Britney Spears was formally charged with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol on Thursday (April 30). According to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, the charge is a misdemeanor

Per the court docket viewed by Billboard, Spears is due back in court for an arraignment on Monday (May 4), where she’ll enter a plea. The complaint doesn’t specify how much or what drugs or alcohol the pop star was under the influence of at the time of her arrest on March 4.

Spears was released on her own recognizance on March 5, meaning there was no bail amount attached to her charge.

Billboard has reached out to Spears’ reps for comment.

The “Toxic” singer was arrested on suspicion of DUI on March 4 around 9:28 p.m. PT in Ventura County, Calif., and released from custody the following morning.

“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” a rep for Spears told Billboard following her arrest. “Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law, and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life. Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time.”

The statement continued: “Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for well-being.”

Britney Spears broke her silence and returned to Instagram on March 27, where she thanked her fans for their support following the arrest.

“Thank you guys for all your support,” she wrote in a video clip that showed her dancing alongside her 19-year-old son, Jayden Federline. “Spending time with family and friends is such a blessing. Stay kind !!!”

A rep for Spears confirmed to Billboard on April 12 that the singer checked herself into a treatment facility. No additional details were provided about the specifics of the program or her stay.

Believe’s Label & Artist Solutions is now open for business in the United States.

Music industry veteran Thomas Maxwell will lead the new activities as vice president U.S., Label & Artist Solutions (LAS), Believe, reporting to the company’s global head of music, Romain Vivien.

Going forward, Maxwell will sign and develop partnerships with independent labels, and expand the independent music specialist’s presence in the U.S., the world’s No. 1 recorded music market. He’ll split time between New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles while “scaling the company’s U.S. operations and cementing Believe as a premier partner for growth-minded independent music companies in the region,” reads a statement.

Previously, Maxwell served in multiple positions at IDOL, where he opened and established the first U.S. office for the Paris-based indie distributor, and led signings including Mexican Summer, Young Art, The Ray Charles Foundation, HighNote Records, Old Soul Music, Roundhill, and Acrophase Records. During his time with IDOL, he worked on key releases from artists including Erick the Architect, Ginger Root, TOKiMONSTA, Cate Le Bon, Channel Tres, Yaeji, George Clanton, and Drugdealer.

Also, Maxwell has spoken at conferences and events including SXSW, Indie Week and Music Biz and is said to maintain strong relationships across the streaming and label ecosystem.

“For 20 years,” Vivien comments in a statement, “Believe has succeeded by supporting local music ecosystems and developing labels and artists in nearly every major music market around the world. Thomas’ expertise and connections make him the ideal candidate to lead Believe’s expansion into the largest music market in the world, the United States, and to scale our business to support local artists and labels throughout the region.”

Adds Maxwell: “I’m incredibly excited to be joining Believe at such a dynamic moment for the company and the independent sector. Throughout my career, I’ve focused on helping independent labels and artists navigate an increasingly complex digital ecosystem and build sustainable businesses. Believe’s global scale, technology, and artist-first approach uniquely position the company to support the next generation of independent success, and I’m thrilled to help expand those opportunities in the U.S.”

Believe has long held ambitions for the United States. In 2023, Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie told Billboard he was eying the U.S. Then, in 2025, the Paris-based business revealed it was ready to expand its artist and label services. “We’re building teams in 50 countries, and we’re going to build more in other countries, starting with the U.S. this year,” Vivien said at the time.

Founded in 2005 by Ladegaillerie, a former Vivendi executive, Believe has done impressive business by focusing on large European markets, and developing markets globally, including Asia, where the company first established a presence in 2013 (when it was known as Believe Digital).

From 2020 to 2024, Believe’s revenue rose 124% to 988.8 million euros ($1.05 billion) through organic growth and a mix of acquisitions and investments. The Americas, however, accounted for only 15% of Believe’s revenue in 2024, well behind Asia/Oceania/Africa’s 24% and Europe’s 61%, according to the company’s earnings report. Much of that Americas revenue came from U.S.-based digital distributor TuneCore, acquired by Believe in 2015.

Boasting a digital-first mindset, the business’s global portfolio includes German record labels Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack; French label PlayTwo; and Doğan Music Company, Turkey’s largest independent record label.

In 2023, the company moved into publishing by acquiring U.K.-based Sentric Music Group, which represented more than four million songs and over 400,000 songwriters in more than 200 territories at the time of the deal. From that deal, valued at €47 million ($51 million), Believe launched Believe Music Publishing two years later, in 2025.

01:04

03:42

In 2023, Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie told Billboard he was eying the U.S. Two years later, the Paris-based company is ready to expand its artist and label services business to the world’s largest music market. 
“We’re building teams in 50 countries, and we’re going to build more in other countries, starting with the U.S. this year,” says Romain Vivien, global head of music/president for Europe. In fact, Believe is currently hiring a Los Angeles-based vp of labels and artist solutions for the U.S. who can “grow, scale and motivate high output teams,” according to the job posting.
Related

Believe Makes Bid for Remaining Public Shares a Year After Going Private
Glenn Peoples

Founded in 2005 by Ladegaillerie, Believe has done brisk business by focusing on large European markets and developing markets globally. From 2020 to 2024, Believe’s revenue rose 124% to 988.8 million euros ($1.05 billion) through organic growth and a mix of acquisitions and investments. Its portfolio includes German record labels Nuclear Blast and Groove Attack; French label PlayTwo; and Doğan Music Company, Turkey’s largest independent record label. In 2023, the company moved into publishing by acquiring U.K.-based Sentric Music Group for $51 million, and in 2025,

Believe Music Publishing launches more than two years after Believe acquired U.K.-based publisher Sentric Music Group, which represented more than four million songs and over 400,000 songwriters in more than 200 territories at the time of the deal. Believe bought Sentric from Utopia Music in a transaction that valued it at €47 million ($51 million)

ElevenLabs has launched a newly revamped iteration of ElevenMusic, its AI-powered music platform. Through it, fans can stream, create and remix music, turning them from “passive listeners into active participants,” according to a blog post. This follows the August 2025 launch of ElevenMusic’s original AI music model under the same name, which allowed users to create AI music from written prompts and to use those songs specifically for commercial purposes.

