Kid Rock has testified to Congress about rising costs of concert tickets and re-sales, saying that the Live Nation-Ticketmaster “experiment has failed miserably”.
The musician spoke out at Capitol Hill on Wednesday (January 28), and told Congress about how corporations and scammers were routinely driving the cost of tickets to live music events, which is both unfair to fans, and shows no real benefit to the artists themselves.
Kid Rock, real name Robert Ritchie, spoke to the subcommittee hearing, led by U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) about the injustices he believes are across the ticketing system in the US. Beginning his testimony, he said: “I’m here today because I love God, I love this country, I love live music and sports, and I believe music fans and artists have been getting screwed for far too long by the ticketing system.”
“I’m in a unique position to testify, because unlike most of my peers, I am beholden to no one, no record companies, no managers, no corporate endorsements or deals,” he added. “To put it plainly, I ain’t scared, like many artists, managers and agents are, for fear of biting the hand that feeds them.”
The committee – which examines the way that tickets are sold, the high fees charged by primary and secondary sellers, and the rising number of bots that rapidly scoop up tickets when they go on sale – then heard Ritchie say about how Grunge band Pearl Jam “sat in these same seats, warning Congress about ticketing abuse” 30 years ago.
He also reminded them that in 2009, Congress was told under oath that merging Live Nation and Ticketmaster would be beneficial to artists and fans alike.
“The CEO of Live Nation called the merger an ‘experiment’ and promised it would increase competition, empower artists, and lower costs. He also said, and I quote “a system that empowers artists benefits everyone,” Kid Rock continued.
Testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee pic.twitter.com/jqnjbE3HNV
— KidRock (@KidRock) January 28, 2026
“Needless to say, that experiment has failed miserably. Independent venues have been crushed. Artists have lost leverage. Fans are paying more than ever—and getting blamed for it,” he added, going on to add that while Ticketmaster and Live Nation “probably” should be broken up, he was “not sure” that it would be enough to fix the ongoing issues in the ticketing system.
“Its no secret this industry is full of greedy snakes and scoundrels. Too many suits lining their pockets off talent they never had and fans they mislead,” he added, also suggesting that if Congress were to subpoena the contracts between artists, promoters, vendors, ticketing companies and more, they would “find mountains of fraud and abuse”.
The best way to fix this, he suggested, was to allow artists a say on which companies sell their tickets and how it is done, as well as capping resale prices to protect fans, cracking down on automated bots, and ensuring that those looking to buy tickets merely to sell them for a profit face serious penalties.
As highlighted by The Hollywood Reporter, last year saw the Senate Commerce Committee approve the TICKET Act – which would require all event ticket sellers to show the total cost of tickets, including all extra fees, upfront.
It also banned speculative ticket sales, in which scalpers list tickets that they do not yet own for resale, essentially betting that they can acquire them and sell them at a higher price later on.
Kid Rock’s appearance at Capitol Hill also follows on from US regulators suing Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, over alleged “illegal” tactics when reselling tickets, back in September. The regulators accused the companies of breaking the law with these methods, and alleged that it has cost customers millions of dollars.
— KidRock (@KidRock) January 28, 2026
Similar issues regarding ticket sales have been raised in the UK too, and the ticketing giants were threatened with legal action over the allegedly “misleading” way it sold tickets for Oasis’ Live ‘25 reunion tour.
At the time of the sale, many fans criticised the ‘dynamic pricing’ model, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) later warned that Ticketmaster may have “breached the law” and “misled fans”.
By September, the government and Ticketmaster worked together to implement changes around transparency, following an investigation into the potential use of dynamic pricing for that tour, and by the end of the year, MPs also confirmed plans to enforce a ban on selling secondary tickets for a profit.
With the latter, new rules put forward now make it illegal to re-sell tickets for live music, sports, comedy and theatre events above original cost – making re-sold gig tickets roughly £37 cheaper on average and collectively saving fans £112million per year. Massive fees from secondary ticket sellers will also be stamped out.
Discussion around ticket prices has already continued into 2026, and fans of Harry Styles got talking recently following the One Direction solo star announcing a 12-night residency at Wembley Stadium as part of his seven-city ‘Together, Together’ tour.
Over a million fans in the UK tried to bag tickets at the pre-sale, and it has been reported that there were queues of up to 250,000 for each of the London concerts.
Ticketmaster confirmed ahead of time that tickets were priced by the organiser from £44.10 to £466.25 (including fees), in addition to a per-order handling fee of £2.95. It also added that the ticket prices would not change during the pre-sale or on-sale, suggesting that the controversial ‘dynamic pricing’ function will not be used.