California Bill Aims to Control the Monopolised Ticket Resale Market After Coachella Resale Prices Surged to Over $4,000 in 2026- in the style of the NY Times

Last Wednesday, California State Assembly member Matt Haney announced a bill to regulate the outlawed ticket resale market.

This revelation came just two days before the iconic music festival, Coachella, one of the largest music events in the world, which took place last weekend on April 10^th. Coachella, hosted in Indio, California, runs across two weekends and attracts around 125,000 people per day. 

 After post-pandemic ticket sales slowed, with some weekend tickets being up for sale until the week before in previous years, Coachella 2026 sold out within 3 days. This is largely due to the appearance of headliners, Sabrina Carpenter and pop behemoth Justin Bieber, who had not performed in more than four years, after cancelling his 2022 tour due to mental and physical exhaustion. 

Coachella, owned by AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) and organised entirely by Goldenvoice, sells weekend passes on the official website at $649. However, Coachella’s official resale site, StubHub, listed tickets to weekend one at between $4,000 to $5,000 for the passes alone. Subsequently, Live Nation, one of the largest live events companies in the world, agreed a lawsuit settlement with the US Department of Justice in March of this year, in which they had been accused of abusing their power and monopolising the leading ticket sales website, Ticketmaster, who allegedly refused to host concerts at venues that worked with rival companies, such as SeatGeek. 

Coachella is no stranger to backlash, though, as fans were outraged by the exorbitant cost of food, with one customer posting a $23 burrito in a cardboard box. 

Haney’s proposal, the California Fans First Act, aims to “cap the resale price of live event tickets to no more than 10% above face value”. This will, in turn, enable fans to enjoy their favourite artists at a fair and manageable price. The bill has generated significant support from independent venues throughout California, who have noticed a decline in ticket sales as fans simply can’t afford to attend smaller events because they often pay up to 700% more than the original ticket price when attending larger concerts. Haney hopes that this bill will control the wild west of ticket resales and positively affect all venues in California. 

Not rich? Not welcome at Coachella in 2026- In the style of The Guardian

Coachella’s reputation as a haven for hedge fund babies and ultra-privileged influencers is nothing new, as the festival, hosted in Indio, California, has become as much of a social media spectacle as it has a music festival.

The festival, which took place just over one week ago, was a roaring success, hosting pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter and the long-awaited Justin Bieber, who appeared live for the first time in four years.

However, what has really made the headlines is Coachella’s ridiculous prices, which highlights a trend in live event ticket pricing which has totally ostracised regular working people and left the festival to be, much like fellow high-society event Burning Man, overrun with delusory awakenings and drug-fuelled entitled rich kids, who myopically use the festivals as if they are in some kind of spiritual nirvana, whilst eating $20 slices of pizza.

The ticket prices alone are absurd. According to StubHub, the official ticket resale website for Coachella, weekend one tickets sold for between $4,000 to $5,000. Yes, you read that correctly, not for camping, not for food, just for the tickets to the actual event. The average household income for a two-person household in the nearby city, Anaheim, is $108,000. This means that purchasing two tickets to weekend one would cost them around 9.3% of their annual income. Some people may argue that concert tickets are a luxury and not a necessity, which is true. However, in the case of Coachella, this goes against the very fabric of which it was made.

After a 1995 dispute between the American Rock band Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster, Pearl Jam launched a campaign against Ticketmaster’s monopoly of the live events industry to cap the exorbitant increase in ticket prices. Inspired by this, Goldenvoice created Coachella as an alternative for musicians who wanted to exist outside of the grip of the iron fist of Ticketmaster and enjoy a weekend focused on music, not profits.

In 2026, Coachella has become exactly what it was fighting against. Popular TikTok creators such as ‘Jack’s Dining Room’ showed the premium prices of food at Coachella, ranging from a $20 strawberries and cream sandwich all the way to the preposterous $270 wagyu, truffle, caviar cheesesteak sandwich. Besides using every buzzword in TikTok food content, this absurd sandwich is a metaphor for what Coachella has become: a display of wealth and power for the rich, piecing together every extravagant ingredient purely for the sake of flaunting it in the rest of our faces. As prices for food, housing and warmth become almost unmanageable for regular people, the wealthy continue to do as they always have, ignore it.

Will Timberlake: producer, songwriter and social media marketing mogul- in the style of Rolling Stone

From the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan to John Lennon, engineering a successful career in the ruthless Serengeti of New York City is something most struggling musicians dream of. it’s reputation as the Mecca of show business has led artists from across the globe to make a name for themselves in the cosmopolitan giant. 

But not this young musician, Will Timberlake’s journey to The Big Apple is not one filled with hope of a life in the lights; this internet marketing master has traded the keys for spreadsheets as he leaves his life in the UK behind and sets sail for a new life at a tech startup, this September. 

Will Timberlake, Born William Timberlake, was born in London and moved to Chichester when he was 12. Originally, Will had no dreams of making it in the music industry despite being classically trained in violin and drums since he was 7; it was never his passion and “it was something I was always encouraged to do” by his family. 

