Decibel News

Less than two weeks after announcing it was closing its doors for good, Fargo concert promoter Jade Presents, LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, putting hard numbers on the collapse of one of the Upper Midwest's longest-running independent promotion companies.

At this year’s conference hosted by the National Independent Venue Association, one of the most closely watched discussions had little to do with booking trends, sponsorships or venue operations.

At the National Independent Venue Association conference this week, ROSTR unveiled one of its most ambitious expansions to date: a comprehensive venue database designed to help agents, managers, promoters and venue operators discover, analyze and connect with concert venues across the live music landscape. The move represents a natural evolution for ROSTR, which has become a widely used industry resource for artist, management and agency information.

The Bears have played their home games at Soldier Field on Chicago's lakefront since 1971. The stadium got a major renovation in 2003, but the team has long felt it's outdated and inadequate compared to modern NFL venues. For years, ownership has wanted a new, state-of-the-art facility — ideally a domed stadium that could host major events year-round.

StubHub is launching a comprehensive festival protection program in what appears to be a calculated effort to rehabilitate its battered reputation following a disastrous Coachella ticket controversy that left hundreds of fans without passes and the resale giant facing a PR nightmare. The new FestProtect platform, announced this week, promises festival-goers enhanced buyer protections, guaranteed ticket validity verification, and dedicated customer support channels for major music festivals.

Spotify is rolling out a new ticketing feature called Reserved this summer, giving select artists the ability to set aside concert tickets specifically for their most dedicated fans. The program will initially launch with a limited number of tours before expanding to artists of all sizes, including some of the year’s highest-demand live shows. Here’s how the program works: Eligible fans will receive both an email and an in-app notification when Reserved tickets become available.

At a keynote presentation staged at the iconic Hollywood Bowl, French audio giant L-Acoustics unveiled what executives called the company’s most significant loudspeaker launch since the debut of V-DOSC in 1994 and K1 in 2008 — two technologies that helped define the modern line-array era.

Live Nation is doubling down on its effort to overturn the blockbuster antitrust verdict against the company, filing a sweeping new motion arguing plaintiffs failed to prove virtually every major element of their monopoly case against the concert giant and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster are asking a federal judge to throw out the blockbuster antitrust verdict against the companies — or at minimum order a new trial — arguing the case was tainted by inflammatory evidence, flawed jury instructions, and legally unsupported findings.

On the morning of May 21, 2026, the attorneys general of 34 states walked into the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and filed the most consequential antitrust remedies proposal in the history of the American live entertainment industry.