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HYBE Interactive Media (HYBE IM) secured an additional KRW 30 billion ($21 million) investment, with existing investor IMM Investment contributing another KRW 15 billion ($10 million) in follow-on funding. Shinhan Venture Investment and Daesung Private Equity joined as new investors in the company, which plans to expand its game business using HYBE’s K-pop artist IPs. To date, HYBE IM has raised a total of KRW 137.5 billion ($100 million). With the new money, the company plans to enhance its publishing capabilities and execute its long-term growth strategy by allocating it to marketing, operations and localization strategies to support the launch of its gaming titles.
Live Nation acquired a stake in 356 Entertainment Group, a leading promoter in Malta’s festival and outdoor concert scene that operates the country’s largest club, Uno, which hosts more than 100 events a year. The two companies have a longstanding partnership that has resulted in events including Take That’s The Greatest Weekend Malta and Liam Gallagher and Friends Malta Weekender being held in the island country. According to a press release, 356’s festival season brought 56,000 visitors to the island, generating an economic impact of 51.8 million euros ($56.1 million). Live Nation is looking to build on that success by bringing more diverse international acts to the market.
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ATC Group acquired a majority stake in indie management company, record label and PR firm Easy Life Entertainment. The company’s management roster includes Bury Tomorrow, SOTA, Bears in Trees, Lexie Carroll, Mouth Culture and Anaïs; while its label roster boasts Lower Than Atlantis, Tonight Alive, Softcult, Normandie, Amber Run, Bryde and Lonely The Brave. Its PR arm has worked on campaigns for All Time Low, 41, Deaf Havana, Neck Deep, Simple Plan, Travie McCoy and Tool.
Triple 8 Management partnered with Sureel, which provides AI attribution, detection, protection and monetization for artists. Through the deal, Triple 8 artists including Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, Local Natives, JOHNNYSWIM, Mat Kearney and Charlotte Sands will have access to tools that allow them to opt-in or opt-out of AI training with custom thresholds; protect their artist styles from being used in AI training without consent by setting time-and-date stamp behind ownership; monetize themselves in the AI ecosystem through ethical licensing that can generate revenue for them; and access real-time reporting through Sureel’s AI dashboard. Sureel makes this possible by providing AI companies “with easy-to-integrate tools to ensure responsible AI that fully respects artist preferences,” according to a press release.
Merlin signed a licensing deal with Coda Music, a new social/streaming platform that “is reimagining streaming as an interactive, artist-led experience, where fans discover music through community-driven recommendations, discussions, and exclusive content” while allowing artists “to cultivate more meaningful relationships with their audiences,” according to a press release. Through the deal, Merlin’s global membership will have access to Coda Music’s suite of social and discovery-driven features, allowing artists to engage with fan communities by sharing exclusive content and more. Users can also follow artists and fellow fans on the platform and exchange music recommendations with them.
AEG Presents struck a partnership with The Boston Beer Company that will bring the beverage maker’s portfolio of brands — including Sun Cruiser Iced Tea & Vodka, Truly Hard Seltzer, Twisted Tea Hard Iced Tea and Angry Orchard Hard Cider — to nearly 30 AEG Presents venues nationwide including Brooklyn Steel in New York, Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas and Roadrunner in Boston, as well as festivals including Electric Forest in Rothbury, Mich., and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Armada Music struck a deal with Peloton to bring an exclusive lineup of six live DJ-led classes featuring Armada artists to Peloton studios in both New York and London this year. Artists taking part include ARTY and Armin van Buuren.
Venu Holding Corporation acquired the Celebrity Lanes bowling alley in the Denver suburb of Centennial, Colo., for an undisclosed amount. It will transform the business into an indoor music hall, private rental space and restaurant.
Secretly Distribution renewed its partnership with Sufjan Stevens‘ Asthmatic Kitty Records, which has released works by Angelo De Augustine, My Brightest Diamond, Helado Negro, Linda Perhacs, Lily & Madeleine, Denison Witmer and others. Secretly will continue handling physical and digital music distribution, digital and retail marketing, and technological support for all Asthmatic Kitty releases.
Symphonic Distribution partnered with digital marketing platform SymphonyOS in a deal that will give Symphonic users discounted access to SymphonyOS via Symphonic’s client offerings page. Through SymphonyOS, artists can launch and manage targeted ad campaigns on Meta, TikTok and Google; access personalized analytics for a full view of fan interactions across platforms; build tailored pre-save links, link-in-bio pages and tour info pages; and get AI-powered real time recommendations to improve marketing campaigns.
