Call it the calm before the Taylor Swift storm. The first three quarters of this year — which span Dec. 31, 2024, through Oct. 2, 2025 — effectively function as a report card for the record business before the inevitable takeover of the superstar’s Life of a Showgirl album, which came out Friday (Oct. 3). The album immediately sold 2.7 million copies on its first day, which would already make it the second-biggest album of the year to date — but that’s not under discussion just yet. 

Even without the new Swift release, her label home REPUBLIC — which encompasses Republic Records, Island Records, Mercury Records, Big Loud and indie distributor Imperial — is still leading the pack for the year so far, with a 13.60% three-quarter current market share, powered by huge albums from Morgan Wallen, Sabrina Carpenter and The Weeknd, among others. It’s a jump from the industry-leading 12.69% current share Republic enjoyed at midyear, though down from the Swift-powered 15.21% it posted through three quarters in 2024, when her The Tortured Poets Department album spent 17 of its eventual 19 weeks atop the Billboard 200.  

Keeping Republic high pre-Showgirl are the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and continued gains from Big Loud (2.71%, up from 1.42%) and Island (2.68%, up from 2.15%). The former was driven by Wallen’s continued success, the latter a remarkable jump considering that 2024 was a big breakout year with Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Clearly, the label continued firing on all cylinders. 

In second once again is Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA), inclusive of Verve Label Group, which ended the third quarter with a 10.43% current market share. That’s up from the 10.13% IGA held at the same mark in 2024 and is boosted by chart-topping albums from Lady Gaga and Playboi Carti this year, plus the continued success of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft and Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, both from last year. By song consumption units, Lamar and SZA’s “luther” remains the biggest song of 2025 so far, and IGA’s current share has come down from its Q1 high of 12.67% as the song has receded. 

Making the biggest jump in the third quarter is the Atlantic Music Group, at a 7.83% current share, though that mark comes with some caveats that make it difficult to compare with past quarters. Most significant: This is the first quarter that Luminate’s market share numbers reflect Atlantic’s reorganization, which moved 10K Projects and its 1.52% current market share under Atlantic for the first time. (Atlantic’s share also includes 300 Entertainment, which was included in previous quarters.) That helps explain Atlantic’s jump from 5.75% at the midyear 2025 mark (and 5.51% from Q3 2024), though it also enjoyed a huge third quarter. Subtracting 10K’s performance for comparison purposes, Atlantic’s 7.28% for the period from June 26 through Oct. 2 reflects Alex Warren’s summer of success with “Ordinary” and chart-topping albums from Twenty One Pilots and Cardi B.  

Warner Records, which ranked fourth, maintained its strong position over the past few years, posting a 6.13% current share, though it was down year over year from 6.54% last year. (Warner’s share includes some of Warner Latin, Warner Nashville and catalog label Rhino.) 

Atlantic’s growth has benefited the Warner Music Group overall, boosting its current share at the nine-month mark to 16.83%, up from 16.25% at this point in 2024. That’s still far behind Sony Music Entertainment’s second-place showing: The label grew year over year — from 25.89% to 26.65%, with help from a Bad Bunny bump. And Universal Music Group (UMG) remained No. 1, although despite its top two labels boasting double-digit shares of their own, the absence of a Swift album during the period contributed to the music company’s year-to-year current share slip to 35.96% from last year’s 36.65%. (That, of course, will change soon.) By distribution ownership, the indie community is down from 21.21% last year to 20.55% this year, while by label ownership, the indie community stands at 39.43%, up from a 37.09% share in 2024, easily the largest segment of the industry. 

Sony’s benefited from owning at least a majority stake in five of the six labels that round out the top 10. At No. 5 is Columbia Records, with a 4.54% current share, up slightly from the 4.41% it held this time last year. For the same comparative period, RCA dropped one slot to seventh and 4.31% to 4.22%; Alamo Records, in eighth place, vaulted from 1.86% to 2.54%, inclusive of its indie distributor Santa Anna; and Sony Latin (2.11%) and Sony Nashville (1.83%) finished ninth and 10th. In sixth place was UMG’s Capitol Music Group, which includes Virgin Music, Quality Control/Motown, Astralwerks, Blue Note and Capitol Christian Music Group, and scored 4.31% of the market, up from 4.04%. (The Interscope Capitol Labels Group, or ICLG, accounts for 14.74% of current share in total.) 

