The Beaches are having another viral moment.

In Episode 2 of Prime Video’s Off Campus — a series based on the book series by Toronto author Elle Kennedy — the group’s 2023 hit “Edge of the Earth” soundtracks a key moment.

The show chronicles the love story between Hannah Wells (Ella Bright) and the university hockey player Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli). It’s another hockey romance hit, quickly hitting No. 1 globally on Prime Video after its May 13 release.

The Beaches’ 2025 Coachella set plays a pivotal role on the show, connecting the two main characters. It’s more than a passive sync, with the band’s name being by the characters.

Hannah asks, “Have you heard of the Beaches?” Channeling Garden State, she gushes that “their Coachella set will change your life,” before playing through the band’s performance of “Edge of the Earth.”

in one week, “Edge of the Earth” has reached new heights of its own, becoming The Beaches’ most popular song on streaming platforms. There’s an 888% increase in week-over-week growth in streams since the show’s premiere, The Beaches’ management shares with Billboard Canada. That’s over two times more than the previous peak set by “Blame Brett” during its viral moment on TikTok in 2024.

The group’s entire discography is surging, experiencing a 48% week-over-week growth on streaming platforms, confirming the “Edge of the Earth” moment is driving broader catalogue discovery — not just one song.

“We are incredibly grateful to be included in the world of Off Campus,” the group tells Billboard Canada. “This song has such a special place in our hearts, and it’s humbling to see how it’s resonated with the rest of the world.”

For the band’s manager, Laurie Lee Boutet, it’s the result of many years of effort and hard work.

“It’s been a wild week. ‘Edge of the Earth’ [has] been around since 2023, and Off Campus put it in front of millions overnight,” she shares with Billboard Canada. “A week in, and it’s the biggest streaming moment of their career. These four have been doing the work for over a decade; they’ve earned this. We’re just trying to keep up.”

The group’s recent success coincides with their major win at this year’s Billboard Women in Music ceremony in Los Angeles. After first being named the Women of the Year at Billboard Canada Women in Music in 2025, the band repped Canada while accepting the Global Force Award, presented by FACTOR.

“To be representing Canada on a global stage like this is not only an honour, but a dream come true,” frontwoman Jordan Miller said in the group’s acceptance speech.

While Off Campus is set in a fictional Massachusetts town, it was shot at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver — so it’s fitting that a Canadian group is reaping the rewards.

Read more here. — Heather Taylor-Singh

ArtsHouse Media Group Launches New Toronto Live Venue, SOUNDSTAGE

A state-of-the-art new home for events and performances has arrived in Toronto.

ArtsHouse Media Group (AMG) has unveiled the all-new SOUNDSTAGE venue. Located on the sixth floor of the W Toronto hotel near Yorkville, the new performance and music venue will bring concerts, entertainment, culture and industry events all under the same roof.

The new venue was officially unveiled this week (May 19) with a special ribbon cutting by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, AMG president Mo Ghoneim and CCO Elizabeth Crisante, W Toronto general manager Elie Sassine, NXNE founder Michael Hollett and members of the AMG and Billboard Canada team.

“SOUNDSTAGE was built to be more than a venue. We wanted to create a home for artists, culture, and live experiences that brings together music and media in a meaningful way,” says Mo Ghoneim, president of AMG. “As one of the country’s leading music media companies, we felt a commitment to creating a space that not only elevates performance, but helps artists and culture connect with audiences on a larger scale.”

The new hub for music, media and culture will host several major events in June including a number of Billboard Canada LIVE events during NXNE, including Q&A and performances by Frank Walker and Sickick. It will also host Billboard Canada x Music Manager Forum Canada’s Managers to Watch x Honour Roll 2026 celebration, which will honour the most impressive music managers making moves in Canada.

“W Toronto has always been committed to creating luxury spaces where culture, creativity and community come together,” says Elie Sassine, general manager of W Toronto. “SOUNDSTAGE is an exciting evolution of that vision, bringing a fresh energy to Toronto’s cultural and event landscape. By blending music, technology and hospitality, the venue creates a unique platform for artists, brands and industry leaders to connect in a way that feels distinctly Toronto.”

Read more here. — Billboard Canada

Acclaimed Cellist & Composer Cris Derksen Mourned by Canadian Musicians and Industry

Cris Derksen, a renowned Indigenous cellist and composer, died in a car accident on May 15, at age 45. They were returning from their father’s funeral near Slave Lake, Alberta.

