Independent artists have earned more than $5 billion through TuneCore. The distribution partner for self-releasing artists — owned by Paris-based Believe — announced the $5 billion milestone today, marking the first public achievement of its kind among distributors for self-releasing artists, according to the company.

“Crossing $5 billion earned by TuneCore artists is a defining milestone for independent music—it shows that creative freedom and financial success can go hand in hand,” said TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson in a release. “Reaching this milestone didn’t just happen; it’s the result of listening closely to what artists need today and evolving TuneCore to power their growth. By combining innovation with intention, we’ve built programs like TuneCore Accelerator to help artists reach new audiences, and publishing services that ensure they collect every cent their music generates. This milestone reflects the extraordinary talent and drive of our artists around the world, and we’re proud to be the partner helping to fuel their success.”

TuneCore was founded in 2006 with a mission to democratize music distribution for self-releasing artists and has evolved into a global company for independent artist development. Surpassing the $5 billion milestone reflects the cumulative earnings of all TuneCore artists since 2006 from bedroom producers to global stars alike—and comes just 17 months after surpassing the $4 billion mark.

“This achievement is a testament to TuneCore’s unwavering commitment to innovation for the independent artist community,” said YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen in a statement. “For almost two decades, they’ve been committed to providing the infrastructure for artists to build durable careers and monetize their work. We share that mission—ensuring that YouTube is the global destination for their artists to build meaningful connections with their fans. We are proud to partner with TuneCore and celebrate this monumental success!”

TuneCore credits its nearly two decades of success to its parent company Believe which has direct relationships with digital service providers and streaming platforms worldwide. Another recent factor in the company’s success comes from the TuneCore Accelerator, the company’s flagship artist development platform. Accelerator provides artists with access to promotional and marketing opportunities designed to drive discovery, build audiences, and deepen fan engagement. In just the past year, artists in the program have generated over 21 billion new streams, sparked 2.5 billion artist discoveries, and seen their median royalties grow fivefold.

DSPs from Spotify to Apple Music are celebrating TuneCore’s milestone. With Spotify’s svp/global head of music Charlie Hellman stating, “We are proud to partner with TuneCore to uplift independent artists and enable countless songwriters, producers, and performers to turn their passion for music into a career. TuneCore paying $5B to artists is an inspiring milestone that reflects how far independent music has come in the streaming era.”

Apple Music and Beats vp Oliver Schusser added: “At Apple, we celebrate the creativity and value of creators across every stage of development, and we commend TuneCore for helping so many talented independent artists from around the world earn money and build careers on their own terms. Congrats!”

Globally, TuneCore’s reach continues to expand, with over 75% of new artists and labels joining TuneCore in the last year coming from outside the United States.

As he gears up to release his new EP Appaloosa on Friday (Nov. 14), country singer Orville Peck broke down the current phase of his career in the latest episode of Billboard‘s Takes Us Out.

Peck sat down with Billboard’s Tetris Kelly at Los Angeles’ Beachwood Café, where the pair chowed down on comfort food and took a look at the state of Peck’s career today. “[I’ve been] going back to my roots, in terms of just diving into the creativity and the artistry and the references that I grew up loving,” Peck says. “[Appaloosa]’s also got a very constant air through it in terms of lyrics, of just kind of being unconcerned with what things should sound like or look like. I’m really just making music for myself again.”

The singer, who spent the last few years rising through the ranks of country music and becoming a breakout star in his own right, says that his work with friends and former collaborators such as Noah Cyrus and Willie Nelson only further helped bolster his confidence about his own artistic output. But he points to one country superstar as his dream collaborator.

“I mean, I always say Dolly [Parton], I would love to work with Dolly,” he says. “I got Willie Nelson, he was really neck-and-neck with her, so she is the last one on my absolute bucket list that I would die to work with.”

As a disruptive force in the country space, and one who has often advocated for greater diversity and equity within the genre, Peck points out that he’s happy to see some progress finally being made for the genre he calls home. “I feel better about it. I think there’s a lot more people now feeling like they can make country music and not be within the sort of homogenized idea of what country ‘needs’ to be,” he says. “That’s amazing, not just for queer people, but for black people, for brown people, there’s a lot more artists who feel validated to be a part of that.”

But, he points out that country is “tricky” when it comes to progress, and says that the work is far from over. “There is some attachment to country with the culture of country,” he says. “In some ways we’re making a lot of progress, and then in some ways, that progress is making some people want to stand firm in their gatekeeping of country. It’s a constant conversation.”

He points to the recent rule change at the Recording Academy, dividing the previously existing best country album category into two separate lanes for “traditional” and “contemporary” country albums, as an example of his point.

