Entertainment
Irving Azoff Slams YouTube Over Low Artist Royalties: ‘By Far the Worst Offender’
Irving Azoff still has a bone to pick with YouTube over the streaming giant’s royalties to artists.
“YouTube is by far the worst offender,” the famed artist manager and entrepreneur said on Friday (Sept. 26) at The Wrap’s TheGrill 2025. “I’m really not fond of when companies take advantage of creators.”
Citing numbers available through Global Music Rights (GMR), the performance rights organization he founded in 2013, Azoff said YouTube’s royalty rates are a fifth of its nearest competitor despite having five times that competitor’s annual revenue. That gives YouTube “unchecked” power when it comes to negotiating with rights holders such as GMR, SESAC, Paramount, Fox Television, Univision and NBC Universal, he added.
“When you get down to the end of a negotiation with them, they call your artists, they call your record companies,” Azoff continued. “They go out and [say], ‘We’re going to take your music down.’”
Azoff has been voicing his opinions about YouTube for at least a decade. In a February 2016 interview with The New York Times, he lambasted the video streaming platform for paying too little to creators and hiding behind the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) “safe harbor” provision that allowed it to host music videos uploaded by its users. “When you’re dealing with these tech companies,” he said, “they are worth zillions of dollars, more than the net worth of the entire music industry.”
At Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy Awards gala a few days later, Azoff warned the music industry not to “be pacified by lip service about efforts to create paid subscription services.” At the time, music consumption was skyrocketing, industry revenues were at an all-time low, and YouTube’s poorly monetized free streams were competing against burgeoning subscription services. “It’s a system that is rigged against the artists,” Azoff told Billboard in May 2016. “In my years as a manager, I haven’t seen such a serious threat to artists.”
Azoff also lambasted YouTube at the same The Wrap event in October 2016, calling the company “very evil” and citing its use of the Clinton-era DMCA. “We’re at a time, especially in music, when there’s such a lack of respect for intellectual property, and they’re the worst offender of it,” he said.
Since 2016, YouTube has launched various subscription services to complement its core ad-supported free platform, including YouTube Music, which currently has a 10% share of the global music subscription market, according to MIDiA Research. But ad-supported royalties have faltered in recent years, and numerous music industry sources have told Billboard that YouTube Shorts, YouTube’s short-form video format, is likely a factor behind a decrease in music royalties from the video platform.
Music companies aren’t alone in opposing the tech giant. NBCUniversal is currently mired in a licensing dispute with YouTube TV and warned on Monday (Sept. 29) that its programming could be pulled from the platform. “YouTube TV has refused the best rates and terms in the market, demanding preferential treatment and seeking an unfair advantage over competitors to dominate the video marketplace — all under the false pretense of fighting for the consumer,” NBCUniversal said in a statement.
NBCUniversal’s confrontation with YouTube could end up being helpful for music, said Azoff at the event on Friday. “You got to hope at some point something goes on that forces them to come to the party,” he said. “But when you got people like [chairman and CEO of NBCUniversal owner Comcast] Brian Roberts making public statements about it, it’s better. So, I’m more hopeful that something gets done, because it’s not just the music industry that they’re bullying. It’s everybody.”
Entertainment
NFL Player Keion White Shot Following Alleged Argument With Lil Baby at a Nightclub
NFL player Keion White was shot early Monday (Feb. 9) following an alleged argument with Lil Baby at a San Francisco nightclub.
According to ABC7, White was shot in the ankle at Dahlia’s, where the 49ers defensive lineman was hosting a Super Bowl party.
SFPD responded to calls for gunshots around 4 a.m. PT on Monday, according to ABC7. The San Francisco Standard viewed the police report, which, according to the publication, said a witness told law enforcement that White got into an argument with Baby as the rapper and his entourage tried to enter the private event, and was then shot, hours after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Lil Baby and the SFPD for comment.
“Any violent incident in our city is unacceptable, and I’m hoping Keion recovers quickly. I’ve spoken with SFPD and 49ers leadership — we are all grateful to our SFPD officers for their quick response,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said on X. “As always, I will continue working with San Francisco law enforcement to ensure our neighborhoods and our residents are safe.”
According to the San Francisco 49ers, White underwent successful surgery on his ankle and the injuries are not expected to be “career-threatening.”
“A preliminary investigation revealed a verbal altercation occurred between two groups inside a business,” San Francisco police said in a statement, per ESPN. “The victim was injured when shots were fired by an unknown suspect.”
No arrests have been made yet, and no suspects have been named by the San Francisco Police Department.
