Lainey Wilson, who co-hosted last year’s CMA Awards with Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning, will host this year’s show all by herself. She will become just the third woman to solo-host the show, following country queens Dolly Parton (1988) and Reba McEntire (1991).

Twice as many men have solo-hosted the show: Tennessee Ernie Ford (twice), Glen Campbell (once), Johnny Cash (four times), Kenny Rogers (three times), Vince Gill (10 times) and Luke Bryan (once).

Country Music’s Biggest Night, the show’s trademarked slogan, is set to broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 19 (8-11 p.m. ET) on ABC. It will be available the following day on Hulu.

Wilson has won nine CMA Awards in the last three years, including female vocalist of the year three years running. She is tied with Ella Langley and Megan Moroney for the most nominations at this year’s awards (six each).

“I grew up watching the CMA Awards like it was the Super Bowl, so to be hosting for a second year is a true honor,” Wilson said in a statement. “I’m humbled that CMA has trusted me with this role, and I can’t wait to love on this genre that has given me so much.”

First held in 1967, the CMA Awards is the longest-running annual music awards program on network television. CMA Awards nominees and winners are determined by more than 7,000 professional voting members of the Country Music Association.

The 59th annual CMA Awards is a production of the Country Music Association. Robert Deaton serves as executive producer, Alan Carter is director, and Jon Macks is head writer.

Tickets are on sale now the CMA Awards site.

Merlin, the digital licensing partner representing the independent music sector, announced that it has renewed its licensing agreement with Spotify, ensuring that music from its member labels — including Domino, Ninja Tune, Secretly Group, Merge, Warp, Epitaph, !K7, Hopeless Records and others — remains available to Spotify’s nearly 700 million global users.

Since Spotify’s launch in 2008, Merlin has been a key partner, providing a single global license that gives the streaming platform access to a vast catalog of independent music. Their collaboration has spanned 17 years, with a previous multi-year agreement signed in 2017.

Merlin and Spotify have worked together to help independent artists and labels flourish across both emerging and established markets. The renewed deal highlights their shared role in fueling the global rise of genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano, driving a rock revival and supporting the ongoing growth of alternative, electronic, Latin, rap and other genres nurtured by indie labels.

The renewal comes at a time when streaming dominates the music industry. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, streaming now accounts for 84% of total U.S. recorded music revenue, a significant jump from 51% in 2017. Paid subscriptions continue to lead, with 105 million accounts contributing $3.2 billion in revenue.

As Spotify evolves, the agreement ensures that Merlin’s members — who represent 15% of the global market — remain central to shaping the future of streaming. The deal aims to foster a sustainable, artist-first ecosystem that supports the next generation of independent creators, labels, and distributors.

The announcement also marks a milestone for Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota, who will step down at the end of the year. Under his leadership, Merlin expanded its reach by securing deals with platforms like Apple, Audiomack, Meta, Canva, Peloton, Soundcloud, Snap and Twitch, among others. The organization added over 100 new members during his tenure and launched initiatives like Merlin Engage, a mentorship program for aspiring women executives, and Merlin Insights, a data analytics tool for members navigating the streaming landscape.

“Merlin’s mission is to empower our members to own their future,” said Sirota. “Spotify remains a key and forward-looking partner in advancing that mission. This isn’t just about securing fair terms — it’s about building frameworks that unleash creativity and ensure our global membership can thrive and lead.”

Spotify’s co-president and chief business officer, Alex Norström, echoed the sentiment: “Independent music has always been at the heart of discovery on Spotify. Our partnership with Merlin enables that at a global scale. This renewal reflects our commitment to helping independent labels and artists flourish while growing the value of music for creators everywhere.”

Amsterdam Dance Event has announced a stacked line-up for its Pro Conference program this fall.

The festival, which takes place in the Dutch capital next month (Oct. 22-26), will host an industry conference alongside its extensive electronic music programming. Speakers for the ADE Pro event include British rapper Skepta, DJs Hannah Laing, Joris Voorn, Chris Stussy and Armin van Buuren, and Kneecap manager Daniel Lambert.

The new names join a bill that includes artists such as Oliver Heldens, HAAi, Billboard cover star John Summit and Kettama, bringing the total to more than 1,200 artists over 450 events.

In addition, the event will host the first-ever indoor No Art festival — a pop-up led by an interplay of contrasting sound and visuals — plus a 40-hour ambient meditation marathon from ZERØBPM at Thomaskerk, and much more.

There will also be appearances from Daft Punk creative director Cédric Hervet and TikTok phenomenon DJ AG, as well as representatives from Sony Music, Warner Records, Tomorrowland Brazil, Armada Music, Helix Records and many more. View the full line-up here.

Panel topics range from discussions surrounding AI and the future of music law, touring and live events, through to everything from geopolitical matters to insider strategies on how to beat the algorithm and achieve success across online platforms. 

ADE 2025 is split between PRO programming for industry professionals, Lab programming for those starting out in their careers, and festival programming for music fans.

The five-day event is run by the Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to nurturing electronic music and its industry worldwide. ADE is billed as the world’s biggest dance festival, representing dozens of electronic subgenres and cultures.

The full program is accessible via an ADE Pro Pass, which is available from €670 ($787). Individual event tickets start at €21.50 ($25.26) and can be purchased via the official ADE website.

