Nearly 80% of institutional investors whose portfolios include music assets expect firms to earmark more money for investments in music in 2026, according to a new study conducted by the London-based financial communications firm Fourth Pillar.

The Music Investment Barometer report surveyed individuals from 125 firms working across the private equity, private credit, investment management, pensions, insurance, legal and financial advisory, who combined have $3.24 trillion in assets under management.

Music copyrights and royalty income streams are an increasingly popular investible asset over the past two decades as streaming income has grown and returns on music have held steady through repeated macroeconomic headwinds. In recent months, Sony Music Group and GIC, the Singapore sovereign investment fund, formed an investment partnership to acquire and market music catalog assets, mirroring earlier moves by Warner Music Group, which formed a joint venture with Bain Capital, and Universal Music Group, which invested in the catalog investment firm Chord.

These respondents expressed broad-based optimism about music as an asset class, with 86% saying they plan to increase their allocations to music rights in the next year and 66% saying they think there are more opportunities to invest in music intellectual property — like recorded music, publishing rights and royalty income streams — than last year.

“The music investment community, and interest in the music investment opportunity, has grown rapidly over the past decade; but reliable, comprehensive data on investor sentiment has been conspicuously absent,”said NMPA president and CEO, David Israelite, a backer of the report and organizer of the popular conference Music Investor Conference held in New York each June.

“Fourth Pillar’s Music Investment Barometer … findings validate what we have seen first hand at Music Investors Conference: capital conviction remains strong, deal flow is deepening, and institutional players are rallying to the platforms with a proven edge in the market,” Israelite said in a statement.

The study polled individuals mostly at the managing director level and above whose firms and banks, music publishers and labels and industry lawyers collectively completed 1,600 transactions in the prior 12 months. Roughly three quarters of respondents were based in North America, which has the world’s largest music market in the United States, with others coming from Europe, Asia, Oceania and South America.

Claire Turvey, managing partner at Fourth Pillar, which works exclusively with clients in the music and entertainment industries, said the study is intended to track sentiment among the biggest investors in music globally, including how they navigate a market “known for its complexities.”

“Fourth Pillar’s Music Investment Barometer has been created to bring much-needed data and transparency to a market that has, to a large degree, historically operated behind closed doors,” Turvey said in a statement.

The full report is available on Fourth Pillar’s website, and below are some key takeaways.

Young Miko has teamed up with Gap for its first-ever Spanish-language video campaign, Billboard can exclusively announce Tuesday (March 10).

The Puerto Rican rapper — known for her smooth flow over trap and hip-hop beats — joins a star-studded lineup of past Gap collaborators like Madonna, Missy Elliott, Lenny Kravitz and Leon Bridges. “When Gap reached out, it was a no-brainer to me,” Young Miko tells Billboard Español. “I have a lot of pretty memories from when I was little wearing Gap pieces.”

For the campaign, the artist born María Victoria Ramírez de Arellano Cardona revisits her Billboard-charting hit “Wassup,” cleverly renamed “Sweats Like Us,” in a new promotional music video. That song gave Young Miko her first top 10 on the Hot Latin Rhythm Songs chart, peaking at No. 9, while reaching No. 31 on Hot Latin Songs last May. “That song already held a lot of emotional power for me,” she explains. The collaboration also marks a milestone for Gap, as it’s the first time the company has used a Spanish-language song in one of its campaigns.

“Gap has a long history of partnering with artists who shape culture — not just through their work, but through the way they connect with audiences,” said president and CEO of Gap brand, Mark Breitbard, in a statement. “Young Miko speaks to a generation and is shaping what comes next. As a true creative collaborator on this campaign, she helped us create a visual extension of her music while positioning GapSweats as a canvas for creativity and self-expression.”

Fabiola Torres, chief marketing officer of Gap brand, added, “Young Miko brings authenticity, confidence, and a real connection to style and self-expression. With this campaign, we’re meeting audiences where culture is happening now through music, movement, and storytelling.”

The campaign mirrors Young Miko’s laid-back, swaggy personal style, featuring cozy and stylish sweats that align with her studio wardrobe. For the Puerto Rican rapper, the collaboration also carries deeper significance, reflecting the importance of representing Latin culture in such a visible and empowering way, she notes.

Directed by Bethany Vargas and shot by Olivia Malone, the three-minute music video showcases choreography by Zoi Tatopoulos and features 26 dancers.

Check out the “Sweats Like Us” music video below, and further down, read the full interview, where Young Miko also shares her experience appearing at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Casita and more.

What inspired you to team up with Gap?

