Vol 23 - Did I dream the whole thing? Was I just a newsletter?

Happy Friday,

Biopics in the works, ODESZA gives your innie some music to refine to & the crew (Katy Perry) returns gently under parachutes, forever changed.

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 Ariana Grande, Lucy Dacus, Lil Durk, Mumford & Sons, NAV, grentperez, Wallows, Hannah Cohen, Polo & Pan, Jessie Reyez, Amira Elfeky, Q, Aqyila, Serebii…

♪ Notable singles from Kali Uchis, Feid & Ty Dolla $ign, Jordan Davis, d4vd, Linkin Park, Ari Lennox, Perfume Genius, Kesha & T-Pain, Coco Jones, Little Simz, Chezile, Tucker Wetmore, Lord Huron, Rico Nasty…

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

#1 - Ariana Grande and Max Martin team up again with ‘twilight zone’ on her release eternal sunshine deluxe: brighter days ahead.

#12 - On their new album, Rushmere, Mumford & Sons sing about ‘Caroline,’ a track co-produced by Dave Cobb. The band announced a North American & European tour this morning.

#13 - The Linkin Park revival continues with ‘Up From the Bottom,’ the band’s first single since their comeback album From Zero, which released late last year.

#14 - Ari Lennox releases ‘Soft Girl Era’, with writing and producing credits from hip-hop & R&B legend Jermaine Dupri.

#19 - Kesha + T-Pain = country banger ‘YIPPEE-KI-YAY.’

#28 - Polo & Pan recruit Beth Ditto for ‘Petite Etoile,’ which comes off their newest project 22:22, the first album they’ve released since 2021.

#41 - R&B artist Q drops his first music in 2 years with a full new project including focus track ‘be with ya.’

#42 - ‘Backyard Boy’ singer Claire Rosinkraz releases her long-teased track ‘Lucy.’

#47 - Dylan Scott releases ‘I Hate Whiskey,' words we never thought we’d hear in a country song.

#58 - Jax Jones, Rebecca Black and Korean DJ sooyeon join forces on ‘Bad Boys.’

⭐ #59 - With her album Bloodless a month away, Samia shares her 6-minute track ‘Pants.’

#75 - Tanner Adell is ‘Going Blonde’ and never going back on her new country ballad.

#81 - With their typical lyrical prowess and tightly locked harmonies, The Army, The Navy air out their ‘Dirty Laundry.’

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

The Schedule

Notable upcoming releases

Elton John & Brandi Carlile, Black Country, New Road, Djo, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Momma, Wet, Malcolm Todd, Boldy James, 2hollis, Dirty Projectors, Rachel Chinouriri, Panchiko, Florist, Sleigh Bells, Thornhill, Grace VanderWaal, Sydney Rose & Shoreline Mafia all have new projects expected to come out next week.

Miley Cyrus, Kesha, Niontay, Maren Morris, Ethel Cain & Fuerza Regida all announced new albums this week.

ICYMI

Industry news that mattered this week

In the biggest news of the week, Endeavor announced it was going private and changing its name to WME Group in a $25B deal with PE firm Silver Lake. Infinite Reality acquired Napster for $207M (this time it’ll be different, right?). Concord confirmed it acquired Stem for an 8-figure USD deal. A US Federal court ruled that human authorship is a requirement for copyright protection (for now). Stubhub filed for an IPO. Canadian Music Week founder sued the new owners of the renamed Departure for breach of contract and unpaid sale fees. Live Nation agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming they failed to warn investors about what led to the DOJ's antitrust case and will pay $20M.

A Britney Spears biopic is in the works, with Jon Chu set to direct and rumors that Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter want to play the iconic role. Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Harry Styles and more signed a written plea asking the UK government to better support music education. The ACM nominations are out and Ella Langley leads with 8 nominations. An individual in Brazil was charged in a streaming fraud scheme over $65K in Spotify royalties. ODESZA and Severance team up for a new 7-track EP, ‘Music to Refine To: A Music Companion to Severance.’

Katy is actually heading to space on April 14th.

Jason Derulo was ordered to face a jury trial after allegedly failing to pay and credit a co-writer of 'Savage Love.' A South Korean court ruled that K-pop group NewJeans had to return to work with their label ADOR. The Country Music Hall of Fame announced the 2025 inductees, including Kenny Chesney, June Carter Cash and producer Tony Brown. Zendaya is set to star in Ronnie Spector biographical drama Be My Baby, directed by Barry Jenkins.

small print

Updates on companies, acquisitions, takeovers and more

• Daniel Nigro (Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo producer) secured an expanded deal with Universal for his Amusement Records label

• Believe secured worldwide catalog deal with Japanese label Teichiku

• Adrian James Music Group settled up base in Nashville

• Sony Music Entertainment India expanded its reach through a partnership with Tiger Baby Films to launch Tiger Baby Records

• SoundCloud released its first ‘Music Intelligence Report,’ highlighting platform trends.

