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TikTok, the wildly popular social media app that has made stars among some of its users and exploded as a commerce hub, is under the threat of being banned or forced to sell off its assets. With the threat of TikTok going away, thousands of users are flocking to the Chinese social media app RedNote and discovering a new community in the process.
The United States Supreme Court is currently weighing a decision on a law that would ban TikTok in the country over national security concerns and the fact it is owned by a Chinese company. The proposed deadline is January 19, and the nation’s highest court has previously heard arguments from the social media brand’s parent company ByteDance and the incoming Trump administration’s position thus far is to keep access open to the app in the States.
RedNote, which is also known as Xiaohongshu, first launched in 2013 as a shopping destination but now has expanded into a full-on social media hub where users share various forms of content including the short-form video format TikTok is known for. According to a report from Reuters, over 700,000 users joined RedNote in the course of two days with a reported 50,000 Americans among that number but pales in comparison to the roughly 150 million American users of TikTok.
RedNote is currently the second most popular free app on Apple’s App Store. The outlet also added that Lemon8, which is a social media app owned by ByteDance, has seen increased user numbers as well.
On X, the massive social media defection is being documented with some revealing the language barriers users are facing and how some Americans are helping Chinese users improve their English. With some of the stringent laws in China, users have been careful in what they share and discuss on the app but the influx of users is seemingly welcomed.
We’ve got some reactions from X regarding the TikTok defection to RedNote below.
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Photo: Getty
Britpop icons Pulp signed with Rough Trade Records. “Rough Trade have managed Pulp for over 30 years so it feels great to be finally on the label. We did it!” the band said in a statement. Pulp’s last release was the 2001 album We Love Life, released by Island Records, though the band has toured together in the intervening years. Pulp has released a total of seven studio albums, including 1995’s Different Class, which was certified four-times platinum by the BPI.
Maggie Rose, a 2025 Grammy nominee for best Americana album, signed with One Riot/Virgin. Her first release under the deal is a “stripped version” of “Under the Sun” with Charlotte Sands. Rose is managed by Austin Marshall and Narvel Blackstock at Starstruck and booked by Jonathan Levine and Matt Runner at Wasserman.
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Folk-country artist Evan Honer signed with Wasserman Music for booking representation ahead of his recently announced spring 2025 tour. Honer will play 36 dates across the U.S., starting on Feb. 23 in Little Rock, Ark.
Singer-songwriter Sam Ryder signed with mtheory for management. He will be represented by Lewis Allen and Derek Gridley. Ryder is gearing up to release his second album and will embark on a tour this year.
Grammy-nominated gospel artist William Murphy signed a distribution deal with Motown Gospel, which released his new single, “Double,” on Friday (Jan. 10).
Centricity Music signed singer-songwriter Rachel Purcell to an exclusive global recording and publishing deal. Under her maiden name, Wammack, Rachel previously pursued a country music career, with songs including “Damage”; her new deals with Centricity mark her foray into Contemporary Christian music. – Jessica Nicholson
Sony Music Nashville signed singer-songwriter and Georgia native Zach John King. King just released a new song, “Slow Down,” which he wrote with Thomas Archer, Kyle Fishman and Michael Tyler. Sony Music Nashville’s roster also features artists including Brooks & Dunn, Kane Brown, Luke Combs and Megan Moroney. – Jessica Nicholson
Guitarist/producer RJ Pasin launched his own record label, Isekai Records, and signed Baltimore-based artist Lindsay Chia to the imprint. The label, which was founded by Pasin alongside his managers Ewan McGregor and Jack Mangan, released Chia’s track “Ghost” on Jan. 1. On launch, Isekai released the track “Embrace It (Remix)” by Ndotz, Sexyy Red and Flo Milli, featuring Pasin on guitar.
Luke Dean, an emerging artist in the U.K. underground dance scene, signed with Enzo Siragusa‘s LOCUS imprint, which released his new EP Ready Set Go on Dec. 13.
