Veeps has cut editorial staff across a group of music publications, including BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver and Goldmine.
Veeps is the ticketed livestream service and media company in which Live Nation owns a majority stake.
The company cut seven employees across five publications as part of a restructuring of its editorial operations, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
The titles remain active and continue to publish, supported by a team of approximately 25 editorial staff, the source added.
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 the titles were subject to “mass layoffs” and that emails sent to BrooklynVegan staffers bounced back, with the exception of founder Dave Levine.
Veeps was founded in 2017 by Joel and Benji Madden of the band Good Charlotte, alongside co-founders Sherry Saeedi and Kyle Heller.
The Maddens acquired Alternative Press in 2020, and brought BrooklynVegan, Revolver, Goldmine and Metal Edge together under Veeps in 2025.
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.
Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Veeps in January 2021.
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.
Separately, 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.Music Business Worldwide