• Music Nation expanded into neighboring rights through a deal with SoundExchange

• Music mashups startup Hook secured $3M in latest funding round

• She Writes Songs, a new initiative to empower women songwriters, debuted this week

• Emergent company Output aims to simplify the process for musicians to discover samples

• Apple Music integrated with DJ apps, allowing subscribers to mix their entire music library

• GetReal Security secures $17.5M to fight AI deepfakes

Group Chat

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

Not people crashing out over an AvA post about an obviously ridiculous thing…

We were going to try something but Prep School nailed it lol:

Thoughts on the '26 SXSW music drama

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 The festival was dead years ago who cares (65%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ We love to fucking see it (25%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The fight vids on Twitter are pretty cool (0%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ My liberal cousin works for Raytheon, speak on what you know (10%)

Fresh Ink

Interesting artist signings

Previously with UTA, mgk has now moved to WME for touring worldwide repped by Joey Lee, Sloane Logue, Ron Opaleski, Ben Totis & David Bradley. The rapper-turned-singer is appearing on this year's Warped Tour 30th anniversary.

The Familie has been busy - the management company that reps mgk also signed Cordae this week with Steve Astephen & Nano Tissera leading the project. The rapper just released his Tiny Desk Concert on NPR last week.

Manager Matthew Miller, who was at Triple 8 prior, also joined the company alongside clients William Beckmann & LEW.

After a string of sold-out shows at the Sphere, Anyma has now signed a publishing deal with Kobalt.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is back - kind of. The band signed a record deal with Frontiers Music which will release their live album Celebrating 50 Years - Live At The Ryman.

After signing with CAA, Sydney Rose has officially joined the Mercury Records roster. She's due to release her EP on April 4th after her song 'We Hug Now' recently went viral on TikTok.

Artist manager Samuel Luria launched his new LA-based company Creature. He brings over at launch BROODS, Georgia Gets By & Rita Mae.

Previously at Range Music, artist manager Andrew Goldstone has joined Milk & Honey Management as head of electronic music. Manager Taren Smith joins him on the move alongside clients Kream & Sullivan King.

+140 signings on ROSTR this week

The Live World

Tour, festival and other live news

🎸 Biggest tours announced this week: Lady Gaga, Chris Brown, Jonas Brothers, Jojo Siwa, Yung Lean

Lady Gaga announced “The Mayhem Ball Tour,” with stops in North America, South America, Asia & Europe.

FKA twigs postponed North American dates of her "Eusexua Tour," citing visa issues. Shows in Chicago, New York & Toronto are temporarily on hold.

Travis Scott announced a 5-date tour with stops in South Africa, India, South Korea, China & Japan. The "Circus Maximus" tour will see Scott make his debut performance in India.

Through a partnership with Veeps, Mary J. Blige will livestream her first-ever Madison Square Garden headlining concert.

Brisbane Live Arena, envisioned to be a legacy venue for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, has been scrapped by the Queensland government. Plans for the 18K capacity sports and concerts arena were originally drawn up in 2018, but according to reports, the Queensland government is, instead, investing in a controversial 60K capacity stadium at Victoria Park.

KISS are set to perform a makeup-free show in Vegas. They wrapped their “final tour” 15 months ago…

Bob Dylan kicked off his “Rough and Rowdy Ways” tour in Tulsa, Oklahoma this Tuesday.

🎟️ Festival Headlines:

• SF's Outside Lands announced Tyler, The Creator, Hozier & Doja Cat will headline the festival in August

• Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash Festival lineup will feature headline performances from Future, Don Toliver & Yeat’s new duo & Young Thug, who will be performing for the first time since being released from jail

• Luke Combs, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan & Brooks & Dunn will headline Country Calling Festival in Maryland this October

• Stagecoach revealed the lineup for Diplo's HonkyTonk, which includes DJ Pee .Wee, Paris Hilton & Sofi Tukker amongst others

• Lizzo, Lil Nas X & Kim Petras will headline Outloud Music Festival at WeHo Pride in LA

• Doja Cat has been revealed as the first headliner for Hey Neighbour Festival in South Africa this summer

• Keith Urban, Megan Moroney & Kelsea Ballerini were announced as headliners for CMA Fest this June

• Black-owned and woman-owned Femme It Forward's first-ever cruise festival will feature Keyshia Cole, Monica, SWV & more

On The Move

New hires, exec moves and other people news

Jules Casini has joined the London and NY-based independent music company, Transgressive, as its Streaming & Digital Partnerships Manager. Jason McArthur has joined Red Street Records as VP of Christian A&R and Publishing. Universal Music Canada (UMC) has named Amanda Kingsland and Shawn Marino Co-Heads of A&R. Big Loud Marketing SVP Candice Watkins is wrapping up a successful 6 year run at the Nash powerhouse, departing the House of England.

Sony Music Brazil has tapped Fernando Cabral de Mello as its new CEO as part of a larger restructuring of parent company Sony Music Latin Iberia. Chely Wright named SVP, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and New Market Growth at ISS. Sony Music Nash SVP of Marketing Jennifer Way has stepped down after 8 years. ASM Global names Chris Dudeck GM of Dominion Energy Center. ERA appoints Megan Ogleby-Page as Head of Ops. Monti Smith has joined King Pen Music as Creative Coordinator.

Dope Jobs

Interesting jobs in music

• Music - Tour Marketing Executive at CAA in LA

• Head of Digital Partnerships, US at Because Music in LA

• Financial Director at un:hurd music in London

• Partnership Sales Lead at Oh Wow Company (Remote)

• Booking Agent at AMS Booking in Paris

↗ Find these and 220+ open roles at Jobs by ROSTR