Random music news for Monday, July 6, 2026

Hank Azaria has voiced more than 800 characters on The Simpsons, but says he’s never watched the show. I hope he watches music news for July 8, 2026.

1. Interesting: Songs with explicit lyrics are on a steep decline on Spotify’s charts.
2. Do music charts still matter now that we’re all about streaming? Funnily enough, yes.
3. Bob Vylan are suing the BBC. Remember that dust-up from Glastonbury a year ago? Yeah, that’s still going.
4. Kim Dotcom, the guy behind the piracy-enabling site Mega Upload, is still trying to keep from being extradited from New Zealand.
5. TikTok was facing its own social media addiction trial when the company suddenly settled out of court. Meta and SnapChat have their own similar trials starting July 27.
6. Illinois has three new ticketing laws. They cover “ghost tickets,” “junk fees,” and tickets bought with bots.
7. Eros Innovation is a new music-and-AI company that creates virtual artists based on Bollywood film characters. The company says, ““What we are launching is not simply new music, but a completely new framework for how music intellectual property can be created, experienced and monetized in the future.”
8. YouTube Shorts now allows up to 15 seconds’ worth of music.
9. New merch alert! Distrubed now offers “hemp-derived THC smoky colas.”
10. Pitbull is going to attempt a world record in London this month. He wants to hold the largest gathering of people wearing bald caps.
11. This was an odd contest for Drake fans, but it’s also kinda fun.

More music news? Go here.

BONUS: I wonder what his favourite Smiths’ track is? (Via Rick)