The Lost Highway office in Nashville’s vibrant Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood is a work in progress. The kitchen area, which dominates the center of the ground floor space, is up and running, but many of the cubicles in the open area are still covered with unpacked boxes, and the internet only operates on one side of the large communal room.  

But the impediments aren’t stopping anyone from getting their jobs done. On this day in early March, the workspace, which the label moved into in January, is humming with staffers occupying smaller offices and conference rooms, the lounge and kitchen bar stools. After all, there’s work to be done, including setting up Grammy-winning superstar Kacey Musgraves’ new album, Middle of Nowhere, which comes out May 1.

Robert Knotts, who runs Lost Highway with fellow co-head/executive vp Jake Gear, calls Musgraves “a North Star for what we’re trying to do. I think this job would become a lot more difficult without somebody like her leading the way,” he says in the pair’s first interview since Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) announced the revival of the imprint last April. “Why she is so perfect with what we’re doing is because of her unwavering commitment to her creative output,” Knotts continues. “There is no compromise in the best way possible. If we can work with artists like that, then we’re doing our job.”

Musgraves was the first artist signed to the reinvigorated label, which was fitting since she was the last act inked to its original incarnation, a culture-moving imprint started in 2000 by then Universal Music Group Nashville chairman Luke Lewis that shut down in 2012 following Lewis’ retirement.

Almost immediately upon its bow, the label, which took its name from the Leon Payne-penned song made famous by Hank Williams in 1949, became a commercial and critical touchstone by releasing music from legends like Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello and revered acts including Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Drive-By Truckers, Hayes Carll and Mary Gauthier, many of whom were outside of the mainstream commercial country mold. The label also signed a young Musgraves in 2011, but it was absorbed into Mercury Nashville before her debut, Same Trailer, Different Park, came out in 2013.  

Musgraves celebrated her return to the label by releasing a cover of Williams’ “Lost Highway” last April. (Since the first Lost Highway went away, she had released her music through Mercury Nashville and then Interscope.)

“We have been working with Kacey for almost five years. Lost Highway was important to her when signing her first record deal because of what the company stood for,” John Janick, chairman & CEO of Interscope Capitol and IGA, tells Billboard. “She loved the idea of being the first artist signed to the new Lost Highway. She’s exactly the type of artist that we want to be on Lost Highway.”

Reinvigorating Lost Highway gives IGA another imprint that aligns with its aesthetic and provides it with a Nashville outpost at a time when most of the coastal labels have established a presence in Music City.

“Culturally, Lost Highway was a home to creative artists who paved their own path, regardless of what everyone else was doing. The roster was filled with great artists who marched to the beat of their own drum. That’s exactly what Interscope has been about for the last 30 years. So, the Lost Highway [and] Interscope connection starts there,” Janick says. “Beyond that, Lost Highway plugs into Interscope in a super seamless way. It’s a model we’ve had some great success with. Interscope Capitol Miami, our Latin division, operates the same way. We have specialists who work on Lost Highway projects every day, but they can tap into the larger team for resources and expertise — creative, marketing, publicity and more.”

Gear was most recently vp of A&R at UMG Nashville (now MCA), where he signed and developed Tucker Wetmore and worked with such artists as Vincent Mason, Parker McCollum, Jordan Davis and Dierks Bentley. He also spent more than a dozen years as a music publishing executive, including partnering with Grammy-winning songwriter Hillary Lindsey and Concord Music to launch Hang Your Hat Music, which he remains a partner in, but does not actively participate in on a day-to-day basis.

Knotts moved to Nashville in 2013 from Georgia, starting at Thirty Tigers as an intern. There, he rose to senior vp of artist and label services, working with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Sturgill Simpson and Turnpike Troubadours, as well as some acts who had been on Lost Highway, including Lucinda Williams.

Knotts met Gear through a college friend of Gear’s who also worked at Thirty Tigers. They became such close friends that Knotts officiated Gear’s wedding to country artist Hailey Whitters in 2022. However, Janick picked them separately and then paired them to run Lost Highway.

