Ice Spice is gearing up for a trip to Bikini Bottom. Before making her voice-acting debut in the upcoming The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants movie, the MC dropped an original song for the soundtrack titled “Big Buy” on Thursday (Nov. 13).

The Bronx native reunites with her frequent collaborator RIOTUSA on the production side, and while her flow is typical of what we expect from Ice, she definitely toned down her sometimes-explicit bars to make her verses more family- and kid-friendly.

“I bend over, I do my lil’ stretch/ Ain’t a jellyfish, but I’m the catch/ Feel like that fish, so I’m pumpin’ my chest/ I blow bubbles so big like Mrs. Puff,” she raps in reference to SpongeBob character underwater boating school instructor Mrs. Penelope Puff.

Ice Spice revealed she was a fan of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants series growing up, so starring in the movie and contributing to the soundtrack marks a special moment for the 25-year-old. “Being part of the SpongeBob soundtrack is such a full-circle moment for me,” she said in a statement. “It’s crazy to see my music in a movie that’s been part of so many people’s childhoods, including mine.”

Ice Spice will star alongside Regina Hall, Sherry Cola, Arturo Castro and George Lopez in The SpongeBob Movie sequel, which hits theaters on Dec. 19.

The “Deli” rapper is starting to fill up her IMDB page, as she made her acting debut in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest film in August. On the music side, Ice Spice is coming off the release of her “Baddie Baddie” single in September.

Listen to “Big Guy” below.

Laufey, Gwen Stefani and more stars are ready to rock around the Rockefeller Christmas tree, with NBC announcing the lineup for its annual tree-lighting celebration — hosted this year by Reba McEntire — on Friday (Nov. 14).

As Billboard can exclusively share, the network is set to air its 2025 Christmas in Rockefeller Center special at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 3, with viewers getting the choice of tuning live on NBC or watching a simulcast on Peacock. With the country icon and Voice judge making her debut as host of the yearly program, Marc Anthony, Halle Bailey, Michael Bublé, Kristin Chenoweth, New Edition, Brad Paisley and Carly Pearce will also perform.

Plus, the Radio City Rockettes — who are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year — will once again be present to dazzle viewers with a festive showcase and, most likely, a kick line or two. “The lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center is one of the great traditions that New York has to offer, and we couldn’t be more proud to once again share that excitement with audiences all over the country,” said Jen Neal, executive vp of live events and specials at NBCUniversal Entertainment, in a statement.

She added, “We’re so looking forward to seeing Reba bring her infectious energy to the telecast and create an unforgettable holiday moment.”

The 2025 iteration of the holiday extravaganza will build on more than 90 years of tradition. The first Rockefeller tree lighting took place in 1933, giving New Yorkers a meaningful bit of Christmas cheer amid the Great Depression; in 1936, the famous ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center opened, giving the ceremony its now-iconic backdrop.

This year, the tree — a Norway Spruce imported from East Greenbush, N.Y. — will measure at 75 feet tall and 45 feet wide, weighing approximately 11 tons. Topped with a three-dimensional Swarovski star, it’ll take more than 50,000 colorful LED lights to illuminate.

In 2024, the special was hosted by Kelly Clarkson and featured performances from the Backstreet Boys, Dan + Shay, Jennifer Hudson, Coco Jones, Little Big Town, RAYE and more.

Warner Music Group announced on Friday that it has promoted Leho Nigul to chief technology officer, effective Dec. 1, as part of a series of executive changes this week.

Nigul, previously senior vice president of engineering, will oversee WMG’s technology strategy, team, and product roadmap, reporting directly to CEO Robert Kyncl. He succeeds Ariel Bardin, who will step aside as president of technology after three years but remain through 2025 to ensure a smooth transition.

Nigul joined WMG in 2023 and has led engineering teams across key initiatives, including global licensing, royalty management, fan engagement, and AI projects. His background includes senior roles at Instacart and more than 17 years at IBM, where he specialized in eCommerce and SaaS development.

“Leho’s deep knowledge and wide-ranging experience as a leader, engineer, and innovator make him ideally suited to take our team into the future and leverage AI for the benefit of our artists, songwriters and employees,” said WMG CEO Robert Kyncyl.

Bardin’s tenure saw significant upgrades to WMG’s tech infrastructure, including new tools for artists and songwriters, streamlined global supply chains, and enhanced data systems. Kyncl praised Bardin for helping to “transform our company systems”and for “setting the foundation to rapidly scale WMG going forward.”

Nigul added that WMG’s approach to innovation creates “powerful, new opportunities for our artists, songwriters and teams.”

The leadership shift on the tech side comes amid a busy week for WMG, which also announced several high-profile appointments: Gregg Nadel was named president of A&R at Warner Records Group; Cris Lacy became chair and president of the rebranded Warner Records Nashville, continuing her role as one of the highest-ranking women in Nashville’s label ecosystem; and Atlantic Music Group tapped A&R veteran Jeremy Vuernick as executive vice president.

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Ready to dive into the drama that is BravoCon 2025?

