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Shortly after Paramount began pulling back its funding for Save the Music, which has donated instruments and tech equipment worth nearly $78 million to 2,800 U.S. schools, John Sykes held a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame board meeting in spring 2024. “This is the perfect fit for what we’re doing,” he told the group. “We have this huge, powerful platform, with some of the greatest artists in the world that we could put out there, going to schools, preaching the importance of music education.”
Beginning with a $1 million grant, and the promise of Hall of Fame inductees like Sheryl Crow and pop stars like Harry Styles and Olivia Rodrigo talking to students at schools around the U.S., the Hall of Fame announced a partnership with Save the Music on Tuesday (Oct. 28) to help fund Save the Music’s dozens of programs. “We hope the politicians and the local governments will hear about this story and find out why music education must stay, or must be reconnected with a public education,” says Sykes, the Hall of Fame’s foundation chairman, a top executive at broadcast giant iHeartMedia and an MTV co-founder who created Save the Music in 1997.
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Save the Music was once synonymous with VH1, where Sykes was president, and major stars like Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey headlined charity performances broadcast live on the powerful cable-music channel. But in recent years, Paramount has deemphasized its MTV and VH1 holdings, ramping down on its Save the Music support in the process. As a result, Save the Music has spent the last few years turning to other sources, including TikTok, Meta, Amazon and top promoters Live Nation and AEG Presents. In 2021, MacKenzie Scott, co-founder of Amazon and Jeff Bezos‘ ex-wife, provided a $2 million grant.
“As Paramount’s support gradually came down,” says Henry Donahue, the Save the Music Foundation’s longtime executive director, “we were very fortunate that a number of large foundations came in to fill the gap and actually grow the program.”
Save the Music, whose operating budget was $11 million last year, supports high-school students with initiatives like the J Dilla Music Technology Grant, named for the late hip-hop producer, which provides music-tech equipment and software for students and teachers. “The program is extremely valuable to students,” Samuel Davis, a Therrell High School teacher whose Atlanta classroom benefited from the grant, told the AP in January. “It increases their attendance. They’re more willing to come to school. They feel more connected to the school.”
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Sykes created Save the Music after participating in a principal-for-a-day event at a New York high school, where he encountered music students playing instruments “held together with tape and missing strings,” he recalls. He offered $5,000 on behalf of VH1 to prevent the school from cutting the music program, then decided to expand the channel’s philanthropy after learning that “students who learn music education go on to do better on math and verbal scores on tests.”
Today, Save the Music invests in 100 to 150 U.S. music programs, drawing celebrity support from Ed Sheeran, Jelly Roll and others who’ve donated time and money. The Cleveland-based Hall of Fame, according to Sykes, has music-education programs, but the partnership with Save the Music will take them to “a whole new level.” Says Donahue: “It’s an incredible boost.”
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What time is it? Almost Winter Olympics time, which these days means that Public Enemy hype man Flavor Flav is picking which Team USA squads he’s going to support in the upcoming Winter Olympics.
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Flav, 66, who has cooked up a high-profile side gig as a rabid vocal, and financial, supporter of a number of American olympians, was announced as the official hype man for USA Bobsled and Skeleton on Monday (Oct. 27) according to the Associated Press.
“The partnership is a blessing. It’s cooler than Cool Runnings,” Flav said in reference to the beloved 1993 sport comedy loosely based on the story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsleigh team. “It’s Coolest Runnings.” The AP reported that Flav spent time with the bobsled and skeleton teams this past week, traveling to Park City, Utah, where he raced down the track in a bobsled and also wanted to try out skeleton, in which athletes roar down the icy track at speeds that can reach 80 m.p.h. or above.
In an accompanying video announcing his new gig, Flav, wearing his red, white and blue official team gear, said, “Just to let y’all know I am definitely excited to be a sponsor of the bobsled/skeleton team, boy. Yeah g, it’s going down for real! I’m a sponsor, I’m a sponsor!”
