JENNIE doesn’t shut down when it comes to taking accountability. After a video of her vaping indoors sparked backlash this summer, the BLACKPINK star issued an apology almost immediately — and in her new Harper’s Bazaar cover story interview published Thursday (Sept. 19), she explains why.

“What can I do? If Korean people think it’s wrong, I’ve got to make up for it,” she told the publication. “It’s like, I get why you guys are upset. It’s cultural, it’s history. It’s time. And I can’t go against time.”

The incident in question happened back in July, when the 28-year-old performer posted a vlog featuring a snippet of her vaping while getting her hair and makeup done. After viewers pointed it out, the clip was edited out of the video and her reps issued a statement: “We sincerely apologize to everyone who felt uncomfortable with JENNIE’s actions … JENNIE acknowledges and deeply regrets her mistake of vaping indoors and causing inconvenience to the staff.”

The statement also assured people that JENNIE had apologized to anyone on site “who may have been affected” and acknowledged all of the “fans who have been disappointed through this incident.” And while some people may scratch their heads over the uproar caused by such a minor trespass, the The Idol alum doubled down on her decision to say she was sorry.

“I don’t want to lose their trust,” she said of her fanbase. “It is so important for me to have my culture, and everyone around the world, love me.”

The cover story comes as JENNIE is getting ready to step into a new solo era (much like her BLACKPINK bandmate LISA). At the time of the interview, the “You & Me” singer had just spent two straight weeks in the studio working on her debut solo album, and she’s expected to drop a new single in October after signing a new deal with Columbia Records.

Of working on her solo career, JENNIE told the publication that she’s “bringing [herself] to the world for the first time.” “BLACKPINK JENNIE will always be a part of me, but you will also get to experience this new side,” she added.

See JENNIE’s Harper’s Bazaar cover below.

Molly Tuttle, a two-time Grammy winner and the first woman to win the IBMA’s guitar player of the year honor (she won in both 2017 and 2018), has become one of Nashville’s most coveted musicians and a mainstay in the bluegrass scene.

But Tuttle and her group Golden Highway — who’ve issued five albums since 2017 — have also leaned closer to musical troubadours rather than devout traditionalists, melding bluegrass with a range of styles. The group continues that ethos on the wide-ranging new EP Into The Wild, out Sept. 20 on Nonesuch Records.

“It’s a reflection of the last few years and what we’ve worked on as a band,” Tuttle tells Billboard.

But the six-song EP, which follows the group’s 2023 Grammy-winning City of Gold, also nods to Tuttle’s northern California roots, where the Santa Clara-born Tuttle spent much of her youth practicing guitar and attending bluegrass and folk music festivals. At age 13, she recorded The Old Apple Tree, a collection of duets with her father. By 15, she had joined her family band The Tuttles, along with friend A.J. Lee.

She was inspired to write the EP’s title track with her partner Ketch Secor (of Old Crow Medicine Show), after spending a week in California’s Redwood National Forest. Far from a typical ode to the enduring nature of beauty, “Into the Wild” also offers a searing message, on the lines, “Times ain’t like they used to be/ The wilderness is hard to find at all/ The magic slipped way and the fires start in May/ Making way for another shopping mall.”

“We felt really inspired by the natural setting, but the song is also about the effect humans have on nature and how we need to protect these wild spaces,” Tuttle says.

Thus, “Into the Wild” also connects to another song on the project: a rendition of the late California folk singer Kate Wolf’s 1981 song “Here in California.”

“She’s someone who writes a lot about the natural world, and she’s one of my absolute favorite songwriters,” Tuttle says of Wolf, noting also the influence of the Kate Wolf Music Festival, held from 1996-2022 in northern California. “Her music kind of echoed throughout the Bay Area music scene and people were always jamming on her songs. She’s just very beloved in that area.

“I never got to go to that festival, and I remember writing emails to the festival every year asking them to book me,” Tuttle continues. “But I met a lot of people who played with her, like Nina Gerber, who was one of my first mentors who was a female lead guitarist.”

Tuttle considered a few Wolf songs to include on the album, but when she thought of “Here in California” and began researching versions of the song, she realized just how deep Wolf’s influence is embedded in her own musical history.

