State Champ Radio Business
Trending on Billboard Oak View Group (OVG) has officially named Chris Granger as CEO, elevating the veteran sports and live-entertainment executive after five months in the interim CEO role. The appointment is effective immediately. Granger replaces former CEO and company founder Tim Leiweke, who was indicted earlier this year on federal bid-rigging charges related to […]
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UPDATE (Dec. 2): In a judgment entered Tuesday, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga reduced Megan Thee Stallion‘s trial award from $75,000 to $59,000. The judge said Megan can’t get damages for defamation because the jury found Milagro Gramz to be a member of the media, and the rapper’s team did not send a pre-lawsuit notice required for libel claims against journalists.
Therefore, the judgment finds in Megan’s favor only on intentional infliction of emotional distress and promotion of an altered sexual depiction, two claims for which the jury awarded Megan a total of $59,000. Judge Altonaga struck the additional $16,000 that Megan won for defamation.
Megan’s lawyers will contest the reduction in post-judgment motions. They’ll also seek at that time to add legal fees onto the damages amount.
PREVIOUSLY: A jury has held celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz liable for defaming Megan Thee Stallion and reposting a deepfake pornographic video of the rapper in the wake of her shooting by Tory Lanez.
A federal jury in Miami determined in a Monday (Dec. 1) verdict, reviewed by Billboard, that Gramz harmed Megan with her social media antics and awarded $75,000 in damages. That number will likely grow later on, since Megan won on a Florida law with a fee-shifting provision that could require Gramz to reimburse some of her hefty legal bills from the elite firm Quinn Emanuel.
“We’re thankful for the jury’s commitment to reinforcing the importance of truth, accountability and responsible commentary on social media,” said one of Megan’s lawyers, Mari Henderson, later on Monday. “This verdict sends a clear message that spreading dangerous misinformation carries significant consequences.”
A lawyer for Gramz, Jeremy McLymont, said in a statement, “We remain proud of the defense we presented and of Ms. Cooper’s willingness to stand up for her voice.”
“Ms. Pete and her attorneys asked the jury to send a message to the community by awarding Ms. Pete with an astronomical amount of damages,” said McLymont. “Indeed, the jury rejected Ms. Pete’s request and refused to send any such message as shown by the nominal damages Ms. Pete recovered.”
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Megan’s lawyers argued during the weeklong trial that Gramz acted as Lanez’s “mouthpiece” to spread misinformation and tank her reputation. Lanez (Daystar Peterson) is serving a 10-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2022 of shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument following a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills. He continues to maintain his innocence, though the conviction was recently upheld on appeal.
A loyal Lanez supporter, Gramz has for years used her social media presence to doubt the veracity of Megan’s account. Many of her posts about the shooting case have been outright false, such as her claims that Lanez’s gun supposedly went “missing.” Megan’s lawsuit also accused Gramz of violating a Florida law against “altered sexual depictions” by encouraging followers to watch a deepfake pornographic video of her.
Gramz denied being paid by Lanez and said her social media posts were First Amendment-protected journalism. The question of whether Gramz is a protected member of the media became a key issue during the trial. Jurors determined on Monday that she does have some media credentials, teeing up more post-trial litigation over whether the defamation verdict can stand.
Lanez himself was not a defendant or a witness in this trial. The Canadian rapper was supposed to give a videotaped deposition from prison, but was so uncooperative during the repeated questioning from Megan’s lawyers that he was held in contempt.
This story has been updated to include additional details on the verdict and statements from both sides.
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Warner Music Group (WMG) has hit apparel company PacSun with a copyright infringement lawsuit for allegedly using unlicensed music in advertisements and influencer videos on TikTok and Instagram.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday (Dec. 1) in California federal court, claims PacSun’s social media pages have illegally used hundreds of unlicensed tracks by top artists like Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, Charli xcx and Bruno Mars. WMG owns rights to these songs via various label subsidiaries, including Atlantic Records and Warner Records, and its publishing arm, Warner Chappell Music.
