Live Nation faces DoJ antitrust suit as indie festivals, venues struggle

A U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation (LYV.N) and its Ticketmaster subsidy is just weeks away, sources tell the Wall Street Journal.

The lawsuit will claim that Live Nation has leveraged its dominant position in event ticketing to undermine competition.

Live Nation acquired Ticketmaster in 2010. In 2019, the Justice Department accused the concert giant of using its ticketing arm to bully competitors, and the pair agreed on restrictions that would guide the company through 2025.

Live Nation has not reacted to the report, but its shares were down 7.7% after the markets opened on Tuesday.

Independent Live Music Is Struggling

The DoJ action comes when Live Nation’s independent promoter, venue, and festival competitors are struggling in the US and globally.

Concert attendance grew 20% last year, and if you just read the headlines, the live music business is booming. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Live Nation, AEG, Ticketmaster, and more are breaking revenue and ticket sales records.

But independent live music is in crisis.

The UK lost 125 smaller music venues last year, and Australia lost 1,300 or one-third of its small and mid-sized music venues since the start of the COVID pandemic. While no firm numbers exist for the US, dozens of venues, independent promoters, and agents told Hypebot that a similar crisis is imminent.

Almost every day, a new festival announces that it will skip a year or shut down altogether, citing economic challenges.

Even festivals produced by major concert companies like Live Nation are struggling. Ticket sales at the biggest music fest in the US, Coachella, are reportedly down 15%, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Los Angeles’ Beach Life festival, and Daytona Beach’s Welcome to Rockville festivals all failed to sell out this year.

Is Live Nation to Blame?

Rising costs threaten the stability of all independent live music venues and events. While inflation, rising rents, and higher borrowing costs are key factors, so too is the cost of talent, which is often driven higher by bids from Live Nation.

The DoJ lawsuit appears to focus mostly on Ticketmaster, but some are calling for a broader probe into what other actions by Live Nation and Ticketmaster might constitute unfair competition.

But in the meantime, the DoJ has given the independent live music sector reason to hope that better times are ahead.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.