“I was like, ‘I want to cover a Kate Wolf song on this album,’ and I sent a few different songs to the band. When I Googled to find some live versions of [‘Here in California’], I actually found a video of myself playing it at age 15 and I forgot that I ever played it live before — but it was a video of me, my dad and AJ Lee performing it. Here I thought I had this new idea about covering this Kate Wolf song, but I had already covered it. It was kind of uncanny to see a video of myself playing it. But I loved how this version turned out. We got the old family band harmonies going again and A.J. is singing a verse, and it sounds amazing.”

Into The Wild’s eclectic set also spans covers of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and a glistening pop punk-meets-bluegrass rendering of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U,” (which features Sierra Hull on mandolin) — a song Tuttle previously recorded as part of the Spotify Singles campaign. The EP also nods to City of Gold with an alternate version of “Stranger Things.” The new version is pared back, with Tuttle joined by mandolin player Dominick Leslie and cello/synth player Nathaniel Smith.

From those early bluegrass festivals, Tuttle’s journey has taken her to Boston, where she majored in guitar performance at Berklee College of Music, before moving to Nashville in 2015. She had released two projects of pop-tilted music before teaming with bluegrass legend Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the group’s albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold (both sets earned Grammy accolades for best bluegrass album).

Into the Wild releases just a week prior to this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, set for Sept. 26 in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Douglas will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

“I am so proud to have worked with him and just count him as a mentor and a friend, and someone who I really look up to,” Tuttle says. ‘I feel lucky to have made so much music with him, and he’s so deserving of this achievement. I’m really happy to see his name up there.”

Leading into this year’s ceremony, Tuttle and her Golden Highway bandmates — fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Leslie, bass player Shelby Means and banjo player Kyle Tuttle (no relation)– are also foremost nominees, up for a total of eight accolades, including entertainer of the year, vocal group of the year, instrumental group of the year and album of the year (City of Gold). Tuttle is up for female vocalist of the year and guitar player of the year, while bandmate Keith-Hynes is up for fiddle player of the year and new artist of the year.

“For me, when I’m making an album, I’m not thinking ‘Oh, I hope this wins a bunch of awards,’” she explains. “But then, when it’s out there in the world, you do hope people are resonating with it — and something like being nominated for the IBMA Awards is just that kind of affirmation that people are listening to it and liking it. I grew up going to the IBMAs and seeing so many of my heroes on stage there. So we’re excited to play a song off our latest record and it’s going to be a fun night. It always feels like a family reunion-meets-prom night, since we’re all dressed up.”

Thanks to Tuttle’s skills as a writer, musician and vocalist, she has become not only a multi-award winner, but an in-demand collaborator, recording and/or performing with artists including Jason Isbell, Lainey Wilson, Bela Fleck, Old Crow Medicine Show, Billy Strings, Yola, Bobby Osborne and Emmylou Harris. In 2018, she also teamed with Missy Raines, Alison Brown, Sierra Hull and Becky Buller for the supergroup First Ladies of Bluegrass.

But given the ample talent in Nashville, there are still plenty of artists on Tuttle’s bucket list. “I feel fortunate to have gotten to play with so many of my heroes,” she says. “One person who I’ve always wanted to sing with is Alison Krauss. That would be super fun.”

Ahead, in addition to a slate of tour dates, Tuttle says she’s in the “writing phase” of her next record. “I’m not sure what it will turn into yet, but I’m always working on new stuff and looking to go into the studio soon and hopefully have something out next year,” she says.

If she does release a new project next year, she’ll likely be performing some of that new music at next year’s IBMA Awards, which will relocate from Raleigh to a new venue in Chattanooga, Tenn.

“We were just in Chattanooga on Sunday and it’s such a great city,” Tuttle says. “I’m really excited that it’s going to be closer to Nashville, although I do love Raleigh. I just thought Raleigh was a great place for it to be. There were such great venues for bands to get to play all throughout Raleigh and then the Street Fest was really fun. So I hope that Chattanooga has kind of a similar setup. I think that works really well to have a few stages outdoors on the streets so that people can just walk around and enjoy music. Hopefully Chattanooga’s going to embrace IBMA in the same way and celebrate this big week that we have every year. But as a city, I’m really looking forward to spending time there for IBMA and seeing what it turns into.”

Eighteen years after releasing her debut self-titled studio album, Paris Hilton is back on Billboard’s album charts with her follow-up project Infinite Icon.

The album debuts at No. 38 on the latest Billboard 200 chart (dated Sept. 21) with 18,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (ending Sept. 12), according to Luminate. It features A-list collaborations with Meghan Thee Stallion, Rina Sawayama, Meghan Trainor and Sia.

