This was published 8 months ago
Ticketmaster, Splendour in the Grass owner investigated by US government
By Karl Quinn
The world’s biggest concert promoter and ticketing company could be broken up by regulators in the US, in a move that could have significant repercussions for the Australian live music sector.
Live Nation – the Saudi-backed multinational whose Australian arm stages the Falls and Splendour in the Grass festivals, both of which were cancelled in the past 12 months – is facing an anti-trust action by the US Justice Department, which could result in it having to sell off its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster.
Live Nation brought Pink’s Summer Carnival tour to Australia this year, on what it claims was the biggest ever tour by a female artist (selling more tickets even than Taylor Swift, albeit over many more shows).Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the move on Monday (US time), with The Washington Post later confirming the story.
Though specific details are yet to be revealed, it is likely the investigation will focus on alleged breaches of an agreement that was critical to regulators’ approval of the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010 to not “tie” the two businesses together operationally.
According to the Post, an investigation in 2019 found Live Nation had “repeatedly” violated the terms of its merger.
“The federal government could file charges narrowly related to the Ticketmaster merger agreement or bring a bigger case related to Live Nation’s perceived market dominance,” the Post reported, flagging that ultimately “the government could seek to unwind the Ticketmaster merger”.
Any such move would almost certainly flow through to Australia, where Live Nation and Ticketmaster are, along with the TEG Dainty/Ticketek tie-up, dominant forces in the touring, ticketing and venue aspects of live music, a situation that many have decried as unhealthy for the sector as a whole and detrimental to the emergence of new talent.
The 2023 edition of Splendour in the Grass. This year’s event was cancelled.Credit: Stephen Booth
“Live Nation is a voracious and destructive mega-corporate feasting on the arts sector where government understanding and regulation is particularly poor,” said Paul Sloan, an event producer and agent, through his company Billions, for artists including Nick Cave, Spacey Jane, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Bon Iver and Amyl & the Sniffers.
While governments were “blinded” by the company’s spin about growth, Sloan claims in reality “Live Nation is a poorly performing, industry-swallowing behemoth that is stifling competition and both reducing artist conditions and increasing costs to customers to make their figures support this narrative.”
The dominance of a handful of large promoters with connections to ticketing agencies “is bad news for Australian music and fans of it,” Sloan says.
“Competitors, consumers and artists are all essentially paying a tax to Live Nation and TEG because of the mafia-style oligopoly they have been allowed to build around venue and ticketing rights.”
Live Nation, of which the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is the third-largest shareholder (with a stake of just under 6 per cent), claims in its most recent annual report that it as “the largest producer of live music concerts in the world”, having presented more than 50,000 events to 145 million fans in 2023.
Yet in Australia and the US, the company has been one of the largest beneficiaries of support designed to support the music industry through the COVID pandemic and subsequent impacts of live music performance, including festivals.
According to a recent report, since 2021 Live Nation has received $16 million in state and federal grants in Australia. A 2022 report by The Washington Post found it had received $US19 million in support meant for smaller operators.
The company also boasts in its most recent annual report that it is “the world’s leading live entertainment ticketing sales and marketing company, based on the number of tickets we sell”. It put that number at 620 million last calendar year.
Through the 360-degree business model it pioneered, the company also manages 380 artists globally and owns and operates the venues (373 of them, including several in Australia) at which its artists (and others) perform.
Its combined revenues in 2023 totalled $US22.7 billion ($A35.4 billion), of which the vast majority – $US18.8 billion – came from concerts.
But while the company made a profit of $US563 million in 2023, it actually lost money on the concert part of its operations. Without ticketing (where it made a profit of $US907 million on almost $US3 billion of revenue) the figures would have looked far less impressive.
“Scale is supposed to bring economy and therefore profits to business,” says Sloan. “Live Nation only exists because the exclusive ticketing rights they control sees them charge complex and outrageous fees for a simple service.”
The federal government and the ACCC declined to comment when contacted.
Comment was also sought from Live Nation.
Contact the author at kquinn@theage.com.au, follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin, and read more of his work here.