, are having a moment — a bad moment. Years of bullying both artists and venues, while price-gouging customers, has caught up with this corporate giant. TheFirst, a note about how we got here. Ticketmaster is merely a middleman — the ticket seller — but it is stunningly powerful because it has enormous control over vast swaths of the ticketing market.
Ticketmaster grew the way many near-monopolies have grown: It bought out the competition. After years of rollups, there were two giants left standing in the live events business: Live Nation and Ticketmaster. In 2009, they decided to merge. It didn’t take a genius to see that the one resulting company would dominate the live events industry.
In its filing last month, DOJ noted that Live Nation controls more than half of all concert promotions at major U.S. concert venues, as well as 80 percent of ticket sales for major concert venues. That market dominance gives it the power to freeze out competitors — and Live Nation has not been shy about using this power.