Oz industry figures hit out at Live Nation

A hard-hitting documentary on Live Nation’s role in the Australian music landscape has aired today, claiming the domestic industry is “under siege” and accusing the multinational firm of “sucking up profit and taking over the industry”.

In extensive interviews with Australian industry figures, ABC’s Music for Sale claimed that the vertical integration model of owning venues, booking agents, ticketing and promoting businesses was enabling Live Nation to control the live music industry at the expense of local players – an accusation strongly denied by the company in a statement.

Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett, who described himself as a ‘cultural patriot’ was scathing about Live Nation’s role in the country, saying: “I don’t think Live Nation care at all about Australian artists.”

“Spotify, Tik Tok, Live Nation, these are global entities and are not accountable in our country,” he added. “They are hardly regulated and are quite often unethical. They have no loyalty to Australia or to Australian artists at all and they are basically calling the shots. We were at Ground Zero and it’s never been harder for artists, particularly younger and mid-range artists coming through.”

Live Nation responded by saying that since 2016, it had promoted over 900 shows for developing artists in venues less than 1,500 pax capacity, reaching more than 556,000 fans.

“Our business thrives on nurturing the next generation of talent, and we offer programs like Ones to Watch to foster emerging artists,” a spokesperson said. “We recognize the vital role grassroots music venues play in discovering new talent and applaud efforts to support these spaces.”

Leading promoter Michael Chugg was bullish when asked how the entry of Live Nation into the Australian market had gone: “Well, they fucked it up.”

Referencing his long-term role as Coldplay’s Australian promoter, which came to an end with the emergence of a Live Nation global touring deal, he said: “I started with Coldplay in a 200-seat venue way back and we built together and we got it to stadiums. So Live Nation offered them a worldwide tour, and I know that Chris Martin didn’t want to leave us, but in the end Live Nation just kept adding millions and millions and in the end we lost the act.”

“We will continue to work hard to inform and engage with all of our stakeholders as an industry leader committed to the long-term success of the Australian music industry”

Mark Davyd, CEO of the UK’s Music Venues Trust, was interviewed by the programme about his campaign for a ticket levy on arena and stadium shows, following Coldplay’s recent announcement of a huge tie-up by donating 10% of the proceeds from their 2025 UK shows to MVT.

“It’s frankly disgraceful that the biggest companies in the music industry are prepared to see small venues that get them that talent closing down – they should be ashamed of that,” said Davyd.

“My advice to the Australian government would be don’t wait for these companies. There’s nothing evil or wrong about them inherently, but they are avaricious and the way to deal with that is to have a regulatory system in which they can operate to do that within certain limits and certain controls. Just letting them do it without any kind of controls just doesn’t work.”

The Australian Government’s Arts Minister, Tony Burke, claimed to be putting large companies ‘on notice’.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that we are heading down a pathway where these sorts of anti-competitive risks are go going to exist within the music sector, so I put down a very clear warning to the companies on that. Yes, you can buy different parts of a supply chain, that’s all true, but you can’t then use that in an anti-competitive way. And increasingly we are hearing those complaints from artists, from venues, from festivals.”

A spokesperson for Live Nation’s said: “In the last 12 months, 200 Australian artists earned in excess of $40 million in shows promoted by Live Nation – our investment into our country’s artists speaks volumes, and we will continue to do what we do best, which is connecting fans with the artists they love.” The company also released a full public response online to the various allegations made in the programme.

Evelyn Richardson, Chief Executive of Live Performance Australia, expressed strong views about the programme in a statement released after its airing.

“Any discussion about the state of Australia’s live music industry needs to be focused on the facts – something regrettably missing from the ABC ‘Four Corners’ program last night,” she said. “As the peak body for the live arts and entertainment industry, it’s disappointing that we weren’t approached for comment or data which could have led to a more informed story.”

“There’s no doubt some parts of the music industry are under real pressure, but to blame all of those problems on a single company is nonsensical and counter-productive to addressing the real issues at stake. Many of the challenges facing the Australian industry are being experienced globally.”

“LPA’s own analysis of ticket attendance and revenue for contemporary music concerts and festivals shows no single promoter had a dominant market share.”

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