As of Wednesday (April 29), users of ElevenMusic can either make fully new songs — prompting first from a lyric, melody or mood to get an AI-generated song — or remix existing songs’ genres or tempos to make them their own. In a press release about the revamped service, ElevenMusic touts itself as “fully licensed” and “artist-first by design.”

This marks what appears to be a significant shift in ElevenMusic’s business plan. Originally, in August 2025, ElevenMusic announced licensing deals with Kobalt and Merlin (as well as synchronization licensing platform SourceAudio), and it was explained then that this would be a platform for users to create music for commercial purposes.

In an email to Kobalt signees after the 2025 ElevenMusic deal, obtained by Billboard, “the basic concept” of the new ElevenMusic model was described as a way “to help power a scalable, AI-driven production music library that creates custom audio for studios, brands and creators. It’s not meant to replace traditional uses of [one’s] repertoire, but to add value alongside them.” Use cases for the Eleven Music model were listed as “background music for brands, agencies and studios,” “novelty songs” and “UGC-safe content for social platforms.”

The newly launched ElevenMusic service is now chasing the everyday music fan as opposed to professional clients who are looking for production library music. ElevenMusic now touts itself as a “fan engagement layer, creating a place where artists can involve fans in the creative process,” while allowing its users to move “beyond tactic catalogs toward a more adaptive and participatory mode.”

At the time of its launch, the newly reintroduced ElevenMusic features about 4,000 human artists on the platform — mostly emerging acts — whose music can be streamed or remixed by users. It also features the two volumes of its self-assembled The Eleven Album series, which showcases AI-assisted music made alongside participating artists. Artists featured in the volumes include Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, “BBL Drizzy” creator King Willonius, The Danger Twins and Justin Love.

The Wednesday press release about ElevenMusic notes that it gives users a “direct path to monetization while enabling fans to actively participate in the music itself,” but it does not provide details on how that compensation works. However, previous Billboard reporting on the original launch in August 2025 revealed more details on how artists and music companies would be paid.

An email to Kobalt signees at the time about the publisher’s deal with ElevenMusic noted that participants would receive a “pro-rata share of a royalty pool based on how many of [the artist/songwriters’] works were used to train the [Eleven Music] model relative to others.” A source close to the deal also explained that this meant participating artists/writers would receive royalties relative to how many songs they represented in the overall dataset.

The results would then be “weighted using digital proxies,” which the source noted meant that royalty payouts wouldn’t just take into account how many songs one had in the dataset but also the popularity of those songs, determined by looking at their metrics on other digital platforms. The source declined to specify exactly what Kobalt’s “digital proxies” were. It is unclear if the new changes to the platform will impact this payment structure. (Less is known about the nature of Merlin’s deal with ElevenMusic.)

“We’re building with the artist and songwriter communities, not around them,” said Derek Cournoyer, music strategy lead at ElevenLabs, about the launch. “Everything about ElevenMusic, from our fully licensed music model to our commercial approach, is designed with that principle at heart. We’re excited to give fans a more active way to experience the music they love, and create a new gateway into DJing.”

Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler has won a court ruling dismissing much of a lawsuit from a woman who says he sexually assaulted her as a minor.

Julia Misley claims the rocker “groomed” and “manipulated” her as a teenager decades ago — and that he essentially admitted it by referring to her as his almost “teen bride” in a memoir.

But in a ruling Tuesday (April 28), a Los Angeles judge said that much of the decades-delayed lawsuit was barred by the statute of limitations in Massachusetts, where the pair lived during their three-year relationship.

Judge Patricia A. Young ruled that Misley can sue over an alleged sexual encounter during a brief trip to California — where such time limits do not apply thanks to a special sexual abuse law — but dismissed her accusations over the rest of their relationship.

“This is a massive win for Steven Tyler,” said his lawyer, David Long-Daniels, in a statement. “Today, the Court has dismissed with prejudice 99.9% of the claims against Mr. Tyler in this case. The court has decided that only one night, fifty-plus years ago, out of a three year relationship is allowed to remain. We look forward to trying this case on August 31.”

An attorney for Misley did not immediately return a request for comment.

Misley (formerly Holcomb) sued Tyler in 2022, claiming she was the unnamed teenager he referred to in his memoir. She says he abused his fame to win control over her — including signing an agreement with her parents to take legal guardianship — and sexually assaulted her for three years starting in 1973, when she was just 16 years old.

In efforts to dismiss the case, Tyler hasn’t denied the basic facts. But his lawyers have characterized the pairing as a consensual “romantic relationship” between a man “in his mid-twenties at the time” and a woman “between the ages of 16 and 19” — arguing that it was legal under the age of consent.

In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Young said that was likely true when it came to Massachusetts — a state where she noted that the age of consent “is, and was at all relevant times, 16.” But even if those claims were valid, the judge said the case had been filed far too late under that state’s statute of limitations.

“Plaintiff’s suit was filed more than 35 years after the alleged acts and more than 35 years after she turned 18,” Judge Young wrote. “To be timely, this suit must have been filed within seven years.”

