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☆ Live Nation posts $3.1 billion revenue and record attendance despite controversies Live Nation posts $3.1 billion revenue and record attendance despite controversies
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Live Nation posted a record $3.1 billion in revenue – up 73% from last year – in the first quarter of 2023, despite possible regulation and tremendous fallout from botched Ticketmaster sales for the Taylor Swift Eras tour. In an earnings release, the ticket-industry giant said over 19 million people attended events across 45 countries in the first quarter. In a single day last November, more than two million Taylor Swift tickets were sold on Live Nation’s Ticketmaster, a record for any artist. Live Nation stock rose about 15% on the news, to close at about $77 a share. Congressional hearingsLawmakers grilled Live Nation president and CFO Joe Berchtold in a three-hour hearing in January, alleging the ticketing giant wields too much monopolistic control over the industry.

☆ Live Nation posts record $3 billion revenue amid backlash from concertgoers over Ticketmaster prices and accessibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Live Nation Entertainment reported this week it earned $3.1 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2023. The ticket giant also reported it's sold a record-breaking 90 million tickets for 2023 shows year-to-date. Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, predicted that 2023 could be the "biggest year of live music ever." Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino attributed the record-breaking growth to the star power of musicians who sent fans into a buying frenzy with tour announcements. The company has also faced ire from Bruce Springsteen and The Cure fans, who complained about high prices and additional fees for shows.

Companies Peloton Interactive Inc FollowNEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday refused to let Peloton Interactive Inc (PTON.O) customers pursue a class action accusing the bike and treadmill maker of misleading them about the "ever-growing" size of its library of on-demand fitness classes. The decision is a victory for New York-based Peloton, because class actions can allow for greater recoveries at lower cost than when plaintiffs sue individually. According to the customers, Peloton knew this could happen, yet kept charging full price for products containing copyrighted songs by Adele, Beyoncé, Luke Bryan, Drake, Ariana Grande, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Jay Z and other artists. Peloton settled the licensing lawsuit by the National Music Publishers' Association and 14 members in February 2020. The case is Passman et al v Peloton Interactive Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

☆ The most drastic measures celebrities have taken to wear daring fashion at the Met Gala
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Amanda Krause | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Beyoncé had garments tailored and hand-dyed while she rehearsed for a concert on the day of the 2012 Met Gala. Beyoncé attends the 2012 Met Gala. But when she suddenly decided to attend the Met Gala, they changed their plans. If it does, she's going. If not, she's not going,'" Hunter said to the Givenchy team at the time.

Persons: Beyoncé, Larry Busacca, Riccardo Tisci, Ty Hunter, she's, Hunter Organizations: Givenchy, Rit

☆ Adidas wants to 'double down' on U.S. market, regional head tells Wall Street Journal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FRANKFURT, April 30 (Reuters) - Adidas (ADSGn.DE), which has come under pressure after ending its lucrative Yeezy shoe partnership with Kanye West, is trying to grab a bigger slice of the U.S. sports market, the group's regional head told the Wall Street Journal. "We want to double down on all of the things that are U.S.-centric, particularly around sport," Rupert Campbell, the company's North America president, was quoted as saying in an interview. Apart from ending the Yeezy collaboration, Adidas has also stopped its Ivy Park collaboration with pop star Beyoncé according to media reports, with the contract set to expire at the end of this year. Talking on the overall U.S. sporting-goods market, the world's biggest, Campbell said: "We have to show our credentials in this space." Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ She Wrote Frankly About Divorce, and Suffered the Consequences
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Alexandra Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The “young single woman in the city” genre feels almost as old as cities. Probably someone was wandering around ancient Athens in a fetching tunic with a papyrus scroll detailing how Hermes got handsy. But modern New York is where the genre has reached its apotheosis, from Edith Wharton to Beyoncé and beyond. In this mostly upward and exuberant history, the writer Ursula Parrott has been largely (and sadly) omitted. Their divorce would inspire “Ex-Wife,” the most successful of her 20 books.

☆ Beyoncé petitions IRS over $2.7 million in tax penalties, claiming government denied her millions in deductions and charitable donations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Beyoncé is challenging the IRS over its assessment of $2.7 million in taxes and penalties. The singer alleges the agency rejected over $800,000 in charitable donations, according to the petition. The notice claimed Beyoncé owes over $1.4 million in additional tax and over $288,000 in penalty for 2019. For 2018, it alleged the singer owes about $805,000 in additional tax and $161,000 in penalty, according to Forbes. In her 20-page petition, Beyoncé argues that the agency refused millions of dollars in deductions, including $868,766 attributable to a charitable contribution carryover from 2018.

☆ A fake AI-generated Travis Scott album was taken off YouTube as the fight against AI music continues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI Hub is a Discord server housing over 36,000 members making AI music. Members from the group created "UTOP-AI," an AI album featuring the voices of Travis Scott and other artists. "I ain't talking Uber, come take a trip into my mind," croons Travis Scott on a song called "Winter Snow." Warner Music Group and representatives for Travis Scott did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. The alarm bells sounding off in response to AI music have already been rung by the power players in the industry.

