Concert giant Live Nation has announced a plan to give customers a refund for their cancelled and postponed shows.
The company launched their Ticket Relief program on Monday (27), laying out what options customers have for their cancelled, postponed and rescheduled shows. For shows that were fully cancelled, customers will receive their refunds without having to do anything. If a show was postponed, they will be given a 30-day refund window once the show has been rescheduled. Should a postponed show not be rescheduled within 60 days of its announced postponement, ticket holders’ refund window will start at that point. Emails about each show’s refund window will start going out on May 1.
This is in addition to the 150% credit Live Nation announced last week. Ticket holders whose shows were at one of the company’s venues and cancelled will be given the option to get a credit on their next ticket purchase. Emails for this option will also go out on May 1. If someone picks the credit option, the company will also donate a concert ticket to a frontline worker through their Hero Nation program.
Live Nation ticket subsidiary Ticketmaster announced a similar window for refunds on rescheduled shows last week.
In an interview with Fox Business, Live Nation president Joe Berchtold said:
“We understand the challenges that everyone is going through right now, we don’t want tickets to be a part of that challenge. We’ve had over 50,000 shows globally impacted. It’s more than we’ve had in the last 10 years combined – in one month. So, we’ve had to just go through the process and show-by-show.”
“Ticketmaster is a platform,” he continued, talking about why it took so long for the company to issue refunds:
“So, it had to go get cash back from the venues where it turned that money over to. Thus far, we already refunded over 30,000 shows, returned over $400 million to fans and what we wanted to do is come out with a very specific plan that we were clear.”
Ticketmaster had gotten itself into hot water recently for a change in the wording of their refund policy. That change led one angry customer to sue the company in what could potentially grow into a class-action affair.
While live shows are being cancelled and postponed, Live Nation is getting into the streaming game, sort of. The company has launched the “Live From Home” hub where one can find an array of live stream listings for their favorite artists.