Those same time restrictions do not apply in California, thanks to that state’s Child Victims Act — a 2020 statute that opened a special “lookback window” in which alleged victims could bring lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. The age of consent in the state was also 18 at the time of Tyler and Misley’s relationship.

“The parties travelled to California on one occasion and engaged in sexual relations here during that trip,” the judge wrote. “The age of consent in California is, and was at all relevant times, 18. Thus, it was against the law for plaintiff and defendant to engage in sexual relations with each other in California because plaintiff was legally incapable of consenting.”

The judge also dismissed accusations relating to conduct in Washington and Oregon, where the pair also briefly traveled, for the same statute-of-limitations reasons.

Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said on Tuesday (April 29) in an earnings call that the company’s board had approved the sale of half of UMG’s equity stake in Spotify, and that a portion of the proceeds will go to UMG artists.

But none of that was accidental, as UMG artist Taylor Swift sings in “Mastermind.” In March 2018, UMG pledged to give artists a share in any future Spotify divestment, following similar commitments from Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group. Seven months later, when Swift announced she was leaving her longtime label home, Big Machine, to join UMG’s Republic Records in November 2018, she said she negotiated a clause in her contract specifying that any such payout could not be clawed back.

In announcing the deal on Instagram, the “Shake It Off” singer wrote, “As part of my new contract with Universal Music Group, I asked that any sale of their Spotify shares result in a distribution of money to their artists, non-recoupable. They have generously agreed to this, at what they believe will be much better terms than paid out previously than other major labels.”

At the time, that distinction — recoupable or non-recoupable — was at the heart of an industry conversation around labels sharing divestiture revenue with artists. When Warner and Sony first announced in 2016 that they would share any profits from a sale of a stake in the streaming service with artists, there were concerns that any money earmarked for creators would be applied to outstanding advances, and that many artists would not actually receive these proceeds. Warner and Sony later clarified that they would structure payouts to artists according to their record contract terms; Sony said specifically it would not factor in recoupable balances. Two years later, when UMG said it would also share this income with artists, the company did not specify whether it would factor in recoupment — until Swift’s deal was announced in November.

That could be a big boon for many artists, including those who still owe back advances to the labels that initially signed them. While there is no data on how many artists have outstanding balances on the books (record contracts are generally private), Warner Music said in 2023 that a program it instituted to wipe out unrecouped balances for legacy artists had benefited some 4,500 artists in its first year of implementation. Sony, which was first among the majors to do so in 2021, and Universal also announced similar initiatives, while Beggars Group had also done so a few years before. In 2022, Sony said it had paid “millions” to “thousands” of artists through its program, and that it was expanding it to incorporate more of its roster.

How much individual artists stand to earn is not known. The decision by UMG’s board to sell half of its Spotify stake follows UMG investor Pershing Square’s suggestion that the company make this divestment in a non-binding offer Pershing made for the company on April 7.

In a letter to UMG’s board proposing a merger with its Pershing Square SPARC Holdings, Pershing founder Bill Ackman estimated UMG’s share in Spotify to be worth 2.7 billion euros ($3.1 billion), and said that if his offer were approved, Pershing would sell the stake and give 750 million euros ($865.4 million) to artists and use the remaining 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) of net proceeds after taxes to fund the transaction.

Now that UMG plans to sell half its stake — it has not sold any as of yet, the company confirms — that could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to artists. UMG said in a statement on Wednesday (April 29) it would pay out part of the proceeds from the divestiture in accordance with artists’ contracts. “Consistent with the company’s approach to artist compensation, artists will share in the proceeds,” the release stated. “UMG’s share will initially be directed towards its buyback program.”

Grainge announced the board’s approval for the partial divestiture during the company’s first-quarter earnings presentation alongside a doubling of the label’s share buyback program. A representative of UMG declined to comment further.

Additional reporting by Dan Rys.

Chris Brown is urging a judge to bar any reference to his infamous 2009 domestic assault of Rihanna during an upcoming trial over his housekeeper’s dog bite injuries.

Trial is slated to begin this June in the case brought by Maria Avila, who claims Brown’s 200-pound dog Hades “viciously and brutally mauled” her while she was cleaning the R&B star’s Los Angeles-area house in 2020. Avila is seeking financial damages from Brown, who denies any liability for the alleged incident.

With the trial fast approaching, lawyers for the two sides are now debating what evidence will be admissible for the jury to hear. Brown’s attorneys want the judge to exclude any references to the singer’s domestic violence record, including his felony plea for notoriously assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.

“Allowing the jury to hear of these domestic violence incidents at trial would encourage the jury to decide the case based on character or emotion, rather than the facts and applicable law,” wrote attorneys Michael Schonbuch and Abigail Morelli in a pretrial motion this past January.

Brown’s lawyers similarly asked the judge to bar any mention of his pending U.K. criminal case for allegedly assaulting a music producer with a bottle at a London nightclub. They argued that referencing these charges, which Brown denies, would “invite jurors to draw improper character inferences and view the defendant as a criminal or otherwise morally blameworthy.”

Avila’s attorney, Nancy Doumanian, countered in a Monday (April 27) response filing that Brown’s motions should be rejected as “overbroad, premature and legally unsound.” Doumanian said it’s too soon to say whether evidence of Brown’s criminal record will be relevant at the trial. Such evidence might be appropriate material for cross-examination, she argued, “if defendants or their witnesses testify in a manner that portrays defendant as law-abiding or non-threatening.”

A judge is set to rule on the pretrial motions at a final hearing on June 5. The trial is then slated to begin on June 15.

Reps for Avila, Brown and Rihanna did not immediately return requests for comment on the matter on Tuesday (April 28).

