Live Nation Admits Helping Bands Like Metallica Scalp Tickets

Live Nation's provoking the ire of concert lovers everywhere, because it's fessed up to the shady practice of putting tickets directly on resale sites ... before the public even has a chance to buy them at face value.

The touring company's admission comes on the heels of a Billboard report detailing a secretly recorded phone call between a Live Nation honcho and an event promoter for Metallica in February 2017 ... days before the band announced its WorldWired North American stadium tour.

During the call ... the 2 parties agreed to put 88,000 tickets directly on secondary market sites like StubHub, so people never got a chance to buy them on sites like Ticketmaster, which is actually owned by Live Nation.

The company's admitted to facilitating this scalping practice for "about a dozen artists out of the thousands we work with" ... but other than Metallica, the bands remain unknown.

Live Nation says it did it because bands know face value of its concert tickets are often lower than market value ... so the tactic allows them to recapture a cut of that money.

According to the report ... Live Nation used various covert methods to place tickets on resale sites immediately, including having employees transfer thousands of tickets into single accounts to be listed and sold on secondary market sites.

So, the next time a show sells out immediately online ... eyebrows shall be justifiably raised.