Given his brand of unflinchingly honest, yet still inspirational, music that that has garnered Antioch, Tennessee native Jelly Roll six Billboard Country Airplay No. 1s and the Billboard 200-topping album Beautifully Broken, he gets messages often from fans who have had life-changing moments through his songs.

But in a recent appearance on the second episode of John Cena’s new series What Drives You, Jelly Roll not only showed off a few of his vehicles (including a bright red 1976 Cadillac El Dorado), but also told Cena about one fan note that was so impactful that Jelly Roll still keeps it on the dash of his vehicle, four years after receiving it.

As Jelly Roll and Cena walked to another of Jelly Roll’s vehicles, a Ram 1500 Laramie truck, Jelly Roll noted it was the first car that his family bought for him for Father’s Day five years ago. “This was my daily driver, forever. [Jelly Roll’s wife, Bunnie XO] customized every piece on it…jacked it up,” Jelly Roll said. “Dude, she made it my dream truck….it makes me think of my daughter, it makes me think of my wife, it drives me.”

The truck features Jelly Roll’s logo–a skull wearing a crown–on both the front and the back. “You want to talk about what drives me? There’s a note right here. I want you to check it out if you don’t mind. You can read it right there on my dash.”

Cena read the note aloud, saying, “Your music saved my best friend’s life. Thank you for being unapologetically you and doing what you do.”

The note was signed simply, “A,” and Cena asked Jelly Roll if he knew who “A” was. The singer-songwriter replied, “You know, the cool thing is, I don’t know. They left this note on my window four years ago, and I sobbed in the parking lot reading this note. I got in and stuck it in my dash. Four years later, that thing is still taped on my dash.”

See Jelly Roll’s appearance on John Cena’s What Drives You on Roku. The series also features celebrities including Logan Paul and Travis Barker.

Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos captures a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Feb. 1), earning 151,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Jan. 23 (down 26%), according to Luminate. Of Bad Bunny’s four chart-topping albums, it’s the second to spend more than a single week at No. 1; his 2022 set, Un Verano Sin Ti, has collected the most weeks atop the list, with 13 weeks, nonconsecutively.

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Mac Miller’s from-the-vaults release Balloonerism debuts at No. 3, marking the eighth top 10-charting set for the rapper, who died in 2018. The set’s songs date back to 2014, but the project was shelved in favor of other releases.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Feb. 1, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Jan. 28. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of the 151,000 equivalent album units earned by Debí Tirar Más Fotos in the week ending Jan. 23, SEA units comprise 146,000 (down 25%; equaling 198.78 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it’s No. 1 for a third week on Top Streaming Albums), album sales comprise 4,000 (down 46%; falling 8-11 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 30%).

SZA’s former No. 1 SOS rises 3-2 with 90,000 equivalent album units (down 12%).

Mac Miller’s Balloonerism bows at No. 3 with 81,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 41,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 40,000 (equaling 51.56 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it debuts at No. 4 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The set’s sales were bolstered by its availability across six vinyl variants, a CD, digital download album and cassette tape.

In total, Balloonerism is Miller’s eighth top 10-charting effort on the Billboard 200. It follows Faces (No. 3 in 2021), Circles (No. 3, 2020), Swimming (No. 3, 2018), The Divine Feminine (No. 2, 2016), GO:OD AM (No. 4, 2015), Watching Movies With the Sound Off (No. 2, 2013) and Blue Slide Park (No. 1, 2011).

Kendrick Lamar’s former leader GNX is a non-mover on the Billboard 200 at No. 4 (59,000 equivalent album units; down 8%) while Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us surges 10-5 (52,000; up 42% after the release of a deluxe version across three vinyl variants and a CD).

Three former No. 1s are next, with Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet steady at No. 6 (43,000 equivalent album units; down 9%), Lil Baby’s WHAM dipping 5-7 (39,000; down 30%) and Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time rising a notch to No. 8 (37,000 down 3%).

Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft falls two rungs to No. 9 (nearly 37,000 equivalent album units; down 8%), and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department climbs 12-10 (35,000; down 3%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

Universal Music Group and Spotify have struck a new direct deal, impacting both the company’s recorded music and publishing royalty rates, the companies announced today (Jan. 26). In a statement, UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge said that the deal is “precisely the kind of partnership development [UMG] envisioned” as part of its idea for “Streaming 2.0,” the company’s proposed changes to revamp streaming royalty rates and improve remuneration for its artists on streaming platforms.

Under the new agreement, UMG and Spotify “will collaborate closely to advance the next era of streaming innovation,” according to a press release. “Artists, songwriters and consumers will benefit from new and evolving offers, new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog,” the press release continues. The deal also includes continued protection for UMG through Spotify’s fraud detection and enforcement systems. 

Importantly, the agreement includes a direct deal between Spotify and Universal Music Publishing Group, the first direct deal between Spotify and a publisher since the passage of the Music Modernization Act in 2018. One top publishing executive tells Billboard that this change “sounds like Spotify is raising the white flag” about the so-called “bundling” dispute which has soured relations between many publishers, writers and Spotify since it launched last year. In March, Billboard reported that Spotify’s payments to music publishers and songwriters would be cut significantly to account for Spotify bundling in audiobooks as part of its premium tiers. Instead of paying out royalties for these tiers purely to music publishers and writers, Spotify began splitting the payments between music and books publishers. 

Billboard estimated the losses to be about $150 million in the first year the bundled audiobooks took effect. Now, nearly a year later, Universal Music Publishing Group appears to be back in a better position with Spotify. One source familiar with the deal said it has improved royalty payments for UMPG songwriters, although the two companies declined to state the specifics of how the new publishing royalty model (or the one for recorded music) works. 

“Spotify maintains its bundle, but with this direct deal, it has evolved to account for broader rights, including a different economic treatment for music and non-music content,” a Spotify spokesperson clarified in a statement to Billboard.

“[This deal] makes sense,” the publishing executive tells Billboard. “[Spotify is] despised in the songwriting industry. [One of] their main competitors, Amazon, has already left them isolated and alone. And they claim to want to expand into more videos but can’t get deals done. It was monumentally stupid for them to put themselves in this position but perhaps they are finally trying to get out of the bind they put themselves in.”

Grainge said, in his complete statement about the deal, “When we first presented our vision for the next stage in the evolution of music subscription several months ago — Streaming 2.0 — this is precisely the kind of partnership development we envisioned. This agreement furthers and broadens the collaboration with Spotify for both our labels and music publisher, advancing artist-centric principles to drive greater monetization for artists and songwriters, as well as enhancing product offerings for consumers.”

“For nearly two decades, Spotify has made good on its commitment to return the music industry to growth, ensuring that we deliver record payouts to the benefit of artists and songwriters each new year,” Spotify founder/CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement. “This partnership ensures we can continue to deliver on this promise by embracing the certainty that constant innovation is key to making paid music subscriptions even more attractive to a broader audience of fans around the world.”