Ben Cesario

was a bit of a surprise, since for a moment there, it looked like Live Nation was going to be able to settle the case.

But in fact, it made its way to the jury, and there was this verdict that they were liable of being a monopoly.

Well, yeah, I think these days we might think of Google and other big tech companies as being...

the biggest monopolies that we come across.

But this whole question of antitrust and monopolies goes way back in history.

And, you know, in some ways Live Nation is like the standard oil of concerts and live entertainment.

And so in that way, it's not a surprise.

I mean, since Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged 16 years ago, there's been eyes on this, both in the music business, but also in kind of policy circles about was this company too big and too powerful

for a basic consumer good.

I also think that Taylor Swift was critical in making this a sort of popular issue among everyday Americans and also people in Washington.

So Taylor had her Iris tour and she put tickets on sale back in 2022.

Now, Taylor is actually not a Live Nation artist, but it's a good example of just how integrated Live Nation is with everything in the music industry that even an artist that wasn't working with them still inevitably has to work with them.

Because she was playing all of these venues that Live Nation controlled and where Ticketmaster sold the tickets, she had to go through Ticketmaster.

The Errors Tour has become the Errors Tour.

And it was a catastrophe.

There were huge lines.

It crashed.

It was a big hubbub of people couldn't get their concert tickets to Taylor Swift.

And I think it opened a lot of people's eyes to say, what's going on here?

Why can I buy something on Amazon or any other internet site?