The line from the companies is that they do not compete. Ticketmaster, Why, we just sell tickets. And Live Nation, Why, our dad had a barn, the neighbors wanted to play, we put on a few shows….

In reality, the two companies were directly competing in two ways. For the first, Live Nation, through its 360 deals with the likes of Jay-Z, Shakira, U2, Madonna and such, was moving decisively into the talent arena, leveraging its large influence over the U.S. concert industry.

Ticketmaster, for its part, had just merged with the industry’s biggest and most powerful management agency.

Both companies, in other words, were positioning themselves to be powerhouses in the music industry’s new post-label world.