Vol 61 - I'm a god in these inboxes, all my news MVP

Happy Friday,

Harry’s back, Sony Pub buys a big dog, BTS makes a comeback, but Britney won’t come back.

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 A$AP Rocky, Skrillex, Cavetown, Baby Nova, Girlfriend, Vienna Vienna, ENHYPEN, Aliyah’s Interlude, Sassy 009, Corbyn Besson…

♪ Notable singles from Megan Moroney, Madison Beer, Charli xcx, Mitski, Charlie Puth, Arlo Parks, Slayyyter, Ella Mai, DESTIN CONRAD, waterbaby, Kim Gordon, Flea, Sports, Michael Marcagi, Elmiene, spill tab, EVAN GIIA…

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

#1 - A$AP Rocky releases his highly anticipated album Don’t Be Dumb, and grabs the top spot with ‘AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO),’ produced by Manny Laurenko & Zach Fogarty. Shout out Mac.

#3 - Charli xcx drops ‘Wall of Sound,’ for the upcoming “Wuthering Heights” movie release. The film releases and soundtrack album drop on February 13.

#5 - Megan Moroney continues to build hype for her third studio album Cloud 9 with fiery track ‘Wish I Didn’t,’ which arrives alongside a “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” style music video starring The Traitors winner and DWTS contestant Dylan Efron.

⭐ #17 - Stockholm artist waterbaby shares the soft, titular track ‘Memory Be a Blade’ from her debut album due March 9 via Sub Pop.

#22 - Gorillaz, Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar team up on ‘Orange County.’

#33 - Girlfriend’s newest album Honey Water drops via Encore Recordings today with lowkey track ‘Sideways’ landing on the playlist.

#39 - Red Hot Chili Pepper Flea reunites with his old Atoms For Peace bandmate Thom Yorke for his new single ‘Traffic Lights.’

#79 - Hilary Duff releases ‘Roommates,’ co-written with husband Matthew Koma and Brian Phillips.

#89 - Daughter unveil previously unreleased single ‘Not Enough,’ in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of their album Not To Disappear.

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

The Schedule

Notable upcoming releases

Louis Tomlinson, Hudson Westbrook, IDK, Ari Lennox, Gesaffelstein, Megadeth, Alan Vega, Searows, Reba McEntire, The Paper Kites, Crystal Lake, Kashus Culpepper, MIKA, Nija, reggie, Talk Talk, Poppy, The Format, Lucinda Williams, YES all have new projects expected to come out next week.

Harry Styles, BLACKPINK, J. Cole, Mitski, Morrissey, Fcukers, Kim Gordon, Slayyyter, Arlo Parks, Flea, Moby, Protoje, Larry Fleet, Deathcrash, José González, Sunn O))), Anjimile, Brit Taylor, Charlotte Cornfield, Richard Marx, Shabaka, Elucid, Peter Frampton (anniversary) all announced new albums this week.

ICYMI

Industry news that mattered this week

The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir passed away at 78. Colombian Singer-songwriter Yeison Jiménez died in a plane crash just hours before he was scheduled to perform. Fugees and Wyclef Jean collaborator John Forté passed away at 50. “The Fairly OddParents” composer, Guy Moon, passed away at 63.

Elon Musk’s X sued NMPA and 18 publishers for anti-competitive behavior. L.A. Reid settled the sexual assault lawsuit against him on the morning that the trial was scheduled. Bad Bunny and Rimas Entertainment were sued for $16M for allegedly using a woman’s voice on two songs without her permission. Spotify shared their debut Songwriters to Watch list, including A.Chic, IKKY and more. 130+ music industry pros signed an open letter requesting EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath impose restrictions on “Predatory ticket resales.” A U.S. judge upheld a landmark ruling that songwriters can reclaim their copyrights worldwide. Spotify is raising premium prices in the U.S., Estonia and Latvia. Mark Cuban invested in Burwoodland, the company behind Emo Night Brooklyn, Gimme Gimme Disco and Broadway Rave. The royalties dispute between Sting and former The Police bandmates continues.

