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The first Billboard Live club in Taiwan is slated to open this fall in the city’s bustling Xinyi District. The news was announced on Friday (Jan. 17), detailing a licensing agreement between Billboard parent company Penske Media Corporation and Credo Holdings, Ltd., a leading hospitality company headquartered in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
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Credo has secured the operational rights for the Billboard Live Taipei outpost, which will be located on the seventh floor of the ATT 4 Fun building in the busy financial/fashion district that is home to a number of luxury hotels and restaurants as well as the annual Taipei New Year’s Eve countdown party and fireworks display.
Billboard Live — originated by Hanshin Contents Link Corp., which holds the master license for the brand in Japan — hosts live performances by internationally known artists at locations in Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama, Japan, as well as alternate format versions in Shanghai and Nanjing, China. Among the global stars who’ve performed at Billboard Live in Japan are: Steely Dan, Babyface, David Foster, KISS’ Paul Stanley, Chaka Khan, Kool & the Gang and the Beach Boys.
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The aim is to provide an immersive, up-close experience with a variety of acts, from new, local talent to international legends, with each venue’s bill featuring carefully curated lineups reflecting the 131-year-old publication’s storied history covering all aspects of the music industry.
Like the other clubs, Billboard Live Taipei will feature live performances from top Japanese, Korean, U.S., European and Taiwanese acts, with the venue aiming to promote musical exchanges between Taiwanese and international artists. The intimate, 300-seat venue with a state-of-the-art sound system and gourmet restaurant is also part of Billboard‘s mission to advance the international presence of music cultures around the world.
Click here for more details on the new club.
Coldplay‘s never-ending Music of the Spheres tour has already set records as the best-selling and highest-grossing rock tour ever thanks to 10 million tickets sold and grosses over $1 billion to date during its three-year run. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news But next week, the “feelslikeimfallinginlove” […]
Time to embrace the Faces of Music. Sephora and Hulu announced Friday (Jan. 18) that they are teaming up for an inspiring new docuseries that will celebrate the connection between beauty and music.
The three-episode Faces of Music limited series will feature in-depth conversations with three major music stars — Chappell Roan, Victoria Monét and Becky G — as they share how they “use beauty to shape their image, amplify their music, and communicate their identity,” per the series description. The show will also explore how these artists created their instantly recognizable beauty looks.
In a new trailer shared exclusively via Billboard, the three stars get ready to go onstage while sitting at a vanity. “Chappell is a version of myself that’s so bold and confident and hot,” Roan (born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) says in the one-minute clip.
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Becky G chimes in, adding, “I feel my most sexy when I’m leaning into what is on the inside,” while Monét concludes, “It’s not about right or wrong; it’s about your truth.”
All three musicians have had a groundbreaking few years. Monét released her album Jaguar II on Aug. 25, 2023, and the 11-track project reached No. 22 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and No. 60 on the Billboard 200. The LP won two Grammys this year for best R&B album and best engineered album, non-classical, while the R&B singer-songwriter also took home the coveted Big Four trophy for best new artist at the 2024 ceremony.
Roan dropped her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess in 2023. After a series of headline-making performances — including at Coachella and Gov Ball 2024 — the 14-track project earned a new peak of No. 2 on the Billboard 200. At the 2025 Grammys, she’s nominated for six awards, including all the Big Four categories.
Becky G embarked on her first headlining run, the Mi Casa, Tu Casa tour, and dropped her third studio album, Esquinas, in 2023. She hosted the Latin American Music Awards in 2024 and embarked on her second headlining tour, titled the Casa Gomez: Otro Capítulo tour. Most recently, she dropped another album, Encuentros, in October 2024.
Faces of Music launches exclusively on Hulu on Jan. 22. Watch the trailer via Billboard below.
Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney have long had a very sweet mutual admiration society. But when the “Take Her Home” country star appeared on The Tonight Show on Thursday night (Jan. 16), he revealed that the early stages of their friendship famously got off to a rocky start.
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Chesney recalled the oft-repeated story about how when Swift was 17 she was booked to open a tour for him that was sponsored by a beer company. “They came to us right before the tour started and said, ‘We can’t have a minor on the tour,’” Chesney recalled. “Which made sense. But I had to call Taylor personally and tell her she couldn’t go on tour with me, which now seems absurd, right?”
