Indie festivals want Live Nation’s dominance in UK investigated

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) is urging the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate Live Nation’s increasing dominance of the UK’s live music sector.

The call comes as the CMA looks into Live Nation’s plan to buy out the legendary Isle of Wight Festival.

The AIF says if successful, this would bring Live Nation control almost 25% of UK festivals over a 5,000 capacity.

AIF data suggests that Live Nation owns outright or mostly, a 23% share of festivals as Creamfields, Parklife, Download, V Festival, Reading/Leeds and Lovebox.’’

“On this basis, Live Nation are already almost three times bigger than their closest competitor (Global), who control an 8% share of the UK festival market according to the data,” says AIF in a statement.

“Their proposed acquisition of the Isle of Wight Festival, currently under investigation by the Competition & Markets Authority, would see the corporation step closer to 25%.

“In total, Live Nation now controls 28 UK festivals, including 8 of the UK’s 9 largest outdoor events.”

A full breakdown of the AIF’s research can be found here.

AIF warns of “profound and serious consequences” around Live Nation’s vertically integrated model and asks CMA to widen its investigation beyond the Isle of Wight deal.

It further cautions that Live Nation plans to expand its reseller platforms and already controls 500 artists by buying out their management companies.

“For the sake of its future health and diversity it is vital that the UK’s live music sector remains open and competitive,”AIF General Manager Paul Reed commented.

“We continually need new artists to break through, and entrepreneurs to launch fresh and exciting events.

“The live music sector is fiercely competitive, but data we have published today rings several alarm bells – highlighting that a single transnational corporation is fast-headed towards widespread dominance.

“For independent festival operators, a Live Nation monopoly would quite simply be a stranglehold with profound and serious consequences.

“The complaint we hear privately from a growing number of AIF members is about the collateral damage caused by the imposition of hugely restrictive exclusivity deals.

“By their nature, these deals are anti-competitive, restraining when and where even the smallest artist can perform and significantly diminishing the pool of talent that non-Live Nation promoters can draw upon.

“On this basis, we have urged the CMA to extend their investigations beyond acquisition of The Isle of Wight Festival and into Live Nation’s position in the market overall.”

Live Nation has not responded to AIF’s comments.