Latto has been lying low for the past few months, but Big Mama is back on the scene.

On Friday (March 20), the Grammy-nominated MC dropped her new “Business & Personal” single, marking the first taste of Big Mama, her forthcoming fourth studio album, out May 29 via Streancut and RCA Records. Bold and assertive, the new single finds Latto settling scores and addressing every rumor that’s been slung her way.

Latto officially announced the single’s release with a cinematic trailer posted to her social media pages on Thursday afternoon (March 19). “I ain’t go missing. I had to give y’all time to miss me. Before you run the game, you gotta take baby steps to go the distance,” she narrates as the camera follows her slowly strutting towards a baby cheetah — in jet-black stilettos, of course — and handing it a bottle of milk. “Home to the studio, studio back home, listening to every beat [and] feeling every kick. Ever since I was a little girl, I always dreamed of having my own. Big Mama. But this time, the stakes way bigger. Now, it’s on me to deliver.”

The trailer’s slick wordplay and motherly imagery smartly play on both Latto’s Big Mama persona and the pregnancy rumors that have emerged over the past couple of months. We last heard from hip-hop’s resident “Georgia Peach” on last summer’s “Somebody,” which peaked at No. 94 on the Billboard Hot 100 and will also appear on Big Mama. In the months that followed, Latto went on a buzzy feature run that include collaborations with Nemzzz (“Art”), Ice Spice (“Gyatt”), Cardi B (“ErrTime” remix), Summer Walker (“Go Girl”), 21 Savage (“Pop It”) and Ludmilla (“Bota”).

Her last studio album, Sugar Honey Iced Tea, arrived in 2024, reaching No. 15 on the Billboard 200. Notably, the star-studded set — which included the singles the Hot 100 hits “Big Mama” (No. 92), “Sunday Service” (No. 100) and “Put It On Da Floor” (No. 13) — also debuted atop Top Rap Albums, making Latto the first solo female rapper from Atlanta to hit No. 1 on that ranking. She supported the album with a North American headlining tour alongside special guests Mariah the Scientist and Karrahbooo.

Stream “Business & Personal (Intro)” now.

Karol G, Fuerza Regida’s frontman JOP, MAG and Edgar Barrera were among the big winners at the 2026 BMI Latin Awards on Thursday night (March 19), held at the Fontainebleau Coastal Convention Center in Miami Beach.

During the ceremony, the legendary duo Luny Tunes was honored with the BMI President’s Award for their contributions to Latin music as pioneers of reggaetón. They worked on some of the biggest hits of the genre, including Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” Don Omar’s “Dale Don Dale,” Wisin y Yandel’s “Rakatan,” Hector y Tito’s “Baila Morena” and many more.

Venezuela’s Elena Rose was honored with the BMI Impact Award, celebrating her contributions to Latin music as both a prolific songwriter and a rising solo artist. Notably, she became the first Latin female artist to receive the recognition. Last year, the artist released her debut studio album, Bendito Verano. 

The event also saluted the top Latin songwriters, publishers and administrators of the past year’s most-performed Spanish-language songs in the U.S. Jesús Ortiz Pez, better known as JOP, was presented with the BMI regional Mexican songwriter of the year award for penning nine of BMI’s most-performed regional Mexican music songs in 2025, including Fuerza Regida songs “Tu Name,” “Me Jalo,” “Una Cerveza” (with Manuel Turizo) and “Excesos.”

New York-bred Puerto Rican-Dominican superproducer MAG was named BMI’s contemporary songwriter of the year for writing seven of the most-performed Latin songs of the past year by Bad Bunny, including No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit “DtMF,” “Baile Inolvidable,” “El Clúb” and “NuevaYol.”

Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” co-written by Edgar Barrera and co-produced by Sky Rompiendo, was crowned BMI’s contemporary song of the year, and “Tu Boda” (recorded by Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida), written by Alexis Fierro Román, was awarded BMI’s regional Mexican song of the year.

Furthermore, Sony Music Publishing made BMI Latin Awards history, becoming the “first publishing company to receive both the contemporary Latin and regional Mexican publisher of the year Awards since the inception of the awards in 1993,” states a press release.

The night also celebrated 51 first-time BMI Latin Award honorees, such as RaiNao, Jay Anthony Nuñez, Jorge Ontiveros, Alejandro Ahumada Nuñez, Aidan James Cullen, and Estevan Plazola, among others.

The private event was hosted by BMI president & CEO Mike O’Neill, BMI chief revenue & creative officer Mike Steinberg and BMI vice president of creative Latin, Jesus Gonzalez.

ElevenLabs launched a Music Marketplace on Thursday (March 19) to allow its users to publish original tracks made with its AI technology. Businesses and creators with paid subscriptions can use the Music Marketplace to select songs for use in ads, games, videos or other commercial work, and each time they do so, money flows back to the creator of the song.

Since the launch of its AI music model, Eleven Music, in August 2025, 14 million songs have been generated, according to a press release from ElevenLabs. Now, Music Marketplace provides an opportunity for the monetization of those songs.