“I actually think it makes sense, personally,” he says. “I think in the last 10-15 years, there has been more of a split between radio-pop country, which tends to be more about a certain type of culture than a sound. And then I think there’s the other side of country that is a more traditional, referenced type of country that’s more about the songwriting … that feels like it’s more open culturally to anyone who wants to express themselves in that.”

During the new interview, Peck also chats about his time playing the Emcee in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club on Broadway, his favorite song off of his new album and the “diet illegal” activities he and his friends got into growing up. Watch the full episode of Takes Us Out above.

At an otherwise joyful celebration of Wicked in Singapore for the second film’s Asian premiere on Thursday (Nov. 13), a scary moment took place when someone in the crowd charged at Ariana Grande and forced Cynthia Erivo to step in as her costar’s bodyguard.

In videos of the incident captured at the event, the two leading ladies walk the red carpet at the event alongside Michelle Yeoh, who also stars in the Wicked films, when a man suddenly jumps over the barricade and runs directly at Grande. After reaching the pop star, he forcefully puts his hands on her shoulders and wraps an unwanted arm around her neck, with Grande looking terrified.

Immediately, Erivo springs into action, rushing to tear the man away from Grande while Yeoh makes sure the R.E.M. Beauty founder is okay. Footage from the moments afterward shows three different security officials pinning the aggressor to the ground before hauling him away.

Billboard has reached out to Grande and Erivo’s reps for comment on the incident.

Upon further investigation, the culprit appears to be Johnson Wen — not that it takes much to identify him, given the fact that he’s since bragged about the incident on his Instagram page. Identifying himself as “Troll Most Hated,” the prankster has also posted videos of himself rushing on stage at various concerts, to the shock of artists such as The Weeknd and the Chainsmokers.

On his Story, Wen shared that he’d been arrested and subsequently released after charging at Grande. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s been apprehended for such startling behavior; just a few months ago, he was arrested for running on stage and putting hands on Katy Perry at her June concert in Singapore.

Despite the terrifying encounter, Grande and Erivo — oftentimes holding hands — appeared to enjoy the remainder of the event at Universal Studios Singapore. It followed similar recent premieres in São Paulo, Paris and London.

Wicked: For Good hits theaters worldwide on Nov. 21.

One of the unfathomable tricks D’Angelo pulled off on his beloved trio of studio albums was somehow sounding simultaneously like a lost R&B classic from the 1960s as well as a soul sonic space signal from some distant, funky future.

If you couldn’t get enough of that silky retro-futurism on Brown Sugar (1995), Voodoo (2000) or Black Messiah (2014), The Roots’ Questlove has some good news for you. Speaking to The National News Desk outlet on the red carpet at last weekend’s 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, the drummer, Oscar-winning documentarian and frequent D’Angelo collaborator teased that there’s more to come.

“You’ll see soon,” Quest said with a grin when asked if there were any unreleased tracks in the vault amid reports last year that the legendarily time-taking “Devil’s Pie” musician was slowly accumulating tracks for the long-awaited follow-up to the Grammy-winning Black Messiah. “It’s always the sound of yesterday, but for the future,” Quest added. “This record is no different.”

Though no additional information on the project was available at press time, in a 2024 chat with the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, collaborator Raphael Saadiq reported that the enigmatic singer was “in a good space” at that time. “I talk to him a couple times. He’s excited. We don’t talk much, but when we do talk it’s crazy, like, ‘Oh, you gotta hear this!’ He’s like, ‘You gotta play bass. I’ve got this track. I’m telling you, you got to get on it. It got your name all over it,’” Saadiq said.

He added that at that time D’Angelo was working on “six pieces right now and he seems super excited. He’s in control of his own destiny at this point. He has a management team, but they can’t make him do anything that he don’t wanna do. He knows it’s on him now and I think that’s a different angle that he’s coming from.”

Among the songs Saadiq said they were working on was an old track from their early days when they formed a short-lived group with A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip. “I think it’s going to be a record on D’Angelo’s new album when it comes out, a record that we all did together,” Saadiq said. “I’m playing bass, D’s playing, me and D is singing backgrounds. It’s funky as hell too. D is a bad boy. … It’s aged well. Good music ages well.”

As he was wont to do, D’Angelo went off-the-radar after releasing his last album more than a decade ago, popping up in 2018 to contribute the song “May I? Stand Unshaken” to the Red Dead Redemption 2 video game soundtrack. He also did a non-competition D’Angelo & Friends Verzuz set at the Apollo in 2021 that was pretty much a solo affair featuring collabs with Method Man & Redman, H.E.R. and The Vanguard backing band trumpet player Keyon Harrold.

D’angelo, who died on Oct. 14 following a battle with cancer, also teamed up with Jay-Z for “I Want You Forever” for the soundtrack to the movie The Book of Clarence.