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The Pitch - March 2025

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The Pitch newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to the music, film and television, fine arts, media, professional athletics, eSports, and gaming industries. The Pitch features a diverse cross-section of published articles, compelling news and stories, and original content curated and/or created by Arnall Golden Gregory LLP’s Entertainment & Sports industry team.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

AGG News

Key Takeaways From the Copyright Office's Report on the Economic Impact of AI

In February 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office released a report titled "Identifying the Economic Implications of Artificial Intelligence for Copyright Policy." Edited by Brent Lutes, the Office's chief economist, the volume represents the collective insight of an ad hoc committee of economic scholars tasked with "identifying the most consequential economic characteristics of AI and copyright, and what factors may inform policy discussions and decisions."

(Source: Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, March 27, 2025)

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Industry News

Baseball’s Wealth Gap Has Become a Chasm—and Is Stretching the Sport to Its Breaking Point

The widening financial disparity among teams has threatened MLB’s competitive integrity, alienated fans in some cities and stoked widespread fears throughout the sport that a labor dispute is looming—with potentially devastating consequences. Buoyed by an unrivaled local television deal, the Los Angeles Dodgers will outlay nearly a half-billion dollars on player salaries and luxury tax penalties this year, a record amount. Thanks to hedge-fund billionaire Steve Cohen’s largess, the New York Mets aren’t far behind, shelling out upward of $400 million. Meanwhile, the Miami Marlins have a payroll of just $70 million, while three other teams—the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox and Athletics—all come in under $90 million.

(Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2025) [Subscription required]

Hollywood will have to navigate a world in which consumers are increasingly choosing to spend more of their time with creator-driven entertainment and social platforms rather than premium content. That is a key takeaway from Deloitte‘s 19th annual digital media trends survey, which asks consumers about their media and entertainment preferences. The survey finds that 56 percent of Gen Zs and 43 percent of millennials surveyed find social media content “more relevant than traditional TV shows and movies,” and roughly half feel a stronger personal connection to social media creators than to TV personalities or actors.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 26, 2025)

Live Nation has settled a lawsuit from investors who claimed that they were misled about the scope of the company’s legal vulnerability tied to allegedly anticompetitive business operations that led to the Justice Department filing an antitrust lawsuit that seeks to break up the Ticketmaster parent. Lawyers for both sides on March 21 informed the court of a $20 million deal to settle the proposed class action. The deal represents a “fair, reasonable and adequate” resolution to the case, the filing stated.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 25, 2025)

Napster, the brand that ushered in an era of rampant music piracy before later being reborn as a subscription music streaming platform, has been sold for $207 million. Tech company Infinite Reality announced Tuesday morning that it bought Napster in the nine-figure deal, hoping to further transform Napster from merely a streaming service into a more social-first music platform where fans can more directly engage with music and artists.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 25, 2025)

Calling the groups in charge of professional tennis "a cartel," the players' association co-founded by Novak Djokovic filed an antitrust lawsuit against the women's and men's tours, the International Tennis Federation and the sport's integrity agency on Tuesday in federal court in New York. The suit by the Professional Tennis Players' Association says the organizations that run the sport hold "complete control over the players' pay and working conditions" and their setup constitutes "textbook violations of state and federal law" that "immunize professional tennis from ordinary market forces and deny professional tennis players and other industry participants their right to fair competition."

(Source: NPR, March 19, 2025)

The record-setting audience for the Super Bowl in February wasn’t enough to stop a decline in linear TV viewing for the month. In fact, streaming’s share of all TV use in the United States — 43.5 percent — came within a single percentage point of matching the combined total for broadcast (21.2 percent) and cable (23.2 percent). Despite the Super Bowl driving one of the biggest single TV days in the four-year history of Nielsen‘s Gauge reports, broadcast and cable viewing for Nielsen’s February reporting period (which ran from Jan. 27-Feb. 23) both declined compared to January.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 18, 2025)

The Southeastern Conference shattered the record for most teams selected for the men’s NCAA tournament field on Sunday, with 14 of 16 schools going dancing. Why are we surprised? The SEC has been a slumbering basketball behemoth for most of the century. In 2016, it saw just three teams make the tournament, with Vanderbilt eliminated in the first four by 20 points. But the conference has since put a renewed focus on hoops. Growing coffers were opened to improve facilities and hire top coaches. Advanced NIL programs have attracted—and retained—top talent. Expansion turned a super conference into a superconference.

