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In 2024, it was just possible to pretend that Trump’s populist bombast might translate into a real antitrust policy. His VP pick, then-Sen. JD Vance, provoked dramatic pearl-clutching from the Wall Street Journal with his avowed support for muscular corporate regulation.
But corporations were never fooled. They plowed a record $239 million into Trump’s inauguration fund — more than double the $109 million he raised in 2017, and almost four times what Biden raised in 2021 (albeit during covid).
Among the well-wishers was Live Nation Entertainment, which contributed $500,000 to the party. That turned out to be a pretty good investment.
On Monday, the Trump Justice Department ended a federal antitrust lawsuit against the concert behemoth, allowing it to hang on to Ticketmaster and the hundreds of concert venues that make up its stranglehold on America’s live music market.
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The mid-trial settlement blindsided the 39 states and the District of Columbia that had joined as co-plaintiffs and infuriated the federal judge overseeing the case. It’s likely to infuriate the fans, too, as they continue to see massive Ticketmaster surcharges — service fees, platinum fees, per-order fees, payment processing fees, facility fees, magical money-sh*tting unicorn fees — on top of already sky-high ticket prices.
And the pain may be just beginning. In September, Live Nation’s CEO Michael Rapino said “the concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.”
Monopoly money
It’s hard to believe that concert ticket sales used to be a service that venues paid a nominal fee to offload to vendors. Today venues and vendors, along with artists and fans, are cogs in what Live Nation describes internally as its “flywheel.”
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Live Nation is a classic vertical monopoly: a single entity that comprises virtually every link in the supply chain. It owns the venues, controlling at least 460, including more than 60 of the top 100 amphitheaters in the US, according to the New York Times. It controls the artists, with more than 300 of the top acts under its management. And it sells roughly 80 percent of tickets at major concert venues, particularly the arenas and outdoor amphitheaters that matter most for national tours. All of this has made it spectacularly profitable, with 2025 revenues up nine percent, to $25.2 billion.
The anticompetitive conduct that maintains this flywheel is no