The Bravo-led convention is back and juicier than ever, spearheaded by none other than Andy Cohen. The convention will be taking place at the Bravo Clubhouse in Las Vegas. Fans will be able to experience a special edition of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, aptly titled BravoCon Live with Andy Cohen. Some of Bravo’s favorite series regulars will be attending the con including Angie Katsanevas from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Ariana Madix of Vanderpump Rules fame, Ashley Darby from The Real Housewives of Potomac and Denise Richards from the film Wild Things and the show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, among others.

BravoCon LIVE will feature special episodes airing from Nov. 14 through the 16th slated to include all the hot gossip, jaw-dropping reveals, and maybe even some beef squashing that fans of Bravo have been craving. The shows will tape across four nights from PH Live at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino.

BravoCon began back in 2019 in New York and served as a way for fans of Bravo franchises to meet and greet with their favorites. At the time, it was the only convention really celebrating and platforming all things reality TV. If you didn’t snag tickets to the convention, we’re going to show you how you can tune into the fun from the comfort of your couch.

How to Watch BravoCon with DIRECTV.

BravoCon LIVE with Andy Cohen will be available to watch via Bravo which can be accessed on DIRECTV on channel 237.

A subscription to DIRECTV  gets you access to live TV, local networks such as NBC, ABC and PBS, and you can also watch many cable networks, including FS1, Lifetime, FX, AMC, A&E, Bravo, BET, MTV, Paramount Network, Cartoon Network, VH1, Fuse, CNN, Food Network, CNBC and many others (Some local channels not available in select markets.). With DIRECTV, you’ll have access to a slew of Bravo titles, giving you the drama fix you’ll need to keep going. This includes Below Deck, Vanderpump Rules, Summer House and all The Real Housewives franchises you can think of.

DIRECTV offers a handful of streaming plans for all budgets as well as a trial so you can watch for free for five days. The most affordable option of the bunch is the ENTERTAINMENT package featuring over 90 channels for $49.99/mo. for the first month and $79.99 for months two and three, then $89.99 for months 4-24¹. This plan includes local channels (where available), ESPN Unlimited, unlimited streams for unlimited screens² and a special offer on premium networks. Check out directv.com/affiliates/stream for details on the other packages, channel line ups and special offers.

1. Ltd Time. Includes 5-day free trial, followed by one month at $49.99, then $79.99/mo. for mos. 2-3 w/ENTERTAINMENT pkg.; $89.99/mo. for mos. 4-24). Includes $40 off for 1st mo.; $10 off for mos. 2-3. New residential customers only. Valid card required; may be charged a temporary credit hold during trial. Includes trial and 3-mo promo, then service renews monthly unless canceled. Cancel anytime. Prices may vary through third parties. Select Sales channels. Restr’s apply. Offer details at directv.com/affiliates/stream. ↩︎
2. Limit 3 concurrent out-of-home DIRECTV streams. Unlimited in-home DIRECTV streams must be on the same home network and requires compatible device(s) required. Some networks may limit total number of simultaneous streams. Restrictions apply. See directv.com/unlimitedstreams for details. ↩︎

Over her  20-plus-year career, Tracy Gardner has seen her fair share of technological disruptions in the music business. “I started right when illegal downloads took over,” she says of her entry into the industry as an intern at what was then Warner Bros. Records (now Warner Records). 

As TikTok’s global head of music business development — a position she has held since February — Gardner is now running point for the biggest disruptor of the industry over the last five years. The Brooklyn Law graduate, whom ByteDance recruited in 2019 after six years in the legal affairs and business development departments at Warner Music Group, took over from Ole Obermann — whom she also worked with at WMG — when he departed for Apple Music. 

In her new role as the platform’s chief liaison with the music industry, Gardner oversees deals with labels, publishers and the TikTok commercial music library and works closely with the platform’s strategy, finance, artist services, product and ad sales teams. 

Her promotion comes at a fitful moment for TikTok, as ByteDance and the Trump administration are reportedly finalizing a deal that would result in a consortium of U.S. investors acquiring a majority stake in the app. Gardner was not able to comment on that process or how it might affect her division. But in this interview — her first since assuming her current role — she asserts that nearly two years after Universal Music Group temporarily pulled its artists’ music from TikTok over a breakdown in licensing negotiations, and the social media platform shifted label licensing away from Merlin, which licenses digital companies on behalf of over 30,000 indie labels and distributors, “We’re in a great place with the music industry. It’s a dynamic partnership that, as TikTok evolves quickly, has an impact on how we’re looking at deals, how we work with partners and what they want to get from a partnership with us.”

At Warner, you were on the other side of the negotiating table with ByteDance. How did that experience affect how you conduct your job now? 

Mainly, it was great to come from the perspective of being at a label and a rights holder. [TikTok] was still relatively new when I got there, and we had to build the infrastructure and collaborate with other teams at ByteDance. A lot of our music team came over from either other DSPs [digital service providers] or labels, so there was a very good base to help the product teams, who don’t have music experience, understand what these rights holders expect from tech partners and what their artists are looking for.

What did you learn from watching Ole Obermann? 

