Game of Monopoly: Live Nation verdict hits the ‘Live Music Capital’

Months after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation Entertainment violated antitrust laws by illegally monopolizing live music markets, Austin music veterans see little change on the ground. But they’re still hoping for change soon.

Against that backdrop, this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival returns to Zilker Park for two weekends, Oct. 2–4 and Oct. 9–11. It will be the first ACL Fest since a jury found Live Nation guilty of illegally monopolizing the live music business. The timing puts Live Nation’s largest annual Austin event in the spotlight just as many are asking how much control one company should have over the city’s music scene.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian is currently determining what penalties to impose on Live Nation, which could range from monetary damages to breaking up the company.

Depending on whether any such remedies withstand legal appeals, they have the potential to rock venues across the U.S., including in Austin: the “Live Music Capital of the World.”

With its subsidiaries Ticketmaster and Austin-based C3 Presents, Live Nation shapes much of  Austin’s live music scene, driving the entertainment and booking for events at the Moody Center, Moody Amphitheater, Germania Amphitheater, Stubb’s, Emo’s, and Scoot Inn.

It also has promoted shows at venues it doesn’t control, including Moody Theater, Bass Concert Hall, Antone’s, Paramount Theatre, and H-E-B Center. Live Nation subsidiary Ticketmaster services University of Texas sports events.

This extensive reach was a centerpiece of the antitrust case, which argued that Live Nation wouldn’t let artists perform in its venues unless they agreed to be promoted by Live Nation, and also that venues were forced to use Ticketmaster in order to gain access to Live Nation acts. As a result, smaller promoters and venues were put at a disadvantage, according to a New York Times report.

“You have the product, which is the music and the performance, and Live Nation controls that,” Austin songwriter Jon Dee Graham told Austin Free Press when the antitrust case was originally filed. “Then you have the venues … controlled by what? Live Nation. And then you have ticket prices … set and controlled by, guess who? Live Nation.”

“That is like a game of Monopoly,” said Graham, who died in March, weeks before the Live Nation verdict came down in April. “It’s Antitrust 101.”

Live Nation and C3 Presents did not return calls seeking comment for this story. Live Nation said after the trial that it “can and will appeal any unfavorable rulings” on its outstanding motions, the New York Times reported.

Art of the Deal

The suit against Live Nation began in May 2024, when the Biden administration accused the company of creating an illegal monopoly in the live events market.

Twenty-nine state attorneys general and the attorney general for the District of Columbia joined in the action. In August 2024, 10 more states joined. The case went to trial this March.

Shortly after the trial began, it was almost derailed. The Department of Justice announced it had reached a tentative settlement with Live Nation and was dropping the case, a decision that followed a meeting between Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and President Donald Trump.

The DOJ settlement called for Live Nation to give up exclusive booking agreements in 13 amphitheaters, cap ticket service fees at 15%, end its exclusive booking deals, and create a $280 million settlement fund for participating states.

Only six states agreed to join the DOJ in the settlement, however, with most of the state attorneys general, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, finding the remedies inadequate.

They pressed forward, and on April 15 secured a verdict. The jury found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster illegally maintained monopolies in ticketing services for major concert venues and used exclusionary practices to book events at Live Nation-controlled amphitheaters, the New York Times reported.

In the wake of the verdict, the plaintiffs are asking that Live Nation be forced to divest itself of Ticketmaster, not tie concert appearances to ticket-sales contracts, open up its amphitheaters to other promoters, and pay unspecified financial damages and penalties.

Whether or how soon any of this happens remains to be seen. Antitrust litigation of this type can stretch out for years, and Live Nation still hopes to overturn the jury’s ruling.

Local impact limited

Austin music promoters and venue owners say that so far the DOJ settlement and the jury verdict have produced negligible changes to Live Nation’s local footprint.

“They were slapped with some fees that, from last I heard, were about four days of profits from a year of what they do in business,” said Pedro Carvalho, co-owner of Far Out Lounge and vice chair of the Austin Music Commission.

For Carvalho, a proper outcome to the case would be the dismantling of Live Nation’s “completely vertical integration” – its control of ticketing, venues, tours, agents, and management.

Graham Williams, founder of Resound Presents and a veteran of the original Emo’s on Red River, notes that the problem goes well beyond ticket fees. Williams, who works as a promoter, said artists’ agents can be pressured to steer their clients toward companies such as Live Nation rather than independent promoters and venues.

“I do feel like a lot of agents feel bullied into working only with larger-scale companies, because they control so much, from festivals to you name it,” he said.

Williams said agents and performers can face consequences if they choose an independent promoter or venue.

“If they work with the indie that they like, or the venue that they want to play, they (can) get boxed out of being able to play future festivals,” he said. Williams added that agents sometimes tell him, “Sorry, there’s not much we can do. They threaten to pull our next five shows if we don’t do this.”

Eric Hartman, who founded the original Emo’s on Red River Street, said he was glad to see the jury’s verdict, particularly given his frustration with dynamic pricing, which adjusts ticket prices according to fluctuating demand. “It’s nice to see that these individual states … don’t agree with that,” he said.

Don Pitts, a former city of Austin music official and founder of Sound Music Cities, has a more nuanced view of Live Nation. A city can have “record-breaking success at the top of the market” even as its independent and middle layers become increasingly fragile, Pitts wrote in a statement.

Live Nation and C3 Presents have helped grow Austin into a major global music market, he wrote, but it remains to be seen if independent venues, local promoters, mid-sized rooms, and artist-development pipelines can survive underneath that success.

Zilker Park price

For many in Austin, the most visible evidence of Live Nation’s reach is the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, which is operated by Live Nation subsidiary C3 Presents. Last year, the Austin Parks and Recreation Department signed an agreement with C3 that will let it hold the festival in Zilker Park through 2040.

Some argue that the city has given too much to C3 for what it gets in return. Austin Free Press reported last October Austin receives $103,500 for hosting the music festival, which is pennies on the dollar compared to the millions of dollars that Live Nation pays Chicago to host Lollapalooza in Grant Park.

The festival’s backers tell a different story. An economic-impact study commissioned by C3 Presents estimated that the 2025 festival pumped $558 million into Austin’s economy, the Austin American Statesman reported. Festival organizers also said this spring that the 2025 event generated $8.5 million for Austin’s parks. That money does not go directly to the city, but typically is steered to the Austin Parks Foundation, a private nonprofit that supports the city’s public parks.

Environmental advocate Robin Rather, a critic of Live Nation’s Zilker Park footprint, said that Live Nation’s damaged brand could finally give City Hall the perspective it has lacked.

“If the city can stop crushing on Live Nation and see it very clearly … they might be a lot more willing to cut the kind of deal that the city deserves” for hosting the Zilker Park festival, she said.

A competitive future

According to Pitts, the real question may not be whether Live Nation is good or bad, but
“whether cities still have enough independent infrastructure left to create resilience, experimentation, and long-term cultural sustainability outside of a handful of dominant players.”

The health of Austin’s music ecosystem can’t be measured just by stadium tours, festivals, or economic-impact numbers, he added. Equally important is “the venue ladder, the creative pipeline, the support services, the workforce, and the communities that actually produce the culture a city markets to the world.”

Or as Carvalho puts it, “That would be super helpful if there’s a competitive market where the independent venue could even compete.”

Veteran music journalist Tim Stegall first reported on the Live Nation antitrust lawsuit for Austin Free Press on July 23, 2024. Ruffian Books published Stegall’s first book, “Anarchy In The Studio: Punk Music 1970–1979 — The Rise of Punk Rock,” in July.