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Taylor Swift performs during the The Eras Tour on Aug. 15, 2024.
Kate Green/Getty Images
Taylor Swift Helps U.S. Vinyl Sales Surpass $1 Billion for First Time Since 1983
Mar 17, 2026
In 2025, U.S. vinyl sales surpassed $1 billion in revenue for the first time since 1983. The boost came in no small part from Taylor Swift, which makes it a real shame the notable year here wasn’t 1989. The musician’s latest release, The Life of a Showgirl, accounts for 1.6 million vinyl units sold last year, the highest of any release by over 1.3 million units, according to Luminate as Variety reports.
Swift sold eight distinct versions of the Life of a Showgirl vinyl. There was the The Life of a Showgirl: The Crowd Is Your King edition, the Shiny Bug edition, the Show Business edition, the Tiny Bubbles in Champagne edition, and more pressed on varying transparent, shimmering, marbled, and sparkling vinyl.
According to the RIAA’s year-end report released Wednesday, vinyl sales, in units, increased from 43.4 million in 2024 to 46.8 million in 2025. The 7.9 percent increase accompanies a 9.3 percent revenue increase from $954.4 million to $1,042.9 billion. Besides Swift, the year’s top vinyl sellers were Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, the Weeknd, and Tyler, the Creator.
As vinyl numbers rose, CD sales and revenue saw a decrease of 11.6 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. Elsewhere, paid streaming subscriptions are up 6.5 percent from 100 million accounts in 2024 to 106.5 million accounts in 2025 for a revenue increase of 6.8 percent, jumping from $5,506.5 billion to $5,881.1 billion.
The RIAA reports a record high year-end total revenue of $11.5 billion. The number is up 3.1 percent from the previous year.
“Fans are consuming music from the artists they love in more ways than ever, and that passion is reflected in today’s report,” Matt Bass, RIAA VP Research and Gold & Platinum Operation, said in a statement. “U.S. recorded music has demonstrated sustained growth globally, reaching $6.4 billion alone in paid subscriptions and tallying 50% of global vinyl revenue, leading the way for fans to listen and connect with their favorite music whenever, wherever and however they want.”
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Fetty Wap Announces Reflective New Album ‘Zavier’: ‘A New Chapter’
Mar 17, 2026
Fetty Wap is reintroducing himself. On Monday, the Grammy-nominated rapper announced that his comeback album Zavier will release on March 27, just three months following his release from prison in January.
“I’m just happy & grateful to be back, & thankful that my fans didn’t forget about me. I’m so thankful to my family, fans and team for holding me down. This new music is a reflection of a new chapter in my life,” Fetty said in a statement. “I just want to bring back good energy & good vibes. I love y’all.”
The artist rolled out the news alongside a black-and-white trailer that sees him looking back at his time in solitude following his prison sentence and the future ahead. “When you lose the money everybody think that’s the worst part,” Fetty says in the clip. “When it get real quiet that’s when it hit different. I got so used to hearing Fetty everywhere I go, before I even knew who Zavier was. Somewhere in all that, I became a character in my own life. People really loved what I could provide for real, not who I really was.”
“When they take everything away, all you got left is the person your mama made you,” he continues before the video blooms into color. “People call me Fetty, but the people who know me call me Zavier.”
The rapper will celebrate the album’s release with a series of East Coast shows kicking off April 4 with a sold-out homecoming at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey, followed by concerts in Hartford, Connecticut; Albany, New York; and Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. More dates will be announced soon.
Fetty, who pleaded guilty to a drug charge in 2022, was released on Jan. 8 from the federal prison in Minnesota, where he was serving a six-year sentence. The “Trap Queen” artist is serving the remainder of his sentence, which is due to end Nov. 8, on home confinement in New Jersey.
When asked in a Vibe interview if he lost parts of himself in prison and reclaimed any of those parts after being released, Fetty replied, “I could say that whatever I lost when I went in, it was meant to be lost, and when I came out, I left it there.” He continued, “I feel new. I feel rehabilitated, in a sense. I just have this clear mindset where it’s like nothing’s really that important. When I say that, I don’t mean like, not as far as my kids or anything like that. It’s like when you’re driving, or you’re speeding to get somewhere, you’re trying to race against time.”
Fetty added, “I promised myself one thing this time: I’m just going to take my time through life now. Just really enjoy life.”
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BTS perform at the Grammys on April 3, 2022 in Las Vegas, NV.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
BTS Reveal New ‘The Return’ Doc Trailer: ‘Where We’re Meant to Be’
Mar 17, 2026
BTS have unveiled the trailer for BTS: The Return, which chronicles the making of their highly anticipated pop comeback, Arirang.
The album, arriving March 20, is their first LP since every member completed mandatory military service in South Korea. The behind-the-scenes documentary will debut on March 27 on Netflix. In the new preview dropped on Monday, all seven members — RM, Jin, Jimin, V, Suga, J-Hope and Jung Kook — are captured reflecting on their time apart. As clips of the group performing onstage in front of thousands of fans flash across the screen, one member says in a voiceover, “We are finally back where we’re meant to be.”
The clip also shows the group in Los Angeles, where they reunited to create their first album in more than five years. “In the military, time just passed by, but here in L.A., you really feel the impermanence of time. And we’re trying to find out what makes us BTS,” says RM while passing through the city.
