At SXSW 2025, Tia Ray chatted at the China to the World: The Sounds of Tomorrow panel where she talks about her music, an upcoming English album, and performs!

Keep watching for a sneak peak of her panel!

Tia Ray:

Thank you so much for coming! 

Tetris Kelly:

From epic performances to meaningful panels. 

Tia Ray:

So that’s how I start listening to those western music like that, and so it inspires me a lot. 

Tetris Kelly:

Billboard is at SXSW this week, and we kick things off exploring the Sounds of Tomorrow from China with one of the country’s biggest stars. 

Tia Ray:

So I feel it’s welcoming and very warm and very cool in a cute way. 

Tetris Kelly:

China to the World: The Sounds of Tomorrow panel began Monday with a performance from Berkelee’s Chinese traditional music club. It was followed by Berklee music’s own Stephanie Henning having a conversation with music star Tia Ray about the fusion of the East and the West. And we found out some exciting information. 

Tia Ray:

It’s in my coming, like upcoming English album. It’s gonna, it’s gonna be out in the in a short time. And I’m very excited about it. 

Tetris Kelly:

Afterwards Billboard’s, Griselda Flores got to chat with her one on one. 

Tia Ray:

It’s precious, yeah, it’s also special to be living in this world, to reconnect people through music, into the source 

Tetris Kelly:

And out in the streets of Austin, we got to see Tia perform, not only one night, but twice. For more of our SXSW coverage, keep it locked with Billboard.

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Ticketmaster is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a rare discount offer to some of the biggest concerts of the year.

For a limited time, music fans can take advantage of Ticketmaster’s 2-for-1 deal to get two tickets for the price of one at participating shows. The promotion includes tickets to artists like Kim Gordon, Halsey, AWOLNATION, Tobe Nwigwe, Lucius, Tennis (with special guest Alice Phoebe Lou) and more. We spotted tickets starting from just $20 with the discount.

It’s not just concerts either — the Ticketmaster St. Patrick’s Day deal includes a buy one, get one free offer for Ricky Gervais’ “Mortality” comedy tour, the “Club Chris Tour” with Chris Olsen and Ryan Trainor, and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Alyssa Edwards’ “Crowned Tour.

The best deal is for the upcoming “Outlaw Festival,” featuring Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Billy Strings and others. Taking place May 16 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, this is the 10th annual Outlaw Music Festival Tour, which showcases a rotating lineup of artists spanning country, alt-country, Americana, bluegrass, folk and rock. The 2025 Outlaw Festival tickets start from just $59 with the 2-for-1 sale.

There’s no promo code needed to claim the discount but you will need to use this link. The new Ticketmaster offer runs until Wednesday, March 19 at 10 p.m.

Ticketmaster rarely holds sales so this is a promotion you’ll want to take advantage off while it’s still live. Tickets are moving quickly so we recommend adding your preferred seats to your cart before the shows sell out. Live Nation has held a summer concert offer the last two years for $25 all-in tickets, but the company has yet to announce if it’s bringing the promotion back for 2025.

For more ticket deals, check out ShopBillboard’s roundup of best cheap ticketing sites online.

A new release from Radiohead could be on the way, if a historical trend of new legal entities is to be believed.

According to the British Government’s Companies House agency, the five members of Radiohead established a new limited liability partnership under the name RHEUK25 LLP on Monday (March 10). An LLP is a legal business entity which allows the band to exist and conduct their own dealings outside of the typical framework of a record label.

While the establishment of an LLP may mean nothing on face value, historical activities have indicated that a new release or tour usually follows after Radiohead or its members establish a new LLP. 

In 2007, the group prefaced the release of In Rainbows with the creation of Xurbia Xendless Ltd., which was followed by Ticker Tape Ltd. ahead of The King Of Limbs’ arrival in 2011, while 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool was rumored after the discovery of the Dawn Chorus LLP.

It’s not just restricted to Radiohead’s movements as a whole, with frontman Thom Yorke having been a part of Unsustainabubble Ltd. in 2010 before Atoms for Peace released their solo album in 2013, with the partnership also being used for his later solo releases. In 2021, Self Help Tapes LLP was incorporated before the release of The Smile’s debut album, and has since been used for their subsequent releases.