In terms of overall market share — inclusive of current and catalog releases — UMG was essentially unchanged at 38.46% for the first three quarters of this year vs. 38.47% for the same period last year. Inching up were Sony (27.63%, from 27.25%) and Warner Music (18.97% from 18.42%). That came at the expense of the indies, which dropped from 15.85% to 14.94% by distribution ownership. Among the individual labels, REPUBLIC (10.08%) narrowly edged out Interscope (10.00%) for first place, with Atlantic Music Group (8.50%) and Warner Records (7.04%) just behind. At 5.88%, Capitol Music Group jumped to fifth, beating out Columbia’s 5.33%, while RCA (5.10%), Epic Records (2.47%), Sony Nashville (2.01%) and Concord (1.77%) rounded out the top 10. 

Among catalog share — titles older than 18 months — Interscope takes the title, coming in at 9.86%, down slightly from its industry-leading 9.93% at this point last year, but still maintaining its top slot. REPUBLIC, at 8.98%, beat out Atlantic Music Group’s 8.71% for second place, with each label improving a bit year over year. From there, Warner Records (7.33%), Capitol Music Group (6.37%), Columbia Records (5.57%) and RCA Records (5.37%) follow, while Epic Records (2.73%), Concord (2.07%) and Sony Nashville (2.06%) make up the top 10. 

New love is exciting, complicated and sometimes confusing. Those emotions, and much more, are explored on the new duet from BLACKPINK‘s JISOO featuring Zayn Malik. The K-pop star began hinting at the surprise, smoldering duet “Eyes Closed,” earlier this week via a mysterious teaser featuring a shadowy male silhouette standing behind her with the cryptic phrase “EYESCLOSED” and the caption “a duet is near.”

It dropped on Friday (Oct. 10) and it finds the pair trading verses about the exploration and excitement of a new love, with JISOO leading off the ethereal ballad with the lines, “Time is standing still and I don’t wanna leave your lips/ Tracing my body with your fingertips,” before former One Direction member and solo star Zayn responds, “I know what you’re feeling and I know you wanna say it/ I do too but we gotta be patient.”

The pair then trade lines in the dreamy chorus about how a love that shouldn’t work is somehow perfect, especially when you don’t try to make it make sense. “‘Cause someone like me/ And someone like you/ Really shouldn’t work, yeah, the history is proof/ Damned if I don’t/ Damned if I do,” they sing over soothing, bubbling synths, a spare beat and acoustic guitar strums, alternating lines before joining their voices for the heart-swelling chorus: “Oh, we should fall in love with our eyes closed/ Better if we keep it where we don’t know/ The beds we’ve been in/ The names and the faces of who we were with.”

The duet comes more than three months after Zayn was spotted attending BLACKPINK’s New York show on July 27, accompanied by his daughter, Khai. After the show, he shared a photo from the audience with the caption: “@BLACKPINKOFFICIAL THANK YOU 🙂 ME & KHAI LOVED IT,” leading fans to speculate about the connection between the two artists.

The duet is JISOO’s first new music since the release of her solo EP Amortage in February, which features tracks including “Hugs & Kisses,” “You Love” and “Earthquake.” JISSO is on the road now on BLACKPINK’s Deadline world tour, which will pick up again on Oct. 18 with the first of two shows at Kaohsiung National Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan before continuing along to Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, wrapping up with three shows at Singapore National Stadium (Nov. 28-30).

Zayn is preparing for his first Las Vegas residency at the Dolby Live at Park MGM, which kicks off a seven-show run on Jan. 20.

Listen to “Eyes Closed” below.

English singer-songwriter Olivia Dean makes her Billboard albums chart debut with her second studio album, The Art of Loving. The project launches on multiple charts (dated Oct. 11): at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on Top Album Sales, as well as top 10 bows on Indie Store Album Sales (No. 2), Vinyl Albums (No. 2), Top Current Album Sales (No. 7) and Top Streaming Albums (No. 8).

The effort starts with 43,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Oct. 2, with 11,000 of that in traditional album sales (nearly 9,000 in vinyl purchases).

