Who Killed California's Anti-Ticket Scalping Law? + How Did Ellie Goulding Not Know Her Managers Were Owned by Live Nation?

Did California Attorney General Rob Bonta help kill a ticket reform bill to protect the government’s antitrust victory over Live Nation and Ticketmaster? And did Ellie Goulding spend years paying managers who were secretly owned by the same concert giant they were supposed to negotiate against? On Episode 31 of Decibel & Docket, veteran music journalist Dave Brooks and attorney Michael Seville examine two stories about money, influence and conflicts of interest in the live music business. First, Dave and Mike investigate the mysterious death of AB 1720, the California Fans First Act. The ticketing bill originally proposed a broad restriction on reselling concert tickets above face value. After months of amendments, it was narrowed to venues with 3,000 seats or fewer and would have permitted resale prices up to 10 percent above face value. Even that was too much for StubHub, which spent approximately $3.4 million lobbying in California to defeat the legislation—including roughly $2.6 million during the most recent quarter. AB 1720 ultimately died in the California Senate Appropriations Committee’s suspense file, where lawmakers can quietly stop legislation without casting a public vote against it. Sources say Bonta’s office raised concerns that enforcing the law could cost approximately $1.4 million, giving the committee a fiscal justification to hold the bill. Was that a legitimate enforcement concern—or a convenient way to kill politically difficult legislation? Dave and Mike explore Bonta’s unusual position. As one of the state attorneys general seeking major remedies against Live Nation and Ticketmaster following the government’s antitrust victory, Bonta may eventually need financially viable ticketing companies to compete for contracts or assets divested by Ticketmaster. StubHub argued that California could not accuse Ticketmaster of monopolizing ticketing while simultaneously passing legislation that might weaken one of its competitors. But does StubHub actually compete with Ticketmaster in primary ticketing, venue software and box-office services—or is the company using the antitrust case to protect its resale business? Artist manager and returning guest Randy Nichols joins the show to deliver an insider’s postmortem of AB 1720. Nichols discusses StubHub’s multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign, the private pressure placed on lawmakers, Bonta’s alleged intervention and the music community’s attempt to impose limits on ticket scalping. He also explains why supporters believe StubHub misrepresented the bill as a giveaway to Ticketmaster, whether Assemblyman Matt Haney will revive the proposal and how the battle over ticket resale caps could now move to Massachusetts and Congress. Then, Dave and Mike break down Ellie Goulding’s lawsuit against her former managers, Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, and TAP Management’s parent company, HNOE Limited. Goulding alleges that she signed with TAP in 2018 without being told that Live Nation controlled its parent company. Live Nation reportedly acquired a 50.1 percent interest in HNOE in 2015 and purchased the remainder in 2019. During her relationship with TAP, Goulding paid a 20 percent management commission and entered agreements with Live Nation-affiliated companies involving touring, merchandise and a documentary. The most explosive allegation concerns contractual provisions that allegedly restricted Goulding’s managers from encouraging clients to stop doing business with Live Nation or taking actions that could diminish an artist’s commercial relationship with the company. That raises a fundamental question: Can an artist manager fulfill a fiduciary duty to a client while being owned by—and allegedly obligated to protect—the corporation sitting across the negotiating table?