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I don't want to live in a country where rooms like mine no longer survive. This is Crowbar. For nearly two decades, it's been a staple of the music scene in Ybor City, a neighborhood in Tampa, Florida. But this summer, the lights went out for good. About eight blocks away, a new venue has been proposed by Live Nation. It's bigger, it's flashier, and some venue owners say it's designed to swallow the competition whole. For Crowbar's owner, Tom DeGeorge, this isn't just about one club going dark. It's a fight for the future of live music. If we don't make these changes, if the government doesn't act and this continues in this way, and these small rooms keep closing, the entire industry is going to crumble.
The potential for a monopoly to control what you see, where you see it and how much you pay is why those in independent music think the industry is running out of time. As far as small independent venues, we are the standard in Tampa. But the business DeGeorge built sits inside an industry that's now dominated by one company. Ticketmaster controls more than 80% of the market for primary ticket sales for the biggest venues in the US. In 2010, Live Nation, which is the US's largest concert promoter, merged with Ticketmaster, which is the US's largest ticketing company. There was a lot of concern that one half of the business would be used to advantage the other half of the business.
The Justice Department did a lengthy investigation but then they agreed to a settlement. The settlement lasted for ten years. And then at year nine, the Justice Department, then under Trump, during his first administration, announced that they were going to amend the settlement because they had found multiple violations of the agreement. There are a lot of businesses that are actually connected to Live Nation. It also owns hundreds of venues across the United States. Is Live Nation and Ticketmaster entering into exclusive agreements with so many big venues that they're basically blocking out smaller rivals who can no longer contract with those venues
because they're exclusive to Ticketmaster? They're in every piece of the pie. Ticketing, the show, artist management, vending, sponsorship, you name it. You have inflation, development, rising city costs. Then you add in Live Nation. As an independent operator, I can't possibly do that. So I can't compete with that. For a small venue, monopoly power does not have to arrive as one blow. It can show up as a thinner margin, one show at a time. If you have 300 shows a year that 30 or 40 people were missing from every one of those shows. That adds up to about $250,000 a year in loss.
A missed ticket is also a missed drink, a missed shirt and a missed chance to keep the lights on. In 2023, Live Nation again received scrutiny for what would become the highest-grossing tour in history. The Taylor Swift Eras tour was a big breaking point in the Ticketmaster story. Her fans are super excited. They log in to the Ticketmaster website to try and buy tickets, and it is an absolute disaster. 1,974. It's not you, it's us, we're unable to. And this social media meltdown points to another criticism of monopolies.
Without much competition, companies can face less pressure to keep improving. That can mean less investment in the technology customers rely on. What some of the allegations are here is that Ticketmaster has not really upgraded its technology significantly since it has taken over. So many people were completely furious that it ended up leading to congressional action. In 2024, the Justice Department under President Joe Biden and a group of state attorneys general sued Live Nation for monopolizing live events. But in 2026, one week into the trial, the Trump administration announced a surprise settlement.
Many states continued the same case without the DOJ on board. The trial went on, and in April, the jury delivered its verdict. A jury in New York federal court found that Live Nation violated US antitrust law. The state attorneys general maintained that the only way to fix the problems is to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Many states are now also seeking information on the DOJ settlement after it was disclosed Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino met with President Donald Trump in the weeks before the deal was reached.
Live Nation said it didn't seek Trump's intervention in the talks, and that any suggestion the settlement was the result of political interference is inaccurate. Mr. Tom DeGeorge is the owner of the Crowbar. Crowbar and every independent venue is dealing with trying to survive as independents in markets dominated by corporate giants. Live Nation immediately said after the verdict that they plan to appeal, that they don't believe that they have done anything wrong.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster don't directly compete. They're sort of two businesses that are vertically integrated and there's not a lot of law on vertical mergers. This is a sort of big debate in antitrust and corporate world. The US hasn't broken up a company from a court-ordered breakup since AT&T in the 1980s. Live Nation is proposing to build a new venue in Ybor City. Right down the street from where Crowbar was. The way that Live Nation tends to design its venues is that it can close off one floor. So it really would compete
more directly with smaller venues in the area. You don't experience Live Nation with like one knockout punch. It's over time. If we don't make these changes, and these small rooms keep closing, the entire industry is going to crumble. My story is everybody's story. There's people, all over the country that are going through the exact same thing I am. This is not the end, one door closes a thousand will open. A breakup would not guarantee cheap tickets or save every club, but it could change who gets to compete. If people don't have an opportunity to play, they don't have an opportunity to like make that sound heard.
Everybody ends up hearing the same thing. For there to be more competition there, there would just be a lot more choice. A federal judge still has to rule on whether Live Nation will be severed from Ticketmaster, with an outcome to the litigation not likely for years. But for these community staples, the question already feels urgent. What will it take for local music venues to survive Live Nation?
I can't hear you, baby!
