Author: Rap Hooks

It’s too soon to know how Taylor Swift‘s new The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore single “Cleveland!” will perform on the charts, but it’s already a No. 1 hit in the Kelce family.

On the Wednesday (Sept. 30) episode of New Heights, both Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce raved about the track, on which the pop star pays homage to the city in which they grew up. “That song is incredible,” the elder Kelce brother said. “Kylie [Kelce] and I listen to it so much. There’s just something about it, I love it.”

The subject of “Cleveland!” first came up as the Kansas City Chiefs tight end was excitedly discussing how well the various sports teams based in his home state have been doing recently, from the Cincinnati Bearcats in the world of college football to the MLB’s Cleveland Guardians. “Cleveland is rocking right now!” Travis cheered. “Shout-out to Tay Tay for making that song, just giving the city a little more punch.”

“It’s a banger,” he added. “Come on, man.”

“Cleveland!” arrived on Sept. 25, along with the three other bonus tracks on Encore: “Patient Zero,” “Pink Skies” and “Babylon.” They extend the story of The Life of a Showgirl, which originally dropped in October 2025 and spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after debuting with a historic 4.002 million equivalent album units in the United States, according to Luminate.

“The taste of me is acquired, but it’s his favorite dish/ He says I look like an angel, they say, ‘I hate that b—h,’” Swift sings on “Cleveland!,” which finds her contrasting the hate she sometimes gets from the public with the love she feels with Travis as he shows her around his home city. “There, that house with the porch is where he lived as a kid/ He’s been saying forever, must not have read that/ Scathing take ’bout how I’m fake/ And he could find someone younger.”

On the chorus, she gushes, “My baby likes what he likes/ He already took me to Cleveland/ And he showed me The Heights, so hate all you like/ This is the love of my life.”

Fans most recently saw Swift and Travis — who tied the knot at the beginning of July — out in public in Cleveland when the pair attended a Cleveland Cavaliers vs. New York Knicks game in May. Months later, the 14-time Grammy winner would include home video of herself and the athlete driving around the city together in the “Cleveland!” lyric video.

In the days since Encore dropped, Swift has attended the 2026 VMAs — where she won video of the year for her self-directed “The Fate of Ophelia” visual — and released the “Patient Zero” music video starring Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell.

Watch the full new episode of New Heights below.

Oasis has filed a lawsuit against its longtime former sound engineer to block his looming auction of a trove of unheard recordings valued at more than $2 million.

The planned sale, announced earlier this month, centered on recordings held by engineer Huw Richards that include dozens of live shows, soundchecks and rehearsals from the 1990s — and reportedly feature “unfiltered dialogue” between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher.

On Tuesday (Sept. 29), Oasis, the Gallaghers and Sony Music Entertainment U.K. filed a legal action against Richards in London’s High Court, according to legal records obtained by Billboard. The case also names the auction house, Littleton Auctions, as well as Richards’ son Owain.

Details of the lawsuit are not yet publicly available, but it already appears to have had its intended effect: The auction house confirmed to the BBC on Wednesday (Sept. 30) that the Oasis recordings had been pulled from the planned auction, set for October 3. “We are very disappointed that we cannot offer this significant archive as planned,” Littleton told the outlet.

The dispute comes amid a surge in interest in Oasis, an iconic British rock act that reunited in 2024 after years of strife between the Gallaghers. The Britpop band went on a massively-lucrative concert tour last year, and a second tour of 42 shows is set to kick off in May. The brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year — and Liam has even teased that new music might be coming.

The recordings held by Richards, who worked with Oasis from the release of their 1994 debut album until 2001, contain more than 100 hours of Oasis material. They include potentially the only recording of a 1996 concert near Loch Lomond in Scotland, as well as informal conversations between the famously-feuding Gallagher brothers. When Littleton first announced the auction earlier this month, it set a guide price for the archive, known as the Desk Tapes, of between £1.2m and £1.6m.

But Oasis quickly voiced opposition. As reported by the Guardian, the auction house confirmed that the band had “expressed concerns” about the planned sale of the tapes. Richards’ son told the outlet that he’d been in discussions with the band about the archive, but that such negotiations had “fizzled away.”

