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09 Nov 2023

Brent Faiyaz’s ‘Larger Than Life’ Debuts in Top 5 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart

Brent Faiyaz returns to the top five on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, as Larger Than Life opens at No. 4 on the list dated Nov. 11. The surprise album, released on Oct. 27 with only one day’s notice, also launches six songs onto the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

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Larger Than Life, released through ISO Supremacy/UnitedMasters, starts with 42,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 2, according to Luminate. Nearly all of that sum (41,000 units) is from streaming activity, equal to 54.1 million official audio and video streams of the album’s songs. Just under 1,000 units are in traditional album sales, with the remaining balance from track-equivalent album units. (One unit equals the following levels of consumption: one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams for a song on the album.)

With Larger Than Life, Brent Faiyaz snags his second top five appearance on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. His prior effort, Wasteland, debuted at No. 1 and led the list for a week in July 2022. The set has remained a steady presence; on the latest chart, it rebounds 41-39 in its 69th week on the list.

Elsewhere, Larger Than Life begins at No. 2 on the Top R&B Albums chart, where it marks Faiyaz’s third time in the top two spots. In addition to Wasteland’s one week in charge, his Fuck the World EP debuted and peaked in the runner-up slot in February 2020. On the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart, Larger Than Life launches at No. 11.

As Larger Than Life hits the charts, six of its tracks debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. “Outside All Night,” featuring A$AP Rocky and N3WYRKL, is the top starter, at No. 26, fueled by its status as the most-streamed Larger Than Life cut for the week (5.2 million clicks). In addition to the new arrivals, two previously released tunes – “WY@” and “Moment of Your Life,” featuring Coco Jones – re-enter the list. Here’s a full recap of the singer’s placements on this week’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart:

  • No. 26, “Outside All Night,” featuring A$AP Rocky & N3WYRKL
  • No. 31, “Last One Left,” featuring Missy Elliott & Lil Gray
  • No. 33, “Upset,” featuring Tommy Richman & FELIX
  • No. 35, “Forever Yours”
  • No. 36, “Moment of Your Life,” featuring Coco Jones
  • No. 39, “WY@”
  • No. 41, “Best Time”
  • No. 48, “Tim’s Intro”

09 Nov 2023

Taylor Swift Has Sold Nearly One Out of Every 15 Vinyl Albums in the U.S. This Year

Taylor Swift is the queen of vinyl, as the superstar is by far the top-selling artist in 2023 in the U.S. when it comes to vinyl albums sold. So far this year, through Nov. 2, her catalog of albums have sold 2.484 million copies on vinyl in 2023, according to data tracking firm Luminate. That equates to 6.43% of total vinyl album sales (38.585 million) — or, nearly one out of every 15 vinyl albums sold.

A healthy chunk of Swift’s vinyl sales this year come from her latest release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which debuted with 693,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 2, following its Oct. 27 release. That sum also broke the record for the single largest sales week for an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991. It surpassed the high-water mark previously set by Swift herself, with the debut week of Midnights in 2022, with 575,000 copies sold.

Swift’s impressive vinyl sales figures are bolstered by her catalog generally being made available in multiple collectible variants, including five different versions of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – each in a different color vinyl with a different cover. (It’s not uncommon for artists to release multiple versions of an album on vinyl — Swift is not alone in this practice.)

2023’s second-biggest-selling artist when it comes to vinyl albums is Lana Del Rey, with 501,000 sold across her assorted albums.

In 2022 and 2021, Swift was the year’s top-selling vinyl albums artist in the U.S. In 2022, she sold 1.69 million (of the market’s total 43.46 million) and in 2021 she sold 1.093 million (of the market’s total of 41.717 million). In total, from January 2021 through Nov. 2, 2023, there were 123.762 million vinyl albums sold. Of that sum, Swift sold 5.273 million vinyl albums – equaling 4.26% of the vinyl market.

