April 2025 Updates

With so many proposals for new ticketing regulations in the US, and so many campaign groups with differing demands, it’s all rather confusing. With the TICKET Act, just passed by the House, it’s mainly good stuff, but with a problematic loophole and some other issues. Or so say NITO and NIVA. Here is my CMU report.

This Tuesday, Parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee will put the spotlight on the comedy business for the first time with a ‘state of play’ session on live comedy. Here’s a recent TW:Backstage article I wrote explaining what it’s all about.

Great first day at Jazzahead! – including delivering my first ever ‘silent disco’ style speed briefing, with my presentation amplified to the audience via headphones rather than speakers. Looking forward to checking out more panels and showcases tomorrow, and maybe even the Ferris wheel parked outside the conference venue.

It’s that time of year when our regular posts about applying to join the ThreeWeeks review team double up as an unofficial Edinburgh View Of The Week feature. If you know anyone planning to be at the Edinburgh Festival in August who might like to share their experiences with our readers, all the info is here.

My local ASDA now seems to be doubting itself about its new opening hours, with those bees covering up the revised opening times. Maybe that means it’s still open 24 hours after all. Or maybe “guess the opening hours” is some sort of Easter tradition here in Leyton.

If four law professors say AI training is fair use and ten say it isn’t, that means the copyright owners win the argument, right? If only it was that simple, not least because thinking about all the various fair use arguments in any level of detail tends to result in a headache. Anyway, here’s the latest on the authors v Meta AI copyright dispute.

Don’t forget, if you are producing or performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, you can make sure that your show is on the radar of the ThreeWeeks editorial team by filling out this form.

So the big news in Leyton this week, the 24 hour ASDA I live next door to doesn’t seem to be a 24 hour ASDA anymore. Which means I can no longer do my shopping at 3am. Which I never did, but I always liked the idea that I could.

Looking forward to visiting Bremen for the first time later this month to attend the Jazzahead! trade fair and festival. I’ll be speaking as part of the Professional Program, more info on that very soon. Mentioning it now because I remembered to book my flights and fill out the delegate registration form earlier, so I’m feeling very organised.

I’ve covered quite a few culture select committee sessions and inquiries on music business matters, but this spring there’ll be a session on the live comedy sector for the first time, which will be interesting. Here’s a TW Explainer on what that’s about and why the Live Comedy Association asked for it.

Some interesting developments in the last week in relation to Universal Music’s big acquisition of Downtown Music, with the Dutch competition regulator submitting a referral request to the European Commission. Here’s my CMU report from yesterday on the indie sector’s response.