Reside Nation monopoly verdict: Right here’s what it means for concert events

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Reside Nation must face the antitrust music, a federal jury in New York dominated this week, declaring that America’s preeminent live performance intermediary is an illegal monopoly . This was not information to these of us who’ve attended a live performance up to now, oh, dozen years. You would rating a ticket to Celine Dion’s comeback tour with all the cash I’ve tithed to Reside Nation in service charges and fees.

The decision is a vital recognition, nevertheless, that each one shouldn't be properly on America’s live performance scene. So this morning, we’re having a look at why stay music acquired so costly — and the way this verdict may change issues.

Earlier than we get into the problems within the case, let’s sort out the marquee query: No, this verdict gained’t (instantly, and even essentially) decrease ticket costs. The court docket hasn’t assessed penalties but. And Reside Nation has already signaled it's going to probably enchantment. However the case may nonetheless, over time, chip away at Reside Nation’s dominance within the stay music market.

How a lot of the business does Reside Nation management, anyway?

A variety of it. Too a lot of it, based on this verdict. Since 2010, when Ticketmaster and Reside Nation merged, the mixed firm has dominated not simply ticketing, however venue administration, artist administration, and occasion promotion within the US.

This lawsuit alleged that Reside Nation managed, as of 2024, about 60 p.c of the marketplace for live performance promotion and 70 p.c for ticketing. It additionally operated almost 80 percent of the nation’s high arenas and managed greater than 400 artists, locking each performers and venues into unique contracts that made it exhausting for alternate options to compete.

How does Reside Nation’s monopoly harm customers?

As Emily Stewart wrote for Vox in 2023, firms with this a lot market energy don’t really need to compete on price or quality . Simply have a look at the sorry state of live performance tickets.

Reside Nation has taken explicit warmth over the service charges it tacks onto ticket costs, which fluctuate by venue and occasion however at all times appear a little too excessive to be truthful. The federal jury in New York discovered that the corporate had overcharged prospects $1.72 per ticket, on common.

Ticketmaster’s glitchy software program has additionally drawn scrutiny — most visibly, and controversially, earlier than the beginning of Taylor Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour. Widespread website outages prevented many US followers from securing live performance tickets, and, properly…if there’s one fan base you don’t wish to cross, it’s probably Swift’s .

Swift is only one of many, many touring artists who’ve complained about Reside Nation and Ticketmaster through the years, sometimes accusing the company of constructing their excursions inaccessible to followers. In 2022, the nation singer Zach Bryan even dropped an album titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster . (Regardless of that, just one artist testified through the trial: Ben Lovett, of Mumford & Sons, who can be a venue operator.)

What is going to this verdict do about all of it?

That is still to be seen. This lawsuit started underneath the Biden administration, which argued it was “time to interrupt [Live Nation] up.” The Trump administration has taken a unique method, withdrawing from the swimsuit and inking a tentative settlement deal in early March. However greater than 30 states continued the case, with out the Division of Justice, therefore Wednesday’s verdict.

Choose Arun Subramanian can now impose monetary penalties or mandate modifications to Reside Nation’s enterprise. The corporate might be required to reimburse some customers, for example, or to divest some venues. In an “ideal scenario,” one antitrust coverage analyst instructed my colleague Alex Abad-Santos in 2022, a choose would unwind the merger that created Reside Nation 16 years in the past. However no main American firm has been damaged up on account of antitrust litigation since AT&T in 1984.

What would breaking apart Reside Nation accomplish?

Reside Nation would presumably argue that splitting it up achieves nothing in any respect. In a statement to Rolling Stone earlier this week, the corporate mentioned that “there isn't any proof within the report that Reside Nation or Ticketmaster drives increased ticket costs or that breaking apart the corporate would decrease them.” One frequent justification for vertical mergers , just like the Reside Nation/Ticketmaster behemoth, is that they create efficiencies that profit customers.

Antitrust consultants are skeptical, nevertheless, saying these advantages hardly ever pan out. They argue that breaking up Live Nation would disrupt its net of unique contracts, restore competitors, and provides smaller venues and ticketing firms an opportunity — doubtlessly reducing ticket costs and elevating wages for staff at each venues and ticketing companies.

A break up wouldn’t resolve every thing, although. On their very own, Ticketmaster and Reside Nation are nonetheless large enough to exert appreciable affect over ticket costs and availability. (Actually, each had been topic to complaints on these scores earlier than they merged into one firm.)

Reside Nation’s dominance additionally isn’t the one purpose that concert events have gotten so costly. As Whizy Kim wrote for Vox in 2024 , the demand for high live performance tickets far outstrips provide, driving up the price of tickets on each the first market and the (booming, typically predatory) secondary market. By one calculation, the common ticket value for a top-100 music tour skyrocketed from $40.74 in 2000 to $122.84 in 2023, properly outpacing inflation.

Is there some other strategy to carry ticket costs down?

Kim proffered one counterintuitive resolution: Make tickets much more costly at their preliminary level of sale. Elevating their face worth undercuts scalpers, who jack up costs even increased on resale.

Different options would possibly embody releasing extra tickets to normal followers as a substitute of holding reserves for presales or VIPs and proscribing or regulating the secondary market. Some states have tried to legislate these points, whereas a bipartisan bill that overwhelmingly handed the Home final yr would mandate extra transparency round added fees. Final March, President Donald Trump additionally signed an govt order directing the Federal Commerce Fee to crack down on ticket resellers.

Alas, none of that may aid you for those who’re making an attempt to catch some stay music this weekend. However take solace in the truth that concertgoers simply scored — in the words of many gloating state attorneys general — a “historic” win over the rogue forces of monopolization.