Across the pond, the BRIT Award-nominated artist’s set debuts atop the U.K. Official Albums Chart — her first No. 1 on the list.

The Art of Loving single “Man I Need,” Dean’s debut on the Billboard Hot 100, surges 25-12. The track also rises 8-6 on Streaming Songs and 36-25 on Pop Airplay and debuts at No. 37 on Adult Pop Airplay. The album also yields two arrivals on the Hot 100: “Nice to Each Other” (No. 97) and “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” (No. 98).

In addition, The Art of Loving is one of six debuts in the top 10 on a busy Top Album Sales chart, where Mariah Carey’s Here for It All debuts at No. 1. P1Harmony’s EX debuts at No. 2, Doja Cat’s Vie enters at No. 3, the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack rises 7-4, Stray Kids’ chart-topping KARMA falls 4-5, Young Thug’s UY SCUTI is new at No. 6, HARDY’s Country! Country! climbs in at No. 8, Cardi B’s AM I THE DRAMA? falls 1-9 in its second week and Sabrina Carpenter’s former leader Man’s Best Friend dips 6-10.

PinkPantheress packs her Fancy That mixtape with more star power on the remix edition Fancy Some More, which she dropped on Friday (Oct. 10) via Warner Records UK.

The 22-track project features multiple remixes of the nine songs originally on Fancy That by Anitta, SEVENTEEN, JADE, JT, Sugababes, Kylie Minogue, Zara Larsson, Ravyn Lenae, Kaytranada and many more.

“With this remix project, Fancy some more, I wanted to explore how the songs can live in different worlds while still holding onto the emotion of the original,” the British singer-songwriter-producer said in a press release. “Hearing other artists reimagine it has been so inspiring. Each remix brings a new energy and texture, while still keeping the heart of the track intact. It’s been so exciting to see Fancy That take on these new, international lives & global perspectives.”

PinkPantheress originally released Fancy That in May. Her sophomore mixtape was included in Billboard‘s 50 best albums of 2025 (so far) staff list and the 2025 Mercury Prize shortlist, which recognizes outstanding albums by U.K. and Irish artists from the past year. The Mercury Prize is awarded next Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle. Fancy That reached No. 4 on Top Dance Albums and No. 72 on the Billboard 200. The third single “Illegal,” which samples Underworld’s “Dark & Long (Dark Train),” became PinkPantheress’ second entry on the Billboard Hot 100, following her and Ice Spice’s top 10 hit “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2,” peaking at No. 96.

Listen to Fancy Some More below.

Apparently, Role Model is not Amy Poehler.

In new promos for this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, Poehler — a former SNL cast member who will return to host on Saturday — and current star Bowen Yang accuse the singer/songwriter of “diva behavior” for pointing out that simple fact.

“Hi, I’m Amy Poehler and I’ll be hosting SNL this week with Role Model,” Poehler says in the video, followed by Yang echoing her exact line. When Role Model starts saying the same thing, he stops himself: “Hi, I’m Amy Poehler… I think the cue card’s wrong?”

“Role Model, that kind of diva behavior doesn’t fly around here,” Poehler says sternly.

“Yeah, I’m not Amy Poehler…,” Role Model points out.

“Oh great, it’s gonna be one of those weeks,” Yang sighs knowingly to Poehler.

Elsewhere in the promos, Poehler takes the opportunity to serve court papers to Yang (“You know what you did!”).

While Role Model will make his SNL debut this weekend, Poehler was a cast member from 2001 to 2008 and is returning to host for a third time, including a co-hosting stint with longtime castmate Tina Fey in 2015.

Role Model (real name: Tucker Pillsbury) has arrived in a big way this year, taking his breakout hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” all the way to the top of the Adult Alternative Airplay chart last month for his first-ever Billboard No. 1. Back in April, when Role Made made his Tonight Show debut, his promo co-star Yang made a cameo as “Sally” for the performance — an onstage role also played by Natalie Portman, Olivia Rodrigo, Kate Hudson, Hilary Duff and Troye Sivan at various concerts and festivals this year.

Saturday Night Live airs at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and streams on Peacock. (See all the options to watch SNL here.) Watch the new promos below: