Logos: Live Nation / Ticketmaster
The long-running controversy surrounding Live Nation and Ticketmaster has taken another dramatic turn.
During testimony in a U.S. federal antitrust trial, venue executives claimed that Live Nation used access to major touring artists as leverage to pressure arenas into using Ticketmaster for ticket sales.
According to the testimony, venues risked losing high-profile tours if they chose competing ticketing platforms instead.
Some executives alleged that artists as large as Billie Eilish were used as examples of the kind of tours that could disappear if venues didn’t cooperate with Ticketmaster.
Real-World Ads, Simple to Run
With AdQuick, executing Out Of Home campaigns is as easy as running digital ads. Plan, deploy, and measure your real-world advertising effortlessly—so your team can scale campaigns and maximize impact without the headaches.
The accusations are part of a broader government case accusing Live Nation of dominating multiple parts of the live-events industry, from concert promotion to venue ownership and ticketing.
Live Nation has denied wrongdoing and says its scale simply reflects the success of its services.
But critics argue the company’s influence makes it extremely difficult for competitors to operate in the concert ticketing space.
The trial has drawn renewed attention to an issue fans have complained about for years: the power Ticketmaster holds over the live music ecosystem.
And depending on how the legal battle unfolds, the future of concert ticketing could look very different.