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According to the legal complaint, PacSun has invested heavily in social media marketing in recent years. WMG says the retailer has been “wildly successful” in selling apparel directly through posts on TikTok and Instagram, building up millions of followers and earning hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues.
“However, defendants achieved that success through their blatant, willful and repeated copyright infringement, including the infringement of at least 290 of plaintiffs’ most popular and valuable sound recordings and musical compositions,” write WMG’s lawyers at Sidley Austin.
While individual social media users can soundtrack their videos for free with songs covered by blanket licenses, companies are required to buy so-called sync licenses for music in commercial advertisements. There has been a spate of lawsuits in recent years from the major record labels against brands that use unlicensed music on Instagram and TikTok, including Bang Energy, Chili’s and Behr Paint.
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Like those previous lawsuits, WMG alleges here that PacSun uses copyrighted music to soundtrack its social media ads without buying sync licenses. The lawsuit also accuses PacSun of paying influencers to do the same, citing TikTok videos of influencers lip-syncing to Jack Harlow’s “WHATS POPPIN” and the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams” while encouraging followers to buy PacSun products.
WMG says it sent a cease-and-desist letter to PacSun back in February 2024, but to no avail: “Not only did PacSun explicitly choose to ignore the demand, its infringement both continued unabated as to several of the works identified by plaintiffs and expanded to include new, additional infringements,” reads the lawsuit.
Now, WMG is seeking a court injunction to stop the alleged infringement, as well as financial damages. The music company says it’s entitled to the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work, which would add up to a whopping $43.5 million for all 290 of the songs at issue.
PacSun did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday (Dec. 2).
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Mexican superstar Carín León has signed with WME’s global co-head of music, Kirk M. Sommer, in all areas, it was announced Tuesday (Dec. 2). Together with León’s manager, Jorge Juárez, the intention is to “grow León’s business and presence in territories beyond his current base.”
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“We are thrilled to join the WME team led by Kirk Sommer,” Juárez said in a statement. “Carín has tremendous potential to expand into other global territories. We are looking to WME to lead the way in all areas of their expertise.”
“Carín is a generational artist,” Sommer added. “In his incredible career, he has consistently broken barriers and transcended genres. We are determined to bring the full weight of WME to bear to expand Carín’s fanbase around the world and we are honored to work with both Carín and Jorge.”
Hailing from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, León — known for his signature norteño sound fused with R&B, country and pop — is one of the most versatile voices in Latin music. His debut album, Desvelada con Banda y Mariachi (2018), propelled him to quickly dominate the regional Mexican music scene. In 2021, his album Inédito debuted atop multiple charts and was named one of Billboard’s 25 Best Latin Albums of the Year.
A Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winner, León became the first Latin artist ever to play Coachella and Stagecoach in the same year in 2024, and is now set to become the first Latin artist to play Sphere in Las Vegas, with a run of seven shows set for 2026. He has also sung at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, opened for legendary British band The Rolling Stones, and sold out the impressive GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City, among other achievements. Earlier this year, he set an attendance record at RODEOHOUSTON with over 70,000 fans showing up to see him perform.
Last month, León took home the Latin Grammy for best contemporary Mexican music album for Palabra De To’s (Seca), which is also up for a 2026 Grammy Award for best música mexicana album.
As with just about every other industry in the world, some of music’s biggest issues in 2025 have revolved around the Trump administration. Artificial intelligence? Upon taking office, Trump revoked an order by President Biden that ensured “safe, secure and trustworthy development” of the technology. Share prices for public companies like Warner Music and Live […]
The sheer number of artist signings announced on a weekly basis makes it difficult to keep up, no matter how closely you pay attention to the industry news cycle. That’s why every other Tuesday, Billboard compiles the latest signings to labels, distributors, agencies, management companies and more, in an effort to provide a snapshot of the latest moves in the artist space, from household names to indie stars to emerging acts.
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To start this week, label and management company XOXO Entertainment signed Grammy-winning R&B group Blackstreet. Since 2014, the group’s lineup has featured original members Chauncey “Black” Hannibal and Levi Little, along with Mark Middleton and Eric Williams.
