NEW YORK (AP) — A jury finished its first day of deliberations Friday without reaching a verdict in an antitrust case pitting 34 states against the concert giant Live Nation Entertainment.

The states argue in the civil case that the company and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, are monopolizing the industry and driving up prices to see live music.

Live Nation contends there is more competition than ever and the company plays fair amid a U.S. booming concert business.

Ticketmaster becomes the latest company to launch a ChatGPT app, hoping to cash in on more people using AI chatbots instead of search engines.

Ticketmaster has climbed into bed with OpenAI in a partnership that not only sees integration with ChatGPT, but will see “sponsored ad placements” within the AI chat platform. This move is an effort to see if ChatGPT’s recently launched ad business can actually drive sales.

The 2026 SXSW–PwC Insights Report is well-written, highly readable, and professionally assembled with lots of graphics. It succeeds at what it sets out to do: synthesize themes from a sprawling, interdisciplinary conference into something digestible for executives and strategists.

YouTube Premium subscribers are getting socked with “streamflation”: The Google-owned video giant is hiking prices in the U.S. for its YouTube Premium ad-free plans and YouTube Music — the latest streaming services to ratchet up fees in recent months.

The YouTube Premium individual plan is increasing from $13.99 to $15.99/month, while the family plan (up to six accounts) is increasing from $22.99 to $26.99/month. The YouTube Music individual plan is increasing from $10.99 to $11.99/month, and the family plan is rising from $16.99 to $18.99/month.

Knitting Factory Entertainment (KFE)’s Talkhouse Podcast Network has been nominated for a Peabody Award for the 12-part podcast series “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.”

Hosted by Jad Abumrad, the podcast explores the life and the cultural and political influence of the famed Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer and activist Fela Kuti through intricate sound design and more than 200 interviews.

The best deals on Coachella tickets for weekend 1 and 2. Plus how to buy camping and shuttle passes and see 2026 Coachella lineup, set times and dates

If Bad Bunny’s galvanizing Super Bowl Halftime Show on Feb. 8 didn’t make it crystal clear, new figures from the Recording Industry Association of America released today should: Latin music is American music (and, of course, not just American, as Bunny was the globe’s fifth-most lucrative artist last year, per the IFPI).

The genre’s revenues in the U.S. have increased dramatically over the past decade, reaching $1 billion last year, according to the RIAA’s report. (U.S. recorded music revenues overall in 2025 were $11.5 billion.) In 2015, Latin music’s U.S. revenues stood at $140 million.

 The International Festival Forum (IFF), the premier booking platform for festivals and outdoor events, has announced the launch of its inaugural North American edition, which lands in Los Angeles from September 14–16, 2026.

This debut event will bring together a curated group of festival programmers, talent buyers, and booking agencies from across the U.S. and abroad for three days of intensive networking and artist discovery.

UK ticket resale platform Tickets9 is launching a new Venue Partner Programme, which will see venues paid 12% of the value of every resold ticket for its events. The company is now calling on venues to sign up to the…

Oak View Group (OVG) has announced a round of senior appointments, including the addition of Becky Colwell as President, Programming and Content for Oak View Group. Additionally, Mark Shulman has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Programming and Content, OVG East.

In her new role, Colwell will oversee OVG’s global portfolio of sports, entertainment, collegiate, and live-event venues. Her responsibilities include long-term content strategy and maintaining key relationships with artists, agents, venues, and promoters across sports, concerts, touring shows, family entertainment, festivals, and premium emerging experiences. She joins OVG from Halo Sports & Entertainment, where she served as General Manager.

From ticket to turnstile to till: building a connected fan journey that grows dwell-time, spend and insight.

The fan journey does not start at the gate and it certainly does not end at the seat. Bringing together leaders from ticketing, payments and major venues, this panel at TheTicketingBusiness Forum will tackle a growing commercial challenge across live events: how to connect the full customer journey to unlock revenue, insight and loyalty.

