Music Legal Beat: Live Nation, Katy Perry, J. Cole & Cam’ron

The entire music industry is asking the same question: Will Live Nation and Ticketmaster get broken up?

It’s what critics have wanted since the two concert giants merged in 2010. It’s what federal watchdogs promised when they filed a blockbuster antitrust case in 2024. And it’s what state attorneys general are now demanding after they decisively won that case.

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But in the immortal words of Neil Sedaka, breaking up is hard to do .

Breakups have been granted only a few times in over a century of antitrust history, and in recent years judges have opted for less-drastic options in monopoly suits against Microsoft and Google. And yet, experts tell Billboard that Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s own history might still change the calculus. For more, go read our entire story here .

You’re reading The Legal Beat , a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro , offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, subscribe here .

Other top stories this week…

-A Texas millionaire was ordered to repay $3 million worth of Katy Perry ’s legal fees after losing to the pop star in a yearslong legal battle over a California mansion sale.

– Taylor Swift ’s attorneys argued in court that the First Amendment protects The Life of a Showgirl from a trademark case filed a Vegas cabaret performer who hosts a show called “Confessions of a Showgirl.”

– Sabrina Carpenter got a restraining order against an alleged stalker who supposedly surveilled her Los Angeles home for a month before attempting to break in.

– J. Cole and Cam’ron reached a settlement to end their bitter lawsuit over the creation of the duo’s “Ready ’24” collab, which centered on an alleged promise by Cole to appear on Cam’s podcast.

– Billy Joel has warned that a planned unauthorized biopic called Billy & Me is “legally misguided,” but his lawyers can’t do much about it since stories about real events are core free speech.

-An appeals court revived a lawsuit against George Clinton claiming a portion of the Parliament-Funkadelic catalog is co-owned by the heirs of late keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

-Rapper Boosie Badazz was hit with a felony assault charge in Houston over accusations that he smashed a nightclub bouncer in the head with a glass hookah.

– Larry Jackson ’s label Gamma filed a lawsuit seeking to identify the anonymous owners of websites that say the company engaged in fraud, arguing the claims are defamatory.

-Sony Music’s top lawyer Julie Swidler announced she was leaving the music giant after 18 years. Rob Stringer called her “a bedrock of our company’s strategy and growth.”

-A judge ruled that an attorney for one of Nelly ’s former St. Lunatics bandmates must repay $67,000 the star spent on legal bills defeating a “frivolous” lawsuit over Country Grammar.

– M.I.A. is suing Kid Cudi for more than $2.8 million, claiming in the lawsuit that he illegally kicked her off his Rebel Rangers Tour for making political statements onstage.

-A judge ruled that gossip blogger Milagro Gramz is not entitled to special legal protections for journalists, since Tory Lanez paid her to post negatively about Megan Thee Stallion .

– Rihanna ’s Savage X Fenty lingerie brand was hit with a class action demanding it return “tariff surcharges” after SCOTUS overturned the Trump administration’s sweeping duties.

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/pro/legal-beat-live-nation-breakup-katy-perry-mansion-lawsuit/)._