Jeff Roberts Agency partnered with contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Claire Leslie for booking. Leslie is managed by Hyphen Media Group and signed with Capitol CMG. She released her debut single “Original” this summer and followed with songs including “Ceiling Fan” and “Passenger Seat.” – Jessica Nicholson
Nashville-based label Quartz Hill Records, led by Brown Sellers Brown partner Benny Brown, signed country-pop duo 2 Lane Summer to its roster. The duo, composed of Illinois native Joe Hanson and Mississippi-born Chris Ray, recently joined country trio Chapel Hart on their Hartfelt Family Christmas Tour. They’ve also released a new version of their song “Eyes That Ain’t Yours.” – Jessica Nicholson
Pollinate Music, a newly-launched label under Bell Partners Worldwide, signed rapper, singer-songwriter and producer Rakeem Miles, who is also known for the clothing brand Action Figure Miles.
Singer-songwriter McCoy Moore signed an exclusive booking and artist development deal with The Neal Agency, home to fellow artists including HARDY, Nate Smith, Morgan Wallen, Anne Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman. Moore is also signed with SMACK and Worktape Music for publishing and with the newly-launched TRACK mgmt’s Tracker Johnson for management. – Jessica Nicholson
The wintry video for Wham!‘s beloved holiday hit “Last Christmas” has joined YouTube billion-views club. Fittingly, the feat for the song originally released in 1984 comes just after the track skated to the top of the U.K. charts for the second year in a row during the holiday season.
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Written and produced by late singer George Michael, the song first hit No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart in 2021, marking the fifth No. 1 for the duo that also included singer Andrew Ridgeley. Shot in Switzerland by director Andrew Morahan (“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”), the playful clip features the two singers enjoying a fun ski vacation with their girlfriends.
Though the pair and their significant others are all smiles as they pile into a cable car to enjoy some Christmas R&R in a picturesque chalet, trimming the tree, lobbing snowballs at each other and enjoying a festive meal, it becomes clear through furtive glances and a tell-tale glittery brooch that Ridgeley’s significant other has an unspecified romantic past with Michael.
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Pining for what appears to be a lost love, Michael sings, “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart/ But the very next day, you gave it away/ This year, to save me from tears/ I’ll give it to someone special.”
“Last Christmas” is the first Wham! video to join the YT billion club, joining Michael’s 1984 debut solo hit from that same year, “Careless Whisper.”
According to the U.K. Official Charts report, with its No. 1 slot in December, “Last Christmas” became the first song in the chart’s history to snag two consecutive Christmas No. 1 slots; in its release year, the song was blocked from the top spot by the all-star Band-Aid song “Do You Know It’s Christmas?,” which featured vocals from Michael. It finally hit the Christmas No. 1 in 2023, marking the longest trip to the top holiday spot at 39 years; it first hit No. 1 on the New Year’s Day charts for the week ending January 7, 2021.
Watch the “Last Christmas” video below.
Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) has relaunched Lost Highway Records in partnership with Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter/producer T Bone Burnett.
The first release from the new iteration isRingo Starr’s Burnett-produced country set Look Up, which was released last Friday (Jan. 10).
The revered label, which takes its name from the song made famous by Hank Williams, had been dormant since 2012 after being launched by then-UMGN head Luke Lewis in 2000.
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From the start, Lewis and his team curated a tasty roster focused on American-leaning music from artists including Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Hayes Carll, Mary Gauthier and Lyle Lovett. It was also home to soundtracks, including the Burnett-produced, Grammy-winning O Brother Where Art Thou, Deadwood and Open Season.
Cindy Mabe had been interested in reactivating the imprint for quite some time, even before she ascended to the role of UMGN chairman/CEO in April 2023.
“It was always a mission that we were going to reopen Lost Highway,” Mabe says. “It just felt like something was missing from the marketplace. Lost Highway was 15 years before its time. Looking at what’s happening to music in general and people living for algorithms, you’re losing art, you’re losing stories.”
