AEG / Live Nation Now Coming for Music’s Mid-Sized Independent Venues

In 2017, a small company called Beaty Capital Group had an ambitious idea. In order to save some of the historic Masonic halls throughout the Midwest, they would begin buying these properties up, restoring them, and making them into live music venues. The concept took shape under the company name Temple Live.

Their first purchase was of a temple in Fort Smith, Arkansas originally built in 1928, and added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1992. With an 1,100-capacity auditorium, it was the perfect mid-sized venue for the Arkansas town that needed one, and would make sure the historic building would not be subject to the wrecking ball.

Subsequently, similar historic Masonic temples were purchased in Cleveland, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Wichita, Kansas, and Peoria, Illinois. The Masonic Lodge in Columbus called The Athenaeum was built in 1899. The Masonic Auditorium on Euclid Ave. in Cleveland was originally purchased by Temple Live for $725,000, and they subsequently spent some $14 million renovating it, speaking to the commitment the company put into the project.

Over time, these concert venues became beloved and vital to both touring acts coming to town who might not stop if it weren’t for these mid-sized venues, and by locals who previously would complain how these acts would never stop in their town. But all that fell apart starting in early September when Temple Live venues shuttered with little notice, leaving bands scheduled to play in a lurch, and the future of these historic buildings uncertain.

“We determined it was best to be definitive so the decision was made to pull down the remaining shows,” said Lance Beaty, CEO of Beaty Capital Group. He blamed multiple factors for the company’s struggles, including lingering issues from the COVID-19 pandemic, and ticketing systems that disfavor independent promoters.

“We are simply an outsider in an insider’s business. No matter how much money you throw at it or how creative you think you are, if you’re not on the inside, you’re not in.”

This is the story many independent venue owners and promoters are telling all across the United States, and it’s about to get much worse. As Saving Country Music chronicled in August, important independent venues are shutting down left and right, from the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California, to Duke’s in Indianapolis, to the Coupland Dancehall in Texas (update pending).

Meanwhile, one of the catalysts for the catastrophic implosion in mid-sized independent venue ownership in the United States is about to make matters much worse. Live Nation has decided they’re investing some $1 billion in small clubs, mid-sized venues, and larger venues in 18 mid-sized markets across the United States. This means the company that already dominates much of live touring and venue booking in major cities is coming for other markets as well.

Some of the markets Live Nation says they’re coming to are:

Allentown, PA – Atlanta, GA – Birmingham, AL – Denver, CO – Indianapolis, IN – Memphis, TN – Milwaukee, WI – Nashville, TN – Orlando, FL – Portland, ME – Portland, OR – Pittsburgh, PA – Raleigh, NC – Richmond, VA – Riverside, MO – Seattle, WA – Shakopee, MN – Virginia Beach, VA

And LiveNation is not alone. America’s second-largest concert promoter, AEG, is enacting a similar strategy to corner the mid-sized market. This includes Nashville’s newest venue The Pinnacle (4,500 capacity), Atlanta’s The Eastern (2,300 capacity), Boston’s Roadrunner (3,500 capacity), Brooklyn’s Brooklyn Steel (1,800 capacity), and Denver’s Mission Ballroom (4,000 capacity).

Just this week, AEG revealed the architectural renderings, and broke ground for the new 4,000-capacity indoor entertainment venue they have planned for Austin, TX opening in early 2027 on Riverside Drive east of downtown, near where the rock venue Emo’s relocated.

“This new venue is designed to complement the mix of legendary and iconic venues that already exist in Austin,” vice president of AEG Presents Southwest Robin Phillips said. “We’re not here to compete with Austin’s music legacy. We’re here to honor it, and in doing so, create a stage for even more voices, more stories, and more sound.”

But the question for many of Austin’s small to mid-sized venues is if this will truly be the case. There are already concerns over so many venues competing for the same amount of consumer dollars in Austin, and contraction in music venues, including legendary ones serving music communities that often become a diaspora when the venue shuts down. Meanwhile these Live Nation and AEG-owned venues continue to try and increase ticket prices to the point where live music is quickly becoming a luxury item unattainable by average fans.

Live Nation CEO recently sparked off a firestorm by saying at CNBC’s Game Plan conference in Los Angeles, “Music has been underappreciated. In sports, I joke it’s like a badge of honor to spend 70 grand for a Knicks courtside [seat]. They beat me up if we charge $800 for Beyoncé. We have a lot of runway left. So when you read about ticket prices going up, the average concert price is still $72. Try going to a Lakers game for that, and there’s 80 of them. The concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.”

And it’s not just the venue ownership and the ticket prices that these large companies are using to control the market. It’s the ticketing companies themselves, facilitated in part by the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly. Ticketing is one way to squeeze out independent and regional competitors. Lance Beaty of Temple Live specifically cites the inability for independent promoters to access big ticketing systems as one of the reasons they were forced to shut down.

As new mid-sized venues controlled by big live music corporations are erected, historic ones operated by independent companies are shutting down. And it’s often these more independent venues who are willing to give more opportunities to local performers, to attempt to keep prices more affordable for their communities, and to give back to the communities where they’re located because they’re operated by people who live there.

Music was already facing challenges with the gulf between the have’s and the have not’s putting pressure the musical middle class. Now the small and mid-sized venues, markets, and artists that do exist are being targeted by the biggest music promotion companies in music to bring them under their sphere of influence as well.

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