London Mayor Sadiq Khan has rejected Madison Square Garden’s long-standing proposal to build a Sphere arena in London, less than two months after the company debuted its first Sphere project to critical acclaim in Las Vegas.

News of the rejection came by way of a letter from Khan to Anthony Hollingsworth, director of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which oversees London’s Olympic Park properties. On Nov. 6, Hollingsworth had written to Khan to inform him that “the local planning authority is minded to grant planning permission” for the Sphere project. In the letter dated Monday (Nov. 20), Khan explained to Hollingworth that after considering a 111-page report commissioned by the Greater London Authority (GLA) advising the mayor to reject the plan, he was now ordering the LLDC to “refuse planning permission” for the venue.

A statement from Madison Square Garden Entertainment officials said they were “disappointed in London’s decision” but added, “There are many forward-thinking cities that are eager to bring this technology to their communities. We will concentrate on those.”

A proposal for the venue was submitted in 2018, and Sphere London initially survived key votes by the city’s local planning authority. But with his letter, Khan has seemingly doomed the project.

The mayor said his main reason for rejecting the proposal was the impact he believed the venue would have on the surrounding area, writing that Sphere would “cause significant light intrusion resulting in significant harm to the outlook of neighbouring properties.”

He also said the size of the venue — 300 feet high and 400 feet wide — “would result in a bulky, unduly dominant” facility” that failed “to respect the character and appearance of this part of the town centre and the site’s wider setting.” Lastly, he criticized the venue’s high “energy intensive use,” which he says “does not achieve a high sustainability standard, and does not constitute good and sustainable design.”

“GLA officers have concluded that to grant permission would be contrary to the Development Plan,” adds Khan in the letter, citing a document that lays out the spatial development strategy in London for the next 20 to 25 years. “[It] would prejudice the implementation of the policies within the Development Plan relating to residential amenity, good design, and the conservation and enhancement of London’s heritage.”

The Sphere project had previously faced pushback from some local residents as well as AEG, which operates London’s O2 Arena, located just four miles from the proposed site of the venue. In January, after the London Legacy Development Corporation’s Planning Decisions Committee greenlit MSG Entertainment to initiate work on the project, AEG called on Khan to reject the project in a statement that read in part: “The advertising façade is at a wholly unprecedented scale for London and totally out of keeping with the surrounding area. The design was conceived for the heart of Las Vegas and has been transposed onto this east London site: it’s the wrong design, in the wrong location.”

Dua Lipa works her magic on multiple Billboard charts dated Nov. 25 with her new single, “Houdini.” Among other entrances, it begins as her first No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

The song drew 23.8 million airplay audience impressions and 12.4 million official streams and sold 7,000 sold downloads in the U.S. Nov. 10-16, according to Luminate, following its release at 6 p.m. ET Nov. 9.

Lipa earns her second No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with the track, which previews her third studio album, expected in 2024. She spent 36 weeks at the summit with “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” with Elton John, beginning in October 2021.

The new song, whose title is an ode to famous late illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini, also launches at No. 11 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, where it’s Lipa’s highest debut to date.

On the Radio Songs chart, “Houdini” starts at No. 25, likewise Lipa’s best beginning. It debuts at No. 16 on Pop Airplay, also a new personal first-week high, and No. 20 on Adult Pop Airplay.

As previously reported, “Houdini” enters at No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200, with 51 million streams and 13,000 sold worldwide. Lipa notches her fourth top 10 on the survey. The song also opens at No. 5 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, where it’s her fifth top 10.

Lipa celebrated the song’s arrival with fans at the Houdini Estate in Los Angeles on Nov. 14, inviting them to navigate an escape room and, once safely free (if?), to dance.

Following his death nearly a century ago, Houdini has reappeared as the subject of other chart hits. Walter Brennan spent a week at No. 100 on the Hot 100 in 1962 with “Houdini”; Kon Kan hit No. 33 on Dance Singles Sales in 1989 with “Harry Houdini”; and Foster the People’s “Houdini” hit No. 37 on Alternative Airplay in 2012.

In the new year, Spotify plans to roll out a new royalties model that will drive more money to more popular artists, record labels and distributors, while clamping down on streaming fraud.

The scheme is three-pronged, based on Billboard’s reporting, creating a new streaming threshold that tracks must reach in order to qualify for royalties, penalizing fraudulent activity and setting a minimum play-time length for non-music noise tracks to earn revenue on the platform. The details on each of these elements have trickled out in the press without a formal announcement, but Billboard can now report specifics on each, according to sources in streaming and distribution.

Here’s a full rundown of Spotify’s new royalties model:

As previously reported, Spotify’s new royalty model will affect more than two-thirds of its song catalog but that’s due to the magnitude of music that’s uploaded to the platform, where the vast majority of songs don’t get listened to with any frequency. While tens of millions of songs will fall below the 1,000 streams threshold, a source tells Billboard that policy will only shift about 0.5% of Spotify’s royalty pool to more popular tracks. That was equal to about $46 million in royalties in 2022, out of $9.27 billion paid out in total.

The changes have been largely applauded by the music industry, although some in the independent distribution sector are concerned that the anti-fraud measures could disproportionately affect DIY distributors, even though major label acts sometimes engage in this activity too. These companies that have built hands-off, high-volume distribution businesses with small margins, charging a small fee per upload have huge batches of new music uploading daily, which means it’s hard to know who is doing the uploading.

DistroKid founder Philip Kaplan voiced his objection to the penalty system on a recent call with the Music Fraud Alliance, according to two sources who were also on the line.

One of those executives described the gist of Kaplan’s comments: “We can’t determine if a new client is going to hire a marketing service that’s going to bot streams until they’ve done it. It’s like you can’t determine if your neighbor is going to commit a crime.”

Spotify is planning to roll out its new royalties model in early 2024, although no firm date has yet been announced. The changes will not affect songwriters for the time being.

It’s officially the holiday season, and the Queen of Christmas has defrosted.

Mariah Carey took the stage at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (Nov. 19) to deliver a festive performance of her holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Dressed in a white figure skater dress, complete with matching go-go boots and sunglasses, the legendary vocalist performed the track in the middle of an “ice-skating rink,” as her dancers on wheels glided around on the white floor surrounding her in a Debbie Allen-choreographed sequence.

The fans in the audience were chosen in a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the BBMAs and Spotify Fans First, who teamed up to identify fans who have consumed the most hours of music over the past year and helped drive their favorite artists to the top spots on the Billboard charts.

Carey was also honored with the Billboard Chart Achievement Award for the holiday classic, and the award was presented to her by her 12-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan.

“Billboard has been an integral part of my life for a very long time now,” Carey said in her acceptance speech. “Even though I don’t acknowledge time, I kind of have to admit that some of my most memorable times in my career are connected to Billboard and the BBMAs. One thing I really have to say that I’m really grateful for is the fact that my fans have been here with me through the hits, through the misses, the No. 1s and the Bubbling Unders.”

“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 every year since 2019, has thus far spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s flagship chart, becoming one of three Carey hits to log 10 or more weeks in the top spot. It joins “One Sweet Day,” a collab with Boyz II Men that spent a then-record 16 weeks at No. 1 in 1995-96, and “We Belong Together,” which spent 14 weeks on top in 2005.