Vol 65 - I can't escape the story you gave me, constant reading in my brains

Happy Friday,

UMG goes Downtown, this is what tours are made of & "We were going to get this done for Bad Bunny no matter what” - guy who played a chunk of grass 🌱🌿

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 Charli xcx, Danny L Harle, Feng, Brent Faiyaz, Claire Rosinkranz, Bella Kay, Esha Tewari, hemlocke springs, Jill Scott, flyingfish, Chet Faker…

♪ Notable singles from Ella Langley, Bleachers, Luke Combs, Central Cee, MUNA, CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, Meghan Trainor, Fcukers, Victoria Monét, James Blake…

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

#1 - In tandem with the release of “Wuthering Heights,” Charli xcx drops her album of the same name, inspired by the film with features from Sky Ferreira & John Cale.

#2 - XL client Danny L Harle released Cerulean calling on frequent collaborators like Caroline Polachek, Clairo, Dua Lipa, PinkPantheress & more with ‘Two Hearts’ landing on the playlist.

#3 - Ella Langley drops the 2nd single ‘Be Her’ off of her upcoming album Dandelion. The track was co-written with HARDY, Jordan Schmidt and Smith Ahnquist.

#6 - Bleachers are back! After 2 years away, Jack Antonoff and the band drop ‘you and forever,’ with a music video featuring Margaret Qualley.

#24 - CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso are back with their new single ‘HASTA JESÚS TUVO UN MAL DÍA,’ featuring Sting, following the announcement of their upcoming album FREE SPIRITS set for release on March 19.

#30 - Meghan Trainor releases high energy ‘Get In Girl’ just in time for Galentine’s Day. The track is the 2nd single from her 7th studio album Toy With Me.

#39 - The Red Clay Strays deliver their first love song since ‘Wondering Why’ with ‘If I Didn’t Know You,’ dropping just before V-day with a music video starring Matt Rife and Mariah Morse.

#83 - Flatland Cavalry drops ‘On and On’ alongside the announcement of their fifth studio album Work of Heart, dropping March 27th.

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

The Schedule

Notable upcoming releases

Hilary Duff, Baby Keem, The Aces, Bryce Vine, Megan Moroney, The Neighbourhood, Peaches, Sports, Tori Amos, Worry Club, Naïka, Absolutely all have new projects expected to come out next week.

Baby Keem, Jack Harlow, Bleachers, MUNA, Jill Scott, Feng, Bebe Rexha, 49 Winchester, Jim Lauderdale, Gia Margaret, Lip Critic, White Fence, Hiss Golden Messenger, Kevin Morby all announced new albums this week.

ICYMI

Industry news that mattered this week

The Seahawks won the Super Bowl last Sunday, but Bad Bunny was the biggest winner of the night with more than 135.4M viewers. More on that in the Live World...

3 Doors Down lead singer Brad Arnold passed away at 47.

The European Commission finally approved UMG’s $775M acquisition of Downtown. Spotify reached 290M paid subscribers in Q4 2025. Anna’s Archive has not responded to the lawsuit from UMG, Warner, Sony and Spotify, so the suit may be settled in default judgement; the piracy activist group has also started quietly releasing music files that it took during last year’s hack. Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson are demanding that music from Phantom Thread be removed from the Melania doc. Pandora accused The MLC of abusing its position. EU regulators advised TikTok to change its “addictive design” in Europe or it could face hefty fines. Duetti released it 2025 Music Economics Report.

Discogs launched a ‘My Discography’ documentary series. 90’s music is taking over Olympic Figure Skating this year. Czech Ice Dancers used AI music in their rhythm dance program, technically not breaking any official rules but still facing backlash. Britney Spears sold her catalog to Primary Wave. Music by Radiohead, 2Pac and more were inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame. Tyla is no longer facing a lawsuit over royalty split from 2023’s ‘Water.’ Chris Brown was sued over royalties by Muso. J. Cole responded to Cam’ron’s lawsuit over their collab on ‘Ready ‘24.’

small print

Updates on companies, acquisitions, takeovers and more

• Mozart AI raises $6M in oversubscribed funding round

• Music collectibles platform Wax Poetics raises $1M

• Warner Music UK partners with Generator on three-year-deal

• StrmMusic ups its advances for North American creators

• SoundExchange secures new agreements in Barbados, Denmark, Kenya, Portugal, and more

