The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) should launch a full market investigation into the live music industry before the end of 2026, says the Commons Business and Trade Committee in new report.
The Committee concludes that for Live Nation, and possibly wider in the live music market, there are concerns against all three of the CMA factors for determining market dominance.
After a public outcry in 2024 over the way Oasis reunion concert tickets had been marketed, a CMA investigation found that Ticketmaster had misled consumers and used unclear ticketing practices.
Ticketmaster initially refused to subject themselves to public scrutiny by the Committee but ultimately appeared in Parliament in February 2025, returning with their parent company Live Nation in June 2025.
The Committee was left with serious concerns about the state of competition in the live music industry in the UK.
Live Nation Executive President Phil Bowdery explained away the company’s large market share in arenas and stadia, saying “we are very good at what we do. Therefore, there is interest from the major artists to be with Live Nation.” But evidence submitted to this inquiry suggests an alternative explanation for Live Nation’s dominant position.
A call for written evidence elicited 45 submissions, with a significant proportion requesting to submit anonymously or confidentially for fear of reprisal: in itself this triggered alarm about whether Live Nation has a dominant and controlling market position, and the climate of fear this may have created in the industry.Concerns
Concerns raised in evidence include:
- The scale and integrated nature of Live Nation’s business model make it difficult for artists and managers to operate independently of its ecosystem.
- This can begin right at the point of artist entry into the industry from grassroots level, with concentration at arena, stadium and major festival level reduce opportunities for independent promoters and venues to access and scale artists through the wider touring circuit.
- The same problems are reported by smaller and independent festivals who find access to talent increasingly challenging.
- The lack of uptake of an industry led levy on arena and stadium tickets to support the grassroots sector – as suggested in 2024 by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee and endorsed by Government – has been widely attributed to Live Nation not implementing the levy.
- Live Nation uses long-term agreements with restrictive exclusivity terms that make access to its venues contingent on participation in its festivals (or vice versa), incentivising artists to consolidate touring arrangements with the company and reducing opportunities for competing promoters and events.
- Independent promoters alleged that venues owned or controlled by Live Nation favour in-house promotion businesses and integrated ticketing arrangements impeding competition.
- In primary ticketing, Live Nation directly controlled 58% of the 23.1 million tickets on sale in 2025, increasing to 66% if sales controlled by its affiliate companies are included.
- In secondary ticketing, the Committee received evidence indicating the restriction of resale activity to Ticketmaster’s own resale platform.
- This control of ticketing infrastructure – some evidence alleged that even where third-party ticket agents participate in sales, they are required to integrate their systems with Ticketmaster’s – allows the company to retain customer data even from competitors, which can then be leveraged across promotion, marketing and event operations.
Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Britain’s live music scene is one of our great national success stories, from grassroots venues nurturing new talent to world-class arena and stadium tours that attract global audiences.
“But the evidence we received during this inquiry points to deep concerns about whether competition in the industry is now working fairly for fans, artists, venues and independent promoters.
“What particularly alarmed the Committee was not just the scale of Live Nation’s market position across promotion, venues and ticketing, but the climate of fear we encountered during this inquiry.
“A striking number of submissions requested anonymity because people were worried about the consequences of speaking openly. That alone raises profound questions about the health of competition in the market.
“The CMA should now launch a full market investigation, before the end of this year, so there can be proper scrutiny of whether consumers, artists and independent businesses are getting a fair deal.”