The passing of Dolly Parton last month inspired a flood of stories about her musical legacy. On the financial side, this coverage included valuations of her estate — which also led music investors to reconsider the June news that another country music giant, Garth Brooks, was considering selling his music assets.

When Billboard looked at Parton’s music assets, i.e., her master recording and publishing catalogs, we estimated that her master recordings generated about $11 million in revenue annually between 2022 and 2025 and that her publishing generated about $6.5 million annually over the same period for a total of $17.5 million. Consequently, Billboard estimated that those assets carry a valuation of $220 million, with about $103 million coming from the recordings and $117 million coming from the publishing.

If Parton’s assets are worth some $220 million, how do Brooks’ music assets, for which he’s seeking a reported $1 billion to $2 billion, shape up against her catalog? First off, Parton’s annual U.S. consumption units averaged 643,000 units over the last six years (2020-2025), which is nearly 45% greater than Brooks’ 445,000 units. Globally, her catalog’s streaming consumption is two and a half times as large, averaging nearly 1.141 billion streams annually, versus annual streams of 414.6 million for Brooks’ catalog. If you look at just the last three years (2023-2025), the numbers are even more in Parton’s catalog’s favor at 644,000 U.S. album consumption units annually versus Brooks’ 375,000 units. Meanwhile, Parton’s global streams are three times larger: 1.305 billion versus Brooks’ 432.3 million annually.
Clearly, Parton’s catalog is outperforming Brooks’ catalog, which raises the question: If her catalog is worth an estimated $220 million by Billboard’s reckoning, how can Brooks’ catalog be worth upwards of $1 billion, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal?

Firstly, a catalog’s numbers are not the whole story in determining valuations. We also have to compare what assets are owned by Brooks and the Parton estate. For example, Parton owned her later-career albums, but most of her big hit albums — representing the bulk of the activity generated by her catalog — are owned by Sony Music, which means she gets paid a percentage of royalties — perhaps a superstar rate of 33%. Meanwhile, Brooks owns his entire recorded catalog and appears to distribute it on his own. That means that after CD and vinyl production costs, he is getting nearly 100% of the revenue from his sales to merchants, which likely means his recorded music catalog is more valuable than Parton’s.
On the other hand, Parton’s publishing appears more valuable than Brooks in that she has had a hand in writing some 3,000 songs, either by herself or with co-writers. Billboard also estimates she has a 75% co-writer share of the songs on her albums.

Meanwhile, Brooks’ catalog is heavily dependent on outside songwriters, although he generally wrote one or two songs per album and would collaborate with other songwriters on another two or so songs per album. Overall, Billboard estimates Brooks’ songwriting share at about 20% of the publishing royalties generated from the sales and streaming activities from his albums. Since Parton’s catalog sees more action than Brooks’ catalog, and since Parton was a much more active songwriter, it seems logical that her publishing has a greater valuation than Brooks’.

Yet another factor comes into play when estimating Brooks’ revenue versus Parton’s revenue: According to Luminate, 47% of Parton’s streams are in the U.S., which means that 53% come from outside the U.S. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Brooks’ streams occur in the U.S. In other words, when extrapolating to come up with global revenue, Parton comes out with way more revenue than Brooks gets, according to Billboard’s calculations.

Looking at Brooks’ activity over the last three years, Billboard estimates that his recorded catalog’s global streaming and sales generated an annual average of about $4 million in revenue. Billboard further estimates that the publishing royalties generated from his catalog’s sales and streaming activity generated another $1.81 million.

Instead of estimating how much of that nearly $6 million in revenue would be Brooks’ take-home pay, let’s consider the $1 billion that has been floated as the bottom-range valuation Brooks was said to be seeking if he sells his catalog. As Billboard readers are aware, valuations are usually based on a multiple of net publisher and net label share, and while most deals generally come in with multiples ranging anywhere from 12 times to 18 times, superstars with iconic songs have been known to command 20 to 25 times multiples.