• Connect Music raises $80M for artist financing and catalog purchases

• CAA, UTA, and WME veteran Billy Wood opens new live agency, HAUS23

• Create Music Group invests $300M in Nettwerk Management buyout

• Spotify unveils new ‘About the Song’ feature

• Sketch Music partners with BMG in new global recordings deal

Group Chat

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

they must not read pitchfork, the la times, or follow AvA or prep school street team 👀

cannot get enough of this shit 🌿

absolute snowflakes ❄️

Favorite GRAMMY moment this year?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Cher. (63%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Chappell's red carpet dress (23%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Nobody arguing with BNA winner (0%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Sab Carp x Bad Bunny (9%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The fact it's Trevor Noah's last year (5%)

The Live World

Tour, festival and other live news

🏟️ Bad Bunny Bowl:

Teeing up Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show were performances from Coco Jones, Green Day, Brandi Carlile & Charlie Puth (who sang a Whitney Houston-inspired arrangement of the National Anthem). Benito’s set featured performances from Lady Gaga & Ricky Martin with cameos from KAROL G, Cardi B, Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba & more.

A lot of other stuff happened:

• A real couple was wed (they originally invited Bad Bunny to their wedding, he did them one better)

• His custom Zara outfit bore No. 64, a tribute to his uncle who introduced him to American football

• 500 people dressed up as grass, and got paid $18.70 / hour to do so

🎸 Biggest tours announced this week: Hilary Duff, Baby Keem, Tame Impala, Mitski, Robyn

Hilary Duff announced her first global headlining tour in almost 20 years. The "Lucky Me Tour" will span 47 dates and follow a Vegas residency and the release of her album Luck… Or Something on February 20th.

Sharing an album release date with Duff, rapper Baby Keem unveiled his sophomore album Ca$ino alongside EU/NA tour dates that kick off this April.

Keem's label mate Tame Impala announced a new slew of North American dates this summer in support of their newest project Deadbeat, bringing along fan favorites Djo & Dominic Fike. The team up confirms online leaks of Ticketmaster dates for the tour before the official announcement was made today.

Rounding out tour news, Punjabi performer Diljit Dosanjh's 13-date "Aura World Tour" is set to break records such as the first Indian act to sell out stadium shows at BC Place and Rogers Centre in Canada.

The 10th annual edition of Love Rocks NYC announced its performers with Mary J. Blige, Hozier, The Goo Goo Dolls, Jon Batiste, Paul Simon & more to take the stage this March.

Guns N' Roses will headline the bp Adelaide Grand Final (racing btw) in November.

🎟️ Festival Headlines:

• Wisconsin festival Eaux Claires announced its return after 8 years, this time with a Bon Iver-curated lineup in Dijon, Daniel Caesar, Aimee Mann, Lil Yachty, Kevin Morby, and Julianna Barwick amongst others

• J Balvin, Kali Uchis & Fuerza Regida will headline Sueños 2026

• Paris’ We Love Green dropped its lineup with Gorillaz, The xx, Addison Rae, Hayley Williams, ROLE MODEL and more set to play

• Cheltenham Jazz Festival shared its lineup of performers for its 30th anniversary including Jessie J, Van Morrison, Corinne Bailey Rae & others

❌ Cancellations:

• Neil Young cancelled all 2026 dates for his upcoming EU tour; the rock legend explained he decided to take a break, sharing “I’m sorry to let you down but this is not the time”

Fresh Ink

Interesting artist signings

Following his Album of the Year win at the GRAMMYs and Super Bowl halftime show performance, Bad Bunny has extended his hot streak by re-signing his publishing deal with Rimas. The Puerto Rico-founded company represents more than 150 creators including more renewals with writers and producers like Mora, Cris MJ, Tempo, Cheo Legendary and others.

After their recent signing of Kanye West for his upcoming album, gamma. has now locked in a deal with his daughter North West. Her first single ‘PIERCING ON MY HAND’ dropped on Friday, produced by Ye and Will Frenchman. The company also added pop artist Olivia O’Brien to their roster.