Bootleg.live, a platform that turns high-quality concert audio into merch, partnered with Evan Honer and Judah & the Lion to offer fans unique audio collectibles on tour. Both acts are on tour this fall. The collectibles, called “bootlegs,” are concert recordings taken directly from the board, enhanced using Bootleg’s proprietary process, and combined with photos and short videos.
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One Young Thug fan has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. The rapper has reacted to one of his supporters inking the incorrect lyrics to “Digits.”
As spotted on HipHopDX a young man was inspired so much by Thugger’s music that he decided to permanently tattoo some on his skin. The fan got a rather large piece on his back that reads “Horses don’t stop, they keep going” as a nod to the popular single from Slime Season 3. It seems the gentleman must of misheard the song as the lyrics really say “Hustlers don’t stop, they keep going.” As expected the photo quickly made the rounds online and eventually landed on Young Thug’s radar.” And that’s y I’m talking with more clarity UY SCUTI… dam bro…” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Rolling Stone has since interviewed the fan in question and he maintains that he intentionally tattooed the incorrect lyrics. “Yes, I intentionally chose the wrong lyrics to match the theme of the tattoo. I have been wanting a horse piece for a couple years now” John Nelson said. “Many people online think that it’s simply just a Young Thug tattoo with no deeper meaning, but in 2022, a childhood friend of mine took his own life.” He went on to further detail what the piece means to him and how it came about. “For whatever reason, the beauty of these horses was oddly healing for me, so I wanted to get a tattoo that was horse-themed to kind of frame that memory. As for the other aspects of this tattoo, they were decided more impulsively.”
You can hear “Digits” below and decide for yourself.
Tens of thousands of music fans will descend on the California desert this weekend for the first of two iterations of the Coachella Music and Arts festival outside of Palm Springs, Calif.
Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 fans each weekend will have coughed up the $599 ticket price to see headliners Lady Gaga, Travis Scott, Green Day and Post Malone. But ticket price is often just the cost of entry — many of those fans will spend more than a $1,000 per weekend on lodging and cough up hundreds of dollars more for food, drinks and merchandise. It’s a substantial spend for any of the 20-somethings in Coachella’s target demographic. But festival organizers have increasingly helped finance their purchase through payment plan programs.
Approximately 60 percent of general admission ticket buyers at this year’s festival opted to use Coachella’s payment plan system, which requires as little as $49.99 up front for tickets to the annual concert. The desert festival isn’t alone — Lollapalooza, Electric Daisy Carnival and Rolling Loud all sell the majority of their tickets using some kind of payment plan system.
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Representatives at Goldenvoice, which puts on Coachella, declined to comment for this story. One source, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media, told Billboard that payment plans have fundamentally changed how festivals are marketed to the public.
“Festivals are now marketing a cheap down payment as their main call to action,” the source says. “The messaging is $20 down gets you in the door, or $50 down gets you started. It’s no longer about the artists, or the festival lifestyle — the message is, ‘You can afford this if you act today.’”
The same source told Billboard it’s not uncommon for some fans to have four or five different festival payment plans hitting their accounts at one time. Typically, fans pay as little as $19.99 to get started on a payment plan that’s extended over a period of several months — three months generally for Coachella, since most buying happens after the lineup is announced, which until 2025 took place in early January. This year, fans who signed up before Jan. 25 had their payments split into three payments, with the last payment hitting a user’s account in March.
The system is different than those of popular fintech payment-plan firms like Klarna, Affirm and Sezzle, which pay out the vendor in full and reimburse themselves by collecting the remaining payments from buyers. These firms make money from merchant and processing fees they collect from vendors and, in some cases, interest payments charged to customers that go beyond the terms of their original payment plan. Because firms like Klarna and Affirm essentially grant buyers credit, and often run credit histories on their users, they are heavily regulated under a number of state and federal financial frameworks.
The payment systems used by festival promoters are administered by ticketing companies like AXS, Ticketmaster and Frontgate, and are offered as a service in exchange for the festival promoter’s business. These systems are not considered credit providers since there’s no third party fronting the vendor the full price of the transaction. Instead, the vendor is paid out over time, as each payment goes through.