These multiples represent the average amount of annual revenue a catalog produces for the investor. So when investors are considering buying a music asset and they look at a catalog’s track record, one of the questions they want answered is: How many years will it take to make back the money we paid to buy the assets? Note that this question doesn’t even take into account potential profits they hope to make from their investment.

Investors ask that question because there is another key factor to consider. In the U.S., for music released in 1978 or later, copyright carries a 35-year term. At the end of that period, the creator or their heirs can file for copyright termination and reclaim ownership of the catalog. In other words, a private equity firm buying a catalog only has 35 years to get back what they paid for the assets and to hopefully make a profit beyond that. (There is an ongoing lawsuit right now that could determine if the copyright reversion only applies to the U.S. or worldwide.)

Say an investor paid $1 billion for Brooks’ music assets. In order to get back just that amount, a catalog would have to generate $28.572 million annually in net publisher and net label share. By Billboard’s estimation, Brooks catalog’s revenue activity falls far below that benchmark.

However, it must be pointed out that while Billboard’s valuation for Brooks is based on his current numbers, it overlooks one big factor: Brooks’ catalog is mainly distributed through Amazon and to brick-and-mortar stores, which combined might be only about a 25% market share. Brooks, because of his belief in the sanctity of albums, has missed out almost completely on the whole streaming phenomenon, as the only place his music is available for streaming is through Amazon.

His catalog’s activity numbers today belie what a humongous economic force he has been in the echelon of music superstars. If you look at his historical numbers, Brooks was a revenue-generating juggernaut when music sales were king. His catalog since 1991 has accumulated nearly 76 million album consumption units in the U.S., according to Luminate. Meanwhile, he has 10 albums that have diamond certifications (10 million copies) from the RIAA, including Double Live, which has been certified double diamond. And this is just for the U.S., although his international sales might not be that big given that country music wasn’t so popular outside the U.S. during Brooks’ commercial peak. All told, his RIAA album certifications add up to 200 million units. That makes him the highest-selling artist in the U.S., surpassing The Beatles, whose certifications add up to 183 million.

Those certifications testify to how big Brooks once was. But the question is: How big will Brooks’ catalog be going forward? That’s tough to assess because Brooks — through his own choices — has mostly missed out on the streaming era. Another unknown is his rigidity when it comes to synch, in that he hasn’t really allowed his music to be used in commercials and only seldom in movies.

While an investor with a higher tolerance for risk might be willing to shell out big bucks for Brooks’ catalog, it’s likely Brooks could realize an even bigger payday if he had a three-to-five-year track record from global distribution, including at all of the digital streaming service providers — the benchmark music investors use when assessing an asset. They want to see at least a three-year track record, but the more data they have, the more comfortable they are when making big bets on buying an artist’s music catalog. Now would have been the perfect time to make his music widely available on streaming services, as he is currently on a sold-out arena tour that will last through the end of October. This kind of high-profile activity could have turbo-charged streaming activity even beyond the expected windfall that would likely come from making his catalog suddenly available through widespread streaming distribution.

Without that streaming track record, more than a few music asset buyers Billboard has talked with say they are skeptical that the catalog is worth $1 billion. When Brooks’ asking price is brought up, those skeptics ask: “Beyond ‘Friends in Low Places,’ how many Garth Brooks songs can you name?” Furthermore, sources suggest that without a track record from global distribution that truly measures what the activity could be for his catalog, there is likely only one way Brooks can get a bigger payday today than his current numbers suggest: by entering into a deal structure with earn-out targets. In other words, a buyer would pay a certain amount today, and then, based on how the catalog performs when it is widely distributed, Brooks would earn supplemental payouts.

That’s one way of doing a deal. But if Brooks really desires a bigger payday, he might want to make his music available through all digital services on a global basis. Not only would that provide a track record that would help establish a valuation for when he sells, he would reap the revenue windfall that would likely come from widespread distribution. In other words, if he continues to own his music assets while establishing a track record for them by releasing them to all streaming services, he would likely make a lot of money in the next three to five years — to potentially make a lot more money down the line when he sells.

