Lady Gaga wasn’t quite ready to let her Joker: Folie à Deux character go, so she created an accompanying 13-track album titled Harlequin.

Joker: Folie à Deux follows Phoenix’s return as Arthur Fleck, a.k.a the Joker, who is now confined in Arkham Asylum. There, he meets Gaga’s Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, and they form a powerfully chaotic bond with the goal of causing mayhem across Gotham City. Unlike the first Joker film, the sequel includes a series of musical numbers, which is where fans see Gaga in her element.

“This idea of dual identities was always something that was a part of my music making,” Gaga shared in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the inspiration behind Harlequin. “I was always creating characters in my music and when I made Lee for Joker, she just really had this profound effect on me. The film had so much music in it, so much music that I love, and I was able to discover the character through the story, through the music that we did live every day as well as dance and the costumes and the makeup. So I kind of had this deep experience with the character and she just didn’t really leave me creatively and I decided I wanted to make a whole album inspired by her.”

She continued, “She’s a really complex woman and I think, particularly as a woman in music and a female producer, it was really fun to go, ‘This album will be and I will be what I want, when I decide, whenever I feel like it. If I want it to be blues, it’ll be blues. If I want it to be funk, it’ll be funk. If I want it to be soul, it’ll be soul.’”

The project features covers of old classics — including reimagined showtunes like “Good Morning” (Singing in the Rain) and “If My Friends Could See Me Now” (Sweet Charity) — and “celebrates a figure who thrives on danger, who lives for the undefinable, and who embraces the beautiful chaos of her own dreams,” per a press release. Harlequin also features two original songs, the dramatic waltz “Folie à Deux” and the acoustic ballad “Happy Mistake.”

“BloodPop and I had written this together and then I kind of took it to the next place,” she said of “Happy Mistake,” before adding, “It was all in the image of the character, but also kind of at the very core of her soul, which is really just me. Every character I play, it just has me as the gravity. I am wrestling, on that record, with a lot of feelings about so much that I’ve been through as an artist, everything I went through growing up in the public eye, and the industry since I was a teenager.”

Ultimately, Gaga says filming the Joker film with Phoenix was a “really soulful experience” for her. “It’s like these two people find love in this really dark place and it brings them all the light,” she explained.

Watch Zane Lowe’s full interview with Lady Gaga below. Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on Oct. 4.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

What if I told you that you could get 12 items of makeup essentials all in one convenient set? Sephora just released a new limited-edition holiday must-haves set that includes everyday best sellers from makeup to skincare. With Sephora Favorites Makeup Must Haves, you don’t have to worry about assembling it yourself. They’ve put together their best-selling makeup and skincare products into one easy-to-carry pouch, ready for you to enjoy.

This set includes Glossier Boy Brow Volumizing Eyebrow Gel-Pomade in Clear, Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Hydrating Makeup Primer, Makeup by Mario Soft Pop Plumping Blush Veil in Pinch Me Pink, Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Hair & Body Fragrance Mist, Olaplex Bonding Frizz Reduction and Heat Protectant Hair Oil, Grande Cosmetics GrandeLASH-MD Lash Enhancing Serum, Rare Beauty Positive Light Liquid Luminizer Highlight in Outshine, Tower 28 Beauty SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray, Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer in Riri, Haus Labs by Lady Gaga Hybrid Lip Glaze Plumping Gloss in Guava and Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting Liquid Exfoliant.

This TikTok-viral set has everything you need, from clear eyebrow gel to skin-perfecting liquid exfoliant. With all these essentials in one place, you’ll be ready to achieve a natural makeup look while also taking care of your skin. TikTok users are going crazy over the cute makeup pouch and the essentials in it.

Sephora Favorites Makeup Must Haves Set

$69

Buy Now at sephora

$52

Buy Now at khol’s

Get ahead of the holidays with Sephora’s new limited-edition favorites makeup must-have set. This set includes 12 bestsellers from makeup to skincare. It also comes with a cute makeup pouch for all your goodies.

---

If that’s not enough, you’ll see a variety of full-size and mini makeup items. One Sephora customer said, “May I just say… Worth your money! You get many full sizes, mini sizes perfect for travel, and the bag is adorable! You need this! Purchase now!”

Sephora has multiple different makeup sets they’ve but together, but according to another Sephora customer, this is “one of the best sets they have done!”

For more product recommendations, check out this travel-friendly Rare Beauty puffy makeup bag, Selena Gomez’s makeup routine and alternative budget-friendly beauty finds.

This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features fresh new music from artists including new releases from Ryan Castro, Shakira and Rauw Alejandro, to name a few. 

