Maggie Rogers joined the chorus of fans and musicians paying tribute to Liam Payne in the wake of the late One Direction and solo star’s death in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday at age 31. During her show at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday night (Oct. 17), Rogers took a moment to remember Payne before performing a moving cover of a beloved 1D ballad.

“This week, in particular, I’ve been thinking how precious life is and how quickly things can change,” the singer said while seated at piano, as seen in videos of the special moment posted by fans. She said she’d been preparing to go to dinner with one of her oldest friends — who she’s known since she was nine-years-old — when that person walked into the room and told her about Payne’s death. “We’re just about the same age,” said Rogers, 30. “Any time a public figure, especially a musical peer, slips off, it’s really present and I’ve been sending a bunch of love to my friends and my band the last couple days… I wanted to just honor anyone who has been touched by [One Direction’s] music or those songs.”

She then launched into a hushed piano-and-voice cover of 1D’s “Night Changes,” the final single from the group’s penultimate album, 2014’s Four. “We’re only getting older, baby/ And I’ve been thinking about it lately/ Does it ever drive you crazy/ Just how fast the night changes?,” she sang as a rush of recognition came over the hushed crowd. “Everything that you’ve ever dreamed of/ Disappearing when you wake up/ But there’s nothing to be afraid of/ Even when the night changes/ It will never change me and you.”

Rogers was just the latest artist to pay homage to Payne, who died following a fall from the third-floor balcony of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday, sustaining multiple, mortal injuries.

On Thursday, Payne’s former 1D bandmates —  Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan issued a joint statement mourning the loss of their brother, saying “the memories we shared with him will be treasured forever.” In addition, all four living members offered up their own personal statements, as did Payne’s family and his former school.

Rogers’ tribute came after Rita Ora honored her former duet partner just hours after his death was reported during her concert in Japan. Ora struggled to get through the lyrics to “For You,” the collab single she recorded with Payne for the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack in 2018. Overcome with emotion, Ora let the audience sing in her stead as she walked around the stage with her head bowed.

A preliminary autopsy confirmed that Payne died from multiple traumas and internal and external hemorrhages sustained from the impact of a fall from the third-story of the Casa Sur hotel in the Palermo district in Argentina. Police are still investigating the incident, but initial reports are that they found substances in the star’s disheveled room that appeared to be narcotics and alcohol.

Watch Rogers’ tribute to Payne below.

He’s back: Sam Fender has announced a string of arena shows in the U.K. and Ireland for later this year. The Geordie musician has been working on his third album and shared details of his first full U.K. tour since 2022.

Fender’s dates will kick off in Ireland at the 3Arena in Dublin on December 2, then head to Leeds, Manchester, London, Birmingham, Glasgow and conclude in his hometown Newcastle on December 20. See the full dates below.

He’s also announced a string of shows throughout mainland Europe in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and more for next March. Tickets for all shows go on sale at 10 a.m. on October 25 via Fender’s official website.

£1 from every ticket sold will be donated to the Music Venues Trust, and follows Coldplay’s recent commitment to donate 10% of their upcoming tour revenue to the grassroots music scene via the Music Venues Trust.

Fender released his most recent album, Seventeen Going Under, in 2021 which topped the U.K.’s Official Album Charts upon release. The ensuing year saw him play several sold-out tours and included huge shows at London’s 40,000-capacity Finsbury Park and at St. James’ Park in Newcastle, home of his beloved soccer team Newcastle United. Earlier this year he collaborated with Noah Kahan on a new version of Kahan’s single “Homesick.”

Fender snagged huge slots across the globe on his last tour, headlining Reading & Leeds Festival in England, as well as appearing internationally at Lollapalooza in Chicago and Splendour In the Grass in Australia. In addition, over the summer he played a brace of U.K. gigs in Plymouth and at Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall.

In recent weeks he has shared teasers of the live dates and his upcoming record and he’s previously performed two unreleased song during shows, “People Watching” and “Nostalgia’s Lie.”

