The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Barry Gibb and 71 other prominent British musicians joined a campaign by artists and songwriters pushing for a larger share of streaming royalties from platforms like Spotify and YouTube — and closer scrutiny on the major labels’ hold on the market.

The call by the 74 musicians comes two months after a group of more than 150 artists — including Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox and Chris Martin — sent the same letter to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for the British leader to change U.K. copyright law so that streaming revenues would be treated more like radio revenue.

The new push by British artists to show solidarity in their quest for fairer compensation also comes as a Parliamentary body — the Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) Committee — is set to release recommendations after an inquiry into the music streaming economy that concluded in March.

The letter’s signatories are calling for a government referral of the multinational corporations that wield “extraordinary power” over the music business to the U.K. competition enforcer, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which can act against businesses engaging in anti-competitive behavior.

The U.K. Parliamentary probe has seen major labels’ dominance of the market emerge as a central issue. The first stage of the inquiry concluded with government minister Caroline Dinenage saying she would support a referral of the three biggest music companies — Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music — to the CMA.

The committee expects to publish their report next month before Parliament breaks for its summer recess, although a date has not been announced. Ministers will then have eight weeks to respond, and although they aren’t obliged to enact its recommendations, they are expected to engage with them.

During the inquiry, bosses from all three major labels faced hostile questioning from DCMS committee members over how labels pay out streaming royalties to creators. Senior execs from Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube also appeared before members.

The musicians are pressing for a change in the U.K.’s 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which would see music streaming classified in the same way as radio and TV broadcasting. Songwriters earn on average 50% of radio revenues, but only 15% of streaming receipts, the signatories say in their letter to Johnson. If a re-classification were to happen, streaming would be subject to the principle of equitable remuneration, which guarantees royalties to performers on recordings.

Currently, music streams are covered in most international markets by a “making available right,” meaning that only copyright owners receive payments, which they then share with featured artists according to the terms of their contract. Unlike royalties for U.K. television and radio, session musicians do not typically receive a share of streaming royalties.

The major labels strongly oppose any change to copyright law around how streaming is classified. The labels have said that a move towards equitable remuneration would result in a substantial loss of earnings, reducing their ability to invest in new acts. It could also hamper the ability of rights holders to negotiate licensee agreements with streaming services, they say, by making it harder for them to walk away from negotiations.

The renewed call from British artists also comes after the World Intellectual Property Organization said in a report last week (June 1) that streaming should start to pay more like radio.

The WIPO reported noted that global recorded music revenues have grown six consecutive years to a total of $21.6 billion in 2020, even growing substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This streaming-fueled success has not trickled down to performers, especially non-featured performers,” the report said. “The more global revenues surge, the harder it is for performers to understand why the imbalance is fair—because it is not.”

The latest signatories to the letter to Johnson include well-known British music acts such as the Pet Shop Boys, Alison Moyet, Emeli Sandé, Van Morrison, and the Estates of John Lennon and Joe Strummer.

“This letter is fundamentally about preserving a professional class of music-maker into the future,” Tom Gray, founder of the #BrokenRecord Campaign, one of the U.K. organizers, says in a statement. “Most musicians don’t expect to be rich and famous or even be particularly comfortable, they just want to earn a crust.”

Ari Emanuel has resigned from his position on the Live Nation board of directors nearly 14 years after the founding partner at Endeavor was elected to represent shareholders of the world’s largest concert promoter, according to an SEC filing from Friday.

Emanuel had planned to leave following the launch of Endeavor’s IPO in April, according to a source at Live Nation, After a false start in 2019, Emanuel was able to successfully take the sprawling entertainment company Endeavor — which owns the WME and IMG talent agencies, the Miss Universe Pageant, Ultimate Fighting Championship and ticketing and hospitality company OnLocation — public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising about $511 million at a valuation of a little over $6 billion.

But his timing exiting Live Nation makes sense for another reason: Documents obtained by Billboard suggest Emanuel was waiting until June 3 for the vesting of his final stock award of 4,470 shares issued June 2020 worth nearly $400,000.

