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NEWS
California's "Fans First Act" Takes Aim at Ticket Scalping
California is the newest battleground for the future of ticket scalping with a new bill that would effectively outlaw resale in the state working its way through the statehouse.
Assembly Bill 1720 — known as the “Fans First Act”— would cap ticket resale prices in the state at no more than 10% above the original purchase price, including fees. The law would severely gut concert ticket scalping in the U.S.’ highest grossing state, dismantling a sprawling industry dominated by professional brokers and speculative traders. Opponents warn it could drive ticket sales underground and create new risks for consumers.
“Scalper marketplaces are not fan-to-fan resale platforms. They have become unregulated equities platforms, profiting from the gap between the artist’s initial pricing and what the market will bear.”
VIDEO
Watch Dave break down the California Assembly hearing on the state’s aggressive new resale cap bill.
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PRDs by voice. Bug reports by voice. Ship faster.
Dictate acceptance criteria and reproductions inside Cursor or Warp. Wispr Flow auto-tags file names, preserves syntax, and gives you paste-ready text in seconds. 4x faster than typing.
We hired one colleague for every department.
Last Tuesday, marketing asked Viktor to write the weekly campaign recap, pull performance from Google Ads and Meta, and format it as a PDF for the exec team. Done in four minutes.
That same afternoon, engineering asked Viktor to review three open pull requests on GitHub, cross-reference with the Linear sprint board, and flag anything blocking the release. Posted to private channel before standup.
At 9pm, ops asked Viktor to draft a vendor contract summary from three Notion docs and send it to the team. It was in #ops by morning.
None of them knew the others were using it.
Same colleague. Three departments. That's what changes when your AI coworker lives in Slack, where your whole company already works. It's not a tool one person logs into. It's a teammate everyone messages.
5,700+ teams. SOC 2 certified. Your data never trains models.
"Viktor is now an integral team member, and after weeks of use we still feel we haven't uncovered the full potential." - Patrick O'Doherty, Director, Yarra Web
SIZZLIN SHOWS CHART
Tracking the the most in-demand tickets in North America for the Weekend of May 1-3.
Band | Get-In Price | Venue | Show Date |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Duran Duran | $1,669 | Fountainblue, Las Vegas | Saturday |
2. Alison Krauss | $1,097 | McKnight Center, Stillwater | Saturday |
3. Hayley Williams | $415 | ACL Live at the Moody Theatre | Saturday |
4. David Byrne | $346 | Miller High Life, Milwaukee | Sunday |
5. John Summit | $335 | LIV, Las Vegas | Friday |
The Sizzlin’ Sales chart is compiled using data from Ticketdata.com and is ranked by highest get-in-the-door price — that’s the price of the cheapest ticket to the concert — on the secondary ticketing market.
LEGAL
Live Nation Antitrust Case Enters Crucial Phase as Fight Over Timing of Remedies Takes Center Stage
The antitrust case against Live Nation Entertainment is entering a pivotal new phase, with federal prosecutors, a coalition of state attorneys general, and the company now locked in a consequential dispute over how—and when—the court should determine potential remedies.
In a joint letter filed Friday in federal court in New York, the parties outlined sharply conflicting visions for what happens next after trial. At the center of the fight is a deceptively simple question with major implications: should the court evaluate the state’s proposal to breakup Live Nation and Ticketmaster at the same time it reviews the federal government’s proposed settlement with Live Nation struck just one week into the trial?
To understand why the dispute matters, it helps to start with the framework governing the federal settlement. Under the Tunney Act, formally known as the Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act, the U.S. Department of Justice must submit any antitrust settlement to a federal judge for approval.
Small Type:
The North American Concert Promoters Association shared the two photos with us, the first from their meeting in 1989 in San Francisco and their most recent meeting in Los Angeles earlier this month at the Pollstar conference. Thanks Joe Reinartz for sharing both images with Decibel.
The Portland (Maine) City Council voted Monday night to scrape Live Nation’s plan to build a 3,300-capacity venue in the city’s downtown. In a narrow 5–4 decision, council members approved changes to the city’s building codes that effectively block the proposed Portland Music Hall, which would have been located near Merrill Auditorium. 🎸
Taylor Swift has moved to protect her voice and image from unauthorized use in AI-generated content, according to Reuters. Swift, who launched her record-breaking “Eras Tour” in 2023—an outing so economically impactful it inspired the term “Taylornomics” — filed trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on March 24. The filings cover two voice recordings and one image, part of a broader effort to safeguard her likeness as AI tools become increasingly capable of generating realistic audio, video, and music.📀
A citizen journalist is trying to prevent Live Nation from keeping key trial materials under seal. In a letter filed April 29 to Judge Arun Subramanian in the SDNY, Inner City Press’ founder Matthew Lee has urged the court to reject Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s motion to seal a filing containing 64 attachments, including joint submissions and trial exhibits. The outlet argued that the materials—submitted during pretrial and trial proceedings—qualify as “judicial documents” and should carry a strong presumption of public access. The letter pushes back on any claim that documents not admitted at trial can remain hidden, citing Second Circuit precedent that materials influencing judicial decisions retain their public status regardless of admissibility. Lee framed the issue as especially urgent given the case’s post-verdict phase, arguing that public access is critical as remedies are considered and regulatory scrutiny continues. 🎟️
🛠️ Next Up On The Agenda
Option 🕘: Will Somer who writes the False Flag newsletter for The Bulwark warns ‘Clavicular Has Fallen Under the Sway of an Unsavory New Mentor’ Israeli gangster Hai Waknine » Get The Skinny »
Option 🕧: The helloyassine Youtube channel insists the host of New Jumper’s fight with Lil Boosie is evidence that ‘Adam22 Messed With The Wrong Rapper…’ » Read About It »
Option 🕤: The New York Times is reporting that ‘Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.’ » Check It Out »
Until next week,
The Signal
