Rich Homie Quan died Sept. 5 at 33 years old. At the time of his death, he was reportedly working on a new album, so his family took it upon themselves to complete his vision with the release of Forever Goin In.

The late Atlanta rapper’s first posthumous LP hit streaming services on Friday (Oct. 4) and Forever Goin In is loaded with 35 tracks. The album features assists from Skilla Baby, Lil Tjay, 2 Chainz, Plies, Sukihana and more.

“Dropping at MIDNIGHT! 34 listed songs ironically that’s the age I… bonus 1 extra, because tomorrow will forever be a celebration! My GIF to my Fans,” an Instagram post from Thursday (Oct. 3) announcing the project was captioned.

Tony Yayo, Jacquees, Sukihana and more flooded Quan’s comment section along with plenty of fans showing love to the late “Type of Way” rhymer.

The adorable cover art finds Quan in what could be an elementary school picture rocking a crown. “I promise I will neva stop going in…. Forever Going In,” the artwork reads.

Rich Homie Quan’s death was ruled to be an accidental drug overdose, according to a report from the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office released earlier this week.

The report found Quan’s system contained a toxic mix of drugs at the time of his death, which included fentanyl, alprazolam, codeine, promethazine and THC.

RHQ was laid to rest at a celebration of life ceremony in Georgia on Sept. 17, which saw speeches from family members and friends. Quan’s family issued his first posthumous single with the tearful “Song Cry,” which also had a poignant visual released on Sept. 30.

Stream the project below.

Katy Perry lands her sixth top 10-charting set on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Oct. 5), as her latest studio album, 143, debuts at No. 2 with 38,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 26 – her best sales week since 2017.

She previously visited the top 10 with her five earlier major label full-length studio releases: Smile (No. 3 in 2020), Witness (No. 1, 2017), Prism (No. 1, 2013), Teenage Dream (No. 1, 2010) and One of the Boys (No. 9, 2008).

Also in the top 10 of the latest Top Album Sales chart, Chappell Roan lands her biggest sales week yet – and first week at No. 1 – as The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess jumps 6-1. Meanwhile, the latest releases from P1Harmony, Lil Tecca, Keith Urban, Future, Grateful Dead and Seether arrive in the region.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Perry’s first-week sales were aided by 143’s availability across eight vinyl variants (including a signed edition), four CD variants (including a signed edition), a cassette tape and multiple digital download variants (including two exclusive to her webstore, each with bonus tracks).

As for Roan at No. 1, her album garnered a 328% week-over-week sales increase, selling 56,000 copies. The growth is owed to the release of four new vinyl variants and a cassette tape in celebration of the album’s first anniversary on Sept. 22. Of the album’s sales, vinyl comprises 50,000 – easily Roan’s best week on vinyl and the sixth-largest week for any vinyl album in 2024.

P1Harmony collects its best sales week yet, as Sad Song starts at No. 3 with 28,000 copies sold. It’s also the third top 10-charting set for the pop ensemble. The first-week sales were helped by the album’s availability across 24 collectible CD variants, a vinyl edition and a cassette. All variants contain branded paper ephemera like photocards and postcards.

Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet rises one spot to No. 4 with 15,000 sold (up 1%).

Lil Tecca nabs his best sales week ever, and first top 10, as his new album Plan A arrives at No. 5 with 13,000 sold. Previously, the rapper had never sold more than 4,500 copies of an album in a week. The new set’s sales were encouraged by two CD variants (including a signed edition) and multiple digital download variants (including three exclusive to the artist’s webstore, two of which included bonus tracks).

Keith Urban clocks his ninth top 10 on Top Album Sales as High bows at No. 6 with 12,000 sold. Its first week was helped by four vinyl variants, three CD variants – with some retail-exclusives containing branded paper ephemera.

Future’s Mixtape Pluto enters at No. 7 with 10,000 sold – his best sales week since 2020. Nearly 7,500 of that sum was driven by vinyl sales – aided by three vinyl variants. The set was also available on CD and as a digital download. The album was issued as an 11-song standard album (on vinyl, CD and download) and as an expanded 17-song set (on download).

Stray Kids’ former No. 1 ATE rises one rung to No. 8 with nearly 8,000 sold (down 13%).

Rounding out the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart are debuts from the Grateful Dead’s expansive archival live boxed sets, Friend of the Devils: April 1978, which starts at No. 9 (7,500) and Seether’s The Surface Seems So Far at No. 10 (just over 7,000).

The Dead package – sold exclusively via the band’s official webstore – captures eight concerts staged in April 1978 and is available either as a digital download or 19-CD boxed set, with pricing ranging from $159.98 to $199.98.