“We are thrilled to welcome Flavor Flav as an official sponsor and hype man for USA Bobsled/Skeleton,” USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Aron McGuire said in a statement. “It’s clear he has a genuine passion for sports and an authentic love for the USA team. Flavor Flav embodies the same grit, dedication, and pride that define our athletes, and we’re excited to have him bring that excitement to our team and fans across the country.”
While team officials wanted first-time slider Flav to start from a low spot on the track for safety reasons, the veteran rapper wasn’t having it, insisting on starting higher up as he managed to hit 67 m.p.h. on his second run. In the video after his thrilling run, Flav can be heard howling in delight at the white-knuckle ride down the icy shoot.
“Oh my gosh, he’s one of the coolest, most adventurous men that I’ve ever met,” U.S. skeleton athlete Dan Barefoot told the AP. “He was upset that he couldn’t go from higher up on the track. … I was kind of upset at how good he was. It’s a sport that takes a lot of skill, but he made it look straightforward.”
Flav plans to be with the team at the XXV Olympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, which will take place from Feb. 6-22.
“We have all been so hyped to have him with us,” Barefoot added. “Put aside the fact that Flav is one of the greatest hype men of all time, the energy in the room… you had people who often aren’t talking to each other high-fiving and hugging because of the experience of being around him. There’s a lot of energy and a lot of confidence around us right now.”
Not only is Flav promising to be in the stands in February, he also gave many members of the team his personal cell pone number and invited a few to join him at a Maroon 5 show over the weekend in Salt Lake City.
It won’t be Flav’s first turn as an Olympic supporter. He was all over the 2024 Paris summer games, acting as the hype man for the U.S. women’s water polo team, giving them financial support and free cruises and helping to cover rent for discus thrower Veronica Fraley. Flav has also put in his bid to be one of the official USA torchbearers at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Check out video of Flav watching practice, posing with members of Team USA and ripping down the track in a bobsled and skeleton.
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Despite the challenge flags thrown by Donald Trump and some fellow Republicans, Jay-Z is 100% firm in his support for Bad Bunny playing the Super Bowl halftime show next year. Amid criticism from the President and a number of commentators on the right decrying the choice of one of the world’s most popular artists to play at the game in February, Jigga — whose Roc Nation has been tasked with booking the most-viewed musical TV performance of the year since 2019 — told TMZ that he is unwavering.
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When asked by a TMZ photographer about the hate coming Benito’s way, Jay reportedly told the site that the Puerto Rican superstar is way more beloved in the U.S. than some would have you think. “They love him. Don’t let them fool you,” Jay said.
After Roc Nation tapped Benito in late September, Trump reacted a week later with disdain, claiming to conservative outlet Newsmax, “I’ve never heard of him… I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s, like, crazy.” In addition, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem threatened that U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents will be “all over the place at the Super Bowl.
While Trump seems unlikely to watch the game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has no misgivings about the booking. “He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” Goodell told CBS Sports. “That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value. It’s carefully thought through.” To be fair, the commish added, he doesn’t think the league has ever “selected an artist without some blowback or criticism.”
Turning Point USA, an ultraconservative youth organization founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, has announced its intention to host an alternate halftime show out of protest; a line-up for that show has not yet been announced.
Though Trump claimed to have never heard of Bad Bunny, the singer’s chart bona fides speak for his broad appeal. Benito holds records as the first Latin artist to have 100 career Billboard Hot 100 songs, as well as having the first all-Spanish album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart (2020’s El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo). He has also tied Taylor Swift for having the most No. 1s on the Billboard Global 200 of any solo artist, has rolled up nearly 80 million Spotify listeners over his career and was ranked the most-streamed artist on Spotify three years running (2020-2022).
Super Bowl LX will air live on Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. ET and be broadcast on NBC and Telemundo and stream on Peacock and NFL+.