In a Live Nation SEC filing announcing Emanuel’s exit, the company said he “withdrew from reelection to the board of directors and will not be standing for reelection at the Company’s annual meeting of stockholders” on June 10. Live Nation officials note that the split was amicable and “not the result of any disagreement.”

Emanuel has enjoyed a long relationship with Live Nation chief executive and president Michael Rapino. Endeavor’s talent agency, WME, is one of the world’s largest music agencies and has booked the company’s clients across Live Nation’s portfolio of venues, festivals and global touring deals, resulting in billions of dollars in tickets sold. Endeavor also holds a partial ownership stake in Lollapalooza with Live Nation, which the promoter acquired in 2014 with the purchase of C3 Presents.

Live Nation’s stock value has grown nearly 350% during Emanuel’s time on the board, trading for approximately $20.30 per share in September 2007, down to a low of less than $5 per share in 2009 during the worst months of the financial crisis before beginning its ascent in 2013 and eventually reaching $75 a share in 2019. That’s a point Emanuel famously reminded Irving Azoff of in June 2013, six months after Irving unexpectedly resigned from his chairman position at Ticketmaster and cashed out his stock.

Emanuel began the fight, with many executives and WME agents on copy, forwarding an article from the Financial Times reporting that Live Nation’s stock price nearly doubled in the first half of the year.

“The article says since you left stock has continued to grow…..interesting,” Emanuel wrote. “How much money you lost by selling. Stupid move.”

Irving Azoff’s wife, Shelli Azoff, disagreed: “I am in the air on my new g450 (private jet),” she replied “We did ok with the LN stock.”

Years later, Emanuel might now be wondering if he sold his own Live Nation stock too early. On March 3, 2020, about 10 days before the company pulled touring shows off the road due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic, Emanuel sold more than 71,000 of his shares in Live Nation — representing 97% of his holdings in the company for approximately $58.26 per share, for a total of $4.8 million. Had he waited 15 months until his other stocks had vested on June 3, 2021, to cash out his holdings, it would have been worth $90 per share, buoyed by investor expectations for a strong recovery after the pandemic, generating $6.4 million.

NBC’s America’s Got Talent kicked off its 16th season last week, so Billboard is paying tribute to the 15 talented winners who made history on the series.

Created by ex-American Idol judge, X Factor creator and Syco Entertainment founder Simon Cowell and currently hosted by Terry Crews, the talent competition series premiered on NBC in 2006 as a way to find the best talent of any age in the country — whether they specialized in singing, dancing, performing magic tricks, acting as a ventriloquist, or even training dogs to do tricks — and have them headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip on top of a $1 million cash prize.

Current judges Cowell, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel recruit viewers’ help to crown the most talented, and each season’s top pick runs the gamut of skill sets.

Below is a complete list of which talented act won at the end of every season.

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Season 1

Winner: Bianca Ryan

At only 11 years old, the Philadelphia-based singer performed the Dreamgirls’ showstopper “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” for her viral audition — and the only place she was going after that was straight to the finale.

Season 2

Winner: Terry Fator

With more than 20 years of experience and opening gigs for country superstars like Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks, the Dallas native became the first ventriloquist to win the talent competition series.

Season 3

Winner: Neal E. Boyd

The Sikeston, Missouri-based classical opera singer won the competition in its third season and eventually landed a top 10 classical album with 2009’s My American Dream. He sadly died a decade after his victory on June 10, 2018.

Season 4

Winner: Kevin Skinner

The Kentucky-based country singer and guitar player quickly became a fan favorite in the fourth season with his stirring cover of Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes.” The judges compared him to a diamond in the rough, and his unique ability carried him all the way to the end of the competition.

Season 5

Winner: Michael Grimm

The Colorado-born, Mississippi-raised blues singer had love on the brain during the competition and revealed that his girlfriend at the time, Lucie Zolcerova, inspired his finale performance of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Not only did he win the fifth season, but he also got the girl at the end: He proposed to Zolcerova during a taping of Ellen just a day after he claimed victory (and she said yes!).

Season 6

Winner: Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.

The Logan County, West Virginia, native and jazz singer let the spirit of Frank Sinatra guide him all the way to the end of the competition, starting with his audition performance of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to covering “My Way” in the finale.

