Vol 36 - If I'm fine without it, why can't I stop reading?

Happy Friday,

Sab Carp now approved by God, Bud’s campaign is a dud & Bonnaroo is wondering if you still like them?

nb. We’ll be off next week for the 4th of July 🎆

Have thoughts on this week’s news? Just hit reply.

New Music Friday

What you need to know about today’s new releases

🎶 New albums and EPs from Lorde, KATSEYE, Lizzo, Kevin Abstract, Bruce Springsteen, Parker McCollum, Russ, Cris MJ, JP Saxe, Lauren Spencer Smith, Yung Bleu, Pi’erre Bourne…

♪ Notable singles from Alex Warren & ROSÉ, Don Toliver, BigXthaPlug & Shaboozey, Lewis Capaldi, Jessie Murph, Laufey, Myke Towers, Good Charlotte, Blood Orange…

Each week, we go through Spotify’s New Music Friday playlists to highlight releases you should know about…

#5 - After shutting down a bridge in Texas to shoot the music video, BigXthaPlug & Shaboozey have released their new collaboration ‘Home.’

#13 - Blood Orange returns after 3 years with new single ‘The Field’ alongside Caroline Polachek, Eva Tolkin, Tariq Al-Sabir, and Daniel Caesar.

#16 - Lizzo makes a surprise with a newly released mixtape, My Face Hurts from Smiling, featuring a collaboration with SZA on the track ‘IRL.’

#25 - Diplo & Bailey Zimmerman drop their highly anticipated single ‘Ashes’ - written with frequent Bailey collaborator Austin Shawn.

#28 - Mac DeMarco is gearing up to release his new album, Guitar, and shares new single ‘Home.’

#46 - South Korean DJ and producer Peggy Gou has shared her new uptempo house single, ‘D.A.N.C.E’, from the anticipated F1 movie soundtrack.

#52 - late night drive home release their debut album as i watch my life online & land ‘day 2’ on NMF.

#54 - Caroline Polachek is back with a new track, ‘On the Beach’, featured on the soundtrack for the new PS5 game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

⭐ #75 - Gearing up to release their debut album Now Would Be A Good Time next month, Folk Bitch Trio land with their 3rd single of the year - ‘Moth Song.’

#83 - The internet’s favorite reincarnation of Justin Bieber, Dom Innarella, releases his newest track ‘Jersey In July’ via Republic with help from superproducers The Monsters & Strangerz & others.

#99 - Rap producer & artist Pi’erre Bourne drops his album Made In Paris and lands with ‘Le Vôtre.’

⭐ = our pick of the week. Usually an under the radar artist to keep an eye on.

The Schedule

Notable upcoming releases

Kesha, Kae Tempest, Youngboy Never Broke Again & Shouse all have new projects expected to come out next week.

Cardi B, Maroon 5, Mac DeMarco, Sarah McLachlan, Wisp, Niko Moon, Royel Otis, Cut Copy, Big Freedia, Amaarae, The Beths, Lecrae & Paramore’s Zac Farro all announced new albums this week.

ICYMI

Industry news that mattered this week

Budweiser is being called out for winning an award for a music-driven ad campaign using “the world’s most iconic songs” without paying anything for the music rights. Two US Senators criticized Spotify in a letter to the FTC for its music-audiobooks bundling plan, which lowers royalties to songwriters and publishers each year. Despite living in Ireland since age 1, U2’s The Edge finally became an Irish citizen. After receiving backlash for the original cover art, Sabrina Carpenter debuted new album artwork to her upcoming album Man’s Best Friend.

A new lawsuit accused Fat Joe of victimizing Terrence Dixon, his hypeman of over a decade, sex acts with minors and other crimes; Fat Joe responded to the allegations, sueing Dixon and his lawyer. Then, Dixon’s lawyer was arrested for allegedy hitting Fat Joe’s process server with his car and trying to flee the scene.

What’s going on with BLACKPINK?

LeeAnn Rimes’ teeth fell out during a recent performance, but she made a quick recovery. Chris Brown pled not guilty to assaulting someone with a bottle in a London nightclub two years ago. A social media personality filed a lawsuit against GloRilla for allegedly stealing her viral catchphrase “all natural, no BBL.” A new documentary about the BTS Army fanbase is set to release in July. HBO will premiere its 2-part documentary about Billy Joel in July as well. Bob Dylan will release a new art book in November. Polo G settled a lawsuit over cancelled European tour dates in 2023. Snoop Dogg settled a lawsuit that accused him of using unlicensed backing tracks on ‘BODR.’ Netflix released a new documentary focusing on the tragedy at Astroworld in 2021.