This expands the concept first started by ElevenLabs for its library of iconic voices. Through Voice Library, subscribers can pay to use the voice of a participating talent — including Jerry Garcia and Judy Garland — as well as everyday uploaders for many types of projects. To date, ElevenLabs touts that this library has paid out more than $11 million to voice creators.

Patrick Jordan-Patrikios — a producer and songwriter for Sia, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears and Little Mix — who is among the first users of Music Marketplace, said in a statement that “this is where the music economy is heading, and I’m proud to be part of what comes next.”

“Whether you’re a Grammy nominee or making music in your bedroom, you now have access to a global ecosystem where your work can be discovered, remixed and monetized instantly,” he added. “That shift is huge.”

“Our community has already created fourteen million songs with Eleven Music,” said Mati Staniszewski, cofounder of ElevenLabs. “The Music Marketplace gives every one of those artists and creators a way to publish and earn from their work. We’re expanding the model that’s paid out over $11 million to voice creators, and we think the earning potential for musicians is just as significant.”

When Demi Lovato sang “Heart Attack” at an event for the American Heart Association in 2024, a lot of people thought it was an odd choice — and she did too.

In a Thursday (March 19) interview on the Elvis Duran Show, the pop star finally addressed why they belted out the 2013 Billboard Hot 100 hit at the Women Red Dress Collection Concert, which the AHA held two years ago to raise awareness for cardiovascular disease. “I wanna say that they asked me to sing that,” Lovato began.

“I flagged it beforehand and was like, ‘Isn’t this, like, not the vibe?’” they continued. “They were like, ‘No, they wanna hear it.’ I was like, ‘OK … ’ And then of course people online are like, ‘Why did she sing that?’ I’m like, ‘Y’all, it wasn’t me! I flagged it!’”

Lovato’s head-on clarification puts to bed any lingering questions about the ironic song choice two years ago. When the Camp Rock alum first started receiving backlash for the AHA performance, her rep told Entertainment Weekly, “It was a sensitive moment intended to champion the women in the room — the very reason why Demi was at the event.”

“She did open with a beautiful intro on why she chose the song and addressed the room, talking about the mind and heart connection,” the rep continued at the time. “It was actually a beautiful moment.”

The interview comes as Lovato is promoting their new cookbook, One Plate at a Time. In October, the star dropped album It’s Not That Deep, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200.

A North Carolina musician has pled guilty to stealing $8 million in royalties with fake streams on AI-generated music in the first-ever criminal streaming fraud case brought by U.S. prosecutors.

Michael Smith, 54, copped to one count of wire fraud conspiracy on Thursday (March 19) in New York federal court. He agreed to forfeit his $8 million in streaming fraud proceeds and faces up to five years in prison.

“Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times,” said Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement Thursday. “Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”

Smith remains free on a $500,000 bond until his sentencing hearing this upcoming July. His lawyer declined to comment on Thursday.

Smith was arrested in 2024 on a three-count indictment that charged him with using thousands of bots to continuously stream his songs on multiple platforms, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube Music, starting in 2017. Prosecutors said Smith originally used his own small catalog of human-made music for the scheme but later turned to AI for content.

In late 2018, Smith allegedly began working with the CEO of an unnamed AI music company to supply songs for his fake streams. The indictment says Smith promised to share the proceeds with this company, in the form of the greater of $2,000 per month or 15% of his monthly revenue.

Though this company is not identified in court papers, Billboard reported in 2024 that hundreds of the songs registered to Smith list Alex Mitchell, the CEO and founder of AI music company Boomy, as a co-writer. At the time, Mitchell told Billboard, “We were shocked by the details in the recently filed indictment of Michael Smith, which we are reviewing. Michael Smith consistently represented himself as legitimate.”

Mitchell has not been charged with any crime. The indictment denoted Smith’s AI music partner as “CC-3,” a shorthand for “co-conspirator” that is oftentimes used to denote an individual who has cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for amnesty. A rep for Boomy did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Smith’s scheme eventually fell apart when his artificial streams were detected in 2023 by streaming platforms and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), the official organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital royalties for songwriters.

In a statement released Thursday, the MLC said Smith’s guilty plea “highlights the serious threat that streaming fraud poses to the music industry and the important role The MLC plays in confronting it.”

“We appreciate the Department of Justice’s swift action, recognizing that The MLC identified the fraud early, challenged Smith and his representatives, and prevented the diversion of mechanical royalties away from rightful songwriters,” added the MLC. “The MLC will continue to invest in anomaly detection and fraud prevention to protect our members, and we will continue to collaborate with other industry organizations and law enforcement to protect all songwriter royalties.”

As alluded to in the MLC’s statement, streaming fraud is a problem for artists and songwriters because digital royalties are paid out of a fixed pool — meaning fraudulent streams take funds away from the creators who actually have real listeners.

This issue has only gotten worse with the rise of AI music, which provides an easy tool for bad actors to quickly generate thousands of songs for their fake streams. Platforms like Spotify have responded by enacting strengthened policies aimed at reigning in malicious streams, but the problem persists.