An obituary in the Edmonton Journal reports that “Derksen was a beloved fixture on Canada’s classical and stringed music scene. Their style sometimes fused modern electronic sounds and Indigenous rhythms.”

As a soloist-composer, Derksen performed with 15 different symphonies and chamber orchestras across Canada. They have been commissioned by prestigious ensembles such as the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Thunder Bay Symphony and Orchestre Métropolitain.

In 2022, Derksen was the composer for the Canadian Pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai, as well as in 2025 the World Expo in Osaka. Work on the podcast Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s by Connie Walker and Gimlet Media earned both a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award. In 2024 Derksen had their Carnegie Hall Debut performing with Orchestre Metropolitan and Yannick Nézet-Séguin with their piece Controlled Burn commissioned by Nézet-Séguin.

Derksen has worked with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and in 2026 wrote a 75 minute ballet Cikilaxwm: Controlled Burn for Ballet Kelowna with Indigenous choreographer Cameron Fraser-Monroe.

Derksen was also a dedicated advocate for diversity in classical music. They founded the Indigenous Classical Gathering at the Banff Centre for the Arts, served as the Artistic Advisor for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and chaired the Equity Committee for Orchestras Canada. Through these roles, they strived to make classical music more reflective of Canada’s diverse population, opening doors for BIPOC composers and performers.

Derksen released four acclaimed albums: The Cusp (2010), The Collapse (2013), Orchestral Powwow Project (2015) and The Visit (2025)

They also performed as the Cris Derksen Trio with drummer Jesse Baird and dancer Nimkii Osawamick, and her composition Maada’ookii Songlines was a choral piece incorporating 200 singers.

Over their career, Derksen received multiple awards nominations, including the Indigenous Music Awards, Juno Awards for instrumental album of the year, (for Orchestral Powwow Project), the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards, the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and Western Canadian Music Awards.

A performance by Derksen was scheduled for Sled Island festival in Calgary in June.

As news of Derksen’s tragic passing spread, there was an outpouring of tributes from musical colleagues and noted industry members including Tanya Tagaq, the Canadian Music Centre and more.

Read more here. — Kerry Doole

Universal Music Group (UMG) and TikTok have announced a new multi-year licensing deal. News of the agreement comes two years after UMG and TikTok resolved their infamous licensing standoff, which led UMG to pull its entire catalog of master recordings and compositions from the service for the first three months of 2024.

TikTok notes in a press release that the new deal will provide UMG artists with “expanded marketing and advertising campaigns, as well as access to ecommerce and other artist-centric tools.”

The release also notes that the new agreement “build[s] on the success of the multi-dimensional partnership announced in 2024” and extends TikTok and UMG’s “groundbreaking commitment to AI protections that promote human artistry.” It adds that “TikTok and UMG will work together to remove unauthorized AI-generated music from the platform, while further improving artist and songwriter attribution.”

In January, UMG chief digital officer and executive vp Michael Nash was a guest on Billboard’s On the Record podcast, when he revealed new details about what happened between UMG and TikTok in 2024 that led the music company to pull its catalog from the social media service in retaliation. “There was a proposal [from TikTok] that the service would use AI music in a way that went far outside of what we thought really made sense for us to support in the interest of our artists,” Nash said at the time. “And specifically, what they were proposing is that creators would be able to generate AI content, and that AI content on the TikTok platform would get paid on the same basis as artists’ [music]. It would dilute the artists’ royalty pool.”

When the two companies finally resolved their dispute, Nash explained that, ultimately, “we got the best protections that we had been able to obtain to that point, and they remain some of the best protections that we have in any agreement with the music service, in terms of AI protection and what we call ‘anti-dilution,’ meaning our royalties won’t be diluted by pure AI content.”

Typically, licensing agreements between music companies and tech platforms last for about two to three years, so license renewals between TikTok and other music companies are expected in the near future.

In a statement about the new deal, Nash said: “We’re proud of the pioneering work we’ve done with TikTok to create wide-ranging benefits for our artists and songwriters. With this new agreement, we look forward to driving innovative new fan experiences, while further improving social media monetization, and protecting and amplifying human artistry.”

