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CHART FINAL: Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love returns to #1 on this week’s HITS Top 50 chart; the Interscope set adds 56k+ to its ATD, most of that in streams. With Grammy nominations due on Nov. 16, we imagine the mood in O-Rod’s camp will be anything but sad.
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The week’s more significant debuts come from Belift Lab/Geffen’s ILLIT (#6 with 35k) and UnitedMasters’ BigXthaPlug (#7 with nearly 33k). Matador’s Queens of the Stone Age, meanwhile, achieve a regal Top 15 premiere with Perfecth. Another veteran rock troupe, UMG-distribbed Nickelback, earns a Top 30 bow with Everything Under the Sun.
What’s new? Apart from those election results, we mean? Well, enough freshly minted offerings to fill the space below your Christmas tree.
The list we haven’t checked twice includes QC/Motown/Capitol’s Lil Baby, Atlantic Outpost’s Sam Barber, Columbia’s Dove Cameron, Sony Nashville’s Dylan Marlowe, FMLY/Island’s Jessie Reyez, Atlantic’s James Blunt, B-ME/BMSG’s BE:FIRST, Warner’s Royal Blood, Big Loud’s Ashley Cooke, River House/Warner Records Nashville’s Hudson Westbrook, LoveTap/Virgin’s Kings of Leon, Epiphany/Virgin’s Alanis Morissette, MDDN/Atlantic’s Good Charlotte and Nashville Harbor/Big Machine’s The Band Perry.
The lineup for next week’s Latin Grammys is complete. The final performers include Big 3 nominees KAROL G and Milo J, as well as Feid, Nathy Peluso, Grupo Frontera, The Warning, Bizarrap and Yami Safdie.
They join previously announced performers that include ROSALÍA, Daddy Yankee, Mon Laferte, Rawayana, Juanes, Carín León and Anitta.
The ceremony will take place Thursday, Nov. 12 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
Be there or be cuadrado.
Ozzfest is officially back on the calendar. The hard rock and metal festival launched by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne three decades ago will return in 2027 with three dates in the U.K., U.S. and Mexico.
It marks its first edition since a 2018 New Year’s Eve show in Los Angeles.
The revival begins July 10 at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, U.K.
Then it crosses the Atlantic for a Sept. 11 date at Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, California, where the inaugural Ozzfest took place.
The festival will close out its three-show run Sept. 18 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City.
“Ozzy’s no longer with us, but his legacy is still here,” Sharon told HITS. “Why should it end?”
The Weeknd's After Hours Til Dawn tour has crossed the $1.3b mark, making it the highest-grossing tour by a male artist in history per promoter Live Nation.
The four-year stadium trek concluded with a final performance in Kuala Lumpur: 176 shows in 67 cities, 30 countries and five continents, and more than 9m tickets sold.
The Asian chapter, originally announced with 11 dates, expanded to 17 sold-out stadium shows across the region.
"Asia was the final frontier," Live Nation President of Touring Omar Al-joulani told HITS.
The run also generated $8.5m for the XO Humanitarian Fund and Global Citizen, supporting hunger relief and access to education.
CHART PREVIEW: Interscope’s Olivia Rodrigo will log a fourth week at #1 with her summer blockbuster you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. The set, which was enhanced two weeks ago with a smash remix of “Expectations” featuring Chappell Roan, ties Drake for the second-most weeks at #1 this year, so far. We’ll let you guess who has the most.
Halloween lifts Michael Jackson’s Thriller (Legacy) to #2, with the block of Big Loud/Mercury’s Morgan Wallen, SAWGOD/Columbia’s Ella Langley and Mercury’s Noah Kahan set to repeat at #3-5.
Top debuts go to two HYBE-backed artists: Illit, whose EP Break Even (Belift Lab/Geffen), is on track for 35k at #6, followed by UnitedMasters’ BigXThaPlug at #7 with Better Over Time.
BTS continues to be very good business for HYBE, which reported record Q3 revenue of KRW 1.53t ($1.08b), a 109.8% year-over-year increase propelled by the group’s ARIRANG world tour.
For the first nine months of 2026, HYBE has generated KRW 3.674t ($2.73b) in revenue—already more than it earned in any full calendar year to date.