Other entities had approached her about using the name over the years, but she had kept it close, knowing the right time would come.
T Bone Burnett and Cindy Mabe
Chris Hollo
“None of those people felt like the right people to go into this because you either hold it at the regard of which Luke built it or you don’t redo it,” Mabe says. Then, when Burnett played her the Starr album, “It just hit me. I was like, ‘Hold on, full circle moment.’ O Brother was kind of where Lost Highway started. And he’s presenting this beautiful record and he was pouring all this joy that he had gotten from The Beatles back into Ringo. This is the mentality and this is where Lost Highway needs to be.”
Burnett, who is also known for his work with Bob Dylan, Elton John, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, immediately loved the idea of joining forces. “I think it’s something that’s really needed at the moment,” he says. “There’s a need for an American music-focused record label that takes care of the good stuff.”
Though they aren’t ready to announce names, Burnett and Mabe say they have four or five artists they’re ready to work with, and they don’t discount that some of them may have a history with the label. Mabe says there are no plans to move any acts currently signed to other UMGN imprints to Lost Highway, which will remain a boutique label. Lost Highway will share some services with UMGN labels but will hire its own A&R, marketing and publicity staff.
“T Bone and I keep talking about the reason that we’re going to win is we’re going to put quality art back into the marketplace,” Mabe says. “It’s just missing. I’m not saying that there’s not some quality art out there, but it’s not always the goal. You don’t get artist development just by spinning the wheel and seeing how many ‘likes’ are out there. You actually have to make people feel something.”
Touring will be a big part of promoting the artists, as well as pairing them with producers who bring the same sensibility to the table. Additionally, Mabe says the film and TV component will remain a big part of the label and a way to bring attention to the roster. “Can these artists have radio? They could,” Mabe says. “It’s not the intent. The intent is to put great back out there and find its way out. It’s not one specific way to market.”
Burnett, who will helm the label’s creative direction with Mabe, doesn’t have an official title yet, but adds, “I’m looking forward to the challenge. I feel like we’re in a really beautiful moment where traditional American music, American vernacular music, is ascendant in the culture.” He wants to curate a bespoke roster in the same legendary way that Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker did at Warner Bros. in the ‘70s or Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun did at Atlantic Records in the ‘60s and ‘70s. “I want every artist to touch every other artist in some way so that it’s integrated as an esthetic,” Burnett says. “It’s not just commercial grabs from here and there, but it’s about people who play great and sing great and write great.”
By launching with Starr’s country album, Burnett says it sends the signal that Lost Highway is “not going to be constricted by somebody else’s definition of what American music is. When The Beatles came out, they were playing Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins. They were playing the canon of American music that everything since has grown out of,” he says. “We’re saying that this is going to be an inclusive label. It’s going to be what I call American music, which includes blues and rhythm & blues and country music and folk music and rock and roll music.
One of Mabe’s next steps is surveying the assets from Lost Highway’s first go-round. “We’re going to put out some of the catalog that’s existed before,” she says. “It’s taking shape. We’re looking at all the pieces that are going to put the lights back on.”
Robbie Williams has long had a cordial relationship with the British royal family. But when it came to an invitation to perform at King Charles III’s coronation ceremony in 2023, the singer said he had to politely decline. Appearing on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live earlier this week, Williams said he was, as rumored, asked to celebrate the royal passing of the torch, but had a professional conflict.
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Williams told Cohen that there was definitely “a reason” he could not accept the gig. “I was working. I got something I couldn’t turn down because of money,” Williams said, without elaborating on what gig kept him from the royal honor.
Williams has shown his support for the royals before, acting as the opening act at the 2012 diamond jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace, which was organized by his former Take That bandmate, Gary Barlow. And while he didn’t make it to the coronation concert held for King Charles III and Queen Camilla on May 7, 2023, that glitzy event did feature sets from Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Andrea Bocelli and the other members of Take That: Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen, joined by DJ Robin Schulz and Calum Scott.
