Marathon Live, the Nashville-based independent venue operator and promoter has launched its Facilities Management Division, a major expansion designed to bring full-service operational expertise to live entertainment venues across the U.S. The new division, led by Mark Dinerstein (CEO), Casey Osburn (SVP Operations), and Josh Billue (Chief Development Officer), offers a wide range of venue support services — from operations and talent buying to food and beverage management, sponsorships, marketing, CRM, ticketing, production design, and facility development.

The goal is to help existing and emerging venues streamline costs while maintaining top-tier audience and artist experiences. “We are highly focused on leading the industry in creative efficiencies and lowering overheads without sacrificing a high-quality customer and artist experience,” says Dinerstein. “Our expectations are to integrate our successful practices and team members to share our reputation as a top operator in the small to midsize venue segment.”

The Facilities Management Division’s first client is Fort Worth’s Tulips FTW, a 550-capacity live music venue in the city’s Near Southside neighborhood. Known for its warehouse aesthetic and local community roots, Tulips has become a cornerstone of the Fort Worth music scene, hosting artists like Shakey Graves, Sierra Ferrell, Big Freedia, and Saosin alongside homegrown talent. “Marathon Live changes our dynamic, and we could not be more thrilled to start Tulips’ next chapter with them,” says Jason Suder, owner of Tulips FTW.

“Being part of the Marathon Live network only validates our efforts, and this collaboration opens up a world of prowess and access to artists we could not have achieved on our own.” Founded in 2011 with the opening of Nashville’s Marathon Music Works, Marathon Live has built a respected portfolio of independent venues including The Truman (Kansas City), The Signal (Chattanooga), The Hall (Little Rock), The Hawthorn (St. Louis), and the newly opened FIVE (Jacksonville, FL). With its expansion into facilities management, the company aims to extend its operational DNA — balancing independence, artist-first values, and scalable infrastructure — to a new generation of live entertainment spaces nationwide.

More than four years after their last outing and with their touring future in doubt, Bon Jovi will return to the road starting in July. A seven-date run that hits three international cities will kick off July 7.

The legendary rock n’ roll band’s ability to tour again had been in doubt, as lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi dealt with vocal cord issues. Following the conclusion of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s 2022 tour, he underwent reconstructive surgery on his vocal cords and then a yearslong rehabilitative process.

“There is a lot of joy in this announcement — joy that we can share these nights together with our amazing fans and joy that the band can be together,” Jon Bon Jovi said in a statement. “I am lucky enough to be able to hold a light out to the audience each night and stand in their reflection for a tremendous collective experience — I get to stand in the WE of our concerts.”

He continued: “And I’ve spoken extensively on my gratitude, but I will say it again: I’m deeply grateful that the fans and the brotherhood of this band have been patient and allowed me the time needed to get healthy and prepare for touring. I’m ready and excited!”

The Live Nation tour starts with four shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden before traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland; Dublin and London to close at Wembley Stadium. The general onsale starts Oct. 31, with presales beginning Oct. 27.

Jon Bovi has been candid about his recovery, saying the band got together every month to rehearse to gauge his progress, but that until he felt he could confidently sing through a two-and-a-half-hour show, they weren’t hitting the road. “Day to day, I’m working hard on it,” he told Entertainment Tonight in 2024. “Nothing else matters until I work on getting better. It’s up to God at this point. I’ve done everything I can do. I won’t fake it … the legacy matters too much.”

Promoting the band’s 2024 four-part Hulu documentary, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, which documented the surgery, he said during the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour panel in February that year, “One of my cords was literally atrophied. So, my vocal cords, they’re supposed to look parallel. So, let’s pretend one of them looks as thick as my thumb and the other one is as thick as a pinky. So the strong one was pushing the weak one aside. And I wasn’t singing well, so my craft was being taken from me.”

There were positive indications along the way that his voice was on the mend, including in February 2024, when he was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year and sang robust versions of “Legendary” and (with Bruce Springsteen), “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” and “Promised Land.”

The band’s latest release, Forever (Legendary Edition) comes out Friday (Oct. 24) and is a reimagining of its 2024 album recreated as duets with such artists as Springsteen, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Jason Isbell, Joe Elliott and Robbie Williams.

“This album is more than just a collection of collaborations, it is an album borne out of necessity,” Jon Bon Jovi said in a statement when announcing the album. “My vocal cord surgery and subsequent rehab was a well-documented journey that played out while releasing Forever in June 2024. I was singing well enough in the studio for the recording, but the vocal demands and rigors of touring were still out of reach for me. Without the ability to tour or promote an album we were all very proud of, I decided to call on some friends to help me in my time of need. All are great singers, artists, and also just great people. The result is an album with a new viewpoint and new spirit — a collaboration album that proves we all get by in this world with a little help from our friends.  I feel tremendous joy and gratitude releasing this album and I think it shows in the music.”

Billboard’s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, visit the event’s website.

Danny Ocean sat down with Billboard’s Leila Cobo at Billboard Latin Music Week 2025 for “The Sony Music Publishing Iconic Songwriter Q&A” panel to discuss how he’s crafted his biggest hits, including “Me Rehuso,” and the power of his songs to transform society.