Avila’s lawsuit, in which she is joined by her husband and her sister, alleges she was taking out the trash at Brown’s Tarzana home when Hades, the dog, attacked her out of nowhere and began “ripping off large chunks of her skin.” She claims Brown saw what happened and fled the scene with Hades, leaving her “alone and bleeding profusely.”

According to Avila, Brown is to blame because he should have known that this breed of dog, known as the Caucasian shepherd, had a propensity for unprovoked violence. She now wants the star to pay for her “permanent and debilitating injuries,” including facial disfigurement, scarring, vision loss and nerve damage.

A man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and plotting to attack one of superstar singer Taylor Swift’s concerts in Vienna nearly two years ago pleaded guilty as his trial began on Tuesday, his lawyer said.

The plot was thwarted, but Austrian authorities still canceled Swift’s three performances in August 2024. The singer’s fans, known as Swifties, who had flown to Austria from across the globe to attend a performance of her record-setting Eras Tour were devastated, but rallied to turn Vienna into a citywide trading post for friendship bracelets and singalongs.

The defendant, a 21-year-old Austrian citizen known only as Beran A. in line with Austrian privacy rules, faced charges including terrorist offenses and membership in a terrorist organization. He could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, and has been in custody since August 2024.

The Vienna plot drew comparisons to a 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Defendant regrets his actions

Anna Mair, his defense attorney, said her client pleaded guilty to the charges related to the concert plot.

“Of course, he deeply regrets it all,” Mair said outside the court, adding that “he says it was the biggest mistake of his life.”

Austrian media reported that he also pleaded guilty to being a member of a terrorist organization.

Beran A. is facing trial alongside Arda K., whose full name also has not been made public. They, along with a third man, planned to carry out simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates during Ramadan in 2024 in the name of the Islamic State group. Beran A. and Arda K. never carried out their attacks.

Only Beran A. was charged in connection with the concert plot. He pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the plot for simultaneous attacks.

He allegedly planned to target onlookers gathered outside Ernst Happel Stadium — up to 30,000 each night, with another 65,000 inside the venue — with knives or homemade explosives. The suspect hoped to “kill as many people as possible,” authorities said in 2024. The U.S. provided intelligence that fed into the decision to cancel the concerts.

Beran A. also allegedly networked with other members of the Islamic State group ahead of the planned attack. Prosecutors say they discussed purchasing weapons and making bombs, and that the defendant also sought to illegally buy weapons in the days ahead of the performance. In addition, he swore allegiance to the militant group.

Authorities searched his apartment on Aug. 7, 2024, and found bomb-making materials. The concerts were scheduled to begin the next day.

“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating,” Swift wrote in a statement posted to Instagram two weeks later. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

A representative for Swift did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Wiener Neustadt, about an hour south of Vienna. The proceedings are set to continue May 12.

Three attacks planned in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE

Prosecutors have also filed terrorism-related charges against Arda K. in the trial in connection with the plan for simultaneous attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The third man in that plot, Hasan E., allegedly stabbed a security guard with a knife at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on March 11, 2024. He was arrested and remains in pretrial detention in Saudi Arabia, Austrian prosecutors said.

Beran A. and Arda K. did not carry out their plans in Turkey and the UAE. Beran A. returned to Vienna and then allegedly began plotting to attack a Swift concert there.

This story was first published by The Associated Press.

Across the United States some of the music industry’s legacy indie stores have been reporting their best day ever thanks to this year’s Record Store Day (RSD 2026) release line-up. As usual, Retail Track implemented the annual RSD store crawl on Saturday (April 18), visiting 10 stores that day to witness first-hand how RSD was performing. 

But unlike past years when Retail Track started further afield — in Poughkeepsie one year, in Patchogue another, and once in South Jersey — and stop by stores on the way back to New York City, this year the Crawl consisted of visiting stores in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, with the road trip culminating, as it usually does, at Rough Trade in Rockefeller Center for its annual Indie Plaza event.

Retail Track began the day a little before 7:30 a.m. in my hometown of Astoria, Queens, with a visit to Pancakes Records on Steinway Street. There were already 60 people in line before the store’s scheduled 8 a.m. opening, including Kyle, who arrived first at 1 a.m. He said he was hoping to buy Laufey’s A Matter Of Time: Live at Madison Square Garden and Pink Pantheress’ Girl Like Me. Second in line was Jose, who got there at 2:30 a.m., whose coveted record list included Paramore’s All We Know Is Falling (Deluxe), Carly Rae Jepsen’s 7-inch “Disco Darling” and Dijon’s How Do You Feel About Getting Married.

Retail Track didn’t wait for Pancakes Records to open. Instead, he hopped into his jalopy at 7:40 a.m. and took off for Vinyl Veritas — which opened its flagship location in 2024 — to see how long the Brooklyn store’s line was ahead of its scheduled 8 a.m. opening. It was the only other store on the Crawl list scheduled to open that early, and — with Google Maps promising it was only nine miles and 19 minutes away — there was just enough time. However, an overturned car on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) stymied that plan and Betsy III — Retail Track’s 2000 Buick LeSabre — didn’t turn onto Front Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo until 8:30 a.m. Nevertheless, there was still a line of customers about 50 people long, suggesting the queue was even longer when the store opened.  

Rather than get my ass kicked by trying to jump the line, Retail Track figured it was safer to interview Vinyl Veritas owner Will Grandberg, via phone later. He reported two people were in line the midnight before RSD, with a third arriving at 3:45 a.m. on Saturday. By the time he got to the store at 5 a.m., he says there were about a dozen people waiting.

