Thomas Rhett has added a new title to his résumé: father of five.

The country star and his wife, Lauren Akins, announced Friday (Feb. 27) that they’ve welcomed their first son, Brave Elijah Akins, who arrived last week weighing “almost 10 pounds and almost 2 weeks early.”

In a joint Instagram post, Akins shared that Rhett was deeply involved in the delivery. “Thomas Rhett was my biggest champion in labor & delivery🤍 He helped deliver him (😭), was the first one to see and tearfully, mixed with a bit of shock announce to us all in the room ‘It’s a BOY’😭🩵🥰,” she wrote.

Brave joins the couple’s four daughters — Willa Gray, Ada James, Lennon Love and Lillie Carolina — expanding the Rhett household to seven. “Your four sisters are smitten and we are completely over the moon in love with you big Brave boy 🩵🌙🩵,” Akins added.

The couple first revealed they were expecting their fifth child in August 2025, when Rhett surprised fans by tweaking the lyrics to his 2017 hit “Life Changes” in a social media video — a full-circle moment for a song that helped define his early mainstream breakthrough.

“Life Changes” topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and became one of Rhett’s signature crossover hits, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 and helping solidify his standing as one of country radio’s most consistent hitmakers of the past decade.

Fatherhood has long been woven into Rhett’s songwriting. His 2015 smash “Die a Happy Man” — inspired by his relationship with Akins — spent multiple weeks at No. 1 on Country Airplay and earned Grammy nominations, while later projects have continued to reflect his evolving life at home.

Over the past decade, Rhett has amassed more than 20 career No. 1s across Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and released seven studio albums, including Where We Started.

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If you’re an independent artist looking to create, promote and grow your online presence, creating a home base and foundation of your work is key. Like inviting people to your home, artists need an online hub that reflects your style, vision and message. Yes, social media platforms are a great way to interact with fans, but if you want sustain engagement and reach other online communities, promoting your music takes a lot more thought than posting a link or going viral once.

To help upcoming artist make the most of their online presence, we’ve created a how-to guide on promoting your music online in 2026.

Leverage Social Media Without Burning Out

When it comes to promoting your music and your brand, the power of social media is limitless. With a variety platforms to connect with fans, other artists, media outlets, local communities and so on, building an online presence is the quickest way to connect your music with everyone. For independent artist, it’s best to focus on one or two social media platforms. It’s generally more effective to focus on a platform where your target audience is most active rather than spreading yourself thin across many.

Mastering a single platform allows for higher-quality, consistent content, which is often more valuable than maintaining a fragmented presence. Once you have established sustainable growth and consistent engagement on one, you can strategically expand to other platforms if they align with your goals and make sense for your online presence. This rule also applies to paid advertisement. If you start promoting your music with ads too early the authenticity of your work could feel tainted.

Build a Professional Artist Website as Your Home Base

As great as social media platforms are for growing and connecting with fans, having your own website gives you more control to create and build credibility without the hassle of algorithms and rules. It’s a way to directly communicate to your fans without any distraction. With a home site, you can set up content for followers that they can’t engage with anywhere else, including an email newsletter or provide exclusive discounts or bundled deals that only your community can take advantage of.

With Bandzoogle, the site offers every tool you’ll need to customize a website to your liking. No, you don’t need to be a designer or coder. The site offers simple steps to rearrange sections, add in image assets, change colors, text, templates and more. Once you have a layout in place, the site design will automatically optimize for PC as well as mobile with ease. Don’t know want to create a layout from scratch? Bandzoogle has dozens of stylish preset designs made for musicians — all included free with Bandzoogle website plans.

Use Streaming Platforms as Part of Your Promotion Plan

With your new and improved website, it’s time to promote your music. From electronic press kits, smart links and music landing pages, Bandzoogle gives musicians a variety of options to create custom onesheet promo pages to share your music with fans and industry professionals. On the site, you can create email newsletters, fan mailing list, early access promo and even blogs for more in-depth content. This is great way to bypass the noise of social media and create exclusive content for your die-hard fans.

Also, when promoting your music. The most common way to build up hype and sustain it is by creating a three-step plan: pre-launch, release and post-launch. Typically, you should work backward from your release date, ideally allowing 4–8 weeks for the pre-launch phase to educate your audience and build up interest. During the release, shift to direct, high-intensity promotion. Finally, for post-launch, deliver extra content to keep fans engaged, like behind-the scenes footage or Q&A’s.

Collaborate & Network With Other Musicians

Building relationship within your industry is great way to grow your presence with the music world. The best ways to build your network is by connecting with artists in your local community or similar genre, prioritizing live gigs and community events. Expressing your interest and support toward fellow artists can open the opportunity for collaborations or remix’s that can penetrate their fan base.

