In today's CMU Daily: Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino was interviewed at a Goldman Sachs conference earlier this week. With the fallout from the Oasis shows in the UK, it was interesting to see what he had to say about ticket prices. Live music is “incredibly affordable”, he argued, especially when compared to sport

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Also today: Danity Kane member Dawn Richard is the latest person to sue Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs over allegations of sexual abuse - his lawyer claims Richard has “manufactured a series of false claims” to secure a payday; Dua Lipa has failed to get one of the lawsuits filed over ‘Levitating’ dismissed

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Live Nation boss insists concerts are “incredibly affordable”, especially when compared to sport

With concert ticket pricing and Ticketmaster very much in the news in the UK this month in the context of the Oasis reunion shows, Live Nation boss Michael Rapino has insisted that live music is still an “incredibly affordable” option when compared to other forms of live entertainment. Meanwhile, the live giant’s ticketing business mainly gets a bad rep, he reckons, because with in-demand shows you have lots of disappointed fans who can’t get tickets. 

Rapino was talking at a Goldman Sachs conference in the US. While high ticket prices for shows by the biggest music stars “make headlines”, he said, live music is “still the most affordable opportunity out there”. On average, “75% of tickets are under $100”, and with most shows “half of tickets are under $50”. 

And even with the tickets that sell for much more, he added, it’s still a good deal when compared to sports. Admitting his company has never quite managed to “figure out this PR struggle”, he said in sport it’s “like a badge of honour to say that the court sides were $7000”. Whereas in music, “you're horrible if you charge $800 for a front row concert”.

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ONE LINERS

Deals

• Universal Music Sweden has launched Def Jam Recordings Sweden, led by Mattias Caliste. 
• Warner Chappell Music UK and Defected Records have announced a new joint venture. 

Appointments

• beatBread has appointed Andrew Maddox as Head Of Finance. 

Streaming, Digital, Broadcast & Retail

• Salt has received a multi-million-pound grant from Innovate UK to accelerate its AI innovation in music rights and royalties solutions. 
• Disco, a new app encouraging users to share music and follow friends for track recommendations, has been launched by Darren Westlake, co-founder of business-crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. 
• Tune.fm, a decentralised music streaming platform, says that it has received $50 million in capital from Global Emerging Markets, bringing its total funding to $80 million. 
• Tencent Music Entertainment Group has launched its Global Music Outreach Initiative, beginning with events in Singapore from 13 Sep to 17 Sep.

Other Industry News & Events

• The Scottish Album Of The Year - or SAY - Award has revealed its 20-album longlist for 2024, featuring eleven debut albums and a diverse range of genres. 
• Armada Music has launched its first-ever mashup contest through its online educational platform, Armada University. 
• The University Of Wolverhampton has awarded an honorary doctorate of music to South Asian music producer, singer and performer PBN. 
• Sony Music Germany and Music Women Germany* have announced the winners of the third annual Female* Producer Prize, recognising ten female and non-binary producers across two categories. 
• UK record industry trade group BPI has released the third episode of its BPI Innovation Podcasts series, focusing on brand partnerships in the music industry. 

Live

• Oasis has yet to finalise support acts for their 2025 reunion tour, with frontman Liam Gallagher reportedly seeking "established acts" to join the line-up.

Artist News

• Tom Walker has confirmed he has never used dynamic pricing for his concert tickets. The told the Daily Star, "There's a limit, isn't there? I do feel like some people are taking the piss, and it's not cool".

Danity Kane member the latest to accuse Diddy of sexual harassment and assault

Yet another lawsuit has been filed accusing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of sexual harassment and assault. The latest lawsuit has been instigated by Dawn Richard, who performed with Combs as part of Diddy-Dirty Money and, before that, was a member of Danity Kane, the group put together on the Combs-fronted MTV show ‘Making The Band’.

In her lawsuit, Richard says that Combs “manipulated” her into believing that female artists were required to tolerate “abuse and exploitation” in order to succeed in the music industry. 

She claims he routinely mistreated members of Danity Kane after they were formed on ‘Making The Band’ in 2005 and then signed to his Bad Boy label, and that his behaviour only worsened following the launch of Diddy-Dirty Money in 2009. She also claims to have witnessed the abuse of other women by Combs, including his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

Legal dispute over talk-box vocals in Dua Lipa hit allowed to proceed

A lawsuit filed by “one of the world’s top talk box artists” against Dua Lipa, and her label Warner Music, over the talk box vocal performance he created for her hit ‘Levitating’ has been allowed to proceed. 

The dispute is over the use of Bosko Kante’s vocal performance on remixes of ‘Levitating’, which he says was never approved. Lipa’s team tried to get the lawsuit dismissed by arguing that Kante had “failed to specify which exact portions of his recordings were used in the remixes”, which meant he had not sufficiently proven the ‘substantial similarity’ requirement for a copyright infringement claim to proceed. 

However, Judge Hernán D Vera has now rejected that argument. He ruled that Kante had “adequately pled a copyright infringement claim by alleging that ‘all or substantially all’ of his copyrighted recording - ie his actual voice - was used in the remixes without his permission”. That was sufficient for his lawsuit to proceed, Vera added, stating there was no requirement on the producer to “identify, second-by-second, which portions were used”.

RELEASES & TOURS

JD. REID has released his new EP ‘sometimes i wonder 002’.

Brandon Nembhard has released his new single ‘MIND YOUR MANNERS’. His new EP ‘IF NOT NOW, WHEN?' is out 10 Oct.

Kendrick Lamar has released a new single on his Instagram. The five minute track was posted without a caption or title, with just the audio and a photo of Nike AF1s.

Love Remain has released his new single ‘Love, Friends, Music’.

Regalado has released her new single ‘Pinoy Funk’.

Margo Price has released her new single ‘Too Stoned To Cry’, featuring Billy Strings.

Fousheé has released her new single ‘feel like home’. Her new album ‘Pointy Heights’ is out this Friday.

KYNSY has released her new single ‘Body’. Her new EP ‘Utopia’ is out 27 Oct.

Mastodon, Lamb Of God have released their new single ‘Floods Of Triton’.

Shawn Mendes has released his new single ‘Nobody Knows’. His new album ‘SHAWN’ is out 18 Oct.

WHO SHOT SCOTT has released his new single ‘LIL BIT OF HOT’.

Hans Zimmer has announced a UK/EU arena tour for 2025-26, including a show at The O2 on 1 Dec 2025. Tickets go on general sale 26 Sep here.