California Bills Aim to Lower Concert Ticket Prices

0:00It's April 17th, welcome to California News Today, powered by AI, I'm Cory with the story. California lawmakers are pushing two bills to tackle sky-high concert ticket prices after fans saw Bruno Mars seats hit $2,000 and CISA. Tickets jumped from 35 bucks to 600 on retail sites. Democratic assembly members Isaac Bryan from Culver City and Matt Haney from San Francisco lead the charge, aiming to shield folks from shady scalping, practices. Both bills got a big boost from live nation. The giant behind ticket master, which just lost the federal monopoly case in New York, a win for California. AG, Rob Bonta, and others. Now penalties loom for the company, but is still lobbying hard, dropping about $165,000 this session. Fans and small venues cheer the moves, saying they'll cut price gouging and fake tickets, keeping shows full at fair prices. But resale rivals like StubHub and SeatGeek are fighting back, warning it'll crush competition and hand live nation even more control they've spent.

1:05Over $1,100,000 lobbying against it. Bryan's AV 1349 band selling tickets you don't own yet, while Haney's AV 1720 caps resale at 10% above face value, including fees. Both sailed through key committees recently, despite the anti-trust drama. As these measures speed toward votes, the real question lingers, will lower prices for artists like Kendrick Lamar reach everyday fans, or just pad? The pockets of the big players running the show?