Sabrina Carpenter is proving she’s short, sweet and civically minded, as the pop star is partnering with HeadCount to encourage civic action among fans.

HeadCount on Wednesday (Sept. 17) announced that it will be on site for 15 of Carpenter’s upcoming Short n’ Sweet Tour tour stops in Pittsburgh, New York City, Nashville and Los Angeles, bringing voter engagement activations and immersive experiences that encourage fans to register to vote and participate in the democratic process.

These activations will include pre-show video screen content and informational booths at each concert that will be staffed by fans and longtime volunteers. These booths will offer fan-to-fan conversations about voting along with resources to help fans register to vote and sign up to for customized election information regarding what’s on their ballots. HeadCount volunteers can get free tickets to these shows by signing up to volunteer to register voters.

In tandem, Carpenter and HeadCount have also launched Good to Vote, a sweepstakes that’s offering one winner VIP and their guest with concerts tickets, flights and hotel accommodations to Carpenter’s Nov. 23 show in Los Angeles, in exchange for getting involved with HeadCount and with democracy at large.

Since being announced Tuesday (Sept. 16), the sweepstakes has resulted in more than 30,000 people taking action within the sweepstake’s first 12 hours. HeadCount defines actions as things such as checking voter registration status, signing up for election alerts, or signing up to volunteer with the organization.

This partnership extends the relationship between Carpenter and HeadCount, the longstanding non-partisan organization that uses music to help drive voter registration and civic participation. Last year, Carpenter was the organization’s top artist partner, with her work helping generate more than 35,000 voter registrations and roughly 263,000 voter engagements, more than any other artist.

To celebrate National Voter Registration Day, which was Sept. 16, HeadCount is also announcing new partnerships with Chappell Roan, John Legend and Tate McRae. Starting this week, the organization will bring registration activations to Roan’s concerts in New York, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. HeadCount will also be joining McRae and Legend on their fall tours.

“National Voter Registration Day is a celebration of our democracy and a reminder that every election matters, including the ones happening in our own backyards,” HeadCount executive director Lucille Wenegieme said in a statement. “This civic holiday reminds us that participation can be a unifying force. At HeadCount, we know the power music and culture has to bring people together. Today we are channeling that energy into making sure everyone has the chance to use their voice and be part of shaping the future.”

Does America need another performing rights organization? Hayden Bower thinks so. 

Bower, who leads AllTrack, the industry’s newest PRO as of 2017, says he was inspired by the rise of independent musicians making and releasing music from their bedrooms. “If you look at the marketplace in the early 2000s, ASCAP and BMI [the two leading PROs in the United States] combined had about 350,000 or so members. Today, they have 2.5 million members. Meanwhile, the U.S. population only grew 18% in that time,” Bower says. “Technology opened the floodgates.”

Bower defines this surge as the formation of a “significant middle class of professional or aspiring professional songwriters,” and he says he saw an opportunity to serve those creators’ specific needs with a PRO that manages not only performance rights but also mechanical and neighboring rights. And by founding a new organization, he says he has avoided taking on the baggage of nearly a century of old catalog and metadata that plagues the incumbents. “The [others] were basically competing for the same narrow sliver of top-tier talent,” Bower says, pointing to the opaque ways that PROs court that talent by, for instance, offering what are called bonuses. 

Bower pledges to keep AllTrack simple. Royalty calculations are transparent, and radio bonuses are not paid to big-name artists. The PRO’s searchable repertory of songs and writers is open to anyone’s use. AllTrack can assist with multiple types of royalty collections for an additional administration fee, including liaising with the Mechanical Licensing Collective and neighboring rights sources. Bower says operations for royalty collection and distribution are streamlined using proprietary technology. “Some of our writers are now collecting more money than they were previously,” he claims. 

Early adopters of AllTrack include writers/producers of songs performed by No Doubt, Future, Sublime, Elle King, Ty Dolla $ign, NOFX, Whethan and Gucci Mane. The organization has also made significant headway in gaining the approval of the industry establishment. In 2024, AllTrack joined the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) — the global standard-bearer for collection societies — as a rights management entity. AllTrack’s website also cites partnerships and affiliations with the National Music Publishers’ Association, the Association of Independent Music Publishers and the Music Managers Forum. 

With more PROs operating in the United States than any other country — ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Global Music Rights, PRO Music Rights and now AllTrack (SESAC and GMR operate on an invitation-only basis) — the government has taken notice. In February, the U.S. Copyright Office opened a notice of inquiry into “emerging issues” with PROs here at the behest of Congress, which expressed concerns about the “proliferation” of new PROs, as well as the sector’s alleged lack of transparency. 