Ryan Castro teams up with newcomer Hamilton for “A Poca Luz.” Produced by The Prodigiez, the track is a departure from Castro’s signature perreo and dives into the chill rhythms of Amapiano laced with house beats. “I promised the moon that before the sun comes out, she was going to be mine […] my beautiful flower that drives me crazy,” Castro sings in the heartfelt song.

Meanwhile, Daddy Yankee blesses fans with a new song that thrives on a message of resilience and faith. In “Bailando en la Lluvia,” which in English translates to dancing in the rain, the reggaetón titan fuses his signature percussion-laden beat with a vibrant tropical pop melody as he invites fans in the lyrics to face adversity with trust in God.

Another new release comes by the way of Rauw Alejandro, who offers the third single from his upcoming fifth studio album Cosa Nuestra, set to arrive Nov. 15. “Pasaporte,” in collaboration with his longtime producer Mr. NaisGai, is a groovy, funk-infused dance track that captures Rauw’s innovative spirit.

Other new Latin releases this week include Shakira’s “Soltera,” Rosalía’s “Omega” featuring Ralphie Choo, Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida’s collaborative effort, titled “Tu Boda,” Sofía Reyes’ “Bi,” and Ha*Ash and Joss Favela’s “Nuestro Camino.”

Vote for your favorite new Latin music release of the week in the poll below.

The 35th anniversary of Billboard Latin Music Week, which is taking place Oct. 14-18 in Miami, will feature exclusive panels, conversations and performances by Latin music’s biggest stars. Tickets are available now at BillboardLatinMusicWeek.com.

News that Bytedance will shut down its 18-month old TikTok Music on-demand music streaming service might have come as a surprise to some people. After all, TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users globally and singlehandedly redefined music discovery by turning generation of smartphone users onto music-based, short-form videos.  

But TikTok Music’s demise was entirely predictable. Building a sustainable on-demand music streaming service is incredibly challenging. The digital music graveyard is littered with streaming products that didn’t last — remember Rdio, Boinc, Guvera, Turntable.fm or SpiralFrog? Not even a well-funded platform from a corporate giant is guaranteed of success. Sony’s Music Unlimited didn’t last. Nor did Microsoft’s Zune. Xiami, founded by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, shut down in 2021 after 12 years.  

Bytedance’s uphill road was made more difficult when it took on a different role with TikTok Music. TikTok was an insurgent that built itself without the typical constraints facing typical streaming services. The app created a new use case for music in the same way the download succeeded the CD and streaming succeeded the download. TikTok Music, on the other hand, was constrained by the licensing terms that govern on-demand services.  

As a result of those rules, Bytedance built something more like Spotify than TikTok because it didn’t have any other choice, says MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan. “TikTok Music had massive potential to be these so many things that didn’t look anything like any other [digital service provider],” he says. “But they still ended up having to make something that looked pretty much like any other streaming service.” 

That TikTok Music resembled every other music streaming service was a problem, Mulligan argues, not a solution for a new market entrant. On-demand music has become a well-functioning utility like water service, he explains, but one that doesn’t build communities, drive fandom or create conversion — things TikTok does well and TikTok Music couldn’t. “We all really value the water that comes out of our taps, but we rarely go down to the local bar and talk to our friends about how great the water is that comes from taps,” says Mulligan.  

These aren’t just any utility companies TikTok Music has been competing against. Market leader Spotify, with its $76 billion market capitalization, is far smaller than the next three companies, Apple, Google and Amazon. These four companies, and even smaller ones like them, have spent years pouring resources into building products and features that keep people listening to music, podcasts and, in the case of Spotify, audiobooks.  

TikTok is great at creating engagement, too, but getting people to listen to full songs is different than feeding them a never-ending series of 15-second video clips, says Vickie Nauman, founder of CrossBorderWorks, a music tech and consulting and advisory firm. “You can’t necessarily translate that to something else.”  

Things might be different if TikTok Music could differentiate itself on catalog by offering music not available on other music platforms. That’s how it works with on-demand video streaming. But global music services have, more or less, the same catalogs. Offering the world’s music has long been part of the music subscription service’s value proposition. So, music streaming services instead compete against one another on their user experiences.  

On-demand services “had to make [the user experience] so elegant, so intuitive, and really, really customize it to consumers,” Nauman explains. In her experience, people underestimate the difficulty of creating a great product and executing the technology that underpins it. “It’s incredibly challenging,” she says. “Not only the user experience,” she continues, but the technology required to manage many tens of millions of tracks. “I think a lot of companies just really misperceive it.” 

Changing consumer habits was always going to be a problem, too. It would be presumptuous to think anybody with a TikTok app would become a TikTok Music subscriber. Not every iPhone owner subscribes to Apple Music even though Apple offers a free trial to new iPhone owners and bundles the music service into a money-saving package, Apple One. Even though Alphabet owns both the Android operating system and YouTube, not every Android Phone owner subscribes to YouTube Music.  

