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Misha Ovcharenko, Founder @ SeatLock, on antitrust, dynamic pricing, creator economics, and what the live events industry gets wrong about demand.
In May 2024, the DOJ and 30 state attorneys general filed the largest antitrust case in live entertainment history. The allegations are right. Whether the remedy will actually restructure the market is a different question.
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Drip pricing, the practice of advertising one number and revealing the real cost only at checkout, has been standard ticketing for years. The FTC's 2024 junk fees report named it explicitly. The fix is simpler than the industry pretends.
When Oasis reunion tickets went on sale in August 2024, Ticketmaster's algorithm turned a £150 standing ticket into £390 in real time. The CMA investigated. The actual problem is older and simpler than the algorithm.
The Eras Tour was the highest-grossing concert tour in history. It also had no dynamic pricing on the primary market. Those two facts are not unrelated.
The House passed the TICKET Act with a 409-15 vote, requiring all-in pricing transparency across the ticketing industry. In a body that can barely agree on procedural votes, that margin is worth examining.
Pitchfork is gone. Coachella sold fewer tickets. Mid-tier festivals are collapsing after deposits are taken. The economics were always fragile, and this is the year the fragility became undeniable.
Small and mid-sized music venues are closing at an alarming rate in the US and UK. The economic pressure is real. But it sits downstream of a demand problem nobody has built a tool to solve.
MrBeast events sell out. Kai Cenat caused a riot. Creator-led live experiences operate by different rules than traditional touring, and the difference isn't about fame or scale.
The top of the live events industry is growing. Below the amphitheater level, the economics have gotten worse. The $23 billion number describes a very small slice of what the live music industry really is.
In 2024, more than 250 working musicians signed an open letter to Congress in support of the Fans First Act. The ask is specific. The signatories have skin in the game.
