THE BIG STORY: 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.

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.

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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.

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