The store hosts two locations in the same building, including a street-level store on Front Street, and another on the seventh floor. On the seventh floor, customers received refreshments and discount offers (as well as a few giveaways) while four DJs continued to spin throughout the day— all livestreamed on Vinyl Veritas’ Instagram account. Grandberg declared it their best day ever since opening their doors in January 2024, with the Grateful Dead set being their top-seller for the day. Although, Grandberg shared, he wished the store had more inventory of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Disco Darling” single. 

Retail Track then made his way to 5th Avenue Records in Park Slope, which the internet claims is open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, but by 9:05 a.m., there wasn’t any line. Since there was a parking spot out front and the next group of stores on the crawl list wouldn’t open until 10 a.m., Retail Track decided to investigate. Across the street was Smith’s Tavern, a splendid dive establishment which was already open and had an impressive 10 customers. Since Retail Track was driving, it seemed wise to forego asking for the usual can of PBR or Budweiser, and instead requested a Diet Coke, which subsequently turned out to be the worst Diet Coke ever. Regardless, Retail Track persisted in his informational quest, and queries to the customers and bartender yielded information that the store had been closed for some time. But, customers said, every once in a while, the store would seemingly open for a day or two before once again shuttering for weeks on end. 

Next up, Retail Track drove to nearby Psychic Records, also in Park Slope, and, by 9:30 a.m., saw a line of about 15 people waiting ahead of the store’s 11 a.m. opening. Henry was first in line, and was looking to buy the Stax B-sides record and Ray Charles Live set. Peyton was second in line — even though, she claimed to have been the first to arrive at 7 a.m. However, she says she had gone across the street for a coffee, thus losing her spot to Henry. But not to worry, her desired RSD titles were different than Henry’s as she was looking for Taylor Swift and Steely Dan records and some jazz records for her dad. Peyton told Retail Track she chose to shop at Psychic for RSD because researched and heard people don’t line up at the store as early as they do at other participating places. 

Retail Track left before the store opened, but spoke to Psychic Records owner Chris Lentz via phone on Sunday, who said his store’s big seller was Sonic Youth’s Diamond Seas. He also said that he sold many copies of the Springsteen album and a few Pink Floyd albums. Lentz also admitted that he wished he had more copies of the RSD pop records like Charli xcx and Jepsen. Overall, he says the store has a wide customer base, so he carries everything for Taylor Swift to Throbbing Gristle. 

For the last stop in the Park Slope segment of the RSD crawl, Retail Track headed to Sterling Records, arriving at 9:58 a.m. According to the internet, the store usually opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday. But, in celebration of the RSD festivities, the store opened earlier than expected, at 9:15 a.m. Sterling Records owner Gary Giddens reported to Retail Track that there were about 30 people in line when he opened the store. A perusal of the inventory showed that at a little after 10 a.m., the store still had plenty of copies of The Cure, Pink Floyd and Jeff Buckley RSD releases, but Sterling noted he could have used more of the Bruce Springsteen Live From Asbury Park 2024 boxset.  

After Retail Track left, Giddens called to report the Buckley and Pink Floyd and Cure titles had sold out by noon. Other titles that did well were Olivia Dean’s “BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge,” the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and Ariana Grande/Cynthia Erivo Wicked: One Wonderful Night (Live) titles, he said. 

Sterling Records was a fairly new two-year old store. Giddens, who is 69, told Retail Track he got the urge to open a record store. “I have never been a very smart person but wanted to do something that makes me happy,” he said. “And I am friends with Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yahoo, and Erasure) and was talking to him and said aloud that I wanted to open a record store; and Clarke said ‘I’m in.’” Clarke serves as an investor for the store.

Retail Track opted to browse Sterling Records for his own purchases, taking home the Lunachicks’ We Can Be Worster, Stax Killer B’s, The Westbound Sound: Single Minded and the non-RSD title, Cramps’ Bad Music For Bad People.

Since it was still early and most other stores on Retail Track’s crawl list weren’t opening until noon, a trek to VP Records in Jamaica Queens, which opened at 10 a.m., seemed like the next logical store to visit. VP Records Retail is a unit of Jamaican-born record label and music company. The company was founded by husband and wife Vincent “Randy” and Pat Chin.

The store’s website claims that VP Records is the largest indie reggae label in the world. Throughout the years, they’ve put out releases from artists including Yellowman, Lee Scratch Perry, Gregory Isaacs, Buju Banton, Maxi Priest, Beenie Man, Shaggy and Sly & Robbie. Like the label, the store on Jamaica Avenue is mainly dedicated to dance hall, reggae and all its sub-genres, but the store also carries a mix of R&B and soul.

When Retail Track arrived at VP Records at 11 a.m., there was a beehive of activity in the parking lot next to the store. Store manager Rashan Mykoo reported that the RSD Festivities would begin at noon, with merch tables and four DJs scheduled to entertain during the day. Recording artist I Wayne was also due to make an appearance to help sell merchandise, sign autographs, and take photos with fans. The vinyl showcase featured “legendary sound system King Addies, alongside Massive B, DJ Proud, and DJ Anthony, with hosting duties were led by Killa Boo and sound powered by Next Level Sound,” according to a subsequent press release. After I Wayne performed, Buju Banton surprised guests with an appearance.

“Presenting the sound systems each year has been a great way to connect with the community and today will be well remembered,” Chris Chin, CEO of VP Records, said in a statement.  

Meanwhile, inside the store, featured RSD titles included the Bruno Mars “Collaboration,” Elton John “The Remixes,” the Ariana Grande/Cynthia Erivo Wicked: One Wonderful Light (Live), The Soundtrack, the Taylor Swift “Elizabeth Taylor” 7-inch single; and Ziggy Marley’s Brightside. Besides official RSD titles, the store’s own highlighted selections were Jackie Mittoo’s “The Myestro — In Cold Blood,” Congo Ashanty’s “Congo,” Ziggy Marley albums and Randy’s 50th Anniversary Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, the latter compilation titles named for the company’s late co-founder, Mr. Chin. 