Ticket buyers are charged a $41 fee for using Coachella’s payment plan, similar to what other festivals charge fans for the use of payment plans. The fee is equivalent to approximately eight percent of the ticket price, which is still far cheaper than what a fan might pay for financing a ticket on their credit card. The revenue generated from this fee is split between the ticketing company and the promoter.
While some have criticized festivals for using fees as a revenue generator, fest organizer Bob Sheehan with the California Roots Festival in Monterey, Calif. tells Billboard that payment plans “are a critical link between fan affordability and generating the revenue needed to finance a modern multiday festival.”
Sheehan estimates that 65 percent to 70 percent of his festival attendees use payment plans to pay for their tickets and adds “the entire system is built upon trust — trust that we will deliver the experience we promised and trust that our fans will make their payments on time.”
If Coachella attendees miss their scheduled payments — typically, the attempt to debit their account is declined for insufficient funds or having an expired credit card — they are given 10 days to bring their account current. If the 10th day passes and the payment is not received, then the order is cancelled and the fan is issued a credit that can be used towards next year’s festival.
“Credit expires 12 months from issuance,” Coachella officials explain on their website. “No exceptions.”
Expired monies and credits — often referred to as “breakage” in business — are governed by state law, though one source says the revenue generated from breakage is miniscule.
“Most defaults happen after the initial deposit is made on the first payment — it’s very rare that a fan will default on tickets after two payments have been made, so the revenue from breakage is very low,” explains one source familiar with how festivals operate their payment plans. “All of the incentives for the promoter are that the fan pay off their ticket in full and attend the event so they can spend money on beer and parking and merchandise.”
Create Music Group has acquired longstanding indie electronic label !K7. The acquisition comes two months after the death of !K7 founder Horst Weidenmueller at age 60.
The acquisition was in motion before Weidenmueller’s death, with a representative for the deal sharing a statement made by the founder before he died: “This transition is a deeply personal one for me, but I know that with Create Music Group, !K7 is in the right hands. Create Music Group shares our commitment to artists, labels, and creativity, and I am confident that this partnership will strengthen !K7’s legacy while opening new doors for the future. I want to thank our incredible team, partners, and artists for being part of this journey — what we have built together will continue to thrive and evolve for years to come.”
Founded in 1985, !K7 began releasing artist albums in 1996, putting forth music from across the wide electronic spectrum and beyond. The company now has offices in Berlin, London and New York, with its label group including the in-house labels !K7, AUS, 7K!, Soul Bank and Strut Records. Its longstanding influential DJ Kicks mix series is an influential and globally known platform for a wide range of DJs and producers.
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!K7 CEO Tom Nieuweboer says the partnership will allow the label “to scale our vision while staying true to our core values of independent artistry, innovation, and quality.”
This is the second high-profile acquisition Create has made in the electronic space this year, with the company announcing in March that it acquired the deadmau5 catalog, along with the catalog of the producer’s mau5trap records, for $55 million.
!K7 will be an asset to Create with its global brand recognition, ubiquity in and knowledge of the European music industry ecosystem, and its physical distribution network. Meanwhile, !K7’s artists and label partners will leverage Create’s in-house services spanning distribution, marketing and more.
“Horst was a special music entrepreneur who built !K7 over 40 years into a globally renowned brand,” said Create CFO William Smith in a statement. “Long before he passed, we spent many hours discussing ways that we could invest more into !K7 to help the business reach new heights, while also preserving the culture and principles that make the business so unique. We’re proud that Horst has trusted us with his legacy and the next chapter of !K7’s growth, and are excited to partner with Tom and the rest of the team in achieving this shared vision.”
“We are thrilled to welcome !K7 and its iconic DJ-Kicks series to the Create Music Group family,” added Create’s senior vp of global corporate development and M&A Eric Nguyen. “This acquisition not only deepens our footprint in electronic music but also reinforces our commitment to forward-thinking music across a wide spectrum of specialist genres represented by its globally respected imprint Strut Records. We’re proud to support the innovative spirit that defines the !K7 catalogue. We look forward to powering the next chapter for !K7, its exceptional roster of artists, and its visionary label partners around the world.”
SZA is sharing her tricks to having good days on the latest episode of Sesame Street, which finds the hitmaker singing an adorable song about practicing kindness and gratitude with Elmo and more Muppet friends. In a clip from the episode airing Thursday (April 10), the Grammy winner slips pieces of paper into a clear […]
04/10/2025
This is King Vamp at his best.
