In November 2022 Ticketmaster received backlash from millions of Taylor Swift’s fans due to difficulties they experienced attempting to buy tickets to her latest tour1. Within days the Department of Justice announced there was an ongoing antitrust investigation into the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation2. The danger of Live Nation’s power in the entertainment industry extends far beyond making tickets inaccessible through exorbitant fees and website failures. Live Nation’s monopoly impacts the safety of fans, the ability of smaller businesses to compete, wastes taxpayers’ money and exerts inordinate control over artists’ careers.

Free Britney America was founded in Washington, D.C. to help raise awareness of the abuse endured by Britney Spears and thousands of others under conservatorships and guardianships. Britney Spears regained her freedom on November 12, 2021, yet the question remained: how could one of the world’s most famous artists be forced to perform for audiences of thousands of fans? Our research into Britney’s conservatorship found that Live Nation was a central player in monetizing her abusive conservatorship. Furthermore, we assert that the inordinate power that Live Nation has across the music industry secures a culture of silence around the abuse of Britney Spears and other artists.

Our “Fans Unite to Fight Ticketmaster” rally will occur at the same time as the recently announced Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on January 24th: “U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing at 10:00 am on Tuesday, January 24th to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry3. The hearing will be titled “That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment” and will be held before the full Senate Judiciary Committee4.”

Washington, D.C.:

In November 2022 Ticketmaster received backlash from millions of Taylor Swift’s fans due to difficulties they experienced attempting to buy tickets to her latest tour. Within days the Department of Justice announced there was an ongoing antitrust investigation into the 2010 merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The danger of Live Nation’s power in the entertainment industry extends far beyond making tickets inaccessible through exorbitant fees and website failures. Live Nation’s monopoly impacts the safety of fans, the ability of smaller businesses to compete, wastes taxpayers’ money and exerts inordinate control over artists’ careers.

Free Britney America was founded in Washington, D.C. to help raise awareness of the abuse endured by Britney Spears and thousands of others under conservatorships and guardianships. Britney Spears regained her freedom on November 12, 2021, yet the question remained: how could one of the world’s most famous artists be forced to perform for audiences of thousands of fans? Our research into Britney’s conservatorship found that Live Nation was a central player in monetizing her abusive conservatorship. Furthermore, we assert that the inordinate power that Live Nation has across the music industry secures a culture of silence around the abuse of Britney Spears and other artists.

Our “Fans Unite to Fight Ticketmaster” rally will occur at the same time as the recently announced Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on January 24th: “U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing at 10:00 am on Tuesday, January 24th to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry3. The hearing will be titled “That’s The Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment” and will be held before the full Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Key Facts
Live Nation is the “world’s largest live entertainment company, the largest producer of live music concerts, one of the world’s biggest artist management companies (representing over 500 of the world’s biggest artists), and the world’s largest live entertainment ticketer. All of this gives it enormous control over live music.”

The negative impact of Live Nation:
Fans
• Fees may entail on average 27% of ticket prices
• Between 2006-2021 there were 200 people who died and at least 750 injured at Live Nation events
• A crowd crush at the 2021 Astroworld festival resulted in 10 deaths and a class-action suit with almost
2,800 victims
Workers
• Live Nation has history of Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations9
Businesses
• Venues have expressed that Live Nation retaliates against venues that do not use Ticketmaster, such as black listing them from having events with their hundreds of artists.
Taxpayers
• Live Nation’s subsidiaries and companies they partially owned received $19 million in covid relief funds that were intended for small businesses.
Performers
• Violates performers creative control over their careers

Case example: Britney Spears
Live Nation is a key business that profited from Britney Spear’s conservatorship, including being involved in promotion and ticketing of her 2011 Femme Fatale tour, her 4 year Las Vegas residency, 2018 Piece of Me tour and the cancelled Domination residency. In Britney Spears’s June 2021 explosive court testimony she stated:

“I was on tour in 2018. I was forced to do. My management said if I don't do this tour, I will have to find an attorney and by contract my own management could sue me if I didn't follow through with the tour. He handed me a sheet of paper as I got off the stage in Vegas and said I had to sign it. It was very threatening and scary and with the conservatorship, I couldn't even get my own attorney. So out of fear, I went ahead and I did the tour.” –Britney Spears

Yet, at that same time her manager Larry Rudolph worked for Live Nation under the Maverick management umbrella. According to SEC filings, by 2010 Larry Rudolph had merged his personal management business with Live Nation. It is an egregious conflict of interest for artists to have talent managers that work for the same corporation that potentially control their concerts’ ticketing, promotions, merchandising, and venues.

Recent developments
A #BreakUpTicketmaster social media campaign was recently launched to demand that the Department of Justice to reverse the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The campaign was launched by a coalition of advocacy organizations, including the Music Workers Alliance, American Economic Liberties Project, Artist Rights Alliance, Fight Corporate Monopolies, Fan Freedom, More Perfect Union and more. We are not affiliated with this coalition, but we are deeply encouraged that their DOJ petition has already gained over 50,000 signatures.

Twitter trending hour
In order to involve fans around the world, we will be conducting a Twitter trending hour to run simultaneously with our in-person rally. We are urging participants to use the hashtags:
#FansUnite, #BreakUpTicketmaster & #JusticeForBritney

More information: www.melanielcarlson.com/ticketmaster