Like TOM CRUISE in A FEW GOOD MEN entering evidence in court of a nonexistent military flight, two U.S. senators are seeking answers to questions that weren't quite raised in the TORONTO STAR/CBC investigative series on TICKETMASTER resales, and Ticketmaster is denying engaging in tactics the series doesn't accuse the company of engaging in. Where are AIRMEN O'MALLEY and RODRIGUEZ when we need them? There are two basic steps to scalping concert tickets: 1) Buying them. 2) Marking them up and selling them. The heart of the series is largely about step 2, describing how Ticketmaster employees encouraged undercover reporters posing as scalpers to use its TRADEDESK platform to unload a high volume of tickets. The employees are shown telling the reporters they don't care how they got the tickets or if they used bots, and they have no interest in sharing any unusual account information with the primary-sales side of the company. "It's church and state," one TradeDesk sales executive said. And TicketMaster, despite its public opposition to professional, bot-based scalping, profits from those TradeDesk resales. Those are explosive revelations, worth further inquiry. In a bipartisan letter to TicketMaster CEO MICHAEL RAPINO, SENATORS JERRY MORAN (R-Kan.) and RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.) write that the series says TradeDesk "provides a web-based inventory for scalpers to effectively purchase large quantities of tickets from Ticketmaster's primary ticket sales website," which is literally not what the series says. The senators follow up with some questions that are worth asking, though I suspect at least one of them, which they probably consider a hardball, is very much a softball. Ticketmaster, for its part, has outright denied "selling software to help scalpers buy tickets ahead of fans," which it wasn't accused of doing, and adds, "That's simply not what TradeDesk is." As we knew. There is lots, however, that we don't know, and lots of fodder for additional questioning. If anyone in here can handle the truth... In related/unrelated news: BMI wants a piece of ticket resale income, as well as revenue from live sponsorships and VIP packages, for its songwriters... Car radio meets internet radio and sparks fly. Perspectives continue to roll in on the $3.5 billion SIRIUS–PANDORA deal. Will this be the first "full-stack" music company? Was this mostly a way to make sure no one else bought Pandora? MusicSET: "Sirius Unlocks Pandora's Box"... LIL WAYNE—are you sitting?—is releasing THA CARTER V this week... ALMOST FAMOUS is being turned into a musical. Which it kinda sorta already was. (And this is the tweet of the day)... JON PLATT officially taking over at SONY/ATV. Which you kinda sorta already knew... MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT unanimously passes US HOUSE, heads to WHITE HOUSE for presidential signature.