AI was an omnipresent topic at the Music Tectonics conference in Santa Monica, Calif., earlier this week, creeping into seemingly every panel discussion and casual poolside conversation. Everybody can see that AI will transform the music business. That’s a 30,000-foot view. Zoom in, however, and there’s far less certainty about how, exactly, AI will disrupt the status quo. 

“Not everybody wants to be a creator” was a frequently heard sentiment. Lucas Cantor Santiago of Mindset Ventures has a particular point of view as a composer. The setup he currently uses to write music would have cost $200,000 15 years ago. Now, somebody can get “basically the same tools” from a trip to the Apple Store. But Cantor Santiago doesn’t believe access to tools has led to more creators. “It’s just caused people like me to start writing music faster, and maybe people who didn’t have classical training to be able to start writing music,” he said on a panel.

AI’s ability to help human creators, not replace them, was a common theme at Music Tectonics. Granted, the conference was heavy on consumer technology brands such as Yamaha, Roland and Fender. Had AI anarchists been invited to speak, there would have been more diversity of thought. But the opinions of people who actually make music for a living carry a lot of weight, as they’re on the front lines of making music that eventually finds an audience. To this crowd, AI slop has little redeeming value and won’t find a meaningful audience. 

The historical record doesn’t fully support the idea that AI won’t increase the ranks of creators, though. Greater access to inexpensive production and distribution tools has already transformed the music business. Artists who were previously locked out of nationwide distribution — it was impossible for a DIY artist to get Tower Records to stock their CDs — now have access to tens of millions of consumers through digital distributors and digital service providers (DSPs) such as iTunes and Spotify. “When I owned a record label and house label in Chicago in the ‘80s, there were 100 new records a week,” said Matt Adell, co-founder and COO of Musical AI, on a panel. “When I left [EDM download store] Beatport, there were 27,000 new records a day. There are now over 150,000 new songs a day hitting the DSPs.”  

Given easier tools, people are already creating more music. Many of the 150,000 songs a day cited by Adell — or whatever the number is currently — were created by AI. French music streamer Deezer said in September that 28% of tracks uploaded are created wholly by generative AI, underscoring the fact that AI tools could lead to more music being created. Unpopular, long tail music may not attract much attention, but it creates markets where none previously existed. DIY distributors such as DistroKid, CD Baby and TuneCore can operate because production tools are inexpensive — sometimes free — and artists can afford the modest fees to distribute their songs globally.  

AI’s biggest impact could be to turn everybody into a small-scale creator. Kristen Bender, senior vp of digital innovation strategy and business development at Universal Music Group (UMG), noted during a panel that 30% to 40% of all music content on social media platforms has been manipulated by AI in some way, suggesting there are more creators than people might think. “We think that AI is going to enable so [much] hyper-personalization and interesting ways to interact with content,” she said. 

Along those lines, Liz Moody, a partner at law firm Granderson Des Rochers, described how AI tools will allow fans to interact with artists in new ways. Moody, who worked on Udio’s recent licensing deal with UMG, told the audience Udio could create “a fan-focused experience where fans can work with their favorite artists to make personalized music, maybe with the artist’s voice, or maybe create some mashups between two songs that they love.” 

When AI tools first appeared, the initial conversation focused on AI-generated music’s potential to supplant the popularity of human-created songs. But Bender and Moody — who have visibility into where these business models are headed — encouraged people to think smaller. It’s easy to imagine a licensed, industry-sanctioned generative AI platform partnering with well-known artists to create personalized renditions of “Happy Birthday” for their subscribers. But it’s a lot harder to imagine anyone other than the creator wanting to hear their personalized version. 

The 2026 Grammy nominations were announced Friday (Nov. 7), with Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga highlighting some of the biggest categories. Within the traditional Big Four categories — record of the year, song of the year, album of the year and best new artist — Interscope led all record labels with eight nominees among the 32 slots, giving parent company Universal Music Group (UMG) a commanding 21 of those 32 nods. What’s more, Interscope’s leadership structure means its total is even higher: Interscope Capitol Labels Group (ICLG) includes Capitol (two nominations), Motown (two nominations) and the joint HYBE/Geffen partnership that signed KATSEYE (one nomination), meaning that ICLG led the way with 13 total nominations in those four categories. 

