short explanation
my name + monopsony = minopsony
long explanation
monopsony theory was developed by economist joan robinson in her 1933 book the economics of imperfect competition. monopsony power exists when a buyer faces little competition from other buyers for any given service or good, so they are able to set wages/prices for the services or goods they are buying at a lower level lower than in a competitive market.
in other words: you're a big enough buyer that you can strong-arm your sellers into exploitatively low prices.
this is a huge problem in live music, largely perpetuated by a company who was very recently sued for antitrust violations. for obvious reasons, i have a vested interest in the preservation of live music, but at this very moment, we've got a lot of bullshit going on:
- unsafe conditions at live events, sometimes resulting in fatal accidents
- being on the road is so difficult it has literally become one of the identifying characteristics of the touring industry
- dynamic pricing
- ineffective ticketing systems
not all hope is lost—there's been a lot of progress on this in the legal world! imho, one of the most beautiful things i've read in recent years was the 2023 merger guidelines jointly released by the FTC and DOJ, which finally considered labor markets in antitrust analysis. competition is a necessary condition for the vitality of live music and i shouldn't have to tell you why we need to protect it.
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