Three-time GRAMMY winner singer Victoria Monét expands her touring team, adding on UTA for representation in North America. The agency will additionally represent her for film and television. Her latest single ‘Let Me’ drops today, and she will be joining Bruno Mars on “The Romantic Tour” for the Europe leg.

Kentucky native Tyler Booth has announced the formation of his team with The Erv Woolsey Company signing on for management as well as locking in a JV record deal with Jamey Johnson’s Big Gassed Records and Average Joes Entertainment. The singer-songwriter has toured with Brantley Gilbert, Darius Rucker & others and is slated to release new music very soon.

New Zealand pop duo Balu Brigada announced their signing to independent music publisher Kobalt. The brothers Henry and Pierre Beasley released their debut album, Portal, last year via Warner Music Australia/Atlantic.

Acclaimed Canadian pop artist elijah woods has signed with Simkin Artist Management for global representation, partnering with Jonathan Simkin and Isaac Markinson. A multi-platinum, four-time JUNO Award–nominated singer-songwriter and producer, woods has built a formidable solo career with over one billion streams, multiple gold and platinum certifications, and sold-out tours across Canada, Europe, and Asia.

+105 signings on ROSTR this week

On The Move

New hires, exec moves and other people news

Big Machine's George Briner retires after 18 years as President of The Valory Music Co., wrapping a 40+ year country music career that included 46 No. 1 singles.

Scott Borchetta is leaving HYBE America to relaunch Big Machine Records as an independent venture. While Borchetta retains the brand, HYBE keeps the Big Machine Label Group catalog, publishing division, and roster staples like Thomas Rhett.

UMG elevates Francisca Goncalves to SVP, Global Head of Sync for Classic, Jazz & Screen, leading sync strategy across Decca, Blue Note, Verve, and Deutsche Grammophon.

Create Music Group appoints Mitchell Shymansky as Chief Data & Technology Officer after nearly two decades at UMG, where he led Global Data & Analytics and built the company's cloud-native data platform.

Sony Music Publishing appoints Roslyn Pineda as President, Asia, succeeding Carol Ng, who retires in March after 27 years with the company, including leading regional expansion into Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Trust Records tapped Sam Siegler and Mike Nucero as Creative Directors after four years leading visual creative for the punk and hardcore reissue label. The duo, who work under their Easy Does It design banner, have been the creative force behind Matt Pincus' label since its 2020 launch.

• ONErpm expands Nashville with Mike Easterlin as MD plus Josh Tomlinson (Dir. of A&R), Lindsey Terry (Country Marketing Dir.), and Chad Neville (Project Manager).

• Music Health Alliance brings on Lindsay Hayes as VP of Development and promotes six advocacy team members.

• ERN's Cadillac Music adds Dane Schmidt as Sr. Director of A&R, plus creative coordinators Jordan Marcus and Jude Warren.

• peermusic promotes Jody Farber to CFO, succeeding Bill Gorjance's 20-year tenure.

• Stem Distribution appoints Steff Hughes as Head of International after six years at AWAL.

• Kirby Mathews joins Back Blocks Music as VP of Publishing.

• NIVA California names Joe Rinaldi President.

• Edgehill Music Publishing taps Julia Keefe as Partner.

• Nordoff And Robbins taps Dr Maria Neophytou as CEO (starts March).

• Rolling Stone adds Amanda Steinfeld Schaer as VP of Revenue Strategy & Ops.

• Jonas Group Publishing makes Amanda Hruska Global Head of Administration.

• Various Artists Management appoints Alice Vaughan as A&R Director, promotes Carimei Smith to Sr. Day-to-Day Manager/GM, North America.

• Loew's Jersey Theatre names Bruce Wheeler GM ahead of Fall 2026 reopening.

• PERK PR adds Natalie Blakley as publicist.

Dope Jobs

Interesting jobs in music

• VP, Business Development & Client Services at Sound Rink (Remote)

• Director, Experiential Partnerships at FRAUDULENT in NY

• Head of Brand Partnerships at Vitalize Projects (Remote,US)

• Sr. Account Director - Brand Consulting at CAA in LA/NY

• Senior A&R at Because Music in Paris

↗ Find these and 285+ open roles at Jobs by ROSTR