The most recent partnership to be created with all five members of Radiohead was Spin With a Grin Ltd., which arrived ahead of their 2021 reissue of Kid A and Amnesiac, dubbed Kid A Mnesia. It should be noted though, the nascent establishment of RHEUK25 LLP also coincides with the anniversary of Radiohead’s second album, The Bends, which was released 30 years ago on Thursday (March 13). Currently, it’s unknown whether the new LLP could be related to new music or a potential reissue.

Radiohead haven’t released a new studio album since 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 at the time. Band members have remained active since, with Yorke and guitarist Jonny Greenwood teaming with Tom Skinner to craft The Smile. On Tuesday (March 11), Yorke also announced a collaborative album with Mark Pritchard, with Tall Tales slated to arrive on May 9.

Speaking to Australian radio station Double J ahead of his Australian tour last year, Yorke noted his ignorance of online speculation regarding the band’s future. “I am not aware of it and don’t really give a flying f–k,” Yorke said. 

“No offence to anyone and err, thanks for caring. But I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”

RCA Records Greater China, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, signed a strategic partnership with Chinese indie label and music collective IRIS Chengdu, founded by Chengdu, China-based producer, DJ and recording artist Andre Grant, a.k.a. HARIKIRI. During his career, HARIKIRI has worked with artists including American rapper Jay Park and Chinese hip-hop group Higher Brothers. Over the next year, five albums will be spawned from the partnership, including new releases from female Chinese rapper Vinida Weng, rapper/singer/songwriter Haysen Cheng and HARIKIRI himself, among others. According to a press release, Chengdu “has been widely regarded as the epicentre of China’s evolving hip hop music scene and touted as the city raising China’s new generation of rappers.”

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EMPIRE formed a partnership with automated music marketing and promotion platform un:hurd music that includes an investment in un:hurd to support the development of new tools and will give EMPIRE access to un:hurd’s tools and services. The partnership came amid un:hurd’s ongoing fundraise, which has drawn investors including Willard Ahdritz, Dan Runcie’s Trapital Ventures and Mindset Ventures MusicTech. According to un:hurd CEO/founder Alex Brees, the platform boasts a community of more than 125,000 artists and record labels.

Bria, a generative AI platform for visual images that claims to be built on 100% licensed data, closed $40 million in Series B funding, bringing its total capital raise to $65 million. The money will be used to scale the company’s visual generative AI platform and widen the application of its patented attribution engine to music, video and text generation. The company says its attribution engine “bridges the generative output and the training dataset, so data owners are programmatically compensated according to their overall influence on each generated output,” according to a press release. In a statement, Bria founder/CEO Dr. Yair Adato added, “Enterprises can use our source code and API platform to integrate visual generative AI inside their products and access previously untouchable premium branded content. By broadening our attribution offering to all types of content, including music, video, and text, we are helping to usher in a truly sustainable creative economy.”

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Japanese talent management and production company Asobisystem teamed up with blackx, described as a leader in music investments in Asia, to help expand the J-pop genre globally. According to a press release, the companies “will expand artist portfolios, venturing beyond traditional music to explore innovative IP such as cross-industry collaborations, introducing J-Pop to new global audiences and reinforcing Japan’s leadership in the entertainment sector.” Asobisystem’s roster includes Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Atarashii Gakko!, Fruits Zipper and Yasutaka Nakata.

Synch platform SourceAudio struck a deal with AI-powered music analysis platform Cyanite to integrate Cyanite’s AI music tagging and search capabilities directly into the SourceAudio licensing ecosystem. Through the deal, SourceAudio’s music libraries and content owners can opt in to access Cyanite’s AI tagging and search system within their existing workflows. Cyanite has also chosen SourceAudio as its delivery platform for new and existing customers, meaning all Cyanite users can now benefit from SourceAudio’s hosting and licensing solution, allowing their audio files to be automatically tagged and optimized for search, discovery, pitching and monetization.

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Celebrity Coaches, a luxury transportation services provider for the entertainment industry, acquired BandWagon RV Rentals, which specializes in mid-level tour transportation. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition expands Celebrity’s fleet to more than 120 vehicles.

Nightlife and entertainment company Ministry of Sound signed a deal with DICE that will see it leveraging the latter’s mobile-first ticketing technology. Through the agreement, Ministry of Sound will gain access to DICE’s analytics and marketing tools, allowing for real-time insights into audience behaviors, event performance and sales attribution.

The Midwest Princess is heading back to her roots. Chappell Roan unveiled her newest single, “The Giver,” on Thursday (March 13), putting her own spin on country music.