With dreams of being a successful entrepreneur as a child, his passion for music didn’t come until he was 12, when he came into possession of his dad’s VHS tape of Queen’s 1985 Live Aid set. Timberlake described it as “the coolest thing I’ve ever seen” and began writing his own songs.

After a brief period of rebellion at 15, in which Will found himself “smoking a bit of weed”, his passion for music was reignited by “just playing piano”, and due to his classical training, he picked up the skill of songwriting with ease and began to pursue it as a hobby. Inspired by soft-rock bands such as U2 and Coldplay, Will received positive feedback from his peers in high school after posting some YouTube videos of his early songs, which he “looks back on and it’s crap”. 

After finishing college, Will had no desire to go to university and preferred the idea of wanting to “fuck off to Thailand and figure out my life from the beach”. But not wanting to disappoint his parents, Will settled on studying Popular Music at Leeds Conservatoire, one of the most prestigious music universities in the U.K. and Europe. After switching to the Songwriting course in year 2, Will was grateful for the time he studied at Leeds Conservatoire, as he wanted to “learn as much about the industry as he possibly could”, as well as giving him time to work on his childhood dreams of being an entrepreneur. 

Struggling to make money as a student in a new city, Will decided to take an online course on how to make videos for TikTok shop advertisements, a business which was proving extremely lucrative for people in the years post-pandemic. After “working hard for a summer”, Will began to see some success and managed to achieve over 100 million views across all of his advertisements.

As Timberlake had proven his worth within the community, he began taking on more responsibilities, managing small teams of people and scaling brands using promotional content. His capability led him to be offered a permanent role at a company in New York, which he will start on September 1^st.

Timberlake was surprised that such a monumental opportunity had been offered to him, stating that “if you had told me this is what I’m doing, I would be like…explain that”. But despite his clear success in marketing and business, Will’s love and desire to create music have certainly not ceased believing that “In this day and age, the musicians that do really well, are businessmen as well”. Timberlake firmly believes that musicians in the age of social media must be more malleable and skilled than ever before, as musicians have had to adapt and learn the specialised skills of social media marketing to promote themselves. Even stating that “if you’d told Kurt Cobain to start making TikToks, he would probably quit making music altogether”.

Regarding releasing new music, Timberlake is hesitant to put out new music without a clear “project or backing”. Stating that he has over “50 tracks on my computer that need to be put out”. Despite this, he believes that before he moves to New York, music will be released and “packaged up in a project”. Timberlake knows that it would be a “disservice” to keep his songs locked away, but struggles with the mental barrier of releasing such personal and vulnerable music. In addition, Timberlake wants to establish a clear target audience in the same way “Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae and Benson Boone” have established such a strong brand, before releasing any more original material.

Timberlake plans to use his success in business to positively impact the world and achieve his idea of “freedom” through financial means. Taking inspiration from figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, Timberlake wants to “impact the world in a meaningful way” and said that “if he died tomorrow, I’d regret not putting out music”.As he sets his sights on leaving his home and going to New York, Timberlake is destined to achieve his own form of greatness. His entrepreneurial spirit will lead him to achieve seismic things both inside and outside of music.

Ella Langley: Dandelion review- Langley trades Alabama for Hollywood with the recent success of Choosin’ Texas- in the style of The Guardian

Ella Langley’s historic rise to superstardom has been one to remember. Becoming the first woman to have a number 1 song on the US Country Billboard for 20 weeks straight.

Choosin’ Texas has dominated the US Billboard and become a worldwide hit.  Langley, 26, from Hope Hull, Alabama, has transformed from a musician who was known for singing covers on TikTok to one of the biggest musicians on the planet today.

Her album, though, is certainly no reinvention of the wheel. This hot country classic blends Beatles-esque chord choices with Dolly Parton’s smooth melodies, all delivered by her husky yet versatile voice. If you’re a drinker, this may be the album for you, as Langley mentions Jack Daniel’s whiskey almost as often as she mentions heartbreak and unrequited love.

However, despite this, where this album really shines is not the songwriting or lyrics, but the production. Nashville staples Miranda Lambert and Ben West did as good a job as I have ever heard on a country album. The warm bass mixed with thumping drums and thick layered guitars makes the whole album feel like a summer’s day in the stifling Alabama swamp. 

The album is quite strong; however, a few tracks stand out. “Be her” sounds like if Sabrina Carpenter went country. It is an ode to the ideal woman Langley wishes she could be, and her yearning to be the ideal housewife. It’s simple, repetitive, but exactly the kind of song that will find success, and it’s no surprise it sits at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

“Back to loving life again” is a song for the summer, which makes you feel like you’re sitting next to Langley in a convertible, with the warm Nashville breeze blowing through her hair and this song playing on the radio.

Finally, what more is there to be said about “Choosin’ Texas”? The song is simply structured, effective and well written, with a groovy instrumental that makes listeners want to ‘two step’ along with its pulsing bassline. Langley manages to balance traditional themes of country music, such as cowboys, Texas and alcohol, nicely by being delivered in her friendly country twang.

It is no surprise this song is breaking records, and it seems as though Ella Langley is becoming a household name, as the 26-year-old is really hitting her stride.

William Timberlake Interview Transcript