Carlos Rivera chose the Day of the Dead celebration to launch VIDA, a six-song EP filled with nostalgia, delving into mariachi, sierreño and even tumbado music. The Mexican pop star, born in Huamantla, a small town in the state of Tlaxcala, recently presented this material there, proudly showcasing his roots.

“I want the world to know more about my country’s traditions,” Rivera tells Billboard Español. “We Mexicans celebrate the lives of those who have passed away in a very unique way, with flavors, colors, and music.”

“Mexico is mariachi, Día de Muertos,” adds the singer of “Recuérdame,” a song that was part of the Disney-Pixar animated film Coco (2017), famous for celebrating the way Mexicans deal with the subject of death. “I always thought that if I was going to do a project like this, it had to be looking at life from a different angle. This EP is inspired by loss and grief.”

Released by Sony Music Mexico on Oct. 30, VIDA opens with “Larga Vida,” a song about enjoying every moment with our loved ones. It includes a collaboration with Ana Bárbara accompanied by traditional mariachi, “Cuento de Nunca Acabar,” about trying to forget someone without success. And songs like “Calavera,” a huapango about denying death, and “Alguien,” which talks about being used to replace someone.

The singer says that after his father passed away three years ago, he began composing and searching for songs as a form of catharsis to ease the pain a little and help others who have been through the same situation.

“There are a couple of songs I wrote for my dad when he died,” he says. “One of them is ‘No Es Para Menos,’ in which I talk about the pain coming all at once so that whatever needs to hurt hurts and the suffering ends. In ‘Almas,’ the guitars practically cry from the beginning; the lyrics are about the absence of a person when they leave and places like an armchair are left empty.”

With “Larga Vida,” the focus track, “rather than honoring those who died, I wanted to talk about the importance of enjoying those who are alive and whom we never want to see leave,” Rivera explains. “Originally it was with guitar, which was very beautiful, but I thought we could put more energy into the requinto. So it sounded very sierreño and even tumbado, but using mariachi instruments.”

Regarding the only collaboration on the EP — “Cuento de Nunca Acabar,” with regional Mexican star Ana Bárbara — he says: “From the very beginning, I thought of her to sing it together. Her style of practically crying the songs fit perfectly.”

After participating in the soundtrack for Coco, Rivera had sporadically experimented with regional Mexican music. He did so with mariachi on that occasion and in “100 años” with Maluma. Later, in 2023, he invited Carín León and Edén Muñoz to accompany him on “Alguien Me Espera en Madrid,” and in early 2025, he released “Tu Amor Es Mío” with Fato and Alfredo Olivas.

“I love the genre. It’s my roots, and I want to take it everywhere,” says Rivera. “Fortunately, my music is heard in many places in Latin America and Europe, so I want to take the whole concept of VIDA on my next tour.”

He revealed that he is putting together a band of musicians that will include mariachi, and that he will also perform in palenques. The two-year tour will begin in 2026, during which the artist with two decades of experience will bring his fans hits such as “Que Lo Nuestro Se Quede Nuestro,” “Te Esperaba,” and “Me Muero.” The dates will be announced in the coming weeks.

The annual Music Tectonics conference kicks off Tuesday (Nov. 4), bringing together music industry professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors alongside the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, Calif.  

Music Tectonics was founded in 2019 by Dmitri Vietze and his team at public relations firm Rock Paper Scissors. The three-day gathering not only has a great location — the first two days are beachside — but a valuable position on the calendar: After Music Tectonics, music industry events wind down to accommodate the holidays and won’t pick up until Grammy week in Los Angeles in late January.

The first day of Music Tectonics’ three-day event takes place at the Santa Monica Pier Carousel. On Wednesday, the conference moves to the Annenberg Community Beach House about a mile up the coast. Thursday’s events — which are focused on entrepreneurism and startups — take place at Expert Dojo, a startup accelerator located near the Santa Monica Pier. A closing party will take place at Universal Music Group’s nearby headquarters.

To help attendees know what to expect from the event, Billboard is highlighting some of the most promising programming.  

Optimization is Not Enough: Are You Ready for Streaming’s Reckoning?  

MIDiA Research’s Tatiana Cirisano talks about the future of music streaming. In a fireside chat moderated by Music Tectonics founder Dmitri Vietze, Cirisano will argue that focusing on optimization — getting the most out of existing subscribers with higher prices and value-added perks — won’t attract the next generation of customers.  

The Investor Panel 

AI startups have commandeered an astounding 51% of venture capital funding in 2025, according to CB Insights. To find out if music is less one-sided, a panel of seasoned investors will discuss what business ideas excite them and where music and technology are headed. They are also expected to give attendees tips on how to pitch them.  