Tracy Gardner, global head of music business development at TikTok, added: “We’re excited to take our partnership with UMG to the next level, and build on the strong foundation we’ve already created together for artists, songwriters and fans. TikTok is a unique platform where music discovery, culture and fandom intersect, and this agreement will help create even more opportunities for artists and songwriters to engage audiences, grow their communities and achieve career success on a global scale.”

Live Nation must be broken up from Ticketmaster, state attorneys general told a federal judge Thursday (May 21), a month after a blockbuster jury verdict that the music giant is an illegal monopoly.

Laying out their proposed punishment after that verdict, a coalition of dozens of states argue in a hotly-anticipated legal brief, obtained by Billboard, that the only way to fix the live music business is to force Live Nation to sell Ticketmaster.

“An order requiring Live Nation to divest Ticketmaster, such that it is capable of restoring competition for primary ticketing contracts with Major Concert Venues,” the states wrote in a list of orders they’re seeking from the judge.

The Department of Justice and dozens of states sued Live Nation in 2024, claiming the company (which acquired Ticketmaster in 2010) had grown into a monopoly that dominates live music: “It is time to break it up,” said then-attorney general Merrick Garland.

A week after the case went to trial in March, the DOJ agreed to a surprise settlement that did not require such a breakup. But dozens of states said that deal was insufficient, and instead pushed ahead with the trial, with the goal of splitting Ticketmaster from Live Nation.

On April 15, jurors handed Live Nation a total defeat — finding that the company had illegally monopolized the market for ticketing services and the use of amphitheaters, and that it had illegally tied the use of its venues to its concert promotion services.

Now, a month later, the states have made it official. In the terminology of antitrust law, they’re asking the judge to impose “structural remedies” that require Live Nation’s “divestiture” of Ticketmaster. “Plaintiffs are evaluating the scope of assets, contracts, personnel, and systems that would be necessary for a standalone Ticketmaster to effectively compete in the market for primary ticketing services,” the states wrote in seeking that order.

That’s not all the states want. They also asked the judge to force Live Nation to divest “a sufficient number” of large amphitheaters, as well as put limits or prohibitions on the company when it comes to acquiring such venues in the future. And they want “money damages for overcharges on ticketing fees paid by residents of the Plaintiff States” as well as the handover of “ill-gotten profits derived from ticketing fees” during the time of the “unlawful monopoly.”

A rep for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday. The company is expected to argue that the case can be resolved solely by the changes to its business practices previously agreed to with the DOJ, including limiting the use of exclusive contracts, without divesting Ticketmaster. “We remain confident that the ultimate outcome of the states’ case will not be materially different than what is envisioned by the DOJ settlement,” said Live Nation in a statement last month.

An updated version of the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday (May 20) with a wide coalition of music industry support, including from the three major music companies, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Recording Academy and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

The bill, which aims to establish federal rights around likeness for individuals portrayed in digital deepfakes, was first introduced in 2024. While it has maintained steadfast support within the music industry ever since, including a co-sign from country star Randy Travis last year, it has also increasingly gained the support of the tech giants. Last year, OpenAI, Google and IBM announced their support of the bill, and now, with this latest reintroduction, Spotify and Getty are signing on as well.

Some critics, however, have warned that such legislation is too aggressive and could hamper free speech. By granting people a broad new way to sue over the use of their likenesses on the internet — existing state laws are more limited, covering only commercial exploitation — opponents of previous versions of the NO FAKES Act have warned that it could force online platforms to self-censor and remove too much content out of fear of legal liability.

The bill’s authors say they’ve avoided those pitfalls with the latest version, which they say has “carefully calibrated exceptions” aimed at ensuring “open discourse,” including explicit carve-outs for news coverage, biopics and criticism. There is also protection from liability for libraries and similar organizations.

The other updates to the bill are to ensure that the enforcement mechanisms work for a wide variety of platforms — whether it’s a user-generated platform, like YouTube, or a more curated one, like Spotify. Now, the way disputes are processed and enforced will be tailored to what kind of platform the issue occurs on. For a site that relies on user-generated content, it offers a “safe harbor,” meaning the platform will not be held liable for a user’s deepfake upload to its site as long as it follows the rules and takes down the content when it’s alerted to it. The updated bill also now allows for challenges to incorrect takedown notices.

