Ticketing is Live Nation’s profit center

Musical chairs

Yesterday, the Justice Department and 30 states filed a lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the owner of Ticketmaster, accusing the company of using “unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators”.

The crux of the case is that Live Nation, which manages over 400 artists, owns or operates 260 concert venues, and controls more than 80% of major concert ticketing through Ticketmaster, is simply too big. In rebuttal, Live Nation’s lawyers will presumably do their best to argue what all dominant companies proclaim: their size and scale actually lowers costs for consumers.

Since the company acquired Ticketmaster in 2010, Live Nation has set about building a business that controls nearly every layer of the live event lifecycle, from artist management to venue operations and ticketing, attaching numerous additional costs, such as “service fees” and “convenience fees”, to its ticketing platform along the way.

Indeed, while concerts constitute the bulk of the company’s revenue, they are far from its most profitable segment. Last year, the company reported just a 2% adjusted operating profit margin in its concerts division, while ticketing made a whopping 38%, and ads and sponsorships managed 62%. Indeed, the concert division often relies on other parts of the business to help fund it, a lifeline it would lose if the DOJ does manage to split the company up.

Look What You Made Me Do: The controversy surrounding Live Nation's dominance reached a boiling point following the chaotic ticket rollout for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in 2022, a furore which eventually led to a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee.