At some point, (nearly) every member of 1960s made-for-TV boy band the Monkees appeared on the series Boy Meets World. According to the latest episode of the rewatch Pod Meets World show hosted by three of the stars of the beloved 1990s sitcom — Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong — before a season eight episode directed by the band’s drummer/singer Micky Dolenz that featured his former bandmates Peter Tork and Davy Jones, Dolenz got an earful on set from another boy band star.

Dolenz fist got behind the camera for the season six episode “Bee True,” during which then-contemporary boy band *NSYNC dropped by to visit and, according to Strong, group member Justin Timberlake inadvertently dissed Dolenz. “So we were at craft services and it was me and Justin [Timberlake] and I guess Lance [Bass] or whoever else, having a conversation about, like, what’s next [for the group]? And Justin was like, ‘Yeah, they want us to do, like, a TV show, you know, like with the band acting,’” Timberlake said in reference to what sounds like a modern version of 1966-1968 show The Monkees, in which the four musicians in the band played heightened versions of their goofy selves while reliably busting into song several times an episode.

When Strong sighed and asked if JT, Bass, Joey Fatone, JC Chasez and Chris Kirkpatrick were considering going down that path, he said Timberlake was like, “‘Yeah, we really don’t wanna do that’ and were both just of acknowledging that’s kind of crappy, cheesy… a hokey idea. And Micky Dolenz grabbed a handful of nuts from craft services and said, ‘Why? Why not? Why not?’”

Strong recalled Timberlake trying to dance away from the red face moment after realizing who he was talking to and stammering, “Ohhhh! Well, uh, it’s just not, well, we’ll see, we’re on tour… maybe [we’ll do it]… I don’t know why we wouldn’t.”

Timberlake, 44, recently revealed that he had been quietly battling the effects of Lyme disease for his entire Forget Tomorrow world tour, which kicked off in April 2024 and wrapped up on July 30.

Listen to the Pod Meets World episode here (JT talk begins around 42:45 minute mark).

The five-part Magic City: An American Fantasy docuseries is coming to STARZ on Aug. 15, and the premium cable network released another star-studded trailer on Monday (Aug. 4) featuring appearances from Drake, Quavo, 2 Chainz and executive producer Jermaine Dupri.

Drake, whose DreamCrew Entertainment is also on board as an executive producer, is featured raving about the famed ATL strip club, even championing it. “It’s one of the wonders of the world,” Drake says in the clip. “Magic City became this place for people to flourish, Black music to flourish.”

Quavo went as far as saying that there “wouldn’t be a Migos without Magic City,” pointing to the jiggle joint’s cultural cache around Atlanta’s hip-hop scene.

Club founder Michael “Mr. Magic” Barney, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, Nelly and Big Boi also appear in the clip. Shaq Diesel revealed he signed his nine-figure $120 million contract with the L.A. Lakers in the ’90s while inside Magic City.

After seeing the reception to “B.O.B” inside Magic City, Big Boi recalled thinking with his Outkast partner André 3000 that they had another hit on their hands.

There’s plenty of bottles popping, money flying and dancer acrobatics showcased throughout the teaser, which will also delve into the crime that Magic City got tied up in as well, with owner Michael Barner being convicted on drug conspiracy charges, for which he served seven years in federal prison.

“Magic City: An American Fantasy is a riveting behind-the-curtain look at one of the most unique places in Black culture,” Kathryn Busby, president of original programming at STARZ, said in a statement. “The docuseries’ unprecedented insider access and history unveiled from those who built its empire is a perfect complement to STARZ’s slate of adult, culture-driving shows.”

Magic City: An American Fantasy debuted at SXSW in 2024, and the first of five episodes will premiere on STARZ come Aug. 15.

Watch the trailer below.

One of the longtime producers of NPR’s popular Tiny Desk concert series took to his Instagram Story over the weekend to assure fans that the popular stripped-down performance showcase will not go away in the wake of the shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

In the post, Tiny Desk host and series producer Bobby Carter reacted to rampant rumors last week that the show might be on the chopping block following the Trump administration’s announcement in May that it was cutting all federal funding for NPR and PBS via the shut down of the CPB by zeroing out the latter’s budget.

“I’ve heard from many friends, family, and audience members who are worried that NPR/Tiny Desk is shutting down,” Carter wrote. “It is not. Unfortunately, CPB is shutting down. I encourage everyone to support Public Media and donate. I appreciate all the calls, texts, and messages. They have been overwhelming and heartwarming.”

