Franz Nicolay, the keyboardist for indie rock band The Hold Steady, appeared before Congress on Monday (May 18th) to testify about the Live Nation Entertainment monopoly. All of this started in 2024 when Joe Biden’s Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster. The DOJ accused the company of unlawful practices, such as allegedly pressuring venues and artists to use only its services, to maintain a dominant position in the industry and raise ticket prices.

Earlier this year, in March, the DOJ, now under Donald Trump, reached a surprise settlement with Live Nation/Ticketmaster. The settlement ultimately avoided the company’s separation. About a month later, in April, a federal court in Manhattan found that Live Nation/Ticketmaster was operating as a monopoly in the ticketing market in a separate lawsuit brought on by various states.

​Democratic lawmakers held a forum on Monday to discuss everything that had transpired up to this point – the settlement and the verdict – which was led by Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who has a history with the live music industry. His opening remarks included a criticism of the earlier settlement and a detailed history of the way the company behaved as a monopoly, as reported in Stereogum.

Later in the forum, Congress heard from Nicolay. The keyboardist said that to fans, artists are the “face of ticket sales.”

“So if concert tickets sell out in seconds and instantly appear on secondary markets for five times the price, or if mysterious fees add 20 or 30% at checkout, they can’t complain to Ticketmaster,” he said. “They come to our Facebook page. So, business practices we can’t control hurt our crucial relationship with our fan community.

He also said that live music should be a healthy competitive market with a variety of ticketing, venue, and promotion options for fans, but that it hasn’t been. Instead, it’s been the “epitome of the kind of monopolistic power that antitrust law was created to address.”

Nicolay also made a number of requests, some of which were a demand for fee transparency and a hope for a Live Nation and Ticketmaster breakup. He said, “We simply want to be able to retain and manage the relationship between musician and audience without the influence of extractive corporate power.”