April, DJ Chase B told Billboard, is “always weird.” Like athletes, DJs and other touring musicians making money in numerous states each year are responsible for filing multiple state tax returns. Since the majority of artists don’t make as much money as top professional athletes, they can risk falling behind if they’re not careful to pay quarterly taxes based on earnings estimates — otherwise, they can rack up unpaid bills and penalties. “That’s probably the biggest lesson I learned,” says the Houston DJ and producer who has worked with Travis Scott, Ty Dolla $ign, Don Tolliver and others.

“It’s not fun,” adds Jamie Cheek, owner and business manager at Nashville-based FBMM, which represents artists and songwriters. “If you’re big enough, and it’s big enough money, you’ll file a tax return in every state. You’ve got to watch it if you’re touring.”

According to the New York Times, early in the year, athletes, umpires, coaches and broadcasters receive a separate W-2 whenever they make money in any state. For some artists who receive income from top promoters such as Live Nation or AEG, the process is similar — although it gets complicated in circumstances where promoters pay advances in one year and the actual tour doesn’t take place until the following year.

Many smaller artists who perform at clubs are considered self-employed gig workers and often receive 1099s, as opposed to W-2s like those on tours promoted by Live Nation or AEG, or an athlete playing for a major league sports team, such as the Boston Red Sox.

“A touring band thinks, ‘Hey, I live in Nevada or Florida, I don’t pay any income tax,’” says Wendy On, managing partner for Fineman West & Co., a business-management firm whose roster includes Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, producer J.R. Rotem and Maroon 5’s Sam Farrar. “Well, every state wants a piece of their pie.”

Income from sales, streaming and songwriting royalties are more straightforward — generally, artists can report from a single state, as opposed to filing multiple state tax returns. The key nuance here, Cheek says, is making sure to report this income as self-employment tax on Schedule C: “Because that’s their primary source of revenue.” 

For artists lucky enough to have lucrative publishing catalogs — like those sold in recent years by Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Stevie Nicks — Cheek advises paying attention to obscure but powerful tax nuances. Royalties received through a record label are similar to making a wage from a company, and taxed federally as ordinary income at roughly 40%. If the same songwriter owns master recordings, and decides to sell them to another company, the revenue is taxed as capital gains — or at 20%. That makes for a big difference.

While it’s tempting for artists to sell as soon as the master recording reverts to them 35 years after signing an initial record deal, per copyright law, business managers note it’s best to wait at least one year before doing so. That allows them to avoid costly short-term capital gains, which can be taxed at 40% of the sale price, as opposed to just 20% for long-term gains. “I’ve seen a deal get 80% done, where nobody thought of that,” Cheek says, “and you’re like, ‘Whoa! You might want to wait 10 months.’”

Wardrobe is often the most common expense artists try to deduct when tax season comes around, Cheek says. Generally, it’s not a wise choice to go on a shopping spree for stage outfits with the intent of deducting the extravagance the following April 15. 

“If you wear a black T-shirt and blue jeans on stage, they’re not going to let you deduct that, because you can also wear the same black T-shirt and blue jeans going to the grocery store the next day,” he says. But if an artist were to buy matching black T-shirts and blue jeans for the entire band to wear on stage, then that might qualify for a deduction. 

“A client in the entertainment space got audited, and had to prove [to the I.R.S.] why hiring security and flying private planes for their travel is important — because they get swarmed by people,” On says. “I try, if I [am] in front of the auditor, to be able to justify it.”

It was 20 years ago today that Spotify began to play. And to mark the streaming service’s big anniversary, for the first time ever on Thursday (April 23) Spotify shared its list of the most streamed artists, songs, albums, podcasts and audiobooks in its history.

Some of the artists at the top of the music categories won’t surprise anyone. You would expect Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Drake, the Weeknd and Ed Sheeran to feature prominently given their domination during the streaming era. There are, of course, plenty of veteran acts in the mix on the most-streamed of all time list as well — Rihanna, Eminem, Coldplay, Kanye West — but the real interesting mix is on the top 20 most streamed albums tally.