A representative for Brooks didn’t respond to a request for comment.

It’s a third month at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Movie Songs chart, powered by Tunefind (a Songtradr company), for Taylor Swift’s Toy Story 5 contribution, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” while Spider-Man: Brand New Day makes a splash on the August 2026-dated survey after the film’s July 31 premiere.

Rankings for the Top Movie Songs chart are based on song and film data provided by Tunefind and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of August 2026. The ranking generally includes newly released films from the preceding three months, with exceptions given to movies whose music is still experiencing a high volume of public interest.

“I Knew It, I Knew You” first reigned on the June 2026 Top Movie Songs tally, extending its reign into July and now August. The song debuted at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 dated June 20 and led for two weeks total; in August, the tune didn’t leave the chart’s top five, ranking as high as No. 2 (Aug. 22).

In August 2026, “I Knew It, I Knew You” earned 51.8 million official streams and sold 8,000 downloads in the United States, according to Luminate.

That 51.8-million-stream count is just a tick above the 51.2 million streams pulled by Top Movie Songs’ No. 2 for the month: Tame Impala’s “Loser.” Originally released in 2025, “Loser” is one of the songs featured in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and its synch blasted the track back onto multiple weekly Billboard charts, including a new peak of No. 18 on the Hot 100 (Aug. 29).

In addition to its aforementioned stream count, “Loser” sold 4,000 downloads in August.

Steve Lacy’s “Oh Yeah?” follows “Loser” as Spider-Man features on Top Movie Songs, bowing at No. 3 (46.9 million streams, 2,000 downloads), rising as high as No. 19 on the Hot 100 after initially missing the chart when it was released as part of Lacy’s studio album of the same name in July. Bad Bunny’s “EOO” (No. 5; 28.1 million streams, 1,000 downloads) and TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me” (No. 7; 6.5 million streams, 1,000 downloads) also represent the latest addition to the Spider-Man franchise on the August 2026 tally.

See the full chart, also featuring music from Voicemails for Isabelle, Don’t Say Good Luck, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie and Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, below.

Rank, Song, Artist, Movie

Cardi B is belatedly celebrating her historic VMAs win with Kehlani, with the duo’s single “Save” becoming the first all-women collaboration to win best hip-hop at the Sunday (Sept. 27) ceremony.

One day after the award show, the rapper addressed fans in a video she filmed at home posted to her Instagram Story. “By the way, y’all, me and Bae-lani just won a VMA last night for ‘Save!’” she cheered.

“As I deserve, b—h,” Cardi continued before recalling the video shoot for “Save.” “I was seven months pregnant, slamming myself on the f–king floor, acting like I’m getting robbed and s–t. I don’t know if y’all appreciated the music video, because it’s a music video I don’t usually do with a storyline and everything.”

Released in September 2025 at the same time as Cardi’s Billboard 200-topping sophomore album, Am I the Drama?, “Safe” reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The music video, which also dropped at the same time, showed the Bronx native and Kehlani performing the song in silky PJs, interspersed with a narrative arc of a pregnant Cardi — who in real life was expecting her now 10-month-old son with Stefon Diggs — struggling in her relationship with a man who seemingly gets up to criminal activity behind her back. It results in one of his foes showing up to their house and wrestling Cardi to the ground, an exchange that ends darkly.

“Next year, I’m going to the VMAs. I promise. I promise,” Cardi added in her clip, writing in a follow-up post, “Thank you @mtv …Send in the moon man.”

The hip-hop star was one of several winners at the 2026 VMAs, where Madonna took home the most Moon People — including for artist of the year — while Taylor Swift was honored with the first-ever artist director award as well as video of the year for “The Fate of Ophelia.” The night also included performances from stars such as RAYE, Sienna Spiro, LISA, Shaboozey and more.

And while she wasn’t at the ceremony, Cardi has been booked and busy elsewhere. In her recent Instagram Story, she also mentioned that she’d only recently returned home after spending time in Milan, where she walked in the Vogue World fashion show alongside Jennifer Lopez, mgk and more celebs.