A call for Live Nation to be broken up for exceeding “market dominance” of gigs has been put out by the Association Of Independent Festivals (AIF).
On social media, the AIF claimed that “our data showed that Live Nation and affiliated companies control the majority of arena, stadium and outdoor concert tickets in 2025. The UK monopoly threshold is 25%. Market dominance position is 40%. Live Nation control 66.4%.”
As an example, they listed every show at Manchester’s Co-op Arena this September, with the likes of Vybz Kartel, Tom Grennan, Lewis Capaldi, OneRepublic, Pierce The Veil, Lil Baby and Simply Red playing. Out of those shows, Live Nation reportedly control 75 per cent, with only Grennan being signed with SJM and Simply Red with Kilimanjaro Live.
Additionally, the company stages a large number of popular festivals like Reading and Leeds, The Great Escape, Download and Rock Werchter.
The AIF’s post follows their call for an inquiry into Live Nation by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Executives from Live Nation and Ticketmaster were eventually questioned in June, with the AIF providing data for the inquiry, although Live Nation’s Phil Bowdery and Andrew Parsons disputed the figures AIF provided.
NME have approached Live Nation for comment.
The call also follows Live Nation’s CEO’s claims that gig tickets are “underpriced”.
Michael Rapino made the comments at CNBC and Boardroom’s Game Plan conference, claiming that gig tickets had been “underpriced” for “a long time”, comparing music to sports tickets.
“In sports, I joke it’s like a badge of honour to spend 70 grand for a Knicks courtside [seat],” Rapino said. “They beat me up if we charge $800 for Beyoncé.”
Rapino went on to claim that “the average concert price is still $72 (£53). Try going to a Laker game for that, and there’s 80 of them. The concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.” Live-entertainment trade publication Pollstar reported similar figures in its end-of-year report in 2024.
However, smaller festivals have argued that these heightened ticket prices – along with changes in audience habits, increased VAT and more – have seen the decline of smaller festivals.
Co-manager of Barn On The Farm Oscar Matthews pointed to COVID as having ” a severe impact on so many different sectors on so many different ways”, calling for “a short-to-mid-term support package in place for festivals and events in terms of a reduction in the VAT rate on ticket sales”.
“Festivals like Reading & Leeds and Glastonbury that have big support behind them will get through times like this, and that’s great, but for the smaller festivals a lot will either postpone or disappear,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the US, Live Nation are facing a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit after huge Ticketmaster data breach.
Hackers obtained details including full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, ticket sales and event details, order information, and partial payment card data from 560million customers. They then threatened to sell the data for $500,000.
The lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster of negligent behaviour prior to the breach, including failing to protect the data of its customers, establishing security measures in place to prevent attacks, or informing its customers of the breach in a timely manner.
US regulators have also sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation over resale ticket tactics, claiming that the companies have coordinated with brokers to purchase gig tickets and sell them at a “substantial” markup.
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