Presented by Sony Music Publishing, the Venezuelan singer-songwriter — whose artistic name is a nod to George Clooney’s character in the Ocean‘s trilogy — spoke candidly about looking inward and trusting his intuition when crafting songs. It’s what was key for “Me Rehuso” (“I Refuse”), Danny’s breakout hit, a love song he wrote for a girlfriend as a Valentine’s Day gift that also captures his migration journey from Venezuela to Miami.

“I had no way of getting something to my girlfriend back in Venezuela, so I wrote her a song — not knowing when I would see her again,” Danny said. “I didn’t overthink things, it was what I was living at the moment. ‘Me Rehuso’ was also a feeling of having to leave Venezuela.”

The track was released while he was working at a pizzeria in Kendall, Fla., but he eventually doubled-down on songwriting, taking inspiration from personal relationships, including the one with his beloved Venezuela.

“Having to migrate had a huge impact on my life and made me question things, such as how we can make Venezuela have that outlet like other countries,” he explained. “I see Venezuela as my partner, [my songs] are a direct, personal conversation with Venezuela. But I also don’t want to romanticize it, it’s my relationship with Venezuela, and everyone has their own relationship with their own country. I don’t see it as a manifesto or something political.”

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For “Caracas en el 2000,” Danny collaborated with fellow Venezuelans Elena Rose and Jerry Di. “Putting Venezuela on the radar started out as something very personal between us,” he said. “We’d go out for a beer, talk about how we were feeling, and those conversations would end up in the studio, then in a song. It’s been very natural.”

When asked by an audience member what he’d do when he returns to Venezuela, Danny Ocean said, “Everything I didn’t do when I was there, and hang out with people, find out what they think, what they’re up to. I want to spend some time at home, hang out with my family, connect with the streets. And visit Los Roques, I’ve never been.”

Spanning more than 30 years, Latin Music Week is the single-most important and largest gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world. This year’s event once again hosts panels, marquee conversations, roundtables, networking and activations, in addition to its celebrated Billboard En Vivo showcases. 

This year’s star-studded lineup includes Aitana, Alofoke, Anuel AA, Bebeshito, Carlos Vives, Carín León, Danny Ocean, DJ Khaled, Daddy Yankee (DY), Emilia Mernes, Ivy Queen, Gloria Estefan, Grupo 5, Kapo, Laura Pausini, Luck Ra, Netón Vega, Olga Tañón, Óscar Maydon, Ozuna, Pablo Alborán, Rawayana, Suzette Quintanilla, Tokischa, Xavi and Yailin La Más Viral, to name a few.

Latin Music Week also coincides with the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards, set to air Thursday, Oct. 23, on Telemundo and Peacock, where Bad Bunny will be honored as Top Latin Artist of the 21st Century.

Ed Sheeran is used to playing for tens of thousands of rabid fans in stadiums around the world. But how does his emotional music play in a New York classroom of third graders? Check out the latest episode of the heart-warming series Celebrity Substitute, in which Sheeran pops into PS20 in Brooklyn to teach students how to transform everyday sounds into fully fledged songs.

Host Julian Shapiro-Barnum sits down with Sheeran in the Clinton Hills classroom’s small chairs to observe as the singer teaches his young charges about rhythm and sound using his trusty loop rig, even as Ed laments that perhaps he’s “not the best substitute teacher.” Or, he offers, maybe he is just that because, he recalled (before the students arrived), sometimes when a sub comes in you feel like, “‘f–k, you’re not my real teacher… don’t tell me what to do!’”

Well aware that he doesn’t command authority and is basically a big Pokemon-loving adult kid himself, Sheeran recalled the nasty names he got called in school, helping to prove Shapiro-Barnum’s credo that “weirdos make the coolest adults.” (See the full video below.)

After getting affixed with his official “Mr. Ed” sub name tag — and getting warned by teachers Mr. Chung and Mr. Hampton that his lesson plan was “ambitious” at best — Sheeran dug into his curriculum of teaching the importance of rhythm, finding your own sound and, most importantly, rehearsing.

Sheeran got right to work, playing his 2015 Billboard Hot 100 No. 15 hit “Photograph,” which was met with mixed reviews from kids who were fans, some who were not so much, and one girl who recalled seeing him in a book about Taylor Swift once, but having no idea why he was in it. “I like the music… a lot,” said one young man named Theo, who admitted that he wasn’t familiar with Sheeran’s ouvre, but does love soccer and had a friend who was the fastest player on his team before he moved to England.

After teaching the kids the basics of the waltz and 4/4 rhythms by noting that pal Swift’s “Style” is in 4/4 by clapping his hands in time, Sheeran set about making sure the kids were picking up what he was laying down by asking them to clap their hands and stomp their feet at the same time in rhythm.

One-by-one the students came up to the mic to say silly phrases that Sheeran looped together to form a rhythm, earning praise from the teachers for his pedagogical skills. Busting out a box of instruments that turned the room into a riot of noise, Sheeran then encourage each student to share their unique sound into the mic, from saxophone bleats to fart sounds.

The 15-minute clip ends with a command Show & Tell performance of “The PS20 Kids and the Morning Routine” original song about brushing your teeth which is guaranteed to be the cutest thing you see all day.

Watch Sheeran on Celebrity Substitute below.