For Seether, the new Surface marks the band’s ninth studio album and seventh top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales.

When Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975, Kenan Thompson wasn’t even born yet — but Coldplay and Nate Bargatze think the longtime castmember has always been on the show.

“So Kenan, you have been on the show 50 whole years,” Bargatze says to Thompson in new promos for this weekend’s episode. “That’s amazing. How does it feel? … You had to be, what, 10 when it started?”

“You think I’m 60 years old?” Thompson says in disbelief.

“You look amazing for your age!” Bargatze adds, with Coldplay’s Chris Martin chiming in “You really do,” as his bandmates nod along.

“Aw, thanks, Coldplay,” Thompson says.

Sure, Thompson is the longest-tenured castmember in the show’s history — joining in 2003 and now in his 21st season on the sketch comedy show — but he’s just 46 years old, so he missed a few of the early years. (Fun fact: Thompson was the first regular castmember to be born after the show’s 1975 premiere.)

Elsewhere in the promos, Thompson pokes fun at his long tenure. “This is what I love about SNL,” Thompson says. “People from all over the world coming together to put on a show.”

“I’m from America!” Bargatze says, while Martin adds, “We’re from not America!” Then Thompson admits: “I’m from just behind the door, right over there. Born and raised. All my life, right here.”

Coldplay are returning to the show for an eighth time as musical guest, promoting their brand-new album Moon Music, out Friday. Comedian Bargatze is returning as host for a second time after making his SNL debut last year.

SNL season 50 premiered last weekend, with Jean Smart hosting and Jelly Roll as musical guest.

Watch Bargatze and Coldplay’s Saturday Night Live promos below, and catch the new episode on Saturday (Oct. 5) at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC, before it streams on Peacock.

EMPIRE is not for sale, said company founder/CEO Ghazi at the Trapital Summit on Thursday (Oct. 3) in Hollywood.

While appearing on a panel titled “The Rise of Independent Music” at the inaugural edition of the conference, Trapital founder Dan Runcie played a short game of over/under with Ghazi, asking the EMPIRE head how many calls he’d recently received about selling the label/distributor.

“You run a music company that has done well from a business perspective and many companies that are your peers in this space are being acquired, they are selling, they are raising money,” Runcie said, adding that EMPIRE is an attractive company to acquire at the moment. He then asked Ghazi if he had received over or under four phone calls in the last 12 months poking around to see if he would sell or allow investment.

“I haven’t gotten any phone calls,” Ghazi said sternly to the audience. “Because everybody knows I’m not for sale. Period. I am dead serious. I am living my purpose. There’s no price on that.”

The declaration comes as independent music distributors like Stem, Downtown, ONErpm and Believe have begun fundraising and exploring acquisitions from major music companies and other investors. Earlier this year, Warner Music Group looked into acquiring Believe (talks between the two ultimately fizzled out) and later hired Goldman Sachs banker Michael Ryan-Southern to lead its search to buy a distributor.

While EMPIRE would be an ideal acquisition target for the majors or private equity, Ghazi said that’s not an option.

“I’m one of the very few people that I don’t give a s— about money. I care about money that I can share with other people within the livelihood that I get to create,” Ghazi said at the one-day conference. “I used to tell people when I started EMPIRE, ‘I want to be the Robin Hood of the music business.’ And I think that I’ve stuck to my principles. People will always poke around and it never gets to me.”

Ghazi explained that he has brushed off any inquiries that have come his way and has tried to keep his eye on the prize. “We’re helping thousands of people. We’ve created micro-economies all across this planet we call Earth and, for me, there’s nothing more special than that,” he added.

The EMPIRE CEO’s declaration comes as client Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” continues its No. 1 streak on the Billboard Hot 100 with 12 weeks at the summit to date.

“Did you ever think that one of the biggest songs you would have would be a country song?” Runcie asked during the conversation.

“I didn’t think it wouldn’t be,” Ghazi responded. The CEO went on to explain that about five years ago, EMPIRE set out to find stars and that in every genre they explored — including hip-hop, country and Afro music — they found someone special. “A lot of it just has to do with having the right taste, your thumb on the pulse and approaching the culture with understanding what they’re trying to do,” he said.

Independent music trade bodies have hit out at TikTok for boycotting collective license talks with Merlin by seeking to strike direct deals with its indie label members, accusing the platform of trying to divide the sector and “drive down the value” of music.

Licensing talks between TikTok and Merlin, which negotiates digital licenses for a coalition of more than 30,000 independent labels and music companies, representing 15% of the global recorded music market, abruptly ended late last month when “TikTok walked away before negotiations even began,” according to a letter Merlin sent to its members on Friday (Sept. 27).

