The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking legal action against ticket resellers for violation of the BOTS Act seeking “tens of millions of dollars” in penalties. Ticket scalpers frequently use ticket buying bots, multiple accounts under pseudonyms, and other strategies to purchase concert and other event tickets for resale on platforms like StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek.

Two big pieces of news surrounding Live Nation:

1) Live Nation Urban, long using influencers to promote tours and festivals, is now turning that network into a business. Partnering with influencer-marketing firm Breakr, it has launched the Live Nation Urban Creator Network — a curated group of top Black creators, backed by Breakr’s database of 75,000+ creators and 55M data points — which will be offered to brands seeking authentic connections with Black audiences.

2) Live Nation is set to acquire an additional 24% stake in Mexican concert promoter OCESA, accelerating a purchase agreement. The USD $646 million transaction, announced Tuesday (July 29), will see Live Nation increase its ownership in OCESA to 75% from its current 51% stake. In addition, Live Nation has secured a contract with OCESA boss Alejandro Soberón to remain CEO of the company through 2032.

HYBE, the K-pop giant behind BTS, is facing a tax probe by South Korea’s National Tax Service about potential violations related to the company’s 2020 initial public offering. The latest tax probe adds to mounting legal pressures as last week, the financial crime unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency raided HYBE’s headquarters as part of an ongoing probe into alleged stock manipulation by Chairman Bang, plus action from the South Korea’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) forwarding a complaint against Bang and three other executives alleging violation of the Capital Markets Act.

LEADERSHIP NEWS

Tom Conrad, Sonos’ interim CEO and president since January, has been officially named to the top job at the speaker company. Conrad took over the CEO role on an interim basis in January from Patrick Spence, who stepped down after the speaker company struggled with revenue and sales.

Warner Records is restructuring its marketing team to merge digital and traditional efforts for greater efficiency, led by GM Mike Chester. Dalia Ganz is promoted to EVP/head of digital & marketing, overseeing SVPs Sam Riddle (digital marketing), Will Morrow (viral marketing), and marketing strategy & operations leads Jesse Ervin, TJ Landig, and Shawnae Corbett-Rice. Chester also revamped the commerce department, led by SVPs Axel Hyge and Dave Edwards.

Live events company AEG Presents has promoted Jim King to CEO of AEG Presents UK and European Festivals. King, who was most recently CEO of European Festivals, will now also oversee the company’s UK concert promotion business, which includes arena and stadium tours as well as club performances.

Nicki Shamel has been appointed Head of TuneCore US as the company sharpens its focus on artist development. She will oversee the platform’s artist roster and promote tools like TuneCore Accelerator and its Advanced Trends & Analytics dashboard to support independent artists.

EXTRA NEWS

Universal Music Publishing Group has signed Grammy Award-winning songwriter, producer and musician Joel Little to an exclusive worldwide music publishing administration agreement. Little is widely recognized for his collaborations with artists from Lorde to Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan, Khalid, Imagine Dragons, Gracie Abrams and James Bay.

TikTok has expanded its ‘Add to Music App’ feature to include YouTube Music. Now, users can tap ‘Add Song’ on a video to save tracks directly to their ‘TikTok Songs’ playlist in YouTube Music.

Create Music Group-owned digital content studio Flighthouse Media sees an opportunity in bringing sports media to Gen Z fans, and to make it happen, it’s launching a new brand: Fieldhouse. Fieldhouse is “a sports-first, chaos-powered content brand built for the next generation of fans,” the company said in a statement

FireAid organizers have defended their handling of the $100M relief fund after criticism from lawmakers and President Trump, who called it “a total disaster.” The group said “misinformation” is spreading about how funds were distributed, as Rep. Kevin Kiley urges a DOJ investigation.