Why Live Nation Buying C3 Would Be The Worst Thing Ever
I’m sure if you’re a music fan no matter what your stripes, you’ve probably heard of Live Nation. It’s the monolith, gargantuan ruler of live music in America, that now with their ownership of Ticketmaster and many of the big and mid-sized venues all across the United States, they pretty much constitute a monopoly of the live music dollar, at least when it comes to mainstream concerts and acts. I would call it the Wal-Mart of live music, but even this analogy would not do justice to the degree of Live Nation’s power over live music.
But you have probably not heard of C3, unless you live in Austin, TX where the company is based, or work deeply embedded in the music industry. To simplify it, consider C3 like the Live Nation of independent music, especially for the Austin music scene, but with a national and international reach. It is owned by three guys whose first names all start with ‘C’, and since it’s inception in 2007 it has become one of the fastest-growing live promoters in all of music, and it has grown into the largest promoter of independent music.
Some of C3’s most recognizable accomplishments and conquests include the huge ACL Fest in Austin, and Lollapalooza in Chicago. They also own the Orion festival in Atlantic City, the CounterPoint festival in Georgia, LouFest in St. Louis, and the Big Day Out festival in Australia. C3 also has Lollapalooza fests in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, and is looking to expand to Canada and Europe soon. Yes, this is no mom and pop operation.
C3 does so much more in the independent music space though than just throw festivals, especially around Austin. In Austin they own many of the city’s most important venues, including La Zona Rosa, Emo’s, and Stubb’s. For many of Austin’s other important venues, they do a lot of the booking and promotion. C3 also engages in artist management and booking for many of the favorite artists of independent music fans through offices in Austin and New York. They help book the music for Austin City Limits. C3 books the music at the House of Blues venues, which incidentally are owned by Live Nation. And like Live Nation, C3 has their own ticketing company called Front Gate Ticketing. All told, C3 pulled in $124 million dollars from more than 800 shows and sold 2,025,002 tickets in 2013. So yeah, C3 is massive in the independent music space, and has drawn criticism from some for using the same strong-armed tactics Live Nation does because of their size, only on a micro, independent scale.
Now consider the smarmy, unsettling idea of Live Nation coming in and gaining majority control of all of these C3 assets in one fell swoop. Well that may be what’s in the works according to a report from The New York Times.
According to multiple unnamed sources, Live Nation is currently negotiating a deal with C3 to purchase 51% of the company for around $125 million. Of course, both companies are declining to comment, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The two companies have very close ties beyond their work with House of Blues, and rumors of mergers and acquisitions have swirled around the two companies before, but nothing this solid. Charlie Walker—one of the three C’s of C3—is a former Live Nation executive.
Live Nation has a revenue base of about 5.38 billion dollars a year, and over $5 billion in assets. Buying C3 would immediately make the mega promoter the biggest player in not just live mainstream music, but live independent music, with little to no competition that could muster a fight. Will it happen? How much autonomy with C3 have? Will C3 even still exist or just be incorporated into Live Nation? Time will tell, and no telling what regulators will do as they’ve made a habit of looking the other way in deals such as this. But overall, it’s hard to see how Live Nation getting into the independent music business and a further drying up of competition could be good for independent music consumers.
October 7, 2014 @ 4:23 pm
I am a bit confused about the extent to which live music companies such as Live Nation are vertically integrated. Do they control a significant number of venues, or do they simply serve as middlemen in selling tickets?
If it is the latter, then I would not worry much since ticket vending ability is not a limited resource. However, monopolistic control over actual venues would be a real problem.
October 7, 2014 @ 4:53 pm
Live Nation is way, way more than Ticketmaster. They own multiple venues in pretty much every major market in the country, including large amphitheaters and big clubs like the House of Blues. If there’s an amphitheater where you can see music in your town, meaning a large covered bowl of seats with open lawn seating beyond, there’s a damn good bet it is owned by Live Nation. Pretty much every single major country music tour is promoted and booked by Live Nation. Taylor Swift being the one exception (though she’s not country anymore). And that pretty much goes for any major music act who regularly plays amphitheater-sized venues.
October 7, 2014 @ 11:09 pm
Wow!
I hope this isn’t true for the Concord Pavilion my Uncle built that with Frank Gehry and he loathed giant corporations and monopolies. Should should see the list of acts he had come through before his retirement.
Sure it went down hill after the expansion and calling it the Sleep Train Pavilion but I HATE Livenation SO much. The want to add a ten dollar charge to a thirty dollar ticket at the Fillmore in SF. FU! I know people who the charge makes them unable to afford a ticket. Thankfully, it is not out of my way to go to the box office directly. But for many people it is or there is no box office for certain venues. How is this NOT a scam? 10 for what S&H get out of here!
October 7, 2014 @ 4:35 pm
Well how about comcast buys live nation, then we can get ALL our entertainment and the means of how we recieve said entertainment from one trusted source.
October 7, 2014 @ 4:58 pm
I don’t think this is too far off by any stretch. I could see massive media mergers of this size happening in the next half-decade, especially in the music business. Under the guise that they must consolidate to survive, they will merge and merge until there’s one single entertainment entity that serves the mainstream 90% of their entertainment content. Live Nation merging with Comcast, why not? Comcast merging with iHeartMedia (Clear Channel)? Sure. Live Nation merging with iHeartMedia? I’d wouldn’t be surprised if this is proposed in the next 18 months. Gotta optimize those synergies.
The scary part about this C3 business is now it is reaching very deeply into the independent realm of music—somewhere that previously was insulated from the control of huge corporations like Live Nation.
October 7, 2014 @ 10:08 pm
This sucks, so long independent promoters tehy just made a hard job damn near impossible. The booking agents will whore out their artists to C3/live nation more than they already do. So if you as an independent want to book a bigger independent name like a Fowler or a RRB good luck with that. God help us if they end up with Billy Bobs Gruene Hall and Luckenbach . This truly makes me sick. Inevitable perhaps but not good for the overall independent scene. This is a very sad development indeed.
October 7, 2014 @ 11:15 pm
They are also trying to take over the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The Greek has been operated by Nederlander for a long time. The more power Live Nation/Ticketmaster get, the closer they move to a monopoly. They should never have be allowed to merge – but that’s how politics and money work.
October 8, 2014 @ 7:06 am
Good point NashGirl we have antitrust laws on the books why in the hell don’t we enforce them. This merger would be a monopoly no doubt. So much for Government for the people and by the people.
October 8, 2014 @ 3:43 am
Say hello to incredibly high ticket prices and shitty venues.
October 8, 2014 @ 8:37 am
Looks like those of us who want to hear undiluted, non-corporatised music will have to go back to where it all began, our back porches.