Bower says AllTrack’s existence is justified because it serves creators who are underserved by its predecessors. “We’re proud of the fact that not only did we successfully start a PRO, but we then bolted on mechanical and neighboring rights,” he says. “There’s nothing else like it.”

What was the greatest hurdle you faced in the creation of AllTrack, and how did you overcome it? 

There’s a few. There’s a technology hurdle: how to have people come to your site, register songs, track all the metadata and distribute it throughout the world. That was extremely complicated. There’s also the business hurdle of “How do you get writers to sign up if you don’t have licenses?” and “How do you get licenses if you don’t have writers?” It’s a chickenor-egg problem that needed to be solved. We went several years before we were able to even enter into a single license with a licensee [any public platform that uses music services like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, as well as bars, restaurants and other venues]. And in the meantime, we were compensating our songwriters because why would someone join AllTrack if we weren’t? We needed to show we were a reputable business partner. 

How were you funded back then?

We took funding from artist managers, business managers, agents and other rights organizations. It started with me asking people’s opinions of whether there should be a PRO for independent creators, and everyone gave a resounding yes — 100%. Then we did a venture round for strategic music investors. 

In most countries, there’s only one PRO or collection society. Why did you feel there needed to be another player in the United States? 

We thought there could be a better solution in terms of managing multiple terms [performance, mechanical and neighboring rights] so that this middle class of songwriters would be able to earn to their full potential. For talent today, you can’t just put out an album once a year — you’ve got to feed the content machine all the time. To have to layer rights management on top of that is really complicated. What we’ve done is create a single-use portal that, to us, feels like a large leap forward and fills the gap of what the industry has been missing. Also, there’s a lot of chatter out there about how large, incumbent PROs have distribution methodologies where — how do I put this? — some songwriters are compensated more than others. 

You mean bonuses, right? 

Yes, there’s a bonus system. There might be collections in the general licensing market [money collected from bars, restaurants and other venues where music is played], and no one knows exactly which song was played when. So the question becomes “If you collect this money, how do you distribute it?” The existing PROs tend to take that money and pay it out in the form of radio bonuses. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s within their rights. Our target audience of independent artists is probably not part of that radio bonus pool. They’re predominantly streaming artists. So we said, “Why don’t we just take those collections and distribute them across digital performances?” We feel it’s more of a democratized way of paying out royalties.

The Copyright Office inquiry into U.S. PROs is still ongoing. What’s your take? 

AllTrack is a byproduct of the proliferation of creators that exist. There are now eight times more songwriters than existed 20 years ago. We’re talking millions more songwriters. People need to not look at this as “Oh, another PRO popped up for the sake of it.” If we hadn’t seen this tidal wave of new creators, AllTrack would not exist. 

What’s your response to venues, bars and restaurants that complain about rising licensing costs?

We are the smallest PRO and that’s reflected in our rates to licensees. We’re the smallest licensing fee out there, and for many organizations it’s just a hundred [dollars] or so a year — not tens of thousands. Yes, because AllTrack arrived, you might have a small increase in cost if you’re a bar, but it’s just a drop in the bucket relative to the inflation in other areas of life. 

Do you feel this inquiry should be happening at all? 

Music is a fairly highly regulated industry. The U.S. economy was built on the idea of free markets — buyers and sellers working out issues independently without interference. AllTrack is a testament to free markets and how, with that freedom, music can solve its own problems. If the independent artist community was feeling frustrated Revise to: with PROS, AllTrack is an option that fits their needs.

What was your response to the Copyright Office? 

One thing we noted in our letter to the Copyright Office is that in CISAC’s 2024 report, they ranked countries around the world based on royalty collections as a percentage of [gross domestic product], and guess what the U.S. ranked? Forty-fifth. For so many years, the U.S. has been a leader in entertainment, and to see a statistic like that is shocking. As leaders in entertainment, we should be figuring out how to compensate songwriters more, not less. This stat is a testament to how regulations and government interference have placed a limit on the value of music copyrights in this country. We don’t need to discuss any changes to the system that could potentially depress that value even more.

In the middle of this inquiry, President Donald Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights. Do you think the new regime change will affect the outcome? 

It certainly could impact the outcome, but I don’t have a pulse on it. Only time will tell.

The documentary Ozzy: No Escape From Now was never intended to be a look back at Ozzy Osbourne‘s life. But now, the definitive chronicle of the heavy metal icon’s final six years will tell the story of those difficult times via interviews with friends and family, including the prep for what would be Ozzy’s final show, the July 5 all-star Back to the Beginning blow-out in his home town of Birmingham, England.

