Last month Live Nation, one of the largest live entertainment companies in the world, unexpectedly reached a settlement with the Department of Justice just one week into its highly anticipated antitrust trial. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia are still moving forward with the case, which argues that Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster have monopolized the live music industry at the expense of venues, artists and fans.
According to the Associated Press, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino spent hours on the witness stand of a lower Manhattan courtroom in March. He denied claims that his company's control over concert promotion, ticketing, venue ownership and artist management unfairly dominates the live entertainment landscape. Instead, Rapino argued that under his leadership, Live Nation has spent two decades helping fix a "fragmented" industry for both artists and fans.
Some artists beg to differ. Before Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, artists like Pearl Jam had already argued the company's business practices push out competitors and reduce artists' ability to make their own choices about where to perform, who to work with and how to sell tickets to their fans. Since then, the list of complaints has grown: Taylor Swift, The Cure, Zach Bryan and Olivia Dean have all criticized the company for how it handles ticket sales (and resales) for high-profile concerts.
The outcome of the trial — and particularly a scenario in which Live Nation and Ticketmaster are forced to separate — has the potential to reshape the live music ecosystem. But several artists NPR spoke with say Live Nation's alleged dominance in touring and ticketing is just one aspect of much larger concerns they have about the state of the industry, which span far beyond a single company. Independent venue closures, social media algorithms, streaming royalties and the rise of generative AI have contributed to a wider ecosystem that artists say is becoming increasingly difficult for working musicians to weather — and which they say makes the sustainability of touring more crucial than ever.
Ticket prices and resales
Ben Walsh, founder, vocalist and guitarist of the Scranton, Pa. rock band Tigers Jaw, says ticket prices for his band's current headlining tour across the country in support of their new album Lost On You started sounding alarms when Ticketmaster presale codes first went out to fans.
"Our tour wasn't even fully on sale yet, and I was getting a few messages saying, '$75 for a ticket, are you guys crazy?'" he tells NPR. "And I'm like, 'We're not charging $75 a ticket. That is crazy.'" Walsh says that upon closer look, some presale tickets were already being resold through Ticketmaster for significantly higher prices — all before the tour was publicly on sale.
In an effort to curb scalping and high resale prices, Ticketmaster implemented the Face Value Exchange program in 2019, which allows all artists using Ticketmaster ticketing to opt into a system where tickets can only be resold for the original listing price, though there are limits depending on certain state laws. Walsh says that to his knowledge, Tigers Jaw is not part of the program.
Walsh says he was able to clear up the misunderstanding for fans that reached out to him directly, but he says it's frustrating that high resale prices — which the band doesn't profit from — have become pervasive not just for tickets to see major pop stars, but across the indie scene, too. He worries it reflects poorly on Tigers Jaw, he says, and it might discourage people from going to shows at all.
"We've enjoyed plenty of success as a touring band, but we're still working side gigs when we're not on tour," he says. "We are still trying to hit that next level up, so every ticket counts for us."
In March, private messages in which two Live Nation employees called fans "stupid" and joked that the company was "robbing them blind" were made public by government lawyers. The Associated Press reported that the employee who wrote the messages, who is the head of ticketing for Live Nation's venues, testified that he regretted the exchange. During his testimony, Rapino condemned the messages and promised to "deal with it," ensuring that that's not the way the company conducts its business. But Walsh says the rapid rise of ticket prices on Ticketmaster suggests otherwise, and he thinks it ultimately impacts everyone who tours. The more someone pays to see an A-lister, the less disposable income they're likely going to have to check out smaller shows, he says.
In court, the states' attorney is arguing that Live Nation's control over the industry doesn't only drive ticket prices up, but also severely restricts competition across virtually all aspects of the industry. Live Nation has previously argued that there is "more competition than ever" in the live events space. Walsh says that when Tigers Jaw — which has been a band for more than two decades — goes on tour, the group has increasingly limited options on which venues to play, which promoters to work with and which payment rates to accept.
"There are people within Live Nation … that we work with regularly and are good people and come from the same types of scenes [as us]," Walsh says. "So it's all these people all the way at the top that are making decisions that are just — I think they're short sighted and they're hurting music as a whole. They could learn a thing or two from smaller DIY scenes."