Her first album, Paris, reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in September 2006, and included “Stars Are Blind,” her debut single that climbed to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 a month prior.

While Hilton hasn’t charted an album since then, she hasn’t been totally absent from the charts. She’s charted three songs on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, all since 2013: “Good Time” featuring Lil Wayne (No. 19 peak in 2013), “High Off My Love” (No. 35; 2015) and “B.F.A. (Best Friend’s Ass)” with Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike (No. 45; 2019). She’s also released other collaborations with Sia, Steve Aoki, Kim Petras and Lil Wayne, among others.

For Infinite Icon, Hilton recruited a team of top-level producers and songwriters to pull the project together. Jesse Shatkin is credited as a producer on all 12 of the album’s tracks. He’s previously worked with Sia, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus and Ellie Goulding, among others. Notably, he co-producer Sia’s “Chandelier” and One Direction’s “Perfect,” which both reach the top 10 of the Hot 100 (at Nos. 8 and 10, respectively).

Greg Kurstin worked on Hilton’s Sia collaboration “Fame Won’t Love You.” Kurstin is perhaps best recognized for his work with Adele (including her No. 1s “Hello” and “Easy On Me”), but he’s also produced and written songs for Kelly Clarkson (including her No. 1 “Stronger [What Doesn’t Kill You]”), P!nk, Tate McRae, Miley Cyrus and Halsey. He’s also spent 14 total weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Producers chart.

Alex Frankel is also credited as a producer on six songs from Infinite Icon. Frankel is half of the synthpop indie duo Holy Ghost!, and has also worked on music with fellow indie acts the Juan MacLean and U.S. Girls.

Other producers on the project include Kid Harpoon, Banx & Ranx, Dallas Caton, House of Wolf and Naliya.

Zach Bryan knows all too well he made a mistake, and he’s acknowledging it. The country star shared a lengthy explanation and apology on Thursday (Sept. 19) after tweeting two days earlier “eagles > chiefs / Kanye > Taylor,” then asking followers, “who’s with me.”

“for the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night,” he wrote in an Instagram Story he paired with the pop superstar’s Post Malone Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 collab “Fortnight.” “I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong. I know there’s a lot of stuff that clouds around Ye and I was speaking purely musically. I love Taylor’s music and pray you guys know I’m human and tweet stupid things often. Hope one day I can explain this to her.”

The country singer — has since deactivated his X account — went on to explain that he gets in trouble on the social media platform too much, and will be staying off of it. “I’m sorry to any Taylor fans I pissed off or let down.” he added.

In a second Story featuring “The Albatross,” the “I Remember Everything” singer explained that he’s been going through a tough time, and shared his appreciation for the 14-time Grammy winner. “To be completely honest, it just came off as rude and desensitized to Taylor. I respect her so much as a musician that the last thing I want is people thinking I don’t appreciate and love what she has done for musician,” he wrote, before offering a public service announcement. “Love you guys and hope you guys understand. Don’t drink and tweet. Don’t drink and tweet!”

But he wasn’t done there. The country star continued to express his love for Swift in a third Story. “Taylor has been a force of nature for as long as we’ve all been growing up and I admire that,” Bryan wrote in part. “I never want people to think I have a hint of malice or meanness towards anyone, ever, that’s why I’m saying all this.”

Bryan, who won the Grammy for best country/duo performance for his Hot 100 Hit “I Remember Everything,” went on to elaborate on the tough time he’s had in a fourth Story. “This year has been an awful lot on me in personal ways that no one knows and I’ve been trying to cope and balance too many things at once,” he explained. “So I’m going to take a breather from tweeting stupid stuff, finish my tour, and ground myself somehow in the midst of all this. I feel very, very blessed each day.”

Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment.

The pop superstar and Ye have a long had bad blood, dating back to the 2009 VMAs, when the rapper grabbed the mic from Swift as she was accepting the award for best female video, and made his infamous “Imma let you finish” speech. Then there was the “Famous” lyric by the controversial rapper — who in recent years has faced mounting criticism for his hate speech — calling the “Anti-Hero” singer a “b—h” that included what Swift in 2023 called the “frame job” phone call of her allegedly approving the lyric, and more.

Bryan is set to perform at the Bourbon & Beyond music festival in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday (Sept. 21). His Quittin Time tour then resumes Nov. 17 in Canada, before swinging back into the U.S. for a series of shows beginning Nov. 22 in Tacoma, Wash.