(Source: Sportico, March 18, 2025)

The MLB Players Association’s lawsuit against DraftKings will move forward after a U.S. district judge in Pennsylvania dismissed the sportsbook’s request to drop the case. The union had sued last year, alleging several gambling companies illegally used players’ photos to advertise prop bets.

(Source: Front Office Sports, March 18, 2025)

Neil Young will stop selling platinum-priced tickets for his future concerts, the musician confirmed on his website, calling the practice “a bad thing that has happened to concerts worldwide.” Young said he was inspired by The Cure’s Robert Smith, who took a similar stance for the band’s North America tour back in 2023, calling platinum and dynamic tickets “a greedy scam” that artists can choose to opt out of (at the expense of some of their ticketing revenue).

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 17, 2025)

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SXSW Music Is No More (Report)

South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) organizers are reportedly cutting back on the music portion of the annual event. According to the Austin American-Statesman, this will result in the 2026 edition of the festival being two days shorter than this year’s, which ran March 7-15. Next year’s edition is set for March 12-18. The move eliminates the weekend traditionally dedicated to music performances and a conference for the first time in SXSW history.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 17, 2025)

Signing Josh Allen to a record-setting, $330 million contract extension freed the Buffalo Bills to spend even more in free agency this week. If that seems counterintuitive, welcome to the sometimes-upside-down logic of modern NFL salary cap strategy. It made sense to the franchise QB. “I understood the impact of getting an extension done,” Allen told reporters Wednesday. “This opens up some space for cap and signing some free agents.”

(Source: Sportico, March 17, 2025)

It is difficult to directly compare the value of a hit song in 2024 to a hit song in 1999 — the year that record industry revenue peaked in the modern era — because the business largely moved away from issuing singles by the late 1990s. To hear a hit song, then, a fan would buy an album for as much as $18.98.

(Source: Billboard, March 17, 2025) [Subscription required]

A federal judge says the Justice Department can move ahead with a key allegation in its antitrust case against Live Nation: That the company illegally forces artists to use its promotion services if they want to perform in its massive network of amphitheaters. In a written ruling issued March 14, Judge Arun Subramanian denied Live Nation’s request to dismiss an accusation that the concert giant illegally required artists to buy one service if they wanted to purchase another one — known in antitrust parlance as “tying.”

(Source: Billboard, March 14, 2025) [Subscription required]

Streaming remained the dominant force in the recorded music in 2024, but its impact dropped slightly. For the first time, streaming’s share of total recorded music revenue did not increase from the previous year, according to MIDiA Research’s latest annual tally. In 2024, streaming accounted for 61.3% of total revenue, down from 62.4% in 2023. Streaming revenue also had a slower rate of increase than in prior years, growing 6.2% compared to 10.3% in 2023 and 8.3% in 2022. And streaming drove less industry growth than in years past. In 2024, streaming accounted for 58.5% of annual revenue growth, down from 64.6% in 2023.

(Source: Billboard, March 13, 2025) [Subscription required]

ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 has sparked a $25 million lawsuit. The documentary focusing on The New York Sack Exchange included a clip of a 2023 interaction between former Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau and former Packers (and Jets and Vikings) quarterback Brett Favre. Gastineau blames Favre for giving the single-season sack record to former Giants defensive end Michael Strahan by going rogue with a rollout and a dive late in the 2001 season. Via Christian Arnold of the New York Post, Gastineau has sued ESPN for an allegedly malicious and false portrayal. He seeks $25 million in damages.

(Source: NBC Sports, March 13, 2025)

Warner Music Group (WMG) and Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital are in advanced talks to form a joint venture worth around $1 billion to acquire music catalogs, according to three sources with knowledge of the talks. Led by an equity investment from Bain, the joint venture will enable WMG to write bigger checks while spending less of its own money to acquire the catalogs it wants most. High interest rates and intense competition to own the rights to music from bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers is leading major music companies to partner with outside investors to bolster their bids and assuage shareholders who may be put off by the price of a prized catalog.

(Source: Billboard, March 12, 2025) [Subscription required]

A Washington state appeals court expressed skepticism Wednesday that Phish and Live Nation could have seen foreseen assaults that injured two concertgoers at an outdoor show, with one judge suggesting the jam band's vibes are more in tune with the mellow atmosphere of a Grateful Dead show than a raucous rock concert. Samir Poles and Joe Louis Allen Jr., who were both struck in the head with large rocks during the July 2018 concert at the Gorge Amphitheater, claim Phish Inc. and venue manager Live Nation Worldwide Inc. had a duty to protect fans from the type of hazards that could be expected at such a show, including violent behavior. The injured concertgoers urged the Washington Court of Appeals to revive their lawsuit during a Wednesday panel hearing, citing the "permissive" atmosphere of Phish shows, the lack of marked security officers and an alleged history of infighting between rival nitrous oxide dealers that sell laughing gas to attendees looking for a quick high.