The London-headquartered indie rights organization, which counts the labels 4AD, Domino, Matador, Subpop, Partisan, Warp, XL Recordings and Secretly Group among its members, said that TikTok told them that it would not be renewing its license deal, due to expire Oct. 31, and was instead looking to licence its members directly.

A spokesperson for TikTok confirmed Monday (Oct. 1) that it was “committed to entering into direct deals with Merlin members in order to keep their music on TikTok.”

One of the reasons TikTok has given for not renegotiating its deal with Merlin is its concerns over alleged streaming fraud, which a TikTok spokesperson told Billboard specifically relates to a handful of Merlin members delivering songs or remixes of songs that they don’t own the rights to.

Addressing those allegations, Merlin told members it has worked “productively and collaboratively with TikTok” on streaming manipulation and fraudulent content “and until now, no concerns have been raised.”

Executives and trade bodies from across the independent music sector have also called into question TikTok’s reasoning for not renewing its deal with Merlin, while also slamming its attempts to boycott collective licensing with the company.

Brussels-based independent labels trade body IMPALA, which represents over 6,000 indie music companies in Europe and has previously criticized TikTok for the low returns it pays to rightsholders, said it strongly opposed TikTok’s attempts to boycott Merlin.

“Given the timing, it seems clear that TikTok’s real intention is to fragment the sector and drive down the value of independent music, rather than deal with streaming manipulation,” said Mark Kitcatt, chair of IMPALA’s streaming group, in a statement on Thursday (Oct. 3).

“Record labels have entrusted their rights to Merlin to negotiate on their behalf and by TikTok going directly to rights holders they are disrespecting the licensing agreements that are in place,” added Dan Waite, chair of IMPALA’s digital committee. “Like a supermarket chain negotiating directly with individual farmers for the price of their milk, it’s difficult to see how this can work out in the farmers’ favour.”

Referencing TikTok’s cited concerns around streaming manipulation, IMPALA’s executive chair Helen Smith questioned how seeking direct deals with Merlin members would better address the issue than renewing a collective license. “This feels like a smoke screen for boycotting Merlin given the history and the timing and the fact the whole industry is working hard on this important issue,” said Smith in a statement.

“TikTok’s claim that leaving Merlin would alleviate fraud is technically and effectively incorrect,” Gee Davy, interim CEO of the U.K.-based Association of Independent Music (AIM), tells Billboard. She claims that TikTok can already choose which music catalogs it uploads through the Merlin deal, and stresses it is by the industry working together “and TikTok re-engaging with Merlin that the industry will fight online fraud.”

“The resource required to close deals and manage a large number of independent music relationships, take down unlicensed music, and handle fraud separately across a number of participants would surely outweigh any gains,” says Davy. “And that’s aside from any reputational issues that arise from TikTok claiming to respect independent music while in practice showing that they don’t respect the licensing choices of independent music businesses.

“Many smaller labels and artists will be locked out of any direct licensing, which will sour relations as well as set back many years of work by Merlin, AIM and others in improving equitable access to the market and diversity of music available to consumers. We urge TikTok to speak to us and consider the bigger picture and; most of all, to recognise the inadvertent damage their actions have caused and return to discussions with Merlin.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Dr. Richard Burgess, president of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), who earlier this week told Billboard: “TikTok’s refusal to negotiate a deal with Merlin isn’t just a setback — it’s a threat to the whole music ecosystem.” Burgess said the dispute “isn’t just about Merlin; it’s about properly recognizing the value of artists and their music.”

The Brussels-based International Music Publishers Forum (IMPF) has also urged TikTok to reengage and strike a licensing agreement with Merlin, calling its attempts to “circumnavigate” collective licensing “a thinly veiled attempt to divide independent labels and drive down the price of music.”

“Merlin’s members have entrusted their rights to the organisation in order to uphold transparency, efficiency and fair remuneration. That must be respected,” said IMPF in a statement.

Merlin is the third music organization this year, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), to express challenges in renewing music licenses with TikTok. In February, UMG’s failure to reach a deal with TikTok led to the removal of its entire catalog of hits from TikTok for about three months.

In April, after publicly supporting UMG’s position against TikTok, the NMPA allowed its TikTok license, which was used by a number of indie publishers, to lapse as well. It has not been renewed. A spokesperson for TikTok says that many of the indie publishers have now established their own direct licenses with the short-form app.

Unless a swift resolution can be found between TikTok and Merlin — or Merlin’s label members choose to negotiate individual license deals with the ByteDance-owned platform — hit songs from artists like Nirvana, Phoebe Bridgers, Diplo, The Lumineers, Mac Demarco, Madlib, Mitski, Thundercat, Wet Leg and Coolio could start to be removed from TikTok on Nov. 1.