Police body cam footage from Justin Timberlake’s 2024 DWI arrest in Sag Harbor, New York, has been released.

On Friday (March 20), Sag Harbor police provided the redacted footage to news outlets that had submitted public records requests. The 45-year-old singer had initially sued to block the release of the footage but later agreed to the redactions as part of a settlement.

Timberlake was arrested in June 2024 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He ultimately pled guilty to a lesser impaired-driving charge and was sentenced to 25 hours of community service. He also recorded a public service announcement about the dangers of drinking and driving, urging, “Even if you’ve had one drink, don’t get behind the wheel of a car.”

TMZ was among the first outlets to release the body cam footage, which shows the pop superstar struggling during a series of sobriety tests after being pulled over in a BMW SUV on the side of the road.

“Guys, I’m just following my friends back to my house,” he’s heard saying in slowed-down speech. “I’m not doing anything. I’m just following my friends back to my house.”

Timberlake is later instructed by officers to walk a straight line using nine heel-to-toe steps. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous,” the musician says, taking more steps than asked. During another test, in which he’s asked to lift one foot six inches off the ground and count aloud, Timberlake says, “Sorry, my heart is racing,” adding, “These are, like, really hard tests.” He is later placed in handcuffs and arrested.

In legal papers filed on March 2, Timberlake’s lawyers said the arrest footage depicted him in an “acutely vulnerable state” and that its release would “serve no legitimate public interest.” A Long Island judge ordered police not to release the videos until a court review could be completed.

In a statement shared with Billboard on March 20, the Village of Sag Harbor said, “We are pleased that this matter has now been resolved and the village will be able to comply with its statutory obligation to release the material that is subject to disclosure.”

“From the beginning of this matter, after Mr. Timberlake’s arrest, the village has attempted to comply with the mandates of the Freedom of Information Law,” the statement reads. “As would be true in any case involving records or video footage from our police department, such material is reviewed and redacted to address public and officer safety concerns as well as personal privacy considerations.”

BTS’ long-awaited comeback album is off to a blockbuster start on streaming platforms.

On Saturday (March 21), Spotify announced that the Korean supergroup’s first album in six years, ARIRANG, has become the platform’s most-streamed album in a single day in 2026 so far. The release also set a new record as the most-streamed K-pop album in Spotify history.

“ARMY made ‘ARIRANG’ the most streamed K-Pop album in Spotify history and the most streamed album in a single day in 2026. Favorite track so far?” Spotify wrote on Instagram.

ARIRANG, which dropped Friday (March 20), was already making waves before its release. Spotify noted that the album is one of the most pre-saved album Countdown Pages in platform history, with more than five million presaves.

To keep the momentum going, Spotify has partnered with BTS to offer fans immersive experiences and in-app activations. Highlights include a BTS Music Quiz, an album listening party, a private fan event in New York City, and a three-day cruise along Seoul’s Han River.

Featuring 14 tracks produced by Diplo, Kevin Parker, Mike WiLL Made-It and Ryan Tedder, presents RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook in a more mature, artistically refined light.

BTS last released a full-length album in 2020, when Be debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. That year, the seven-member group also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Life Goes On” and “Dynamite,” later returning to No. 1 with “Butter,” “Permission to Dance” and “My Universe” with Coldplay.

At the peak of their global dominance, the group’s members began mandatory military service in South Korea, rolling out solo projects on a staggered schedule.

Check out Spotify’s ARIRANG announcement on Instagram below.

A North Carolina musician has pled guilty to stealing $8 million in royalties with fake streams on AI-generated music in the first-ever criminal streaming fraud case brought by U.S. prosecutors.

Michael Smith, 54, copped to one count of wire fraud conspiracy on Thursday (March 19) in New York federal court. He agreed to forfeit his $8 million in streaming fraud proceeds and faces up to five years in prison.

“Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times,” said Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a statement Thursday. “Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”

Smith remains free on a $500,000 bond until his sentencing hearing this upcoming July. His lawyer declined to comment on Thursday.

Smith was arrested in 2024 on a three-count indictment that charged him with using thousands of bots to continuously stream his songs on multiple platforms, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube Music, starting in 2017. Prosecutors said Smith originally used his own small catalog of human-made music for the scheme but later turned to AI for content.

In late 2018, Smith allegedly began working with the CEO of an unnamed AI music company to supply songs for his fake streams. The indictment says Smith promised to share the proceeds with this company, in the form of the greater of $2,000 per month or 15% of his monthly revenue.

Though this company is not identified in court papers, Billboard reported in 2024 that hundreds of the songs registered to Smith list Alex Mitchell, the CEO and founder of AI music company Boomy, as a co-writer. At the time, Mitchell told Billboard, “We were shocked by the details in the recently filed indictment of Michael Smith, which we are reviewing. Michael Smith consistently represented himself as legitimate.”

Mitchell has not been charged with any crime. The indictment denoted Smith’s AI music partner as “CC-3,” a shorthand for “co-conspirator” that is oftentimes used to denote an individual who has cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for amnesty. A rep for Boomy did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Smith’s scheme eventually fell apart when his artificial streams were detected in 2023 by streaming platforms and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), the official organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital royalties for songwriters.

In a statement released Thursday, the MLC said Smith’s guilty plea “highlights the serious threat that streaming fraud poses to the music industry and the important role The MLC plays in confronting it.”

“We appreciate the Department of Justice’s swift action, recognizing that The MLC identified the fraud early, challenged Smith and his representatives, and prevented the diversion of mechanical royalties away from rightful songwriters,” added the MLC. “The MLC will continue to invest in anomaly detection and fraud prevention to protect our members, and we will continue to collaborate with other industry organizations and law enforcement to protect all songwriter royalties.”

As alluded to in the MLC’s statement, streaming fraud is a problem for artists and songwriters because digital royalties are paid out of a fixed pool — meaning fraudulent streams take funds away from the creators who actually have real listeners.

This issue has only gotten worse with the rise of AI music, which provides an easy tool for bad actors to quickly generate thousands of songs for their fake streams. Platforms like Spotify have responded by enacting strengthened policies aimed at reigning in malicious streams, but the problem persists.