So far in 2023, Swift has five of the top 10 biggest-selling albums on vinyl, with four of those among the top five. Her latest release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), is the year’s biggest on vinyl, with, as noted above, 693,000 sold in its first week. At Nos. 2, 3 and 5, respectively, are Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (406,000), Midnights (367,000) and Folklore (201,000). Lover is Swift’s fifth title among the year’s top 10-sellers, at No. 9 with 151,000 sold.

09 Nov 2023

It’s Finally Over: SAG-AFTRA Strikes Comes To An End After Reaching Tentative Deal With AMPTP

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Celebrity Sightings In New York - November 08, 2023

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Hollywood is finally returning to work after SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP reached a tentative agreement to end a strike that lasted 118 days.

Actors can put down the signs and leave the picket lines after the tentative deal between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP allowed them to return to work as of 12:01 am Thursday, Vulture reports.

The SAG-AFTRA strike was the final obstacle keeping Hollywood’s lights and cameras off and comes after the Writer’s Guild of America reached an agreement on September 24.

According to the website, streaming residuals and protections from AI were the final two sticking points in the negotiations.

Per Vulture:

“Today’s tentative agreement represents a new paradigm. It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the last forty years; a brand new residual for streaming programs; extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence; and sizable contract increases on items across the board” the AMPTP said in a statement.”

In another statement shared on X, formerly known as Twitter SAG-AFTRA, wrote, “We stand together in solidarity and will be there for you when you need us.”

Hollywood Is Celebrating

Actors and actresses who proudly hit the picket lines to fight for better protections and a new contract began celebrating on social media.

Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson responded brilliantly to a fan asking if season 3 of the hit ABC comedy sitcom would start filming soon.

In an Instagram post, the star of the upcoming Netflix film Rustin, Colman Domingo, wrote in a caption of a post celebrating the end of the strike, “I guess it’s time to stop doing this. It’s over!!!!!! Let me get my bags together! My whole ass team been calling. See you soon world!”

In a follow-up post, he happily began promoting the upcoming project.

We are also happy because, listen, we were tired of reruns and reality television.

Just saying.

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Photo: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin / Getty

09 Nov 2023

Jung Kook Says He’s ‘So Looking Forward’ to BTS Reunion: ‘I Miss Them’

Jung Kook is fresh off the release of his highly anticipated solo album, Golden, and the BTS superstar sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to open up about pursuing a solo career and the future of BTS.

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“I think there certainly was a special privilege for being the youngest [member] and I had a lot of help in ways that I may or may not know,” he said of being the youngest member of BTS. “And the members are such nice people. I think I took a lot of great things from them. I got so much help from all six of them, it allowed me to grow to where I am today.”

As for the group’s planned reunion in 2025, Jung Kook says he’s deeply looking forward to it. “Preparing as a solo artist and also working as a solo musician… there were times where I really missed [being in the group],” he admitted. “When I was in the waiting room or standing by  myself on stage or eating with the staff. We were always together for so many years that I felt the void of them not being next to me. You know, I miss them. And I was thinking about them. So I suppose that year could seem far away, but I don’t want to think that way. I think the synergy of BTS in 2025 will be incredible. I am so looking forward to it.”

Golden, which dropped Friday (Nov. 3), features Jung Kook’s Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 1 hit single with Latto, “Seven,” as well as his new song with Jack Harlow, “3D.” His favorite song on the album, however, is “Standing Next to You,” and he says he’s looking forward to performing it live. “Of course, the song itself is great, but more than that, it just allowed me to see this grandiose picture when I heard the song and I could see myself right away performing on stage with that song,” he shared. “It has a very special place in my heart because the recording process was really difficult. But one thing that I would like to ask of ARMY is to not listen to it with earphones on or with their smartphone, but to listen to it loud on a loud speaker.”

Watch Jung Kook’s full interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe below.

09 Nov 2023

How Does Spotify’s New Royalties Model Affect Songwriters?

