The Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster could take a dramatic turn with the revelation of a previously undisclosed “kickback” scheme involving venue giant Oak View Group (OVG) and a major ticketing provider.

The kickback arrangement has come to light as part of the DOJ’s investigation into bid-rigging allegations against OVG CEO Tim Leiweke.

The Co-Founder and now former Chief Executive Officer of venue developer Oak View Group (OVG) is being indicted by the Department of Justice for allegedly rigging the bidding process for an arena at the University of Texas.

Electronic music festival Tomorrowland will go ahead as planned, despite the main stage being destroyed by a massive fire on Wednesday — just one day before festivities were set to begin.

In a statement shared on Instagram, organizers of the festival in Belgium wrote, “Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged.” They also confirmed there were no fatal injuries.

The United Theatre in Westerly, Rhode Island, is partnering with Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe to launch Bluebird at The United, an exclusive concert series debuting November 8, 2025, as part of the theatre’s Nashville North initiative.

Modeled after the original Bluebird Cafe—where stars like Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift launched their careers—this quarterly series will feature three top Nashville singer-songwriters in a night of acoustic performance and storytelling.

The July 5 "Back to the Beginning" show raised more than $200 million for three charities, surpassing the amount raised by FireAid and Farm Aid combined.

The 2025 edition of Summerfest has concluded in Milwaukee, following performances from more than 600 artists across multiple stages and three weekends.

Festival highlights from this year included sold-out shows with Hozier, The Killers, and Benson Boone at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, as well as capacity performances from The Avett Brothers, CAKE, Riley Green, and Chicago at the BMO Pavilion. Demonstrating the diverse range of musical talents, additional headliners included The Lumineers, Megan Thee Stallion, Lainey Wilson, Def Leppard, James Taylor, Bad Omens, Gary Clark Jr., Billy Currington, The Fray, Young The Giant, Natasha Bedingfield, Alex Warren, Babymetal, DEVO, Offset, Porter Robinson, Dirty Heads, The Warning, and many more.

Additionally, throughout the nine days of Summerfest, 37 local Milwaukee food and beverage vendors and 36 local marketplace vendors were featured, along with 60 unique exhibitors, experiences, activities, and special events.

In total, more than 600,000 fans turned out for Summerfest in 2025, up by approximately 8% from the previous year.

Lady Gaga’s four Singapore concerts in May boosted the country’s economy by an estimated S$100m (£58m/€67m/US$78m) to $150m in tourism receipts according to experts.

Talking to The Straits Times, Maybank economist Brian Lee noted, however, that the amount was much less than the S$350m to S$500m brought in by concerts from Taylor Swift and Coldplay in 2024.

Lady Gaga’s Singapore concerts, which were staged at the National Stadium as part of her Mayhem Ball tour, grossed US$40.8m from the sale of 193,000 tickets according to Billboard.

Beyoncé swaps the flying Cadillac for a flying gold horse, following a scary mid-air stage mishap in Houston last month.

Beyoncé has made a noticeable change to her Cowboy Carter Tour after the recent mishap that saw her flying Cadillac tilting mid-air with her aboard. In the closing moments of her July 10 show in Atlanta, Queen Bey introduced the audience to a gold mechanical horse, suspended by wires. Complete with galloping leg movements, the horse carried Beyoncé above the crowd as she performed her hit “16 Carriages.”

Here comes rhymin’ Simon. It’s not a phrase we would have imagined saying again, in the context of a concert tour, after Paul Simon wrapped up his official farewell tour seven years ago. There was reason to believe he had valid reasons for marking that as his real goodbye to road shows, and not as the kind of fake-out retirement that so many performers cash in on and then renege on. But he has found solutions to the issues that might have kept him off-stage. By the time he kicked off a five-night stand at Walt Disney Concert Hall this week, Simon was a full 40 shows into his 2025 “Quiet Celebration” outing. And he was sounding… yes, softer (as promised in the tour title!) but, really, undiminished. We’ve never had a better reason to be glad someone went back on their word.

The Grand Ole Opry is many things: a stage, a show, a symbol. It’s the longest-running live broadcast in the world, a cornerstone of country music tradition and a dream for generations of artists. But behind the lights and legacy are the people who bring it all to life, night after night, show after show.

Photo agencies are to boycott the rest of the Oasis reunion tour, including the first “homecoming” gig in Manchester on Friday, over restrictions imposed on how newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasters and digital publishers can use pictures from the gigs.

The band’s management has told photo agencies and publishers that they own the rights to shots taken at the concerts for just a year, and then they will lose ownership of the images for any future use.

