Friday, July 24, 2026

South Africa's biggest pop export is back. Tyla dropped her sophomore album A*POP today, July 24, doubling down on the sound she has branded "popiano," a blend of pop and R&B built on the log-drum bounce of amapiano, the South African house style that took over the country's dancefloors last decade. The 14-track set leans on the singles Chanel and She Did It Again with Zara Larsson, though NME's review calls it polished and charming but safer than its splashy rollout promised, arguing the two-time Grammy winner "trades high energy for mood" a little too often (via NME).

Madonna is No. 1 again for the first time this decade. Confessions II, the long-teased sequel to her 2005 dancefloor classic, debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 134,000 equivalent album units, her 10th career chart-topper. Sales did the heavy lifting: 114,000 copies moved, her best sales week since 2012, and the debut also handed her the best streaming week of her career (via Billboard).

The publishing gold rush keeps minting deals. T.I. struck a publishing deal with Reservoir covering his songwriting catalog (publishing is the songwriter's share of a song, separate from the recorded master), while heritage-catalog specialist Primary Wave partnered with Foreigner co-founder and guitarist Mick Jones (via Variety).

The institutional money chasing old songs just got a lot bigger. Sony Music and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, launched a joint venture to buy music catalogs, anchored by an initial $2 billion to $3 billion and built to scale from there (via Music Business Worldwide). Back-catalog rights, the steady stream of income from established recordings and songs, have become a favored asset class for investors betting that streaming keeps growing.

The catalog frenzy is everywhere you look in 2026. Primary Wave folded Kobalt's publishing operation and collection society AMRA into an indie powerhouse overseeing more than $7 billion in assets, Universal cleared EU antitrust review to complete its $750 million Downtown Music purchase, and Sweden's Pophouse grabbed a stake in Iron Maiden's rights, part of more than $16 billion in music mergers and acquisitions in the first half of the year alone (via Billboard).

The Killers frontman is stepping out on his own again. Brandon Flowers announced a North American tour behind THRASHER, his first solo album in 11 years, out August 21 on Island. The 17-date run opens September 1 in Phoenix and closes October 6 in Las Vegas, where the Killers formed, before a UK and Ireland leg that includes a night at London's Royal Albert Hall on October 15 (via Consequence).

beabadoobee is graduating to arenas. The indie-pop songwriter set her first-ever arena run, the Powerlines Tour, behind her new album Pylon (out September 18), with the North American leg hitting Madison Square Garden and the Kia Forum and Wisp and Violet Grohl along for support. Tickets went on general sale July 2 (via Consequence).

Spotify wants you to know it is writing bigger checks. Its annual Loud & Clear report pegged 2025 royalty payouts at a record $11 billion, up more than 10% year over year, roughly double the pace of the wider recorded-music industry, and pushing lifetime payments toward $70 billion. Some 13,800 artists cleared $100,000 from the platform and more than 1,500 topped $1 million (via Hypebot).

Not everyone is buying the good-news story. Spotify was hit with a lawsuit alleging its royalty rules quietly shortchange small artists, singling out the policy of paying nothing on tracks that fail to reach 1,000 streams in a year and claiming the platform filters out legitimate listens (via Billboard).

Britain's independent sector named its front-runners. New York electronic group Fcukers, signed to Ninja Tune, led the 2026 AIM Independent Music Awards nominations with three nods for their debut album, while Robyn's comeback record Sexistential and acts including Jorja Smith, Nova Twins, Jim Legxacy and Romy picked up multiple nominations apiece. Winners are announced at London's Roundhouse on September 22 (via Billboard).

What even is techno in 2026? Detroit pioneer Jeff Mills used a Resident Advisor summer cover story to reopen the question, asking whether techno is a sound, a style or a way of life, and whether the genre is still in good health as it scatters across mega-festivals and streaming playlists far from the underground where it started (via Resident Advisor).