Even if Spotify’s new royalty model won’t pay artists’ whose tracks don’t hit 1,000 streams in a year, songwriters will still earn money from those plays — for now, at least.

As Billboard reported last month, Spotify is planning to implement three changes to its royalty model early next year that would affect the lowest-streaming acts, non-music noise tracks and distributors and labels committing fraud. Under this new scheme, more than two-thirds of the tracks uploaded to that platform will be eligible to receive royalties — but that, notably, that will only impact about 0.5% of the royalty pool.

Nevertheless, this has sparked debate around the music community, with some questioning the ethics of not paying artists for whatever streams they garnered simply because they were not popular enough. Others supported the plan, citing the paltry sums an artist would be making for under 1,000 annual streams anyway (which amounts to about five cents). Many also believe this new rule could provide alleviate the issue of the royalty pool being divided among the exponentially-growing number of songs on Spotify’s platform, which likely dilutes the amount of money flowing to career artists.

But this change to Spotify’s royalty model does not affect songwriters and publishers payments at all, a source close to the company confirmed to Billboard. It just affects those who are involved in the master recording copyright.

For the uninitiated, there are two copyrights associated with every song released: the underlying musical work (often also called the “composition” or “song”) copyright, which protects the lyrics and melodies written by songwriters, and the master recording (also called the “sound recording”) copyright, which protects the artists’ one specific recording of that musical work.

In the United States, the royalty rates that songwriters and publishers can charge for the composition side of things are controlled by a government entity known as the Copyright Royalty Board. Every five years, the statutory rate structure for songwriters and publishers is renegotiated with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) as well as Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and other groups and individuals who represent the music industry’s fight to raise rates. (Other territories often base their publishing royalty rates off of those set in the U.S.)

Not everyone agrees on what specific rate structure they want, which has led to some infighting, but they all unite behind one principle: songwriters should earn more money. In fact, publishing earns just a fraction what the recorded music side does on streaming overall, the rates are far from equal. Many in the music business wish the current Copyright Royalty Board system could be abolished, freeing songwriters and publishers to negotiate rates in a free market without government interference, but this is unlikely to change, given it would require an act of Congress to overhaul an over one hundred year old law and services, many of which are owned by some of the world’s largest technology companies, would certainly lobby against it.

Those whose interests lie on the recording side, like record labels, get to negotiate directly with streaming services to set their royalty structure. This is why the streaming payment system can be experimented with in the ways seen now through Spotify’s recent changes, as well as Deezer’s new “artist-centric” payment plan, created with UMG. Overall, the publishing side of the business is handcuffed to whatever the current ruling says.

The system of streaming royalty payments for publishers and songwriters for 2023-2027 (also known as “phonorecords IV” “phono IV” or “CRB IV”), the current five year period, has already been set. National Music Publishers’ Association president and CEO David Israelite says it is possible that the next five year period, phono V, could be reconfigured to more closely mirror what is happening on the master recording side but that determination process won’t begin until about early 2026.

“We will have the benefit of watching how this plays out for a while before we ever have to address it, but it’s way too early to speculate what we might do,” says Israelite. Still, he adds, “it is horrible that we are locked in the statutory rate structure where we have no flexibility other than these five year windows but that is our situation… It’s a very different conversation than one company sitting down with another company and agreeing what they want to do [like it happens on the master side]. We are asking a court through litigation or an agreement to set a structure that applies to everyone and to build consensus around that. It’s much harder to change.”

09 Nov 2023

Amber Riley, Billie Jean King, Ledisi & More Added to ‘CMT Smashing Glass’ Special

Ledisi, Billie Jean King, Amber Riley, Chris Janson, Fancy Hagood and Lucie Silvas have been added to CMT Smashing Glass, a salute to genre-defying women artists that premieres Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Clint Black, Mickey Guyton, Sheryl Crow and The War & Treaty were already announced for the special, which will celebrate Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker, who will both also perform on the show. Both of these veteran artists have already gotten at least some of their flowers. LaBelle received a BET Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Tucker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year, alongside Patty Loveless and songwriter Bob McDill.

