Zach Bryan drops surprise album ‘All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster,’ vows to combat high ticket prices

By Dan Heching, CNN

Zach Bryan gave us all a welcome gift just in time for Christmas.

The rising country star, named among Barack Obama’s favorite musicians this year, surprise dropped a new album on Saturday, a collection of live tracks titled, “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live at Red Rocks).”

In the social media post announcing the album on Christmas Eve, Bryan wrote that it “seems there is a massive issue with fair ticket prices to live shows lately,” going on to say that he will play a limited number of headline shows next year for which he’s done all he can “to make prices as cheap as possible and to prove to people tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show.”

Bryan added that he believes “working class people should still be able to afford tickets to shows,” continuing to say that he is “so tired of people saying things can’t be done about this massive issue while huge monopoly sit there stealing money.”

Bryan is not the only star musician to run into issues related to Ticketmaster lately.

In July, Bruce Springsteen fans were angered over ticket prices for his upcoming tour, with Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” system causing some seats to reach $4000 to $5000 per person.

And earlier this month, over two dozen Taylor Swift fans sued Ticketmaster parent Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. over the pop star’s recent chaotic tour sale, claiming the ticketing giant violated antitrust laws.

In November, Swift spoke out about the ticketing debacle, in which many people were unable to purchase tickets for her upcoming tour on Ticketmaster even if they had paid for an elite status guaranteeing them early access to ticket blocs.

“It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” Swift wrote on Instagram at the time. “It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”

“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” the singer added of Ticketmaster. “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

Swift also wrote that she would try to “figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.”

Ticketmaster apologized to Swift and to those who were unable to secure tickets, attributing the issue to its “Verified Fans” system, which aims to eliminate bots when distributing presale codes to individuals.

CNN’s David Goldman contributed to this story.

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