Live Nation's Ticket Transparency

Live Nation's Ticket Transparency
Photograph by Claudio Schwarz / Unsplash.

Live Nation announced in a press release that it will show a ticket's full price — service fees included — at the beginning of the online shopping experience.

According to the company, which owns Ticketmaster, the "all-in pricing experience" is slated to start in September.

"... seeing the total cost from the start makes buying tickets easier and consistent with other retail shopping experiences."

This change extends beyond Ticketmaster.

President Biden had called out companies' junk fees at his State of the Union address in February. As such, he met with company representatives from the likes of SeatGeek and Airbnb on Thursday. (And Live Nation, of course.)

According to a statement from the White House, the companies that the president met with that don't currently provide all-in pricing have committed to doing so in the coming months.

Do UberEats next, please!

Oh, and we were going to replace the saying "When pigs fly" with "When Joe Biden retweets Pop Crave" but ...

It's fun living in a simulation.

Music

Next year's Grammys will have three new categories, the Recording Academy announced this past Tuesday.

  • Best African Music Performance
  • Best Alternative Jazz Album
  • Best Pop Dance Recording

With this change, Billboard counts the total number of categories at 94.

That's not all. The award show is also reducing the number of nominees for the Big Four (album of the year, song of the year, record of the year and best new artist) from 10 to eight.

But wait, there's more! New requirements for album of the year narrow the playing field yet again.

Pitchfork writes: "A featured musician, producer, songwriter, or engineer on an album will need credits on at least 20 percent of a nominated album to get the nod."

Eligibility dates for the 66th annual Grammys Awards are Oct. 1, 2022 through Sept. 15, 2023.

So, who's set to release some new music soon?

We have Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice releasing "Barbie World" this Friday (as part of the Barbie soundtrack). Gwen Stefani is also set to drop a song, "True Babe," on Friday. Olivia Rodrigo drops "Vampire" the following week on June 30.

Something invigorating about experiencing new music is knowing that you'll most likely see a tour announcement from your favorite artist not long after they drop an album. But we can't always make it to the shows.

If you missed Lady Gaga's 'Chromatica Ball' tour last summer, you can watch the upcoming concert film. Gaga announced on Instagram that a concert film is indeed in the works. Release date and streaming platform TBD.

Padam? Padam. Kudos are in order for Kylie Minogue. The Australian superstar secured another UK top 10 for her infectious "Padam Padam." This makes her one of only four women to secure a UK top 10 in five different decades, according to BBC. The others are Cher, Diana Ross and Lulu.

Fashion

From the creator of the Big Red Boots, Mschf is back with another creation that has everyone talking.

Their new bag is, well ... just take a look.

Functionally pointless? Sure. Significantly pointless? No, actually.

The bag, if we can call it that, seems to be a commentary of sorts on designer labels and an obsession with names over function. Here's what the company wrote in an Instagram post:

"As a once-functional object like a handbag becomes smaller and smaller its object status becomes steadily more abstracted until it is purely a brand signifier."

In other fashion news, Jacquemus will debut its new collection, Le Chouchou, on June 26 at the Palace of Versailles. The French fashion house also had a big moment last week when Beyoncé wore custom Jacquemus for her Renaissance tour in Marseille, France.

She seems to feature outfits from a local designer for each stop of the tour. In Amsterdam, for example, she wore Iris van Herpen — a Dutch fashion designer.

Plus, we have a first look at Pharrell's work for Louis Vuitton's men's spring/summer 2024. If you want to get people in the fashion world talking, just feature Rihanna.

The collection will officially be shown this Tuesday in Paris.