Chesney said he made the difficult call and told Swift he felt terrible about the bait-and-switch because he knew she was going to lose money from the scotched gig. “I gave her a specific amount of money… it was quite a bit of money, because I wanted to make it up to her,” said Chesney.
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Later, both singers were nominated for CMAs entertainer of the year. “Well, she won,” explained Chesney, a four-time winner of the award, of Swift’s first of two CMA top honors in 2009. “So, backstage, I went up to her and gave her a big hug. I said ‘congratulations, but gimme my money back.’”
The question came after Fallon mentioned that Swift gave Chesney a shout-out in her TIME magazine Person of the Year essay in 2023, noting that she got kicked off his tour when she was 17, at a time when she thought the outing was “going to change my career… I was so excited.”
She confirmed then that the generous country star sent her a card and a check for her 18th birthday, “for more money that I’d ever seen in my life. I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.” Chesney was one of the first to congratulate Swift her her Person of the Year honor, writing on Instagram at the time, “Taylor, I knew looking in your eyes that first time on stage with us, you had ‘it.’ It’s been awesome watching you shine!”
During the chat, Chesney also shared a funny pic from his summer tour with Megan Moroney, when the “Am I Okay?” singer surprised the headliner by going to his tour bus and put on one of his signature tank tops and whit cowboy hats before taking the stage dressed as him. “It just goes to show you that not only is Megan a great songwriter, she’s got a really good personality,” he said.
Chesney also talked about his long friendship with Jimmy Buffett, his tribute to the “Cheeseburger in Paradise” singer at last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony alongside James Taylor and and longtime Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally. “That was a tough night. It really was,” Chesney said. “Jimmy taught a lot of us how to paint pictures with words. For that reason I’ve always looked up to Jimmy Buffett.”
The singer who just announced an upcoming residency gig at the immersive Sphere in Las Vegas, told Fallon that he signed up for the run despite never seeing a show at the eye-popping, state-of-the-art venue. But when he went to check it out, he said, “it’s like we’re all just… the band, the audience, is all in a completely different state of consciousness. And I looked at my crew and my team and I went, ‘There’s no way we’re not not doing this!’”
The only downside he said, is that because all the mind-bending visuals are shot in super hi-def 36K, all the visuals and footage Chesney has used over the years during his stadium shows were not gonna cut it. “Which is good, because it just makes it really new and fresh,” he promised of the show that he’s already in rehearsals for.
Chesney’s Sphere residency will kick off on May 24.
Watch Chesney on The Tonight Show below..
In fall 2023, Deezer announced it was adopting an “artist-centric” royalty model with Universal Music Group (UMG) in an effort to better compensate acts with significant followings and the rightsholders who own their recordings. That move, intended to tackle fraud and reduce royalties flowing to what is essentially noise and “functional music” was intended to rebalance a streaming model that some major players believe needs reform. Other major labels followed, as did Spotify, which made different adjustments to its royalty model toward the same end.
On Wednesday (Jan. 15), Deezer and the French PRO SACEM announced a deal to compensate publishing rightsholders the same way. “We started a year and a half ago with UMG and then the other majors,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier. “And now we’re doing it on the publishing side.”
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SACEM’s interest in this idea goes back to an analysis of the potential effects of artist-centric royalty payouts that the PRO conducted last year. “The first thing I wanted was to remove noise from the revenue, especially at a time when dilution is an issue” said SACEM CEO Cécile Rap-Veber, “The second thing is that it helps prevent fraud.”
While Deezer will not remove any music from its platform as a result of this agreement, the service will either demonetize or essentially allocate less royalties to some tracks, by boosting the royalties earned by others. The change, which will take effect soon, could help labels and services better prepare for the age of AI, when music executives worry that online services will be flooded by unpopular, low-value music that cuts into their business with sheer scale. “With AI coming,” Rap-Veber says, “we’re afraid that human creation might be affected.”
Deezer’s specific plans are more ambitious than what it did on the recording side. Like other artist-centric models, artists get a royalty boost for hitting a measure of popularity — in this case, double royalties for songs that are actively searched out or those by artists with 1,000 streams a month from 500 different subscribers.
