By Diana Moss
It has been just over a year since the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the dismal state of competition in the ticketing industry in the United States. The hearing was spurred by the epic meltdown of Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s ticketing platform during the sale for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour. The parallel meltdown of Swifties who couldn’t get tickets galvanized public attention, pulling Live Nation again into the spotlight as a leading U.S. monopolist. The live event behemoth has formidably high and stable market positions in ticketing, concert promotion, and venues, including Ticketmaster’s 70% share of the high-profile ticketing market.
Singer-songwriter Clyde Lawrence spoke at the Senate hearing to visible evidence of a broken market—Live Nation-Ticketmaster is often the only choice for artists to sell tickets to their concerts. To appreciate the full harm from the live events monopoly, let’s remember that the Taylor Swift debacle wasn’t the first. Trouble over Ticketmaster’s domination was brewing long before.
