#36 – David vs. Goliath: The Promoter Who Went to Washington

In this episode, Matt Ford sits down with David Weingarden, Vice President of Concerts + Events at Z2 Entertainment, independent promoter, and chair of the Colorado Independent Venue Association, to unpack what it’s really like fighting on the front lines of ticketing reform. From testifying before the U.S. Senate to experimenting with new tech stacks, David breaks down how independents can survive (and win) in a landscape dominated by monopolies and scalpers. Episode Time Stamps: (00:00) • Why This Conversation Matters (02:11) • Colorado Ticketing Bill & Lobbyists David’s work on a Colorado bill modeled on Maine’s, the governor’s veto, and the lobbying imbalance: 4 on their side vs. 75 for the scalpers/secondary market. (06:36) • Getting Pulled Into DC How David’s relationships with Colorado senators and NIVA led to a last‑minute invite to testify at the Senate Commerce Committee. (08:50) • Inside the Senate Hearing Who was in the room (Kid Rock, Live Nation, Ticket Policy Forum, senators), what written vs. spoken testimony looks like, and where most questions landed. (11:26) • Kid Rock, All‑In Pricing & Artist Control How Kid Rock helped push all‑in pricing into law, and why his focus now is artists having control over how tickets are priced and resold. (13:40) • Secondary Markets: Guardrails, Not a Ban David/NIVA’s stance: resale is fine, but the “wild west” isn’t. Bots, unenforced laws, spec tickets, deceptive sites, and why fixing this at scale is hard. (16:06) • Bot Farms, Chargebacks & Who Eats the Loss How bot operations grab huge blocks of tickets, fail to move them, then charge back—leaving promoters on the hook for show costs with no clear path to recover. (21:16) • State vs Federal Fixes Why David sees more progress at the state level (Maine, Maryland, others) than in DC, and how scalper‑friendly bills keep popping up in statehouses. (25:01) • StubHub, “Just a Marketplace” & Open Distribution Pushback on the “we’re only a platform” line, the Aspen Live panel where StubHub took the heat, and the pros/cons of venues listing primary tickets on StubHub to undercut scalpers. (40:02) • Live Nation / Ticketmaster Monopoly Talk Initial reactions to the antitrust case update, David’s view that Live Nation is a monopoly with deep vertical control, and how Ticketmaster’s resale floors trap fans. (46:02) • Z2’s Tech Stack & Prism Why Z2 moved to Tixr from AXS, how Prism replaced scattered spreadsheets and calendars, and why open integrations (Tixr, ticketing, POS, Hive, etc.) matter so much to how they work. (56:55) • Prism Insights, Spotify Data & AI Why Z2 decided to share their data into Insights, how David actually uses it (recent years, similar markets, sanity checks), and early moves into Spotify local‑listener data and AI‑driven prediction tools. (01:15:28) • The Bull Case for Independents Organizing at every level: local (night mayors), state (SIVA), national (NIVA). Why showing up in policy conversations matters for a real seat at the table—and why David is still bullish on live music demand in a digital age. Please share this with anyone who might be interested in the topics, links below to subscribe and stay in the loop with the podcast and Prism: Subscribe https://www.prism.fm/podcast/ More on Prism https://www.prism.fm Follow us on Instagram (@prismfm)   / prismfm   Meet the Podcast Host/CEO of Prism   / mford3   Opening Music - Banana Bread Layton.rx (Prism Engineer!) https://open.spotify.com/track/0jD6mI...