Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest concert promoter, admitted that it passed thousands of Metallica tour tickets straight to resale market sites such as Stubhub before fans had a chance to buy them at face value through regular channels, according to a recent investigation.

The acknowledgement came after Billboard released the details of a secretly recorded phone call between Metallica associate Tony DiCoiccio, Live Nation president of U.S. concerts Bob Roux and third party promoter Vaughn Millette, discussing the plans in detail ahead of the band’s 2017 WorldWired stadium tour.

“When this happens, 4,600 tickets into a single account, there may be some eyebrows that get raised,” Roux said, according to the Billboard report. “That’s the part I’m trying to figure out with Tony. You want to keep this quiet, but there isn’t a good way for the light bulbs not to go off.”

The plan was hatched after Metallica’s 2016 Minneapolis show sold more than 10,000 tickets on the secondary market, “without the band’s participation.”

According to the Billboard report, revenue for the ticketing scheme was split among the various parties, with 40% going to Metallica, 40% to Live Nation, 12% to DiCioccio and 8% to Millette. The band’s 2017 tour grossed $111 million.

“Live Nation does not have a practice of placing tickets on the secondary market,” Live Nation said in a statement. “In this situation, a consultant for the band opted to use the secondary market to try to capture that value.”

Live Nation also owns ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster.

While it is not illegal to sell tickets directly through resale outlets, where prices can often increase dramatically, it does feed into fans’ frustrations over purchasing concert tickets for major tours that often sell out in minutes.

Live Nation added that Metallica was not the only band to partake in the scheme.

Between 2016 and 2017, “about a dozen artists out of the thousands we work with asked us to do this,” Live Nation said in a statement. “Since then, requests like these have declined virtually to zero as tools like dynamic pricing, platinum seats and VIP packages have proven to be more effective at recapturing value previously lost to the secondary market.”

The Chronicle reached out to Live Nation on Monday, July 22, and a representative declined to further comment. A representative for Metallica said the band was unaware of the scheme.

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