When online, following local venues, artists and industry professionals can easily provide opportunities to connect. Building these relationships takes time—focus on being a present, reliable community member.

Take Email Marketing Seriously (Even If Your List Is Small)

Like previously mentioned, using your website to create an email newsletter is an efficient to communicate with your fan base without any distractions or restrictions. Bandzoogle can help grow that list over time by giving you all the tools you need to setup a consistent content rollout. With the platform, artists can schedule mailouts in advance, track email reports in real time and the ability to reward fans who have signed up for mailing list with exclusive content like free tracks, artwork or early access promos.

Turn Your Songs Into Visual Stories With Video

With TikTok and Instagram Reels becoming a popular choice for younger generations to consume content, this sets up low-budget, short-form opportunities for indie artists to create visual assets for their work. All you need is an iPhone to capture content and go viral off of a 3 to 30-second clip. As you grow and your budget grows, creating a traditional music video becomes more viable. Wheter its short or long form video content, develop a creative concept that plays to your existing strengths while minimizing complex logistics. Focus on a single, compelling idea—such as a strong narrative, unique performance, or artistic aesthetic.

Pitch Yourself to Local Press, Blogs & Playlists

These days engagement is king. The bigger your audience, the more intriguing you are publications and media outlets. Building your community, brand image and resume should be your first priority. Once that foundation is strong, you should create an press kit. Luckily, once you sign up for Bandzoogle, you’ll get access to builld custom EPK’s that spotlight’s your best work with features to show off your music, press images, album art, videos and everything else. Once your EPK is created, you should realistically target a highly curated list of 20 to 50 journalists and outlets within the focus area of your music.

Participate in Online Music Communities

Platforms like Reddit, Discord and other internet forums a great ways to dive deeper into niche music communities. Depending on your genre of music, finding similar communities online is a great way to promote your music to current and new fans with a similar taste in sound. Without spamming your content down people’s throat, share your music within those forums while asking and taking in feed back. Provide updates on new music releases or upcoming concert dates.

Use Contests, Giveaways & Experiments

Make your fans feel special by offering contests, giveaways and promotions that will present fun ways for your community to invest in your world. From merch promos, free ticket giveaways, and exclusive digital content, by targeting people who genuinely care about your product or content, you attract long-term followers rather than “freebie hunters” who unfollow after the contest ends. Success relies on keeping entry tasks simple, setting a clear timeframe, and maintaining active engagement throughout.

Analyze and Adapt Your Strategies

Bandzoogle isn’t only great for building a website, but for monitoring data as well. It’s important for indie artists to analyze active fan engagement and sustainable growth alongside total stream counts. With Bandzoogle, users can look at interactive reports to see all visitors at a glance. Want to know the area your fans are most active in? The platform also offers location data, so artists can see fan activity on an interactive map, including purchases, music plays, and mailing list signups. This can help you find your best fans when you plan your next tour or where to promote your music.

[SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers about the season 4 finale of The Traitors, which premiered Thursday night on Peacock.]

Anyone who just discovered Eric Nam from his memorable turn on The Traitors has more than a decade of his K-pop catalog to dig back into — or new fans could just wait for his upcoming “revenge music.”

On Friday (Feb. 27), the day after the season 4 finale of the buzzy reality competition started streaming on Peacock, the Traitors social channels shared a video of Nam sending a very pointed musical message to one of his castmates.

“This song is for Rob,” Nam said from the show’s signature Scottish castle, calling out Rob Rausch — the Love Island USA alum and day 1 Traitor who got all the way to the end and won the full $220,800 prize in Thursday’s finale. Nam and Rausch had a complicated dynamic on the show, given that Rob recruited Eric to be a Traitor after his fellow O.G.s Lisa Rinna and Candiace Dillard Bassett were banished, and then teamed up with eventual runner-up Maura Higgins to banish the K-pop idol in the end.

So what song did Nam dedicate to Rausch? CeeLo Green’s 2010 Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 smash “F**k You!” “I see you drivin’ ’round town with the girl I love, and I’m like, ‘F— you!’” Nam sings, opting for the unedited original vs. CeeLo’s “Forget You!” radio edit.

And if we’re to believe the Instagram comments section on the video, Nam is just getting started. “Revenge music coming soon,” he joked in the comments section, with his fellow contestants Kristen Kish and Stephen Colletti responding with cry-laughing and clapping emojis.

Of course, it’s all in good fun, as Nam ends the video with a laugh.

Watch Nam’s “F**k You!” musical message below:

Forgiveness isn’t for everyone.

