Add HYBE, the K-pop giant behind BTS, to the list of companies putting down roots in India, a fast-growing music market and the world’s second-most-populous country. The South Korean company announced Monday (June 30) that it is currently “conducting local market research” in advance of launching an Indian division in either September or October. 

In seeking a local approach to breaking an Indian act, HYBE is employing tactics honed in its home country and exported around the world. According to the press release, chairman Bang Si-hyuk is personally overseeing the company’s “multi-home, multi-genre” strategy, an approach to global expansion that emphasizes localization and adaptation to specific markets.

The strategy can be seen in the U.S. with HYBE America’s joint venture with Geffen Records that produced the multinational girl group KATSEYE. The company also employs the “multi-home, multi-genre” strategy in Latin America. Following its 2023 acquisition of Exile Music, which was rebranded as HYBE Latin America, HYBE has two artist discovery processes in the region: one through an audition show, Pase a la Fama, broadcast on Telemundo, and the other through a separate reality TV series. In both cases, HYBE will implement the same method of artist training and development that it used for its K-pop groups at home. 

With a population of 1.4 billion and a massive middle class, India ranked No. 15 on the IFPI’s list of recorded music markets in 2024. A huge streaming market and a small but growing number of subscribers have helped attract HYBE’s peers. In April, Reservoir Media announced the creation of PopIndia, a Mumbai-based subsidiary that will sign and develop regional talent. Primary Wave has a partnership with Times Music — a subsidiary of a leading Indian record label and music publisher — that resulted in the acquisitions of two Indian record labels, Symphony Recording Co. and ARC Musicq, in March.

Warner Music Group (WMG) has also made inroads in India. In April, the company announced a joint venture, 5 Junction Records, that will help bring South Asian artists to North American listeners. Previously, WMG acquired a majority stake in music and digital media company Divo, took a minority stake in Indian live entertainment and ticketing platform SkillBox, and expanded its partnership with Global Music Junction.

CMT will air a 90-minute special, CMT Music Awards: Ultimate Party Edition, on Thursday, July 17 at 9 p.m. ET. The special, hosted by CMT’s Cody Alan, will help keep the award show’s name alive during a period when the show is on hiatus.

The special features new sit-downs with Carrie Underwood, the top winner in the show’s history; past hosts Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town and Jason Aldean; as well as Blake Shelton, Cody Johnson, Cole Swindell, Darius Rucker, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson and Luke Bryan, looking back on their most memorable appearances on the show.

Fans will vote for the Ultimate Fan Favorite Performance from July 11-14 via @CMT Facebook and Instagram Stories, with the winning moment revealed inside the special’s premiere.

“It’s been amazing to go back deep into our archives and re-live some of the show’s most iconic moments – and do it alongside the superstar artists that made them happen,” shared Margaret Comeaux, svp, production for CMT. “It was also essential for us to nod to the show’s history as country’s first fan-voted award show by putting the power back in the hands of our fans to help us choose the ultimate fan-favorite moment.”

Additional airings of CMT Music Awards: Ultimate Party Edition will occur on Thursday, July 17 at 10:30 p.m. ET (immediate encore) and Saturday, July 19 at 12p.m. ET on CMT, with subsequent airings on CMT Music to be announced at a later date.

Comeaux and John Hamlin (Switched on Entertainment) are executive producers of the special. Jackie Barba is executive-in-charge of production. Yasmin Mohammed is supervising producer. Donna Duncan is talent executive.

Paramount announced in February that the CMT Music Awards would be paused this year. Bruce Gillmer, Paramount Global’s president of music, music talent, programming and events, media networks/chief content officer, music, Paramount+, sent a memo to his staff in which he said, in part: “We are pausing a few events for 2025, as we look to reimagine and optimize our events slate going forward. These include the MTV EMAs, MTV MIAWs, Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in Mexico, and CMT Music Awards.”

The memo followed rounds of layoffs that began last year after Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy noted plans for the company to reduce its U.S.-based workforce by approximately 15%, including at CMT.

The show, originally called the CMT Flameworthy Video Music Awards, aired on CMT from 2002-21. It aired on CBS from 2022-24. Ballerini and Kane Brown have been the show’s most frequent hosts in recent years.

Ticketmaster has been threatened with legal action by the U.K.’s competition watchdog over its ticket sale for the highly anticipated Oasis reunion tour, arguing that the company misled fans, many of whom bought tickets for hundreds of dollars over face value.

