Ticketmaster’s Big Loss in Court

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For years, music fans have said they felt ripped off by Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation. And last week, a jury ruled that they were right, and that the company is, in fact, a monopoly. And so today, music reporter Ben Sisario breaks down the dramatic trial that unfolded, what it may mean for concertgoers, and why the federal government's handling of the case is now under scrutiny. It's Thursday, April 23rd.
Ben, welcome back to The Daily.

**Ben Sisario** (2:04)
Thank you.

**Rachel Abrams** (2:05)
You were in the courtroom for, I think, six weeks following the trial of probably one of the most reviled companies in this country, which is Live Nation. The case, of course, ended last week with a jury's verdict. So just to start us off, how big of a deal is this?

**Ben Sisario** (2:21)
It's a huge deal in the music industry. Live Nation and Ticketmaster were found to be a monopoly in a resounding verdict, and Live Nation is a colossus in music. They're a giant company. They put on tens of thousands of concerts all over the world every year. They sell something like 600 million tickets every year on Ticketmaster.
They own hundreds of venues. They have deals with dozens of artists for their tours. If you saw Beyonce, Coldplay, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Metallica, those are Live Nation tours. If you saw a tour by an artist working with Live Nation, you may have seen it in a Live Nation venue. You may have bought the ticket from Ticketmaster. While you were at the venue, you bought a hot dog and beer. Live Nation may well have gotten some of that money. They touch almost every aspect of live entertainment.
This was a pretty dramatic trial, at least when it came to an antitrust case, which is a lot of minutiae about economics and markets usually. But this case had a lot of twists and turns, and even the fact that it came to a verdict was a bit of a surprise, since for a moment there, it looked like Live Nation was going to be able to settle the case. But in fact, it made its way to the jury, and there was this verdict that they were liable of being a monopoly.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:49)
When we talk about monopolies, the first kind of companies that come to mind might be tech giants, or every other kind of company besides a concert company, right? So I sort of wonder why concerts and Live Nation got on the government's radar specifically.

**Ben Sisario** (4:03)
Well, yeah, I think these days, we might think of Google and other big tech companies as being the biggest monopolies that we come across. But this whole question of anti-trust and monopolies goes way back in history, and in some ways, Live Nation is like the standard oil of concerts and live entertainment. And so, in that way, it's not a surprise. I mean, since Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged 16 years ago, there's been eyes on this, both in the music business but also in kind of policy circles about was this company too big and too powerful for a basic consumer good? I also think that Taylor Swift was critical in making this a sort of popular issue among everyday Americans and also people in Washington.