Lil Baby was spotted attending Super Bowl LX with his son, Jason. On the music side, Baby has already notched collabs with Tkandz as well as Veeze and Rylo Rodriguez in 2026. The Atlanta rapper’s “Mrs. Trendsetter” held at No. 89 on last week’s Billboard Hot 100.
Entertainment
Don Toliver Scores His First No. 1 Hit on Hot Rap Songs Chart
Don Toliver’s busy week across Billboard’s charts includes the rapper-singer’s first No. 1 hit on the Hot Rap Songs list, as “Body” debuts atop the ranking dated Feb. 7. The new champ, on Donnway & Co./Cactus Jack/Atlantic Records, captains his collection of 17 tracks this week’s chart. They’re all from his new album, Octane, which storms in at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart with 162,000 equivalent album units.
The 17-track parade marks the most cuts that Don Toliver has posted on the Hot Rap Songs chart in a single week, and makes him only the sixth artist to claim 17 or more simultaneous appearances. He joins Drake, who has done it twice, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Baby, Playboi Carti and Travis Scott in the chart’s 34-year history.
“Body” owes its coronation on the multimetric Hot Rap Songs chart, a weighted combination of streaming, radio airplay and sales data in the United States, almost entirely to 14.3 million official on-demand streams for the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5, according to Luminate. Thanks to that sum, it sparks a No. 1 debut on the Rap Streaming Songs chart. In the remaining categories, “Body” had 106,000 radio audience impressions and a negligible amount of song downloads.
With “Body,” Don Toliver achieves his first Hot Rap Songs No. 1 after 30 prior appearances. The performer previously peaked twice at No. 3 through featured roles: He and NAV guested on Internet Money and Gunna’s “Lemonade,” which reached the bronze in November 2020, while his and Future’s supporting turns on Metro Boomin’s “Too Many Nights” led to the same prize in December 2022. As a lead artist, his own “Tiramisu” set his previous career high of No. 6 in September 2025.
Similarly, “Body” leads Don Toliver’s ledger on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (No. 3) and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 (No. 14).
With “Body” on top, here’s a recap of all 17 Don Toliver tracks on Hot Rap Songs. Among them, 15 are debuts, while “ATM” and “Tiramisu” nab their second and third weeks, respectively.
- No. 1, “Body”
- No. 2, “E85”
- No. 4, “ATM”
- No. 5, “Secondhand,” feat. Rema
- No. 6, “Rendezvous,” feat. Yeat
- No. 8, “Tiramisu”
- No. 9, “Rosary,” feat. Travis Scott
- No. 10, “Call Back”
- No. 11, “Gemstone”
- No. 12, “Excavator”
- No. 13, “Opposite”
- No. 17, “All the Signs,” feat. Teezo Touchdown
- No. 18, “Tuition”
- No. 19, “K9,” feat. SahBabii
- No. 22, “TMU”
- No. 24, “Sweet Home”
- No. 25, “Pleasure’s Mine”
Entertainment
Baby Keem Announces ‘Ca$ino’ Album Release Date & Previews Kendrick Lamar Collaboration
Baby Keem is back. Keem announced plans for his upcoming album, Ca$ino, on Tuesday (Feb. 10), and the sophomore LP is slated to arrive on Feb. 20.
“Ca$ino Feb 20, 2026 Limited Edition Vinyl Available Now,” Keem wrote on Instagram. The 25-year-old revealed the LP’s cover art, which features a photo of a young Baby Keem with the parental advisory sticker.
Ca$ino boasts 12 tracks, including collaborations with his cousin Kendrick Lamar, Too Short, Momo Boys and Che Ecru.
With the four-plus-year layoff, fans are anticipating Keem’s return. “Took your time bro this better be a classic,” one person commented. Another added: “USED TO PRAY FOR TIMES LIKE THIS!”
Keem also released a Ca$ino documentary on YouTube to accompany the announcement. The Booman I doc features appearances from plenty of Keem’s family members describing his upbringing, including an appearance from Kendrick. “I understand the hardships before he was born. Knowing his mom, that’s my first cousin,” he said. “I already knew what she was going through, just the history of our family in general. We don’t call ourselves the hillbillies for nothing.”
Lamar continued: “Section 8, welfare … This is a story of a warfare environment and a warfare psychologically trying to change our generational curses.”
There’s also footage of Keem in the studio working on his collab with Lamar, “Good Flirts.” “Walking in the party, I don’t feel nobody/ What the f—k,” K. Dot raps on the hard-hitting track. “Is it fake, is it love, probably/ I smell something.”
Baby Keem’s debut album, The Melodic Blue, arrived in September 2021 and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. He released a deluxe for the LP in October 2022 featuring Lil Uzi Vert and PinkPantheress.
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