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Other acts who took the stage included Tiwa Savage, Paloma Faith, Steve Winwood, Olly Murs, Pete Tong and Nicole Scherzinger.
Though fans couldn’t see him then, they can catch the British superstar in his unusual new biopic, Better Man, in which a CGI monkey version of Williams takes viewers through a series of over-the-top musical numbers illustrating the singer’s wild days and nights as a boy bander and solo star.
Paramount paid $25 million to acquire the $110 million movie directed by The Greatest Showman‘s Michael Gracey, only to see it tank at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend, where it took in a modest $1 million on more than 1,200 screens. To date, the movie has reportedly earned just under $5 million in Williams’ native U.K., marking it as the first major box office bomb of the year.
Watch Williams discuss the coronation rebuff below.
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With Rate-a-Queen back for the double premiere, Billboard will be rating the queens from season 17 every week.
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The Eagles have pledged $2.5 million to FireAid, the Jan. 30 benefit concert for Los Angeles fire victims to be held at Intuit Dome. There is no word whether the band, who is in the middle of a residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, will play the show. The event, billed as “an evening of music […]
In The Substance, Margaret Qualley’s character turns into an overnight superstar. So naturally, the film’s costume director Emmanuelle Youchnovski turned to some real-life idols for inspiration — including Beyoncé and Dua Lipa.
In an interview with Next Best Picture published Tuesday (Jan. 14), the creative opened up about studying the two pop stars while designing the wardrobe for Sue. In the Coralie Fargeat-directed horror flick, the character — played by the Poor Things star — replaces Demi Moore’s Elisabeth as the leading lady of a popular workout program after the Ghost actress’ character clones herself into Sue, whom she believes is a younger, hotter version of herself.
“I took [inspiration from] the video clip of Beyoncé’s ‘Blow,’ where she had the colors, you remember this one?” Youchnovski said, referencing the 32-time Grammy winner’s 2013 track. “And I also took a lot of inspiration from Dua Lipa, because she wears a lot of bodysuits.”
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“But the bodysuit, it’s metallic, it’s fuchsia, it’s neon,” the costumer continued, noting that the “Levitating” singer’s look also inspired her to add “more skin” to Sue’s gear via cut-outs.
While Youchnovski referenced modern pop stars for Qualley’s character, however, the designer said she deliberately sourced from the 1980s — think Jane Fonda — for Moore’s role. “The most difficult thing for us was to have the same show with different points of view: Elisabeth’s view and Sue’s view, the new one,” she added. “If we do ‘80s things for Elisabeth, it’s more easy for us to do a new one for Sue, like Dua Lipa, or Beyoncé, or whatever.”
After first premiering at Cannes — where it won best screenplay — The Substance arrived in theaters in September, going on to clear $70 million at the global box office. Both Qualley and Moore have received critical acclaim for their performances in the project, with the latter recently taking home best actress in a musical or comedy at the 2025 Golden Globes.
But while Bey and Dua may have inspired Sue’s appearance, Qualley previously revealed that it was another pop star who got her into the headspace to play the character. “We all just had the Brat summer with Charli XCX, and I was listening to Charli as my Sue inspo,” the Drive Away Dolls star told Brut America in October. “She has a lot of good, like, pump-it-up girl songs. I got that Sue energy from Charli’s old music, so that’s where my head was.”
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Atlanta’s prodigy, Jiah, pulled up to Hip-Hop Wired to perform her new track ‘Probably Nun,’ which is from her project Never The Same, dropped on November 20th, 2024. The song is already catching people’s attention with its smooth vibes and catchy beats, showing off Jiah’s unique style in R&B.Jiah’s been getting major love from big names in the music game, but the biggest shout-out came from none other than Rihanna. Riri hopped in the comments of one of Jiah’s posts saying, “melody and pocket…proud of you man!” That type of cosign from a legend like Rihanna speaks volumes and shows that Jiah’s got something special.