In a statement shared with NPR, Live Nation said that artists have "full control and multiple options" for choosing which promoters to work with. "Our business is built around serving artists at every level, from clubs to stadiums," reads the statement. "Touring is the primary source of income for most artists today. Our role is to help them reach more fans and maximize the value of their live performances."
The margins of touring keep getting slimmer
The artists NPR spoke with say that the rise of streaming over physical musical sales has made musicians more financially dependent on touring than ever. But even without Live Nation as part of the equation, they say sustaining a band on the road is becoming more and more challenging.
Touring is the lifeblood of what we do, and the more obstacles that get in the way of that — let alone us being able to afford it — I think we run into some very dangerous precedents...Cameron Lavi-Jones, founder and frontman of the Seattle band King Youngblood
Cameron Lavi-Jones, founder and frontman of the Seattle band King Youngblood, says his band depends on the goodwill of people they meet at their shows to get by. In March, towards the end of the band's spring tour, King Youngblood's RV broke down, leaving the band stranded in Denver for two days before they were able to raise enough money to get home.
"Touring is the lifeblood of what we do, and the more obstacles that get in the way of that — let alone us being able to afford it — I think we run into some very dangerous precedents that don't just bar musicians from being able to make a living off of what they do, but much bigger than that, barring people from experiencing things that can really positively impact their lives," Lavi-Jones says.
As a Black and brown band, King Youngblood is focused on raising visibility for people of color in predominantly white spaces. The band also curates an annual festival in its hometown called Black and Loud, which expanded to New Orleans in 2025. Lavi-Jones says the band had a positive experience working with a Live Nation venue there, but he says it feels like independent venues and artists are working under tighter and tighter margins all the time. A study conducted by the National Independent Venue Association found that 64% of independent venues, promoters and festivals were not profitable in 2024.
In Seattle, Lavi-Jones says, one of the venues that usually hosts Black and Loud Fest — The Crocodile, a beacon of the city's rock history — recently shut down some of its smaller stages for lack of attendance and profitability, leaving the band looking for alternatives. All of this, Lavi-Jones says, is symptomatic of a wider consolidation of power across the industry.
"We wouldn't be in these situations if there weren't folks that were looking at how to poach or prey upon artists from every level, because it's not even just Live Nation," he says, adding that he feels like streaming services also play a role. "It's all of these really big places where we have to be in order to have representation, but also are suffering from having so much taken from us and being seen as so expendable that we're scrapping just to be able to make ends meet."
In a statement shared with NPR, Live Nation says that the company promoted nearly 6,000 shows in 2024 in independent theaters and clubs across the country.
Part of a larger system
The pop-folk singer Cornelia Murr feels many of the same concerns as Lavi-Jones. As a solo artist, she says she's chosen to tour with a full band because that's how she wants to present her sound to her audience — but that also means she's fully responsible for gas, lodging, food and all other costs on the road, all of which are becoming increasingly expensive. She says she depends heavily on ticket and merch sales to make up the difference. In Minneapolis, a blizzard hit on the night of the show, resulting in a lower turnout than expected. Murr says this is just the reality of touring, but any additional stressors — like service fees that might make people reluctant to buy a ticket — can have devastating impacts on her bottom line.
"I feel very cornered," she tells NPR from her tour van in Nashville. "I think most artists feel like we're stuck with this system on many levels that doesn't work."
In January, her music publisher Wixen filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Meta, claiming that the social media giant made Wixen's catalog available in its video music library without authorization. Wixen argues that this resulted after intense licensing negotiations, and is accusing Meta of trying to pay significantly lower royalties to musicians in an effort to eventually replace their music with royalty-free content created by generative AI. When contacted by NPR, Meta declined to comment on the lawsuit. Murr says social media videos are an incredibly significant promotional tool for her as an artist; she wants her music on Meta, but she also wants to get paid for it.
"Across many levels, there's this real fear — especially with the rise of AI — that this cannot go on. One thing that the AI situation can't really take away is touring. We hope that it puts more emphasis on the magic of the live experience, but if touring gets more and more difficult…" Murr trails off. "If Live Nation wins and it's just making it completely impossible for most normal people to go [to shows], we're just out of luck."
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