That marks the fifth time in the past eight years Interscope has led among labels. Interscope artists that received those nominations were Billie Eilish (record, song), Kendrick Lamar (record, song, album) and Lady Gaga (record, song, album). Capitol’s nominations were for Doechii (record, song), Motown’s came for Leon Thomas (album, best new artist) and KATSEYE’s nomination was for best new artist.

In second among labels with six nominations is Island Records, which achieved a few feats of its own. For the second year in a row, the label had two nominees for best new artist. This year, those two honorees are Olivia Dean and Lola Young, while last year, Carpenter and Chappell Roan were both nominated (Roan ultimately took home the award). Island — which led all labels last year, when Carpenter and Roan were both nominated in all of the Big Four categories — also saw additional nominations for Carpenter (record, song and album) and Roan (record), each of whom has received nominations in those categories for the second year in a row. Carpenter now joins Taylor Swift (who has done it twice) as the only artists to receive album of the year nominations in back-to-back years since the categories were expanded from five to eight nominees for the 2019 ceremony.

Island is also part of a larger structure in REPUBLIC, which encompasses Republic Records, Def Jam and more. REPUBLIC, overall, received eight nominations, as “Golden” from the Kpop Demon Hunters soundtrack was nominated for song of the year for Republic Records and Justin Bieber’s SWAG album, released by Def Jam, was recognized for album of the year.

In third among labels is Atlantic, which got song and record nominations for ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.,” as well as best new artist nominations for Alex Warren and The Marías. In fourth is Rimas, home to Bad Bunny, who saw his DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS album nominated for album of the year, while its title track “DtMF” got song and record nominations. Columbia also grabbed two nominations — album of the year for Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA and best new artist for Addison Rae — while Roc Nation Distribution got a nod for releasing Clipse’s album of the year-nominated Let God Sort Em Out and Warner Records kept its best new artist success alive with a nod for Sombr, marking the seventh best new artist nod the label has racked up in the past six years.

Among label groups, the aforementioned UMG dominated with 21 nominations, while Warner Music Group accounted for five, the indies collectively garnered four and Sony Music had two.

The Grammys have a country problem.

This is not new news, of course, but in another banner year for country music it was reinforced when the nominations for the 68^th annual Grammy Awards were announced on Friday morning (Nov. 7).

Nowhere is the omission more obvious than in the best new artist category. To be sure, it was an extremely competitive race across several genres — but in a year when nascent country acts like Megan Moroney, Ella Langley and Zach Top were legitimate contenders with commercially and critically acclaimed breakthroughs, their names were nowhere to be found.  No country artists made the cut.

Looking further in the six general field categories, which, in addition to best new artist, include record, album, song, producer (non-classical) and songwriter ((non-classical) of the year only two country creators made the cut and both for songwriter of the year: Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote songs for artists including Moroney, Jelly Roll, Russell Dickerson and Morgan Wallen that were released during the eligibility period and Laura Veltz, who had songs cut by BigXthaPlug, Jessie Murph, Josh Ross and Maren Morris, among others. (It must be noted that country’s biggest artist, Wallen, took himself out of contention this year and did not enter, but given his past lack of nominations other than for his duet with Post Malone, the voters would likely have continued to ignore him).

This has been an ongoing issue. For the last 10 years, including today’s nominations, only five country projects have received album of the year nominations among 74 contenders (and that’s generously including efforts by Americana-leaning artists, like Sturgill Simpson and Brandi Carlile, and artists who have temporarily dipped into the genre, like Beyoncé). There have only been two winners: Kacey Musgraves for Golden Hour in 2018 and Beyoncé for Cowboy Carter earlier this year.

In song of the year, over the last 10 years the only country nominations have gone to the writers of Tanya Tucker’s “Bring My Flowers Now” and Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

For record of the year, the outlook is even similarly bleaker: the only country nominations have gone to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Old Town Road” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”  

Despite today’s goose egg, as country music has boomed over the last several years, country artists have fared best in the new artist category with eight artists receiving nominations over the last decade. However, there has been no country winner in 15 years since Zac Brown Band in 2010. And we know there won’t be one at the 2026 ceremony.

