The AvA Connection

🐝 The Weekly Buzz (6 things you need to know)

1) Tomorrowland’s main festival stage burned down 48 hours before the gates were scheduled to open. But due to the incredible team behind the scenes, and some help from Metallica, the show still managed to go on as planned with no delays. Unbelievable work all around.

Wait Metallica? Stage parts from the European leg of their current World Tour that were stored in Belgium were airlifted to the site overnight allowing the main stage to open on time. The power of live music is unmatched. This picture will forever give me chills.

2) Substack raised $100 million last week in Series C funding at a $1.1 billion valuation. The platform has been gaining notoriety in its niche which now boasts 5 million paid subscriptions, up from 4 million in November of 2024.

3) Bonnaroo announces 2026 return after being cancelled this year due to weather. To make sure everything goes to plan this time around though, they have dedicated a multi-million dollar budget to weatherproofing ‘The Farm.’

🏊‍♀️ Deeper Dive: The festival will no longer use the low-lying camping areas most affected by flooding, which means a reduction in overall capacity. Organizers are also focusing on infrastructure upgrades, including reseeding grass to improve land resilience, reinforcing campground access roads, and upgraded drainage and runoff systems.

4) AI music generator Suno unveils update with “previously unimaginable production capabilities.” This includes features like ‘Add Vocals’ to allow users to layer vocals onto instrumental tracks, ‘Add Instrumentals’ to add AI-generated backing tracks to vocal recordings, and ‘Inspire’ which creates songs based on user-curated playlists. Thanks… I hate it.

5) Roblox teams up with Netflix, Lionsgate, and Sega for new creator licensing platform. This will help streamline the process for IP rights holders to work with creators seeking to use elements of shows like ‘Stranger Things’ or ‘Squid Game.’

6) Billie Eilish is working with Avatar director James Cameron for a new “3D experience.” Not a ton of info on this yet, but that’s a DUO.

🏃 Industry Moves

1. Lionsgate names Erin Westerman as their new president. Prior to this promotion she already worked on recent ‘Hunger Games’ & ‘John Wick’ films, and her work is set to continue on “all aspects of development and production” for theatrical releases going forward. 

2. Warner Music appoints Orla Lee-Fisher as new Head of Dual Catalog Strategy. She was most recently their EVP of Global Marketing and worked with artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Elton John, this sounds like a pretty safe bet.

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📝 Tip of the Week:

The job market sucks right now. It’s more competitive and more confusing than ever. AI filters résumés before a human even sees them. But the people breaking through in 2025 are the ones investing in themselves outside of work:
Building real networks, developing distinct skill sets, and staying plugged into what and who are shaping the Industry.

It’s not enough to just have a résumé. You need to have a story.

Having a flashy job titles at a legacy company isn’t the driving force anymore in an Industry that is more fragmented and gig-based than ever.

Post a thought piece on LinkedIn. Start a podcast. Join a virtual summit. Have that coffee you’ve been putting off with someone in a completely different part of the industry.

Some of it may feel cringe. I still feel that writing this very piece. But I promise it’ll set yourself above the rest.

Your 5–9 very well may be the thing that lands you your next 9–5.

📚 Book and Podcast Rec:

Each week, I highlight a new book and podcast that I am into. This week’s is Glossy the inside story of how Emily Weiss built her media company Into the Gloss then launched one of the most iconic B2C brands of our era. Great stories in their about what it was like coming up in the magazine world, growing a media company, and the intersection of media/commerce.

“The Devil Wears Prada was a hit book and film, and Weiss fit the mold.”

And check out the Chainsmokers on Invest Like The Best where they discuss the future of creativity in an era of AI, as well as, their journey into investing with a portfolio that includes companies like Kalshi + Public.

👋 See you back here on Wednesday for a brand new selection of Entertainment jobs

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This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.

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