While the store still had the Bruno Mars title in stock when Retail Track arrived, Mykoo said every copy of the Taylor Swift single had been bought up by a woman who had arrived in time for the store’s opening. As it was, Retail Track scored the RSD title Skeeter Davis’ “The End of The World: Navy Hoedown Sessions,” quipping the store’s buyer must have purchased the title by mistake. Instead of sticking around for the party to begin next door in the parking lot, Retail Track headed back to Brooklyn for the next RSD stop on his list, but first he went to grab some sustenance, i.e. lunch.

By 1 p.m., Retail Track pulled up to Octopus Records for the Bushwick leg of his crawl. Store owner Nigel Filson reported he had about 20 people waiting when he opened at 11 a.m., with the first bunch of arrivals rewarded with cupcakes. The big sellers during the day at that point had been the Pink Pantheress and Charlie xcx titles, while store associate Celine Mancuri noted that Cam’ron’s “Killer Season” was also popular. Filson also acknowledged that some customers were asking for the Taylor Swift record, “Which I didn’t carry.”  

At Octopus Records, Retail Track scored RSD titles Power Pop! American Power Pop for the Now Generation: 1977-1981, Teenage Fanclub & Jad Fair’s Words of Wisdom and Hope and the Misfits Famous Monsters. 

Next up was the nearby Rebel Rouser, which didn’t participate in Record Store Day because, in the words of sales associate William Martin, “We don’t do corporate discs.”

Rebel Rouser primarily carries used records and is in a long shed in an alley off Broadway, in Bushwick, about a mile from the Williamsburg Bridge. It has a huge selection of punk, glam rock, power pop, new wave, garage rock and old soul music, both albums and 7-inch singles, as well as many old classic rock magazines and fan zines. The only new product it carries are largely local indie band releases. 

“Our idea of record store day is loading up on local indie bands and selling vinyl LPs at 25% off,” Marten said. 

At Rebel Rouser Retail Track bought The Charly Black Music Sampler, two Millie Jackson albums: E.S.P. (Extra Sexual Persuasion) and Get It Out’cha System, Candi Staton’s eponymously named album, Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “I’m on the Outside (Looking In)” and Johnny Thunder’s “Loop De Loop.” 

Finally, Retail Track arrived at what would be the last Brooklyn record store stop of the day at Superior Elevation Records, also located in Bushwick. The used record store caters to the DJ and the dance music crowd, carrying electronica, house, disco and soul music; sales associate Alex Feldherr says the store and even has a school for DJs. Despite the store not participating in Record Store Day, Feldherr shared that business on the day was good.

“That’s because “we get everybody who is tired of waiting on lines,” he told Retail Track. At Superior Elevation Retail Track bought two Laura Lee albums, Women’s Love Rights and her eponymously named album; and an album from 100 Proof (Aged In Soul).  

Around the same time, elsewhere in Brooklyn, Billboard’s executive digital editor, east coast, Joe Lynch served as a Retail Track deputy for the day and visited the Record Grouch and the Academy Records Annex, both in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint. 

After participating in Record Store Day celebrations for several years, Record Grouch in Greenpoint chose to opt out of the vinyl holiday the last few years. But even without a trove of exclusives on offer, the highly curated store of reasonably priced rarities and obscurities was packed on Saturday afternoon. Walking past an 8.5 x 11-inch piece of paper proudly proclaiming, “THIS IS NOT A RECORD STORE DAY CELEBRATION,” patrons browsed the stacks while an assortment of local and indie artists performed in the small space. The Retail Track Brooklyn deputy caught a punishing but impressive experimental set from Outdoor Horse Shrine (one of five artists playing Record Grouch that day) while picking up used copies of Jobriath’s second album, the soundtrack to Forbidden Zone by Oingo Boingo and a single by ANOHNI and the Johnsons. 

Moving toward Williamsburg, but still in Greenpoint, the Academy Records Annex was also doing banger business despite opting out of the official celebration. Patrons munched on free Peter Pan donuts while browsing the store’s extensive, eclectic collection of new and used vinyl (and if you wanted to enjoy the fabulous weather, 40-some boxes of music were out on the curb). Academy Records owner Cory Feierman says he stopped participating three years ago — not just because it was becoming too corporate, but for business reasons. 

“I might make $20,000 in a day, but I spent $13,000 to get there, and I’m left with a bunch of product that won’t move,” he tells Retail Track’s Brooklyn deputy. In his eyes, the early years of RSD included “warranted” reissues of rarities, but the recent glut of RSD exclusives are much less interesting to him and his shoppers. Retail Track picked up a clear-vinyl copy of Rosalía’s Lux (which he notes is about as mainstream as the store’s product gets) as well as used copies of Isaac Hayes’ Shaft soundtrack plus Eartha Kitt’s 1955 album Down to Eartha. 

For the last stop of the day before heading into Manhattan for the annual Rough Trade Indie Plaza RSD celebration, Retail Track returned to his hometown of Astoria to re-visit Pancake Records and see how it was doing since opening, arriving there at 3:30 p.m. (Before joining Billboard, Retail Tracked worked in three record stores on the same block on Steinway Street— Words ’n’ Music, Record Scene/Record Spectacular and Sound City — in the 1970’s and 1980s.)

