Veeps has reportedly laid off nearly all the editorial staff across four music publications: BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver and Goldmine.
Veeps is the ticketed livestream service in which Live Nation owns a majority stake.
Live Nation and Veeps did not immediately respond to MBW’s request for comment.
The cuts came to light on Tuesday (August 4), five days after Live Nation reported second-quarter revenue of USD $7.67 billion, up 9% YoY, and reiterated full-year guidance for double-digit growth in adjusted operating income.
News of the layoffs circulated after Pitch Perfect PR publicist Jacob Daneman posted about them on X.
“RIP Brooklyn Vegan. Absolutely bewildering,” Daneman wrote.
“Thinking of all the great people there and the unparalleled music coverage they’ve done over the years. Utterly unceremonious and moronic actions by Veeps.”
Pitchfork subsequently reported that nearly all staff at the four titles appeared to have been laid off, and that emails sent to BrooklynVegan staffers bounced back, with the exception of founder Dave Levine.
BrooklynVegan was founded in 2004 in New York by Dave Levine, while Alternative Press launched in Cleveland in 1985.
Revolver launched in 2000 and has covered hard rock and metal since 2001, while Goldmine has served record collectors since 1974.
BrooklynVegan, Revolver and Goldmine sat alongside sister brands including Metal Edge, The Hard Times and Inked within media company Project M Group. BrooklynVegan also owns metal site Invisible Oranges, which it acquired in January 2013.
Alternative Press came via a different route, having been acquired around 2020 by the Madden-founded company MDDN, at which point it left Cleveland.
Veeps was founded in 2017 by Joel and Benji Madden of the band Good Charlotte, alongside co-founders Sherry Saeedi and Kyle Heller.
Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Veeps in January 2021.
Pitchfork reported that Veeps took ownership of the titles in 2024 or 2025.
Live Nation published its Q2 results on July 30, with net income of USD $403 million, up 33% — USD $294 million of that attributable to Live Nation stockholders — and event-related deferred revenue at a record USD $6.4 billion.
“In a world of endless screens and AI-generated everything, the one thing that can’t be copied is being there,” Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino said in the earnings release.
“More artists are on the road than ever — and fans keep choosing to be in the room with them, driving the strongest concert ticket sales we’ve ever seen,” Rapino added.
Live Nation said it had sold more than 143 million tickets through mid-July, over 14 million ahead of the prior year’s pace.
On the company’s earnings call, Rapino said Live Nation had seen “no consumer issues to date,” adding: “Numbers are up across the board, whether it’s international, America, clubs, amphitheaters, stadiums, all genres, all venues, and all geographies right now.”
The results landed against the backdrop of an antitrust case in which a federal jury in New York on April 15 found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had illegally monopolized US primary ticketing and the market for artists’ use of large amphitheaters, and had unlawfully tied Live Nation‘s concert promotion services to artists’ use of those amphitheaters.
The jury found against the companies on every count put to it, in a case pressed by 33 states and the District of Columbia after the US Department of Justice settled a week into the trial. Jurors set the overcharge at USD $1.72 per ticket at major concert venues, and a separate remedies phase is still to come. Live Nation is seeking to overturn the verdict or win a new trial; Judge Arun Subramanian heard arguments on July 31 and has yet to rule, with remedies discovery on hold until he does.
The Veeps cuts extend a run of music companies shedding or shrinking the editorial titles they own, even as the wider business has grown.
Warner Music Group offloaded media properties including Uproxx and HipHopDX as part of a multi-year restructuring under CEO Robert Kyncl.
Kyncl has said the changes would “free up more funds to invest in music and accelerate our growth for the next decade.”
In April 2026, Sony Music subsidiary The Orchard cut nearly all full-time staff at metal outlets Metal Injection and MetalSucks, along with advertising business the Blast Beat Network.
Universal Music Group is in the final year of a “strategic organizational redesign” targeting €250 million (USD $290 million) in annual run-rate cost savings by the end of 2026.
For Live Nation, the media cuts arrive as its core business posts record numbers, with the company projecting full-year fan attendance growth of 10%.Music Business Worldwide