This week at Diddy’s trial:

• Diddy’s ex-assistant testified on prepping and cleaning hotel rooms for his ex-boss

• Diddy declined to testify

• Some of the charges were dropped

• Closing arguments started

small print

Updates on companies, acquisitions, takeovers and more

• SoundCloud renews European ad sales partnership with AdsWizz

• Irish Music Rights Organization reports record revenue growth in 2024

• TikTok debuts LIVE Fan Club as daily livestreamers hit 130 million

• Rumblefish signs deal with ByteDance to handle music licensing for TikTok and CapCut

• AI music platform Suno acquires WavTool, stepping into the DAW space

• Udio upgrades editing tools with new ‘Sessions’ interface

• AI stem-separation startup Audioshake rolls out its first SDK (Software Development Kit)

• TuneCore report dives into the rise of India’s independent music scene

• Soundstripe’s Supe inks musical AI deal with SourceAudio

• Spotify says payouts to Egyptian artists doubled in 2024

• Spotify ‘closing the gap’ with Melon in South Korea

• Sample library Splice now integrated directly into DAW Pro Tools

Group Chat

The section that’ll probably get us in trouble one of these days

Agents just say anything

And didddd

What led to the Stem crash out?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 That Concord $ got them feeling some type of wayyy (45%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Majors suck, it's not rocket science (26%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ James Blake held a gun to their head (8%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Post-indie week confidence boost (21%)

Fresh Ink

Interesting artist signings

In case you missed it, rising pop star ROLE MODEL signed with Dani Russin & Brandon Creed of Good World Management after parting ways with BEST FRIENDS. back in April. The singer will be making his acting debut alongside Mark Ruffalo & Natalie Portman in Lena Dunham's new comedy Good Sex.

Multi-platinum singer-songwriter James Arthur signed to an exclusive global publishing agreement with BMG. The British artist currently sits at over 38M monthly listeners on Spotify & the new deal includes his recent project PISCES released last year.

Long-time independents, Loud Luxury has joined the Republic Records/Casablanca Recordings family. The duo's new single via the new pact 'R U DOWN?' just landed everywhere.

Rapper Ray Vaughn, managed by Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), signed with RCA Records this week. The new deal comes after his recent mixtape The Good, The Bad, The Dollar Menu & his inclusion in the XXL 2025 Freshman Class.

Former basketball player & social media influencer Adrien Nunez & Sony Music Publishing have officially teamed up for an admin deal. Under Warner Music Nashville, he has amassed nearly 100 million streams in under a year.

New bass & UKG inspired producer Zoey808 has formed his team via assembling Conrad Schoenleber of Rad Biz for management, Wilcox Weaver of UTA for touring & adding on newly rebranded Payday Music Publishing.

+130 signings on ROSTR this week

The Live World

Tour, festival and other live news

🎸 Biggest tours announced this week: Reneé Rapp, Maroon 5, Queens of the Stone Age, Cash Cobain, Erykah Badu

12 suspects were arrested in France following 145 people claiming they had been pricked with syringes during the nationwide music festival Fête de la Musique over last weekend. France’s Interior Ministry explained “toxicology tests are being done” to see if any victims were injected with drugs or substances.

Shakira continues to break her record of shows in Mexico, adding 2 more dates for a total of 28 on her tour.

Young Thug performed for the first time in over 2 years last Sunday at Lyrical Lemonade and SPKRBX’s Summer Smash. The rapper was arrested in 2022 after pleading guilty to racketeering amongst other charges.

Dolly Parton announced a 6-night residency at Caesars Palace this December. The last time the country singer played in Las Vegas was 1993.

In other country-Vegas-residency news, Kenny Chesney shared he will return to Sphere in 2026 for another run of shows.

Following months of delays, LA’s Blue Note Jazz Club has set an opening date for August 14th. The venue will be located in the same complex that housed the iconic former Arclight Hollywood. Robert Glasper is set to play on opening night.

Battle rapper T-Rex was hospitalized last Sunday in NYC following a medical emergency that happened on stage during a battle with Geechi Gotti. He appeared to have been seizing on stage, but confirmed via X he was recovering safely in the hospital.

🎟️ Festival Headlines:

• All Things Go Toronto announced its headliners will be Kacey Musgraves, Reneé Rapp, ROLE MODEL & Remi Wolf

• Joe Bonamassa is launching his Sound Wave Beach festival next April in Florida with performances from Gov’t Mule, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Grace Potter & more

On The Move

New hires, exec moves and other people news

Veteran agent and partner Darnell Strom has been appointed to lead UTA’s operations in the UK. Sony Music Pub promoted Margherita Gnech to MD of Italy. Satoshi Tanaka is stepping in as the new CEO of Space Shower Fuga, a joint venture formed by Space Shower Networks and Fuga. Lost Highway is growing its Nashville team, appointing Casey Thomas as VP of Marketing and Vincent Masino as Manager of Audience Development and Content Strategy. NIVA appointed Audrey Fix Schaefer as Board President, added Courtney McClary Yug and Gary Witt to the Board, and named Kira Karbocus as Treasurer. Legends has tapped Jim Scholefield to serve as CTO across both the company and its newly acquired subsidiary, ASM Global.

Dope Jobs

Interesting jobs in music

• CEO & General Manager at Lyric Baltimore in Maryland

• Senior Director, Marketing Strategy at UMG in NYC

• UX Research & Design Lead at Bandsintown in Montréal

• Membership & Bookings Manager at Qube in London

• Analyst, GBS Business Performance at Warner Music in Louisiana

↗ Find these and 290+ open roles at Jobs by ROSTR