Are we taking Music Industry Monopolies seriously enough?
With the DoJ’s antitrust action against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the week’s Hypebot Flashback Friday resurfaces a post by Will Meyer from the now-defunct non-profit Cash Music that dives into how a few big players dominate most corners of the music industry, from record labels to streaming and live music.
Op-ed by Will Meyer of CASH Music
Everyone can agree, at this point, that most corners of the music industry are dominated by a small number of companies.
Take streaming services, for example. Just a few years ago, business commentators praised the healthy competition that existed between services like Pandora, Rhapsody, Tidal, Google Play, Spotify and Apple Music. Today, however, that “competition” has essentially become a two-horse race between Apple Music and Spotify.
The live music industry isn’t all that different. Live Nation and AEG have an overwhelming grip on North American venues and festivals. (Live Nation owns House of Blues and Lollapalooza, while AEG just purchased Bowery Presents.) The same goes for labels. Three of them — Sony, Universal and Warner — control 80 percent of the market.
