Scumbag behavior from Live Nation? I’m shocked.
The embattled music industry giant has faced a lot of heat in recent weeks after agreeing to a settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve an antitrust lawsuit, along with leaked messages that showed Live Nation employees mocking ticket buyers. But now, they’re apologizing for ads promoting their new music venue that were spray painted outside of two independently-owned Nashville venues.
Live Nation is gearing up to open their new venue, called The Truth, in Music City’s Wedgewood Houston neighborhood. The 4,400-seat venue opens in October and recently announced their inaugural lineup of shows, which will include concerts from Stephen Wilson Jr., HARDY, Scotty McCreery, Jo Dee Messina, Sting, Beck, Limp Bizkit, GloRilla, and more.
But a guerilla marketing campaign for the venue recently drew the ire of some independent music venue owners after they noticed spray painted ads for The Truth on the sidewalks in front of their own businesses.
Todd Sherwood, owner of East Nashville music venue The 5 Spot, took to Facebook to share a video showing the messages directly in front of his door:
“Look what Live Nation’s doing. Just spray painting, I guess that’s graffiti, ‘The New Sound of Nashville.’ F— you Live Nation.”
Similar ads were also spray painted on the sidewalk in front of Springwater Supper Club, a West Nashville dive that claims to be the “oldest bar serving alcohol, whether legally or illegally, in Tennessee” and whose stage has hosted pop-ups from major acts and local bands alike over its storied history.
Well obviously the ads didn’t sit well with the independent music venues or their supporters, and Live Nation issued an apology to the Nashville Scene, blaming the marketing campaign on a third-party company while also promising to remove the spray paint from the sidewalks:
“Once we became aware, we moved immediately to have them removed. We take responsibility and sincerely apologize to the venues impacted.”
Sherwood, owner of The 5 Spot, says he also received an apology from Live Nation – but that they also asked him to remove his video calling them out. (It’s still up, so far, and hopefully it stays up).
The graffiti even drew criticism from elected officials in Nashville, with Metro Councilmember Sean Parker blasting Live Nation for their predatory behavior against independent venues:
“Live Nation has a well-documented history of going after independent venues and promoters. They should be ashamed of spray-painting illegal advertisements outside of longstanding independent Nashville venues. I encourage every Nashvillian to visit and support our independent music venues. We’ll miss these spaces dearly if we lose them.”
Like I said, this behavior isn’t exactly surprising for a company like Live Nation, which has for years systematically increased their reach in all aspects of the music industry at the expense of independent venues.
The company recently agreed with the Justice Department to stop locking down venues with long-term contracts that forced them to use Ticketmaster as their exclusive ticketing platform, while also paying a reported $280 million fine.
But several states who had joined the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Live Nation refused to accept the settlement, and documents released in the lawsuit drew increased scrutiny after Live Nation employees were caught mocking ticket buyers:
“These people are so stupid. I almost feel bad for taking advantage of them.’”
“Robbing them blind, baby. That’s how we do it.”
“Charging ‘$50 to park in the grass’ and ‘$60 for closer grass.’”
Not a great couple of weeks for Live Nation, to say the least.