Sam Fender European tour 2024/25 dates:

December 2 – 3Arena, Dublin
December 4 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
December 6 – Co-Op Live, Manchester
December 10 – The O2, London
December 13 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
December 16 – Obo Hydro, Glasgow
December 20 – Utilita Arena, Newcastle
March 4 – Olympia, Paris
March 5 – 013 Poppodium, Tilburg
March 8 – Halle 622, Zurich
March 10 – Palladium, Cologne
March 12 – Zenith, Munich
March 13 – ChorusLife Arena, Bergamo
March 16 – Uber Eats Music Hall, Berlin
March 18 – Afas Live, Amsterdam
March 19 – Forest National, Brussels

LONDON – Independent labels trade body IMPALA is calling on regulators to investigate Universal Music Group’s acquisition of [PIAS] over concerns that the deal restricts competition in the global record business and “narrows options for artists and labels.” 

[PIAS] co-founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot announced earlier this week that they were selling their remaining shares in the indie label group to Universal Music Group (UMG), which already owns a 49% stake in the company, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal gives UMG full ownership of [PIAS]’s services division [Integral], which provides physical and digital distribution services to more than 100 indie label partners including ATO, Beggars Group and Secretly Group and will henceforth merge with Virgin Music Group.

Also falling under UMG’s control because of the share sale is the [PIAS] Label Group, home to indie imprints Play It Again Sam, harmonia mundi, Spinefarm, Source and partner labels such as ATO, Heavenly, Mute and Transgressive. Despite the change in ownership, [PIAS] says its label group business will remain completely autonomous.

In response, IMPALA and several of its associate national trade groups are calling on competition regulators to launch an investigation into what it described as “unchecked concentration in the music market [which] continues to be a serious problem.”

“The bottom line is UMG’s acquisition of [PIAS] will increase the power of [UMG] across Europe and beyond, including the U.K. and the USA, and IMPALA expects regulators in these jurisdictions to take action,” said the Brussels-based organization, which represents over 6,000 indie music companies in Europe, in a press release on Friday (Oct. 18). 

Helen Smith, IMPALA’s executive chair, said she “expects” regulators to review the [PIAS] acquisition “and answer the question the industry is asking about how it is possible for UMG to gain more market share after it was already considered too big?”

“A share deal is one thing, this is something else,” said Smith, who is calling for competition officials to assess how the deal impacts physical and digital music markets, including distribution services, “as well as the impact on competitors, digital services, artists and fans.” 

Geert de Blaere, the chair of Belgian association BIMA, said that while the Belgian market owes a debt of gratitude to [PIAS] for showing entrepreneurs what is possible, the impact of the company’s takeover by UMG “will be structural, significant and long lasting” for the independent music business. 

“This is completely different to a share deal as UMG takes over the market share of [PIAS]. Scale and stability in the whole independent sector will be lost. Incremental shifts in the market across the majors leverages disproportionate influence in the hands of a few companies. Each time that happens the result is more control over how the market develops,” said de Blaere in a statement.

Supporting calls for an investigation, IMPALA chair Dario Draštata said the deal strengthens UMG in terms of market share, “eliminates a principal competitor” and “narrows options for artists and labels.”

Representatives for UMG and [PIAS] did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by Billboard.

The acquisition of [PIAS] by the world’s biggest music company further grows the dominant market share enjoyed by UMG and follows the expiration of a 10-year ban on the music giant acquiring certain music companies or catalogs in Europe.

Those restrictions were placed on UMG in 2012 by the European Commission as one of the conditions of the company’s $1.9 billion takeover of EMI going ahead. As part of that process, the European Union’s executive branch forced UMG to divest the Parlophone Label Group, which was bought by Warner Music Group (WMG) for around $750 million, as well as the offloading of numerous EMI entities in Europe, and the Chrysalis, Mute, Sanctuary and Co-op Music labels.

To receive regulatory approval to buy EMI, UMG committed to not re-acquire any of the assets sold, or re-sign any artists signed with labels it had divested for a period of 10 years. Just a few months after that decade-long ban expired in September 2022, Universal acquired a 49% minority stake in [PIAS], which owns some of those previously off-limits catalogs, including Co-op Music.

On Tuesday (Oct. 15), UMG announced it had grown its minority interest to full ownership, following Gates and Lambot’s decision to sell their controlling stake.  

The acquisition of [PIAS] by UMG is part of a growing trend of major labels looking to the independent sector to increase their market share, either by enhancing their distribution offerings for indie artists and labels or by investing in, or buying, independent music companies.

In 2019, UMG acquired independent distribution and marketing company Ingrooves Music Group. One year later, Sony Music bought J. Erving‘s digital distribution and label services company Human Re Sources from Q&A, followed in 2021 by its purchase of artist services company AWAL and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights from Kobalt Music Group.

