THE BIG STORY: It’s 2026. Welcome back. To quote the legendary meme: “Oh god everyone is circling back.”
As a new year dawns, Billboard is breaking down the biggest stories that the music business should be watching in the year ahead — and as is so often the case, many of the most important are legal stories.
Will the Justice Department break up Live Nation? A major ruling or a blockbuster trial looms this spring. Will UMG’s $775 million acquisition of Downtown Music finally go through? The European Commission is still pursuing a probe over antitrust concerns. Most importantly, what will happen with AI? We’ll be watching for fallout from the massive record label settlements; for what happens with the remaining lawsuits; and what legal rights booming AI “artists” can claim for their songs.
For more cases to watch, go read the full story here. And while we wait to see what happens in 2026, let’s get you all caught up with an extra-large recap of all the other music law action that happened over the holiday break.
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Top stories over the break…
DRAKE SUED AGAIN – A new class action lawsuit alleges Drake has used his partnership with online casino Stake to funnel millions of dollars towards artificial stream-boosting campaigns — the latest in a series of cases over the gambling endorsement deal.
VERDICT OVERTURNED – A federal judge tossed out the murder convictions of one of the two alleged killers of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, ruling the government’s decades-delayed case against him was “impermissibly speculative.”
GOSPEL ABUSE CASE – Chart-topping gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is facing a civil lawsuit claiming he sexually abused a young male congregant over the course of nearly a decade. His lawyers say the claims are “categorically false.”
MARIAH’S REVENGE – A federal judge ruled that Mariah Carey should be reimbursed $92,000 in legal bills after she fended off “frivolous” copyright infringement allegations over her record-setting Christmas smash “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
DOJ v. LIVE NATION – The Justice Department urged a federal judge to send the blockbuster case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster to trial, saying it has uncovered substantial evidence of their “interlocking monopolies across the live entertainment industry.”
MORE LIVE NATION – Elsewhere in Live Nation litigation news: A failed ticketing startup called Fanimal is suing over allegations that the concert giant abused its monopoly power to force the smaller firm out of business.
WILL SMITH CLAIMS – An electric violinist who was part of Will Smith’s Based on a True Story tour last year filed a lawsuit accusing the star of sexual harassment and retaliation.
MANSON CASE TOSSED – A judge dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit filed against Marilyn Manson by a former assistant, ruling that she waited too long to sue despite her claims of “trauma-induced memory suppression.”
RADIO ROYALTIES – A new lawsuit claims ASCAP “severely underpays” for so-called production music used by talk and sports radio stations, wrongfully withholding more than $120 million in royalties from their rightful owners.
MUSIC LAW SHOWDOWN – Powerhouse music attorney Dina LaPolt sued a former law partner for allegedly disparaging her to clients and industry professionals after opening a competing firm, claiming the one-time mentee has “declared war” since leaving LaPolt Law.
SWIMSUIT LAWSUIT – Two models who posed for Megan Thee Stallion’s Hot Girl Summer swimwear brand filed a lawsuit against Roc Nation, claiming the Jay-Z-founded music juggernaut put them on billboards without their permission.
DIDDY CASE DISMISSED – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs that included sensational claims involving NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. and comedian Druski. The judge said the case had stalled because it seemed no attorneys would touch the accuser’s eyebrow-raising case.
LAWYERS BEHAVING BADLY – Elsewhere in Diddyland: An attorney who sued the embattled mogul faced a judge’s wrath after it was exposed that the lawyer had used artificial intelligence and cited “hallucinated case law” in court filings.
JANE’S RESOLUTION – Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell and his bandmates signaled they are making peace amid a messy legal battle stemming from an onstage brawl last year.
SPOTIFY RACE SUIT – A former Spotify sales executive is suing the music streamer over accusations that it “systematically disadvantaged” Black employees and subjected them to a “pattern of mistreatment.”
SAMPLING SPAT – Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment fired back at a lawsuit over the EDM sample that opens her 2022 Renaissance track “Alien Superstar,” calling the case “meritless” and demanding it be dismissed.
UGLY ALLEGATIONS – Avicii’s estate is facing a lawsuit in Sweden over claims that it falsely suggested in a Netflix documentary and two books that his former manager overworked the Swedish dance music icon and drove him to suicide.
THE TAX MAN COMETH – Britney Spears is fighting back against allegations from the IRS that she owes $720,000 in in unpaid taxes and penalties from 2021, arguing she did nothing wrong and should be cleared.
THE BEAT GOES ON – Sonny Bono’s widow, Mary Bono, launched an appeal after Cher won a legal victory preserving her right to collect publishing royalties from her songs with Sonny, setting the stage for a complex battle at the intersection of divorce law and copyright terminations.
BOOSIE SENTENCING – Prosecutors asked a judge to sentence rapper Boosie Badazz to a relatively light prison term following his guilty plea on gun possession charges, citing a “difficult upbringing which likely contributed to his current predicament.”
NAME GAME – A federal judge denied a request by Royel Otis guitarist Royel Maddell to unmask the identity of anonymous Reddit users who he says falsely accused him of grooming an underage student when he was a music teacher.
