Executives from Ticketmaster and concert promoter Live Nation argued Tuesday that their merger could save an ailing music industry, while U.S. senators and concert promoters questioned whether it would create a monopoly.

Under pressure from Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Ticketmaster’s chief executive refused to defend the company’s decision last year to buy TicketsNow, a Web site where ticket brokers and others charge steep markups to sold-out shows.

“I would never have bought it,” said Irving Azoff, who took over after the purchase.

Schumer opposes the proposed merger and wants Ticketmaster to sell TicketsNow regardless of whether the merger, which is also under review by the Justice Department, goes through.

“You’re the only ticket seller in America with a wholly owned secondary seller,” Schumer said at a hearing of the Senate’s anti-trust subcommittee. A similar House subcommittee holds its own hearing Thursday.

Ticketmaster’s practice of using the same computer screen to tell fans that concerts are sold out and that marked-up tickets are available from TicketsNow caused an uproar earlier this month from outraged fans of Bruce Springsteen. The company has since ended the practice and offered compensation to some Springsteen fans.

Azoff also told the subcommittee he was “shocked and embarrassed” by a computer glitch that prevented some Springsteen fans from completing ticket purchases until after concerts in the Meadowlands had sold out, leaving only higher-priced TicketsNow tickets available.

After the hearing, Azoff conceded that it was company practice, and not a computer glitch, to put the TicketsNow promotion on the same screen as the message that the show was sold out. That practice was ended after Springsteen issued a public apology to fans and said he had not been told about it in advance.

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