The release of tickets in August 2024 was met with unprecedented demand. More than 1.4 million tickets were reported to have been sold for the U.K. and Ireland leg of the tour, with over 14 million people attempting to purchase them. However, the sale was marred by lengthy delays, and in March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published concerns that Ticketmaster may have misled fans, some of whom paid more than £350 ($477) for tickets with a face value of £150 ($204). 

The CMA says that while it did not find evidence of Ticketmaster’s so-called “dynamic” pricing model being used — a system that prices tickets according to demand — it argues fans were not sufficiently informed about ticket prices during the process. Ticketmaster, which had denied the use of dynamic pricing, responded by saying that it had made changes to “some aspects” of its sale process — but the CMA said those changes were not sufficient to address concerns. 

In light of this, on Wednesday (July 2), a letter published by the CMA — addressed to the business and trade select committee, which has been investigating ticket pricing, competition and consumer protection — said legal action was now an option. “Having carefully considered Ticketmaster’s response, the CMA’s view is that there is a fundamental disagreement … about whether Ticketmaster’s practices infringed consumer law,” the letter reads.

“Ticketmaster has declined to provide undertakings in the terms sought by the CMA or indicate whether there is a form of undertakings which it would be prepared to offer,” the letter continued, adding that it had earmarked the sale of more than 900,000 tickets as being under investigation.

The CMA says that it is concerned about the “platinum” tier of tickets, which could cost up to 2.5 times the price of standard equivalent tickets, but did not offer any additional benefits — and were often located in the same area of the stadium as standard tickets. Fans reported long wait times for tickets and a short amount of time to decide whether to purchase them at a price higher than expected.

“The CMA has written to Ticketmaster to confirm that it has now discharged its obligation to consult with Ticketmaster and, given that no undertakings have been offered or agreed, is now preparing to litigate the matter if necessary,” the letter continued. “The CMA will, in parallel, continue to engage with Ticketmaster in an effort to secure a voluntary resolution, should it indicate a clear and timely commitment to do so.”

Billboard U.K. has reached out to Ticketmaster for comment.

The Oasis tour will kick off Friday (July 4) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, and run for 41 dates, 19 of which are slated for the U.K. and Ireland. It will mark the first time brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher have performed together as Oasis since 2009.

Diddy’s federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial came to a close on Wednesday (July 2) with the jury reaching a partial acquittal of the disgraced mogul, and Cassie’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor joined CNN to discuss the case and split verdict.

“I can tell you that some of the comments that were made in the closing argument, I thought were repugnant,” Wigdor said. “Frankly, calling those sorts of behaviors as a modern-day relationship, saying that she enjoyed sex, saying she was a gangster, things like that.” 

He continued to criticize the defense. “I don’t think, even with the jury verdict, that they would have given that any credit,” he told correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister. “And I don’t think anyone who actually listened to the testimony and watched the testimony would either. And I thought that those were sort of gratuitous comments that really weren’t based on any real facts.”

Diddy was ultimately found guilty on a pair of transportation to engage in prostitution charges, but evaded sex trafficking and racketeering charges, which would have come with much heftier sentences.

Combs will now await sentencing on the pair of charges he was convicted of, which come with a range of no jail time to a maximum of 20 years behind bars. He’s been imprisoned without bail since his arrest in September 2024.

Cassie gave four days of emotional testimony when she took the stand in May while eight months pregnant to detail the alleged abuse she took at the hands of Diddy. She’s since given birth to baby No. 3 and has been tending to her family, but Wigdor said she’s still been keeping up with aspects of the case.

The “Me & U” singer essentially lit the fuse for what became Diddy’s federal case when she filed a bombshell lawsuit in November 2023 accusing the Bad Boy mogul of rape and abuse. The suit was settled in a day.

Following the verdict, Diddy’s defense team called Cassie a “winner” in the case, which Wigdor vehemently pushed back against.

“Cassie Ventura, at that point in time and today, is not the winner,” he asserted. “She endured 10 years of abuse, where she had to engage in days-long sexual acts with UTIs. She alleged that she was raped. And so to call her a winner, even though she did get $30 million part from — as she testified, part from Sean Combs, part from the hotel, no amount of money is going to ever undo what she had to endure and what she had to go through.”

Watch a portion of Douglas Wigdor’s interview with CNN below.