In an announcement that surprises... um... NO ONE...The UK Antitrust Body announced today that the Ticketmaster/LiveNation merger would stifle competition in Europe's concert and ticket market, and suggested alternatives that basically force the two to work separately. Thank. The. LORD! my question is: why has this situation proceeded as far as this? Why is the FTC still wavering on this and debating??
I'm sorry, but this situation just makes me so angry. Anyone can look around their city and see that nearly ALL the venues are ruled by LiveNation, which means indie bands can only get into a handful of small venues, many of which are just bars with a stage. There's no branding or genre-specific indie venues, which means getting repeat customers is difficult. In this economy, people will only spend money on luxury items like concerts tickets if they know what they're going to get; do you think teens and 20-somethings are going to take a risk on a band they haven't heard if that venue serves every genre? But I digress.
The point is, the music industry is imploding from the inside out, and the only way it can carry only successfully to the next generation is too allow the next generation (i.e. new/baby/indie acts) to thrive. They need access to venues and they need people at shows. No money = no equipment, no play. It's not rocket science.
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