Vol 74 - You know all the words to "New Industry Friday" and I know why you read them

Happy Friday,

d4vd is arrested (finally), Live Nation is ruled an illegal monopoly & K-pop frenemies join forces on new festival.

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 ZAYN, Anitta, John Summit, ROSALÍA, Sexyy Red, Honey Dijon, Lewis Capaldi, M.I.A., Jessie Ware, SOFIA ISELLA, Yaya Bey, Owen Riegling…

♪ Notable singles from Olivia Rodrigo, sombr, Lana Del Rey, Hayden Everett, Young Miko, Céline Dion, The Band CAMINO, Jessie Ware, WizTheMc, Wafia, Tiga, Labrinth…

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

#1 - Olivia Rodrigo drops the first single off of upcoming album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, ‘drop dead,’ with co-writers, Dan Nigro, Paul Cartwright and Amy Allen.

#4 - Tyla and Zara Larsson team up to pay homage to Britney Spears on ‘SHE DID IT AGAIN.’

#5 - Former accountant John Summit released his album CTRL ESCAPE on Tax Day as an homage to his past life with ‘SHADES OF BLUE’ featuring Devault & Julia Church landing on the playlist.

#9 - Maria Zardoya of The Marías’ solo project Not for Radio continues to grow with mini EP Bloom featuring NMF placement ‘Ache.’

#28 - Céline Dion releases new single ‘Dansons’ amid her ongoing battle with stiff-person syndrome.

#46 - Amidst his beef with TV show Euphoria, Labrinth drops ‘SHUT YOUR DAMN 95.7892.’

⭐ #79 - Indie-folk’s Hayden Everett releases his most recent self-released album So The Sun Can Pour.

#95 - Montreal DJ and songwriter Tiga releases new album HOTLIFE, with ‘NEED YOU TONIGHT’ featured on New Music Friday.

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

The Schedule

Notable upcoming releases

Noah Kahan, Kehlani, KNEECAP, Demi Lovato, Foo Fighters, Meghan Trainor, Jason Aldean, Michael Bublé (live), Ringo Starr, Angélique Kidjo, Gia Margaret, Angelo De Augustine, Oliver Tree, Hrishikesh Hirway, Six Feet Under, Terror, ZHU, YARN, White Denim, Atreyu, Las Cruxes, The Amity Affliction all have new projects expected to come out next week.

Charli xcx, Madonna, PJ Morton, Cody Johnson, The Field, LE SSERAFIM, Maggie Rose, Ekko Astral (live album), Jaco Jaco, Jeff Bates, Camylio all announced new albums this week.

ICYMI

Industry news that mattered this week

A jury found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as an illegal monopoly. d4vd was taken into custody over alleged killing of teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose body was found in a Tesla registered to the singer. Bending Spoons laid off Eventbrite staff after acquiring the company. Latin Music generated more than $1B in U.S. recorded music revenue in 2025. Iron Maiden, Phil Collins, Sade and more were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Nominations for the AMAs were announced; Taylor Swift leads with 8 nominations, followed by Morgan Wallen, Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter and sombr with 7 nominations each. Ticketmaster will now be available in ChatGPT. Maryland became the 3rd U.S. state to pass the PACE Act, restricting Rap lyrics from being used as criminal evidence. India added almost 4M paid music streaming subscriptions in 2025, bringing the total to 14.4M. RAYE will receive the Songwriters Hall of Fame New Artist Award.

ROSTR partnered with independent promoters for AFTERS event earlier this week.

BTS’ lawyers are searching for the person who leaked the group’s new album. A national survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts, Lowell revealed that Dolly Parton is the most popular person in America. Ruby Rose accused Katy Perry of sexual assault; Katy responded. Britney Spears voluntarily checked into a rehab facility after her recent DUI arrest. Tom Dumont of No Doubt revealed he has Parkinson’s. The alleged stalker of Lindsey Buckingham was arrested in Indiana. Lil Jon announced a new memoir, I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me, releasing October 20th. Aaron Carter’s mom launched a GoFundMe to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Bollywood music legend Asha Bhosle passed away at 92. Felipe Staiti, the lead guitarist of Enanitos Verdes, passed away at 64.

small print

Updates on companies, acquisitions, takeovers and more

• Max Lousada and Julie Greenwald launch new record label, 26.2

• LyricFind unveils video-creation subscription service, ‘Artist Unlimited’

• Spotify and National Independent Venue Association launch new partnership

• PPL Records revenue saw a growth of 4.75% in 2025

• MusicBird secures catalog of Supertramp bassist Dougie Thomson

• Ticketmaster strikes new partnership with Seated

• Warner Music Group unveils investment and partnership with TuStreams

• Concord enters into strategic partnership with hip-hop powerhouse, Victor Victor Worldwide

• Warner Music and Spinnin’ Records launch Spinnin’ Records Germany

• FTC directs StubHub to pay fans $10M over misleading pricing

Group Chat

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

That part

THAT PART

Do these unique, proprietary insights make you better at your music industry job?

What are you most looking forward to about Coachella?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Not going (56%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The Stagecoach portion (8%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ "Pollstar" happy hours (0%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ The YouTube live stream (28%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Artist parking, biotch (8%)

The Live World

Tour, festival and other live news

🎸 Biggest tours announced this week: The Strokes, sombr, USHER & Chris Brown, Noah Kahan, Jessie Ware

🌵 Coachella Recap:

• Sabrina made good on her promise to return as a headliner with a show-stopping spectacle that included guest appearances from Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, Samuel L. Jackson & Sam Elliott

• Biebs delivered a nostalgic, simplistic look back on his career, harmonizing with his younger self to his greatest hits via YouTube on his MacBook; he also brought out Tems, Mk.gee, Dijon & The Kid LAROI

• KAROL G made history as the first Latina to headline Coachella, paying homage to Ranchera music and Latin legends Gloria Estefan & Willie Colón; she also brought Becky G, Wisin, Mariah Angeliq & Greg Gonzalez of Cigarettes After Sex

While Jack White filled in the surprise 3PM slot last Saturday, Weekend 2's addition will be Kacey Musgraves, who returns to the desert for the first time in 6 years.