XngHan is nervously fidgeting with small rubber bands.

The singer and former member of K-pop boy group RIIZE arranges the ripped-up pieces of one into a smiley face: two straight eyes, a nose and dopey grin. Then, giving it an elastic halo, he points out the display to his manager like a kid seeking approval from a parent, laughing, before snapping back into business mode. For the better part of the past hour, the team has been sleepily standing by in an L.A. dance studio while students in the adjoining space pick up the choreography from his recently released solo debut, “Waste No Time” — an experience he’s going to cap by making a surprise cameo.

This U.S. trip, which consists of three “fan sign” events in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles, is about as far out of the soft-spoken 21-year-old’s comfort zone as it gets. After chatting one-on-one and signing albums during the meet-ups, he models for “photo time,” where fans seated inside the hotel ballroom yell out a string of hand-heart and cat-ear pose requests. (“It’s a pretty awkward time for him, but it’s pretty entertaining for us,” one of his reps quips.) Yet the overall tone is one of celebration, the lightness of coming out the other end of something.

“Seeing them in person is what made me happy,” XngHan (born Hong Seunghan) tells Billboard a couple of days later in early September. “I’m really shy, so I’d always [thought I] preferred talking to our fans online.” Back home, he’s used to playing the shrinking violet, he explains, “But here, I noticed our fans were even shyer than me. It really seemed like they wanted to say something, but they were so nervous that they weren’t able to say what they wanted to say.”

For good reason, emotions ran high. When XngHan was put on indefinite hiatus in 2o23, with his future as a K-pop idol basically becoming a giant question mark, fans in the West were particularly vocal supporters for his reinstatement, remaining relentlessly by his side. Even now, around the corner from the fan sign, the pink wall of SM Entertainment’s old Koreatown office has been plastered with uplifting messages directed at XngHan. (By the end of the month, a rainbow of sticky notes also went up near the company’s main HQ in Seoul; he left an individual reply to each and every one.)

“I received a lot of energy from the fans,” he reflects on the trip’s last day. “They were very sincere, so I thought that I would want to meet them again soon.” Below, the singer recounts highlights from the milestone fan sign tour he’d like to “leave a record of” and shares exclusive polaroids. Watch more moments here.

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino sparked a furor among concert fans last week when he told a CNBC host that concert tickets were underpriced — a sentiment that drew swift condemnation from both casual listeners and dedicated fans frustrated by the cost of seeing live music. While Rapino’s comments caught many off guard, they echoed a line of thinking at the company that predates the pandemic and has only grown louder in recent years.

Despite persistent complaints that concerts are becoming too expensive, Rapino and other Live Nation executives — including president Joe Berchtold and global promoter Arthur Fogel — have long argued the opposite: that ticket prices for many superstar acts are still too low compared with consumer demand.

Speaking at CNBC’s Game Plan conference in Los Angeles, Rapino framed live music as undervalued compared to other forms of entertainment.

“Music has been underappreciated,” Rapino said. “In sports, I joke it’s like a badge of honor to spend 70 grand for a Knicks courtside [seat]. They beat me up if we charge $800 for Beyoncé.” He added, “We have a lot of runway left. So when you read about ticket prices going up, the average concert price is still $72. Try going to a Lakers game for that, and there’s 80 of them. The concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.”

The remarks were quickly clipped, shared across social media, and met with widespread backlash. Grammy-winning songwriter, artist and producer Jack Antonoff responded, “This breaks my heart and is a really sick way of looking at it.” Fans online blasted Rapino as out of touch, pointing to steadily rising costs that have made live music less accessible.

According to Billboard Boxscore, ticket prices for the top 100 tours rose more than 30% in 2024, averaging $130 per ticket — a 9% jump in a single year. Stadium shows in particular have surged, with average prices rising from $125.10 in 2023 to $140.42 in 2025.

It’s unclear how Rapino arrived at the $72 figure he cited, though it was likely calculated across all shows, including clubs and theaters, while Billboard’s data zeroes in on the top-grossing tours. But the contrast highlights a disconnect between how industry leaders frame pricing and what fans experience at the box office.

Still, Rapino’s position is not new. On investor calls as far back as 2021, he has argued that the real proof of underpricing comes from the booming resale market, where tickets routinely trade at multiples of their face value. Berchtold has pointed to more than a billion dollars in annual “price arbitrage” on Live Nation tickets — money spent on StubHub or Ticketmaster’s resale platform rather than going directly to artists and promoters.

That gap between primary and secondary markets remains central to the debate. Rapino and others contend that fans are already proving their willingness to pay more when they turn to resellers, suggesting higher face values could ultimately bring more revenue back to artists. Critics counter that such logic risks pricing out everyday fans and cementing live music as a luxury experience.

For now, Rapino’s latest comments have reignited one of the industry’s most heated conversations: how to keep tickets affordable for fans without the tickets getting significantly marked up on resale sites — and who ultimately gets to decide the true price of a concert ticket. For many fans, though, the idea that tickets are “underpriced” rings hollow. With touring costs, service fees and secondary markups already pushing concerts out of reach, Rapino’s comments feel less like an industry insight and more like a reminder that live music is becoming a luxury few can afford.

Live Nation declined to comment for this article.