The Federal Trade Commission is being urged to investigate technology companies that create tools for ticket scalpers that violate existing laws and drive up the price of concert tickets.  

The warning and call to action comes by way of a letter signed by National Independent Talent Organizations president Jack Randall and executive director Nathaniel Marro, taking aim at the World Ticket Summit. Held in Nashville earlier this month, the annual conference is organized by the National Association of Ticket Brokers, the country’s largest member organization for professional ticket resellers and individuals who list and resell tickets on sites like StubHub and SeatGeek. 

At this year’s summit, members of NITO – which represent independent talent agencies and management companies including Arrival Artists, High Road Touring, Paladin Artists, Q Prime, Red Light Management and TKO – “observed a sold-out exhibition hall filled with vendors selling and marketing products designed to bypass security measures for ticket purchases, in direct violation of the BOTS Act,” a Sept. 9 letter to Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan reads. 

That technology includes web browser extensions that set up multiple tabs masking a user’s IP address, proxy services that allow users to be logged in to multiple ticketing accounts from one location and virtual credit card services that bypass geographical restrictions on ticket sales, which are often put in place by event organizers to ensure fair access for local fans. 

According to the letter, the use of this type of technology to procure concert tickets is a violation of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016 which prohibits scalpers from using technology that circumvents “a security measure, access control system, or other technological measure used to enforce ticket purchasing limits for events with over 200 attendees.” 

Put more simply, most ticketing companies place a cap on how many tickets a fan can buy for a concert and the use of automated bots, proxy servers, VPNs and phantom credit cards to exceed purchase limits is a violation of the BOTS Act. 

“The presence of these vendors at a conference specifically for ticket brokers strongly suggests that a substantial portion of attendees either currently use these services or are likely to do so in the near future,” the letter reads. “This widespread availability and apparent demand for tools that can circumvent ticket purchasing limits indicates that many, if not most, scalpers are operating in violation of the federal BOTS Act.” 

The NATB’s executive director Gary Adler issued a lengthy statement in response to NITO’s letter, writing “The vast majority of technology exhibitors at the conference were inventory management systems that help ticket companies organize their tickets, offer them for resale, and help with pricing.” 

“There are many friction points in ticketing,” Adler continued “and high-tech ways that players in the system try to monopolize every dollar spent on ticketing and to prevent the resale of tickets. For more than half of events there are lower cost options on the secondary market and some in the primary market don’t like seeing their previously sold tickets being offered for resale at deep discounts. Artists, venues, and primary ticketers abuse technology every day to create fake scarcity and deceive consumers into paying higher prices when really, they are secretly holding back tickets to slowly drip more on sale over time to cheat and fool the fan. This is most likely an illegal deceptive marketing and advertising practice, driven by artists, venues, and primary ticketing companies, that the FTC should immediately investigate.” 

Adler notes that the NATB “advocated for the passage of the BOTS Act in 2016 as we fully support the banning of bots. There is no place in the system for illegal bot use. We stand for doing resale the right way and passing strong laws to protect fans and competition across the ticketing industry. If any exhibitors were offering technology that violates the BOTS Act, we want to know as they will not be welcomed back.”   

Since its passage in 2017, the BOTs Act has only been enforced one time, in 2021, when three New York-based ticket brokers were charged with violating the law. The government’s enforcement of the BOTS Act has been an “abysmal failure” writes songwriter and music industry analyst Chris Castle, noting that StubHub’s scheduled IPO this fall was a tell-tale sign that the BOTS Act was “under-enforced.” 

“Let’s face it – if there were no bots and no boiler room operations, StubHub probably wouldn’t have much of a business,” Castle wrote. Lawmakers including Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have introduced legislation like the Mitigating Automated Internet Networks for (MAIN) Event Ticketing Act of 2023 which would force ticketing companies to be more proactive about reporting BOT usage, but those efforts have largely stalled in Congress. 

NITO’s letter includes eight recommendations for rights holders and the FTC, calling for the regulator to subpoena the customer lists of “companies offering services that fall into the categories likely to facilitate BOTS Act violations” as well as increased enforcement actions, prioritizing “investigations into large-scale ticket reselling operations, focusing on those using multiple technologies to circumvent purchasing limits.” 

By implementing these recommendations, the letter explains, “rights holders and the FTC can take significant steps towards curbing BOTS Act violations and ensuring fairer access to event tickets for consumers.”