Portland Locals Aim to Maintain Indie Scene in City, Push Back Against Live Nation

Portland, Oregon’s indie music scene is vibrant, with local venues boasting performances across all genres each night — ranging from small coffee shops to larger concert halls. The Oregon hotspot is among the last larger cities across the U.S. that doesn’t have a venue owned by Live Nation — but that could end soon.

Currently, Portland does not have a venue with a capacity between 3,000 and 4,000, and entertainment conglomerate Live Nation is jumping at the opportunity. While details remain unknown at this time, Beam Development announced their intention earlier this month to partner with Live Nation to construct a music venue as a part of the ODOT Blocks redevelopment.

| READ: AEG Presents to Open New Venue in Portland | 

Williamette Week notes that the construction of the new venue would create around 400 new jobs with an estimated $35 million in wages, and once completed, the venue would generate an estimated $600,000 annually in property tax. Additionally, local businesses like hotels and restaurants would benefit as the venue brought-in interest throughout the state.

However, local promoters and concertgoers don’t see Live Nation’s presence as anything but detrimental to the music scene. The volunteer-based independent organization MusicPortland has been leading the resistance against Live Nation’s involvement, noting in a report that “this proposed partnership has the potential to cause far more harm than good to the Portland music scene.”

“The local music industry, which includes more than twenty thousand working musicians and numerous independent, locally-controlled venues, has reached a critical juncture due to new, unprecedented collaboration with each other and with local and state government and agencies,” MusicPortland said in the report. “This hard work would be gravely compromised by the presence of Live Nation, given its historical business practices that actively work to eliminate local competition.”

MusicPortland went on to note how Live Nation “regularly and repeatedly demonstrates anti-competitive, monopolistic, and predatory practices throughout the country,” pointing out the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against the company and its ticketing subsidiary Ticketmaster. The suit, filed earlier this year along with 29 states, aims to break-up the pair’s 2010 merger, alleging monopolistic and anti-competitive practices. Additionally, the organization pointed out Live Nation’s highly-controversial investor, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

| READ: Report: Live Nation Quietly Buys The Bell House in New York City | 

The report called for more support for its music scene, writing that the organization identified over 300 event spaces that host music three or more times a week. MusicPortland noted there is no need for a 3,000-capacity venue, despite Live Nation’s claims of a “desperate need” for a venue of that size.

“This is an imminent threat to our local music ecology that only in the past few years has come to be valued by the city leadership, tourism agencies, and the private sector as unique and valuable for its economic and cultural importance to the community,” the report said, asking policymakers to reach out to the organization and share their position on the topic.

The proposed venue is reportedly making its way through zoning reviews at this time.