The 10 Biggest Live Music Stories of 2025: Live Nation Lawsuits, Ticket Prices & More

On its face, the annual numbers for the concert industry don’t look particularly great as 2025 comes to a close. Ticket sales from the Billboard Boxscore Year-End charts are effectively flat this year, down a fraction of a percent over 2024, with attendance and total show count all stagnant for the year. Live Nation’s share price isn’t faring much better — after years of double-digit growth, the company’s stock is down about three-and-a-half points for the year. 

Normally, this stagnation would be concerning for a concert business facing increased expenses due to inflation, rising energy prices and pressure from performing rights organizations to pay more for the compositions performed in their venues. But many in the concert business say the stagnation represents both a positive pause on rapidly rising ticket prices and structural changes that some hope will bring a needed shake-up to the industry.

For the first time in five years, average ticket prices did not increase in 2025, according to the Billboard Boxscore chart. Also, 2025 saw a record-low number of mergers and acquisitions, due in large part to continued pressure from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on Live Nation as the former sues the company over a litany of antitrust claims that the concert giant has vowed to fight. Live Nation’s supremacy over the concert industry appears to face its largest challenge to date, and, while many doubt the company will emerge from the legal battle significantly weakened, groups like the National Independent Venue Association are hopeful that regulatory changes both in the U.S. and abroad will create a new framework to make it easier for concert companies of all sizes to compete. 

In light of all that, here are the 10 biggest live music stories of 2025.