04/10/2025
It’s been nearly three years, but Lizzo is still apologizing to Seth Meyers’ dad for calling him a b–ch during the pair’s epic “Day Drinking” segment in December 2022. The singer/rapper dropped by Late Night on Wednesday (April 9) to chat about her upcoming album and recall the bad old times when she had to do anything she could to get her early, meager audiences to love her. But mostly she wanted to make up for insulting Larry Meyers.
The host replayed a bit of the drinking segment, in which he called up his dad and asked an innocuous question about whether he was going to watch the game the next day, then handed the phone over to the “Truth Hurts” star, who playfully growled, “Bye b–ch!!” to Seth’s shock and horror.
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Afterwards, Meyers revealed, Lizzo managed to get his dad’s address and sent flowers to his parent’s house with the note, “Dear Larry, I’m sorry I called you a b–ch.” And, because it’s late night TV, of course Meyers called up his dad again, with Lizzo promising, “I’ll call him, but I won’t call him a b–ch.”
“Hey, I love you so much, um, this is Lizzo,” she told the elder Meyers, adding, “I miss you so much and, um…” jokingly whispering to Seth that this time he should hurl the same insult at his dad. “She called you a b–ch backstage,” Meyers quickly blurted before taking the phone away from Lizzo. “No, you said b–ch!” she protested.
Meyers also recalled that he saw Lizzo at the Met Ball in 2023 shortly after the initial boozy segment, when the after effects of their day of drinking was still so fresh she just wagged a finger at him when he said hello. “You were not ready to see me,” Meyers said. “I think you were still a little bit hung over.”
“I was probably drunk. I probably never, ever recovered,” she said.
The singer who will make her fourth appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend began her chat with Meyers by charging into the stands and slapping hands with the studio audience and doing a twirl to show off her “nearly-naked” bodysuit from her Yitty brand. “I’m scared,” she admitted about performing on SNL again, joking, “It’s live television! In front of, like, 50 people by the way, who can see up your nose and see if you got lipstick on your teeth. 20,000 people? I’m a bad b—ch. 150 people? You can smell me, b–ch!”
Noting that she took a few years off recently, Meyers asked Lizzo what she’d learned about being famous in the interim. “People conflate fame and rich, which is just not true,” Lizzo explained. “Some people are famous and they are not rich. Some people are rich and they don’t have fame. I have both. So to be honest with you I can’t complain.”
She also talked about working her way up from playing biker bars in Oklahoma, turning “haters into congratulators” every single night on her way to global fame. Lizzo recently revealed that her upcoming album, Love in Real Life, is officially complete, though no released date has been announced yet.
Watch Lizzo on Late Night With Seth Meyers below.
The 2025 Montreux Jazz Festival revealed the stacked lineup for its 59th edition on Thursday (April 10), with Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, Noah Kahan, RAYE, Alanis Morissette and Diana Ross slated to perform.
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The beloved festival set on the picturesque shores of Lake Geneva will take place between July 4-19 and feature an opening night celebration of the late music icon Quincy Jones by soul legend Chaka Khan (“To Quincy With Love”), as well as a set marking Kahn’s half-century of music-making, with the Casino stage hosting a James Blake solo piano set that same night.
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“I feel honored to be returning to open the Montreux Jazz Festival this year, joining so many world class artists,” Khan said in a statement. “I’m equally proud to be bringing some special guests with me, to pay musical tribute to my friend Quincy Jones; one of the best friends that music and Montreux ever had.”
The always eclectic programming will then bring Argentinian rapper Trueno and Colombian superstar J Balvin to the stage on night two, while Brazilian singer/songwriter Seu Jorge will share a bill with fellow Brazilians Anavitória. Among the other acts slated to perform this summer are: Brandi Carlile, Royel Otis, Samara Joy, Dianne Reeves, London Grammar, Rüfüs Du Sol, Leon Thomas, Jorja Smith, Lionel Richie, Portishead singer and solo artist Beth Gibbons, Shaboozey, Yseult, Jamie XX, Leon Bridges, Pulp, Bloc Party, Finneas, FKA Twigs, Benson Boone, Sam Fender, The Black Keys, Santana, Sigrid and many more.
Tickets will go on sale on Friday (April 11) at 12 p.m. CET here; each order is limited to four tickets per concert and a minimum of 10 tickets total.
