Shadowing Practice: The Ticketmaster monopoly is over, now what? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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In 2022, outrage around predatory concert ticket pricing came to a head when tickets went on sale for Taylor Swift's Errors Tour.
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Tears and anger as ticket sites crash for millions of Taylor Swift fans.
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Extensive wait times, steep fees, and glitches.
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Tickets were going for as much as $499 before fees.
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And though it's not the first time fans and artists have complained about Ticketmaster, that moment became a turning point.
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Congress even held hearings and quoted song lyrics.
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I think it's a nightmare dressed like a daydream.
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The meltdown around the Arrows tour exposed how Ticketmaster and Live Nation had become the gatekeepers to most major live music experiences.
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And in April 2026, a federal jury ruled against this ticketing monopoly.
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Breaking news, a verdict has been reached in the antitrust trial against entertainment giant Live Nation.
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A federal jury has found Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have been operating as a monopoly.
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And the story is far from over.
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So there will be a whole other round of litigation now.
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And there's really only one question anyone cares about.
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Will tickets get cheaper?
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Ticketmaster and Live Nation first merged in 2010.
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The DOJ allowed it to go through with what's called a consent decree, which is like a contract between the government and the merging parties.
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One of the important things they promised not to do was to condition Live Nation concerts
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and tours on a venue taking Ticketmaster for its whole season.
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Basically, they can't say, if you want our concerts, you have to use Ticketmaster.
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But it wasn't until 2024 when the government stepped in.
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The DOJ, under former President Biden and 40 states, sued Live Nation.
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The allegation?
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Live Nation used its power across concerts, venues, and ticketing to shut out competitors, locking venues into exclusive deals with Ticketmaster.
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They were claiming that Ticketmaster and Live Nation were violating this part of the consent decree, that they were sort of, in some cases, coercing explicitly,
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sometimes implicitly, these venues into using Ticketmaster if they wanted any of the concerts that Live Nation promotes.
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But by the time the case is ready to go to trial, the politics change.
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Donald Trump is elected in 2024, and when the trial begins in New York in March 2026, the federal government settles.
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The settlement that is not yet final is a few what I would call sort of band -aids over the competitive problems.
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Under the settlement, Live Nation would divest interests in 13 venues, allow venues to use competing ticket services without retaliation,
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and cap certain Ticketmaster service fees at about 15 % at venues it controls.
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A lot of people have been coming out against the settlement and saying, it's really kind of a slap on the wrist.
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32 states and the District of Columbia reject the settlement and bring the case to trial themselves.
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And they won.
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After a five -week trial, the verdict came down and the jury sided with the states.
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The jury found that they monopolized two markets.
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One was the market for ticketing platforms.
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This is the Ticketmaster product.
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They also monopolized the market for amphitheaters And they even found a number,
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$1 .72, upcharges that resulted from this maintained monopoly power.
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Next, the judge needs to decide what the punishment is.
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And Live Nation has said they will appeal.
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The states are expected to ask for a breakup, but Live Nation will probably ask for something similar to the deal they already worked out with the DOJ.
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Live Nation could be expected to argue, look, we're already in this agreement with the DOJ.
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This covers it.
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I think that if there's a good remedy here, and that's a big if, then I think consumers can expect over time to see a lot more benefits than just $1 .72.
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I think they can see better innovation in ticketing platforms, which we know has been a problem.
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I think they can see lower fees even than that number.
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But one thing that's not going to happen, it is these hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars paid for these big, extravagant, once -in -a -lifetime type of concerts.
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I think they're still going to be very expensive.
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The cost of concerts keep going up, and not just for fans, for promoters, for the venues that put on these shows, and most notably for the artists.
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That's because over the last two decades, the music industry completely changed how artists make money.
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Streaming made music cheap and touring became the business.
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On a $100 ticket, including fees, you're looking at the artists getting 75 to 80 % of that ticket price.
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The artist portion is going to pay for the tour bus, to going to pay for gas, flights, the crew.
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A portion of the ticket, approximately 10%, goes to the venue.
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And then it goes to the ticketing company.
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They get paid on every single ticket sold.
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Even if Live Nation and Ticketmaster are forced to split, a breakup isn't a price cut.
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Which raises the question, how does this ruling change things for the fans?
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Ultimately, what is this going to mean for fans right now? not much.
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However, I think it's important to note there are other things that are better for fans, even if it doesn't mean a dramatic decrease in prices.
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More competition is a good thing.
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If you have five ticketing platforms instead of one, they have to compete on the fees.
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That could trim the service charges and the processing fees, the stuff that turns your $89 ticket into $130.
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Still, this doesn't mean people are going to see huge price cuts for tickets to large shows.
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And despite the cost, concert attendance is at an all time high.
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Gen Z has spent an average of $2 ,100 on concert tickets over the past two years.
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And they're even going into debt choosing buy now, pay later options to buy tickets.
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Most of the drive behind those really big expensive concerts is just people's willingness to pay.
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You know, boomers will pay anything to see Bruce Springsteen one more time.
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Millennials will pay anything to see Taylor Swift.
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It's just the nature of people having money to spend, the importance of these experiences that have driven prices really high.
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That doesn't mean that there's some amount of that that is from ticketing and the promotion services, but it's not maybe the big ticket item, so to speak.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Ticketmaster monopoly is over, now what?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: ticket, Nation, Ticketmaster, concert, venue. This video has 74 sentences and 1057 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:03. The speaker talks at a natural 175 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| venue noun | /ˈvɛnjuː/ | A theater, auditorium, arena, or other area designated for sporting or entertainment events. |
| monopoly noun | /məˈnɑpəli/ | A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service… |
| compete verb | /kəmˈpiːt/ | To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend. |
| consent verb | /kənˈsɛnt/ | To express willingness, to give permission. |
| verdict noun | /ˈvɜː.dɪkt/ | A decision on an issue of fact in a civil or criminal case or an inquest. |
| decree noun | /dɪˈkɹiː/ | An edict or law. |
| merge verb | /mɝd͡ʒ/ | To combine into a whole. |
| breakup noun | /ˈbɹeɪk.ʌp/ | The act of breaking up; disintegration or division. |
| argue verb | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | To show grounds for concluding (that); to indicate, imply. |
| anger noun | /ˈæŋɡə/ | A strong and unpleasant feeling of displeasure, hostility, or antagonism, usually combined with an urge to yell, curse, damage or destroy things, or harm… |
| dramatic adjective | /dɹəˈmætɪk/ | Of or relating to the drama. |
| promotion noun | /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/ | An advancement in rank or position. |
| lifetime noun | /ˈlaɪf.taɪm/ | The duration of the life of someone or something. |
| settle verb | /ˈsɛtəl/ | To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). |
| lyrics noun | /ˈlɪɹ.ɪks/ | The words to a song (or other vocal music). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. |
| go through with verb | To carry out (something planned or promised); to proceed with or continue with. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been operating · have been coming |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have complained · has been reached · has found |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been reached · is elected · are expected |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as doesn't, they're, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, punishment /ˈpʌnɪʃmənt/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, litigation /ˌlɪtɪˈɡeɪ̯ʃən/, retaliation /ɹɪˌtæl.iˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: monopoly /məˈnɑpəli/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, litigation /ˌlɪtɪˈɡeɪ̯ʃən/, subsidiary /sʌbˈsɪ.di.əɹ.i/, competitor /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like venue, monopoly, compete.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.