Finance platform beatBread said on Thursday it is launching a $100 million fund to support independent labels and distributors as the indie sector faces consolidation driven by larger music companies and big investors.

The Global Independence Fund provides a pool of dedicated capital for loans to indie companies seeking to grow and remain autonomous. Labels can tap the fund to borrow against their catalogs, get financing for the advances they use to land new artists, or to cover other discretionary business needs.

The fund comes together just months after beatBread announced it secured $124 million from equity investors and loans and that its co-founder and CEO Peter Sinclair died, both in August.

The fund aims to strengthen the indie sector following efforts by major music companies to expand their market share by bringing indie labels and distributors under their umbrella, the company said in a statement. The largest of these deals — Universal Music Group’s planned acquisition of Downtown — is facing regulatory scrutiny by Europe’s antitrust authorities with their decision on whether to allow the deal to proceed expected around the year’s end.

“For too long, independent labels have had to play by rules set by incumbents, where access to capital comes at the cost of control, and the opportunity to sign and support artists is also limited by access to capital, even when those distributors or independent labels may otherwise be in the very best position to develop, market and support a given artist,” Matthew Tilley, beatBread’s head of artist & industry development, said in a statement. “The Global Independence Fund is one element in the ongoing fight to change that.” 

Labels who are also members of the indie trade groups AIM, AIM Ireland, WIN and IMPALA are offered access to OpenPlay, a technology platform for managing and monetizing music assets, and all labels who borrow from this fund are eligible for co-investments from beatBread’s funding network, the company said in a statement.

Noemi Planas, head of the international trade group for independent music companies WIN, applauded the launch of the fund for adding to artists’ options.

“The future of music should be shaped by the diversity, creativity, and resilience of independent labels and artists,” Planas said. “Expanding access and choice of funding options helps make that future a reality.” 

There’s no doubt that people are excited for No Doubt‘s upcoming Las Vegas residency, as the band just added six extra dates to the run of performances so that more fans can come see.

On Wednesday (Oct. 15), the Gwen Stefani-fronted rock group announced that it’s extending its stay at the Sphere with a half dozen new shows. The added performances will take place May 21, 23, 24, 27, 29 and 30 in 2026.

“Thank you guys for showing up BIG,” the band wrote on Instagram, noting that the dates were added “because of the incredible response so far.”

Tickets for the new shows will go on sale on Ticketmaster on Friday (Oct. 17).

The additional performances come less than a week after No Doubt first announced plans to set up shop in the Sphere, something Billboard confirmed ahead of time. The group is also set to take the stage on May 6, 8, 9, 13, 15 and 16 next spring.

When they do kick off the run of performances in Sin City, No Doubt will become the first female-fronted act to headline the arena. “The opportunity to create a show at Sphere excites me in a new way,” Stefani said of the milestone in a statement. “The venue is unique and modern, and it opens up a whole new visual palette for us to be creative.”

“Doing it with No Doubt feels like going back in time to relive our history, while also creating something new in a way we never could have imagined,” she added.

Though the Sphere only opened two years ago, it has quickly become a highly sought-after venue to perform in thanks to its cutting-edge immersive technology. U2 and Dead & Company have both taken its stage in the past, and the Zac Brown Band, the Eagles, the Backstreet Boys and Illenium are all on the 2026 calendar.

See the announcement for No Doubt’s additional Sphere dates below.

Pardon the understatement, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks for Taylor Swift. On Oct. 3, she released The Life of a Showgirl, and its gargantuan impact has spread across the Oct. 18-dated Billboard charts. The set debuted atop the Billboard 200 with record-breaking numbers, and its entire tracklist dominates the top 12 spots on the Billboard Hot 100. More, its unprecedented success is global.

The opening track on Showgirl, “The Fate of Ophelia,” arrives at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, becoming the first song to simultaneously debut atop both tallies and the U.S.-based Hot 100 since Swift’s own “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, in May 2024. It’s a common theme across her many chart achievements that her biggest competition is herself. This is her fourth song to accomplish this global hat trick, in addition to “Anti-Hero” in 2022 and “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021.

Swift goes on to dominate the upper reaches of both global lists, owning 12 of the top 13 spots on the Global 200 and 12 of the top 14 on Global Excl. U.S. From 216.9 million streams for “Ophelia” down to 81.3 million for “Honey,” the album’s 12 tracks combined for just under 1.4 billion official streams worldwide (1.386 billion) in the week ending Oct. 9, according to Luminate.

That total is the second biggest one-week global streaming sum for an album since the charts launched in 2020. It follows – you guessed it – Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department from last year, which garnered 1.76 billion clicks in its first week, while coming in ahead of 2022’s Midnights, with 1.16 billion. That gives her the top three global streaming weeks in the charts’ five-year history. Bad Bunny and Drake are the only other acts to clear the one billion mark, each of whom did it once.

The Life of a Showgirl’s first-week streaming numbers are eye-popping, but even more so considering the album’s relatively brief track list. At 12 songs, it’s the shortest collection among the top 15 biggest global album debuts, presenting an uphill battle against projects with 15, 20 and even 30-plus songs.

On average, the 12 songs on The Life of a Showgirl drew 115.5 million streams worldwide in their first week. That isn’t just a record in the global-chart era — it’s double the next-closest competitor. Swift’s Midnights (20 tracks) averaged 57.8 million, The Tortured Poets Department (31) averaged 56.8 million, and albums by BTS, Drake, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Olivia Rodrigo exceeded 50 million per song. Swift already owned this record, and its runner-up slot, and now she has improved upon it by 99.97%.

Of Swift’s enormous global total, 674.4 million streams (49%) are from the United States and 711.7 million (51%) are from beyond (with the Global 200 reflecting activity in more than 200 territories). Among the 57 albums that have totaled 250 million streams in their first week since the global charts’ inception, that split falls just about in the middle, unsurprisingly. It’s more international than almost all such hip-hop and country sets, but more U.S.-centric than Latin and K-pop records.