Kings Of Leon, Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts, and The Lumineers will headline State Fayre, the brand new festival from Festival Republic and Live Nation. Taking place at Hylands Park. Chelmsford from 26 – 28 June 2026 the festival will celebrate rock music, Americana and barbecue.

Also playing across the weekend are The Black Crowes, Elvis Costello & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton, Counting Crows, Amble, Kingfishr, Dylan Gossett, Sierra Ferrell, Max McNown, KT Tunstall, The Coral and more.

We reported on yesterday’s announcement in the UK of the government’s crackdown on the secondary-ticketing market. Now the US-based National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is using that as inspiration to call for similar measures on its side of the Atlantic. However, it’s also taking particular aim at speculative ticketing: listings for tickets that the seller doesn’t actually own yet.

NIVA boss Stephen Parker took several swings at StubHub for its recent claim that such listings are “business as usual” in his statement. “Speculative tickets are not ‘business as usual.’ StubHub’s extractive business model is exactly why states across the country should ban speculative tickets and follow the UK and adopt resale price caps,” he said. “Speculative listings

Live Nation has filed a motion asking for a quick end to the antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice against the company and its ticketing arm Ticketmaster.

In a memorandum supporting its motion for summary judgment, lawyers for Live Nation said the DoJ’s case against the company is based on “gerrymandered” evidence that doesn’t meet the legal criteria for monopoly power.

“Plaintiffs opened this case alleging that Live Nation had multiple, self-reinforcing monopolies and had – for fifteen years – engaged in ‘systematic’ and ‘intentional’ corruption of competition across ‘virtually every aspect of the live music ecosystem,’” lawyers wrote in the memorandum filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday (November 18).

A trio of Indian TV industry professionals have launched PayList.music, a monthly gig series that combines elements of user-centric payments and reality TV talent competitions with gamification.

At the inaugural event, which will be held at Mumbai venue antiSOCIAL on 25 November, seven upcoming Indian independent music acts will perform a track each. Attendees who buy a ticket, priced at Rs2,200, will get Rs1,500 worth of digital coins loaded into their ‘PayList’ wallet, which can be activated by scanning a QR code at the show. 

During the gig, they can pay any or all of the artists any amount from that sum. If they choose not to distribute it all, it will be divided equally among all seven of them. The proceedings will be live-streamed via YouTube, where a recording will remain available to view.

Venu Holding Corporation has posted its financial results for the third quarter of 2025, showing a 76% increase of its total assets.

These equate to $314.8m (£238.8m/€271.4m), up from $136.3m from $178.4m in December 2024.

The company also generated net profit of $1,999,169 marking a 24% year-over-year increase over the same three-month period in September.

“This quarter marks a defining moment for VENU,” said Venu founder, chairman, and chief executive, J.W. Roth.

Reselling concert tickets for above face value is set to be banned in the U.K. The move comes days after a letter signed by Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Sam Fender and more urged the government to act to protect fans from exploitation.

According to BBC News, U.K. ministers are expected to unveil a plan on Wednesday that will confront resale sites and ticket touting for live music, theater, comedy and sports events. Though fans will still be able to resell tickets to an event if they can no longer attend, the sale limit will be set to the original cost of the ticket and extra fees will be minimized.

A federal judge rules that Fugees rapper Pras Michel must pay over $64 million to the US government on the charges for which he was convicted in 2023. Pras Michel—the Fugees rapper who was convicted on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges two and a half years ago—must pay the U.S. government a staggering $64.9 million for his crimes, a federal judge ruled on Thursday (October 30).

Venu Holding Corporation, an owner and operator of live music venues, has entered into a strategic partnership with Primary Wave Music to bring artist-inspired experiences to its entertainment venues in the US.

Primary Wave Music is a music publisher that is home to more than 200 legendary artists and estates, including icons such as Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston and James Brown.

Ticketmaster cancels tickets flagged for suspicious activity to combat resellers, but the move affects legitimate fans.

Fans of Ariana Grande have fought hard to secure tickets to the superstar’s first tour since 2018, but now some are distraught to find their tickets cancelled by Ticketmaster, especially when some fans paid an exorbitant price on the resale market.

Live Nation has announced that they are opening a new music venue in Nashville called The Truth. The 4,400 capacity indoor music venue is set to open fall 2026 in the Wedgewood Houston neighborhood.

“The legendary songwriter Harlan Howard said all you need for a good country song is three chords and the truth. The Truth is built on that same idea,” says Sally Williams, President of Nashville Music & Business Strategy, Live Nation. “Our goal is to create a space that could only exist here—where raw, honest music meets world-class production, and where fans and artists from across all genres can connect in a way that feels unmistakably Nashville.”

The Wizard of Oz at Sphere sells more than 1 million total tickets, raking in over $130 million in sales and surpassing residencies like the Eagles and U2.

