Live music has always been special, from the long-ago courts of faraway kings, to the endless crowds at Woodstock or Coachella, to the sweat-slicked weeknight shows at Naked Lounge in Chico.
But this isn’t the case everywhere with monopolistic conglomerates dominating ticket sales and rising operational costs; live music as an industry has been destabilized. The terrain of the music world has only gotten rougher for independent artists and venues.
After the COVID-19 pandemic shook the foundations of the music industry and the world began to open up again, the market landscape that emerged was vastly different from the one that had been left behind. The market shifted to favor high ticket prices for a more robust, larger-scale concert experience. A report from Pollstar in December 2024 demonstrates the “golden age” of the music industry that has emerged post-pandemic, with top touring artists raking in record-breaking revenue and attendance numbers.
While this seems like a good thing for the live music industry at large, it’s not so simple.
Mega corporations like Live Nation-Ticketmaster hold a strangling monopoly on ticket sales.
An article in The American Prospect reported that the conglomerate controls “80%of major concert venues’ primary ticketing.” Out of 100 major amphitheaters in the U.S., Live Nation has exclusive deals with 60.
This kind of market pressure has frenzied effects on ticket prices and sales, while monopoly control is decimating wages for both performers and venue workers.
According to Jacobin magazine, the legendary grunge band Pearl Jam tried to boycott Ticketmaster in 1994, aiming to keep its summer tour prices under $18. The band’s effort was ultimately unsuccessful. Pearl Jam was ultimately unable to tour independently from Ticketmaster and had to rely on the monopoly for future stadium tours. Although ultimately not fruitful, the boycott speaks to the long-standing animosity between touring artists and the company’s exploitative practices.
AP News reports that on April 15, a jury in D.C. found Live Nation-Ticketmaster guilty of holding an anti-competitive monopoly over large-scale concert venues.
Since 2024, both companies have been under investigation in the U.S. and the U.K. This decision is a step in the right direction and aims to diversify the industry’s market and allow venues greater autonomy in ticket sales.
If large-scale concerts and stadium tours are controlled by a reigning monopoly, where does the future of the live music community lie?
The truth is the rising cost of production, travel and a decline in local venues means that smaller artists are struggling. While the worldwide market for live music experience is heavily saturated at the moment, the large-scale operations, music festivals and transnational tours rake in most of the profit.
For most independent or smaller artists, a tour like that is out of reach; it’s the local scenes that they depend on. Many beloved venues have shut their doors in recent years in response to rising rent, operational costs and lower ticket sales. The Maltese, La Salles and The Winchester Goose are all nightlife destinations that have closed down in Chico since 2022.
This has dramatic effects on revenue for smaller operations. Stephen Parker of the National Independent Venue Association said in an NPR podcast, “64% of independent venues, promoters and festivals are not profitable.”
Despite these hostile market conditions, Chico is lucky enough to have a music scene that is kept alive by individuals and groups who are truly passionate. Most nights, you can find a show to go to, whether it be in one of the many music venues around town or in somebody’s backyard.
Younger audiences are keeping the dream alive for local venues. “They are hungry for live music and to be out in the scene,” said Jeff Shaner, member of the Blue Room Theater’s board of directors “Most of our best shows are put on by our bands with 16 to 20-year-old fans.”
Most of the shows at places like Naked Lounge are for charity, put on by groups like Sacramento Family, Unity, Education and Legal, a Northern California organization that raises funds for families in need of deportation representation.
Music is one of those rare elements of life that has the power to bring people together, despite the differences or distance between them. It’s been interconnected with society for as long as either has existed. As the world has changed, so has music. Extensively. All the time.
Three hundred years ago, the average person might only hear music occasionally; now everyone has their own on-demand soundtrack in their headphones.
But there’s something more to music than just listening to it; it’s not just a collection of sounds that can be conjured with the press of a button. Listening to music is an action, a practice and a physical, tangible way to connect a room full of people.
It’s things like this that make up the glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak, corporate-controlled tunnel.
Times are hard and change is happening rapidly all around the world, but one thing that tends to follow on the heels of adversity is art. As long as college towns like Chico have passionate people to fill them and empty stages to play on, they’ll continue to make music. At the end of the day, communities hold themselves up, and the fate of small-town music scenes is in the hands of the audience.
Support local bands, get out and go to shows. The scene is what we make it.
Caden Huntley can be reached at [email protected]