Major indie label acquisitions over the past decade include WMG buying Netherlands-based Spinnin’ Records in 2017 and Sony Music’s purchase of U.K. dance label Ministry of Sound in 2016.

On a smaller scale, WMG has been steadily growing its recorded music interests in Central and Eastern Europe, buying minority stakes in Croatia’s Dancing Bear Music, Slovenian independent label NIKA and Serbia’s Mascom. And this week, WMG Benelux announced the acquisition of Dutch label Cloud 9 Recordings.

Referencing the major labels’ pursuit of key independent labels, Draštata, who is also president of Balkan indie label trade association RUNDA, said the practice was becoming an “issue across Europe.”

“The loss of such big players for the independent sector compounds the competitive impact and the risk is that this trend will continue,” said Draštata in a statement. “We have been signalling the problem of creeping dominance for many years and it’s time for a new competition approach to address this question.”

Morgan Wallen has teased fans with the promise of new music over the past few months, sharing photos of himself in the studio. Now, as his third studio album One Thing at a Time reaches RIAA certified 7x multi-platinum status, Wallen is offering up an early glimpse of his upcoming new album, with the release of his new song, “Love Somebody.”

He wrote the song with John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Elof Loelv and Ryan Vojtesak, with production from Joey Moi and Charlie Handsome. Together, they crafted a song about someone seeking a lover who “won’t leave a hole in my heart.” Elsewhere, in the song, Wallen sings, “And I’ll be lucky if I ever find a somethin’ more than just a crazy night.”

“‘Love Somebody’ is a little bit of a new approach lyrically and sonically,” Wallen said in a statement. “I wanted to try something different, with what I wanted to talk about, how I wanted it to sound, and we were inspired by Latin-leaning influences. I’m really excited about this song and pumped that it is out.”

Wallen initially previewed “Love Somebody” on his TikTok account back in May, then performed the song during the European leg of his One Night at a Time Tour. He announced the song’s release during his double-shot of headlining shows at UT Knoxville’s Neyland Stadium, and also performed the song during the TJ Martell Foundation Gala event honoring Big Loud partner/CEO Seth England last month.

Wallen’s One Night At A Time Tour concludes this weekend with two nights at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on Oct. 18-19. The tour spanned two years, 87 shows, 10 countries, and 51 stadium plays, in addition to festivals and arenas and was named Billboard’s country tour of the year in 2023.

Listen to “Love Somebody” here.

It’s a superstar pop crossover! ROSÉ has officially launched her new solo era by teaming up with Bruno Mars on a new single called “Apt.,” which arrived on Friday (Oct. 18).

The song arrives just a day after the duo announced it, taking to Instagram to share the collaboration’s cover art. In the artwork, the BLACKPINK superstar lounges in front of a drum set, with the “Locked Out of Heaven” singer sitting behind it, holding the drumsticks. The pair, who are in black-and-white against a bright pink foreground, are matching in leather jackets and white t-shirts.

They’ve also been spending a ton of quality time together. Just hours before “Apt.” dropped, ROSÉ took to her Instagram Stories to share a video of the duo attending a soccer game. Meanwhile, Mars told a hilariously wild version of a story on his Instagram page that involved ROSÉ getting him “saucy” while teaching him how to play a Korean drinking game. “Soon after, she tried to kiss me, and I was like ‘woah Rosie! what part of the game is this?’ She was like, ‘I ain’t playin games wit you anymore lil boy! Big Rosie bout that BIDNESS!’ Shaken, I replied ‘stop Rosie, I’m scared!’ But other than that, super chill night,” he playfully wrote in the caption, to which ROSÉ replied in the comments, “what’s wrong with uuuu.”

“Apt.” will mark the K-pop star’s first release since announcing her December-slated 12-track album rosie earlier this month, and Mars’ first release since teaming up with Lady Gaga on the hit summer duet, “Die With a Smile,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Billboard Global 200 chart for seven weeks. When sharing the news of her first-ever solo LP earlier this month, ROSÉ wrote: “I have poured my blood and tears into this album. I cannot wait for you to listen to this little journal of mine … With this album, I hope you all feel that much closer to me. And yes, it’s a full length album.”

Listen to Bruno Mars and ROSÉ’s “Apt.” in full below.