The return of the outsider stance

0:05Hey guys, it's Andrea and Emily here with Cujo, a podcast about culture in the age of platforms. And we're back to you this month with the March weather report in which Emily and I and sometimes a guest look back on the preceding month and take stock of where the cultural winds are blowing. All right. So, Andrea, what do you want to talk about this month? What were you picking up on? Yeah, so as usual, there are a lot of different things floating around in the zeitgeist that caught my attention. One thing that definitely kept bubbling up and that sort of got my gears turning is the Live Nation antitrust lawsuit really kicked into gear this month.

0:45And that got me sort of thinking bigger picture about how, you know, the arts and culture communities and industries have been responding to that, what that represents, what's happening with that. And that led me to think of an even sort of bigger picture, sort of zeitgeisty vibe that we might be in a kind of a post escapism moment in which we're leaving escapism behind in favor of presence and collaboration and taking matters into our own hands. Okay, so that was a lot. First off, can you tell us what happened with the Live Nation case? I saw that there was like a settlement or something. Yeah, yeah.

1:20So this is the federal DOJ case. So it's not totally over yet. But basically, there has been this landmark Live Nation antitrust case that was brought to the DOJ that basically was looking to break up the massive vertical monopoly that Live Nation slash Ticketmaster have over the live music and events industry. when that was started under the Biden administration. And I think a lot of people were thinking it was looking like they were in fact going to get broken up. But about a week ago, the case was settled. Alibration was not broken up. The general take from academics and others who have been following the story, you know, law experts, is that the settlement doesn't really solve this vertical integration monopoly issue.

2:04I won't, you know, I recommend everybody go read up on it. It's a lot to swallow, but there's one Harvard law professor who had just basically said that what they came out of it with was essentially a band-aid that doesn't solve the larger like structural issues that are at play here. Some aspects of the settlement are things like there now being a 15 % cap on additional fees that Live Nation can tack on to tickets, but that only applies to amphitheaters. Now, of course, amphitheaters are just one type of venue in the vast market of concert and event venues that Live Nation owns the majority of.

2:39That's not the only thing. But like I said, there's a lot more to look into that are just sort of smaller tweaks here and there. A few things done to, you know, allow smaller promoters into the market. But the fact of the matter is that LiveAsian still has this like, it's far and away like dominating the market and making competition from other promoters, venue owners, et cetera, essentially impossible to compete with. The case against them has been pretty damning. One highlight that really kind of made the rounds this month was a piece of evidence that emerged from a private, I think it was a slack convo between two ticketing executives and they were talking about certain, you know, VIP add-ons and like premium parking with regards to there being an increase in these parking fees, which is funny because this is something I actually talked a little bit about on last month's weather report.

3:21There was this one line where one of the execs said, we're robbing them blind, baby, that's how we do, which is just absolutely disgusting. So here's what's going on with it going forward. Basically, the next steps is that there's still a coalition of 36 states that are pressing ahead. They essentially rejected the settlement. So there is still a possibility that Live Nation could be broken up. In response to the settlement, Amy Klobuchar also introduced something called the Antitrust Accountability and Transparency Act. And that's aimed at giving courts greater authority to review and potentially reject antitrust settlements that are deemed insufficient.

3:57Like, for example, this one. And I think we all know it's like everyone from like Taylor Swift and The Cure to your average GA concert ticket holder have taken issue with Live Nation and the additional fees that they are tacking on to everything. And just I was reading up on it and it's like the average price of a concert ticket is now$120, which is insane. Yeah. I have a question. When they say breaking them up, do they mean having them offload Ticketmaster or is it more than that? Yeah, it means breaking off Ticketmaster. That's kind of where this all started. because, you know, Ticketmaster is the ticketing side.

4:31Live Nation is the concert promotion and menu ownership side. And so that's these three tiers of the live music industry that became integrated when they merged. And I think that's really where therein lies the main problem. Like the people that own the venue are also controlling the tickets and the ticket prices and fees, everything associated with it, like parking, it's the promoting of the event. So it really just like puts, you know, everyone from, you know, artists to the fans in a position where they can't really negotiate much of anything. So that's where breaking them up again would help.

5:02So yeah, so, you know, the fact that on the state level, they're still pressing forward. Amy Klobuchar introduced that piece of legislation. And this isn't related to live music, but as sort of part of the bigger picture of just sort of reigning in corporate consolidation. You also have recently California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He's moved to block the Tenga and Next Star merger, which is kind of looking to follow in the same footsteps as like the Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger. You know, All of this is pointing to a wider push by state authorities to challenge corporate consolidation and kind of this more coordinated effort among state governments to have a more assertive role in competition enforcement.

5:41And is the idea here also that it's sort of Trump has a more permissive atmosphere related to monopolies? The Trump administration has a more permissive atmosphere or is it not really that? No, no, it's that. It's that, you know, it's interesting because initially the Trump administration actually seemed pretty aggressive about picking this case up again. You may have heard Kid Rock was a pretty outspoken voice in this, and he even expressed his dismay at the settlement outcome, which is interesting. But generally speaking, settling in a case like this is also seen as just kind of a generally more business friendly approach.

6:21Antitrust enforcement during Trump's first term was often viewed as less aggressive towards corporate consolidation. I think it's also worth noting that settlement could represent a kind of green light for dealmakers. This comes just a few weeks after the Trump administration forced out the DOJ antitrust chief, Gail Slater. But there's also a practical side to it. Antitrust breakups are notoriously hard to win. The DOJ continuing to push for the breakup would have meant a very long and pretty uncertain legal battle, whereas settling kind of gave them immediate concessions. So from the DOJ's perspective, this gives them a faster way to seemingly increase competition without risking a total loss in court.

7:06So through settling, the DOJ got, you know, faster guaranteed reforms. Live Nation got to avoid a breakup. Both sides avoided trial risk and uncertainty and, you know, sprinkle on these kind of political and policy considerations of the Trump administration. And that kind of pushed it all towards this compromise. nice so you had like a counterpoint to all this yeah it is a nice reminder that the federal government isn't be all end all and to me that kind of points to a bigger picture and i've been picking up on this larger sense that people people are just over this like they're just fed up with i think how difficult it has become to either experience you know live music and the arts and entertainment and media or work in it make make a living off of it and i'm feeling like i'm seeing and hearing and experiencing more and more people, people in these communities taking matters into their own hands.

7:57I'm definitely noticing a general resurgence, and I'm curious if you're feeling the same over on the East Coast too, Emily, but a resurgence of kind of the DIY and the independent. And that's it for the free preview version of this episode. There's lots more ahead. You can hear the rest and get access to things like our Discord server and reading groups by becoming a paid subscriber for just five bucks a month. All that and you'll be supporting independent journalism. Go get it over at theculturejournalist.substack.com.