Calls are mounting for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to investigate business practices in the live music industry, as the ABC prepares to air a Four Corners report scrutinising the Australian arm of the live entertainment behemoth Live Nation.
The ABC said in a statement the broadcaster had “full confidence” in the work of Music For Sale journalist, Avani Dias. Dr Sam Whiting, a cultural economy academic at RMIT University, said without government intervention, independent Australian venues and festivals would continue to struggle for survival while multinationals such as Live Nation and TEG continued to consolidate their market power.
Yet Live Nation Australia and its subsidiaries have collected more than A$24m in federal and state government grants since Covid-19, including $8m from the West Australian government to subsidise two Coldplay concerts in Perth last year.
The civil action is seeking to split Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which was acquired a decade ago, on the grounds the company engages in “unlawful, anti-competitive conduct” and exercises “monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States”.posted on its website