Why Competition Is the Missing Act in the Concert Ticket Market
In a new Detroit News column, Northwood University Professor Brett M. Decker examines how Ticketmaster’s dominance has contributed to soaring prices, excessive fees and fewer choices for concertgoers.
Why does a night out at a concert increasingly feel like a down payment on a car?
Professor Brett M. Decker, Northwood University’s Endowed Chair of Leadership, explores that question in a new column published by The Detroit News. He argues that the frustrating experience of purchasing concert tickets reflects a market that is no longer functioning as a genuinely competitive one.
Fans searching for tickets often encounter rapidly changing prices, substantial fees and limited purchasing options. Behind those frustrations, Decker writes, is the dominant position held by Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, across several parts of the live-entertainment industry.
The consequences extend beyond the amount consumers pay. When one company exercises significant influence over ticketing, concert promotion and venues, competitors face greater barriers to entering the market, while artists, independent venues and fans have fewer meaningful alternatives.
Decker, a New York Times bestselling author who previously served as an editor and editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal, calls on Congress to address the structural problems that have allowed this concentration of power to persist. Rather than attempting to manage every ticket price from Washington, policymakers should establish conditions in which competitors can enter the marketplace, challenge dominant firms and give consumers real choices.
His argument illustrates an important distinction: Supporting free enterprise does not mean defending every outcome produced by a powerful corporation. A healthy free-enterprise system depends on open markets, fair competition and the freedom of consumers to take their business elsewhere.
Competition is an essential safeguard against concentrated economic power. Businesses should earn customers through value and service — not through a marketplace structured to leave consumers with nowhere else to go.
At America’s Free Enterprise University, students learn to examine public-policy questions by considering how incentives, institutions and individual choices shape economic outcomes. Decker’s column applies that perspective to an experience familiar to millions of Americans and asks what must change to place consumers, artists and entrepreneurs back at the center of the live-entertainment marketplace.
Read Professor Decker’s full column, “Ticketmaster has too much power. Congress should act.”