Season 7

Winner: Olate Dogs

Richard and Nicholas Olate, the Houston-based Chilean-American father-son duo of dog trainers, and their crew of rescue pups had the judges flipping out at the sight of all their tricks.

Season 8

Winner: Kenichi Ebina

The Japanese dancer might have been a solo act, but he immersed himself so well with his surroundings that he acted as each of the characters in the video screen behind him.

Season 9

Winner: Mat Franco

The Johnston, Rhode Island, native became the first magician to win the talent competition series. But his sleight-of-hand style of magic didn’t just secure him an AGT victory. His ongoing Las Vegas show, Magic Reinvented Nightly, earned him the best magic show award at the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Best of Las Vegas Awards and is the top-rated magic show in Vegas.

Season 10

Winner: Paul Zerdin

The internationally renowned British comedian and ventriloquist, who had even performed in front of the Queen, had the judges giving him (and his puppet Sam) standing ovations round after round.

Season 11

Winner: Grace VanderWaal

One of the most memorable wins in AGT history goes to the Lenexa, Kansas-born singer-songwriter and ukulele player, who took home the title at age 12. In the immediate years following her victory, VanderWaal released the full-length album Just the Beginning, accepted the Rising Star Award at Billboard’s Women in Music, along with a Radio Disney Music Award and Teen Choice Award, and toured with Imagine Dragons.

Season 12

Winner: Darci Lynne

The Oklahoma native (and her puppet Petunia) became the second singing ventriloquist to win AGT following her “idol” Terry Fator and went on to sell out headlining shows across the country, perform at the Grand Ole Opry, open for Fergie at Caesars Palace and star in her own NBC Christmas special My Hometown Christmas.

Season 13

Winner: Shin Lim

The Canada-born, Massachusetts-based act became the second magician to win AGT following Mat Franco. The fellow “sleight-of-hand artist” also became the 2015 International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM) champaign for the close-up card tricks he always has up his sleeve.

Season 14

Winner: Kodi Lee

The Lake Elsinore, California-based singer, who is blind and autistic, took home the title after a string of stirring performances at the piano. His flawless cover of Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You” earned Lee the first golden buzzer of the competition from judge Gabrielle Union, securing his title as the favorite ever since.

Season 15

Winner: Brandon Leake

The Stockton, California, native blew away the competition and captivated millions with his emotional spoken-word pieces before finally taking the crown.

The Weeknd swept the 2021 Juno Awards, which honor the year’s best music by Canadian artists. This year’s Junos were presented over two nights, Friday June 4 and Sunday June 6. Both shows were virtual affairs, with Sunday’s show including eight performances and six award presentations.

The Weeknd won five awards — artist of the year, album of the year and contemporary R&B recording of the year (After Hours), single of the year (“Blinding Lights”) and songwriter of the year. The pop and R&B superstar swept these same five categories five years ago with his album Beauty Behind the Madness and single “Can’t Feel My Face.” Yet The Weeknd didn’t appear on the show, either to perform or accept an award.

Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber and JP Saxe were also big winners on Sunday’s telecast.

The Weeknd is the first artist to sweep the awards for artist, album, single and songwriter of the year twice. The Weeknd is the also first three-time winner for artist of the year, an award that originated in 2003. He previously won it in 2015 and 2016.

The Weeknd was famously shut out in the nominations for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards. He fared much better at the awards in his home country. The Weeknd was this year’s only multiple Juno winner out of 43 categories presented over the two nights. These five wins bring his career total of Juno Awards to 15, which puts him in sixth place on the all-time winners list behind Anne Murray (25), Bryan Adams (21), Céline Dion (20), Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (18), and The Tragically Hip (17).

Mendes took the fan-voted fan choice award for the third time in the past five years. He previously won in 2017 and 2018. Only Bieber has won more times in that category (five). Michael Bublé and Avril Lavigne have also won it three times.