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In fall 2026, Live Nation will open the 4,400-capacity indoor music venue The Truth in Nashville.
“Live Nation wanted to be sure that we were adding something that was going to speak to the core of Nashville,” Sally Williams, president of Nashville Music & Business Strategy for Live Nation, tells Billboard.
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The Truth will be led by general manager Mickey Davis, and will join AJ Capital Partners’ 18-acre, mixed-use Wedgewood Village development in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston.
The venue will highlight talent ranging from global headliners to local Nashville favorites representing an array of musical genres. The Truth, designed by Live Nation’s in-house design and development group Blueprint Studio, will offer a flexible floor plan with three levels in close proximity to the stage, with configurations able to accommodate capacities ranging from 1,800 to 4,400, including standing-room and fully-seated shows.
“This is going to give us the flexibility to host everything from comedians who maybe don’t want a standing room audience to bigger shows where people want to stand,” Williams says. “We will shine the light on Nashville, but we’re going to bring in the biggest stars on the planet, too, from outside of Nashville.”
Williams noted that Live Nation’s Blueprint Studio team spent time in Nashville venues and spoke with Nashville artists, music industry members and historians in creating a venue design intended to honor Nashville’s community.
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Throughout, the venue will pay homage to Nashville’s music creators. The Truth takes its name from a quote from late country songwriting legend Harlan Howard, who called country music “three chords and the truth.” Howard, known as a writer on classics including Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and the Buck Owens hit “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail,” is also honored through the venue’s whiskey bar, named Harlan’s. Howard’s signature quote is also emblazoned on the front of the venue’s building. Having Howard’s legacy represented within the venue is a full-circle moment for Williams, who recalls that when she first moved to Nashville, one of the first events she attended was the annual Harlan Howard Birthday Bash.
“It represents to me the community that I have found,” Williams says. “It was all of these songwriters singing their songs, and everyone supported. To have his quote, to have people talking about him, means they are talking about songwriters in general, which means they are talking about the foundation of our community. I am beyond proud of that, because I think those are things that we, as a city, have to hold on to.”
The Truth’s two-level, up to 300-person capacity listening lounge, Vinyl Room, will offer a space for gathering and listening to music. Williams tells Billboard that United Record Pressing will be involved in curating vinyls to be displayed in The Truth, as well as providing music for Vinyl Room and the venue’s five backstage dressing rooms. Williams says the Vinyl Room will also be a space that can hold VIP listening sessions and other similar events.
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The food and drink menus will highlight local Nashville whiskeys and spirits. Meanwhile, Live Nation teamed with Isle of Printing’s Bryce McCloud to add another visual element to the venue.
“We are going to have an old-school letterpress printing set lists each night for fans to buy and take home,” Williams says. “Set lists are going to be our sort of living art exhibit backstage, too, because every time a show plays here, we will put the set list up and as we move along, it will tell our story visually.”
The backstage will also be outfitted with a family and friends suite overlooking the stage, a large crew lounge, an artist game room/lounge, a multi-use production room and an intimate industry suite.
Live Nation also hopes to hold local music industry events at the venue, such as industry awards and other charitable gatherings.
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“People are going to begin to feel like this is their venue, which is what they’re hoping for,” Williams says. “The mission has been to create something other than the sort of box with a stage that you could put anywhere in the world. We wanted to do something completely Nashville-centric.”
The Truth will join other Live Nation venues in Nashville, including Brooklyn Bowl Nashville and Ascend Amphitheater.
Billboard‘s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, visit https://www.billboardlivemusicsummit.com/2025/home-launch.
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Rapper, actor and philanthropist Ludacris is set to perform at the 2025 Baby2Baby Gala honoring tennis legend Serena Williams. The gala, presented by Paul Mitchell, will be held Saturday, Nov. 8, in Los Angeles. Baby2Baby is a national nonprofit that provides critical items to children in need across the U.S.