☆ Spotify's CEO says the music industry has 'legitimate concerns' about AI-generated songs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said concerns from labels and music companies about AI are "legitimate." His comments come after AI-generated songs that sound like popular artists went viral this month. The music industry has "legitimate concerns" about songs generated by AI, the CEO of Spotify said. Daniel Ek addressed the industry's growing unease about AI music in Spotify's first quarter earnings call Tuesday and said it's working with partners to come up with solutions. Grimes, the former partner of Elon Musk and mother to two of his children, tweeted Monday that she'd share half the royalties from any AI-generated song using her voice.

☆ Tiffany unveils revamped New York flagship, showcasing new look
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Mimosa Spencer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Global Brand Ambassador Gal Gadot along with Anthony Ledru, President and Chief Executive officer of Tiffany & Co attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for reopening of the Tiffany flagship store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidNEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - Tiffany & Co. lifted the lid on its newly renovated New York city flagship on Wednesday, the centerpiece of a broad brand reset orchestrated by its owner, the world's biggest luxury group LVMH. Alexandre Arnault spearheaded the label's initial reset with an advertising campaign starring Beyonce -- wearing the famous yellow Tiffany diamond -- and Jay-Z. Now the priority will be on renovating the label's retail network, essential for Tiffany to bridge the gap with Cartier, the world's largest jewelry label, which belongs to Richemont(CFR.S), Ledru said. Tiffany sales came to 5.1 billion euros ($5.63 billion) in 2022 and are forecast to reach 7.4 billion in 2025, according to HSBC.

CNN —Harry Belafonte, the dashing singer, actor and activist who became an indispensable supporter of the civil rights movement, has died, his publicist Ken Sunshine told CNN. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Belafonte, left, plays a school principal in a scene from the film "See How They Run" in 1952. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Belafonte poses with the Emmy Award he won in 1960 for the musical special "Tonight With Belafonte." Fred Sabine/NBCU/Getty Images Belafonte and other recipients of Albert Einstein Commemorative Awards display their medallions after being honored in 1972. He is survived by his wife Pamela, his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte, David Belafonte, two stepchildren Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank and eight grandchildren.

☆ Readers’ Picks: 12 Motivating Workout Songs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dear listeners,Last week, I shared a workout playlist and asked you to submit a song that motivates you to move. I know, I know, “the whole history of The Amplifier” is, like, a month and a half at this point. As I wrote last week, for me, a good workout playlist combines familiarity and novelty. I loved reading about why these songs motivate you and what they inspired you to accomplish, so I’ve included your comments below. More than one of you admitted to loving Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations,” which, honestly, you do you.

☆ Concert tickets resold on SeatGeek have doubled in price over the last 5 years to to an average of $252 per ticket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Concert fans buying resale tickets could be paying more than double what prices were five years ago. That means the average price of a concert ticket resold on SeatGeek has climbed from $125 in 2019 to $252 in 2023, the company confirmed to Insider. For resold Taylor Swift tickets, the average price is $1,311, per SeatGeek. One 31-year-old fan bought two resale Swift tickets for $5,500, Insider's Juliana Kaplan reported, which she said she later regretted. That was still lower than the rate other resold tickets were going for.

☆ People think AI is to blame for the mysterious case of the Spotify song with 49 different names
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

One Spotify user was recommended the same song under 49 different names and suspects AI is behind it. Turns out, AI-generated songs are taking over conversation in the music industry. Spotify user Adam Faze took to Twitter to try to find out. except every time I looked, it was a different song name and artist entirely." He decided to add each of these recommended tracks to a playlist, which now includes 49 "different" songs.

☆ Pope loses verified status on Twitter, US basketball star LeBron James remains
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Yuvraj Malik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 20 (Reuters) - Twitter on Thursday began removing legacy blue checkmarks from user profiles, with famous people including pop icon Beyonce and Pope Francis losing their verified statuses. Some personalities such as basketball star LeBron James and author Stephen King still had their checkmarks. "The Shining" author King, who has previously called Musk a terrible fit for Twitter, tweeted: "My Twitter account says I've subscribed to Twitter Blue. My Twitter account says I've given a phone number. U.S. non-profit National Public Radio (NPR) stopped posting content on its 52 official Twitter feeds after Twitter labeled it "state-affiliated media" and later "government-funded media".

