This story appeared in In the present day, Defined, a each day e-newsletter that helps you perceive essentially the most compelling information and tales of the day. Subscribe right here.
Stay Nation should face the antitrust music, a federal jury in New York dominated this week, declaring that America’s preeminent live performance intermediary is an unlawful monopoly. This was not information to these of us who’ve attended a live performance previously, oh, dozen years. You could possibly rating a ticket to Celine Dion’s comeback tour with all the cash I’ve tithed to Stay Nation in service charges and fees.
The decision is a vital recognition, nevertheless, that every one shouldn’t be nicely on America’s live performance scene. So this morning, we’re looking at why reside music received so costly — and the way this verdict might change issues.
Earlier than we get into the problems within the case, let’s deal with the marquee query: No, this verdict received’t (instantly, and even essentially) decrease ticket costs. The courtroom hasn’t assessed penalties but. And Stay Nation has already signaled it would doubtless enchantment. However the case might nonetheless, over time, chip away at Stay Nation’s dominance within the reside music market.
How a lot of the trade does Stay Nation management, anyway?
Loads of it. Too a lot of it, in response to this verdict. Since 2010, when Ticketmaster and Stay 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 Stay Nation managed, as of 2024, about 60 % of the marketplace for live performance promotion and 70 % for ticketing. It additionally operated virtually 80 % of the nation’s high arenas and managed greater than 400 artists, locking each performers and venues into unique contracts that made it laborious for alternate options to compete.
How does Stay Nation’s monopoly harm customers?
As Emily Stewart wrote for Vox in 2023, firms with this a lot market energy don’t actually need to compete on worth or high quality. Simply take a look at the sorry state of live performance tickets.
Stay Nation has taken explicit warmth over the service charges it tacks onto ticket costs, which differ 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 web site outages prevented many US followers from securing live performance tickets, and, nicely…if there’s one fan base you don’t wish to cross, it’s in all probability Swift’s.
Swift is only one of many, many touring artists who’ve complained about Stay Nation and Ticketmaster over time, sometimes accusing the corporate 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 also be a venue operator.)
What is going to this verdict do about all of it?
That continues to be to be seen. This lawsuit started beneath the Biden administration, which argued it was “time to interrupt [Live Nation] up.” The Trump administration has taken a unique strategy, 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 adjustments to Stay Nation’s enterprise. The corporate may very well be required to reimburse some customers, as an illustration, or to divest some venues. In an “ultimate situation,” one antitrust coverage analyst instructed my colleague Alex Abad-Santos in 2022, a decide would unwind the merger that created Stay Nation 16 years in the past. However no main American firm has been damaged up because of antitrust litigation since AT&T in 1984.
What would breaking apart Stay Nation accomplish?
Stay Nation would presumably argue that splitting it up achieves nothing in any respect. In an announcement to Rolling Stone earlier this week, the corporate stated that “there isn’t any proof within the document that Stay 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 Stay 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 apart Stay Nation would disrupt its internet of unique contracts, restore competitors, and provides smaller venues and ticketing firms an opportunity — probably reducing ticket costs and elevating wages for staff at each venues and ticketing providers.
A break up wouldn’t resolve every part, although. On their very own, Ticketmaster and Stay Nation are nonetheless large enough to exert appreciable affect over ticket costs and availability. (In actual fact, each have been topic to complaints on these scores earlier than they merged into one firm.)
Stay Nation’s dominance additionally isn’t the one cause that live shows 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, usually predatory) secondary market. By one calculation, the common ticket worth for a top-100 music tour skyrocketed from $40.74 in 2000 to $122.84 in 2023, nicely outpacing inflation.
Is there every other solution to carry ticket costs down?
Kim proffered one counterintuitive answer: 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 common 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 invoice that overwhelmingly handed the Home final 12 months would mandate extra transparency round added fees. Final March, President Donald Trump additionally signed an government order directing the Federal Commerce Fee to crack down on ticket resellers.
Alas, none of that may make it easier to for those who’re making an attempt to catch some reside music this weekend. However take solace in the truth that concertgoers simply scored — in the phrases of many gloating state attorneys common — a “historic” win over the rogue forces of monopolization.
