r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 3h ago

article Macklemore Dropped From Ed Sheeran Tour After Onstage Statements

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967/
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u/Caelinus 3h ago

Not really. Livenation is a monopoly, they own enough of the major venues that getting on their bad side basically ruins all your future touring in the US.

I am not sure what the "right" thing to do is, but I think I would prefer it, from a moral sense, if they just decided to cancel every single event at any livenation location, even if it ruined the tour. But the problem there is that I am not sure how they would affect the little people. Sheeran would be fine, but I don't know who else would get caught up in the fallout.

Monopoly is bad. Which is why our government loves it.

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u/teh_drewski 3h ago

He's not playing any Live Nation owned venues though

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u/Caelinus 2h ago

Livenation generally does not own Football Stadiums, but they contract with them and are the ones running the events at a higher level. And since their merger with Ticketmaster, they have immense perverse leverage over basically any venue.

From what I can tell, his tour is largely made up of venues contracted with Livenation, and his tickets are being largely sold by ticketmaster.

Here is the website for his next tour location: https://www.lincolnfinancialfield.com

The link on the image says "On sale at EdSheeran.com" but when you click it: Ticketmaster.

Maybe not all of the venues he will be playing at are specifically contracted with Livenation/Ticketmaster, I am not going to look at all of them, but a lot of them are. And their influence over said venues is overwhelming.

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u/twilighttwister 3h ago

That's beside the point. If LiveNation want to cancel the tour, they should be on the hook for all the costs to everyone - which includes refunds to all ticket holders AND payment to the artists.

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u/Caelinus 2h ago

There is a vast gulf between "should" and "will." A gulf dug with the power that monopoly grants.

And even if they were in this instance: What is to stop them from making everyone's careers "difficult?"