How Live Nation and Irving Azoff secured Dead & Company’s lucrative Las Vegas appearance

Live Nation and its former chairman, veteran music mogul Irving Azoff, have quietly maintained a tight grip on Dead & Company’s lucrative Las Vegas residency, The Post has learned, despite facing increasing antitrust pressure from the government.

Live Nation – which was sued by the Justice Department last month for allegedly profiting from an illegal monopoly in live entertainment – signed a deal with the Grateful Dead offshoot band and billionaire James Dolan’s Las Vegas Sphere in January to promote a 24-show residency tour that has since been extended by six more dates.

In addition to promoting and selling tickets for the blockbuster – whose lineup includes guitar superstar John Mayer and legendary Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart – Live Nation, through its subsidiary Ticketmaster, has also sold travel packages through Vibee, a hotel booking and VIP business arm launched last year.

The three-way deal between Live Nation, Ticketmaster and Vibee – which the company also used in recent months with U2 and Phish performances at the Sphere Theater – is a kind of blitz that the US Department of Justice has condemned as anti-competitive. In its explosive lawsuit, it claims that Live Nation’s various business units are “collaborating across the entire ecosystem” to squeeze out competitors, critics say.

But the aggressiveness with which Azoff eliminated a smaller provider in the Dead & Company case caused particular excitement, according to sources.

Over the winter, Azoff – who not only co-manages Dead & Company but also co-founded the Oak View Group, which advises Dolan’s Sphere arena on sponsorship issues – made it clear to the band that they would need to hire Vibee to replace 100X Hospitality, sources told The Post.

According to sources, the latter is a smaller company that has sold all of the band’s VIP and hotel packages since Dead & Company was founded in 2015.

“I can understand that people might see this as a power play and that I lost,” 100X CEO Daniel Berkowitz told the Post.

The timing of the Vibee deal seems particularly brazen, sources said, as it comes just a year after the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into Live Nation, which gained new momentum following a botched ticket distribution for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour that led to complaints of hours-long online lines and exorbitant fees.

100X was fired despite an eight-year association with Live Nation that included hundreds of shows, three sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.

“Although everything in the world of the Dead feels like family, at the end of the day it’s not about the music family, it’s about the music business,” Berkowitz added.

He added that he understands the reality of the situation and that “everything Irving does is in the best interest of his clients.”

Still, Lee Hepner, a lawyer with the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project who has filed briefs in the Justice Department’s Live Nation investigation, says the power play could play into the Justice Department’s hands.

While the government’s complaint does not mention Vibee, it does address Live Nation’s close relationship with Oak View Group, an event management firm that Azoff co-founded in 2015, three years after he stepped down as Live Nation chairman.

According to authorities, Live Nation and Oak View have informally agreed not to compete with each other in their respective niches.

Rather, the Justice Department claims that the two companies are colluding to pass business on to each other and thus prevent other – mostly smaller – companies from encroaching on their territory.

“The Oak View Group now acts as an agent and self-proclaimed ‘pimp’ and ‘hammer’ for Live Nation, often influencing venues and artists for Live Nation’s benefit,” the Justice Department alleged in its lawsuit.

In the case of 100X, Dead & Company resisted repeated attempts by Azoff to replace Berkowitz and company during previous tours before finally agreeing to make the switch for the residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, two sources said.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Oak View declined to comment for this article.

Azoff and Live Nation did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Hepner said regulators don’t typically investigate individuals who engage in anti-competitive behavior, but Live Nation’s case is different.

“This is exactly the kind of behavior that got Live Nation in trouble in the first place,” Hepner told the Post.

The Vibee hospitality business, which includes special access to the band, can be lucrative – especially in a place like Las Vegas.

A Dead & Company package sold by Vibee a few months ago cost $2,834.54 per person – a package deal for the May 24, 25 and 26 shows that included a three-night stay in a luxurious king or two-queen suite in the Venetian or Palazzo Tower.

According to Vibee’s website, the package also included transportation to and from the airport in a luxury car.

According to sources, the appearance on Dead & Company is just the latest example of Azoff making money from multiple sources of income.

When Azoff advised the Sphere to book U2 for the venue’s grand opening with a performance in 2022, Dolan agreed to pay U2 a whopping $10 million to produce the sold-out Sphere shows, the Post exclusively reported at the time.

A few days later, Azoff became U2’s manager, replacing Guy Oseary, a source familiar with the situation said.