This absence in providing optimal services and satisfaction to consumers can also be seen by Ticketmaster's resale market application, where scalpers -- who blocked genuine concert-goers in attending concerts -- are provided the platform to resell tickets at a higher price to these consumers. Essentially, Ticketmaster's dominance in the market have led them to conduct operations that are distasteful to consumers, such as its control of the resale market, where it still charges service fees for any tickets resold by private parties through its applications and websites (Hayes, 2022).
The presence of a monopolistic ticketing and live venue service can be detrimental to the state of the current live music industry and its performing artists. The Covid-19 pandemic that had ravaged the live music industry in the beginning of this decade has blocked the ability of performing artists to get the necessary income from touring (Ho, 2022). This impairment that exists in the live music industry doesn't only harm the entertainment industry, but also the economy in general.
Importance of Live Concerts and the Entertainment Industry to the Economy
According to the Tourism Consulting Team by Oxford Economics (2021), in the United States, the concerts and live entertainment industry generated direct business sales of $55.2 billion in 2019, indirect business sales of $34.7 billion in indirect business sales and $42.7 billion in induced business sale, cause a total economic impact of $132.6 billion. Furthermore, the live events industry generated a total fiscal impact of $17.5 billion in 2019, which also includes nearly $9.3 billion in federal tax revenues and $8.3 billion in state tax revenues.
Thus, the ticketing and music venue industry should be maintained fairly and competitively to make sure it doesn't harm the entertainment industry and to the economy, to an extent. An inefficient monopoly on the ticketing and music venues such as the likes of Ticketmaster can potentially decrease the generated sales of concerts and live entertainment industry, which also harms the economy as a whole.
End Game of the Live Music Industry
From this situation, it's best to break up the monopoly that Live Nation Entertainment has on the live music industry to ensure a competitive market where concert-goers can benefit more. This may be possible due to the recent investigations that have been picked up again after the Taylor Swift-Ticketmaster fiasco. In particular, Democratic senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have called for a federal antitrust investigation of Live Nation Entertainment.
`In conclusion, the inefficient and nonoptimal service by Ticketmaster can be attributed to the ticketing company's lack of incentive to continuously improve its products in an anti-competitive environment. This inefficiency doesn't only harm performing artists and concert-goers, but also to the entertainment industry and to the economy in general.
By Gopas Teofilus Silalahi | Economics 2021 | Staff Divisi Kajian Kanopi 2022
Bibliography
Bain, J. (2019). monopoly and competition | Definition, Structures, Performance, & Facts. In Encyclopdia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/monopoly-economics
Berthold Seliger. (2018, November 29). Monopoly in the Worldwide Concert Business. Mdw-Magazin. https://www.mdw.ac.at/magazin/index.php/2018/11/29/monopoly-im-weltweiten-konzertgeschaeft/?lang=en
Ederer, F. (2022, November 23). Did Ticketmaster's Market Dominance Fuel the Chaos for Swifties? Yale Insights. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/did-ticketmasters-market-dominance-fuel-the-chaos-for-swifties
Gotting, M. (2022, April 7). Live music industry revenue worldwide 2023. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096424/live-music-industry-revenue-worldwide/
