And The Update Is… Live Nation Ruled an Illegal Monopoly, D4VD Arrested for Murder, Udio Pays Up on AI
And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan
And The Writer Is
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every week, And the Writer Is brings you the most important news moving through the music industry — straight, sharp, and no fluff. This week: a jury ruled Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated antitrust laws and operate as illegal monopolies, with a judge now weighing whether to force a breakup or sale. Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald — the A&R legends behind Warner's modern run — launched a new long-term international label with Sony Music investment and distribution. And Udio signed a licensing deal with Kobalt, becoming one of the first AI companies actually paying creatives for training on their work. Plus: D4vd arrested on murder charges and dropped by Interscope, Foster the People ink a new deal, and Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" holds the #1 song. Follow us on socials and don't miss our new episodes every Tuesday — the hottest conversations in music, with the people making it.
This week:
- Jury finds Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated antitrust laws — a judge will now decide whether to break them up
- Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald launch a new international label with Sony Music
- Udio signs a licensing deal with Kobalt — the first real AI-pays-creatives move of the cycle
- D4vd arrested on murder charges; Interscope removes him from their roster
- Foster the People sign a new deal
- Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas" remains #1 song of the week
- Ross previews live episodes coming from Stagecoach and the week's Billy Corgan drop
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, we are back with, and the update is, the end the writer is news segment. |
| 0:17.3 | I am Ross Golan. |
| 0:18.9 | This is the news for the week of April 13th the number one album |
| 0:24.9 | is still BTS that is no surprise and neither is the number one song by Ella Langley |
| 0:29.8 | Choosin Texas in the sad news D4VD has been arrested for murder. He will be charged likely this week, so we will all be watching that. |
| 0:43.1 | Interscope has scrubbed them from their site. |
| 0:45.3 | I imagine that many organizations will follow that. |
| 0:49.3 | In industry news, a jury found Live Nation and Ticketmaster have violated antitrust laws that |
| 0:56.2 | makes them illegal monopolies. A judge will now decide whether to disband and require a sale of |
| 1:04.9 | part, if not all of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. We will learn more about that soon as well. |
| 1:11.9 | Exciting news is that Max Loussauda and Julie Greenwald, the A&R Legends from Warner Music Group, |
| 1:19.8 | have started a new label with Sony music. |
| 1:24.1 | They now have taken on an investment and distribution and will build a long-term international |
| 1:29.0 | label over there that is exciting to watch. They are great at what they do. Udio signed a deal with |
| 1:36.5 | Cobalt. That's news for the AI industry. As we know, we are all watching the AI companies to |
| 1:42.8 | see which ones actually will pay creatives |
| 1:46.8 | for training their models on our work. |
| 1:50.8 | Udio is trying to do the right thing there. |
| 1:55.0 | And then some cool, nice artist news, Fawcett People send a new deal. |
| 2:00.8 | And we all like mark foster the people |
| 2:03.1 | shout out to you mark and that's pretty much the news for this week so we will be doing some live |
| 2:10.2 | episodes from stage coach next week and we'll air those after that you can listen to our billy corgan |
... |
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