The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has formally called for the breakup of Live Nation Entertainment.
The not-for-profit organisation expressed the view in a post shared on Instagram last week, which argued that the events giant’s combined market power was stifling competition and undermining smaller, independent promoters.
“Our data showed that Live Nation and affiliated companies control the majority of arena, stadium and outdoor concert tickets in 2025,” the AIF’s post read. “The UK monopoly threshold is 25 percent. Market dominance position is 40 percent. Live Nation control 66.4 percent.”
The post also used a case study of September’s events listings at Manchester venue Co-Op Live, revealing that 75 percent of the shows at the arena that month were controlled by Live Nation and asking: “Is this fair competition?”
The call by the AIF comes just months after the organisation assisted the UK Parliament’s Business and Trade Select Committee in providing data on Live Nation’s dominance of events in the UK. This information was put to Live Nation’s Phil Bowdery and Andrew Parsons during a hearing, but both pushed back against the figures.
“I do not see us as being dominant,” Bowdery said at the June hearing when asked about Live Nation’s market power. “We have a lot of competitors. It is a very low-margin business that we run. Globally, we are at about a 3 percent margin.”
Revisit tQ’s recent piece on how we can support grassroots music venues with a £1 ticket levy here.