Britney Spears says she’ll never perform in the U.S. again.

Calvin Harris won $13.5M in the 1st part of his legal battle with previous business manager Thomas St. John. Gracie Abrams will make her acting debut in an upcoming A24 movie. Los Lobos sued Sony Music and Sony Pictures over unpaid royalties. Maverick City Music accused co-founder Tony Brown of violating his non-compete in launching a new Christian music venture. Steve Aoki was sued because of his Instagram posts promoting trading card and NFT company MetaZoo. Lizzo settled the lawsuit over teasing an unreleased track to poke fun at Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad. Chris Brown’s $500M defamation lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery and Ample Entertainment for Chris Brown: A History of Violence was dismissed by a judge. Julio Iglesias was accused of sexual and physical assault by two women who previously worked in his home.

small print

Updates on companies, acquisitions, takeovers and more

• Futures Music Group and companyX partner to promote artist-brand collabs

• Bandcamp lays out ban on AI-generated music

• Artist manager Adam “Ash” Harrison launches Third Brother Records

• Cutting Edge Group acquires composer John Paesano’s catalog

• Kustom Entertainment sheds healthcare arm to focus on ticketing

• Sony Music Publishing Nashville purchases Big Yellow Dog Music

• SourceAudio and Native Instruments partner on AI dataset licensing partnership

• UMG introduces new education initiative: Sound Generation

Group Chat

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

“It’s about to be a what?”

Teaser for a commercial, we ❤️ capitalism!

How much money did they give CBS for this 😫

Most excited about for 2026?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ New stuff from ROSTR 👀 (15%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Music videos on Spotify (15%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Getting rich enough to rent an entire hotel in Ojai, CA like Taylor Swift did for the HAIM sister wedding (46%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ It's 2016, what do you mean? (23%)

The Live World

Tour, festival and other live news

🎸 Biggest tours announced this week: BTS, Charlie Puth, Madison Beer, Pitbull, Disclosure, Fcukers, Joey Valence & Brae

BTS finally shared their highly anticipated tour dates for 2026-2027, visiting 34 regions across 79 shows with more to be announced.

Bruno Mars announced an additional +30 dates to The Romantic Tour, including extended stops in Vegas, Miami, Paris, Toronto, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, London & more.

A source from Las Vegas allegedly reported Metallica are nearly done finalizing a Sphere residency deal for 2027 👀.

Trevor Noah will complete his sixth and final time as host of the GRAMMY Awards on February 1st.

ATG will operate a $100M+ multi-use venue in Milton Keynes, UK. The 4K capacity venue will host >100 events annually, including concerts and other live experiences.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) unveiled the first-ever Eurovision Song Contest Live Tour to celebrate the event’s 70th anniversary. The tour will stop in 10 European cities and feature performances of the most popular songs from the show’s history.

India’s federal government is capitalizing on the country’s live music sector with a dedicated unit in Live Events Development Cell (LEDC) with the aim of making India a leading global entertainment destination by 2030.

Mary J. Blige announced her first Las Vegas residency, which kicks off in May at Park MGM for 10 nights.

🎟️ Festival Headlines:

• Don Toliver, Playboi Carti & YoungBoy Never Broke Again will headline Rolling Loud in its first Orlando edition (this will be Carti’s 6th time headlining)

• Foo Fighters, Backstreet Boys, Lorde, LCD Soundsystem & sombr will headline BottleRock in Napa this May

• iHeartCountry Festival shared its 2026 lineup with performances from Kane Brown, Riley Green, Parker McCollum, Shaboozey & more

• Windy City Smokeout returns to Chicago this July with an additional 5th day to the festival, and will feature headlining performances from Treaty Oak Revival, Hootie & The Blowfish, Lainey Wilson, Jordan Davis & Blake Shelton

• Carín León’s La Cura Fest will feature headliners Alejandro Sanz, Grupo Frontera & Jelly Roll

• Italian festival C2C dropped its lineup with Los Thuthanaka, Nourished by Time, Arca among others playing in NY this May

❌ Cancellations:

