Random music news for Friday, April 17, 2026

Music news for April 17, 2026.

1. The three major record labels are slowly pivoting away from new music. It looks like finding and exposing new music will be up to the indies going forward.
2. Peggy Gallagher had a message to her son Liam about attending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. Liam says, “Well, I was speaking to my mummy last night when the news broke, and she thinks I may have been a little hasty with my perception of the organization she’s told me to stop being a d*** and go to the awards and behave, and you never know – you might enjoy it.”
3. BTS has an album-leaker and scammer problem on X. Send in the lawyers! (HBO has a similar problem with X.)
4. Speaking of lawyers, Cardi B is going hard after YouTuber/gossiper Latasha Kebe.
5. Singer G. Love lost US$424,000 when his crypto account was hacked.
6. In Kanye news, he knocked out a guy at dinner at the Chateau Marmont in LA. And then he cancelled a show in Marseille, France, because the mayor thinks he’s a Nazi. (He’s not wrong, of course.
7. “AI slop is making the internet fake-happy.” Yep. The enshittification continues. And the deepfake situation (especially in schools) is out of control.
8. Fakes are infesting the podcast world, too. For example, earlier this week, the Podcast Index looked at podcasts released over a 24-hour period. They found that only 44.7 were “legitimate.”
9. RIP Asha Bhosle, legendary Bollywood singing star and the inspiration for Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha.” She was 92.
10. This British-Australian singer is the latest artist to have a problem with being paid by a record label. The situation involves Bad Bunny, too.
11. Here’s more information on the upcoming KISS avatar show in Las Vegas. It opens in 2028.
12. Look out, TikTok. Here comes RedNote.
13. Etsy is getting into the legal licensed music merch business.
14. Cameras in earbuds? Weird, but yes.
15. This guy works in waste management. He’s gone viral for singing opera among sewer pipes.

More music news? Go here.

BONUS: YouTube has banned all those Trump-trolling Iranian LEGO videos. (Via Sean)