The special will also pay posthumous tribute to three giants: Aretha Franklin (who died in 2018 at age 76), Tina Turner (who died in May at age 83) and Sinead O’Connor (who died in July at age 56).

CMT’s press statement suggests that they hope this special becomes a perennial: “CMT Smashing Glass is an all-new, genre-defying musical salute to the incomparable women who smashed stereotypes, broke records and defiantly blazed trails for future generations of female artists. The inaugural genre-blending music event will honor the exceptional careers of icons Patti LaBelle and Tanya Tucker and honor the late women of music with once-in-a-lifetime performances, surprise appearances and ‘Moments of Respect’ tributes to Aretha Franklin, Sinead O’Connor, Tina Turner and more.”

As previously reported, CMT Smashing Glass is helmed by an all-female production team.

Here’s how the special is taking shape.

09 Nov 2023

A$AP Relli Says A$AP Rocky Told Him He’d “Kill” Him Before Shooting Him

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2023 LACMA Art+Film Gala, Presented By Gucci - Red Carpet

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While A$AP Rocky has been celebrating life and the birth of his new son, Riot, the man is still embroiled in a serious court case brought by A$AP Relli and in it is making some pretty serious claims.

According to TMZ, Relli took the stand on Wednesday (Nov. 8) to reiterate his story that A$AP Rocky shot him two years ago. Rocky is fighting these allegations, but Relli isn’t backing down and told the court that Pretty Flacko told him he was going to kill him before pulling the trigger. Taking the stand yesterday, Relli was grilled by Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina. During their heated exchange, Tacopina attempted to get Relli to admit he had ulterior motives (money) when reporting the shooting to authorities.

Though Relli admitted he waited a bit before going to police about the incident, he maintains he’s the victim in this situation and Rocky violated him regardless of how long he waited to report the incident.

TMZ reports:

Relli says he began resenting Rocky for moves he perceived as dishonest, such as allegedly promising to help support a slain A$AP Mob member’s family … which Relli claims Rocky never did. All their bad blood allegedly came to a head that fateful night

According to Relli, Rocky called him and demanded to know where he was, and they ended up meeting at an L.A. hotel — which he thought might be a chance to squash their beef. Instead, Relli claims Rocky and some goons rolled up on him … and things got heated, with a gun allegedly being drawn.

Relli claims harsh words were exchanged, and Rocky put the gun to his stomach … allegedly saying, “I’ll kill you right now.” Relli testified Rocky didn’t shoot right then and there, but claims the bullets started flying shortly thereafter as they separated.

At that point, Relli says he felt his hand get hot and knew he’d been hit … and alleges Rocky fired around 4 times before taking off running and leaving him there on the street. Relli says he didn’t go to cops until a full day later out of fear.

Naturally Rocky pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, but with Relli’s testimony (which Rocky was in court to hear), who knows how things will end up looking for Rihanna’s baby daddy when it’s all said and done. Still, Pretty Flacko looked cool, calm and collected as he left the courtroom, so he’s probably not sweating the outcome regardless of Relli’s testimony.

What do y’all think of this situation? Should A$AP Rocky come to some settlement with Relli to make this case go away, or should he fight it till the very end? Let us know in the comments section below.

09 Nov 2023

With the Strike Over, *NSYNC, Zendaya and More Musicians Are Free to Promote Their Upcoming TV/Film Projects

Hollywood’s biggest studios and the SAG-AFTRA union struck a tentative deal on Wednesday (Nov. 8), ending the historic 118-day strike by actors. Now, performers can get back to doing the second most important part of their jobs: promoting their projects.

After writers ended their walk-out last month, production on TV and film projects is expected to ramp back up once the actors’ deal is ratified by membership, meaning that on-hold projects could go into production within the next few months. Plus, musicians who act in TV and film can finally get back out there and plug, plug, plug those on-screen efforts.