See the full lineup below.
Britpop legends Pulp have shared news of their first album in 24 years. The new LP, More, will be released on June 6 via Rough Trade, and will end their fan’s long wait for a follow-up to 2001’s We Love Life.
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The Jarvis Cocker-led band made the announcement on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6 Music show on Thursday morning (Apr. 10) and shared the first taster in lead single “Spike Island.” Take a listen below.
Rumours of a new album had swirled in recent years following their reunion shows in 2023. The band split for the first time a year after 2002’s We Love Life, then reunited for a string of shows between 2011 and 2013, before another decade-long hiatus. During the tour they began playing new songs titled “Hymn of the North,” “Background Noise,” “Spike Island,” “My Sex,” and “Farmer’s Market,” all of which will appear on More.
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In late 2024, the band announced they had signed a record deal with Rough Trade, following their time on Island Records. The group released a standalone single, “After You,” in 2013.
In an accompanying statement, Cocker said, “Well: when we started touring again in 2023, we practiced a new song called ‘Hymn of the North’ during soundchecks & eventually played it at the end of our second night at Sheffield Arena. This seemed to open the floodgates: we came up with the rest of the songs on this album during the first half of 2024. A couple are revivals of ideas from the last century.”
He added, “The music for one song was written by [former Pulp member] Richard Hawley. The music for another was written by [All Seeing I band member] Jason Buckle. The Eno family sings backing vocals on a song. There are string arrangements written by Richard Jones and played by the Elysian Collective.
“The album was recorded over 3 weeks by James Ford in Walthamstow, London starting on November 18 2024. This is the shortest amount of time a Pulp album has ever taken to record. It was obviously ready to happen.” He added in a closing note that “no A.I. was involved during the process.”
The band is currently made up of Cocker, Candida Doyle (keyboards), Nick Banks (drums) and Mark Webber (guitar). Longstanding bass player Steve Mackey, who performed on their hit albums His N Hers (1994) and Different Class (1995), died in 2023 following a short illness.
In the coming months Pulp will play a number of shows in the U.K. including arenas in Glasgow, London, Birmingham and Manchester. They will co-headline a number of shows with LCD Soundsystem later this year in North America.
Pulp’s More tracklist
“Spike Island”“Tina”“Grown Ups”“Slow Jam”“Farmers Market”“My Sex”“Got to Have Love”“Background Noise”“Partial Eclipse”“The Hymn of the North”“A Sunset”
Billy Idol is feeling nostalgic about his wild New York City nights — and so is Drew Barrymore.
The punk legend appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show this week, where he and the actress reflected on their shared experiences in the 1980s club scene. Though Barrymore was still a child at the time, she grew up frequenting legendary venues like Studio 54 and Limelight — often in the company of musicians like Idol.
“Please, control room, tell me you have the picture of me and Billy at Limelight, the club,” Barrymore said, as a black-and-white photo of the two from 1986 appeared onscreen. “Yes! I mean, Billy, that is where I see us when I think of you in my mind is back in the old club days. What the hell do you remember from those days?”
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“Not very much,” Idol replied with a laugh, prompting Barrymore to joke, “Me neither — I was hoping you could color stuff in for me.”
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Even if the memories are hazy, Idol said he remembers the freedom of the era vividly. “It was a really incredible time. I really enjoyed those ‘80s years. New York was kind of bankrupt so anything kinda went. It was like post-apocalyptic… you felt like the end of the world had sort of happened.”
Barrymore smiled as she recalled how much the rocker meant to her growing up. “The only thing I knew was that I loved you, I got to hang out with you, we were obviously playful and silly.”
The two reunited years later when Idol made a memorable cameo in 1998’s The Wedding Singer, which Barrymore starred in alongside Adam Sandler. “I was so excited to be together again,” she said. “It felt like, ‘Oh! Just yesterday we were like, out in the clubs together!’”
As their conversation came to a close, Barrymore became visibly emotional. “I’m really in a very nostalgic sort of avalanche in my mind,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel like any time has gone by. I feel like we’re back in the club, we’re at The Wedding Singer, we’re doing our thing. You don’t look any different. You look good!”
She added, “God, I miss dancing so much. I miss the clubs! And those places played, as we said, every type of music, but you really pushed through and… changed the world. We all thank you for that.” Idol added, “It was a super fun time.”