More interesting, the service will impose what it calls a “user centric cap” that will limit how much the listening choices of any individual subscriber can affect royalty payouts, which will also make fraud more difficult and less efficient. Also, Deezer will completely exclude from the royalty pool tracks that consist of noise and “functional sounds,” such as rain on a roof; instead, Deezer will recommend similar music that it owns, which will not count for payout purposes and thus not take royalties from other rightsholders. (Some of these tracks might not even be considered copyrighted works under EU law, at least on the publishing side. While recording the sound of rain on a roof might arguably involve creative choices, there is no composer in the sense of copyright law.) Deezer will also remove tracks that have not been streamed in a year.
Inhaler have shared a new single titled “A Question Of You,” ahead of their forthcoming album, Open Wide (due Feb. 7 via Polydor).
Following recent tracks “Your House” and “Open Wide,” it marks the third preview to be lifted from the Irish band’s third record. The 13-track collection was recorded in London’s iconic RAK Studios with producer Kid Harpoon, who scooped a bevy of Grammy and BRIT awards in 2023 for his work on Harry Styles‘ blockbuster 2022 LP Harry’s House.
“This is love song territory for me,” said frontman Elijah Hewson, describing “A Question Of You” in a press release. “It’s about how in order to be honest with someone else you’ve got to be honest with yourself, like, ‘I’ve gotta sort my own s–t out so I can be around other people’. The choir really changed everything on this [song].”
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The release of Open Wide will coincide with Inhaler’s biggest headline tour to date. Through next month, the four-piece will perform at sold-out venues across the U.K, including two nights at the capital’s Brixton Academy. In May, they’ll perform a huge, 20,000-capacity hometown show at Dublin’s St. Anne’s Park alongside Stockport indie group Blossoms.
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Inhaler’s debut album It Won’t Always Be Like This soared to the summit of the Official U.K. Albums Chart in July 2021. They ended their release week with 18,000 chart sales, according to the Official Charts Company, with 92% of that sum generated by physical sales. The achievement also made Inhaler the first Irish act to top the chart with their debut in 13 years.
Its follow-up, Cuts & Bruises, which arrived two years later, landed at No. 2. Speaking to Billboard upon release, drummer Ryan MacMahon described Inhaler’s sophomore effort as “an album of love songs, about loving your friends,” adding that its songs were made to sound “a lot more loose and like a live band – which is what we wanted to achieve with the record.”
In recent years, the band have gone on to open for Arctic Monkeys, as well as tour the U.K. and European festival circuit extensively with shows at Reading & Leeds and Glasgow’s TRNSMT. Their 2025 live plans include a return to the latter, plus a slot at Warrington’s Neighbourhood Weekender in May.
Watch the “A Question of You” lyric video below.
Timothée Chalamet caused a stir during the red carpet premiere of A Complete Unknown in Paris when he signed a fan’s photo of Australian pop sensation Troye Sivan—as Troye Sivan.
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In a clip shared to social media, the actor, who stars as legendary folk singer Bob Dylan in the film directed by James Mangold, signed a fan’s album of Sivan’s latest album, Something to Give Each Other. The words “Troye Sivan” are then seen scrawled across the cover—prompting laughter and delight among fans on the red carpet.
Sivan wasted no time joining in on the fun, reposting the red carpet moment to his Instagram story, complete with the autographed vinyl in question.
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It’s not the first time the star has signed off as Sivan. In a video taken at the Dec. 13 premiere of Wonka, a fan handed Chalamet the album and requested his autograph, as the actor quipped, “That’s not me, though,” to which the fan replied, “That’s basically you.”
With a grin, Chalamet obliged and added, “In some universe…” The red carpet gag comes after Chalamet’s standout portrayal of Sivan in a Saturday Night Live sketch titled “Troye Sivan Sleep Demon,” aired in Nov. 2023.
In the skit, Chalamet donned Sivan’s signature look from the “Get Me Started” music video, complete with blue pants, a white tank top, and red underwear, hilariously describing himself as “an Australian YouTube twink turned indie pop star and model turned HBO actor…being played by an American actor who can’t do an Australian accent.”
