The twist in the Ticketmaster antitrust fight

On The Vergecast: music monopolies, Anthropic vs. the DoD, foldable phones, and much more.

by David Pierce

Mar 10, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

A lot of people are mad at Ticketmaster, and have been for a long time. (Did Swifties directly create an antitrust trial? Discuss.) The US government’s case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster appeared poised to lay bare some of the strangeness of the music business, and maybe even change the way the company works.

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And then, well, the Department of Justice and Live Nation-Ticketmaster decided to settle. On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Lauren Feiner explains what happened during the first few days of the trial, the machinations that led to the settlement, and what’s likely to happen next in this fight. The trial may not be over, but it’s certainly about to change.

After that, The Verge’s Hayden Field joins the show to catch up on the latest between Anthropic, OpenAI, and the US Department of Defense. She explains why OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s deal announcement backfired so spectacularly, why this whole thing is both a big win and a huge problem for Anthropic, and whether the end result of this saga will change the way we use, and regulate, AI going forward.

Finally, David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about foldable and flippable phones. They’re cool, they’re fun, they kind of seem like the future… but what are they for?