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.

A new era of sound.

Sonos unveiled two new speakers, the compact Era 100 speaker and the more robust Era 300, on Tuesday (March 7). Both speakers are available for pre-order and will begin shipping on March 28.

The Era 100 ($249) features “next-gen acoustics” with intuitive touch and voice controls and Trueplay tuning technology that analyzes the acoustics in the room to optimize the speaker’s EQ and deliver an immersive sound experience. The speaker is equipped with two angled tweeters, three class-D digital amplifiers and a single midwoofer to deliver powerful and clear sound while you’re jamming away to Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify and other platforms, listening to podcast and more.

Available in black or white, Era 100 has built-in Sonos Voice Control, Alexa and Apple Airplay 2 and hardwire options. And you control it manually or digitally through the Sonos App.

Perfect for smaller spaces, Era 100 is 7.18 inches tall, 4.72 inches wide (5.14 inches in depth) and weighs 4.44 pounds.

The heftier Era 300 ($449) “bridges the gap” by allowing “consumers to hear what creators make in the way they intended,” noted multi-Grammy winning producer and senior vice president of sound experience at Sonos Giles Martin.

Sonos worked with multiple producers and mixing engineers, including Giles, to develop and fine-tune the speakers. Members of the press got a first-hand look (and listen) at Era 100 and Era 300 during a visit to the brand’s headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif., last month.

Giles was featured in a demo and panel discussion on special audio with fellow producers, engineers and mixers including Grammy-nominated producer and musician, Terrace Martin — whose list of credits include Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Snoop Dogg, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock — and mixing engineer Manny Marroquin, a 10-time Grammy winner who has worked with Rihanna, Shakira, P!nk, Ludacris, Tupac Shakur, Whitney Houston and more.

“We’re not bringing the studio to the consumer but to be able to bring something that resembles what we’re listening [to] that’s why it’s an exciting product,” Marroquin told Billboard.

Marroquin also recalled Hancock visiting his studio and experiencing spatial audio. “If an 82-year-old legend can get excited about it imagine the third grader in the room? It could be life altering.”

Unlike the more traditionally cylinder shape of Era 100, Era 300 boasts a cinched hourglass design. The speaker offers a “true representation of what the future is about,” Giles said during the demo.

Era 300 is Sonos’ first speaker with multi-channel surround sound (when paired to use as home theater rears). Although Era 300 is designed to offer massive sound on its own, pairing it with Sonos Arc or Sonos Beam (Gen. 2) broadens the soundscape. Weighing just under 10 pounds, Era 300 is just 6.30 inches tall, 10.24 inches wide and 7.28 inches in depth.

When it comes to music, spacial audio might be the future, but stereo isn’t going anywhere. “We’re not having these talks to disregard stereo. It’s like another tool,” Terrace explained.

“When you go to the studio you have different equipment, different instruments. It may look like all the same keyboards, all the same knobs, but everything does something. Some things are new, some things are older, some things can replace others and some things work better together. [Spacial audio is] like another option, another tool. It’s like a big house and now we’re using all the rooms.”

For fans of the Sonos One, Era 100 is an evolution of the brand’s flagship speaker. “To me, [One] is probably the best speaker that Sonos has because it’s small,” said Marroquin. “You can put it in a corner, you can hide it or display it [and] link it [to other speakers]. In my opinion, [Era 100] is a better version of the One. Now that you can actually play immersive [sound] through it.”

Era 100 and Era 300 speakers are made from 48-percent recycled plastics and feature energy efficient software with eco-friendly packaging.

In the latest bid by lawmakers to crack down on TikTok in the United States, on Tuesday (Mar. 7) a bipartisan group of senators introduced a new bill that would empower the White House to rein in the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

Led by Sens. Mark A. Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) and co-sponsored by 10 others in the chamber, the RESTRICT Act would “comprehensively address the ongoing threat posed by technology from foreign adversaries” including China, Russia and Iran by authorizing the Department of Commerce — led by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo — “to review, prevent, and mitigate information communications and technology transactions” that are found to threaten U.S. national security, up to and including an outright ban, according to a press release.