While fans of NPR have been fretting about the network’s future in light of the budget cuts, Tiny Desk has actually been expanding its reach lately, recently launching Tiny Desk Radio, a new weekly show co-hosted by Carter and Anamarie Sayre. The same cannot be said for CPB, a private, non-profit organization created by Congress in 1967 that oversaw the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, acting as the largest single source of funds for public radio, TV And their respective online services. More than 70% of the CPB’s funds went to 1,500 locally owned public radio and TV stations, more than half of which were among the only sources of news and information in rural areas of the country.

The CPB is slated to shut down fully in September — though NPR has filed a lawsuit challenging both Trump’s original executive order and Congress’ rescission of the organization’s funds — at which point a number of local public media stations could face serious funding challenges, or shut down completely.

Tiny Desk was launched in 2008 by former All Things Considered host and music superfan Bob Boilen as a showcase for acts he, and the show’s staff, were excited to share with their listeners. To date, the show has hosted more than 1,200 acts and blossomed into a cultural touchstone thanks to landmark, roof-raising performances by the Clipse, T-Pain, Dua Lipa, Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, Mac Miller, Sting and Shaggy, Adele, Tank and the Bangas, Mitski and Fred again… among many others.

At press time Billboard had not received a response from Tiny Desk on questions about the show’s future or Carter’s post.

Virgin Music Group, the indie distribution arm of Universal Music Group (UMG), is offloading a big chunk of its U.S. physical distribution of CDs and vinyl to Alliance Entertainment’s AMPED distribution company, sources tell Billboard.

Virgin currently distributes labels including BMG, ATO, Dirty Hit Records, Sumerian, ATO, Fader, Strange Music, NF Real Music and Thrive, along with artists such as the Smashing Pumpkins, Black Veil Brides, Body Count, Rick Astley, Bebe Rexha and Jason Aldean. The deal, which a source says is not yet completed, has created a degree of uncertainty for the labels distributed by the two companies, creating worries for label executives about how the new arrangement will work out for their respective labels and artists.

But some of the Virgin labels say the UMG-owned company is a much better digital distributor than physical distributor, and are hopeful that the move to AMPED will therefore prove to be a good one for their businesses.

Still other sources suggest that this move will serve as an enhancement and will expand Virgin’s physical reach, given that Alliance is the largest music wholesaler in the world, servicing more than 1,500 indie retailers and selling to chains and mass merchants while offering fulfillment services to online physical music merchants. The deal will ensure more complete coverage of indie retail within the U.S. and Canada, as well as nontraditional retail locations, according to sources familiar with the deal. Those sources expect the deal to fuel the growth of physical sales in the U.S. and Canada at independent retail for the company’s distributed independent label clients.

Over the last two years, UMG has been expanding and fortifying its indie distribution presence. In September 2022, the company placed its indie distribution arms, Virgin and InGrooves, under the Virgin Music Group banner, led by mTheory founders JT Myers and Nat Pastor. In October 2023, UMG then merged the two distribution companies into one. The following October, it acquired full ownership of [PIAS], which owns some labels and one of the larger European indie distribution companies, and merged it into Virgin Music Group. And in December, UMG followed that up by announcing that through Virgin, it was buying Downtown Music Holdings, which has a suite of music companies that includes two indie distributors, FUGA and CD Baby. That $775 million deal has yet to close, as it faces antitrust scrutiny from governmental regulatory agencies and opposition from some of the big players in the indie label sector.

As for the anticipated new physical distribution channel for Virgin’s domestically distributed indie labels, Billboard estimates that last year in the U.S., Virgin had about $25 million to $30 million in physical sales, based on Luminate data. However, it’s not known if AMPED will be getting all of those sales; AMPED’s parent may already have a share of that physical because Virgin probably only sells to bigger indie retailers directly and relies on one-stop wholesalers like Alliance to sell to smaller indie stores, meaning that for those sales the switch amounts to an internal accounting change within the company. Also, some sources suggest that K-pop releases, which are known to have a huge physical presence, might remain within the Universal system. Some sources estimate that when all the details of the deal and its transition are worked out, Alliance’s AMPED could land anywhere from $20 million to $25 million in sales from the deal.

Alliance Entertainment is the biggest physical music wholesaler in the world; in its annual report last year, it said that about $450 million of its $1.1 billion in revenue came from music. Based on the nine months reported so far this fiscal year, where its music revenue totaled $358 million as of March 31, 2025, Billboard estimates that Alliance will close out the fiscal year with at least $475 million in music revenue. Those results are expected to be disclosed in mid-September.

Within that, sources say AMPED has annual revenue of about $80 million, so it’s conceivable that the addition of physical from the Virgin labels could see the indie distributor generating $100 million in revenue on an annualized basis, while putting parent Alliance’s music revenue at the $500 million mark, regardless of how the company accounts for the sales.