Selena Gomez has been a pop sensation for decades now. She has gained multiple awards and has recently, become the most followed woman on Instagram. She has over 400 million followers on the social media platform, after which the singer-songwriter announced that she would be taking a brief break from social media. Now, the singer has made headlines again because one of her songs, Lose You to Love Me, has crossed over a billion streams on the popular streaming app Spotify.

The news comes after fans across TikTok, and other social media apps figured that there’s some conflict between Gomez and Justin Bieber’s wife, Hailey Bieber. Fans were left wondering when Bieber released a video on TikTok that seemingly targeted Gomez. The singer did not officially react to it, but her success has spoken in volumes.

Crossing Billions and Millions

Selena’s Ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber is also an artist who has over a billion streams on a song. His song Ghost was the first one that crossed the billion stream mark. The two were very famously attached to one another, and their relationship was always the talk of the town. However, the two parted ways, eventually leaving fans and themselves heartbroken. 

Bieber then met Hailey, and the two instantly hit it off. The two got married, but it never seemed like Hailey had much of a liking towards Gomez in the first place. Gomez, who was born in the July of 1992, on the other hand, was recently seen enjoying her life with her friends Brooklyn Beckham and best friend, Nicola Peltz. The singer hasn’t quite reacted to her song crossing over a billion streams, but her fans are, as usual, very supportive of her. Hopefully, the singer is now in a better place mentally than she used to be before quitting social media. 

South Korea’s band BTS is best known for being the K-pop sensation that it is. It rose to popularity to the extent that they make millions in revenue off its music and merchandise. However, the band is now going on a break soon. This is to serve for the military in South Korea, which commands its citizens that all able-bodied men must serve a minimum time period of 18 months. The band is meant to reunite in the year 2025, however, how exactly that will come about is still unknown.

In the meanwhile, the band has asked its fans to expect more and more solo projects before they enlist in the military. One of those leading projects is by none other than BTS Park Ji-min, one of the youngest members of the band. Face is now out, which marks Jimin’s first solo debut album. Here’s all you need to know.

Faces album release dates

Faces release has made the fans very excited. It has now joined the list of a few existing BTS solo projects with other artists, such as SUGA and J-Hope, who put out their mixtapes and songs earlier than 2023. Face has six tracks in it which include two versions of the main title track, Like Crazy, an English, and a Korean version are on the album. It also includes the track that started the hype around Face, Set Me Free Pt. 2. 

Apart from these three tracks, there are Face-off, Interlude: Dive, and Alone. Artist Jimin has previously talked about how the album means so much to him. The artist has recorded multiple pieces in the United States to complete the album. 

“I gained the will and power to prepare for a new beginning by facing hollowness, loneliness and a feeling of being lost,” he said in a video. “This song carries a lot of lonely and empty feelings I felt while working during the pandemic.”

Every artist goes through a time of deep despair and unproductiveness. The same was true for Jimin, who felt unproductive and tired out during the pandemic. Being emotionally flat was also something he suffered with.

“It contains a lot of fears and worries that I felt during my lethargic days, and actually it was hard to get into the emotions when I recorded it,” he said while talking about the song Alone, which carries a deep dragging sense of sadness.

The album has been promoted by many artists, and the band’s leader RM also helped in the overall production of Face. It was all a brand new challenge for Jimin, who is only 27 years old. The singer had previously released Set Me Free Pt. 2 in order to get some attention toward his new project.

The song was an instant hit among fans, and Jimin really felt good about that. He appeared in an interview later to talk about the song and the album and what they meant to him. 

“When this song was made, I felt really attached to it,” he had said at the time. “I went to the US myself for the choir recording, and listening to it right next to them was truly amazing. I remember it as a really good memory.”

Along with Set Me Free Pt. 2, the song Like Crazy is also one of Jimin’s favorites which explains why it’s the main track. 

“It’s a song featuring the emotion of the moment when I turn a blind eye to reality to forget hurtful memories. I paid a lot of attention to convey the sad feelings of the lyrics when I sang it,” he said about it.

Clearly, a great example of BTS first album from artists, Face will likely see a lot of praise as sales tower. Now, fans wait for the band to finish their time in the military eventually so they can be seen performing together again.

Austin Richard Post, better known as the famous Post Malone, is known for many things. Settling copyright suits is probably not one of them. The American rapper, who was once declared the musician with the most streams on Spotify, has now settled a lawsuit after a lot of debates and debacles over his song Circles. The singer-songwriter is famous for mixing up genres and his unique set of vocals, which are often covered under thick layers of auto-tune. 

He first became popular when his song White Iverson went up to number 14 on the Billboards hot 100 charts. Since then, the artist has created hits like Rockstar, Psycho, and one of his most recent ones, Circles. Only two of these songs have no lawsuits against them. Hint: It’s not the first two. Circles came out in 2019 and were one of the longest-lasting songs on the charts. Like his previous projects, his album Hollywood is Bleeding was also a success, but it was short-lived.

The Lawsuit

Tyler Armes, a Canadian artist associated with a band called Down with Webster, accused Malone of unlawfully discrediting him for his work. Armes claimed that he wasn’t just some random fellow hanging out in the recording room, that he was a co-writer and co-producer of Circles. He claimed to have come with most of the music and was only given the offer of about 5% royalties from the earnings.

“I was beside him giving input,” Armes wrote to Dre London, Post Malone’s manager. “I was not just someone hanging out in the room, I’m a writer/producer in the room with two other writer/producers working on a song.” 

In spite of all this, his work was used, and he had to resort to taking Malone to court. Malone’s manager London was also accused of forcing the royalties on him and trying to shut down the negotiations, and withdrawing the offer if Armes didn’t take it. Hence, a lawsuit was filed. Armes also claimed to have written the keyboard chords, helped with the guitar as well as significantly influenced the bassline used in the song.

How would such a trial proceed? It was decided that the trial would feature artists playing and performing the song in court in order for the court to decide. Malone would also be present and testify in court. District Judge Otis Wright ruled that Armes had “no claim of authorship in the commercial release” of the song but that he “demonstrates genuine disputes in regard to his authorship in the session composition.”

Malone argued that while Armes was present in the room that day, he had no hand in the future complete record that was finally released in 2019. He also said that Armes was not around for future recording sessions. He also said that the Canadian artist did not write anything for the song. 

“It is an age-old story in the music business that when a song earns the type of runaway success that ‘Circles’ has garnered,” said Malone’s complaint, “an individual will come out of the woodwork, falsely claim to take credit for the song, and demand unwarranted and unearned windfall profits from the song,” 

Now, sources confirm that Malone has actually settled the suit. The law is not letting out any new details about the case, and no one is sure what happened to the popular record. Many fans would love the idea of the music still sticking to Malone, as he’s the one who finished and released the song. As for Tyler Arnes, his lawyers have refused to comment on the situation, and further details are awaited.