To state the obvious, the fans who have propelled country’s popularity aren’t voters. Grammy voting is a numbers game and until there are enough voters among country creators, it’s hard to see things changing. It’s clear among the winners and nominees that many of them, such as Beyoncé and Shaboozey, had projects with crossover appeal, which likely garnered them votes from beyond the country community.

That brings up a broader point, unlike other genres, such as rap and alternative, country often still remains its own island and doesn’t always cross over with other genres. That is changing, with artists like BigXthaPlug and Tate McRae collaborating with country artists and bringing new fans in, but there still seems to be a bigger divide: country listeners (including voters) likely listen to other genres of music, while fans of other genres don’t necessarily listen to country.

The Recording Academy is well aware of the country lag, and even added a new country category this year, Best Traditional Country Album, which was the only new music category added for the 68^th annual Grammy Awards. 

“The community of people that are making country music in all different subgenres came to us with a proposal and said we would like to have more variety in how our music is honored,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. told Billboard in June when the category was announced  “They said, we think we need more space for our music to be celebrated and honored.” 

That’s a great move and puts the country categories in line with a number of the other genres that have both contemporary and traditional categories, but until the number of country creators who vote rises, there is very likely to be no change in the general field because the numbers just aren’t there to cross a country artist or project over the mainstream finish line.  

The Recording Academy has been on a massive drive over the last several years to diversify its ranks especially among women, younger voters and people of color, adding 2,900 new voting members this year alone. Total voting membership is now approaching 15,000, with 73% joining since the Academy introduced a new membership model in 2019. Tellingly, only 1% of this year’s new voting members identified as being most aligned with the country genre.

This week, Billboard’s New Music Latin roundup and playlist — curated by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — features new music, including fresh picks by Zhamira, Pablo Alborán, Rosalía and Santa Fe Klan, to name a few.

Zhamira released her debut album, Curita Para el Corazón, an LP that doubles down on matters of the heart, ranging from heartbreak to healing. The set includes collabs with her husband Jay Wheeler, and Greeicy, Noreh and Kennyy. “This album is a dream come true for me,” Zhamira said in a statement. “Every collaboration on it is amazing, and I’m still processing the fact that such talented people wanted to be part of this special project. To me, this album is like my second baby, and I’m so excited to finally share it with the world.”

Meanwhile, Young Miko’s sophomore album Do Not Disturb is a 16-track project that finds the Puerto Rican hitmaker dabbles in R&B, Afrobeats, trap and reggaetón. “This album hugged me in many ways I didn’t know I needed,” Young Miko said in a statement “I feel grateful and at peace and this project definitely had a lot to do with it. The album title had a lot do with where my mind and persona was at. I needed time to myself, to listen, to have fun and I feel like just by reading ‘Do Not Disturb’ one can have an idea of what it meant.”

Other new releases this week include music from Santa Fe Klan, Estevie and Edgardo Nuñez. Which release this week do you think is best? Give these new releases a spin and vote for your favorite new Latin music release below:

Editor’s Note: The results of the weekly New Music Latin poll will be posted if the poll generates more than 1,000 votes. This poll closes at 7:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 10.

New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.

Pablo Alborán, KM0 (Warner Music Spain)

Pablo Alborán’s personal and heartfelt seventh album, KM0, is a set of 14 songs and four bonus tracks in which he explores a variety of rhythms and styles. Born from the pain and uncertainty of a loved one’s illness, as the artist recounted in a recent interview with Billboard, the album showcases a more mature and determined musician with renewed artistic freedom. Here, Alborán takes on the songwriting of all the songs and, for the first time, produces and arranges most of them, experimenting with rhythms like country/folk (“Vámonos de Aquí,” with Indiara Sfair), salsa music (“La Vida Que Nos Espera”) and merengue (“Si Te Quedas”).