When Gap reached out, it was a no-brainer to me. I have a lot of pretty memories from when I’m little wearing Gap pieces. Gap has always had such iconic campaigns. To this day, they’re still so relevant. They’ve always been so unique and stood out with good causes and amazing collaborations. I thought, my name up there with all these other amazing people that have collaborated with Gap would be like the coolest thing. I showed my mom las fotos and the video, and she was like, “You used to watch these on TV, now you have your own.” We have a hoodie. It was just like a nice way to connect with things that were very present in my childhood. And nowadays, with all these tough situations that are going on in the U.S. and in the world, I thought a Latin campaign would go a very long way.

How does the campaign reflect your personal style and vibe?

It reflects it a lot more than I thought it would. I spend most of my day in sweats. In the studio, I go in sweats — studios are usually very cold, and I get cold all the time. Yo vivo en el trópico, así que estoy acostumbrada al calor (I live in the tropics, so I’m used to the heat). Anytime I know I’m going somewhere cold, I need my sweats. Plus, they look so swaggy. I thought the campaign was living in a similar world as to the Wassup” video; it looks like we just dived a little deeper into that music video, but this time with Gap’s take on it. We have this awesome scene where all the dancers are dressed in black, myself included. When I was like doing these scenes, I was this is almost in the same world as [my album] Do Not Disturb. Everything I try to do in life is with an intention; nothing is made at random.

How was it like to reimagine “Wassup”?

It was very curious to me. It was like giving my baby to somebody else. “Haz lo que tu quieras con esta pieza” (do what you will with this track) and hopefully we’ll all like it. That song already held a lot of emotional power for me. Before that song came out, a whole year went by where I didn’t drop anything. When I created it, I immediately knew it was the one track I was going to come out of hiding with.

When Gap reached out, they told us that it was the song [they were going with], and that this is the first time they’re using a [Spanish-language] song of the artist in the campaign, and it’s all in Spanish! It just comes to prove that trusting your gut feeling is always more powerful than anything else.

Español is having a lot more visibility and acceptance nationwide. We saw you at La Casita for Bad Bunny’s megastar-cementing halftime show. What does it mean to share such a huge cultural milestone with artists representing Puerto Rico and Latin culture.

It’s the most amazing thing. I said [earlier], por los momentos que estamos viviendo ahora mismo, the one thing we need the most right now is hope and love, and to lock in with each other; to really be a community right now. It’s up to us to be able to make that world — or, at least, try to make the world a safer and better place. To open spaces where we feel welcome. Like Benito said himself [at his Grammy award acceptance speech], “We’re all humans, we’re not animals, we’re not savages, we’re not different to anybody else around us.” Visibility right now is like an opportunity; to give more representation. And you better believe I’m gonna be front row and center. Being able to just to be alive in this moment and watch the Super Bowl and watch Benito up there just like killing it… and Ricky Martin! And then Lady Gaga, who is such a powerful ally, and was just like, “I’m going to be a part of this with them.”

When we got invited to [be at] La Casita, the one rule they gave us was, just get in there and dance. Have fun. Tienen que perrear, bailar y sonreír (To twerk, to dance, to smile). That’s the one thing they asked of us. I’m also very thankful to Benito’s team that reached out and thought about us to be a part of it.

What do you want your fans to feel when they watch “Sweats Like This”?

I want them to know that this was another world I have dived into having the most fun, and for people to enjoy it and continue to get to know me more. For them to know that that I don’t do anything if it’s not out of love and a good place.

Jello Biafra, the outspoken former lead singer of San Francisco punk legends the Dead Kennedys was rushed to the hospital over the weekend after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke due to high blood pressure. In an Instagram statement on Monday (March 9), Biafra’s indie label, Alternative Tentacles, revealed that the 67-year-old singer (born Eric Reed Boucher) suffered the stroke on Saturday (March 7) at his home.

”I hopped out of my bed because I needed to pee, and my left leg just collapsed under me and I fell to the floor,” Biafra wrote in a statement. “I couldn’t even break the fall with my left arm because it wasn’t working either. I tried to hop back up again, and I couldn’t. I realized I had ‘fallen and I can’t get up!’ It was this point I thought, ‘Oh s–t, I’m having a stroke!’ I still have a lot of great stuff in me, but right now I gotta lotta of rehabbing to do.”

The statement said that Biafra is still hospitalized in stable condition.

Biafra was the public face of punk agitators the Dead Kennedys from 1979 through their initial break-up in 1986, howling his pointed lyrics that skewered politicians, the military, public figures, phonies, liars and hypocrites on such indelible punk broadsides as “California Über Alles,” “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Kill the Poor” from the group’s 1980 debut album, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. He led the group through three more albums — 1982’s Plastic Surgery Disasters, 1985’s Frankenchrist and 1986’s Bedtime For Democracy — before their split in 1986.