Featured speakers: Aadit Parikh from Sony Ventures, Conor Healy from Yamaha Music Innovations Fund, and Lucas Cantor Santiago from Mindset Ventures. Entrepreneur and advisor Angel Gambino will moderate. 

What Everyone Should Know about the New Frontiers: Music, Gaming, AI, and Beyond! 

If you want to know where the music business is headed, it’s best to hear from the people who help build the products, create the partnerships and advise the companies that are pushing music into the future. The panelists’ many decades of expertise covers streaming platforms, gaming, social media and musical instruments.  

Featured speakers: Elizabeth Moody from Granderson Des Rochers, Paul McCabe from Roland, and Kirsten Bender from Universal Music Group. Music Tectonics’ Dmitri Vietze will moderate.  

Tools of the Trade: Platforms That Launch You Out of DIY 

The best conference panels are often those that offer practical tips that are worth the price of admission. At the “Tools of the Trade” panel, music professionals will give their thoughts on the services that help independent musicians operate in the marketplace.  

Featured speakers: Kevin Lazaroff from Amuse, Charles Alexander from ViNiL, and Crystal Desai from HiFi Labs. Tetris Kelly from Billboard will moderate.  

The New Direct-to-Fan E-Commerce 

“The future of fandom is direct,” says the page for the panel on direct-to-consumer e-commerce. In fact, the future is already here. Direct-to-consumer sales accounted for “two-thirds to 75%” of sales of Universal Music Group’s new releases, COO Boyd Muir said during the company’s Oct. 30 earnings call.  

Featured speakers: Joshua Stone from Stuff.io, Shannon Herber from Wise River Consulting, and Fabrice Sargent from Bandsintown. Billboard’s Taylor Mims will moderate.

“I’m on an adrenaline run at this point,” Grammy-winning reggae icon Shaggy tells Billboard less than a week after Hurricane Melissa made landfall on his home country of Jamaica. “I was around when [Hurricane] Gilbert happened, which [was] a Category 3… when I heard [Hurricane Melissa] was a Category 5, I [couldn’t] imagine what this would be.” 

Last week (Oct. 28), nearly 40 years after Gilbert, Hurricane Melissa became the strongest storm to strike Jamaica in the island’s history. In the following days, the storm also made landfall in Cuba (Oct. 29), devastated parts of Haiti, and brought residual rainfall and intense winds to the rest of the Caribbean — and, later, to the Northeastern coast of the United States. According to The New York Times, the death toll in Jamaica from Hurricane Melissa is now a devastating 28 — and that’s with dozens of communities still awaiting aid, as local authorities and humanitarian workers continue clearing debris. 

Shaggy, who topped the Billboard Hot 100 twice in 2001 with the reggae crossover classics “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel,” was one of the first homegrown superstars to spring into action and spearhead relief efforts, alongside Beenie Man, Spice and Sean Paul. Once the airports opened on Thursday (Oct. 30), Shaggy mobilized a network of on-the-ground partners, including humanitarian NGOs and private donors, to coordinate and fund flights carrying food, water, medical aid and household essentials to Jamaica’s most impacted areas. 

“We got [to Jamaica] early enough to reach the people, because it took me around six hours to get from Kingston to St. Elizabeth in Black River, which is normally a two-and-a-half-hour drive at most,” Shaggy tells Billboard. “We had to chop [tree] limbs down, move things out the way, and drive through high puddles of [runoff], so we got there in the middle of the night. At that point, all we could do was pass water out, so we had to regroup and drive six hours back to Kingston. The next day, we went to the Junction side of St. Elizabeth, which took us four hours. The square itself was shut down. It was ground zero because it wasn’t livable anymore. Nobody could stay there.” 

According to Reuters, Hurricane Melissa left nearly half a million Jamaicans without power and destroyed critical water systems and supply lines. With the island’s southwestern parishes, specifically St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland, remaining difficult to access due to flooding, landslides and debris, thousands of Jamaicans remain housed in emergency shelters, which presents an entirely different set of challenges, such as overcrowding. Whether they’re braving shelters or making their way to the eastern side of the island, families across Jamaica are still reeling from Hurricane Melissa.

“The devastation and shock are real,” Shaggy notes. “For some of these kids, therapy is going to be [very important]. It’s not just food and clothes and shelter. 

“You’re never really prepared for something like this; It’s the biggest [hurricane] on record,” he continues. “[The government is] doing their best to see what they can do to get in there. Large trucks are going to have a hard time going through the debris, so you’re going to need the military and urban development to clear up the roads so that supplies can come in, and that might take a couple of days. Smaller vehicles have the advantage of getting in there, so we’ve been doing that so that people are not starving until the big aid comes.” 

