Live Nation is a giant of reside music and sports activities. In 2025, it organised greater than 55,000 concert events worldwide, drawing 159 million attendees.
The agency’s monetary outcomes, launched final month, confirmed income in 2025 rose to $25.2 billion (£18.7 billionn), up 9% from the earlier yr, whereas working revenue jumped by greater than 50% to $1.3 billion.
It additionally holds stakes in 460 venues, and had managed Ticketmaster, the world’s main ticket vendor, since 2010.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation have repeatedly confronted criticism from those that say the agency artificially inflates the price of tickets with charges and repair costs.
Calls from followers and lawmakers to the businesses’ dominance grew louder after the botched sale of tickets for the primary leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2022, which noticed followers stranded in on-line queues for hours
Ticketmaster later apologised to Swift and her followers throughout a US Senate listening to.
In the trial, which began final week, the Justice Department accused Live Nation of abusing its dominant place to stress artists and venues into signing with it, stifle competitors, and impose extreme charges on followers.
The first witness was John Abbamondi, previously of the Barclays Center area in Brooklyn, who testified that Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino threatened to divert concert events from his venue after it selected to work with the rival ticket firm, Seat Geek.
On a recording of a telephone name performed in court docket, Rapino might be heard telling Abbamondi that it could “be a tough time to deliver tickets or concerts, with a new competitor in town”.
Abbamondi testified that he interpreted that assertion as a risk, and that Live Nation adopted via by shifting reveals away from Barclays.
Live Nation denied the decision constituted a risk and stated the venue grew to become much less common after a rival area opened close by.
The firm had beforehand argued that the federal government’s case misunderstood the complexities of the reside occasion sector.
It says that artists and their administration are in the end accountable for setting ticket costs; and that venues, not Ticketmaster, obtain the majority of charges added to ticket costs.
However, for a lot of reveals in the US, Live Nation might personal the venue or act because the artist’s administration.
Shares in the California-based firm rose by about 6% following information of the proposed settlement.