The segment became an instant hit, with the Australian pop star taking to social media following the Nov. 11 episode of the NBC comedy series, during which the Wonka star hilariously portrayed Sivan as cast member Sarah Sherman’s sleep paralysis demon.
“WHY IS LIFE SO WEIRDDDDD RN LMAO IM DEAD,” Sivan captioned a snippet of the Saturday Night Live. skit on Instagram.
Meanwhile, Chalamet himself recently became the subject of satire on Saturday Night Live. During a Dec. 2024 episode hosted by Paul Mescal, a sketch lampooned Chalamet’s appearance on the red carpet for A Complete Unknown.
In a sketch during the Dec. 7 episode, hosted by Paul Mescal, SNL cast member Heidi Gardner plays a fictional BuzzFeed reporter on the red carpet for the debut of the Bob Dylan biopic, which stars Chalamet as the legendary folk musician. The sketch opens with Chalamet (played by Chloe Fineman) admitting he had a “Brat summer,” a reference to the Charli XCX-inspired trend.
“Oh, man, it was crazy. Nuts,” Fineman’s Chalamet says.
As the two continue their conversation, Dylan (portrayed by SNL’s James Austin Johnson) strolls up and is asked if he too had a Brat summer. “What?” the iconic musician replies. “A Brat summer,” Gardner’s reporter repeats. “Did you have a Brat summer?” Dylan, clearly thinking about food, mistakes the question, thinking he’s being asked about bratwurst.
A Complete Unknown, which hit theaters on Christmas Day, also stars Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton. The biographical drama is inspired by Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric, and focuses on Dylan’s early career in the 1960s, culminating in his controversial performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festiva.
Director James Mangold revealed that Dylan himself gave feedback on the script, while Chalamet performed all the songs live during filming, rather than using pre-recorded tracks. This decision was made after Mangold was impressed by the actor’s live performance of “Song to Woody” early in the production. In total, Chalamet sang about 40 songs for the film.
Fans first spotted Chalamet filming in New York earlier this year. Mangold confirmed that Chalamet will do his own singing in the film, and to prepare, the actor sifted through 12 hours of unreleased Dylan tracks sent to him by the musician’s longtime manager and producer Jeff Rosen.
This week’s ARIA Charts are brimming with milestones, with Sabrina Carpenter and Rosé breaking records while global superstar Bad Bunny makes a splash on the Albums Chart.
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Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet is proving to be a sugar rush for fans, holding strong at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart for 10 non-consecutive weeks. The pop star’s addictive blend of catchy tracks has turned the album into a chart staple since its release in late August.
With 11 of its 12 songs cracking the top 40—including No. 1 hits like “Espresso,” “Please Please Please,” and “Taste”—Sabrina’s got the secret ingredient for success. Even “Bed Chem,” the album’s fourth single, hit No. 10, proving she can keep the hits coming. Short N’ Sweet is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
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Over on the Singles Chart, Rosé and Bruno Mars are holding court with their duet, “APT.” The infectious track secured its 10th non-consecutive week at No. 1, firmly establishing itself as the song of the summer Down Under.
The success of “APT.” extends beyond just the Australian charts. Globally, the track has been a powerhouse, topping the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts for an 11th week each. In November, the song debuted as the stars’ second leader on each list.
For Rosé, it’s her first solo chart-topper, adding to her success with BLACKPINK’s 2022 No. 1, “Pink Venom.” Bruno Mars, meanwhile, continues to rack up accolades, with “APT.” marking his fourth No. 1 single in Australia and his longest-running yet.
Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny is also making noise on the ARIA Albums Chart with his seventh studio album, Debi Tirar Más Fotos.
The record skyrocketed from No. 99 to No. 16, marking Bunny’s first appearance in the ARIA Top 50. A three-time GRAMMY winner and Spotify’s most-streamed artist from 2020 to 2022, Bad Bunny’s influence knows no bounds. His latest album has already made a mark on the Billboard Charts, debuting at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200, marking Bad Bunny’s seventh top-ten entry.
Tim Finn, the celebrated New Zealand singer and songwriter, has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Kobalt.