The movie directed by BAFTA Award-winner Tania Alexander will premiere on Paramount+ on Oct. 7 in the U.S. and internationally (excluding Japan). The project was produced in collaboration with the Osbourne family, with Ozzy and wife/manager Sharon — as well as their children, Aimee, Jack and Kelly — opening up about the late-night fall Ozzy suffered in Feb. 2019 that led to the rocker canceling his planned two-and-a-half-year farewell tour.

“The thing about getting older, you know, I used to take pills for fun,” Ozzy says in the new two-minute trailer for the doc (see below). “Now I take them just to stay alive.” The couple’s eldest daughter Aimee, 42 — who has typically eschewed publicity and participation in the family’s TV and film ventures — says in the film that the fall was devastating for her dad.

“He was in hospital for weeks. To fall like that and not be able to bounce back like he had in the past, and then having to cancel the tour – that was his biggest heartbreak,” she says. The film details the series of corrective surgeries Ozzy endured following the accident, as well as the cascade of health issues he suffered after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the mental and physical impact of the chronic pain on the music he made in the years after.

The trailer opens with Sharon saying that inveterate road dog Ozzy’s one big regret was that he “never really said goodbye his fans” after his series of health issues. Kelly talks about the fall that resulted in Ozzy breaking his “f–king neck,” with Jack adding that his dad came out of the surgery “far worse.” The subsequent cancellation of the planned 2019 and 2023 No More Tours II tour was “his biggest heartbreak” Aimee says.

Kelly describes taking Ozzy to the studio every day, where the “magic would begin” as he worked on what would be his final two solo records, 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9. Fans will see Ozzy recording his vocals from a red throne, chatting in the studio with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and producer Andrew Watt, with the latter asking him how he was able to tap into being a “psychopath, mental patient” so easily.

“I had a lot of practice,” Ozzy says to both mens’ delight as he calls making music again “the best medicine I ever had. I’m not good at being sick. I belong up there.” At one point, Sharon asks Ozzy what he thinks of having one big, send-off finale show, to which he says, “If I’m going to be go there, I want to be the old Ozzy.”

The movie also has Ozzy revealing that his collaboration with Post Malone on the song “Take What You Want” — which was instigated by Kelly and Watt — helped to kick-start what would turn out to be the final, rousing chapter of his music life. “It got me out of the blues. It helped me. That was the best medicine I ever had at that point,” Ozzy says in the movie of recording the song from Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding album.

In addition to the Osbourne family, the film will feature interviews with Ozzy’s Sabbath and solo band members guitarists Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde, as well as the Chili Peppers’ Smith, Rage Agains the Machine’s Tom Morello, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan, Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield and bassist Robert Trujillo, Billy Idol, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and many more.

“If my life’s coming to an end, I really can’t complain,” Ozzy says at the end of the trailer. “I had a great life.”

Watch the Ozzy: No Escape From Now trailer below.

Good news! The soundtrack for Wicked: For Good now has a release date and official tracklist — featuring the titles of two brand new songs added to the musical’s songbook — as revealed on Wednesday (Sept. 17).

Arriving Nov. 21 — the same day that the Wicked sequel is set to hit theaters this fall — the soundtrack will include a total of 11 songs. In addition to the already beloved titles that will transfer over from the Wicked Broadway musical’s soundtrack, such as “Thank Goodness/I Couldn’t Be Happier,” “As Long as You’re Mine” and “For Good,” the upcoming film will have two original works specially written for the screen adaptation.

“I’m especially happy that the soundtrack album for Wicked: For Good has so much new music on it,” said Stephen Schwartz, who composed the score for the Wicked stage production and has worked on the music for the movies, in a statement. “In addition to two brand new songs, there is a lot that’s new in several other existing songs. So not only listeners coming to the score for the first time, but longtime fans of the original Broadway cast album will have a great deal to discover.”

Cynthia Erivo will perform the first all-new track, titled “No Place Like Home.” In a Variety podcast interview in December, the actress — who plays Elphaba in the Wicked films — teased that the added ballad is sure to be emotional.

“I don’t know if you’re ready for it,” she said at the time, noting that she helped write the track with Schwartz. “I feel like the song is very, very special. I have a feeling that even the title will move you.”

Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda, will sing the other new song, which is called “The Girl in the Bubble.”

The Wicked: For Good soundtrack certainly has big ruby red shoes to fill, as the first Wicked‘s corresponding album — which dropped alongside the film in November 2024 — entered at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. In doing so, it secured the highest ever debut for a big-screen adaptation of a stage musical on the chart.

See the full Wicked: For Good soundtrack tracklist below.