Pancakes Records co-owner Tanya Gorbunova reported that the big sellers were John Frusciante’s “To Only Record Water For Ten Days;” Ethel Cain’s Inbred, and Hemlock Springs going…going…GONE! Meanwhile she said the Springsteen and Pink Floyd titles were slow movers on RSD, but she wasn’t worried about the latter, “because Pink Floyd fans are known for sleeping in.”  

For RSD, the store was offering customers a selection of CDs for only 50 cents, as well as 10% off used records. Overall, she said the store’s customer base was a cross between the “pop echo chamber, but still have people looking for niche stuff.”  

For the last purchase of the day, at Pancakes Records, Retail Track scored Robert Plant’s Savin Grace All that Glitters with Suzi Dian.  

Alas, the day unfortunately ended without Retail Track scoring the four RSD titles was still looking for: Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, Bob Brady and the Con Chords, Bruce Kulick’s Transformer, and T. Rex’s Songs from ‘Marc.’

Joe Lynch provided assistance in preparing this story. 

Spotify beat guidance for monthly active users in the first quarter, as the number of consumers on the streaming giant’s ad-supported tier rose by double-digits, helping the streaming giant meet its revenue target despite a 5% decline in ad-supported revenue.

Spotify reported it added 10 million monthly users for a total of 761 million monthly active users (MAUs), driven by ad-supported MAUs rising 14% to 483 million in the quarter ending March 31 compared to a year ago. Premium subscribers rose by 9% to 293 million, in line with target expectations. The company reported 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in revenue for the first quarter, as 10% growth in subscriber revenue outweighed a 5% decline in revenue from ad-supported accounts compared to a year ago.

An ongoing concern for streaming companies has been achieving growth even after most adults in developed markets have streaming accounts. Spotify’s executives noted they saw growth in their free tier in highly saturated markets like the United States, with users there listening and watching content more frequently each month since Spotify rolled out certain personalization features.

“We’re well positioned because of our large, engaged user base, deep creator relationships, and years of investment in personalization and infrastructure at scale,” co-CEO Gustav Söderström said in a press release. “These create a platform that can take advantage of this moment and unlock entirely new growth vectors that will enable us to climb new mountains previously unimaginable. We see significant room to grow across users, formats and engagement and to expand what Spotify is and can become over time.”

Revenue from premium accounts in the quarter rose 10% to 4.15 billion euros ($4.87 billion), while revenue from ad-supported accounts declined 5% to 385 million euros ($456.6 million).

Gross profit rose 13% in the quarter from a year ago for a gross margin of 33%.

The company will discuss earnings during a presentation to investors at 8 a.m. New York time. The company’s stock was down 4.28% in pre-market trading.

Here are the key take-aways from Spotify’s first quarter results:

After sweeping the publisher rankings for the Hot 100 and Top Radio Airplay songs by ranking No. 1 on both charts in all four quarters, it’s no surprise that Sony Music Publishing comes in as the No. 1-ranked publisher for both those charts for the full year, thanks to a 28.33% market share for the Hot 100 and an even better 29.85% showing for Radio Airplay.

Probably the main reason Sony ranked as the top publisher for the year in 2025 is that it had stakes in 70 or more songs on both of the charts for three of the year’s four quarters. Its best showing came in the second quarter, when it had a share in 75 songs on the Hot 100 chart and 73 songs in that quarter’s Radio Airplay chart. Moreover, that quarter was one of two quarters — with the other being the third quarter — in which it topped the 30% market share marker for both charts. In the third quarter, it snared 30.90% for Radio Airplay and 33.88% for the Hot 100 — with the latter being the single highest market share performance Sony attained during the year.

With regard to the publisher rankings, among Sony’s top-performing songs during the year were Leon Thomas’ “Mutt,” Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” and Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s “Luther.” Other factors boosting Sony’s stellar year-long performance include having the top songwriter for both the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 charts in the third quarter and also coming in with the top songwriter on the fourth quarter’s Radio Airplay chart on its roster: Shane “sombr” Boose.

Also during the year, Sony absorbed a big chunk of the Hipgnosis song catalog when it struck a deal with Blackstone and became its administrator. Blackstone acquired the previously publicly-traded Hipgnosis Songs Fund in mid-2024, merged it with its privately owned Hipgnosis Songs Capital, and then rebranded those catalogs as Recognition Music in March 2025. Blackstone subsequently sold the Hipgnosis Songs Group administration platform and some publishing assets to Sony in June 2025 and made that company its main publishing administration partner.

While Sony’s eight percentage point spread in the Hot 100 rankings and seven percentage point spread in the Radio Airplay rankings show it would have been the No. 1 publisher for 2025 with its own song catalog alone, the addition of the Hipgnosis catalog boosted its overall percentage to attain that lofty spread. Indeed, in 2024, Hipgnosis made the top 10 publisher rankings for both the Hot 100 and Radio Airplay charts in every quarter, with its market share ranging from 1.59% (on the Hot 100 ranking in the first quarter of that year) to 4.36% (on the Radio Airplay ranking in the second quarter). In the first quarter of 2025, Recognition boasted a 1.83% share on the first quarter’s Hot 100 tally.

Coming in as the second-ranked music publisher for the full year for both the Hot 100 and the Radio Airplay charts is Warner Chappell Music, which was the only other music publisher besides Sony to surpass the 20% market share milestone on both charts. Its best showing in 2025 was on the Radio Airplay chart, where it garnered 22.50% for the full year, while it produced a 20.29% showing on the Hot 100 chart. Moreover, Warner Chappell managed to attain better than the 20% market share marker in seven of its eight opportunities during the year, only failing to reach that threshold on the Hot 100 chart in the fourth quarter, when it had a 16.92% share. Its best showing came in the third quarter, when it had a 22.32% share on the Hot 100 chart and a 23.67% share on the Radio Airplay chart.