With her fresh sound and raw talent, Jiah is quickly making a name for herself. Never The Same is just the start of what looks like a crazy run for this Atlanta prodigy. If she keeps grinding like this, you’re gonna be hearing a lot more from her in the future.
Check out her Hip-Hop Wired performance here:
More about Jiah
Atlanta native musician, Jiah (Ji-ya), expresses her persona through her soulful R&B and pop music. She doesn’t like to label herself as a singer or rapper, but instead identifies as an artist with a distinctive melodic flow. Her lyrical intelligence and connection to her music speaks volumes.
Drake has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over allegations that the music giant defamed him by promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” claiming the label boosted a “false and malicious narrative” that the star rapper was a pedophile and put his life in danger.
Hours after his attorneys withdrew an earlier petition, they filed a full-fledged defamation lawsuit Wednesday against his longtime label – claiming UMG knew Lamar’s “inflammatory and shocking allegations” were false but chose to place “corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
“UMG intentionally sought to turn Drake into a pariah, a target for harassment, or worse,” the star’s lawyers write in a complaint filed in Manahttan federal court. “UMG did so not because it believes any of these false claims to be true, but instead because it would profit from damaging Drake’s reputation.”
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In one of the lawsuit’s most vivid accusations, Drake claims that the release of “Not Like Us” has subjected him to risk of physical violence, including a drive-by shooting on his Toronto area home just days after the song was released.
“UMG’s greed yielded real world consequences,” his lawyers write. “With the palpable physical threat to Drake’s safety and the bombardment of online harassment, Drake fears for the safety and security of himself, his family, and his friends.”
Notably, the case does not target Lamar himself — a point that Drake’s attorneys repeatedly stress in their filings.
“UMG may spin this complaint as a rap beef gone legal, but this lawsuit is not about a war of words between artists,” Drake’s attorneys say.
A spokesman for UMG did not immediately return a request for comment.
Wednesday’s lawsuit is yet another dramatic escalation a high-profile beef that saw Drake and Lamar exchange stinging diss tracks last year, culminating in Lamar’s knockout “Not Like Us” — a track that savagely slammed Drake as a “certified pedophile” and became a hit in its own right.
Drake shocked the music industry in November when he filed petitions suggesting he might sue over the fued — first accusing UMG and Spotify of an illegal “scheme” involving bots, payola and other methods to pump up Lamar’s song, then later claiming that the song had been defamatory. But those cases were not quite full-fledged lawsuits, and Drake withdrew one of them late on Tuesday.
Now it’s clear why: In Wednesday’s lawsuit, he formally sued UMG over the same alleged scheme, claiming the label “unleashed every weapon in its arsenal” to drive the popularity of Lamar’s track even though it knew the lyrics were “not only false, but dangerous.”
“With his own record label having waged a campaign against him, and refusing to address this as a business matter, Drake has been left with no choice but to seek legal redress against UMG,” his lawyers write.
The filing of the case represents a doubling-down for Drake, who has been ridiculed in some corners of the hip-hop world filing legal actions over a rap beef. It also will deepen further his rift with UMG, where the star has spent his entire career — first through signing a deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, which was distributed by Republic Records, then by signing directly to Republic.
In his complaint, Drake’s lawyers said the label opted to boost “Not Like Us” despite its “defamatory” lyrics because they saw it as a “gold mine” — partly because UMG owns Lamar’s master recordings outright, but also because it could use the song to hurt Drake’s standing in future contract talks.
“UMG’s contract with Drake was nearing fulfillment … UMG anticipated that extending Drake’s contract would be costly,” his lawyers write. “By devaluing Drake’s music and brand, UMG would gain leverage to force Drake to sign a new deal on terms more favorable to UMG.”
This is a breaking news story and will continue to be updated with additional details as they become available.