HYBE shares jumped 17.5% to 230,000 won ($170.84) this week following news that the company struck a 10-year partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG) that calls for the label to distribute HYBE’s physical and digital music and put its artists on HYBE’s Weverse social media platform. HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun will oversee all promotional and marketing collaborations between the two companies. After dropping 9.1% over the previous four weeks, the announcement brought the South Korean company’s year-to-date deficit to just 1.5%. 

Another K-pop company, SM Entertainment, was one of five music companies to post double-digit stock gains this week, with its shares rising 14% to 87,800 won ($65.22). On Wednesday (March 27), the company announced the appointment of Tak Young-jun to co-CEO alongside existing CEO Jang Cheol-hyuk. SM Entertainment also announced a 1,200-won ($0.89) per-share dividend totaling 28.1 billion won ($20.8 million), an amount equal to the prior year’s dividend.

The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 1.9% to a record 1,752.24 as 16 stocks posted gains, only three lost ground and one was unchanged. Even with an unusually high number of winners, the float-adjusted index, which gives greater weight to more valuable companies, fell this week because two of the three losers are among the most valuable music companies. Spotify, which has a market capitalization of roughly $50 billion, fell 0.4% to $263.90. Live Nation fell 0.2% to $105.77; its market capitalization is about $24 billion. Two more of the index’s largest companies had gains under 2%: UMG rose 1.6% to 27.88 euros ($30.11) and Warner Music Group (WMG) improved 1.4% to $33.02. Another valuable member of the index, Chinese music streamer Tencent Music Entertainment, rose 2.2% to $11.19. 

Hipgnosis Songs Fund shares climbed 13.5% to 69 pence ($0.87) after the company’s board of directors released an internal report on Thursday (March 28) that showed the fund’s investment advisor, Hipgnosis Song Management, “materially” overstated annual revenue and misled investors about the amount of control exercised over the rights in its portfolio. The negative news was welcomed by investors who have taken issue with the company’s accounting practices and portfolio valuation. Hipgnosis shares traded as low as 52.9 pence ($0.67) on March 4 but have rebounded since the company overhauled its board and hired Shot Tower Capital to put together the due diligence report. 

CTS Eventim, the German live events promoter and ticketing company, rose 11.1% to 82.45 euros ($89.05) after releasing earnings for the fourth quarter and full-year 2023 on Tuesday (March 26). The company expects “a moderate rise” in total revenue in 2024. Demand is “rising continuously,” CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg wrote in the annual report, and the company expects the recent decline in inflation to provide “new, consumption-driven impetus for growth in the future.”

Believe shares rose 7.2% this week to 16.92 euros ($18.27) following the company’s announcement that it will accept a formal offer from WMG by April 7. WMG revealed its interest in Belief on March 7 and said it would be willing to pay at least 17 euros ($18.36) per share. A consortium that includes Believe CEO Denis Ladegaillerie has lined up a large block of shares and is willing to offer 15 euros ($16.20) per share for the remainder. With Believe shares currently trading so close to WMG’s soft bid, investors apparently don’t think the consortium’s original offer is going to suffice. 

Stocks were mixed as the trading week was shortened by some exchanges’ closure for Good Friday. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3% to 16,379.46 and the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,254.35. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,952.62. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index fell 0.1% to 2,746.63. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.2% to 3,041.17. 

When Travis Scott returns to Saturday Night Live this weekend as the musical guest, castmember Marcello Hernandez promises the show will be in “Sicko Mode” — just like Scott’s Billboard Hot 100-topping Drake collab from 2018. But first-time host Ramy Youssef isn’t having it in new SNL promos, released late Thursday (March 28) ahead of Saturday’s new episode.

“I told you not to do that in front of him,” the Poor Things actor/comedian tells Hernandez of the song-title pun.

“Sorry, I just get these goosebumps every time,” Hernandez replies with a smirk, name-dropping yet another Scott song: “Goosebumps,” a top 40 Hot 100 solo hit in 2017 that led to the No. 47-peaking HVME remix in 2021.

“It’s just not a good look,” Youssef says. “Sorry, Trav.”

Things don’t get any better for Hernandez in a second promo, when he launches into an ill-fated joke setup. “A Latino guy, an Egyptian guy and a Black guy walk into a bar…” he begins, before Scott and Youssef cut him off.

“You guys are probably right, because the punchline was bad,” Hernandez admits, before Youssef says, “The setup was too.”

Scott will take his second turn as SNL musical guest this weekend, following his October 2018 debut. For his first performance, he brought out John Mayer on guitar and Kevin Parker of Tame Impala on bass for a mash-up of “Skeletons” (which features Mayer) and “Astrothunder” (a collaboration with Tame Impala) from his Astroworld album, before pulling out “Sicko Mode” sand Drake for his second song.

Youssef will host SNL for the first time after co-starring opposite Emma Stone in the awards-season darling Poor Things. The stand-up comedian also took home the best actor in a television series – musical or comedy Golden Globe in 2020 for his Hulu series Ramy.

Watch the new SNL promos below, and catch the new episode at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. ET on NBC or streaming on Peacock.

50 Cent has denied allegations of sexual and physical abuse from his ex-girlfriend Daphne Joy.

“The disturbing allegations in the sworn pleadings recently filed in a court case related to Daphne Joy the mother of my twelve year old child, has required me to take all necessary legal actions to protect my son Sire,” the rapper said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “The most recent false and baseless accusations by Daphne Joy are clearly in response to my decision to seek sole custody of my son. My son Sire is my main priority and keeping him in a safe environment is my only focus at this time.”

The statement comes soon after Joy — who dated 50 in 2011 and shares son Sire with him — took to Instagram on Thursday (March 28) to claim that 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) abused her and sexually assaulted her. Joy was also named in Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones’ lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, alongside Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Yung Miami, who allegedly received money for sex work.

“Curtis James Jackson. Everything is a joke to you until our safety is compromised, which is happening now. You are wreaking real havoc, frenzy and chaos onto people’s lives. How could u feel if Sire was the one in handcuffs? For nothing,” she wrote in her post. “We moved to New York to give you the opportunity to be a father to your son and you saw him 10 times out of the 2 years that we lived 1 mile away from you. I am tired of upholding and protecting an image to our son that you have never even earned.”

Joy also denied the accusations from Jones’ lawsuit, writing on Instagram, “I am deeply hurt by the lies in Rodney Jones’ lawsuit. The claim that I am a sex worker is 100% false and character assassination. I am retaining an attorney to explore all legal remedies against both Rodney and his attorney.”