“To some extent, I’m not surprised” by TikTok Music’s failure, says MusicWatch principal Russ Crupnick. When MusicWatch surveyed American TikTok users about their interest in a standalone TikTok streaming service, the reaction was “surprisingly low” and “very lukewarm,” he says. (TikTok Music never launched in the U.S.) “Getting most people to switch [subscription services] at this point is a bit of a challenge. You’re more likely to get people to use multiple services.”  

In the U.S., self-pay subscribers — not including free trials — have an overage of 2.3 music subscription services, according to MusicWatch. That includes Amazon Prime, which online shoppers buy mainly for free shipping, as well as satellite radio service SiriusXM. Asking people paying for multiple services to pay for one more music subscription plan is a tall order for a newcomer like TikTok Music. What’s more, MusicWatch found that Spotify ranks behind only Amazon Prime in terms of subscriber passion. When the economy gets rough, Spotify users are relatively unlikely to cancel their plans.   

Zoom out and the demise of TikTok Music reveals something else about the music streaming market. In 2024, the number of global platforms may have reached a steady state and new entrants are unlikely to appear (and, like TikTok Music, any attempts will be unsuccessful). Experts who spoke with Billboard don’t foresee there being another company with both the funding and the stomach to take on the demands of licensing and administering rights for a huge amount of music.  

“We’re at a fork in the road where all of these broad catalog licenses are kind of exhausted,” says Nauman. Gaming companies have the money but don’t need to license entire catalogs, she adds. Fitness companies that had licensed large catalogs now “want simpler solutions.”  

If new entrants are going to find success, says Mulligan, it could be in “regional hubs” in which streaming services can license a smaller amount of local music and focus on markets where Western repertoire is less important. In China, for example, a market dominated by local music licensed by local rights owners, Tencent Music Entertainment has 117 million subscribers and Cloud Music had 44.1 million at the end of 2023 (the last figure the company made available). But regional services are being threatened by the bigger global companies. In some populous markets such as India and the Philippines, dominant Western companies have pushed aside local players.  

In the end, Bytedance doesn’t need TikTok Music to be an influential force in music. Mulligan thinks it’s possible that the “majority” of music activity — not revenue — will happen on TikTok within three to five years. Younger people want to create, not just consume, he says, and TikTok could become a self-contained ecosystem that captures more of its users’ time — at the expense of the kind of on-demand streaming business that Bytedance is now abandoning. 

MarÍa Becerra announced a break from social media on July 30 amid the European run of her world tour. Despite positioning herself at the forefront of Latin pop over the past year — including scoring her first two No. 1s on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 and selling out River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in record time — the 24-year-old simultaneously needed a hiatus from the scrutiny that she, and many of her peers, face online every day.

“I understand that social media is necessary for our careers,” she says. “But the limit is reached when they start taking away my joy.”

Why did you decide to take a social media break?

It was doing me wrong to read so much hate — I was really affected by comments that only had the intention to harm [me]. The attack on women’s bodies who are part of the [music] scene is constant: If I’m too skinny, if I’ve had a boob job, if I train too much, how I do my makeup, how I dress… We struggle internally trying to please everyone without losing our own identity. Do you know how draining that is? Then, I said, “Enough. I’m tired, this hurts.” Instead of enjoying a tour that I dreamed so much about, I was suffering because of someone who writes from behind a screen.

What advice would you give to artists who feel similarly?

I’m currently in the process of learning to take care of myself. Going to therapy is beneficial for me; it helps me to think about what my limits are, what I want to share about my private life and what I want to keep for myself. I am a public figure, and those who listen to my music expect to know about me and see me beyond the shows. With my team, we seek a balance so that this ecosystem functions.

How could the entertainment industry better support artists?

I don’t know if [the problem] is the music industry. Everything I said before about what’s expected of female artists affects our self-esteem and puts an overexertion [on us] that ultimately generates a very large emotional imbalance. But the social media phenomenon has produced something where everyone needs to give their opinions. People express whatever they want, whenever they want, and while I greatly respect freedom of speech, this has turned into both a personal and social compulsion.

What can be done to create more open discussions on this topic in the industry?

The problem is not about talking; it’s what we do about it. How do we raise awareness of what is going on? What tools do people have to ask for help? I have the privilege of being able to pay for a psychologist, a health plan. But what about young people who are victims of cyberbullying and have no one to turn to? Who helps them? Talking about this in the media with responsibility could be a start, but I don’t have the formula. I’m just now learning to take care of myself and protect myself, and all of that is a long process.

This story appears in the Sept. 28, 2024, issue of Billboard.