That’s where Benito’s smash 2022 album, Un Verano Sin Ti, with a record 22 billion total streams to date, is No. 1, followed by The Weeknd’s 2016 album Starboy, Ed Sheeran’s ≠ (Deluxe), Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour and another one by The Weeknd, After Hours. Abel is tops on the most-streamed songs tally as well, with “Blinding Lights” coming in at No. 1, followed by Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” The Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather,” the Weeknd and Daft Punk’s “Starboy” and Harry Styles’ “As It Was.”

Check out the full lists below.

Most-streamed artists of all time on Spotify:

1. Taylor Swift

2. Bad Bunny

3. Drake

4. The Weeknd

5. Ariana Grande

6. Ed Sheeran

7. Justin Bieber

8. Billie Eilish

9. Eminem

10. Kanye West

11. Travis Scott

12. BTS

13. Post Malone

14. Bruno Mars

15. J Balvin

16. Rihanna

17. Coldplay

18. Kendrick Lamar

19. Future

20. Juice WRLD

Most-streamed albums of all time on Spotify:

1. Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny

2. Starboy by The Weeknd

3. ÷ (Deluxe) by Ed Sheeran

4. Sour by Olivia Rodrigo

5. After Hours by The Weeknd

6. SOS by SZA

7. Hollywood’s Bleeding by Post Malone

8. Lover by Taylor Swift

9. AM by Arctic Monkeys

10. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish

11. Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa

12. Beerbongs & Bentleys by Post Malone

13. ? by XXXTentacion

14. Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season) By Karol G

15. YHLQMDLG by Bad Bunny

16. Doo-Wops & Hooligans by Bruno Mars

17. Views by Drake

18. Midnights by Taylor Swift

19. Scorpion by Drake

20. Beauty Behind the Madness by the Weeknd

Most-streamed songs of all time on Spotify:

1. “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd

2. “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran

3. “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood

4. “Starboy” by The Weeknd and Daft Punk

5. “As It Was” by Harry Styles

6. “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi

7. “Sunflower (from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) by Post Malone and Swae Lee

8. “One Dance” by Drake, Wizkid and Kyla

9. “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran

10. “Stay” by the Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber

11. “Believer” by Imagine Dragons

12. “I Wanna Be Yours” by Arctic Monkeys

13. “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals

14. “Lovely (with Khalid)” by Billie Eilish and Khalid

15. “Yellow” by Coldplay

16. “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron

17. “Closer” by the Chainsmokers and Halsey

18. “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish

19. “Riptide” by Vance Joy

20. “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars

Most-streamed podcasts of all time:

1. The Joe Rogan Experience

2. Gemischtes Hack

3. Crime Junkie

4. Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

5. Last Podcast On The Left

6. The Daily

7. Fest & Flauschig

8. Morbid

9. My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

10. Relatos de la Noche

11. Call Her Daddy

12. Não Inviabilize

13. Pardon My Take

14. Distractible

15. La Cotorrisa

16. Dateline NBC

17. Mordlust

18. Baywatch Berlin

19. Hobbylos

20. Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén

Most-streamed audiobooks in premium of all time on Spotify:

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

2. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

3. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

4. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

5. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

6. Lights Out by Ted Koppel

7. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

8. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

9. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

10. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

11. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

12. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

13. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

14. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

15. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

16. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

17. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

18. The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden

19. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

20. Funny Story by Emily Henry

Spotify is in the early stages of giving artists a tool to disclose how generative AI was used in the creation of their music. The new tool started rolling out this month in beta, first to Distrokid users, and it will continue to become available for other distributors in the coming weeks. The rollout is part of what was first promised in September 2025 as part of a Spotify blog post titled, “Spotify Strengthens AI Protections for Artists, Songwriters and Producers,” which detailed a number of ways the company would be improving its response to the rise of AI-generated songs.

That blog post has been recently updated to note that now, “where artists have chosen to disclose through their label or distributor, you’ll see credits for specific contributions like vocals, lyrics, or production in Song Credits on mobile” and that this is “a first step in [Spotify’s] long-term commitment to transparency.”

It goes on to explain that “because [Spotify] depend[s] on artist disclosure, the absence of a credit doesn’t mean AI wasn’t used. Not all distributors enable artists to disclose yet, but we intend to expand this more broadly over time,” adding, “we know this isn’t a complete solution on its own.”

Those who elect to use the new tool can explain exactly how AI was used in the creation of their song. This includes whether it was used in production, composition or even individual instrument parts.

