Live Nation wants ticket resale prices capped after ‘multi-billions’ of bots target Oasis shows

WASHINGTON – Live Nation Entertainment chief executive officer Michael Rapino predicted that the British band Oasis will be the biggest concert tour of the year in 2025, but said surging sales of tickets on the secondary market illustrate the need for the US Congress to step in and regulate the industry. 

“Multi-billions” of robots targeted the tickets for the band’s upcoming tour when they went on sale, Mr Rapino said. Other ticket sellers immediately began offering seats at higher prices. He urged government officials to regulate the business by capping ticket resale prices at a 20 per cent mark-up. 

“You shouldn’t have a middleman that has nothing invested in the business make any money from it,” he said.

Mr Rapino spoke on the evening of Oct 9 at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles. His company, the world’s largest concert promoter, is often the target of complaints from fans over the difficulty in getting tickets to shows from artists such as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, as well as the prices of the tickets. 

Also adding to Live Nation’s pains, it was sued in 2023 by the US Justice Department and a group of states for allegedly monopolising the concert ticket business. According to the complaint, the company’s Ticketmaster platform, the largest concert ticket sales site in the US, exercises power over performers, venues and promoters, narrowing the options for artists and forcing consumers to pay more in fees.

Mr Rapino said he believed the company will win the case, which he attributed to overaggressive antitrust enforcement.  

“We are a 2 per cent margin business, so we must be the dumbest monopoly alive,” he said. “We give 90-plus per cent of the door to the artist.” 

Mr Rapino has served as CEO of Live Nation since 2005, a period when the company acquired other local concert promoters. In 2010, it merged with Ticketmaster.

Among the music festivals Live Nation oversees are Lollapalooza, Electric Daisy Carnival and BottleRock Napa Valley.

Sales at Live Nation surged as venues reopened after the pandemic and consumers looked to get out and see shows again. Revenue last quarter rose 7 per cent to more than US$6 billion (S$7.8 billion) and operating income climbed 21 per cent to $466 million. The company said it sees no signs of a slowdown.

Mr Rapino said he tried to talk the Irish band U2 out of playing at the new Sphere theatre in Las Vegas because he was afraid the globe-shaped venue with screens all around would make some concertgoers nauseous.

“I said to Bono: ‘My job isn’t to figure out what can go right. It’s what can go wrong,’” Mr Rapino said.

Ultimately, the band opened the new venue to multiple sold-out shows. 

“We sat there opening night and it was fabulous,” Mr Rapino said. BLOOMBERG