K-pop conglomerates HYBE, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment & SM Entertainment are establishing a joint venture to launch a global music festival called Fanomenon. The goal is to debut in South Korea in 2027 and become a touring event in 2028.

ILLENIUM announced 2 additional dates for his Sphere show on July 3rd and July 4th 🎆

🎟️ Festival Headlines:

• The Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash was announced with Lil Uzi Vert, Skrillex, Baby Keem & Playboi Carti headlining

• Country Thunder Florida will be headlined by Gavin Adcock, Zach Top & Kane Brown

• Whiskey Kiss Festival will debut in San Antonio with performances from Paul Cauthen, Vincent Neil Emerson, Rattlesnake Milk & more

❌ Cancellations:

• Kanye West prematurely postponed his Marseilles date after reports of the French interior minister considering banning him from entry; the rapper planned for a Poland show, but he is now banned there as well

• Canadian producer/DJ Rezz cancelled her Coachella Weekend 2 performance citing health issues that have not been addressed; she has apologized and promised to upload her Weekend 1 set to YouTube

Fresh Ink

Interesting artist signings

Fresh off an Outdoor Theatre set in the desert, Foster The People has signed with broke Records. After stints with majors like Columbia & Atlantic, the LA indie rock outfit lands with the independent label and will look to build off their most recent 2024 album Paradise State of Mind.

Recently launched Tenace Records, a JV between Believe UK & Tileyard Music, has teamed up with British pop artist Mae Muller following their inaugural signing of band Pale Waves. Originally co-signed by Little Mix and Sam Smith, Muller’s debut 2023 album Sorry I’m Late via Capitol Records included hit ‘I Wrote A Song.’

Peermusic has signed songwriter & artist Eyelar (Eyelar Mirzazadeh) to a worldwide publishing deal covering future works and select back catalog, with Peermusic establishing a writer development joint venture alongside 2-Tone Entertainment. The Iranian-British writer's catalogue has amassed more than 2B streams globally, with credits for Charli xcx, RAYE, JADE, Anitta, Demi Lovato, Fred again…

New Zealand rap artist lilbubblegum has joined the Rebellion Records roster, who broke out with 2020 single 'guap' and has since built a global fanbase with co-signs from Yung Gravy, Rico Nasty, bbno$, and REI AMI. The artist drove 70M streams in 2025, shaping a sound defined by moody production and retro, internet-native visuals.

Double Down 11, the new joint venture with Virgin, has signed NESYA as its flagship artist following the 38M+ stream success of 'Delulu.' The Black alt-pop artist's new single 'Put The Fries In The Bag,' produced by Kill Dave, blends darkwave, post-punk, and trap-pop into what she calls a ‘Vampire Siren’ anthem.

Canada’s Heather Russell has landed with Layne Lindroth & Brad Parker of Track Record for management. The Prescription Songs-signed writer is making her CMA Fest/Nashville live show debut in June and is releasing her debut artist project this summer.

+110 signings on ROSTR this week

On The Move

New hires, exec moves and other people news

Mark Pitts launches Cofvnders after stepping down as President of RCA Records. He'll still be on as a consultant for the Sony Music acts he worked with.

Tim Miles has joined BMG as EVP of Global SYNC+, the company's music-for-media division launched earlier this year. He comes from Warner Music Group, where he spent a decade leading global sync across more than 25 markets.

Chris Marking has joined Live Nation as EVP of International Venue Sponsorship, moving over from AEG where he spent two decades working on venue and festival partnerships.

Jess Kinn has been promoted to partner at ROAM, while Malaika Thomas joins as head of tour marketing. Meanwhile, Saskia Collins comes on as head of EU brand partnerships at companyX.

Elsewhere in the industry…

• Taylor Sloane has exited MCA Nashville after nine years to launch Dream Big Music

• Becky Colwell has been named President of Programming & Content at Oak View Group and Mark Shulman has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Programming & Content, OVG East.

• Michael Giangreco has been promoted to President of A&R at Big Loud Publishing

• CAA elevated Noah Bryles, Andrew Dominijanni and Rachel Green to Agent in its Global Touring division.

• Maverick Nashville promoted Tori MacDonald-Nash to Director of Artist Projects, Ashley Negrillo to Senior Creative Director, and Grace Foster to Manager of Marketing Strategy and Fan Engagement role.

• Joe Soper has been appointed VP of Sports & Entertainment at Mohegan.

• Chase Armstrong joins The Listening Room as Director of Sales & Marketing.

• Darren Pfeffer takes on the role of Chief Commercial Officer at Production Resource Group.

• Shazmah Hakim steps into the Chief Legal Officer seat at OVG.

Dope Jobs

Interesting jobs in music

• Director, A&R at Create Music Group in United States

• Director, Marketing at Nettwerk Music Group in United States / Canada

• Day-to-Day Manager (Dance Music) at SYMMETRIC United States / Canada

• Venue Manager at 16 on Center in Chicago, IL

• Marketing & Creative Manager at Red Light Management in Los Angeles, CA

↗ Find these and 320+ open roles at Jobs by ROSTR