Live Nation Australasia’s Michael Coppel defends ticketing practices at music industry inquiry

Michael Coppel, Chairman of Live Nation Australasia, has shared insights into the controversial practice of dynamic ticket pricing, while defending the company against “misguided statements” in recent “adverse media coverage”.

Coppel, whose company was acquired by USA-based Live Nation Entertainment in 2012 (maintaining a 20% stake in the Australasian business) appeared before the Parliamentary inquiry into the Australian live music industry in Canberra on Monday.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, Coppel presented his view on dynamic ticket pricing as being a necessary response to unauthorised secondary sales and scalping.

He advised “the music industry has a very threatening trend, and that is the secondary ticketing market and the scalping market.

“There is a very substantial outside industry that ... uses bots and other illicit means to acquire tickets to in-demand performances and sell them at a very inflated mark-up. And none of that money comes back into the industry. There’s no investment, there’s no risk-taking, there’s purely arbitrage.”

He noted that ‘dynamic ticket pricing’ was a misnomer because prices were not determined by an algorithm responding to demand, as with Uber’s surge pricing.

He added “we speak to the artist before every tour and say, ‘We think this will be a high-demand performance. Do you want to consider setting aside a percentage of the house (seats) at a higher price that we can release if the demand turns out to be there, but that will capture some of the value that will otherwise go to scalpers?’

Live Nation’s practices in Australian have been under particular scrutiny over recent years as the live music sector has struggled after the pandemic amid cost-of-living crises.

A recent ABC Four Corners report recently accused the company of charging consumers hidden fees, “robbing” artists and “misusing” its market power.

Welcoming Coppel to the hearing, Committee Chair Brian Mitchell stated “we wanted to hear from Live Nation … you’ve come up a fair bit throughout the inquiry, both good and bad.”

Live Nation’s most recent annual report states its intention to “grow the volume of secondary tickets sold”.

Asked what the company was doing to promote emerging Australian artists, Coppel referenced its Ones to Watch initiative, in which the company claims it has “promoted over 900 shows for developing artists” in smaller venues (below 1500 capacity) since 2016.

Images: Michael Coppel (top) and Live Nation's  Warehouse Project (below).