. Resilient." the job listing notes under a section titled: "You (behavioral skills)."
Months of messy ticket sales led by Ticketmaster have put the massive entertainment sales site under the microscope.
Most notably, in November, Ticketmaster crashed during ticket presales for Taylor Swift's highly-anticipated Eras Tour (which began on Friday), kicking Verified Fans out of the ticket-buying queue and prohibiting Swifites from securing seats.
Ticketmaster then canceled the general ticket sale, blocking those who did not get a coveted Verified Fan presale code from a chance at Swift's first tour since 2018.
Swifties came after the ticket-selling giant, and even Swift herself said it "really pisses me off" that the company could not handle her fans' demand for seats to her show.
Months before, in July, Bruce Springsteen fans were met with similar site difficulties and outrageous prices as Ticketmaster activated its "dynamic pricing" model for tickets to his current arena tour — his first featuring the full E-Street Band since 2017.
Springsteen took much of the heat when prices for his historically affordable shows reached the thousands, but he later placed the blame on Ticketmaster and conceded that he agreed to their model only because he wanted "to do what everybody else is doing."
Just last week, The Cure used Ticketmaster to sell tickets to their upcoming tour to avoid scalping, lead singer Robert Smith tweeted, adding that the band was not interested in Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing.
Tickets to the shows started as low as $20, but fans were quick to share the high fees Ticketmaster was adding to their bills, prompting more rage against the company.
Smith later announced that after conferring with Ticketmaster, the company agreed to refund fans $10 per ticket for those who purchased seats at the "lowest ticket price," and $5 per ticket to all other ticket price transactions. The fees, going forward, would be lower, Smith said.
Now the Justice Department (helmed by Swiftie Merrick Garland) is reportedly investigating Ticketmaster for potential antitrust violations.
Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has said that the presale "ended up converting more Gen Zers into anti-monopolists overnight than anything I could have done." Live Nation Entertainment has continuously reiterated that it "takes its responsibilities under the antitrust laws seriously and does not engage in behaviors that could justify antitrust litigation, let alone orders that would require it to alter fundamental business practices."
The ticketing debacle even prompted a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "That's the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment," where a bipartisan group of senators grilled Joe Berchtold, the president and CFO of Live Nation Entertainment. Berchtold apologized to Swifties and Swift herself, and said bot attacks impacted service during the ticket sale — but also said that claims that ticketing markets are less competitive than pre-merger are not true.
However, the senators who hosted that hearing have pressed for the Department of Justice to continue with its reported investigation into the merger.
"We strongly believe that music and live events connect communities and bring people together," Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee wrote in a letter to the DOJ. "For too long, Live Nation and Ticketmaster have wielded monopoly power anticompetitively, harming fans and artists alike."