Since January 2025, a number of streaming services have started experimenting with tags and disclosures for songs that contain AI elements. French streaming service Deezer, for example, uses a proprietary AI detection tool to scan for 100% AI-generated content and automatically applies a tag to those tracks. In March, Apple Music launched “Transparency Tags” as a “delivery requirement” for labels and distributors, including AI use in a sound recording, composition, artwork or music video.

Spotify’s post says that adding this disclosure within song credits will be made available as it continues to try to reach “industry-wide alignment” to build out a “truly comprehensive system” for labelling AI use across all streaming services. According to the original blog post, this system is being developed through DDEX (Digital Data Exchange), which is an international standards-setting organization for music metadata.

In a September episode of Billboard‘s On the Record podcast, Spotify’s global head of marketing and policy, music business, Sam Duboff, said that “the starting point has to be shared language through the existing supply chain of music about what the formatting of that will be.” He pointed to the rise of artists, songwriters and producers who are increasingly using AI in the creative process, like Brenda Lee to create a Spanish version of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” or a K-Pop Demon Hunters songwriter who talked about brainstorming lyrics with ChatGPT, and how this system could create more transparency for fans.

“It’s early days for AI tech,” Duboff continued. “I know it feels like it’s moving fast, but consumption of AI-generated music’s insanely low. We have some time for artists, songwriters, producers to take the lead in figuring out how they want to use these tools. We don’t want to act like we know where AI music’s headed and exactly every policy and role we need to future-proof for the next two or three years. But also, we didn’t just want to wait and do nothing.”

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office publicly revealed the cause of death for 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez on Wednesday (April 22), six days after D4vd was charged with her murder.

According to a press release from the medical examiner, Rivas’ cause of death was determined as “multiple penetrating injuries caused by object(s).” Her manner of death was ruled a homicide.

“After several months, I am grateful this information can now be released, not only to the public, but also to the grieving family enduring loss,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said in a statement.

Rivas’ decomposed partial remains were found in the front trunk of an impounded Tesla registered to D4vd (real name: David Anthony Burke) in September after police responded to reports of a “foul odor” coming from the car in a Hollywood tow lot. They discovered two bags containing severed, decomposed body parts that were later identified as Rivas.

D4vd was arrested on April 16. On Monday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman revealed the rapper was charged with first-degree murder in Rivas’ death. Hochman’s office alleged in a press release that D4vd killed Rivas with a “sharp instrument” in a plot to protect his music career after Rivas threatened to reveal that the then-20-year-old had engaged in illegal sexual acts with her as a minor. D4vd was also charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and mutilating a body.

In a statement shared with CBS News and ABC on Tuesday, Rivas’ family spoke out about her murder, thanking the Los Angeles Police Department and the District Attorney for their “hard work.”

“Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance,” the family wrote. “We love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”

Milk & Honey Music + Sports, M3 Music and ONErpm have teamed up to launch INVERSA, a record label dedicated to bridging Latin America’s growing electronic music scene with the global dance community. Announced on Wednesday (April 22), the venture aims to discover, develop and elevate electronic artists from the Latin community, leveraging the expertise and reach of these industry leaders to amplify their presence internationally.

Milk & Honey Music + Sports will contribute its expertise in global artist and repertoire, marketing and promotional services, while M3 Music will bring regional insight, localized A&R and catalog development for remixes and covers. ONErpm will serve as the label’s distribution partner.

The first artist scheduled to drop new music on INVERSA is Colombian music producer 19Clouds, with his release set to arrive on Tuesday (April 28).

“Having experienced firsthand the challenges of building an artist project within the Latin dance ecosystem, I’m excited to be part of an initiative focused on creating a solid foundation for artists locally while connecting them to the larger dance community,” said 19Clouds in a press release. “This represents an opportunity to not only empower local talent, but to also help contribute to the long-term growth of the region’s larger creative ecosystem.”

“We’re incredibly excited to help build the foundation for the rapidly expanding electronic industry across Latin America by bridging the gap between regional artists and the larger global electronic community,” said Max Geistfeld, manager at Milk & Honey.

Daniel Zawadzki, partner and head of management at M3 Music, added: “We entered this venture because we believe that the electronic music industry in Latin America is growing tremendously with its own identity. The idea of this venture is to have a record label for those artists from Latin America to the world.”

