HITS

Streeting this week: new titles from Interscope's Gracie Abrams, L-M/RCA's Steve Lacy and MMG's Rick Ross.

Sony's Heated Rivalry soundtrack skates to #9 with the release of Montreal, Boston and "Icy Inferno" variants of special vinyl. A solo project from TXT's Yeonjun, No Labels: Part 02 (ironically, via two labels, BIGHIT and Republic), arrives at #16. Warner's Madonna and Capitol's SIENNA SPIRO stay in the Top 20 after debuting last week.

Positions two through five, yet again: Geffen's Olivia Rodrigo, SAWGOD/Columbia's Ella Langley, Big Loud/Mercury's Morgan Wallen and Mercury's Noah Kahan. Young bucks The Rolling Stones score a top bow at #7 with Foreign Tongues (Capitol). The Glimmer Twins and company put up 56k in their first week.

Future scores his 12th consecutive #1 album (counting collabs) with The Real Me (Freebandz/Epic), opening with 131k. The 22-track, featureless set delivered 100m+ streams in its first week. The Atlanta trap colossus now trails only The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Drake and JAŸ-Z for most #1 albums all time. Pretty, pretty good.

Read the Q&A: hitsdailydouble.com/news/feature/t…

Aaron Dessner on his post-folklore life: "Taylor [Swift] called it. She was like, don't be surprised if you end up in a crazy place with so much work." She wasn't wrong—his fingerprints are all over 2025's biggest records. Gracie Abrams, Noah Kahan, Mumford, Florence, Brandi Carlile, Kevin Morby—all through Long Pond. Aaron Dessner explains why he'd rather serve the song than his ego: "I don't feel the need to pee on every tree."

A fresh report from 404 Media has thrown another wrinkle into the industry's grinding war over AI training data. The outlet says a hack of Mikey Shulman's Suno spilled source code and internal docs pointing to a wholesale scrape of millions of songs, lyrics and audio to train its models. The material, reportedly dating from 2023 and 2024, names names: YouTube Music, Deezer, Genius, podcast feeds and stock libraries. One internal file allegedly logged more than 2m YouTube Music clips, with other documents referencing hundreds of thousands of hours pulled from YouTube Music, plus IMSLP, Jamendo, Pond5 and Freesound. The timing stings. Suno is still defending itself in copyright litigation, and in past filings it copped to training on publicly available music while waving the fair-use flag — a position these leaked files could make considerably harder to hold. The backdrop: in June 2024 the RIAA sued Suno and Udio on behalf of the majors — WMG, UMG and Sony. WMG settled in November, clearing a 2026 relaunch with paid downloads, locked-down free-tier tracks and full artist control over names, likenesses and voices. UMG and WMG have since settled with Udio, too.

Santa Monica residents get presale July 22, with the general onsale the next day; hotel packages and Proper Beach Club access are already live. One catch—it's transit-first, no on-site parking. Plan accordingly.

A partnership between the City of Santa Monica and Goldenvoice, Ocean Way joins Coachella, Stagecoach, Just Like Heaven and Cruel World in the promoter's SoCal portfolio, occupying the sand between the Pier and Bay Street. The name nods to Ocean Way Recording, which started in a three-car garage near the Pier before becoming one of Hollywood's most storied studios.

Goldenvoice is planting a flag on the sand. The AEG-owned promoter has unveiled the inaugural Ocean Way Festival, Sept. 26-27 on Santa Monica Beach—billed as the first major festival to hit the city's shoreline, co-headlined by The Killers and Olivia Dean.

Ahead: six-figure debuts from Interscope's Gracie Abrams and Republic's Ariana Grande. The question for the back half — another seismic event like Bad Bunny's Super Bowl blowout, Bieber's Coachella boom or MJ's billion-dollar biopic.

At the top, business as usual. UMG's juggernauts extended their leads: Republic to 13.1% current, Interscope Capitol to 12.9%. Drake moved north of 1.5m units in eight weeks behind three albums led by ICEMAN. Olivia Rodrigo just crossed 1m. Noah Kahan nears 1.5m.

The only other label up YOY in current: Ron Perry's Columbia. It has the biggest song of the year — "Choosin' Texas" by Ella Langley — three chart-topping albums, and six of the Top 25 most-streamed songs, from Langley, Tame Impala, Dominic Fike and Malcolm Todd.

The new Atlantic Music Group, led by Elliot Grainge, is the only frontline label in the green YOY in both overall (9.2) and current (8.5) — current up nearly three points. A well-balanced first half: the return of Bruno Mars and Don Toliver's arrival as a hitmaker with platinum OCTANE.

Halfway through 2026, the marketplace is showing what happens when investment pays off. Sir Lucian Grainge's $750m acquisition of Downtown Music transformed Virgin Music Group and lifted Universal Music Group's overall share two points to 40%, current to 37%. A thread 👇

Future is projected to debut at #1 with The Real Me, eyeing roughly 135k on a streaming-fueled 12k pure—poised to become his 12th #1 in 12 tries (collab LPs included) once the Top 50 locks on Friday. Elsewhere, The Rolling Stones look to bow at #7 with Foreign Tongues on a physical-heavy 61k/55k split, while the Heated Rivalry soundtrack aims for #9 and Yeonjun's No Labels: Part 02 eyes #17.

Breakout development acts, record-breaking established stars, market share up a full point. And knowing Perry and team, they've got a lot more developing in the lab. Stay tuned.

Beyoncé just roiled the waters with an unreleased track; her 20th-anniversary B'Day arrives in September. Bruce Springsteen keeps killing on the road, and Adele — new-album rumors swirling — has wrapped her first feature, Tom Ford's Cry to Heaven.

Ron Perry's Columbia is enjoying a helluva year: a fleet of breakout acts in the Spotify Top 15 alongside a venerable roster of established stars. The result — current market share of 5.4, up a full point over this point last year. Read more 👇