Even by his own frenetic standards, it has been a busy few days for Michael Rapino. The man widely regarded as the most powerful figure in global music has seen his company embroiled in the storm generated by Oasis ticket sales as it goes about its core business of profiting handsomely from burgeoning demand for the world’s most popular artists.
Mr Rapino, a 59-year-old Canadian, lauded the role played by Live Nation, the £17bn music and entertainment giant which he heads as chief executive, in bringing both the Gallagher brothers and Adele to mass audiences. Writing on X over the weekend, the music tycoon estimated to be worth upwards of £300m, pointed out that a series of concerts in Munich by the English diva which ended on Sunday had generated some €540m (£455m) for the local economy.
He also did his bit to promote the excitement generated by the reunion of Liam and Noel Gallagher last week – reposting links on how to obtain tickets for Oasis’s 17-date tour next year which Live Nation is helping to promote. According to one estimate, the Oasis tour will generate revenues worth at least £400m. Mr Rapino’s corporation, whose client roster includes such megastars as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, also happens to own Ticketmaster, the world’s biggest ticket retailer with an estimated 70 per cent share of the live entertainment market.
With Swift’s Eras tour breaking revenue records for ticket sales it’s no wonder the mood music is sweet for Mr Rapino. In August, Live Nation announced a 7 per cent jump in its earnings for the second quarter of 2024 to $6bn (£4.6bn) after last year seeing revenues leap by more than a third and annual profits reach £1.9bn.
Mr Rapino, whose earnings in 2022 broke the £100m barrier, initially began his career as a salesman for Canadian brewer Labatt before becoming Live Nation’s CEO in 2005. Last month he bullishly stated: “We continue to see strong demand globally, with a growing variety of shows attracting both casual and diehard fans who are buying tickets at all price points, which speaks to the unique experience only live concerts can provide.”
But at the same time there are rumblings of trouble for the entertainment behemoth and its Los Angeles-based CEO and president.
This weekend’s stampede for Oasis tickets, which Live Nation and others involved in the tour had sought to carefully choreograph by emphasising opposition to the practice of re-selling seats at inflated prices, was yesterday reaping a whirlwind of recrimination over so-called “dynamic pricing” for the right to see the Gallagher brothers in full voice.
Fans queuing on Ticketmaster’s online portal on Saturday were shocked to find the price of standard tickets for the tour more than doubling from £148 to £355 after the initial batch earmarked for sale sold out and the price of further batches was increased to match demand in much the same manner as surge pricing for an Uber or an airplane ticket.
Ticketmaster pointed out that it does not set ticket prices and it was the tour’s “event organiser” who had “priced these tickets according to their market value”. The main promoters of the tour – including Manchester-based SJM Concerts – did not immediately respond to requests to comment.
Former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis said on Monday that he had referred Ticketmaster to the Competitions and Markets Authority over the dynamic pricing row. He told Sky News: “The rules are not working, this needs to be put right.”
But as the Government announced it would include “dynamic pricing” in its hostile review of live entertainment ticket sales, and the Advertising Standards Agency said was assessing some 450 complaints about Ticketmaster adverts following the weekend’s events, the Oasis row is not the biggest problem facing Live Nation’s sprawling gig and festival empire.
In May, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it was suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster over what one lawmaker described as their “stranglehold” over the live entertainment sector.
The complaint, which seeks the break-up of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, alleged that the companies had “used their power and influence to insert themselves at the centre and the edges of virtually every aspect of the live music ecosystem” and were exercising a monopoly which had given them “the opportunity to freeze innovation and bend the industry to their own benefit”. Ironically, the US authorities gave their blessing to the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2009, but now argue the pendulum has swung too far in the companies’ favour by their sprawling dominance or ownership of elements of the live music food chain from concert venues and festivals to promoting bands and the ticketing system.
Among those voicing support for the DoJ case was Viagogo, the UK-founded secondary ticketing giant which has attracted its own share of scrutiny over the selling of seats – including those for Oasis – for prices considerably above the original face value. Cris Miller, Viagogo’s managing director, claimed earlier this year that Ticketmaster enjoyed a dominant position in the UK market, saying: “They have a disproportionate amount of control over the concerts.”
For its part, Live Nation insists such claims amount to legal and commercial gibberish, pointing out that the bulk of the service fees charged on tickets go to venues, and Ticketmaster’s market share and profitability has been steadily declining in the face of competition.
In a statement, the company said: “We will defend against these baseless allegations, use this opportunity to shed light on the industry, and continue to push for reforms that truly protect consumers and artists.”
Meanwhile, Live Nation is also still embroiled in civil lawsuits brought by people injured in a lethal crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival in Texas in 2021, which was managed by the company. Lawyers for Live Nation last week formally rejected an attempt by complainants to require Mr Rapino to give evidence in the case.
And yet, for all its troubles, the giant of the live entertainment world remains an attractive proposition as, along with its competitors, it continues to enjoy a post-pandemic gold rush among music fans desperate to see their idols.
In April 2020, Live Nation was thrown something of a financial lifeline when, amid the Covid lockdown, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund invested $500m (£380m) to become the company’s third largest shareholder. Within ten months, the value of that investment had doubled to $1bn.
As one music industry source put it yesterday: “Even if its critics want to portray [Live Nation] as the 800-pound gorilla of the live music sector, you can’t argue with its success. Whether its Oasis or Taylor Swift, you can argue that it has just been in the right place at the right time.”
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