Sphere Entertainment, the company behind the Las Vegas Sphere, has announced that The Wizard of Oz, the venue-specific immersive experience, has sold over a million total tickets. Further, this unique version of the classic film has generated over $130 million in ticket sales as of October 17.

Earlier this year, UK live-music umbrella body Live commissioned a report from Women In Ctrl about the diversity of the boards and management of 15 live organisations. It found that 41% of board members were women and non-binary people’ but only 8% were women from a global majority background. “While some organisations have achieved strong gender diversity at board level, others have significant ground to cover,” noted Live’s head of partnerships Gaby Cartwright (pictured left).

Dancefloor, an event discovery and ticketing platform tailored to meet the needs of the electronic music sector and its fans, announced the launch of its Nightlife Dividend Program, a new initiative designed to help the fight for survival of independent venues and promoters across the UK.

Dancefloor’s new model introduces what it has described as “a first-of-its-kind profit-sharing system built on collective success.

“Every month, 25% of Dancefloor’s booking fees are pooled and redistributed back to the venues and promoters selling on the platform to provide a new, automatic revenue stream on top of existing ticket sales.”

Artists today face a paradox: unparalleled access to audiences, but intense competition for their attention.

Long gone are the days of hounding passers-by and A&Rs with mixtapes and EPs. In the age of social media and streaming, it has become easier than ever to take those first steps and share your music, build a small community of passionate fans, or even have a viral moment on TikTok that has you rushing to the studio to record the track before the interest dies down.

However, as any professional artist will tell you, competition is stronger than ever, and that initial success means little if it can’t be developed into something that supports the next stage of a career.  

The UK’s government has announced its plans to crack down on the secondary ticketing market today. Reselling tickets above their original face-value price will be illegal, among other measures.

You can read our story on the announcement here, and our interview with minister for creative industries, media and arts Ian Murray MP here, as well as listening to The Price of Music’s latest episode discussing the plans here. But we’re also gathering responses from the music industry and ticketing firms as they come in.

Last May, in a dimly lit basement beneath London’s South Bank, the UK’s most prolific ticket touts gathered to discuss Labour’s plan to effectively put them out of business.

One seasoned ticket “trader” pleaded with colleagues to help fund a war chest to lobby against the party’s election manifesto pledge to ban reselling tickets for profit.

If the policy went ahead, he warned in undercover footage filmed by the Guardian, the risk was stark. “Bottom line is, we are all fucked.”

Eighteen months later, the worst nightmare for touts – and the resale platforms through which they ply their trade – has come to pass.

On Wednesday, the government confirmed reporting by the Guardian and the Financial Times that reselling tickets above face value will be outlawed.

Even in today’s streaming-first reality, performing live remains one of the best ways to reach new fans and, as a matter of fact, boost your streams. 

That’s why CD Baby is proud to partner with Bandsintown for the launch of their new Artists Marketplace, a hub for artists to promote their live shows and grow their fanbases through a curated selection of integrated tools and services.

StubHub has published its first earnings report as a public company, with its revenue reaching $468m (£356m/€402m) for the third quarter.

The ticket resale marketplace also witnessed a loss of $1.3bn, reflecting a one-time stock-based compensation charge of $1.4bn related to the company’s initial public offering (IPO).

Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) reached $67m, an increase of 21% year-over-year, while Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS) reached $2.4bn, an increase of 11%.

Seven months later, the due royalties dispute between Spain's SGAE and Bilbao BBK Live organizer Last Tour is showing few signs of resolving.

eatGeek, the high-growth technology platform transforming the live event experience for fans, teams, and venues, today announced the hiring of Matt Herman as Chief Marketing Officer. In this role, Herman will oversee SeatGeek’s marketing organization, guiding brand strategy, growth marketing, and communications as the company continues to scale its platform and expand partnerships across major sports and entertainment properties.

Herman joins SeatGeek from Wayfair, where he led Search, Recommendations, and Marketing Technology across the company’s $12 billion e-commerce platform. In that role, he oversaw the development of scalable systems for personalization, search, customer communications, and marketing measurement—driving stronger engagement and conversion across Wayfair’s global business.

Former FKP Scorpio promoter Thilo Elsner has collaborated with Florida Entertainment to launch Florida Touring Co.

Elsner has more than 12 years of experience in the live sector, including almost 10 years as head promoter of spoken word and comedy at FKP Scorpio.

The first shows in the portfolio of Florida Touring Co include the arena performances of German true crime podcast ‘Mord auf Ex’ in January 2026. Well over 60,000 tickets have already been sold for the live shows across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In August we reported on a crowdfunding campaign launched by Serbia’s Exit Festival. Its support for student protestors in the country had led to threats that it could lose its public funding and government-controlled sponsorships.

The festival’s next move in response is… a global tour. It will be holding events in Croatia, Macedonia, Malta, Egypt and India between May and November next year, although the latter month will also see it return to Serbia for an event too.

More gigs would be a good thing, and a voluntary £1 levy for grassroots venues could help..