New Report Exposes Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s Monopoly Control of Top Arenas and Amphitheaters Worldwide
Washington, D.C. — Ahead of a White House event featuring Ticketmaster this afternoon, the American Economic Liberties Project today released a new report detailing — for the first time publicly — Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s ownership and ticketing control of the top 100 amphitheaters and 100 arenas worldwide.
“This analysis leaves no room for doubt: Live Nation-Ticketmaster maintains monopoly control over concert venues,” said Krista Brown, Senior Policy Analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Live Nation-Ticketmaster has exploited the lack of public data to mislead lawmakers and disrupt efforts to hold the corporation accountable. Today, we can see Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s claims of meaningful competition are anything but honest. We encourage the Department of Justice, Congress, and state attorneys general to review this data and use it to accelerate efforts to break up this monopoly.”
Live Nation-Ticketmaster is the largest entertainment company in the world, dominating almost every corner of the live events, and more specifically, live music industry. This includes concert promotion, ticketing, artist management, and venue operations. This integrated market power gives Live Nation a significant advantage in the industry, where it can leverage one business line to maintain dominance and stifle competition in another.
Yet the exact nature of Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s control of concert venues has been poorly documented. Economic Liberties’ analysis addresses this glaring lack of data by exploring control of the top 100 concert amphitheaters and arenas worldwide, which alone generated nearly 50 percent of concert sales in 2022. The findings reveal Live Nation-Ticketmaster maintains a s stranglehold on the industry, leaving little room for competition and innovation.
Indeed, Live Nation-Ticketmaster controls the majority of the top grossing amphitheaters in the United States, operating 64 percent of them. Ticketmaster also services 78% of the top grossing arenas in the country.
Additionally, Ticketmaster monopolizes ticketing services, operating as the sole provider for 82 percent of the domestic amphitheaters and 78 percent of the top grossing arenas in the country.
Live Nation-Ticketmaster is currently facing increased regulatory pressure for its abuse of monopoly power. During his State of the Union speech, President Biden specifically called out concert tickets as an area rampant with extra fees — sometimes as much as 78% of a ticket — tacked on to purchases. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the company’s abuses in January, Live Nation faced criticism from a bipartisan set of lawmakers for its abuses, along with blockbuster testimony from artists and competitors speaking out about the company’s dominance over the industry.
Read “The Depth of Live Nation’s Dominance” here.
Learn more about Economic Liberties here.
The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.