Billboard is finally addressing the controversial practice of bundling albums and merchandise. Almost every No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart are bundled with merchandise or tickets. Nearly every artist have bundled albums with merchandise including Celine Dion, Luke Combs, Kanye West, SuperM, Post Malone, and Taylor Swift.

The new rules according to Billboard, “in order for an album sale to be counted as part of a merchandise/album bundle, all the items in the bundle must also be available for purchase concurrently and individually on the same website. In addition, the merchandise item sold on its own will have to be priced lower than the bundle which includes both the merchandise and the album.”

Some artist will see album sales plummet especially for those who heavily rely on merchandise.

Spotify will launch the first-ever music awards — with the winners based on streams.

“Your plays, patterns, and habits will help determine the award categories, finalists, and winners for the Spotify Awards by providing a true reflection of what fans are listening to,” Spotify said. “You can get excited for an awards ceremony that actually speaks to what the people are streaming.”

The goal of the Spotify Awards is to encourage fans to vote with their ears, by streaming as much music by their favorites artists on the platform. “Save the date — and get streaming,” Spotify said.

Coldplay will stop touring until they can offer ‘environmentally beneficial’ concerts. Frontman Chris Martin told BBC News that they won’t resume touring until they can ensure the tour is carbon neutral.

Billie Eilish will make her world world tour as green as possible by banning plastic straws. She also encouraged fans to bring reusable water bottles.

The 1975 have pledged to plant a tree for every ticket sold to their UK arena tour while Emma Banks, co-founder of Creative Artists Agency questions the need for musicians to tour on a big scale that comes along with 12-14 mega trucks transporting equipment.

Scottish singer and the self proclaimed “America’s Sweetheart” Lewis Capaldi released a new heartbreak pop track “Before You Go”. Capaldi said “Seriously one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written. This song means a lot to me, but it will mean even more if it becomes successful.”

Capaldi also reflects on the year, “This past year has been absolutely wild, didn’t in a million years think all of this stuff would happen to me,” he wrote. “Less than two years ago I was lucky enough to get a gig in small pubs and bars back home in Scotland and somehow am writing with a number one single in America and getting to play to and meet thousands of ya every night all over the world!”

When Kanye is back, he is back. He just wrapped up a Sunday Service at packed crowd of 16,000 people at Lakewood Church and now he updated us that he is in the studio with Dre working on Jesus is King Part II. Kanye will also release Jesus Is Born, a Sunday Service album, on Christmas. His latest album ‘Jesus Is King’ has topped the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the Christian charts.