All episodes of #TheTraitorsUS are streaming now on Peacock. pic.twitter.com/Rj6XbspCqe

— The Traitors US (@TheTraitorsUS) February 27, 2026

Will Smith’s lawyers say a judge should throw out a “farce of a lawsuit” brought by an electric violinist who performed on the star’s Based on a True Story tour last year.

The Feb. 20 motion, obtained by Billboard, is Smith’s first court filing responding to sexual harassment and retaliation claims leveled against him by violinist Brian King Joseph in December. King, who came in third place on season 13 of America’s Got Talent, says he was wrongly fired from Smith’s international tour after complaining that somebody had broken into his hotel room and left sexually suggestive materials.

“Brian King Joseph is using the California court system to maliciously ensnare [Will Smith] in a frivolous lawsuit,” reads the motion, filed by Smith’s attorneys at the firm Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani. “The false and salacious allegations in plaintiff’s complaint undoubtedly make for tabloid fodder but, like most tabloid stories, they are untrue, inflammatory, legally baseless, and are nothing but an attempted money grab.”

Smith denies ever sexually harassing Joseph. As Joseph’s lawsuit acknowledges, it’s not known who it was that broke into his Las Vegas hotel room and left a bottle of HIV medication, an earring and a note – and Smith says it absolutely wasn’t him or anybody on his team.

Joseph’s case attempts to connect Smith to the hotel room incident by claiming that the actor and singer was “grooming” him beforehand. But Smith says there’s no truth to this “absurd conclusion” either, noting that he was never even alone with Joseph.

According to Smith, the real reason Joseph had to leave the Based on a True Story tour was because he often arrived late for rehearsals, behaved erratically and made other performers feel uncomfortable.

“Plaintiff was never promised a regular position in the band,” writes Smith’s lawyers. “Ultimately, it was determined that plaintiff was not a good fit for the band and he was not invited to perform at further shows.”

Ultimately, Smith argues in the motion that a Los Angeles judge should dismiss the lawsuit permanently because Joseph has not pled any valid facts to prop up his claims.

Reached for comment on Smith’s arguments on Friday (Feb. 27), Joseph’s attorney Jonathan J. Delshad told Billboard, “A jury’s ultimate determination matters more to us than Mr. Smith’s opinion of this case.”

“The defense’s ‘press-release rhetoric’ that they added to the brief is not evidence,” said Delshad. “We will oppose the motions and present the facts in court. When the case is complete, the gap between the rhetoric and the factual record will be obvious.”

Smith’s dismissal motion is set to be considered by a judge at a hearing in April.

Lil Durk’s trial on federal murder-for-hire charges has been postponed again, this time from April to August, despite the rapper’s continued objections to the delays.

The Chicago drill star (real name Durk Banks) was charged in October 2024 with orchestrating a plot to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo, resulting in a 2022 Los Angeles shooting by others that left another man dead. He denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

A jury trial for Durk and his three co-defendants has been repeatedly pushed back, first from October to January, then to April – each time over Durk’s objections. Now, in an order Friday, Judge Michael Fitzgerald ordered another continuance, this time until August 20.

Ahead of the new delay, Durk’s co-defendants had asked to be severed from his trial entirely, citing the risk that evidence against the star might hurt their own defenses. But that request was denied on Friday by the judge, who pushed the date back to give them more time to prepare for the combined trial.

In a statement to Billboard, Durk’s attorney Drew Findling said: “We are fully prepared to proceed to trial. The matter was continued by the court over our objection.” A spokesman for prosecutors declined to comment. Attorneys for Durk’s three codefendants – Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Asa Houston and David Brian Lindsey – did not immediately return requests for comment.

Durk faces allegations that he ordered members of his Only the Family (OTF) crew to carry out the 2022 attack, which left Rondo (Tyquian Bowman) unscathed but saw his friend Lul Pab (Saviay’a Robinson) killed in the crossfire.

In charging documents, prosecutors claimed that Durk’s OTF was not merely a group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal gang to carry out violent acts “at the direction” of Durk. Prosecutors say he ordered the Rondo shooting in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), a close friend and frequent collaborator of Durk’s.

In a key decision earlier this month, Judge Fitzgerald ruled that prosecutors can introduce lyrics from his songs as evidence – namely his Nardo Wick collaboration “Who Want Smoke??”, which peaked at No. 5 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2021, and “Ahhh Ha,” which hit No. 4 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in 2022. The judge said the lyrics to those tracks were relevant to whether Durk ordered the hit as payback for Von’s slaying.

The use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases is controversial, with critics arguing that it threatens free speech and injects racial bias into legal proceedings. Several states have banned or limited this practice for local prosecutions. It’s still legal in federal court, though, where Durk is being tried.