YOUR FRIDAY
NEWS BLAST

It’s been an unusually newsy couple of days in the biz, and given the swirl of activity we thought you might find the following digest useful.

Reports are surfacing of U.S. investors in ByteDance—including major VC firms General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital—discussing a buyout of TikTok from the Chinese-owned parent company. TikTok also inked a major deal with the publishers.

The infringement case against The Weeknd, Max Martin and the co-writers and publishers of “A LA onely Night” from the artist's 2016 album Starboy—a case that made headlines when it was filed in April 2019—was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge on 7/22.

Taylor Swift dropped her new album, and Holly Gleason offered a reflective review; new music also arrived from J. Balvin, J. Cole and more. Logic's new release coincides with his fat deal with Twitch; he's not playing around. Billie Eilish said she'll be dropping new music on 7/30. Justin Bieber rescheduled his tour and manager Scooter Braun (who also reps Balvin) hinted at a possible new album.

An effort to save indie music venues was driven by a rare bit of bipartisanship in D.C. Meanwhile, the U.K. government faced down the "existential threat" to cultural institutions posed by COVID.

The latest Revenue Chart is full of Juice, with the late hip-hop star absolutely dominating the Top 20.

Dua Lipa and Stormzy are among the newly announced Mercury Prize nominees.

That should just about have you caught up. Now go wash your hands.