Ole and I worked together at Warner. Often people in business development [at music companies] come from one of two paths: f inancial or legal backgrounds. I was fortunate that Ole came from a more numbers- based, financial background, whereas mine was legal. He forced me out of my comfort zone. I wanted to look at the term sheet, and he told me, “You have to focus on the numbers. The numbers don’t lie.” Then we both moved to TikTok, and he [built] a great infrastructure of how the team operates, how we present budgets and how we work with senior management. 

How have you tailored your current role to your perspective and experience? 

Ole was overseeing both recorded music and publishing, while I was more in day-to-day operations on the recorded-music side working with artists. So when I took on this new job, I said, “Why don’t we apply the best practices we have for artists to songwriters?” One thing that we’re particularly proud of is the songwriter feature we launched earlier this year [enabling songwriters to tag songs they’ve written in the music tab of their account]. The songwriters are really enjoying being able to step out from behind the curtain and get the acknowledgment that they deserve. We plan to roll that out more broadly. 

TikTok increasingly has prioritized e-commerce with the TikTok Shop. How is your team working with artists there? 

We are working with the e-commerce teams at the labels as well as our own. One thing we’re seeing is old vinyl sells. Even though people don’t have record players, they view these albums as collectibles. We also see great success when an artist does a livestream. We did one with Lizzo that was quite successful and one with the Jonas Brothers. 

TikTok has hosted a number of intimate pop-up events recently for artists’ top fans. Ones with Miley Cyrus and Ed Sheeran come to mind immediately. This is an interesting move to me because you are a social media platform. You want to engage fans online. Why did you want to take people off their phones and get them outside with artists?

Music discovery starts on TikTok — discovery, promotion and fandom grows here, and we view it as a flywheel. After discovering a song, we then help to promote it with some of the campaigns that we do, then we tie that to the “Add to Music App” function so that you can listen on your streaming service. We’re see that what we do moves the needle on streaming, which then leads to charts, which then leads to increased fandom. 

We thought that there would be a great opportunity to bring this to real life, to invite the fans that have the greatest engagement with an artist on TikTok to come see the artist in person, even if it does mean going off the platform for a bit. What I thought was beautiful about the Miley event at Chateau Marmont, was that the people there were so impassioned that they started posting so much about it. Even though I wasn’t there, they made me feel like I’d actually experienced it. Right now, we’re finding a way to create joyful intimate moments and creating them in a way that encourages fans to film and to bring them back onto TikTok. 

After a song goes viral on TikTok, it often ends up doing really well on streaming services. For a while, TikTok was building its own streaming service, TikTok Music. Why was it shut down last year? 

It was just a decision of priorities. We were trying to grow it for quite some time, and the decision was made: “You know what? Out of all the things we’re doing, this is not succeeding at the level we want. Let’s focus on other areas.” It was an awesome service and it really tied in all the great parts of TikTok, but it was just a decision by management.

TikTok recently let go about 15 people from the U.S. and Latin American music teams, and layoffs are forthcoming in the United Kingdom. Some are interpreting this as a sign that the company is backing away from its partnerships with the music business. 

As so many other big companies have recently done — Amazon announced a big round of layoffs, for instance — organizational changes are due to changes in structural needs. Companies can grow very quickly and then must reassess what’s best for them. There is definitely no change in the priority around artist services and artist relations. For us, it’s business as usual.

How are you reassuring the music industry that you remain committed to the partnerships and plans you already made? 

We’re telling them it’s business as usual, and our valued industry partners remain the highest priority. We just want to focus more on the core priorities for artists and songwriters to help drive the value on the platform. 

How is TikTok ensuring artists have safeguards against artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes? 

We ask that users tag anything that’s AI-created. Aside from that, I don’t think the industry has a quick solution right now to identify those and take them down. If someone notifies us, our trust and safety team will take them down if needed. But it is a very interesting time right now. 

AI-generated songs have appeared on the TikTok and Billboard charts. Are you pursuing any policies that would bar AI music on your platform and charts? 

It’s uncharted territory. Even with U.S. Copyright Office guidance that works must have sufficient human contribution to be protected, what does that mean? There’s such a wide span from a song being totally created by AI to one that’s created by a human with just one or two AI contributions. How do we decide when it’s such a gray zone? So I don’t think we’ve made a decision on that yet, and I don’t think a lot of the DSPs have either. 

If AI-generated music starts performing well on TikTok, could it diminish the leverage rights holders have in negotiations with you? 

I don’t think it would have any impact. We’re all aware that AI music is out there, and some exceptions have risen on the charts, but it would not at all impact the value that we see in our partners and how our deals with them are structured.

What are some best practices for artists seeking to gain an audience on TikTok? 

The beauty of it is that any song has a chance to go viral. It just depends on how the billions of people on the platform react to the song. Oftentimes, I’m asked, “Do you have to be really leaned in?” It depends. A great example is Connie Francis. Her song “Pretty Little Baby” blew up this year. She wasn’t on the platform at the time. Eventually she did get on, which was great, but this music resonated [on its own].