Previous performers at the event include 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Nelly.
Ludacris has amassed five No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including two as a lead artist: “Money Maker” (featuring Pharrell) and “Stand Up” (featuring Shawnna). He has landed four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and has won three Grammy Awards, including best rap album for Release Therapy, one of his No. 1 albums.
Chris “Ludacris” Bridges made a seamless transition to acting, including the role of Tej in the Fast & Furious franchise, where he was introduced in 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. As a father of four girls, his latest ventures include launching KidNation, an educational platform devoted to the enrichment of children. In addition, Bridges created the animated series KARMA’S WORLD on Netflix, which is awaiting its fifth season.
Williams will receive the Giving Tree Award, which is awarded annually to a public figure who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to improving the lives of children in need. Past honorees include Charlize Theron, Salma Hayek Pinault, Kim Kardashian, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Garner, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Amy Adams, Drew Barrymore, Chrissy Teigen and Vanessa Bryant.
Last year’s Baby2Baby Gala raised a record $17 million in support of Baby2Baby’s mission. In the last 14 years, Baby2Baby has distributed more than 500 million essential items, including diapers, formula and clothing.
Baby2Baby’s Disaster Relief & Emergency Response Program has responded to the needs of children in more than 100 disasters. This year, Baby2Baby announced the expansion of their initiative to combat the maternal health crisis to 15 states. To learn more about Baby2Baby, visit their site.
Ten days after dropping its latest album, ‘Deadbeat,’ the Australian psychedelic rock band staged its first proper concert since March 2023.
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Here’s a roundup of the best 2025 celebrity Halloween costumes.
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Friendship will literally and figuratively sail on into the sunset in 2026, with organizer Gary Richards announcing that the next edition of the dance music cruise will be its last.
The event has dropped the 2026 lineup in tandem with the news, with scene luminaries including Bob Moses, Boys Noize, Polo & Pan, Mary Droppinz, Jason Bentley, Nina Las Vegas, Dita Von Teese, Mikey Lion, Justin and Christian Martin and Richards, who has long performed under his Destructo moniker, all on the bill.
See the complete lineup below, with additional names to be announced in the coming months.
“Friendship: The Final Transmission” will mark the fourth annual edition of Friendship and happens Jan. 18-22, 2026, aboard the Norwegian Joy, which can accommodate approximately 3,800 passengers in addition to crew. The voyage takes off from Miami, travels to Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas then sails back to Miami. Tickets and cabin packages are on sale now.
Richards helped forge the rave cruise model when he launched Holy Ship in 2012, with the party at sea an extension of the HARD events brand he also founded. The group of people who returned annually for Holy Ship came to be known as “Shipfam,” with many of them finding their way to Friendship when it started in 2023.
“Almost fourteen years ago, I had a vision to create something different, special and out of this world,” Richards says in a statement. “As a result of that, the Shipfam was born, a reoccurring group of people who would meet annually to travel with us. Our voyagers became a family, one that has shared moments that surpass the test of time and that feel like they’ll echo forever. Maybe this is the last one… or maybe it’s just the beginning of something new as we embark on this final transmission.”
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Powerhouse regional Mexican label Rancho Humilde is locked in a bitter legal dispute with one of its fastest rising acts, the California-based band Fuerza Regida.
Rancho Humilde filed a lawsuit in September accusing the band of breaching its record deal by unilaterally doing features for other artists and inking live performance contracts with Apple Music and Live Nation. Fuerza Regida countersued a month later, alleging the indie label withheld millions of dollars in royalties and tried to “sabotage” its success — including by leaving it off Latin Grammy Awards submissions.
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The dueling legal claims, moved from a California state courthouse to federal court on Oct. 20, reveal a stunning breakdown in the relationship between Fuerza Regida and its longtime label home. The fight comes just as Fuerza Regida’s star is on the rise; the band made history in May when 111XPANTIA debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, making it the highest-charting Spanish-language album ever by a duo or group.