(Source: Law360, March 12, 2025) [Subscription required]

Sony Music is suing the University of Southern California (USC) for more than $25 million over claims that the college sports powerhouse illegally used songs by Michael Jackson, Beyonce and AC/DC in TikTok and Instagram videos hyping its teams. In a complaint filed March 11 in New York federal court, the music giant says the school posted more than 250 videos featuring over 170 unlicensed tracks to its social media channels, including those by Britney Spears, Harry Styles, SZA, Mariah Carey, OutKast, Pink Floyd and Travis Scott.

(Source: Billboard, March 12, 2025) [Subscription required]

Funk pioneer George Clinton has sued his former business partner Armen Boladian to reclaim ownership of his music catalog for alleged fraud and copyright infringement. In a lawsuit filed on March 11 in Florida federal court, Clinton claims Boladian and several of his companies engaged in a “decades long scheme” that involved forging his signature on deals that surrendered his rights to his music. As part of the fraud, which includes withholding tens of millions of dollars in royalties, Boladian has accrued ownership of roughly 90 percent of Clinton’s catalog, according to the complaint.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 11, 2025)

Concord Music is in talks with digital music platform Stem for a possible acquisition, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Financial terms of the deal, which was taken to market by the Raine Group — via Fred Davis and Joe Puthenveetil — are as yet unknown. Music Business Worldwide reported $50 million, but a source tells THR that figure “is wildly inaccurate,” adding that negotiations are ongoing for what may turn out to be a partial sale. Based in Nashville, with offices in Los Angeles, New York and London, Concord Music encompasses a label group (its imprints include Concord Records, Concord Jazz, Fantasy Records, Rounder Records and Fearless Records, among others), music publishing (among its notable catalogs are songs by REO Speedwagon, Kiss and Cheap Trick), and a theatrical arm focusing on licensing, script publishing and cast recordings.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 11, 2025)

A group of award-winning authors urged a California federal judge to grant them a win on claims Meta directly infringed their copyrights by using databases of pirated works to train its "Llama" artificial-intelligence tool, arguing Meta infringed "massive" amounts of protected material, including books written by Supreme Court justices. In a heavily-redacted, 40-page motion for partial summary judgment filed March 10, the authors — including Sarah Silverman, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Junot Diaz — asked U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria to find Meta Platforms Inc. liable for direct copyright infringement "as a matter of law," and to reject Meta's defense arguments that its initial acquisition of databases with pirated material is fair use.

(Source: Law360, March 11, 2025) [Subscription required]

A Los Angeles jury has found that Disney didn’t steal the idea for Moana from an animator’s story about the adventures of a young surfer in Hawaii. After deliberating for just over two hours, the jury on March 10 sided with a Disney unit that it didn’t infringe on Buck Woodall’s copyright to “Bucky and the Surfer Boy” because none of its employees ever saw works related to his screenplay. He alleged that he had shared materials for “Bucky” more than a decade earlier with his brother’s sister-in-law, who worked for Mandeville Films on the Disney lot at the time and allegedly shared it with an individual at Disney Animation TV, prior to the beginning of development for Moana.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 10, 2025)

Structured Asset Sales LLC asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to review the Second Circuit's opinion that Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" did not rip off Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," arguing that the lower appellate court incorrectly affirmed that the Copyright Act of 1909 only protected the Motown song's sheet music. In petition for certiorari, Structured Asset Sales, which buys royalty interests from copyright holders to sell as securities, told the high court that the Second Circuit was wrong to conclude that the Copyright Act of 1909 does not protect the "Let's Get It On" audio recording, only the sheet music that was the "deposit copy" for the registration. According to the petition, the circuit court panel "openly defied" the Supreme Court when it relied on the Copyright Office's administrative manual soon after the high court overturned Chevron deference, which had allowed courts to defer to a federal agency's reasonable interpretation of a law when the statute is ambiguous.

