Ticketmaster & Live Nation Merge
A new ticket retail giant is born
The world’s two biggest ticket retail agencies look set to merge after the U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal.
It had been thought that the merger may have been scuppered last year when there was a concern that it would break anti-trust laws or create a ticketing monopoly.
However, that obstacle seems to have been overcome and now the newly formed Live Nation Entertainment will control the majority of the world’s live entertainment industry ticketing, promoting and merchandising.
"It’s disappointing to me. It’s just another step in eliminating competition,” Buck Williams, a Nashville agent who represents R.E.M. and Widespread Panic, tells Rolling Stone. "They’ve pulled the rug out from under the entrepreneurs, to some degree.”
However, the agreement "promotes robust competition for primary ticketing services and preserves incentives for competitors to innovate and discount, which will benefit consumers,” said Christine Varney, an assistant attorney in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, in a statement.
But the concern remains that with one giant ticket retail corporation controlling the industry that ticket prices will rise and there will be no one to bring prices down through competition.
"I don’t think prices are going to come down,” says Tom Windish, a Chicago agent who represents Animal Collective, Hot Chip, the Knife and dozens of other top indie artists. "I don’t think it’s going to change that much. I don’t see Live Nation getting less money, I don’t see artists getting less money and I don’t see Ticketmaster charging a surcharge that’s lower than what they can possibly get. If anything, it’ll be higher.”