The White House has also come out in support of the new bill, with U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan noting in a press release that the legislation “presents a systematic framework for addressing technology-based threats to the security and safety of Americans.”

Though TikTok is not named in the text of the RESTRICT Act, both Warner and Thune invoked the platform in their own statements on the legislation.

“Congress needs to stop taking a piecemeal approach when it comes to technology from adversarial nations that pose national security risks,” said Thune. “Our country needs a process in place to address these risks, which is why I’m pleased to work with Senator Warner to establish a holistic, methodical approach to address the threats posed by technology platforms — like TikTok — from foreign adversaries.”

A representative for TikTok did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.

TikTok has been subject to increased scrutiny by the U.S. government recently over fears that national security and consumer privacy could be compromised by the platform, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill that prohibits the use of the platform by nearly 4 million government employees on devices owned by its agencies, joining at least 27 state governments and several universities that have passed similar measures. And last month, the administration drew a sharp rebuke from the Chinese government after it gave all federal agencies just 30 days to wipe TikTok from government devices.

Tuesday’s Senate bill follows a separate one introduced in December by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) that would have required President Biden to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to restrict U.S. citizens’ access to the app.

In the House on Wednesday (Mar. 1), another bill advanced out of committee that would direct the Treasury Secretary to prohibit Americans from engaging with TikTok and other entities found to be directed or influenced by the Chinese government — though it was criticized by Democrats who said it had not been properly vetted and could affect innocent U.S. businesses. That legislation would additionally empower the President to impose sanctions on TikTok and other companies tied to China.

TikTok has long attempted to assuage fears that the platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has ties to the ruling Chinese Communist party and censors content critical of the Chinese government and other authoritarian regimes. In June, the company announced it had started routing U.S. user data to Oracle cloud servers located in the U.S., instituted audits of its algorithms and established a new department to solely manage U.S. user data for the platform.

The U.S. government has so far been undeterred. “We look forward to continue working with both Democrats and Republicans on this bill, and urge Congress to act quickly to send it to the President’s desk,” said Sullivan on Tuesday.

Concerns about TikTok have also been prevalent in other corners of the West, most prominently in Europe. In January, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with European Union officials over concerns about child safety and data privacy, among other matters. On Feb. 16, TikTok’s general manager of operations in Europe, Rich Waterworth, attempted to allay some of those concerns in a blog post where he noted that the company plans to establish two additional European data centers, citing a commitment “to keeping our European community and their data safe and secure.” He added that the company is “continuing to deliver against” a data governance strategy they set out for Europe last year, which includes plans to further reduce employee access to European data, minimize data flows outside Europe and store European user data locally.

Zi Chew is slated to appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on March 23, when he’s expected to comment on TikTok’s data security and user privacy policies, the app’s impact on children and ties with the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2021, Harry Styles unveiled the “Banana Song” onstage in Nashville, Tenn., warping the lyrics to “Watermelon Sugar” to shout out a fan in the audience dressed as, you guessed it, a banana.

The sweet moment turned into a hilarious inside joke among Styles’ fans, affectionately known as Harries, who since then, often go to his shows dressed as various produce to catch the Grammy winner’s attention.

On Tuesday (Mar. 7), it worked. While performing at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand, Styles broke out into the “Banana Song” once again after spotting a few fans dressed as the yellow fruit. “She’s dressed as a banana / She’s dressed as a banana / Aye, aye aye,” he’s seen singing joyfully in a viral video posted by a fan to TikTok. Styles then sees a few more banana-dressed attendees and sings, “There’s two more bananas / Aye, aye, aye / One, two, three, four bananas / I can see a fifth banana.”

The “Banana Song” soon got an extended remix, thanks to some veggies in the audience. “There’s two people dressed up as peas / There’s two people dressed up as peas,” he sings, pointing to fans. “Is there anyone dressed as an aubergine? / Is there anyone dressed as an aubergine? / No, no, no, there’s not, there’s not an aubergine.”

Styles has just recently wrapped his Love on Tour dates in Australia and New Zealand, and will be heading to Asia in the next few weeks, stopping in Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and more.

Watch the 2023 edition of the “Banana Song” below.