Ticketing is Live Nation’s profit center

Live Nation relies on its other divisions to help keep concerts profitable

5/24/24 12:16PM

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.

Max Knoblauch5/29/26

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.