A press release indicates that announcements regarding new music and performances from the group are forthcoming.
“We are beyond excited to partner with Blackstreet,” said XOXO president Adam H. Hurstfield in a statement. “As some of the greatest architects of that legendary 90’s RnB sound, their music shaped the soundtrack of our lives, defined an era, and left an unmistakable imprint on global culture. Around the world, fans have been yearning for that authentic feeling again, and at XOXO Entertainment, we are devoted to bringing it back, side by side with the very legends who created it. We are honored to help amplify Blackstreet’s iconic legacy into this exciting new chapter.”
In its own statement, Blackstreet added that the group “has always stood for timeless music, true artistry, excellence, and evolution. Partnering with XOXO Entertainment feels like the perfect alignment; where vision, passion, and creativity meet. As a group, we’re excited and honored to join forces with a team that shares our energy and commitment to taking BLACKSTREET into a new era. This partnership is powerful, and together we’re ready to create moments the world will remember. This next chapter will be iconic.”
Blackstreet scored a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit in 1996 with “No Diggity” featuring Dr. Dre, which spent four weeks at the chart’s summit. It also enjoyed success with tracks including “Before I Let You Go” and “Take Me There.”
Check out more of the latest artist signings below.
B2K (BPC Music Group)
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THE BIG STORY: It’s almost 2026. Music lawyers are grappling with streaming fraud, deepfakes and trillion-dollar battles over artificial intelligence. And the U.S. Supreme Court is talking about … file sharing?
Nearly 30 years after the industry-shaking debut of Napster, online piracy is no longer the existential threat it once was. (Don’t worry: We’ve got robot musicians to worry about now.) Are a commercially significant number of people really still illegally downloading music files when humanity’s full corpus of recorded music is available for $12?
But litigation moves at a glacial pace — and in the mid-2010s, piracy was still a big enough deal that the industry began cracking down on the internet service providers that enabled it. The biggest such case, filed in 2018 by Universal, Warner and Sony against Cox, eventually saw a jury award the labels a whopping $1 billion over piracy by Cox subscribers.
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Nearly seven years later, that case is now before the Supreme Court – something of a legal time capsule from an earlier technological era, but one that the justices are worried could lead to “extreme” outcomes for our current one.
For more, go read our full breakdown of the case and this week’s big oral arguments at the high court.
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, go subscribe here.
Other top stories…
TALK THE LINE? The estate of Johnny Cash is suing Coca-Cola over ads that allegedly mimic the country legend’s voice – the first ever case to be brought under Tennessee’s recently enacted ELVIS Act aimed at prohibiting voice cloning in the A.I. era.
MEGAN THEE PLAINTIFF – A jury issued a verdict siding with Megan Thee Stallion in her defamation lawsuit against celebrity gossip blogger Milagro Gramz, who the star claims acted as Tory Lanez’s “mouthpiece” to spread misinformation after he shot Megan in 2020.
DIDDY V. NETFLIX – Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter warning of litigation if the streamer releases a 50 Cent-produced docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
CAN’T SHAKE IT OFF – A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by hundreds of Taylor Swift fans over Ticketmaster’s botched sale of Eras Tour tickets three years ago, allowing the case to move ahead.
TAKE IT EASY – A judge rejected a civil lawsuit against Don Henley and Irving Azoff over the criminal prosecution of three men who allegedly tried to sell stolen Eagles lyrics – a case that ended in a spectacular collapse in 2024.
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DOING TIME – Fugees rapper Pras Michel was sentenced to 14 years in prison following his conviction on illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy charges linked to Jho Low, the Malaysian financier who masterminded the 1MDB corruption scandal.
RESTAURANT ROW – Usher is suing music producer Bryan-Michael Cox and other organizers of a failed Atlanta restaurant project, claiming they misused money he loaned and still owe him $700,000.
MJ BIOPIC – Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris fired a legal broadside at the executors of her father’s estate, claiming a looming Michael movie and other projects are designed to “enrich and aggrandize” them rather than build wealth for the family.