In addition to delivering everything from roofing supplies and Pampers to “flashlights, batteries, everything that you can think of putting on a list,” Shaggy has also teamed with Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), which has been on the ground on the island since Hurricane Beryl in 2024. “Food for the Poor, of course, also has a major headquarters in Jamaica,” Shaggy adds. “I’ve done lots of work with them. Sean [Paul] is working with them closely right now, so I decided to work with GEM to spread it all around. There’s also the government site, www.supportjamaica.gov.jm.” 

Jamaica is home to some of the music industry’s biggest and most iconic voices — from Shaggy himself and reggae iconoclasts like Bob Marley and Peter Tosh to dancehall superstars like Vybz Kartel and Shenseea. At the top of this year, Kartel made his Billboard cover debut with a whirlwind “24 hours in Kingston” interview ahead of his historic Freedom Street concert. This spring, Billboard also reported that, in under a year. New York’s UBS Arena hosted five $1 million-grossing Caribbean-headlined shows across four different genres. In days immediately following the storm, AccuWeather experts estimated up to $52 billion in damages and economic loss from Hurricane Melissa across the Caribbean. 

“I don’t think anybody’s in any festive mood at this point,” Shaggy says of the future of Jamaica’s music and live entertainment industries post-Hurricane Melissa. “Jamaica is a land that doesn’t have any shortage of talent or artists or culture; it’s easier to get aid from people because of our cultural status. But we’re still not getting enough coverage. The minute you’re not in the press is when the aid goes, unfortunately. Keeping up awareness in the press is something that we need to do.” 

Additional verified aid channels include World Food Programme, Project HOPE, GiveDirectly, American Friends of Jamaica, and Friends of Caritas Cuba. Click here to see how more celebrities have been reacting to Hurricane Melissa. 

Bella Figura Music, a London-based catalog firm with rights to classic hits like Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing,” is making a push into the U.S. market, hiring former Capitol Records exec Gary Gersh and opening an L.A. office.

Founded in 2022 by former BMG U.K. President Alexi Cory-Smith and Neelesh Prabhu, Bella Figura has accumulated a catalog worth more than $160 million — a nearly 50% increase in its portfolio value this year, the firm says. With backing from Freshstream Investment Partners and the Canadian pension fund OPTrust, Cory-Smith says the firm’s expansion plans include deploying another roughly $100 million in the coming year.

To help guide those investments, establish the firm’s reputation in the U.S. and grow the value of its portfolio—which Cory-Smith likens to a Ferrari garage—Bella Figura hired Gersh as chairman and inked a global administration deal with Sony Music Publishing.

“I’ve always used the Ferrari analogy,” Cory-Smith tells Billboard. “They get their hands dirty … constantly going back to fix it and get it better. It’s got to be a champion. Our thing is, is it good? It’s got to be great. The high value, slightly low margin game—that’s not us at all.”

Among the company’s largest acquisitions were the 2024 acquisition of iconic British publisher RAK, which brought in roughly 1,500 copyrights, and the British independent label Jeepster Records, which has the rights to several Belle and Sebastian and Snow Patrol albums. Bella Figura also owns the publishing catalog of songwriter and Robbie Williams collaborator Guy Chambers’, including rights to “Angels,” Feel” and “Let Me Entertain You,” and the master recordings to David Gray’s “Babylon,” because of its acquisition of his IHT record label.

Known for signing Nirvana and Sonic Youth and later running the global live entertainment company of AEG’s touring division, Gersh will be a key adviser in Bella Figura’s U.S. expansion, which he described as careful and precise.

“We’re offering attention to detail, focus, real partnership and opportunity,” Gersh says. “We are picking partners that understand that by doing less better we stay essential. We stay focused.”

Cory-Smith says roughly three-quarters of the firm’s portfolio are publishing copyrights, a “scalable” asset they can maximize returns from by cleaning up metadata and ensuring more efficient registration of songs, using third party tools from Curve and Orpheum. Successful new creative projects have included landing “You Sexy Thing” in a Verizon commercial for the iPhone 17 pro that featured Kevin Hart and plans for special 30th anniversary records for Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister.

Cory-Smith and Gersh say their worldwide administration deal with Sony Music Publishing (SMP) opens the door to SMP’s global network, including its industry-leading film, TV and video game sync and licensing resources.

SMP President and Co-managing Director Tim Major said by email that Sony’s global reach makes it a “worthy guardian” for Bella Figura’s works.

“Bella Figura represents iconic and evergreen songs from some of the greatest songwriters we have known–songs that people love and will continue to love for generations to come,” Major said. “[We] are excited to work together … to create new and exciting opportunities and strategies for these songs around the world.”