(Source: Law360, March 7, 2025) [Subscription required]

Fanatics has made its long-expected push into ticketing. Michael Rubin’s company has partnered with Ticketmaster to create the Fanatics Ticket Marketplace, where users on the Fanatics app can now buy resale tickets alongside apparel, merchandise, trading cards and collectibles. The deal is part of a wider two-way partnership between Fanatics and the Live Nation unit, whereby Ticketmaster tickets list via Fanatics, and Fanatics merchandise lists via Ticketmaster. This is the latest step in Rubin’s goal to make Fanatics a one-stop-shop for anything sports fans want to buy. Questions about ticketing have lingered around the company for years, growing louder as Fanatics expanded first into trading cards and then into sports betting. The group explored possible M&A, and it also looked into building its own platform before settling on the Ticketmaster partnership.

(Source: Sportico, March 5, 2025)

The NCAA scored a legal win last week when U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr. denied University of Tennessee first baseman Alberto Osuna a preliminary injunction to keep playing college ball after the former junior college star exhausted his NCAA D-I eligibility. It was the latest ruling in a growing number of player eligibility cases that raise the same basic question: Given that college athletes can earn NIL income and, if the House settlement is approved, a share of revenue, do NCAA rules limiting eligibility to four seasons in five years illegally restrain trade?

(Source: Sportico, March 5, 2025)

Pouya Shahbazian, a producer on the Divergent franchise, has launched Staircase Studios AI, an artificial intelligence-driven film, TV and gaming studio. Staircase touts its own proprietary AI workflow, ForwardMotion, which claims to be able to produce near-studio-quality movie releases for under $500,000 each. The studio, which said it aims to produce around 30 low budget projects in the next three to four years, unveiled a teaser with the first five minutes from its debut feature, The Woman With Red Hair, directed by Brett Stuart and from Michael Schatz’s 2016 Black List script.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, March 4, 2025)

Many U.S. sports leagues these days are awash in unprecedented amounts of money from television networks and streamers eager to pay skyrocketing sums for their valuable content. And then there is Major League Baseball. When ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro visited MLB commissioner Rob Manfred late last year, he carried a harsh message: America’s most prominent sports network thinks baseball’s TV rights are declining in value. ESPN has recently been paying $550 million a year to show baseball games, already hundreds of millions less than a few years prior. Now, he was back to tell Manfred that ESPN planned to exercise an opt-out clause to escape the final three seasons of its contract with MLB, people familiar with the matter said.

(Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2025)

A magistrate judge in California last week found that retired NFL Bill Romanowski and his wife, Julie Romanowski, are indebted to the U.S. government for $15.5 million in unpaid tax assessments along with accrued interest. U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter H. Kang issued a recommendation in a case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2023 against the Romanowskis for unpaid federal income taxes, statutory penalties and accrued interest for the tax years 1998-2004 and 2007. The Justice Department accuses the Romanowskis of neglecting or refusing to pay their owed taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

(Source: Sportico, March 2, 2025)

A bill in Florida aims to cap the percentage fees that agents representing college and high school athletes can collect from their endorsement deals, marking the first known legislative attempt to regulate agent compensation in the NIL era. This week, Florida state Rep. Yvette Benarroch, a Republican whose Gulf Coast district includes Naples and Marco Island, proposed an act that would cap agent commissions at 5% of the total their clients earn from their NIL-related work.

(Source: Sportico, February 27, 2025)

Warner Bros. Television can't nix a contract breach lawsuit filed by the estate of "ER" creator Michael Crichton alleging the media company's medical drama, "The Pitt," is an unauthorized reboot of "ER," after a California judge ruled the plaintiffs' evidence shows, on its face, WB's show is derived from "ER." In a six-page ruling issued Monday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Wendy Chang denied Warner Bros. and Warner Bros. Discovery's bid to nix the suit under California's anti-SLAPP law, which stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation.

(Source: Law360, February 25, 2025) [Subscription required]

The second coming of Fyre Fest is ready with a new set of dates and ticketing partner (promising refundable options!). Fyre Fest 2 will take place this from May 30 to June 2, 2025, Billboard reported Tuesday, eight years after the original Fyre Fest left ticket buyers stranded in a Bahamas disaster that ended with the festival’s founder, Billy McFarland, pleading guilty to fraud. McFarland has presented Fyre Fest 2, which will take place on Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico, as a redemption opportunity for himself and the brand.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter, February 25, 2025)

The milestone came with February’s royalty payout, SoundExchange said in a statement on February 24. It comes less than a year after SoundExchange’s payouts passed the $11 billion mark in 2024.

(Source: Music Business Worldwide, February 25, 2025)

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No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

—

Oscar Wilde

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