☆ Tiffany: Not Just a Shopping Destination, But a World-Class Museum
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephen Wallis | Photography Nagi Sakai For Wsj. Magazine | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

When Tiffany & Co. reopens its New York City flagship on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street this spring, following three years of work, visitors will hardly recognize the street-level sales floor famously featured in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Where dark-green marble and teak columns once surrounded a bank of art deco elevators, a showstopping painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat now hangs. The canvas was chosen especially for the robin’s-egg-blue background that nearly matches Tiffany’s own trademarked blue. It’s an intentionally placed lure—inviting in those tourists who come to re-create Audrey Hepburn’s dreamy window-shopping scene. In the new-look Tiffany, splashy art abounds: A concave, faceted stainless-steel Anish Kapoor wall sculpture in the third-floor wedding and engagement area seems tailor-made for celebratory ring-shopping selfies.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter begins purge of blue check marks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk’s Twitter on Thursday began a purge of blue verification check marks from users who have not signed up for its subscription service, with the checks disappearing from the accounts of journalists, academics and celebrities. The initial rollout of the change appeared to be fairly glitchy, as blue checks disappeared and reappeared on some accounts. The change — and its confusing rollout — threatens to create an even greater risk of impersonation of high-profile users and confusion over the veracity of information on the platform. Twitter had previously said it would “begin winding down” blue checks granted under its old verification system — which emphasized protecting high-profile users at risk of impersonation — on April 1. Last week, Musk tweeted that the “final date for removing legacy Blue checks is 4/20,” a date with special resonance to the billionaire entrepreneur given its meaning to marijuana enthusiasts.

Trademark Office to reject a Black Lives Matter application for a trademark featuring three parallel stripes. "Adidas will withdraw its opposition to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's trademark application as soon as possible," the company said in a statement. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is the most prominent entity in the decentralized Black Lives Matter movement, which arose a decade ago in protest against police violence against Black people. Representatives of the Black Lives Matter group did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. A jury in that case decided in January that Thom Browne's stripe patterns did not violate Adidas' trademark rights.

☆ Why People Are Getting More Disruptive at Concerts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Ann-Marie Alcántara | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Concert season is in full swing, with Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and other artists dominating calendars in the coming months. But a new villain is hurting the experience for many: superfans seeking five minutes of social-media fame. Homemade signs, screaming teenagers and bouncing beach balls aren’t new to concerts. What has changed is that, largely thanks to TikTok, any moment of a concert can go viral. More fans are trying to force that moment to happen with wild shenanigans, annoying noises or demands on artists to play unusual songs.

☆ I can't stop watching these hilariously bad AI-generated videos of celebrities like Will Smith and Scarlett Johansson
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The internet is freaking out over clips generated by AI text-to-video generator ModelScope. The AI-generated videos come after a recent AI-generated picture of the Pope when viral. The videos were made using ModelScope Text to Video Synthesis, a free AI video generator that AI firm Hugging Face released to the public last week. That may be because the Modelscope tool is trained on images scraped from stock photo sites, according to Vice. AI image generators have also been found to produce images that reflect racial and gender stereotypes, and can spread misinformation.

☆ Adidas adds risk by tripping over its sneakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Adidas (ADSGn.DE) is having a hard time keeping its feet out of its mouth. On Wednesday, the $28 billion sneaker maker withdrew a trademark objection to Black Lives Matter over its use of three stripes in its logo 48 hours after filing it. The timing of Adidas’s objection looks tin-eared. It could have devised a partnership arrangement with Black Lives Matter that featured both brands. Trying to pick a fight with an organisation popular with young consumers shows that Adidas’s biggest risk is its mouth.

☆ Concertgoers Are Behaving Badly. Blame TikTok.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Ann-Marie Alcántara | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Adidas and Beyoncé to Part Ways After Ivy Park Sales Struggles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Khadeeja Safdar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Grammy-winning artist Beyoncé reached a deal with Adidas in 2019 after launching the Ivy Park brand in 2016. Beyoncé and Adidas AG have decided to end their fashion partnership, according to people familiar with the matter, splitting up after years of lackluster sales for her Ivy Park line of apparel. The partnership will end after the company releases Ivy Park collections of merchandise that are already planned for this year, the people said. The Hollywood Reporter earlier reported that the two sides were breaking up.

☆ Chloe Bailey makes solo album debut with 'In Pieces'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Alicia Powell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Chloe Bailey, also known by her stage name Chloe, sits for a portrait at Sony Music global headquarters in New York City, U.S., March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon StapletonNEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - U.S. singer and actress Chloe Bailey, half of sister R&B duo Chloe x Halle, releases her debut solo album on Friday, a record whose message she says is: it is OK to show your vulnerable side. We all have scars but it's just who wears it the best," Bailey said in an interview. "The creative side didn't feel different, but (not) having the moral support and the validation from someone who's been my best friend since I was a little girl ... that was incredibly scary," Bailey said of doing the album solo. Bailey has faced a backlash over her covers of classic songs "Feeling Good" and "Lovin' You", as well as her revealing outfits.

☆ Adidas ends partnership with Beyonce - WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Beyonce accepts the award for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for "Renaissance" during the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mario AnzuoniLONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Adidas (ADSGn.DE) has ended its fashion partnership with Beyoncé, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. If confirmed, it would mark a second high-profile split between Adidas and a celebrity partner, after the German sportswear giant ended its collaboration with Kanye West over his antisemitic comments. Adidas, which had signed a deal with Beyoncé in April 2019 to relaunch her brand Ivy Park, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal said sales of Ivy Park have been underperforming expectations for years.

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