A new report shared by Billboard has tied in a member of Metallica‘s camp into the oft nefarious world of insider ticket reselling. The report comes from audio of a secretly recorded February 2017 phone call between Live Nation president of U.S. concerts Bob Roux and an event promoter, Vaughn Millette, who had allegedly been tasked by a consultant for the band to sell 88,000 tickets for select seats on the band’s ‘WorldWired Tour‘.
The call found the pair secretly hammering out a deal to do just that. Millette himself is said to have later alerted Live Nation executives and board members to the dealings.
The plan was hatched to make the tickets available via resale sites in a bid to capture some of the money seen as being lost out on via the secondary market. Notably the call is said to have taken place days prior to the tour actually being announced.
In a statement regarding this particular situation, Live Nation told Billboard “a consultant for the band opted to use the secondary market to try to capture that [secondary market] value.” Live Nation further stated that they do not engage in this practice without an artists explicit approval.
The band’s consultant in question is said to have been Tony DiCioccio, who is employed by the band as a ticketing consultant and a known insider with the group, who is said to frequently travel with them. Citing a source familiar with the deal, Billboard report that ‘Metallica would get 40% of the resale revenue, Live Nation 40%, DiCioccio 12% and Millette 8%, though another source said Live Nation‘s share was lower.’
You can dig into the particulars of this investigate report over at Billboard.com. The band’s ‘WorldWired Tour‘ has continued to be a top draw, repeatedly grossing over a million dollars a show. As part of giving back via their All Within My Hands Foundation, Metallica have been donating tens of thousands of dollars to local food banks in each city they play in.