That means you might see more of the reunited *NSYNC. Earlier this week, member Lance Bass lamented in an interview that what was intended to be a more robust reunion between himself, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone was reduced to a mild walk-on at this year’s MTV VMAs, with their plans to fully promote their first single in more than 20 years being scuttled by the strikes.

Instead, there was no music video, no live performance and no other appearances to hype the Trolls Band Together single “Better Place.” Bass lamented that the then-ongoing strike really “threw a wrench” in the quintet’s broader plans due to strike rules that prohibited union members from promoting new projects during the walk-out. “We finally released a song after 23 years and we can’t even mention the song and we can’t talk about the movie it’s in. It was going to be such a special moment for all of us, and unfortunately that got sidetracked,” Bass said.

Now, however, it seems like Trolls star Timberlake — who also could not make the rounds to promote his recent Netflix thriller Reptile — could potentially lean-in to a fuller *NSYNC celebration. Bass hinted as much in his interview, saying, “We had so much fun, I don’t see this as our last thing. Because of this strike, I feel like we owe it to the fans again to rectify this and do something else. But until the strike ends, we can’t really even figure out what is next, if there’s anything next. Hopefully we’ll have a plan in place once this lifts and we’re able to get back to work.”

During the strike, musicians who act were not allowed to talk up their current or upcoming projects, which explains why there were so many late-night shows spotlighting comedians, politicians and non-performers over the past month. But now you can expect to see those double-threat singers make their way back to the couch to talk up projects due out in the next few months.

Here are some other music-related movies and TV shows starring and created by musicians that might get some personal attention now that the strike has ended. (All release dates subject to change.)

Sara Bareilles: The singer stars in the big screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Waitress, based on the 2007 movie of the same name, due out on Dec. 7.

Beyoncé: Though Queen Bey doesn’t typically do press around her projects, it’s possible she could make appearances to promote her upcoming concert film RENAISSANCE: A Film By Beyoncé, which will hit screens worldwide on Dec. 1.

Timothée Chalamet: The latest film based on Roald Dahl’s madcap candy-maker is a musical top-lined by the Dune star, who will make his big screen singing debut in the Paul King-directed film co-starring Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Grant, due out on Dec. 15.

Ariana Grande: The singer, who has kept a lower profile since 2020’s Positions, can now hit the promo rounds to talk about her role as Glinda in the upcoming two-part film adaptation of the musical Wicked; the first part was pushed back to Nov. 27, 2024 due to the strike.

H.E.R.: The musical polymath will star alongside Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and fellow singers Halle Bailey, Jon Batiste and Fantasia in the musical re-imagining of the Alice Walker novel The Color Purple, co-produced by Oprah, Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones. It’s due Dec. 25.

Megan Thee Stallion: In addition to plugging her “Cobra” single, Meg could finally get out there and promote her roles in Dicks: The Musical and the seventh season of Netflix’s filthy animated series Big Mouth (which were both released last month) — and, perhaps, her rumored role in the untitled, upcoming Safdie brothers movie starring Adam Sandler.

Julia Michaels: The singer and Grammy-nominated songwriter re-teamed with frequent collaborator JP Saxe to write the songs for the animated Disney musical Wish (out Nov. 22), which stars Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk and Natasha Rothwell.

Reneé Rapp: The singer and The Sex Lives of College Girls star will co-star as Regina George alongside singer/actress Ashley Park (Gretchen Wieners) in Tina Fey’s big screen reimagining of the Mean Girls musical based on the beloved original movie, due out on Jan. 12.

Troye Sivan: Atfter getting blanked in the promo rounds for The Weeknd’s poorly received HBO series The Idol, the “Rush” singer could now get out there to talk about his role in Trolls Band Together as Floyd.

The Weeknd: Speaking of The Idol, according to IMDb, the singer who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaye, will make his feature film acting debut in an untitled project directed by Trey Edward Shults in which he will appear alongside Jenny Ortega, Barry Keoghan and Charli D’Amelio. The movie was co-written by Shults, Tesfaye and his producing partner, Reza Fahim.