In the fiddle-heavy track, she declares in the cheeky chorus: “Take it like a taker, ’cause, baby, I’m a giver/ Ain’t no need to hurry, ’cause, baby, I deliver/ Ain’t no country boy quitter/ I get the job done.”

The Grammy-winning superstar announced the single earlier this month via Instagram, sharing a photo of herself dressed up in construction gear. “I have such a special place in my heart for country music,” she wrote. “I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars.”

“Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album???” the Missouri native continued “My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on c–try xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall.”

She also explained that she’s not planning to stray away from pop on Amazon Music’s Country Heat Weekly podcast. “I’m not trying to convince a country crowd that they should listen to my music by baiting them with a country song,” Roan said. “That’s not what I feel like I’m doing. I just think a lesbian country song is really funny, so I wrote that.”

The song marks Roan’s first release since her Grammy-nominated hit, “Good Luck, Babe!,” which she dropped in April last year. The track — which remains the only song she’s released since her breakthrough 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess — peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September.

Listen to “The Giver” below.

She Is The Music (SITM) will honor Gracie Abrams and her all-female team at its inaugural Women Sharing the Spotlight celebration. The Women’s History Month event is being held on March 27 at The Peppermint Club in Los Angeles. In keeping with its ongoing advocacy for more inclusion, She Is The Music will also honor 50 other impactful women from various sectors of the music industry. And in further support of the organization’s mission, each of the 50 women will share their spotlight with another woman in the business.

“Being surrounded by such an incredible team of women has changed the way I see everything,” said Abrams of her team in a statement. “They’re not only insanely talented in their individual capacities, but also intentional about supporting each other. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from each of them. I’m deeply honored to be recognized by She Is The Music, an organization that has done so much to acknowledge and uplift women in this industry. I hope our team is a small example of what’s possible when women support each other and build together.”

Global star and She Is The Music co-founder Alicia Keys stated, “Gracie Abrams and her incredible team are living proof of what happens when women uplift each other — when we step into our power, we change the game. In an industry where female-led teams are still the exception, their success is a reminder that we belong in every room, at every table, leading every conversation. She Is The Music is about breaking barriers, opening doors and making sure the next generation of women in music don’t just have a seat at the table —they build the table.”

 As part of the Women Sharing the Spotlight celebration, each honoree will receive one of Barbie’s newly unveiled Career of the Year: Women In Music dolls, a musical artist and tour manager duo created to illuminate women in the music industry.

Universal Music Publishing Group Chairman/CEO and She Is The Music co-founder Jody Gerson also noted, Women supporting women is at the very core of She Is The Music’s mission. Creating a sisterhood of accomplished women and the next generations of working women across all facets of the music industry is our collective path forward to success. We are delighted to host our inaugural Women Sharing the Spotlight and to celebrate so many wonderful women in our business. We are also making a powerful statement by honoring Gracie Abrams and her team for embodying the spirit of sisterhood. This recognition is not only well deserved but also a testament to the fact that women in our industry can reach the highest levels of success on their own terms — especially when they uplift and support one another in meaningful ways.”

The evening will also spotlight key takeaways from the newly released “Inclusion in the Music Business” report, conducted by USC Annenberg’s Inclusion Initiative in partnership with Believe and TuneCore. Chief among the findings: 84.2% of the most senior executives at major music companies are white men; only 13.2% of CEO/president roles are held by women and only 5.3% of top executives are women of color —an unchanged statistic since 2021. The full report can be viewed HERE.

Both TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson and USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder Dr. Stacy L. Smith will present the aforementioned and other findings at Women Sharing the Spotlight. “In recent years, our work has shown that women and people of color are increasing their presence on the popular charts as artists,” commented Smith in the press announcement. “But this progress is not matched by the executive ranks that are responsible for the business of music. It’s clear that there are still real discrepancies in who gets to lead.”

Added Gleeson, “We can’t afford to sit back and wait for this issue to fix itself. Artists are pushing boundaries and redefining music every day. It’s time for the executive ranks to reflect that same diversity and innovation.”

As Chappell Roan prepares to release her highly-anticipated new song “The Giver,” she’s assured fans that this doesn’t mean her pop music is a thing of the past.

Roan confirmed earlier week that her new single – the first since the release of 2024’s “Good Luck, Babe!” – would arrive on Thursday, March 13, with the fresh track inspired by her lifelong exposure to country music.