“I knew Jake from working with him on Vincent Mason as well as his work with Hillary Lindsey. He is a highly creative person and a great A&R, who also has great relationships,” Janick says. “I was introduced to Robert as someone that could be great to be a part of running the company. I was very impressed with Robert and built a strong relationship quickly. I thought the two of them running the company together was a good pairing and the two of them being close friends was an added benefit because of their strong relationship.”

After they accepted the jobs, one of the initial moves Gear and Knotts made was to visit Lewis in Charleston, S.C., where he now lives. “One of the first things we wanted to check off the to-do list was go spend time with Luke,” Gear says. “And understand his point of view in starting this.”

“I’m more than proud that Lost Highway’s legacy was strong enough to warrant a rebirth, spawned by John Janick,” Lewis tells Billboard of the label’s revival, which released Brandi Carlile’s Returning to Myself in October as its first official release. “Twenty-five years after the initial launch the times have obviously changed. Guitar-driven singer/songwriters have found a revived marketplace for their work, and many are thriving, so the timing of a relaunch of the label seems fitting right now. Brandi Carlile and Kacey are perfect artists to lead the new venture, and hopefully more quality like that will follow. I wish the new venture well.”

For Gear, Lost Highway held almost a mythical place in his mind. Growing up in Iowa, “Lost Highway was a gateway for me through the alternative backdoor of country music,” he says. After moving to Nashville, as a publisher he’d visit Universal Music Group Nashville’s offices to plug songs. “I remember sitting in [A&R executive] Stephanie [Wright’s] office [around] 2017 and she had a vinyl of [revered 2001 Lost Highway release] Whiskey Town’s Pneumonia on the floor,” he says. “I’d [ask], ‘How come you guys aren’t relaunching Lost Highway?’ It’s a body of work and a brand that represented something. Almost 10 years before I even knew this was in my cards, it was something I cared about and hoped somebody would bring back.”

To now be at the helm is not a position Gear or Knotts takes lightly, and they see the throughline between the past and present. “The songwriting has always been the focus,” Gear says, but he hesitates to brand Lost Highway a singer/songwriter label because of the connotation of a stripped-down production. Instead, it’s more of the renegade creative spirit they hope to replicate from the first iteration. “That’s what the beauty of the original home of Lost Highway was,” Knotts says. “Every single one of those artists were wholly themselves and they had something to say. It’s not about genre or format.”

Following the label’s release of multiple Grammy winner Carlile’s Returning to Myself, the album scored some notable chart wins, debuting at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and at the top of Billboard’s Americana/Folk Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts.  

“We hit the ground running, learning how our team would work best with the Interscope team in L.A.,” Knotts says. Key among Lost Highway’s dozen staffers are vp of marketing Casey Thomas and vp of promotion Luke Jensen.

The label then focused on the 25^th anniversary of one of the original Lost Highway’s first releases, the T Bone Burnett-produced, Grammy-winning soundtrack for O Brother Where Art Thou, which went on to sell more than 8 million copies. As part of a year-long celebration, Lost Highway released a special gold vinyl gatefold edition on Feb. 20. On Feb. 28, a celebration at the Grand Ole Opry curated by Burnett recreated the album from start to finish with artists who appeared on the original recording, among them Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Emmylou Harris and Chris Thomas King, as well as a new generation including Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle. “This was a pretty massive moment for us to shine a light on everything that Lost Highway had been built around,” Knotts says. (The new Lost Highway controls the original Lost Highway catalog, which Gear estimates is between 150 and 200 titles).

Like Lewis, Burnett serves as a spiritual forefather. While he has no official title, Burnett is expected to collaborate on a number of Lost Highway projects and Knotts stresses Burnett can “absolutely” bring acts to the label: “He’s been amazing to just get to learn from and hear from.”

In addition to Musgraves and Carlile, the label is also home to Americana outfit Flatland Calvary, who released Work of Heart on March 27 and whose single, “Never Comin’ Back,” is climbing Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. Also on the roster are Cigarettes@Sunset, who recently released an EP, Possum Rock, and Meels, a rootsy artist from Mill Valley, Calif., who put out her Across the Raccoon Strait EP in January and has toured with Margo Price and Carter Faith. Rounding out the growing roster is 2019 American Idol finalist, smoky-voiced Laci Kaye Booth.