Fuerza Regida, a quintet of regional Mexican hitmakers from San Bernardino, signed with Jimmy Humilde’s label in 2018. The band now puts out music via a joint venture between Rancho Humilde and its own Street Mob Records, with distribution by Sony Music Latin.
Rancho Humilde’s lawsuit is focused on exclusivity language in the label’s original record deal with Fuerza Regida, which allegedly entitled the label to a seat at the table and a cut of proceeds for all recording and touring contracts. According to Rancho Humilde, Fuerza Regida violated this deal by performing unauthorized features for other artists and not sharing the royalties.
The lawsuit lists 27 offending songs, including “Qué Onda,” Fuerza Regida’s Billboard Hot 100 entry from 2023 with Calle 24 and Chino Pacas, and “Modo Capone,” the band’s 2024 collaboration with Pacas and Drake that hit No. 11 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart.
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Rancho Humilde says Fuerza Regida also disregarded exclusivity by contracting directly with Apple Music this past summer for a live concert taping in Mexico City, as well as with Live Nation for U.S. tours in 2023 and 2024.
“[Rancho Humilde] has suffered damages, including, but not limited to, lost royalties, advances, fees, market-share and other compensation that should have been directed to Sony and accounted to [Rancho Humilde], lost shares of touring revenues [and] lost income from unauthorized deals such as the Apple agreement,” says the lawsuit. “The exact amount of damages is subject to proof at trial but exceeds $15 million.”
Fuerza Regida, however, tells a very different story in its countersuit. The band claims Rancho Humilde is actually the one who has breached their record deal by failing to pay millions of dollars in royalties and stonewalling audit requests.
The countersuit also says Rancho Humilde has engaged in “systematic financial malfeasance” by refusing to revert master recordings back to the band as required by the record deal, as well as by using “clandestine arrangements” with Live Nation to siphon off touring profits.
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“In addition to its fraudulent schemes and systematic contract breaches, Rancho and its principal Jimmy Humilde escalated to a malicious campaign of active sabotage designed to destroy [Fuerza Regida’s] professional relationships and career opportunities within the entertainment industry,” reads the countersuit.
Fuerza Regida says that as part of this campaign of “sabotage,” Rancho Humilde requested that Sony remove the band from Latin Grammy Awards submissions in 2024, even though they had been a top-selling act that year.
Additionally, the countersuit claims Jimmy Humilde sent “threatening and intimidating text messages” to Apple’s head of Latin music in an attempt to “derail” Fuerza Regida’s live concert taping. Overall, Fuerza Regida is seeking at least $25 million in damages from the label.
In a statement to Billboard on Monday (Oct. 27), the band’s attorney Kenneth D. Freundlich says, “Rancho Humilde and Jimmy Humilde have for years engaged in brazen self-dealing, enriching itself at the expense of our client Fuerza Regida.”
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“Rancho’s bad faith state court lawsuit against Fuerza was the last straw,” adds Freundlich. “After our removal, the disputes will air in federal court where Rancho must now respond to our detailed claims of wrongdoing.”
Reps for Rancho Humilde did not return a request for comment.
The Fuerza Regida fight is not Rancho Humilde’s only ongoing legal battle with top talent. Regional Mexican artist Codiciado, who was signed to Rancho Humilde as part of the ensemble Grupo Codiciado but has since parted ways and gone solo, sued the label in June, alleging it infringed his intellectual property by getting the rest of the band back together with a new act called Los Codicia2. Rancho Humilde has not yet responded to Codiciado’s claims.
Trending on Billboard “Take your time, what’s the rush?” The lyric from Leon Thomas‘ 2024 hit “Mutt” couldn’t be more fitting to describe the song’s yearlong journey to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, which it finally reaches this week. To be exact, “Mutt” took 38 chart weeks to reach its current position […]