Concerts did the heavy lifting, generating KRW 726.8b ($512m), up nearly 200% year over year. BTS averaged approximately 70k fans per show during the European and North American legs of the tour.
BTS tour merchandise sold at North American dates contributed KRW 107b ($75m).
On Nov. 4 and 5, Spotify's inaugural Fresh Finds Forward class heads to L.A. for the Fresh Finds Summit: two days of masterclasses and conversations with industry insiders led by John Legend, Ryan Tedder and María Zardoya, whose band The Marías were once a Spotify Fresh Find.
Fresh Finds Forward is a program designed to provide approximately 10,000 emerging indie acts with the resources to build their careers.
The Summit will have sessions covering songwriting, music creation, touring, team building and maintaining mental health.
"A Fresh Finds placement can be the moment an artist gets heard for the first time," said Joe Hadley, Spotify's global head of music content and partnerships.
Taylor Swift continued her campaign for a 2027 Best Original Song Oscar nomination Nov. 1, staying well over an hour to meet more than 200 attendees, including guild members and Critics Choice voters.
The stop: a screening/Q&A/reception at Disney’s New York HQ, where the glad-handing reportedly lasted well past lunchtime.
She signed autographs for kids, posed for selfies and chatted with every guest who wanted a moment with her.
The song: her Toy Story 5 soundtrack contribution, “I Knew It, I Knew You.”
The Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 21.
AI-assisted music is no longer some far-off industry boogeyman—it's already part of the daily chart picture: the Nov. 1 U.S. iTunes Top 10 has four tracks seemingly made with at least some AI assistance, including the post-Halloween #1 song.
At the top is “Tell Me, How Is Heaven” by May the Lord Studio, a faith-oriented project whose music has been identified as AI-assisted.
At No. 4, Shards of Art’s “Fucking Shit, Holy Shit” offers a less reverent proposition: a choir-and-doo-wop-flavored novelty track that has spawned multiple genre-specific remakes, including death metal, honky-tonk and melodic techno incarnations.
Someone is clearly buying this stuff, whatever it might be.
Mariah Carey, consider this your annual warning: the AI slop sleigh is just getting warmed up.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping track list has been unveiled: Stevie Nicks, Ella Langley, Kacey Musgraves, Violet Grohl, Mckenna Grace, Noah Cyrus, The Cure and Depeche Mode enliven the MCA ST, due Nov. 13 and executive produced by Dave Cobb.
Jennifer Lawrence and Whitney Peak also have songs, plus previously released tracks by Noah Kahan, The Smashing Pumpkins and Gigi Perez.
Harry Styles closed out his sold-out, record-setting, 30-show Together, Together residency at The Garden on Halloween—dressed as Pizza Rat and delivering a first-time cover of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer."
Knicks captain and 2026 NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson took the stage to present him with a commemorative banner (he even wore a "Techno Is My Boyfriend" hat previously sported by the singer).
More than half a million fans from all 50 states and 79 countries attended.
CHART FINAL: Reprise’s My Chemical Romance takes the #1 spot on this Halloween-adjacent iteration of the HITS Top 50 chart with the 20th anniversary edition of their seminal set The Black Parade. The retooled alternative gem nets 70k in its opening frame, nearly 60k of that in pure sales.
The biggest debut is Heavy Is the Crown (APESHIT/Mass Appeal/EMPIRE), a collaborative effort by hip-hop luminaries Anderson .Paak and Cordae, which amasses a princely 30k, good for a Top 10 coronet.
Contemporary Christian troubadour Josiah Queen, meanwhile, kneels at #16 with Damascus Road (Capitol CMG).
BLACKPINK member LISA (LLOUD Co./RCA) lands at #36 in her first frame, saying “SaWaDiKa” to nearly 18k.
This week sees another re-entry by a 20th anniversary reissue, as a refurbished version of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black (Island) peeks into the Top 50.
Spotify has targeted a Q1 2027 launch for its AI-powered remix and cover tool, potentially unveiling it around February's Grammy Awards, per the FT.
Already secured: UMG, Merlin and, as of last week, Believe. Sony and Warner are still under negotiation.
Spotify is considering charging an additional $4-5 a month.
Getting artists on board may prove trickier than getting their labels to sign. The pitch: a revenue opportunity rather than an existential threat.