Warner Chappell’s top songs during the year included “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” and “Doechii’s “Anxiety.”  Meanwhile, it was the top-ranked publisher on Country Airplay, finishing the year with 31.02% — more than four percentage points higher than its closest rival, Sony, which garnered 26.76% on that chart in 2025.

Coming in as the No. 3 ranked publisher last year on both the Hot 100 and the Radio Airplay charts was Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), which garnered a 19.38% market share for the Hot 100 and 15.81% for Radio Airplay. UMPG’s best showing during the year came in the first quarter, when it tallied a 25.04% market share on the Hot 100 chart, enough to make it the No. 2 ranked publisher on the tally. Its top songs during the year included Taylor Swift’s “The Fate Of Ophelia,” Justin Bieber’s “Daisies,” Shaboozey’s “Good News,” and HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna & REI AMI’s “Golden.” Moreover, a UMPG songwriter — namely Drake — was named the top songwriter on both the Hot 100 charts and Top Radio Airplay charts in the second quarter, while in the first quarter Kendrick Lamar was the top songwriter on the Hot 100 and Taylor Swift was the top songwriter on the Hot 100 chart in the fourth quarter — a distinction she shared with two of her co-writers.

Kobalt, the No. 4 ranked publisher on both the Hot 100 and Radio Airplay charts in 2025, was the only other publisher to attain a double-digit percentage market share for the year, finishing with 11.9% on the former chart and 10.22% on the latter. Its best performance in 2025 came in the last quarter of the year, when it finished as the No. 2 publisher on the Hot 100 with a 21.43% share. Its top songs during the year included “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, “Doechii’s “Anxiety,” Shaboozey’s “Good News,” and Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want” featuring Tate McRae.

While BMG is usually the No. 5 ranked publisher and maintained its hold on that position for the full year, it bucked its traditional ranking in the third quarter, when it hit No. 4 on the Hot 100 ranking with a 12.75% share. Its top songs during the year included Shaboozey’s “Good News,” Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s “Luther,” HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna & REI AMI’s “Golden,” and “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. Overall, BMG scored 5.61% market share on the Radio Airplay chart and 6.91% on the Hot 100 for the year.

Three publishers appear in the second half of the Top 10 publishers rankings on both charts: Pulse, Position and Concord. The latter enjoyed the best performance, coming in at No. 6 on the Radio Airplay ranking and at No. 7 on the Hot 100 with a market share of 1.71% and 1.14%, respectively. What’s more, its separately operated joint-venture with Pulse finished at No. 8 on the Radio Airplay ranking with a 1.13% share and at No. 10 on the Hot 100 ranking with 0.64%, just beating out the No. 11-slotted peer music’s 0.63% showing on the Hot 100.

If Concord and Pulse’s market share was consolidated, it would have been the No. 6 publisher on the Hot 100 ranking with 1.78%. However, its combined 2.84% in Radio Airplay market share would still leave it in the No. 6 spot  on that ranking.

As for the other publisher to make both charts, Position Music was boosted by having three songs from the Benson Boone catalog, all its top-performing tunes last year: “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else,” “Beautiful Things” and “Mystical Magical.” It finished at No. 8 on the Hot 100 and No. 9 on Radio Airplay for the year.

Rounding out the Top 10 publisher rankings on the Hot 100 was St. Nicholas Music, which came in No. 6 based solely on its fourth quarter showing, when the Christmas songs of the late Johnny Marks made their annual revisit on the charts; and Reservoir, which ranked at No. 9 thanks to a strong performance in the first quarter when its top song was Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.”

On the Radio Airplay ranking, Big Machine Music came in at No. 7 with 1.17% for the year, thanks to its strong third quarter performance with a 1.75% tally, when Russell Dickerson’s “Happen To Me” was its top song; and Spirit Music Group, which ranks No. 10 with a 1.07% share when its various catalogs are consolidated — just beating out the No. 11-ranked Me Gusta Music with a 1.06% share.

METHODOLOGY 

In order to come up with an annual publisher ranking, Billboard added together the Hot 100 point totals for each publisher for each of the four quarters, then divided each publisher’s point total by the Hot 100 point totals for all four quarters combined, to come up with each publisher’s market share for the year. Billboard did the same for the radio airplay rankings, adding up each publisher’s song detections for the year for the top 100 songs in each quarter and then dividing their respective totals by the total play detections for the Top 100 songs from all four quarters.

To determine the top 10 publishers on the Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detecting songs electronically monitored by Mediabase (which provides data to Luminate for Billboard’s airplay charts) at: 3,066 U.S. radio stations in the first quarter and second quarters; 3,133 stations in the third quarter; and 3022 stations in the fourth quarter. Monitoring was done 24 hours a day, seven days a week for each of the successive four calendar quarters for the year beginning Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2025.

To determine the top 10 publishers on Hot 100 Songs, percentage calculations were based upon the top 100 songs for each quarter as ranked by Billboard Hot 100 points calculated from digital sales, streaming and radio airplay detections tracked by Mediabase (which provides data to Luminate for Billboard’s airplay charts) during the respective periods of: Dec. 27, 2024 to March 27, 2025, reflecting the chart dates of Jan. 11 to April 5; March 28 to June 26, reflecting the chart dates of April 12 through July 5; June 27, 2025, to Oct. 4, 2025, reflecting the chart dates of July 12, 2025 through Oct. 4, 2025; and Sept. 25 to Dec. 25, 2025, reflecting the chart dates of Oct. 11, 2025, to Jan. 3, 2026. Publisher information for musical works on both charts has been identified by the Harry Fox Agency. A “publisher” is defined as an administrator, copyright owner and/or controlling party.