Misleading - Ticketmaster "may have misled Oasis fans" with unclear pricing when it put their reunion tour on sale last year, the UK's competition watchdog has said. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the company may have breached consumer protection law by selling ‘platinum’ tickets for almost 2.5 times the standard price, without explaining they came with no additional benefits.
"This risked giving consumers the misleading impression that platinum tickets were better," it said in an update to its investigation into Ticketmaster. The CMA has instructed Ticketmaster to change the way it labels tickets and reveals prices to fans in the future. Ticketmaster said it "welcomed" the advice. "At Ticketmaster, we strive to provide the best ticketing platform through a simple, transparent and consumer-friendly experience," a spokesperson told the BBC. We welcome the CMA's input in helping make the industry even better for fans."
Kennedy Center - Arts figures from UK venues including the Barbican and Hackney Empire have encouraged the sector to "double down on equity, diversity and inclusion" measures following Donald Trump’s interventions at the Kennedy Center in the US. They have warned that the situation in the US threatens to "wipe out decades of progress".
Earlier this year, Trump made himself the chair of the US’ National Cultural Center, getting rid of 18 board members and replacing them with people more aligned with his own politics. "We didn’t like what they were showing, we’re going to make sure it’s good and it’s not going to be woke," he said at the time. Following this, a number of artists have decided to boycott the Kennedy Center, based in Washington DC, which comprises a concert hall, opera house and theatre.
Earlier this month, Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller cancelled the musical’s run at the venue, accusing the president of politicising a "sacred" institution, while playwright Harvey Fierstein said of Trump’s interference: "This is how freedom ends."
Red Tape - One of London's most prestigious classical music venues has pulled out of England's cultural subsidy scheme because of "crippling" red tape and a controversial strategy that is seen as failing to prioritise artistic excellence. Wigmore Hall currently receives £344,000 of public money a year from Arts Council England, but will stop taking the funding from 2026.
Director John Gilhooly said: "The current policy is just too onerous, and they seem to have no interest in what's happening on the stage, [or] in the great artists of the world." The Arts Council said recipients of funding should be "prepared to show how they will offer the public excellent value", and that it is "absolutely committed to creative excellence".
Mr Gilhooly said the venue does not "fully believe in everything" in the Arts Council's current strategy. Titled Let's Create, the plan is billed by the Arts Council as widening access to culture and cultural funding, but is seen by many as supporting grassroots and community work over artists who are at the top of their fields.
Mr Gilhooly said the musicians who perform at Wigmore Hall are the artistic equivalent of Olympic champions. "We also work with a community choir. In my view, both are excellent, both are outstanding things," he said.
In The Courts - Dua Lipa has won the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused her of copying her hit single Levitating from two other songs. The star was sued in 2022 by songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who accused her of plagiarising their 1979 disco track Wiggle and Giggle All Night and 1980's Don Diablo. US Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that the songs only had generic similarities, including non-copyrightable musical elements that had also previously been used by Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Bee Gees in their song Stayin' Alive.
It is the second time that Lipa has won a plagiarism case over Levitating, which was a global hit in 2020. She was previously sued by Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, who claimed Lipa ripped off the chorus for her song from their 2015 track Live Your Life.
(Jim Evans)
