Live Nation and its former chairman, veteran music mogul Irving Azoff, are quietly tightening their grip on Dead & Company’s lucrative Las Vegas shows amid growing federal antitrust pressure, The Washington Post has learned.
Live Nation, which was sued last month by the Justice Department for allegedly profiting from an illegal monopoly on live entertainment, inked a deal in January with Grateful Dead offshoot band and billionaire James Dolan’s Las Vegas Sphere to promote 24 permanent shows, which has since been extended for six more.
Live Nation and its Ticketmaster division are promoting and selling tickets for the smash-hit band, which also features superstar guitarist John Mayer and legendary Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart. In addition, Live Nation is selling travel packages through Bybee, a hotel-booking and VIP business unit it launched last year.
The Live Nation-Ticketmaster-Bybee tri-packaging, which the company has also used for U2 and Phish residencies at the Sphere in recent months, is the latest attack the Justice Department has slammed as anti-competitive, with critics saying in the sharp lawsuit that Live Nation’s various businesses are “collaborating across the ecosystem” to squeeze out rivals.
But sources say Azov’s aggressive approach to pushing out smaller vendors in the Dead & Company case has particularly angered them.
Azoff, who is co-manager of Dead & Company and co-founder of Oak View Group, which advises Dolan’s Sphere Arena on sponsorship matters, made it clear to the band over the winter that they needed to hire Vibee instead of 100X Hospitality, sources told The Post.
Sources said the latter is a small company that has sold all of the band’s VIP and hotel packages since the band formed in 2015.
“It’s understandable that people might interpret this as a power struggle and think that I lost,” 100X CEO Daniel Berkowitz told The Washington Post.
The timing of the Vibee deal seems especially bold, sources said, coming just a year after the Department of Justice’s Live Nation investigation gained new momentum after a botched ticket distribution for Taylor Swift’s Erasu Tour led to complaints about hours-long lines and exorbitant fees for online purchases.
According to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation, 100X was fired despite an eight-year relationship with Live Nation that included hundreds of shows.
“Everything feels like a family in the Dead world, but at the end of the day it’s not a musical family, it’s the music business,” Berkowitz added.
He added that he understands the current situation and that “everything Irving does is in the best interests of his clients.”
However, Lee Hepner, an attorney with the nonprofit Project on American Economic Freedom, which filed a brief in the Justice Department’s Live Nation investigation, said the power play could be fodder for the department.
Federal investigators’ complaint does not mention Bybee but does mention Live Nation’s close ties to Oak View Group, the venue management company that Azoff co-founded in 2015, three years after he stepped down as Live Nation’s chairman.
Federal authorities say Live Nation and Oak View have informally agreed not to compete in each other’s niche markets.
Rather, the Justice Department alleges the two conspired to steer business toward each other and block other, usually smaller, companies from encroaching into their turf.
“Oak View Group currently acts as an agent of Live Nation, a self-described ‘pimp’ and ‘hammer,’ often exerting influence over venues and artists for Live Nation’s benefit,” the Department of Justice alleged in the complaint.
In the case of 100X, Dead & Company resisted multiple attempts by Azoff to replace Berkowitz and his company on past tours, eventually agreeing to be replaced for the Las Vegas Sphere show, two sources said.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Oak View declined to comment for this article.
Azoff and Live Nation did not return calls seeking comment.
Hepner said regulators don’t typically investigate individuals who engage in anti-competitive conduct, but Live Nation’s case is a different matter.
“This is exactly the type of behavior that got Live Nation into trouble in the first place,” Hepner told The Post.
Bybee’s hospitality business, which also includes special access to bands, could be lucrative, especially in a place like Las Vegas.
A Dead & Company bundle sold by Vibee a few months ago was priced at $2,834.54 per person, a package for the May 24th, 25th and 26th shows that included three nights’ accommodations in a luxury king or two queen suite at The Venetian or the Palazzo Tower.
The package also included a luxury car transfer to the airport. According to the Vibee website:.
Sources say Dead & Company’s permanent show is just the latest example of Azoff cashing in from multiple revenue streams.
When Azoff advised Sphere to book U2 to kick off the venue’s grand opening with a permanent show in 2022, Dolan agreed to pay U2 a whopping $10 million for producing the sold-out Sphere shows, The Washington Post exclusively reported at the time.
A few days later, Azoff replaced Guy Oseary as U2’s manager, sources familiar with the matter said.
