Welcome to Live Nation's Worst Week Ever
A children's treasury of the awful things happening to the most hated company in America
There’s no way Live Nation and Ticketmaster executives thought their week was going to go like this. After a bruising first week at the company’s monopolization trial against the federal government and a group of 40 state attorneys general, the company’s investment in MAGA-world lobbyists seemed to pay dividends when those lobbyists convinced the Trump administration to drop its slam-dunk monopoly lawsuit. Live Nation appeared to have escaped trial with the company’s ability to rip off fans and bully venue owners intact, and it stock price spiked in the aftermath. Things seemed peachy in Ticketmaster land.
Then Live Nation’s post-settlement shitstorm began, both within and outside of Judge Arun Subramanian’s New York City courtroom. That’s been very fun for us. Let’s recap!
Trump’s settlement with Live Nation has been just as unpopular as Ticketmaster. Pretty much anyone could have seen this coming. When the cabal of corporate MAGA lobbyists succeeded in pushing out ineffective but credible Justice Department antitrust chief Gail Slater, the fate of the federal Live Nation lawsuit was written on the wall. Still, the reaction to the toothless settlement has been visceral — including from longtime Trump allies in the MAGA world. Kid Rock, who has tied his brand to Trump more than any other major musician in America, lashed out at the settlement. In an interview with Noah Shachtman in the New York Times, Kid Rock expressed the kind of confusion only a true Trump believer could, given the very public MAGA lobbyist takeover of antitrust at the DOJ: “I don’t understand why they would negotiate a settlement,” Rock said. “Why not just let it see its course? Let’s see what 12 people decide.” As part of the settlement, Live Nation set aside nearly $300 million to pay the states to drop their part of the lawsuit, but only seven states took the bait; a bunch of Republican AGs from red states, including Kansas, Indiana, Florida, Texas, and others, all committed to letting the jury decide the fate of the Live Nation monopoly. Speaking of which…
Jeffrey Kessler (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) Trump let Live Nation off the hook. The states doubled down. Lord knows what Live Nation and the Trump administration thought was going to happen in the wake of their comically weak settlement, but it probably didn’t include the states hiring one of the best antitrust lawyers in the world to carry on the case. Once the settlement dust had, er, settled, the 30-plus states who remained had hired Jeffrey Kessler, a top partner at Chicago law firm Winston & Strawn, to lead their prosecution. Kessler has earned a reputation as a winner in the antitrust world; he helped Michael Jordan win a major antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR earlier this year, and led college athletes to victory in their antitrust action against the NCAA. In my decade-plus reporting on antitrust and monopoly issues, Kessler’s reputation as a trial demon and consistent winner were widely known. He’s the last person Live Nation wanted to see in court — but Kessler is the company’s reward for all of the nasty tactics it used to get the feds to drop their case. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Speaking of nasty tactics…
Live Nation and Trump’s corruption is on full display. The lobbyist-led settlement of the feds’ Live Nation lawsuit is admittedly a worse look for Trump than it is for Live Nation, which everyone knows will do everything in its power to keep its monopoly intact. But holy hell is it a bad look! If there was ever any doubt that Ticketmaster was the most hated company in America, this settlement ended that debate. “Gotta say, there is nothing Ticketmaster does better than make a mockery of American laws,” journalist Moe Tkacik wrote on X after the news of the chaotic settlement dropped. The brazen and outwardly suspicious settlement process certainly got the attention of Subramanian, who learned of the deal in open court days after it was struck. In an order, the judge reminded all parties involved to save their settlement-related emails, texts and other messages, to make sure any settlement shenanigans are adequately captured. Subramanian could, hypothetically, do the absolute funniest thing possible and reject the settlement. Probably not, but we’ll see! Meanwhile…
The trial is going so, so badly for Live Nation. None of this week’s other very bad events would matter much to Live Nation if things seemed to be going the company’s way at trial. But things are certainly not going its way! Every trial exhibit that’s been introduced, every witness interview, has somehow been worst than the last for Live Nation. First, a bunch of Slack messages revealed at trial showed two Live Nation ticketing employees cackling online about their power to “gouge” the company’s customers, who are also “so stupid” to pay the LITERAL MONOPOLY to go see artists and concerts they care about. What monopoly, Live Nation asks? Well, maybe the one that dominates every aspect of live music, including amphitheater concerts, as the company brags about in internal documents. Or is it the company described in one article as an “unregulated monopoly,” which Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino called a “very smart assessment.”
Speaking of Rapino, he’s on the stand today getting grilled by Kessler over all of this evidence and more. (Matthew Russell Lee from Inner City Press is providing the blanket coverage of the trial.)
Anyway, ha ha, what a shitshow it’s been for Live Nation and Ticketmaster so far. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer company. We’ll keep you posted.