The goal of NO FAKES is to provide nationwide protection over one’s voice and likeness in the case of “digital replicas,” which include — but are not limited to — deepfakes created by artificial intelligence. This is an increasingly pressing issue for the music industry, as artists, including Taylor Swift — who recently applied for new trademarks on the sound of her voice, a move seemingly designed to combat deepfakes — face issues with the dissemination of images and songs that contain AI recreations of themselves.

Currently, artists’ only protection against AI deepfakes is from some states’ right of publicity laws, which vary widely in the level of protection they provide. Some states, like Tennessee, have updated their publicity rights laws to cover issues specific to the AI age, but many have not. NO FAKES’ proponents believe the bill could create a baseline level of protection for all citizens.

The NO FAKES Act was first introduced as a draft bill in 2023 and formally introduced to the Senate in the summer of 2024. Other music industry supporters include CAA, BMI, American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), Academy of Country Music, Human Artistry Campaign, Music Artists Coalition, American Federation of Musicians (AFM), ASCAP, SAG-AFTRA, SESAC, Songwriters of North America (SONA), Sound Exchange, Christian Music Trade Association, Folk Alliance International and more.

Additional reporting by Bill Donahue.

Snoop Dogg says in new court filings that his company was not in charge of the Los Angeles hip-hop festival where Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed in 2021.

The argument came in a series of Tuesday (May 19) motions that seek to throw out wrongful death claims brought against Snoop’s company, Snoop Dogg’s LLC (SDLLC), over Drakeo’s killing. The rapper (born Darrell Caldwell) died of stab wounds after being attacked by a large group backstage at the Once Upon a Time in LA festival in December 2021.

Drakeo’s family members later filed multiple negligence lawsuits alleging that various companies involved with Once Upon a Time in LA, including Live Nation and C3 Presents, were to blame for his death because they provided insufficient security at the event. Two of these lawsuits, brought by Drakeo’s mother and brother, claim SDLLC also holds some liability because it helped organize and promote the festival.

Snoop himself expressly denies this in his Tuesday declarations to the court. The rapper (Calvin Broadus Jr.), the controlling member of SDLLC, says in the filings that his company “had no role in management of the festival” and “did not supervise security personnel.”

Lawyers for SDLLC elaborate on this in accompanying legal memos, arguing that Snoop’s only written contract with Once Upon a Time in LA was a $500,000 performance agreement for the star’s one-hour set. According to the attorneys, that contract “does not require the artist to control the premises or manage the event.”

“The subject incident video itself confirms SDLLC’s lack of involvement,” read the memos. “The evidence shows that no employee, agent or representative of SDLLC was present at the backstage area at the time of the altercation.”

SDLLC is asking a judge to enter a summary judgment order permanently ending its involvement in the litigation. Lawyers for Drakeo’s mother and brother did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (May 20). They will likely respond to the summary judgment request in writing in the coming months.

If the allegations survive summary judgment, they’ll be part of a larger trial scheduled to begin this September on all the claims brought by Drakeo’s mother, brother and son over his death. In addition to SDLLC, the defendants include industry giant Live Nation and other concert promoters and security personnel from the festival. (Live Nation has denied any wrongdoing, saying Drakeo’s death was “unforeseeable.”)

The lawsuits also initially targeted the operators of BMO Stadium, which hosted parts of Once Upon a Time in LA. Judge James I. Montgomery threw out those claims earlier this month, however, ruling that Drakeo’s death occurred in a different section of the festival grounds not owned by the stadium.

Wiz Khalifa is a wanted man. The Pittsburgh rapper (born Cameron Jibril Thomaz) is listed on the website of the Romanian police, which states he has a warrant out for his arrest to complete a nine-month prison sentence.

Khalifa is wanted after being sentenced to nine months behind bars in December on illegal drug possession charges. The website lists the “warrant to execute a prison sentence” as the reasoning alongside the artist’s passport photo.

Translated to English, the website states that Khalifa was “sentenced to nine months in prison for committing the offense of possession of dangerous drugs without the right for personal consumption.”

When handing down the nine-month sentence, prosecutors alleged that Khalifa was smoking marijuana on stage during his July 2024 performance at the Beach, Please! Festival in Costinesti. Prosecutors also claimed he was found with more than 18 grams of marijuana.

Police allegedly stopped the Taylor Gang boss after seeing him smoking on stage while performing the Snoop Dogg-assisted hit “Young, Wild & Free,” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2011.

The 38-year-old posted an apology on X following the performance. “Last nights show was amazing. I didn’t mean any disrespect to the country of Romania by lighting up on stage,” he wrote at the time. “They were respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big ass joint next time.”