While continuing to run Alternative Tentacles, Biafra collaborated with a number of other artists, including Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and Paul Barker in the band Lard, as well a punk stalwarts D.O.A., Nomeansno, Tumor Circus, Pigface, the Offspring and Sepultura in addition to releasing nine spoken word albums.

Along with making cameos in more than a dozen films, including 1988’s Tapeheads, 2006’s Punk’s Not Dead and 2019’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, he also mounted a campaign for San Francisco mayor in 1979 (coming in fourth place behind then incumbent Dianne Feinstein) and ran for president in 2000 as a Green Party candidate (coming in third behind consumer advocate Ralph Nader).

Though they haven’t released a full-length album since 1986’s Bedtime For Democracy, the DKs reformed in 2001 without Biafra and have continued to tour with a variety of singers, including Brandon Cruz (Dr. Know), Jeff Penalty and, currently, Ron “Skip” Greer (Wynona Riders).

Officials have named the woman who was arrested for shooting at Rihanna‘s Los Angeles mansion over the weekend, revealing on Monday (March 9) that Florida native Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 35, has been booked on felony charges of attempted murder and is currently being held on $10.2 million bail, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Police say that Ortiz reportedly fired around 10 shots from an AR-15-style assault rifle at Rihanna’s Beverly Hills mansion on Sunday (March 8) from inside her white Tesla, which parked across the street from the home. The singer was reportedly home at the time and no injuries were reported in the incident in which one round penetrated a wall of the mansion, leaving bullet holes in the gate of the home and in an RV parked in the driveway. TMZ also reported that Rihanna was home at the time, adding that her three children were there as well, but not longtime partner and father of the kids, rapper A$AP Rocky.

No motive has been cited for the assault by the woman who the Times reported had several prior arrests in her home state, including a bankruptcy case in 2013, an arrest for careless driving in 2021 and another arrest in 2023 on suspicion of domestic violence and battery. Records showed that she was a licensed speech pathologist with no known affiliation to Rihanna or A$AP Rocky.

Though they appeared to have no contact before Sunday afternoon’s shooting, the paper noted that Ortiz had recently posted about Rihanna several times on her Facebook page, including on Feb. 17 when she posted a meme suggesting the singer had an STI, as well as on Feb. 23 when she tagged Rihanna and wrote, “@badgirlriri Are you there? Cause I was waiting for your AIDS 5-head self to say something to me directly instead of sneaking around like you talking to me where I’m not at.”

Officers responded to a report of a shooting at 1:21 p.m. on Sunday, reporting that Ortiz fled in her Tesla, with a police helicopter eventually spotting the car and following it to a shopping center parking lot in nearby Sherman Oaks, where the suspect was arrested around 30 minutes after the 911 call came in. During the arrest, police searched the vehicle and found the assault rifle and seven casings.

As of press time, neither Rihanna nor Rocky had commented on the incident.

ENHYPEN will continue as a six-member group following the departure of founding member Heeseung, his agency BELIFT LAB announced Tuesday (March 10).

The news was shared in a statement posted across the group’s official channels, where the label said the decision followed extensive discussions about the group’s future direction and the singer’s individual musical ambitions.

“Through in-depth discussions with each of the members about the future they envision and the direction of the team, it became clear that Heeseung has his own distinct musical vision,” the company said.

BELIFT LAB confirmed that Heeseung will leave the group but remain signed to the label as he prepares to launch his solo career. The company said the decision was made after a long period of deliberation between the artist, the group and management.

[NOTICE] ENHYPEN’s Future Activities

Hello, this is BELIFT LAB.

We would like to express our gratitude toward ENGENE for their unwavering support for ENHYPEN and provide information on ENHYPEN’s future activities.

BELIFT LAB has given much thought and consideration into…

— ENHYPEN OFFICIAL (@ENHYPEN) March 10, 2026

The remaining members — Jake, Jay, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon and Ni-ki — will continue promoting as ENHYPEN, though no specific plans for upcoming releases or tour activity were announced alongside Tuesday’s update.

Heeseung also addressed fans known as ENGENE following the announcement, thanking both supporters and his bandmates.

“Thanks to the members with whom I shared countless emotions, and to ENGENE, who always filled every empty space with their support, I was able to take step after step toward a dream that once felt out of reach,” he wrote. “I am working hard on an album so I can meet you all again soon.”

Heeseung debuted as a member of ENHYPEN in November 2020 after appearing on the survival audition program I-LAND. The group launched its career with the release of Border: Day One and quickly built an international fanbase with subsequent releases and global touring.

His exit marks the first lineup change for the group since its debut.

BELIFT LAB said Heeseung is currently preparing a solo album, though additional details about the project have not yet been announced.