One way the new iteration of Lost Highway differs from the old is that streaming is now the dominant form of consumption, but Gear says the label will still take projects to terrestrial radio when appropriate, since it “can be a massive amplifier of something that should already be in motion.” Also, given the wide musical spectrum of its artists, Lost Highway will work acts not just at mainstream country, but commercial Triple A, Americana and other appropriate formats. “It’s up to us to work with [the artists] on what their vision is and then find the right format,” Knotts adds.

With country music and its offshoots surging around the world, Lost Highway has IGA’s global teams at its disposal. “Those international teams are on every call that we’re on,” Knotts says. “They’re part of the planning, the strategy. It’s very seamless.”

Though their tenure at Lost Highway has just begun, Gear already has a goal in mind: creating a new chapter for the label with a stable of artists so creatively impactful that “20 years later, somebody wants to call me when I’m retired and come talk to me like we talked to Luke and T Bone.”

The Montreux Jazz Festival has announced a blockbuster lineup for its milestone 60th edition, led by the likes of RAYE, PinkPantheress and Lewis Capaldi. With performances from a wide array of artists spanning jazz, rock, R&B, hip‑hop and pop, the Swiss festival will return to the Lake Geneva shoreline between July 3-18.

The 2026 lineup blends heritage acts with contemporary stars. Highlights include Deep Purple, Lewis Capaldi and John Legend, as well as leading modern pop forces including RAYE, PinkPantheress, Tyla, Conan Gray and Zara Larsson. There will also be appearances from rising British talent such as Nectar Woode, Sasha Keable and Sienna Spiro. View the full list below.

RAYE will kick off proceedings at the Auditorium Stravinski with a bespoke opening night performance cocreated with Audemars Piguet, marking her third consecutive appearance at the event. The show follows the release of the British singers Live at Montreux LP in 2024 and her latest album, This Music May Contain Hope. 

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds share their July 5 bill with Aldous Harding, while The Isley Brothers will be joined by The Roots on July 11. Previous Billboard U.K. cover star Loyle Carner is set to perform alongside funk outfit Vulfpeck on July 17.

The Montreux Jazz Lab, meanwhile, is set to showcase an eclectic array of sets, from a Danny L Harle rave to a Miles Davis tribute featuring Billy Cobham and Marcus Miller’s We Want Miles! ensemble. 

Tickets are available now from the official Montreux Jazz Festival website, where fans can also find further scheduling and access information.

Founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, the festival has grown to attract more than 250,000 attendees each year. It began as a jazz-focused event, but has evolved into a genre-spanning showcase. Over the years, it has played host to the likes of Etta James, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Lauryn Hill, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Kendrick Lamar, Marvin Gaye and many more.

The 2025 edition of Montreux Jazz Festival, meanwhile, saw performances from the likes of Chaka Khan, Neil Young, Jamie xx, FKA Twigs and Noah Kahan.

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The Warner Music Group (WMG) has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Revelator, the B2B music distribution platform, the companies announced today (April 1). The transaction is expected to close next quarter, according to a press release.

Revelator specializes in digital music distribution, rights management, royalty accounting and real-time analytics, with cloud-based tools helping to streamline operations and financial reporting for artists, labels and distributors. Among the platform’s features include Revelator Pro, Revelator API and its white label solutions, which it can offer to independent labels. The deal will allow Revelator to offer their services to WMG’s artists and distributed labels, helping to scale the major label’s distribution and services offerings, which are currently housed under its ADA division..

“The combination of Revelator’s leading-edge technology and array of premier services with our global infrastructure will turbocharge our joint mission to support more labels and artists around the world,” WMG CEO Robert Kyncl said in a statement. “I’m very pleased to welcome the Revelator team to the WMG family.”