FEE FIGHT – Nelly is demanding that a lawyer for one of his former St. Lunatics bandmates repay more than $78,000 he spent in legal bills to defeat her “frivolous” lawsuit over the rights to his debut album Country Grammar.
“STRONG WORDS” – Live Nation and Ticketmaster filed a long-awaited motion for summary judgment seeking to end the Justice Department’s sweeping antitrust case – claiming the feds used “strong words” that do not have “a lick of truth to them.”
MORE ACCUSERS – Two more of Smokey Robinson’s former employees — a woman and a man — came forward with claims that the 85-year-old Motown singer sexually assaulted them, adding to four earlier accusers.
LYRIC LITIGATION – GloRilla won a ruling dismissing — for now, at least — a lawsuit that accused her of stealing a social media personality’s viral catchphrase “all natural, no BBL” with the lyrics to her 2024 song “Never Find.”
CASE DROPPED – An appeal filed by Making the Band contestant Sara Rivers aimed at reviving her $60 million sexual assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs was abruptly dismissed — a move that came after her lawyers failed to file basic court forms.
CASE TOSSED – A judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against Kevin Liles by an anonymous executive assistant who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the legendary record executive at Def Jam in the early 2000s.
GOING PUBLIC – StubHub is facing a class action claiming it hid key details from investors ahead of its $758 million initial public offering (IPO) in September.
TRIAL SET – Aaron Carter’s family will head to trial next year in a wrongful death lawsuit against doctors and pharmacies that allegedly gave the late singer access to Xanax pills before he drowned in a bathtub in 2022.
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Key Investment Group (KIG) is asking a federal judge to throw out a recently filed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit against the ticket resale company over alleged violations of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.
In August, the FTC filed suit against KIG, alleging the company violated the BOTS Act when it purchased thousands of Taylor Swift tickets for her 2023-2024 Eras Tour and resold them for more than $1 million in profit. The lawsuit was filed days before a similar complaint was filed against Ticketmaster for allegedly refusing to enforce its own rules against scalpers and allowing unrestricted resale on its platform. Since then, Ticketmaster has made changes to its resale policies and, like KIG, has argued that the FTC is misapplying the BOTS Act.
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The FTC sued KIG in August, alleging the Colorado-based ticket resale operation used networks of accounts, IP masking, SIM boxes and other technical tools to evade Ticketmaster’s ticket-purchasing limits and acquire hundreds of high-demand tickets for resale. The agency claims these tactics “circumvented” the ticketing giant’s security controls in violation of the BOTS Act.
KIG is the first of the two firms to file a motion to dismiss. In a sweeping 36-page missive filed on Nov. 24, KIG attorney Bezalel A. Stern with law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips argues that the FTC’s complaint attempts to regulate long-established broker practices — like using multiple IP addresses to buy tickets or operating dozens of Ticketmaster accounts — that do not involve bots.
“KIG does not use bots. KIG does not circumvent any security measure,” the company tells the court, arguing the FTC is attempting to impose an unprecedented interpretation of the law that contradicts the law’s legislative history and the FTC’s own prior guidance.
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Stern stresses that the BOTS Act was explicitly drafted to stop “malicious computer code” that lets bot operators overwhelm ticketing websites and jump ahead of human buyers. KIG argues that since it employs human buyers — not automated scripts — the law does not apply. “Without the use of bots, there can be no BOTS Act violation,” KIG claims in the filing.
KIG’s brief also turns the FTC’s own evidence against it. In its lawsuit, the FTC included Ticketmaster records showing the ticketing company tracked KIG’s accounts and purchasing practices — even those created under alternate names — and knowingly allowed them. In a 2024 Ticketmaster email cited by the FTC, a Ticketmaster representative tells KIG that purchases made across different accounts are “within guidelines” so long as each individual account respects the posted per-account ticket limit. KIG’s motion argues that email destroys the FTC’s theory of unlawful “circumvention,” because ticket brokers at KIG cannot “avoid,” “evade” or “deceive” Ticketmaster’s controls when Ticketmaster explicitly authorizes the behavior.