Last nights show was amazing. I didn’t mean any disrespect to the country of Romania by lighting up on stage. They were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big ass joint next time

— Wiz Khalifa (@wizkhalifa) July 14, 2024

Wiz was originally slapped with an $830 fine by a lower court, but Romanian prosecutors sought out a harsher sentence. He was then sentenced to the nine months behind bars, which was determined to be a final ruling.

It appears, as of press time, Khalifa failed to report to serve his sentence. The Pittsburgh native is currently on mgk’s Lost Americana tour, which kicked off Friday (May 15) and is trekking through North America. Wiz and mgk are also teaming up to drop their nostalgic Blog Era Boyz joint project on Friday (May 22).

Billboard has reached out to Khalifa’s reps and the Romanian police for comment.

Apple Music said it’s aiming to combat AI-generated content and shared that the service has updated its music style guide to address AI in a memo to partners obtained by Billboard.

“While AI is an incredibly exciting opportunity that promises to further that goal, we believe that technology should amplify artists, not replace them,” states the memo, sent on Wednesday (May 20).

Within the memo, Apple Music claimed that AI-platform-generated content made up less than 1% of all plays each week on Apple Music, and that 65% of AI-platform-generated tracks had yet to receive a single play.

The service also claims that it has developed its own internal technology used to identify AI-generated content, and that if an AI song is utilizing streaming manipulation it will automatically be removed from the platform. Apple Music vp Oliver Schusser mentioned the technology when he sat down with Billboard on the Record last month.

“We’ve developed technology in-house that would allow us to exactly see what music people are delivering us, and what AI [model] it is and all that,” Schusser told Billboard’s Kristin Robinson at the time.

Apple Music also shared that its Music Style Guide has been updated to address AI. “In February, we explicitly prohibited the use of AI in a misleading manner, evolving our long-standing policies against impersonation, spam and content that creates customer confusion,” the memo continues. “We also work to further minimize the impact of spam-like behavior, including repeated submissions and repetitious tracks, through careful curation of our content delivery processes.”

Apple Music also says content providers are asked to include information about AI-generated content. “Top distributors have started supplying this information where appropriate, and it will be required of all providers in the future,” it added in the memo. “We believe labels and distributors must take an active role in shaping the industry-wide policies around AI, and that starts with delivering AI content in a more transparent way.”

Apple Music introduced tagging for AI songs in March, requiring record labels and music distributors to disclose AI use in what are called “Transparency Tags” for artwork, tracks, compositions and music videos.

Since 2022, Apple Music has penalized streaming fraud, and the service doubled down on its penalties in February. In the memo, it claims it’s excluded more than 2 billion manipulated streams and returned those royalties to its payout pool: “Stream manipulation remains below 0.5% on Apple Music, which is among the lowest rates in the industry,” the service adds.

Shamrock Capital, best known for being the firm that sold Taylor Swift her early masters, said on Wednesday (May 20) it closed a fourth fund with more than $810 million in capital committed by investors and its general partner.

The Los Angeles-based investment firm said this is its fourth fund within its content strategy, which launched in 2015 and now handles 3.3 billion in assets under management across equity and debt products. The strategy has invested across film, TV, music, video games and sports rights, including in the assets of Metro Boomin and Dr. Dre.

“For more than a decade, we have invested in content and media rights, and this fundraise reflects the depth of the expertise and platform we have built at Shamrock,” said Patrick Russo, partner and member of Shamrock’s executive committee. “As content becomes more global, more valuable, and more complex to finance, we believe the need for sophisticated, long-term capital partners has never been greater. We have built our strategy to meet that need for content creators and rights-holders worldwide.”

The company said the fund was oversubscribed, having initially targeted $700 million, with commitments coming from pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices, insurance companies and other institutional investors from the United States, Europe and Asia.

Shamrock was established as the family office for Roy E. Disney around 50 years ago The firm now says it has approximately $7.4 billion in assets under management as of May 11.

“The most valuable content assets are the ones that fans return to across generations, regardless of where or how they consume them,” said Jason Sklar, partner and executive committee member at Shamrock. “We are long-term investors, and the trust we have earned alongside artists, creators, and rights holders is the foundation of everything we do.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Shamrock Capital. No placement agent was used in connection with the fundraising process.