“We’re proud to partner with Milk & Honey and M3 Music as we continue expanding our global dance and electronic footprint,” Eddie Blackmon, vp of A&R ONErpm, said in a statement. “INVERSA is a key step in connecting Latin talent with the worldwide electronic market.”

The U.K.’s Official Charts Company has shared an update for its leadership following the departure of its former chief executive.

In March, Martin Talbot announced that he was stepping down from the role after 18 years. Talbot assumed the position in 2007 and led the OCC — which tracks music sales in the U.K. — during a revolutionary tenure which saw the charts adapt to new sales strategies and the introduction of streaming services. 

The Official Charts Company publishes a number of charts on a weekly basis, including the Official Albums Chart and Official Singles Chart, both of which are currently topped by Olivia Dean with her The Art of Loving LP and “Rein Me In,” a collaboration with Sam Fender.

In a memo sent to Billboard and a number of clients and partners, Official Charts’ chairman, Drew Hill, shared an update regarding their leadership structure in the coming months.

With immediate effect, Chris Austin and Becca Monahan will jointly assume interim leadership of the company as co-managing directors. Hill adds that “Chris and Becca will be further supported by Lauren Kreisler, ensuring continuity of senior management team leadership, and a consistent focus across all key areas of the business.”

The note continues that over the coming months, “the board will consider the long term requirements” of the Official Charts, and that it is “very much business as usual.” Hill also praised Talbot for his leadership over the past 18 years and said “his leadership has helped shape not only the organisation, but the wider UK music and entertainment landscape and we wish him every success in the future.”

The Official Charts company reports it is due to launch “a brand new, state-of-the-art data system later this year following the largest infrastructure investment in the company’s history” as part of a new contract with market research comapany Kantar, which was finalized in 2025.

Read the full memo below.

Dear clients and partners,

With the recent departure of Official Charts’ CEO Martin, I am writing to share an update about Official Charts’ leadership moving forwards

Naturally, I and the Board want to recognise Martin’s significant contribution to the Official Charts Company. His leadership has helped shape not only the organisation, but the wider UK music and entertainment landscape and we wish him every success in the future.

With immediate effect, Chris Austin and Becca Monahan will jointly assume interim leadership of the company as Co-Managing Directors. Both bring a strong understanding of our business and have the full confidence of the Board to lead the Official Charts in the coming months.

Chris and Becca will be further supported by Lauren Kreisler, ensuring continuity of senior management team leadership, and a consistent focus across all key areas of the business. 

Over the coming months the board will consider the long term requirements of the Official Charts.  In the meantime, it is very much business as usual. Our priorities remain unchanged, and the work Official Charts does with its clients and partners is hugely important. The Board is hugely excited about the future and looking forward to working with the team. 

Regards

Drew Hill

Chair, Board of Directors

The Museum of Broadcast Communications today announced the nominees for the 2026 Radio Hall of Fame. The 24 nominees were chosen by the Radio Hall of Fame nominating committee, with input from the radio industry and listeners.

Voting for inductees begins on Friday, April 24, and runs through Friday, May 8. The top six vote recipients will become part of the 2026 Radio Hall of Fame Induction class. The additional inductees that will make up the induction class will be selected by the Radio Hall of Fame nominating committee. This is a mechanism for ensuring balance in each year’s class.                                                   

Nearly 1,000 industry members will receive a ballot on Friday (April 24) to cast votes for up to six nominated individuals. The confidential ballot will be conducted by Votem.com and overseen by Miller Kaplan‘s Andrew Rosen.

The 2026 inductees will be announced on Wednesday, May 20, and be honored at the 2026 Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago. Information on tickets for the event will be available soon.

Dennis Green, co-chairman of the Radio Hall of Fame, said, in a statement: “This year marks the 38th class of inductees as we celebrate those who have made a lasting impact on the industry — many of whom continue to shape it today. Congratulations to all the nominees.”

Kraig T. Kitchin, co-chairman of the Radio Hall of Fame, added: “This special group of individuals and programs nominated for induction in 2026 epitomizes the wide spectrum of talented individuals our industry is fortunate to rely on and build large audiences around. My congratulations to each of them.” 