“I have such a special place in my heart for country music,” she wrote on Instagram. “I grew up listening to it every morning and afternoon on my school bus and had it swirling around me at bon fires, grocery stores and karaoke bars.”

“Many people have asked if this means I’m making a country album???” the Missouri native continued “My answer is.. hmm right now I’m just making songs that make me feel happy and fun and The Giver is my take on c–try xoxo may the classic country divas lead their genre, I am just here to twirl and do a little gay yodel for yall.”

Now, the Grammy-winning musician will be appearing on the March 14 episode of Apple Music’s Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen, with E! News sharing a new teaser clip that sees Roan expound upon her love of the country genre.

“I wanted to write a country song because I just thought it would be funny,” she explained succinctly. “It’s campy and fun.

“I’m from southwest Missouri,” she continued. “[I] grew up on Christian and country, and then found ‘Alejandro’ by Lady Gaga and I was like, ‘I think I like this, too.’ So, I have kept country in my heart. And it’s so incredibly nostalgic to drive in West Hollywood and have Jason Aldean [playing] or Alan Jackson’s ‘Chattahoochee.’”

According to Roan, one of the biggest inspirations for her pivot to the world of country came by way of Tennessee duo Big & Rich and their Grammy-nominated 2004 single “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”

“I was like, ‘I want to feel that way on stage. I want to feel that,’” she explained. “Because that’s how I write. I’m like, ‘How do I want to walk around on stage and sing?’ And I was like, ‘I want to write that song, but Chappell’s version.’”

In keeping with her previous comments about the decision to venture into the world of country music, Roan also again assured fans they’ll be hearing plenty of the pop music they’re used to moving forward. “I really just did it for fun,” she added. “I’m not switching genres or anything.”

The imminent arrival of “The Giver” will mark Roan’s first release since “Good Luck, Babe!,” which she dropped in April last year. The track — which remains the only song she’s released since breakthrough 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess — peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September.

Roan has been teasing the arrival of “The Giver” for weeks, rolling out a series of characters — a lawyer, a plumber, a private investigator, and now, a construction worker — who can “get the job done” à la the lyrics on the track, which she debuted on Saturday Night Live in November. Fans have spotted the alter egos on billboards all around the country, as well as on Roan’s Instagram.

All of the personas correlate to different special versions of 7-inch single vinyls for “The Giver,” which are available for purchase on Roan’s website.

Nick Cave has responded to the viral comments he once made about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, clarifying his current stance on the band in the process.

Cave’s comments about the Los Angeles funk-rockers have circulated as something of a punchline for roughly 25 years now. Though their exact origins appear to have been lost to time, the quote is often attributed to Cave as, “I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always ‘The Red Hot Chili Peppers.’”

Chili Peppers bassist Flea (who, like Cave, was born in the Australian state of Victoria) responded to Cave’s scathing remark in 2006, noting that it initially hurt his feelings since he’s a huge fan of the Bad Seeds frontman. 

“I don’t care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me,” Flea said. “He is one of my favorite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds. But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love for his music is bigger than all that shit and if he thinks my band is lame then that’s OK.”

Now, Cave has taken to his Red Hand Files website to respond to a fan asking about the truthfulness of the quote, referring to his comments as an “offhand and somewhat uncharitable remark” about the band. 

“There was no malice intended, it was just the sort of obnoxious thing I would say back then to piss people off,” Cave explained. “I was a troublemaker, a shit-stirrer, feeling most at ease in the role of a societal irritant. Perhaps it’s an Australian trait among people of my generation, I don’t know, but that comment has followed me around for the last quarter-century.”

Cave also recalled how Flea’s own response had made its way to him, moving him and bringing forth the realization that “Flea was a human being of an entirely different calibre, indeed, of a higher order.” He also added that the pair have since apparently patched things up, with “pleasant” interactions following both on and off the stage in different iterations over the years.

The response closed with the revelation that Flea is apparently in the process of crafting a new album, with Cave noting he recently added his vocals to the new record which sees Flea’s trumpet-playing skills on full display.

“Last week, Flea sent me a song and asked if I’d like to add some vocals. It was for a ‘trumpet record’ that he is making,” Cave explained. “It is not for me to divulge what the song was, only that it is a song I cherish more than most, with arguably the greatest lyric ever written, a song of such esteem that I would never have dared to sing it had Flea not asked me to. I went into the studio on Wednesday and recorded my vocals. 