• Despite having a 5-year agreement planned through 2027, the NSW government has terminated SXSW Sydney after 3 years. With no official explanation, it appears the decision to cancel followed standard performance assessments applied to all major events in the state. SXSW Sydney generated ~$276M in across its 3-year run

• My Chemical Romance delayed the first night of their Black Parade 2026 Tour in Bogotá due to unspecified reasons beyond the band’s control

Fresh Ink

Interesting artist signings

Prolific rapper Nas has jumped to Wasserman Music for touring worldwide with Lee Anderson, Brent Smith, Kevin Shivers & James Rubin repping. The 17-GRAMMY nominee dropped the seventh and final album in Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It… series of albums last December with Light-Years alongside DJ Premier.

Country artist Larry Fleet, along with his own label Stellar Way Records, will release his upcoming album Another Year Older via EMPIRE. The Tennessee-born troubadour has had a big couple of years including co-writing Morgan Wallen’s hit ‘Man Made A Bar.’

Joy Oladokun starts the year off joining CAA’s roster of Calhoun Rawlings, Ron Jordan, Joseph Harris & Jacqueline Reynolds-Drumm for NA. In addition, she just dropped her first single since signing to Concord this week, which is an ode to the difficulties faced by everyone in 2025.

Marlon Funaki locked in a recording deal with Warner Records, releasing his debut single last week, ‘Let You In’. The 24-year-old is slated to have loads of live performances this year, including at festivals like Okeechobee & The Great Escape.

Sony Music Publishing & Daniel Nigro’s Amusement have partnered up to sign writer-producer Jon Buscema to a global publishing deal. He has collaborated with artists such as Conan Gray, Devon Again, Noah Rinker & more.

Former One Fiinix Live & Sound Talent Group (STG) agent John Pantle has joined Atomic Music Group (AMG) as President of Global Touring. He brings over artists such as Creepy Nuts, Chiquis, Undertale Symphony & others. Joining him is also agent Charlie Coker, whose roster includes Mae Stephens, Princess Superstar & more.

+165 signings on ROSTR this week

On The Move

New hires, exec moves and other people news

TuneCore is entering a new chapter, with CEO Andreea Gleeson transitioning into a Strategic Advisor role at parent company Believe. Gene Whitney is appointed General Counsel at HYBE America while Johanna Fuentes steps into the role of EVP and Head of Communications and PR at the company. Rostrum Pacific has signed direct licensing agreements with Spotify and TikTok and launched SpaceHeater, its new distribution platform, with Samantha Moore named President. Big Loud Records expands its leadership team with Stacy Blythe and Jordan Pettit as Co-Presidents. Hannah Poferl becomes the Chief Data Officer at UMG.

Longtime exec Derek Cournoyer has exited Kobalt and joined ElevenLabs as Head of Strategy, Music Business Affairs, reinforcing the company’s push into licensed AI music. Atomic Music Group has hired veteran talent agents John Pantle and Charlie Coker. Merlin, the digital music licensing partner for the world’s leading independent labels and distributors, has announced its new Board. Samantha DePrez has been promoted to Sr. Director of Promotion at Curb Records. Syntax Creative has elevated Erin Moorman to VP of Marketing and Tremon Matlock to Marketing Manager, and has added Chelsea Owens as Executive Assistant. The Academy of Country Music and ACM Lifting Lives have added Elizabeth Hagler as Head of Ops, People & Culture and Julie Alcaraz as Sr. Accountant, Finance & Accounting, while elevating Brooke Boyd to Coordinator at ACM Lifting Lives.

Longtime CMA CEO Sarah Trahern is set to retire at the end of ‘26. Sr. Director of Publicity, Julianne Cassidy, exits her role at Sweet Talk Publicity.

Dope Jobs

Interesting jobs in music

• SVP, Catalog at UMG in Santa Monica

• Director of Marketing at Hundred Days (United States) Remote

• Founding Engineer at Nero in SF

• A&R at Bourne Creatives in LA

• Tour Marketing Director at Outback Presents in Nashville

↗ Find these and 240+ open roles at Jobs by ROSTR