Zendaya: The Euphoria star is expected to take a bigger role in Dune: Part Two, which was pushed from this month to March 15, 2024, so expect her to begin making the rounds to promote that one in the next few months.

Rachel Zegler: For the follow-up to her Golden Globe-winning role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story adaptation and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Zegler will portray a scrappy singer-songwriter in the music-heavy Hunger Games prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, due out Nov. 17.

09 Nov 2023

Mariah Carey & Ice Spice Make Big Moves on TikTok Billboard Top 50 Chart | Billboard News

Lil Mabu and Chrisean Rock’s “Mr. Take Ya B-tch” leads the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for a second straight week, while holiday music infuses the Nov. 11-dated survey, both for Halloween and Christmas.

Tetris Kelly
Lil Mabu and Chrisean Rock lead for a second week while everyone gets into the holiday spirit.

Tetris Kelly
Lil Mabu and Chrisean Rock “Mr. Take-Ya-B*tch” sits in the top spot for a second week on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 for the chart posting November 9th. Playboy Carti’s “Sky” makes its return to No. 2 all thanks to the lyrics to kick off a new month.

Tetris Kelly
Halloween may be over but Crystal Knives and Lex Allen’s rendition of “Spooky Scary Skeletons” comes in at No. 6 as TikTok users celebrated spooky season. Halloween isn’t the only holiday being represented — the queen of Christmas Mariah Carey sits at the No. 11 spot with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as TikTok gets into the holiday spirit.

Tetris Kelly
And finally Ice Spice’s “Deli” re-enters the chart at No. 7 thanks to a viral remix of the song with Diddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins” making the rounds on the app.

Tetris Kelly
Every Thursday Billboard will bring you the verified list of the hottest songs on TikTok by monitoring music discovery and engagement on the platform in the United States. To find the TikTok Billboard Top 50 each week, users can simply go to any sound detail page and tap the top right button to access the charts page.

09 Nov 2023

New York City Honors Wu-Tang Clan With Its Own Day

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Wu-Tang Clan - Las Vegas, NV

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The Wu-Tang Clan will now have their own official day in New York City in honor of its contributions to Hip-Hop and popular culture.

On Wednesday (November 8), New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a proclamation that Thursday (November 9) will officially be Wu-Tang Clan Day. The proclamation coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Staten Island group’s iconic debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). The members of the Clan will also be on hand at the Empire State Building as it will be lit in black and yellow as night falls. 

In addition to the proclamation, Legacy Recordings announced that they would be releasing a special edition 7-inch box set version of Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in collaboration with GetOnDown at noon EST on their website. The box set includes the full debut album of the Wu-Tang Clan on six split black & yellow vinyl, a 60-page book titled “The Shaolinothology” containing liner notes, rare photos, and interviews with the RZA along with trading cards commemorating the anniversary. 

For The RZA, he describes being “very excited” along with the rest of the Clan in an interview with the New York Daily News.  “I will say some of these accolades that’s coming this year, this lighting for instance. I’m telling you, me and the crew have been looking at each other like, ‘Hmm, we’re living out the words that we said: Wu-Tang Forever.’ And that’s the aspiration and I’m thankful. There’s nothing better than leaving a footprint for someone else to figure out this path.”

The honor for the Wu-Tang Clan also comes as its members are deep into their own endeavors. The RZA is concluding his three-night series at the Gramercy Theatre which features Enter The Wu-Tang being performed with an orchestra. There will also be a pop-up activation run by RZA’s 36 Chambers companies in the East Village where RZA will be signing copies of his graphic novel, Bobby Digital and The Pit Of Snakes. Other Wu-related items will also be available for purchase at the shop. Lastly, a new Ghostface Killah action figure has been released by Super7, and a new podcast, ODB: A Son Unique chronicling the life of the late Ol Dirty Bastard was released this week with the first three episodes now streaming.