Announced this week, Kobalt will administer Finn’s entire catalog of songs, which includes Split Enz’s “I Hope I Never,” “I See Red” and “Six Months In A Leaky Boat,” and “I Got You,” which reached No. 53 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980. Also included is Crowded House’s “Four Seasons In One Day,” “It’s Only Natural,” and “Weather With You,” plus solo works.
“We are thrilled to announce this new partnership with Tim Finn, a legendary figure in the world of music,” comments Simon Moor, managing director of Kobalt for the APAC region. “From his groundbreaking work with Split Enz to his contributions to Crowded House and his illustrious solo career, Tim has consistently showcased his incredible songwriting talent.”
Adds Finn: “Simon Moor and his team at Kobalt are energized music lovers. I’m excited to see what we can do together. It feels like a new chapter is waiting to be written for me and my songs.”
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Finn formed Split Enz in his homeland in the early 1970s. By the time Split Enz called it a day in December 1984, the band had banked a treasure chest of hits, including “Message to My Girl,” “My Mistake” and “Dirty Creatures”.
At that stage, Finn had already launched his solo career. His debut from 1983, Escapade, cracked the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 161.
Finn briefly joined forces with his younger brother and former Split Enz bandmate Neil on the third Crowded House project, Woodface, released in 1991. Woodface hit No. 82 on the Billboard 200.
A told, four Split Enz albums crashed the U.S. albums tally and the band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2005. Crowded House’s elevation came in 2016.
Finn’s latest work has included songs and soundtracks for film, television and musical theater, including Ladies in Black, for which he received a Helpmann Award for best new Australian work. His most recent solo album, 2021’s Caught by the Heart, is a collaboration with Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, who produced the Split Enz album from 1976, Second Thoughts.
Boasting 13 global offices, Kobalt serves over 1 million songs, representing the likes of Roddy Ricch, Max Martin, Karol G, Andrew Watt, Stevie Nicks, Phoebe Bridgers, The Lumineers, Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney and others.
Duran Duran has paid tribute to the late American filmmaker David Lynch, whose brilliant and bizarre films laid the inspirational groundwork for a young Nick Rhodes.
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Writing on the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band’s Instagram, Rhodes remembers Lynch as “a creative superhero” from “the moment I first saw his film Eraserhead as a teenager.”
The keyboardist continues, “His imagination, innovation, style and humour will remain an enormous inspiration.”
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Duran Duran has a special connection with the auteur, who died has following a battle with ill health. Back in 2011, Lynch directed the Duran Duran episode of American Express’ “Unstaged” concert series. “The stranger it is, the more beautiful it will be,” Rhodes, the group’s founding keyboardist, told Billboard.com at the time. “What appeals to us very much about working with David is that we like the way he thinks about things and how he’s always gone out on a limb to make things different than anybody else. He works completely outside of the system, and that’s what we try to do. I think the combustion between us and David should create something that nobody’s ever seen before, something mysterious and magical and surprising.”
A new cut of Duran Duran: Unstaged was released in cinemas in 2014, starring the original band members Rhodes, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor, plus guest performers Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance), Beth Ditto (Gossip), Kelis and Mark Ronson. The following year, Duran Duran delivered a three-song finale at a concert tribute to the music of Lynch.
Lynch’s death at 78 comes just five months after he announced that he was housebound over fears he’ll contract COVID-19 after being diagnosed with emphysema from many years of smoking.
A native of Missoula, Montana, Lynch was a master of the surreal, whose dark cinematic touches are known to the creative community as “Lynchian”. Several of his films scored Oscar nominations, including The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Though he never won a competitive Academy Award, Lynch was presented with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2019.
“Curious about the unknown and never afraid of a dark alley, he was an uncompromising, experimental artist, with a truly unique vision,” writes Duran Duran’s Rhodes, in a post that’s accompanied with a candid photo of Lynch and Rhodes comparing cameras, with the band’s drummer Roger Taylor looking on.
Thanks in part to the inspiration provided by Lynch, Rhodes has pursued the art of photography since his youth, and has exhibited collections and published several books on his works. “Sadly,” Rhodes writes, “the weather today in California is stormy and there is no lucky number.”