In his new book “Vom Imperiengeschäft – Wie Großkonzerne die kulturelle Vielfalt zerstören” (The Business of Building Empires – How Conglomerates Destroy Cultural Diversity), Berthold Seliger takes a closer look at today’s concert business. In great detail, he astutely analyzes current processes of consolidation in the German and international concert industry, as well as dubious new ticketing tricks. For this, he researched the ownership of large and medium-sized concert companies and Europe’s leading festivals to uncover private equity and international investment companies. On the surface, the industry is driven by a neoliberal “jargon of realness”, focusing on cool events, fun and self-fulfillment. Yet when you look behind the scenes, you realize that the live music industry only needs music and artists for brands and marketing, while the big bucks are made with sponsoring, ticketing and big data.