THE BIG STORY: You probably don’t need me to tell you: Live Nation and Ticketmaster lost their antitrust trial. After 15 years of gripes, three years of litigation, six weeks of trial and four days of deliberation, a jury said the industry behemoth had illegally monopolized key elements of the live music business.
At trial, dozens of states argued that Live Nation had monopolized the market for primary concert ticketing and the market for large amphitheaters, and had unlawfully required artists to use its promotion services in order to play those amphitheaters. In their blockbuster verdict on Wednesday (April 15), the jury agreed on all points in a total defeat for Live Nation.
Following the verdict, New York Attorney General Letitia James called it a “landmark victory” for fans: “A jury found what we have long known to be true: Live Nation and Ticketmaster are breaking the law and costing consumers millions of dollars in the process.” Live Nation said it would immediately seek to overturn the outcome: “The jury’s verdict is not the last word on this matter.”
What you do probably need me to tell you is what comes next. What will the judge do? Is he going to break up the company? And what about that settlement the Trump administration struck with Live Nation last month? “Nobody’s ever seen something quite like this,” one expert told Billboard.
For more, go read our full breakdown of the next steps in the Live Nation lawsuit. And stay tuned as the case moves ahead — Billboard will keep you updated at every step.
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Other top stories this week…
-The singer D4vd (David Anthony Burke) was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, capping off months of speculation and uncertainty after her body was found in his car. Here’s why prosecutors say he did it.
-Record labels are quietly trying to get AI training rights into record deals, either through explicit new clauses or novel applications of old provisions. And some artist advocates are suspicious about what that means for the much-touted promise of “opt-in” rights.
-BTS’ record label took the first step to sue an anonymous X user who allegedly leaked songs, lyrics and artwork from ARIRANG before its release, seeking a subpoena to discover the poster’s identity.
-For as long as It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have been battling in court, Taylor Swift’s name has been linked to the case. With a trial looming, Billboard broke down how much Taylor will actually come into play in the courtroom showdown.
-Spotify and the three major label groups were awarded a nine-figure copyright judgment against the pirate library Anna’s Archive. But will they actually be able to collect it?
-Prince’s tragic death — ten years ago this week — set off waves of grief at the passing of a music icon. It also set in motion complex legal battles that took years to resolve and have never fully ended.
-A record label that unsuccessfully sued Bad Bunny over a sample on Un Verano Sin Ti fired back against his demand to be repaid nearly $500,000 in legal bills, calling some of the star’s arguments “absurd.”
-Powerhouse music lawyer Lisa Alter sat down with Billboard to talk about catalog deals for Primary Wave, her women-led law firm, and the boom in music finance: “The investment community finally started appreciating that music holds value.”
-Anthropic asked a judge to end UMG’s lawsuit over the use of song lyrics to train Claude, arguing that it had clearly made a “transformative” fair use of the lyrics to create something entirely new.
-Ye (formerly Kanye West) was hit with a lawsuit over a well-publicized 2024 incident at Los Angeles’ famed Chateau Marmont, which he later blamed on an alleged sexual assault of wife Bianca Censori.
-The major music companies hired Paul Clement — arguably the country’s top U.S. Supreme Court lawyer — for a looming battle at the high court over whether copyright termination rules apply globally.
-Prosecutors launched an appeal seeking to reinstate the conviction of a man accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay: “These convictions were supported by the testimony of 38 witnesses.”
–Tory Lanez (currently serving a 10-year sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion) sued the California prison system after a fellow inmate stabbed him 16 times in an attack last year.
-UMG sued Quince for allegedly using copyrighted songs like Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” in TikTok posts — the latest in an industry-wide crackdown on music used by commercial brands on social media.
-A judge refused to grant Megan Thee Stallion a cyberstalking injunction against celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz, ruling that such a gag order would violate the First Amendment.
-In other Live Nation news, the company agreed to pay $9.9 million to settle claims that Ticketmaster charged “deceptive fees” to Washington D.C. residents and misled them about ticket prices.