“The track emerged as a beautiful conversation between Flea’s trumpet and my voice, filled with yearning and love, the song transcending its individual parts and becoming a slowly evolving cosmic dance, in the form of a reconciliation and an apology.”

LISA’s first full-length studio album, Alter Ego, debuts No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated March 15). The set sold 28,000 copies in the U.S. in the week ending March 6, according to Luminate.

LISA is the second member of the quartet BLACKPINK to notch a solo No. 1 on Top Album Sales, following ROSÉ’s rosie, which bowed atop the list dated Dec. 21, 2024. BLACKPINK itself has logged three top 10s, including two No. 1s: The Album (in 2020) and BORN PINK (2022).

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming equivalent album (SEA) units.

During the album’s release week, LISA performed on the Academy Awards (March 2), taking part in a tribute to the music of the James Bond film series, where she performed Wings’ “Live and Let Die.” She recently made her acting debut in the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus (which premiered on Feb. 16).

Alter Ego was available to purchase as a standard 12-song album (digital download, CD and vinyl), a 15-song set (with three bonus tracks, as a digital download) and a 19-track set (with three additional remixes and a voice note from the artist, sold as a digital download exclusively on LISA’s official webstore). The set was issued across nine CD variants (including a signed edition; with all containing collectible paper ephemera such as randomized photocards), six deluxe CD boxed sets (each containing a copy of the album on CD and a branded piece of clothing) and two vinyl variants (including one signed edition).

LISA’s Alter Ego is the lone debut in the top 10 on the latest Top Album Sales chart. Notably, a third member of BLACKPINK could capture her first entry on the chart next week (on the list dated March 22), as JENNIE’s Ruby was released on March 7.

With a matter of months to go before Oasis launch their long-awaited reunion tour, reports of the band’s line-up have seemingly begun to leak, and Liam Gallagher is having fun with it as always.

Since the announcement that Oasis would be performing their first live shows since 2009, speculation has swirled in regard to who would be joining Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage. 

At the time of their split, the band officially featured Gem Archer on guitar, with Andy Bell taking on bass, guitar, and keyboards. A series of touring drummers had sat behind the kit since the 2004 departure of Alan “Whitey” White, with Chris Sharrock holding the beat at their final shows.

Just a week ago, Liam took to X to share a jovial confirmation as to who would actually be on stage this summer. “Here we have it Peppa pig on drums Bert n Ernie on lead guitar n bass finger bobs on keyboard,” Gallagher tweeted, including beloved 1970s U.K. children’s program Fingerbobs in the mix. He added, “obv me n Rkid [his nickname for Noel] hope that clears everything up can’t wait to see you all who’s says RnR is dead.”

However, a new report from NME has since put forth a more believable version of Oasis’ line-up, with “sources working closely with the band and tour” apparently providing the info. This version of the band features the Gallaghers joined by Archer and Bell, along with Oasis co-founder Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, and Joey Waronker, who has previously performed with R.E.M., Beck, Roger Waters, and more.

“NME tell me who your source pots are that keep giving you info about OASIS and I’ll give you an exclusive interview about up n coming OASIS tour,” Gallagher wrote in response to the report. “You can have it all but how much do you want it.”

“It’s not the lineup reveal I’m bothered about I’ll reveal that to you in a minute I’m more bothered about the line where it says a source close to the band and tour that really causes me a great deal of concern,” he added an hour later.

Gallagher soon offered another message apparently confirming who would be appearing on stage, claiming the line-up would be “Tony Mc drums Alan white bass guitar Zak lead guitar Chris Sharrock keys.” 

However, eagle-eyed fans would note that founding drummer Tony McCarroll, his successor White, and touring members Zak Starkey and Sharrock are all in fact previous percussionists in the band. “That’s a BANGING line up,” Gallagher added.

He further added humor into the mix by claiming that Bonehead and founding drummer Paul “Guigsy” McGuigan would be serving as “pole dancers either side of stage there idea not mine bfore you all start on the faministik nonsense.” When pressed about the identity of the vocalist, Gallagher swiftly replied by noting, “ME you lunatic.”

To date, Oasis have lined up more than 40 dates for their Live ’25 outing, which will hit stadiums in the U.K., North America, Asia, Australia and South America from July through November. So far, the only confirmed participants are the Gallaghers — who have not shared a stage since August 2009.