Ten of this year’s nominees also appeared on last year’s ballot: Big D & Bubba, Bob Stroud, Enrique Santos, Funkmaster Flex, Joey Reynolds, John & Ken, Kevin Matthews, Kid Leo, Larry Elder and Raul Brindis.

The Radio Hall of Fame was founded by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. The Museum of Broadcast Communications took over operations of the Hall in 1991.

Here’s the complete list of 2026 nominees:

The 2025 inductees were:

Anthropic says it’s time to end a copyright lawsuit brought by Universal Music Group (UMG) and other publishers over the use of song lyrics to train Claude, its mega-successful artificial intelligence chatbot.

UMG and the other music companies urged a federal judge last month to find that Anthropic’s use of its intellectual property was not “fair use” — a legal tenet that excludes “transformative” uses of a work from copyright protection. Now the AI giant is hitting back, saying in a Monday (April 20) brief of its own that the publishers cannot “meaningfully dispute that training on lyrics (and other copyrighted text) is transformative.”

According to Anthropic, Claude ingests lyrics alongside trillions of other words to “understand the interrelationships between words and concepts in human language” so it can code software, conduct research and write documents. Anthropic says this is what fair use is all about: turning the publishers’ lyrics into something completely different.

“Claude’s transformative training creates a flexible, general-purpose model that can be used in myriad beneficial ways — the vast majority of which are wholly unrelated to lyrics or music,” write Anthropic’s lawyers.

Anthropic also says the publishers have no evidence that Claude is harming them in the market, which is another element of a judge’s fair use analysis. The AI company points out that the opposite was actually conveyed by UMG’s own chief digital officer, Michael Nash, during the company’s earnings call last month, when he told investors, “Thoughtful analysis will conclude that the impact AI will have on our business will be overwhelmingly net positive.”

In a statement to Billboard on Tuesday (April 21), a rep for the music publishers said, “There is no excuse for Anthropic’s blatant infringement of Publishers’ copyrighted song lyrics.”

“Anthropic’s recent filing is wrong on the facts and the law in numerous respects, and Publishers look forward to rebutting those arguments and correcting the record when they file their opposition brief,” added the rep.

The question of whether AI training constitutes fair use is an unsettled legal question at the heart of dozens of ongoing copyright cases that have been filed against these booming new tech companies in recent years.

The music industry entered this battle on two fronts: publishers led by UMG sued Anthropic in 2023, and then all three major label groups brought their own copyright cases against AI music generators Suno and Udio in 2024. The Suno and Udio lawsuits also remain ongoing, despite some partial licensing settlements inked at the end of last year.  

OVI — who gained international recognition as the first Cuban artist to tap into the corridos tumbados space — has signed an exclusive deal with Universal Music Latino. 

Duarte Figueira, senior vp of A&R at Universal Music Latino, and Daniel Luna, who was recently appointed general manager at the label, were present at the signing.

“I’m incredibly excited about this stage of my life because I feel that, for the first time, I’m going to have a real team by my side, supporting me through the good and the bad,” OVI expressed in a press statement. “That means the most to me, and I know that with Universal Latino’s new team, my music will reach new heights.”

Born in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, and currently residing in Miami, the artist and rapper (real name Ovidio Crespo Retureta) kicked off his music career in 2018. He initially tapped into the Música Mexicana realm, where he teamed up with acts such as Natanael Cano, Junior H, Adriel Favela and Snow Tha Product, fusing Cuban rhythms with Regional Mexican. 

OVI’s first Billboard entry was on the Hot Latin Songs chat with the Cano-assisted “Pacas Verdes” in 2020. The following year, he charted on Hot Latin Songs with “Envidioso” in collaboration with Ozuna, while his album Retumban2 peaked at No. 21 on Top Latin Albums. In 2022, “Que Locura” with Gente de Zona charted on Tropical Airplay, and in 2024, “No Drama” with Duki and Lucho SSJ entered the Billboard Argentina Hot 100. 

Throughout his career, OVI has also collaborated with Eladio Carrion, Grupo Firme, Myke Towers and Arcángel, among others. 

OVI is expected to release his forthcoming album, which includes his next single, “Cash,” in collaboration with Almighty, under the new deal with Universal Music Latino.