Music Venue Trust calls on Spotify to support grassroots music venues 

Music Venue Trust (MVT), a UK charity that aims to protect and improve UK grassroots music venues, has called on music streaming giant Spotify to support smaller venues. Following Spotify’s $310m (£236m/€281m) deal with Spanish LaLiga side FC Barcelona that includes naming rights for its stadium, Camp Nou, and shirt sponsorship, the charity called out …

Concert for Ukraine reveals artists including Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello 

Concert for Ukraine, a two-hour long live event to raise funds for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), has revealed the first set of artists to perform. Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Emeli Sandé, Gregory Porter and Snow Patrol are all due to perform at the event, which will be held on Tuesday, March 29. Broadcasters ITV, …

NASCAR at COTA NFTs set to drop 

NASCAR fans will be able to celebrate the start of race week with the launch of NASCAR at COTA stadium series NFTs (non-fungible tokens), following successful NFT drops. The NFTs will be available from 12pm CST (5pm GMT) today (Monday). Speedway Motorsports, which owns a number of race tracks across the US, will launch the …

Doja Cat stops live set to help distressed audience member

Artist Doja Cat stopped her set at Lollapalooza Argentina for almost five minutes this weekend, after noticing an attendee was in distress in the audience. The festival was being held at the Hippodromo de San Isidro in Buenos Aires and featured performances from other artists including The Strokes, Machine Gun Kelly, Miley Cyrus, ASAP Rocky …

Indian state mulls over online movie tix platform operator bids

The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is close to selecting a business to operate its planned online movie ticketing platform. Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani), the state’s Cinematography Minister, said that two companies have submitted tenders to run the state government-administered online movie ticketing platform, plans for which were approved via legislation last year. Nani said the …

Singapore venues can now return to 50% capacity

Sports events and concerts in Singapore can welcome bigger crowds from this weekend after a relaxation of COVID restrictions across the city-state. The number of permitted spectators at venues with capacities greater than 1,000 will be increased to 50% capacity starting today (Friday, 18 March) under guidelines announced by bodies such as Sport Singapore (SportSG) …

SALTO enhances facial recognition tech through acquisition

Gantner Technologies owner SALTO Group is to enhance facial recognition technology within its ticketing and access control systems after the acquisition of Cognitec. SALTO said the acquisition comes in the wake of changing expectations across the events industry, with digital credentials, digital identities and facial recognition becoming the new standard. The group said the deal …

Open banking partnership boost for Pretix event organisers

European event organisers can now benefit from a simplified and cheaper payment process through a deal between Pretix and open banking API services provider Nordigen. The collaboration between the Germany-based event ticketing platform and Nordigen is designed to allow Pretix users to connect to client bank accounts securely and quickly, allowing event organisers to keep …

OVO Hydro unveils 2030 net zero commitment

Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus (SEC), which includes Scotland’s largest indoor entertainment venue, the OVO Hydro, has announced its ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. The organisation, which also runs the SEC Armadillo and SEC Central, said the commitment supports Glasgow’s aims across the same timeline. SEC said an ambitious energy strategy will …