Earlier this month, Adrian Holovaty, founder of music-teaching platform Soundslice, solved a mystery that had been plaguing him for weeks. Weird images of what were clearly ChatGPT sessions kept being uploaded to the site.

Once he solved it, he realized that ChatGPT had become one of his company’s greatest hype men — but it was also lying to people about what his app could do.

Rock legend Robert Plant is set to release a new album, Saving Grace, which he’ll support by embarking on a US tour with his band of the same name. The announcement arrives with the first single, a cover of Low’s “Everybody’s Song.” Listen to it below.

Set for release on September 26th via Nonesuch Records, Saving Grace first started taking shape back during the pandemic in Plant’s home country of England. That’s where he connected with the Saving Grace band – vocalist Suzi Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley, and cellist Barney Morse-Brown. They’ve been working together over the past six years, building a chemistry and comradery that blossomed into this new album.

The calamitous weather of recent years has taken many lives, caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage and is changing the climate and economies of countries all over the globe. But the Steve Miller Band’s 2025 North American tour may be the first to be canceled due to the ongoing trend of climate change-inducted weather disasters, rather than any single event.

The band has canceled all 31 scheduled dates of its American tour, which was slated to begin Aug. 15 in Bethel, NY and traverse the entire country before concluding in Anaheim, Calif. on Nov. 8.

A ticketing enterprise labelled ‘Company B’ agreed to pay millions of dollars to Oak View Group (OVG) in exchange for the latter’s commitment to “advocate” for the unnamed business as the exclusive ticketing service provider for OVG360-managed venues.

The allegations have been detailed as a ‘statement of facts’ regarding the alleged ‘failure to disclose [a] ticket incentive arrangement’ in a document detailing OVG’s non-prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Anheuser-Busch InBev has apologized for a Cannes Grand Prix-winning campaign that boasted of having avoided paying for music rights.
The world’s largest beer producer, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), has been facing criticism for a Budweiser campaign that bragged about avoiding paying for music rights. The “One Second Ads” campaign, which ran on TikTok in Brazil, used brief clips from famous hits—including those from The Beatles, Queen, and Beyoncé—without licensing them.

Vivid Seats has distributed a letter to its shareholders to vote on a reverse stock split proposal which would reduce its number of shares and therefore could increase the price per share.

If it passes, the online ticketing marketplace and resale company would be able to combine shares at a ratio of between 1-for-5 and 1-for-30 for both Class A and Class B common stock.

“We believe a higher trading price could improve the marketability of our Class A Common Stock to a broader range of investors,” read a Vivid Seats filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earlier this week news broke that Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke was stepping down after being indicted by the US Department of Justice. While not admitting to wrongdoing, Oak View agreed to pay a hefty fine and cooperate with the DoJ.

Leiweke allegedly lead “a scheme designed to steer the contract for entertainment services at a public university’s arena to his company.” His charges include conspiring with a competitor to get them to pull out of the bidding process. Leiweke’s charges face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Leiweke denies the charges.

As the Oasis reunion bus rolls into Manchester this weekend, Spotify has clambered on board for the ride. It has commissioned a short film about Oasis superfans, published through its social media accounts with billboard adverts starring some of the featured fans.

There are also some features within Spotify itself: a personalised ‘set list builder’ based on fans’ streaming history, which can then be turned into shareable cards for social media. Each fan will also get a playlist of their most-streamed Oasis songs.

Juice Entertainment, which has been engaged in a long-running lawsuit with Live Nation, has alleged the entertainment giant has engaged in fraud, monopolistic behaviour, deceptive business practices and corporate espionage.

The allegations were made in a letter submitted to the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s public inquiry into unfair and anticompetitive practices in live entertainment.

In a memo to members, the National Independent Venue Association clarified the scope of Shuttered Venue Operator Grant recoupment actions being taken by the Small Business Administration.

NIVA says that the overwhelming majority of SVOG recipients — more than 91% — have closed out and the SBA told the industry group it has no intention of recouping those funds.

There are, however, 645 grantees, the SBA told NIVA, who are subject to involuntary recoupment. More than half of those identified had been non-responsive to earlier SBA communications. The remainder were identified as either having eligibility or overpayment issues.

Yesterday we reported on the US Department of Justice’s indictment of Oak View Group boss Tim Leiweke over allegations of bid-rigging around a new arena in Texas. He has stepped down from his role as CEO, but in a statement sent to Music Ally, his spokesperson has criticised the indictment.

“Mr. Leiweke has done nothing wrong and will vigorously defend himself and his well-deserved reputation for fairness and integrity. The Antitrust Division’s allegations are wrong on the law and the facts, and the case should never have been brought,” said the spokesperson.