The album opens with “Clickbait,” a pop track that critiques the superficiality and fake news of social media, addressing the obsession with fame and “likes.” And continues with the emotional title track, “KM0,” in which he sings about facing a new start after going through a very difficult period in his life. It also features collaborations with Luan Santana (“Qué Tal Te Va”), Ana Belén (“Inciso”), Vicente Amigo (“Planta 7,” named after the hospital floor where his relative was located), and Japanese artist Lilas Ikuta (“Perfectos imperfectos”). In true Alborán style, it is a sublime and thoroughly enjoyable work, full of heart and musicality. – SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS

Santa Fe Klan, “No Seré Quien Canta” (473 Music)

There’s a serenity to Santa Fe Klan’s new single, which captures the Mexican rapper at his most raw and vulnerable state. “No Seré Quien Canta” is a welcome departure — both sonically and lyrically — from his hard-hitting rap songs that have catapulted him to fame over the past decade. Powered by soft guitar notes, the soul-baring cumbia finds Santa in a state of healing, reflecting on love that once was and the peace that comes from letting go. “I was broken into pieces, my steps were unsteady,” he sings with pathos. “And when you hear a loud voice, you’ll think it’s your lucky day, but I won’t be the one singing, I won’t be the one making you vibrate.” — GRISELDA FLORES

Zhamira, Curita Para El Corazón (Dynamic Records/EMPIRE)

Almost 10 years after gaining momentum on Univision’s reality talent show, La Banda 2, Zhamira unleashes her highly-awaited debut studio album Curita Para El Corazón. If its title is any indication, which translates to “bandaid for the heart,” the 14-track set explores love and heartbreak, offering personal and vulnerable songs that can heal the deepest wounds. The Venezuelan singer-songwriter delivers a full-blown pop album sprinkled with heart-wrenching ballads and some tropical tunes.

For example, the bachata-infused “Mil Preguntas” is about a girl questioning her boyfriend’s intentions. The country-tinged “Otra Vez,” alongside her artist husband Jay Wheeler, is about making broken promises, and “No Me Quiero Ir” is a soft-paced merengue. In Curita Para El Corazón, Zhamira collaborates with Greeicy (“como fué?”), Noreh (“me hubiese gustado”) and KENNY (“desvelo”). The set is also home to a salsa version of the Jay Wheeler-assisted “extrañándote” that earned Zhamira her first Top 10 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart when it peaked at No. 4 in February 2024. — JESSICA ROIZ

Edén Muñoz & Bacilos, “Chimba” (Sony Music México)

Edén Muñoz is fulfilling one of his biggest dreams: releasing a collaboration with Bacilos, a band that strongly influenced him during his teenage years and whose songs are part of his set list at shows. With the release of “Chimba,” a song written and saved for many years by Muñoz, Mexico and Colombia come together once again in music and joy. What begins with soft guitars continues with a very danceable rhythm set by trumpets and timbales. The tuba also plays a part, adding that Sinaloan touch, while the accordion gives it a vallenato flavor. The lyrics couldn’t be more catchy: “And she gave me a little kiss, invited me to her apartment, we had a great time, really awesome, and I was left thinking, how lucky I am,” referring to a serendipitous encounter between two people who want to heal their broken hearts. — TERE AGUILERA

Estevie, La Traición y El Contrabando (Warner Music Latina)

Beneath her signature cowboy hat, Estevie is carrying the emotional depth and firepower of música mexicana’s brightest newcomers — but with a style that’s entirely hers. With her latest EP, La Traición y El Contrabando, the Beaumont-born vaquera doesn’t ease you in at first play. Instead, she spins haunting falsettos over accordion-laced melodies in the ghostly opener “La Eternidad.” And then there’s “Esa Fui Yo,” a tender-yet-defiant declaration of love and heartbreak, as she sings, “Y cuando te caiste quien te recogió, esa fui yo” over a rich cumbia groove, steeped in nostalgia and illuminated by the shimmer of a 12-string guitar. By the time you reach the flashy “Diamantes en mi Boca” or the melancholic closer “Contrabando,” her emotional range and high-pitched vocals leave you captivated. Estevie’s voice resonates throughout that lush blend of cumbia-pop, and leaves an impression that lingers long after the music fades. — ISABELA RAYGOZA

Check out more Latin recommendations this week below: