There’s something deeply counterintuitive about the idea that we would go to a pop concert — the most communal-seeming of all gathering places, outside of a football game or church — in order to stop cheering, forget about everyone around us and just go deep into someone’s personal headspace. That is the stuff of live theater, at its best, and not so much Live Nation. But of course Lily Allen is out to blur those lines with her tour of “West End Girl,” the narrative concept record she put out last year. As every fan learned pretty quickly into the run, she is doing the album, the whole album and nothing but the album, adding plenty of acting out and visualization but nothing so much as a “Hello, Cleveland!” to break the fourth wall. It could not be any more of a theater piece if she’d booked the Walter Kerr for six weeks.

Fancy a chat with Charli XCX? If you’re in New York, you may have to join a long queue…

With fans eagerly awaiting her next post-Brat move, the British star’s latest Instagram post reveals plans for something called ‘Conversations’ to be held in New York this month.

AEG Presents is expanding its footprint in the promoter space with today’s announcement that the company has formed a strategic partnership with independent comedy touring and promotion company Outback Presents. 

The announcement notes that the “partnership brings together AEG Presents’ global live platform with Outback Presents’ category defining expertise in stand-up comedy, comedy festivals and comedy touring.”

The court approved the next post‑trial briefing schedule but will separately hear arguments over how the DOJ settlement review and the states’ broader remedies push should proceed.

A federal judge has scheduled a May 7 conference in the Live Nation‑Ticketmaster antitrust case, setting up the next major procedural fight after a jury found the companies illegally maintained monopoly power: whether the states that prevailed at trial can move quickly toward remedies, or whether Live Nation can delay that phase while its narrower settlement with the Department of Justice is reviewed.

Apple issued a better-than-expected revenue forecast for the current period after beating on sales and earnings in the fiscal second quarter. The stock rose about 3% in extended trading.

Sales for iPhones missed estimates for the second time in three quarters, the only significant number that came up short of expectations in Thursday’s report.

From the ambitions of LA28’s programme through to the needs of independent talent agents – the evolving, complex and increasingly fragmented ticketing landscape came under the microscope at TheTicketingBusiness Forum 2026,

The 14th annual, two-day Forum brought together a global community of industry leaders and expert speakers across a packed programme of debate, discussion and dialogue.

Spotify is rolling out a new Verified status. Starting soon, profiles that the platform has confirmed to represent actual, human artists will get a Verified by Spotify badge with a green checkmark icon. You won’t see the badge on any AI profiles — at least not right now.

In a blog post announcing the initiative, Spotify says artist profiles that meet certain criteria will be eligible for the Verified badge. To be Verified, an artist has to be in compliance with Spotify’s policies and have “identifiable artist presence both on and off-platform.”

Years ago, as part of her negotiation process to sign with UMG, Swift demanded that the company pay out artists — regardless of debts they may have to the company — if UMG ever sold off its Spotify stock.

As stalwarts Sub Pop and Rough Trade celebrate big anniversaries, insiders speak candidly about the challenges they face. Can streaming ever ensure their survival?

AI firm ElevenLabs’ march into music has been swift. Last August it announced licensing deals with Kobalt and Merlin as well as plans to launch a service called ‘ElevenMusic’.

One $500m funding round and an AI-music album featuring Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel later, the official launch of ElevenMusic is here, pitched as a service that “connects listening, remixing, and original creation in a single system”.

So, it’s partly about creating new tracks from prompts, lyrics and melodies, but also about remixing other music on the platform. “Not just a listening app: it acts as a fan engagement layer,” is how ElevenLabs is pitching that dynamic.

Olivia Rodrigo has announced dates for “The Unraveled Tour,” a huge 65-date run across North America, Europe, and the UK. The tour supports her third studio album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” out June 12, 2026 via Geffen Records.

Promoted by Live Nation, the global tour kicks off Friday, September 25 in Hartford, CT at PeoplesBank Arena and features multi-night plays in cities around the world including Washington, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Vancouver, Oakland, Las Vegas, Stockholm, Paris, Milan,

TikTok has just announced a new optimisation reminiscent of YouTube tags, which could be beneficial for artists reaching their intended audience. 

As app researcher Jonah Manzano posted to Threads, in addition to TikTok’s automatically-added keywords to posts based on popular searches, the feature now also enables users to manage the keywords assigned to uploads as they see fit, to better align content with user searches. 

Big news for any wistful former Vine users in the house – the app is getting a reboot, under the new name Divine. 

Divine is offering access to roughly 500,000 restored Vine videos from the original service, as well as offering creators the floor to post new Vines, which has attracted the attention of some of the OG Vine creators.

The National Independent Talent Organization has elected a new slate of board members, adding four new directors to the trade group representing independent U.S. agents, managers and the artists they serve.

Newly elected to the NITO board are Thomas Cussins, founder and CEO of Ineffable Music Group; Alex Fang, vice president of New Frontier Touring; Liz Pjesky, head of marketing and ticketing at High Road Touring; and Amanda Silecchio-Frederick, artist manager at Madison House.

The audio entertainment company discussed improved customer retention with companion plans and advertising 'momentum,' but declined to address market speculation that it may acquire iHeart Radio.

Believe has unveiled a significant update to its Generative AI policy – one that simultaneously hardens the company’s stance on unlicensed music AI platforms, while deepening its investment in other AI tools.

On the first front: Believe and its global platform for self-releasing artists, TuneCore, are automatically blocking the distribution of AI-generated tracks partly or fully produced on unlicensed “pirate studios”.

High Sierra Music Festival's Dave Margulies spoke with JamBase ahead of the 2026 multi-day event. The 34th annual HSMF returns July 2 – 5, where it will be held for the first time at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, California.

High Sierra Music Festival has been held annually on 4th of July weekend since its founding in 1991, most recently at Plumas County Fairgrounds in Quincy, California. The 2026 edition marks the festival’s first year at the new Grass Valley site.

Backstage Access Presents recently wrapped its inaugural Napa Valley experience, a multi-format gathering that brought together artists, industry leaders, brand partners, and tastemakers for an immersive celebration of music, culture, and connection.

Set against the backdrop of Napa Valley’s world-renowned wineries and estates, the event featured performances and appearances from Parker McCollum, Shinedown, Ty Myers, The 502s, Grace Potter, George Birge, Thelma & James, Maggie Rose, Liam St. John, Hannah Dasher, Ian Flanigan, Jacob Hackworth, Jake Hoot, Brett Kissel, Emily Ann Roberts, Matt Stell, and many more.

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV), the world’s leading live entertainment company, announced today that management will be presenting at MoffettNathanson’s Media, Internet & Communications Conference on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 8:15 a.m. PT, and at J.P. Morgan’s 2026 Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 7:00 a.m. PT.

A live webcast of both events will be accessible from the “News / Events” section of the company’s website at investors.livenationentertainment.com.

Alphabet was another tech giant announcing its latest quarterly financial results this week – including the latest update on YouTube’s advertising business. That generated $9.88bn of revenues in the first quarter, up 10.7% year-on-year. This follows the company’s performance in 2025 as a whole, when it made $40.37bn from YouTube advertising.

The move comes weeks after Bill Ackman and Pershing Square had submitted an offer to acquire UMG, including in that proposal a plan to sell the company's Spotify stake.

A US federal judge has denied Key Investment Group’s (KIG) motion to dismiss a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging it used unlawful tactics to exceed ticket purchasing limits for popular events, and resell them at inflated prices.

The FTC brought the case against the Maryland-based ticket broker and its affiliated companies, which have done business under names such as Epic Seats, TotalTickets.com LLC and Totally Tix LLC, last summer.