“Since launching Revelator in 2012, we’ve striven to make the music industry fairer, simpler and more transparent by bridging the gap between creativity, technology and distribution,” Revelator founder and CEO Bruno Guez said in a statement. “We’re very happy to partner with WMG to superserve artists, labels and distributors around the world.”

Warner has been looking into acquiring a distribution company for the past two years, with several deals either falling through or not coming to fruition for various reasons. Most notably, the company looked into acquiring French music company Believe in early 2024, even submitting a non-binding offer, before ultimately calling off their plans that April. Shortly after, Warner hired Goldman Sachs banker Michael Ryan-Southern to lead their search for a distribution company, eyeing top DIY distros Distrokid and CD Baby, with other rumors circling the indie distributor Too Lost, though none of those deals materialized. Last year, Kyncl said the company was willing to forgo a purchase if they could build one themselves, a plan from which Warner ultimately backed away.

The deal comes amidst a broader consolidation in the industry, particularly in the distribution space, with Universal’s recent acquisition of Downtown Music for $775 million the headline deal in that arena. Amid the rollup craze, prices had soared for these types of companies, and major labels have been looking to shore up market share and offer a larger pipeline for artists of all sizes to flow through their systems — a trend that has both ratcheted up competition and led to some consternation among the indie music community, particularly those who have eschewed working with majors in any capacity.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Additional reporting by Dan Rys.

SYDNEY — Australia’s federal government has passed the Copyright Amendment Bill, a piece of legislation that introduces for the first time an “orphan works” scheme, which should provide greater legal certainty when working with copyright material where the owner is unknown or unlocatable.

The Copyright Amendment Bill 2026 amends the Copyright Act 1968, and delivers two important reforms.

The first, relating to orphan works, provides certainty with works where copyright owners can’t be identified or located, which is supporters say will benefit researchers, educators, cultural institutions and the wider community.

According to a statement from the federal government, the scheme provides “reasonable scope” for copyright owners to step forward and assert their rights in the rare case an owner is later identified. The search requirements under the scheme may also help reunite copyright owners with works that have unintentionally become orphaned and allow them to once again benefit from their exclusive rights.

Australians “now have legal certainty when it comes to the use of copyright material considered ‘orphaned’, unlocking their potential for learning, innovation and public benefit,” comments the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland MP. “We are strengthening the rights of copyright owners by establishing a new mechanism for them to assert their rights and receive reasonable payment.”

Also, the Bill clarifies that existing exceptions for the use of copyright material in classrooms apply equally in online settings, a move the creative industry welcomes as smart move that reflects the reality of modern teaching.

Both outcomes were the product of years of careful consultation, and passed as intended, reads a statement jointly signed by Australia’s creative sector.

“Australia’s world-leading education licensing scheme is comprehensive by design and covers everything teachers and students need including recorded lessons, distance education, online delivery and content accessed by students wherever they are,” reads a joint statement signed by AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA PPCA, Australian Publishers Association,Australian Society of Authors, Australian Writers’ Guild, AWG Authorship Collecting Society, Copyright Agency, National Association for the Visual Arts and Screenright.

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The amendments proposed by the education lobby “would have introduced unnecessary complexity where none currently exists and would have been used to justify reducing the fair compensation paid to creators at the next licence negotiation. That is the established pattern of every previous attempt to replace licensing with exceptions.”

Although the outcome is welcome, and said to be “modern, balanced and fit for purpose,” creator groups on Wednesday, April 1 assure that the broader campaign now underway. The same lobby that sought amendments to this Bill has also argued, in submissions to the Senate Adopting AI inquiry, that Australia’s copyright framework is a barrier to AI development and should be weakened accordingly, “in perfect step with the position of multinational technology companies.” 

The message continues, “The Australian Government has reiterated many times that Australian AI development using other people’s content must be done in compliance with Australia’s current laws, which include licensing arrangements. That must be the case for so-called ‘non-commercial’ development and activities, as well as commercial. An exception would deny that payment to creators entirely.”

The joint statement signs off, “What we will not accept is the steady, incremental dismantling of the framework that makes Australian creative life possible.”