Bieber won pop album of the year for Changes. It’s his record-setting third win in that category, following My World 2.0 (2011) and Purpose (2016). Barenaked Ladies, Lavigne, Bublé, Lights and Alessia Cara have each won twice in that category. Changes was nominated for a Grammy this past year for best pop vocal album, but lost to Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia.

This brings Bieber’s collection of Junos to eight. Other 2021 winners who moved up the all-time winners list include Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (18), Alanis Morissette (13), Arkells (seven), Toronto Symphony Orchestra (six) and Bahamas (five). Bieber performed “Somebody” from a studio in Los Angeles. It was his first Junos appearance in 11 years.

Saxe won breakthrough artist of the year. He’s the first male artist to win in that category since Brett Kissel seven years ago, after which the award went to a succession of six female artists – Kiesza, Alessia Cara, Ruth B, Jessie Reyez, bülow and Lennon Stella. Saxe received a Grammy nomination for song of the year in November for “If the World Was Ending,” which he co-wrote with Julia Michaels. Saxe and Michaels performed that song, and another, “Like That,” on the Junos, also from Los Angeles.

Savannah Ré’s Solid won traditional R&B/soul recording of the year. The award was presented by Liberty Silver and Jully Black. In 1985, Silver became the first winner in an R&B category at the Junos. This marks the first year that R&B has been split into traditional and contemporary categories. As noted, The Weeknd won the contemporary R&B award.

According to the Junos, 52% of this year’s 48 unique winners were first-time winners, 46% had female representation and 40% had BIPOC representation.

The show also featured performances by Ali Gatie & Tate McRae (“Lie to Me” and “What If I Told You That I Loved You”); William Prince featuring Serena Ryder (“The Spark”) and Jessie Reyez (Do You Love Her” and “Before Love Came to Kill Us”). It also included a salute to 30 years of rap at the Junos featuring Michie Mee, Maestro Fresh Wes, Kardinal Offishall, Jully Black, NAV and Haviah Mighty.

Jann Arden, who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, performed “Good Mother” from the National Music Centre in her hometown of Calgary. The Tragically Hip, winners of the Humanitarian Award, performed “It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken” with special guest Feist from Massey Hall in Toronto.

The Junos are counting this at their 50th telecast. The awards debuted in 1970, but they skipped a year in 1988 and had only a perfunctory streamed awards presentation in June 2020, at the nadir of the pandemic.

The show included a series of illuminating spots dubbed “My Junos Moment” in which such stars as Morissette, k.d. lang and Shania Twain revisited clips from past shows and commented on what those moments meant to them.

Here is a complete list of winners presented on Sunday’s show. See this story for a complete list of winners presented on Friday’s show.

Juno fan choice: Shawn Mendes

Album of the year: After Hours, The Weeknd, The Weeknd XO/Republic/Universal

Artist of the year: The Weeknd, The Weeknd XO/Republic/Universal

Breakthrough artist of the year: JP Saxe, Arista/Sony

Pop album of the year: Changes, Justin Bieber Def Jam/Universal

Traditional R&B/soul recording of the year: Solid, Savannah Ré, 1Music/Universal

Taylor Swift is feeling all the emotions this weekend, as Evermore tops the Billboard 200 albums chart again.

As Billboard just revealed, Evermore returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a fourth nonconsecutive week in the top position, with 202,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending June 3, according to MRC Data. Album sales comprise 192,000 of that sum, which makes it the biggest sales week of 2021.

Swift retweeted Billboard’s update on Sunday (June 6), sharing her thoughts and gratitude.

“This one hit me hard,” she wrote. “I’m so in my feelings (more so than usual!) over what you all did here for evermore. Blown away by how much you care, and how long we’ve been caring about each other. Love you, so very much.”

Swift included four red heart emojis in her tweet — which, naturally, had fans putting on their detective hats in the comments. (Is it just a random way to show her love for Swifties, or could it be a hint that the re-recording of Red, her fourth studio album, is near?)

Billboard reported earlier that Evermore’s sales surge was fueled by the set’s modern-era record-breaking vinyl LP sales, autographed CDs and discounting on the digital version of the album. Evermore last held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 on the Jan. 16-dated chart.

See Swift’s reaction to the album’s return to No. 1 below.