KIG also highlights a contradiction between the FTC’s case against it and the agency’s separate September lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation. In that parallel case, the FTC alleges the ticketing company “knowingly allows, and in fact encourages, brokers to use multiple Ticketmaster accounts.” KIG argues the FTC cannot simultaneously claim Ticketmaster encourages multi-account purchasing while accusing KIG of “circumventing” the very same rules.
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The filing emphasizes that the FTC never alleges that KIG purchased tickets “within seconds” or at speeds indicative of automated software — the hallmark of bot activity described in past enforcement cases. According to KIG, the FTC is trying to convert everyday reseller practices into federal violations simply because they involve scale.
The FTC’s cited evidence — including a bank audit, news reports and previous consent decrees involving actual bot operators — does not establish that KIG knew its conduct was illegal under the BOTS Act, KIG’s motion claims.
Elsewhere in the motion, KIG alleges that the case began with a politically charged push by the White House to crack down on scalping. The company notes that minutes after President Trump — joined by Kid Rock — signed a March 2025 executive order demanding aggressive enforcement of the BOTS Act, the FTC sent KIG a draft complaint threatening litigation unless the company admitted wrongdoing.
KIG says the agency is now “expanding the BOTS Act far beyond its written and intended scope,” and warns that if the FTC’s theory were adopted, “every person or company who purchases tickets using more than one account” could be accused of violating federal law.
U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III will now consider the motion and whether to dismiss the government’s case before discovery begins. If not, the FTC will proceed to try to prove that KIG’s coordinated multi-account strategy amounted to illegal bot-level activity.
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Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs have sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter warning of litigation if the streaming giant follows through with plans to release the 50 Cent-produced docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
Set to drop on Tuesday (Dec. 2) on Netflix, the four-part documentary includes never-before-seen footage of Combs in the days leading up to his arrest last September. Combs’ attorney, Michael Tremonte, says in a Monday (Dec. 1) demand letter that the footage was recorded by the rap mogul’s employees and then “illicitly disclosed” to Netflix later on.
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According to Tremonte, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos first approached Combs about making a documentary back in 2023, but Combs rejected the idea when it became clear he wouldn’t have creative control. Netflix wanted to “punish Mr. Combs for refusing to play by its rules,” Tremonte says — so the company gave the producing gig and allegedly stolen footage to his longtime rival, 50 (Curtis Jackson).
“The evidence of Mr. Jackson’s vicious animus against Mr. Combs is overwhelming. He has been trolling Mr. Combs on the internet and social media for years and has made a career of attempting to defame, belittle and provoke Mr. Combs and turn the public against him,” reads the cease-and-desist letter. “Simply put, there is no one less able to view any aspect of Mr. Combs’s life and legacy through a fair and objective lens.”
Tremonte’s letter also complains about interview subjects being offered “problematic financial incentives” to speak negatively about Combs in the documentary. It warns that Combs may sue Netflix for copyright infringement or possession of stolen property if the series is released as planned.
“As you are undoubtedly aware, Mr. Combs has not hesitated to take legal action against media entities and others who violate his rights, and he will not hesitate to do so against Netflix,” writes Tremonte.
In a statement accompanying the letter, a spokesperson for Combs called the docuseries a “shameful hit piece” and slammed Netflix for “ripping private footage out of context — including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing.”
Reps for Netflix and 50 did not immediately return requests for comment on Monday.
Combs’ legacy has been overtaken in recent years by numerous allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse. The onetime music mogul is currently serving a federal prison sentence for arranging drug-fueled sex marathons between his girlfriends and male escorts, though he was acquitted of more serious racketeering and sex-trafficking charges at a blockbuster trial this summer.
As 2025 comes to a close, it’s time to begin the annual review of the top music business stories of the year. To kick things off, we’ll start with the engine that helps music reach the world: the record labels, which have gone through yet another period of seismic change. Whether it was the overarching […]
