A messy question is surfacing in the pop world: who was really working for whom? The Ellie Goulding Live Nation lawsuit, filed against Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, the co-founders of TaP Music, alleges the pair never told her that TaP’s parent company had been majority-owned by Live Nation since 2015, with the concert giant taking full ownership by 2019.
The timeline is what makes the case sting. Goulding signed with TaP in 2018, meaning her entire management relationship with the firm — through to 2025 — unfolded while, according to the suit, Mawson was simultaneously answering to Live Nation as its executive whilst negotiating deals on her behalf. During those years, Goulding took part in two Live Nation-promoted tours, merchandise arrangements, and a documentary. She says she only learnt about the ownership structure in 2025, prompting the split.
It’s the kind of arrangement that, if proven, cuts against a basic premise of artist management: that your manager is negotiating against the promoter, not sitting on both sides of the table. A manager who reports to the very company brokering an artist’s tour deals has little incentive to push hard for better terms, and an artist has no way of knowing that unless it’s disclosed.
Goulding isn’t alone in walking away from TaP. The agency’s roster reportedly shrank from 23 artists to 12 between mid-2025 and mid-2026, with names like Purity Ring, Mabel, and Caroline Polachek also departing. Goulding herself has since moved to WME and returned to First Access Entertainment.
The lawsuit lands amid broader scrutiny of Live Nation’s reach across the concert business, from ticketing to venues to promotion. A case built on an artist’s own management allegedly being compromised by that same company adds a new angle to an already crowded conversation about consolidation in live music, and it’s one other artists represented by conglomerate-linked firms may be watching closely.
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