When Bruce Springsteen brought his “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” to the Los Angeles area this week, it followed the same template as the opening night of the tour in Minneapolis exactly seven days prior. There was one addition to the setlist Tuesday, in the first of two Kia Forum shows: a cover of the Clash’s “Clampdown,” sung as a duet with Tom Morello. Inevitably, they drew big cheers when they got to the vintage Strummer-Jones line “In these days of evil presidentes…” Who knew that, 47 years later, Americans would be bashing kings with an even greater passion than the Brits of the original punk era?

Physical-music and packaging manufacturer Key Production has detailed its latest two formats for the European market this week.

One of them is ‘Injection Moulded Records’ – vinyl that replaces PVC with the more-sustainable PET (polyethene terephthalate) to cut energy consumption and carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions.

The other is ‘Tiny Vinyl’. If that name sounds familiar, yes: it’s the format debuted by the US company of the same name last August. It announced plans for Europe and UK expansion in January, and Key Production is now the partner for that.

lawyer for 34 states suing Live Nation Entertainment tried to convince a jury Thursday during an antitrust trial ’s closing arguments that the company and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster, are monopolizing the industry and driving up concert prices.

But a lawyer for Live Nation insisted in Manhattan federal court that there is more competition than ever and the company plays fair amid a booming concert business across America.

Coachella 2026 is officially underway in the desert today, but fans hunting for tickets face shocking resale markups. Weekend one passes soar past $2,000 on secondary markets, a staggering jump from original prices. The Empire Polo Club in Indio becomes ground zero for music’s most expensive festival moment.

Over the past year we’ve been picking up on a growing number of initiatives and partnerships aiming to bolster the international growth of music and artists from Japan. The latest comes from the country’s government, and it’s called So-Fu Music.

Launched by the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, it’s a scheme focusing on artists and managers who “aspire to be active both domestically and internationally, enabling them to reach a wider audience with their work”.

THE MUSIC BIZ WEEKLY podcast announces their new co-host BLASKO. Blasko joins podcast founder Michael Brandvold and is replacing Jay Gilbert who stepped down to focus his efforts on teaching. Blasko is one of the rare figures who has lived in the music industry from every angle. He built a multi-decade career around one thing: his passion for heavy metal, turning it into a life on global stages with Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie, managing Grammy-winning artists, and helping build culture-shifting brands like Liquid Death. Blasko specializes in the intersection of music, creativity, brand building, and the new wave of AI tools reshaping the industry. His message resonates with artists, managers, founders, and creators seeking to understand what actually works in 2026 and beyond.

Jamey and Brittney Johnson’s Give It Away Fund has awarded eleven grants so far in 2026, primarily supporting children in need, while also helping animal welfare and community organizations.

The fund is supported by a dollar donated for every ticket sold at participating shows, along with proceeds from the sale of a special T‑shirt. The fund takes its name fro

A jury now must decide if Live Nation is a “fierce competitor” or “monopolistic bully” as the antitrust trial against the entertainment giant ended with closing arguments yesterday (Thursday).

In a Manhattan federal court, lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, representing the remaining 34 states suing Live Nation Entertainment, attempted to convince a jury that the company and its ticketing subsidiary Ticketmaster monopolised the industry, driving up concert ticket prices.

Canadian collecting society Socan has published its financial results for 2025, revealing that its collections grew 5% year-on-year to $587m – a record for the organisation.

However, that growth wasn’t quite reflected in Socan’s royalty distributions to its members. They were down slightly (“in essence, matching” as Socan put it) to $511.9m from the $512.4m it paid out in 2024.

A new UK-based initiative is seeking to address growing financial pressures on touring artists by developing on-site accommodation within grassroots music venues.

The programme, titled Stay The Night & Feel at Home, is supported by LIVE Trust and is being delivered in partnership with Volunteer It Yourself. The initiative focuses on converting unused venue space into permanent accommodation for artists, alongside upgrading backstage facilities.

Grammy Award winner Pink is heading to Broadway to host this year’s 79th Tony Awards.

Who knew there was a 17,000 square-foot bunker under the polo fields where the Coachella festival is held? Radiohead knew: it’s been chosen as the space for the debut of their new ‘Kid A Mnesia’ audiovisual installation.

Well, not entirely new. The installation was originally launched in virtual form by Epic Games in 2021 for consoles and computers, featuring films and artworks from the band’s ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’ albums.