Earlier this week, news broke that international touring company Live Nation had acquired control of Secret Sounds and Australia’s two leading multi-day festivals, Splendour In The Grass and Falls Festival.

With their reputation for crafting mega-festival experiences across the globe, the ramifications could be huge – and now Triple J have explored just what might happen in the wake of the purchase – but it seems like we’re heading into a new era for Splendour and Falls. For those concerned about line-up shifts in the wake of a more commercial owner, Secret Sounds co-founder Jess Ducrou says that she and colleague Paul Piticco have been able to retain creative control of booking the festival line-ups.

“Paul and I will be booking the lineup like we always book the lineup – there’s no pressure to put on more commercial artists because of their touring arm. They’re partnering with us to do what we do. We feel confident we will be able to maintain the integrity of Splendour and Falls,” she said.

Billboard Australia’s Lars Brandle believes that Live Nation’s extensive global pull may see more internationals arriving for Splendour In The Grass, saying “Live Nation has incredible international muscle. The company can organise tours through its international pipeline. When a Coldplay comes out here, Live Nation has the global clout to stage each leg of that tour, one territory at a time.”

Another important issue for punters is the tickets. With Splendour consistently selling out immediately, ticket resales are an issue that the festival has tried to combat. Ducrou again insists that nothing will change with the new ownership, saying “The resale facility of Splendour will 100 per cent continue. That’s incredibly important. Ticketmaster per se is not going to be the company selling tickets for Splendour or Falls Festival for that matter. It will be through an arm of their business – a different ticketing platform.”

Importantly, Live Nation owns Ticketmaster – which seems like bad news for Brian Chladil of Oztix, who have sold passes for Falls Festival for the past few years. He says that ticket prices will go up. “This whole Live Nation vertically integrated model – the consumer just ends up paying more. It’s a fact Ticketmaster charge more than we do. They have a transaction charge and we don’t,” he said.

With Live Nation’s first foray into the Australian festival market and the death of colossal calendar dates like Future Music Festival and Big Day Out, many are worried that a kingpin like Live Nation will eventually wipe out independent promoters and eventually lead to less diverse acts and tours. Chladil says that “ultimately, what worries me is the conglomeration of the music business. It’s been going on for a few years. It just gets worse and worse. More and more companies are being bought up by the likes of Live Nation – it ends up like Coles and Woollies.”

You can read the full report right here, while we’ll have to wait and see for Splendour’s 2017 announcement to see how Live Nation’s purchase comes into play.