A parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s struggling live music sector has recommended the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission monitor the industry for anti-competitive conduct and urged a crackdown on “extreme dynamic pricing”.
The final report, Am I Ever Gonna See You Live Again, concluded consumer law should be amended to improve transparency in fee and charging practices for concert tickets, and stamp out “conduct that distorts, manipulates or undermines consumer choice, without necessarily being misleading or deceptive, such as practices that create an undue sense of urgency or scarcity”.
The almost year-long national inquiry heard from some witnesses who attributed the failing live music sector to a lack of competition and the business practice of vertical integration, where concert and festival production, venue, ticketing and resale ticketing is all controlled by a single parent company.
Collectively, US-based Live Nation (which owns Ticketmaster), TEG Live (which owns Ticketek) and AEG Frontier control about 90% of the major concert market in Australia, the inquiry found.
The independent concert promoter Supersonic Australasia gave evidence that the commissions and fees on ticket sales charged by Ticketek and Ticketmaster were typically double that of smaller independent ticketing companies, such as Oztix.
Giving evidence at the inquiry, Live Nation said that its Ticketmaster Australia and Live Nation Australian concert businesses were “completely separate entities” and argued that it was venues that determined which ticketing company to use, not the promoters who hired the venues.
In its evidence, TEG Live said most large venues in Australia were owned by state governments, and while carrying all the risk, the company typically received between just 10 and 15% of the profits.
Since Covid, about 1,300 live music venues have been lost and nightclub attendance is almost half pre-pandemic levels.
Only half of the country’s festivals have made profits in the post-Covid environment (with a median profit of $731,579) and about 35% lost money (with a median of a $470,000 loss), the inquiry found.
The live music sector formed a critical part of the country’s wider cultural and creative industries, the inquiry found, contributing $21.8bn to the national GDP.
Rising insurance premiums, unpredictable weather and ticket sales, and new technology – including algorithms used by platforms such as Spotify – had all affected the sector.
One venue’s public liability insurance increased from $10,000 to $60,000 in one year, the inquiry heard, while the Laneway festival told the committee its cancellation insurance has increased by 280% in four years.
The cost of policing also had a “debilitating” impact on music festivals in some states.
While a festival in Melbourne might incur a $10,000 to $15,000 fee from Victoria police, it could cost up to $60,000 for the same festival in Brisbane, and up to $150,000 in Sydney.
The report recommended state and territory governments consider a reduction or abolition altogether of user-pays policing charges at music festivals.
Also among the report’s 20 recommendations was a consideration by Treasury to introduce a tax offset for the live music industry, similar to the way the film industry operates; the introduction of rebates or a voucher scheme to incentivise younger audiences to attend live music; and the addition of a small levy to the price of each ticket to large music events to support smaller venues and grassroots live music.