Once the last member finished service, all seven members relocated to Los Angeles in mid-2025 and shared a house for two months. It was the first time they had all been in the same place since 2015. Mornings were dedicated to physical training and after lunch at home, they’d head to the studio and write and record with rotating teams of collaborators until the evening. RM discussed the rigid schedule with GQ: “We’d do six days a week, like businessmen.” RM said it felt like being trainees again, except this time they had years of stadium tours and billions of streams behind them.
A press release touts the upcoming doc as a “portrait of resilience, brotherhood, and reinvention” that will see the group battling with “how to begin again, how to honor the past without being bound by it, and how to move forward together.”
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Vinnie Vincent (center) with Kiss Gene Simmons (left) and Paul Stanley (right) in 1984.
Ex-Kiss Guitarist Offers New Album for $2 Million or Songs Like ‘Heavy Metal Poontang’ for $200,000
Mar 16, 2026
Vinnie Vincent, who played guitar for Kiss from 1982 to 1984 and hasn’t released any new music in 30 years, says he’s completed a new album, Guitarmageddon. “It’s been a long time in the making,” he wrote on the website for his band, the Vinnie Vincent Invasion. “I am very proud of this very special album.” It’s so special, in fact, that hearing the album will cost you $2 million.
So what does a couple mil buy you? Apparently, the option to subsidize your purchase price by releasing the album. “[The price] includes 10 songs mixed in master, final product format, all the master files of the artwork, related posters, and 10 separate vinyl and CD packaging art for each individual song, should the buyer choose to release the album on a per-song basis,” he writes. “The buyer can choose to release the entire album in any format they desire … vinyl, CD, or any other configuration, in whole or in part, at their discretion.”
The caveat, though, is that Vincent maintains the right to approve marketing plans, and the purchaser doesn’t get any rights to his name or likeness. (But those rights are on the table for the right price.)
But if the cost of the whole thing is too expensive, Vincent is offering each of the 10 tracks pro rata. So if you wanted to own only, say, “Heavy Metal Poontang” or “Cockteazer,” they’re yours for $200,000 each. “All terms and conditions listed above regarding the album will apply to each song,” Vincent said.
Vincent accepts Paypal, and all sales are final. “Expect up to a four-week customs delay in delivery,” the site says, noting, “hard drive containing the ten masters will be shipped within two weeks of completion of the purchase.” Apparently, demand is high, because the store on Vincent’s website says there are “few left” copies of Guitarmageddon.
Last year, Vincent shocked fans by selling CD singles of a song called “Ride the Serpent” for $225 a pop. When fans balked at the price, Vincent shot back at them in Facebook comments. “If you like what I do, then support the artist,” he said. “You bitch because it’s one song? This one song is worth more than most entire albums. Consider yourself lucky that it’s only $200, and that it’s autographed yet. It was originally $300, but with the economy suffering as it is, I made it $200. If you don’t like it… That’s your problem, not mine.”
“Ride the Serpent” was Vincent’s first new music since he released an EP, Euphoria, in 1996. Around that time, Vincent also started hyping up Guitarmageddon. “GUITARMAGEDDON is escapism on steroids,” he wrote to fans. “So it comes down to this; if the fan support is not there which it does not appear to be, this record will not be released. Am I fine with that? Absolutely. 100%. It will be the greatest album of all time, never to be heard, never to be released.”
The musician played uncredited lead guitar on several tracks of Kiss’ 1982 album, Creatures of the Night, and officially assumed the six-string role for 1983’s Lick It Up album. He left the band the following year and embarked on a solo career.
Vincent’s $2 million price tag is the same amount that Martin Shrkelli paid for the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in 2015, but only half what a group called PleasrDAO paid for the same record in 2021. One big difference is, nobody was allowed to copy or distribute the Wu-Tang album.
Guitarmageddon Track List:
1. “Invincible”
2. “Heavy Metal Poontang”
3. “Cockteazer”
4. “Rocks on Fire”
5. “Youngblood”
6. “Euphoria”
7. “Full Shredd”
8. “Get the Led Out”
9. “Wild Child”
10. “Ride the Serpent”
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Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars (in happier times?) in 2013.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage for MTV
Did Bruno Mars Throw Shade at Taylor Swift? An Investigation and Descent Into Madness
Mar 16, 2026
Few things in pop are more dangerous that invoking the ire of the Swifties. (Just ask Jack White.) Bruno Mars appears to know this so well, he had to step in to quell any potential furor sparked by a likely fake bait post that proclaimed to show him dissing his fellow pop superstar.
The brouhaha bubbled up in a far-flung corner of the stan internet last Friday, when an account called Pop Faction claimed to have evidence of Mars liking a post calling Taylor Swift “talentless.” The original post didn’t really gain that much traction, but over on X, where outrage reigns supreme, an aggregation by an account called PopFlop racked up over 11,000 likes.
It was here that Mars felt compelled to set the record straight, stating in the replies: “Taylor has always been supportive and kind to me. Only love over here. ❤️.”
Now, some might see this and decide, “That’s good enough for me, no need to look into this further or think about it ever again.” And this would be valid. Ignorance is bliss, after all. Others, however, might think to themselves, “Wait a minute, Mars didn’t actually deny liking such a post.”
And to those curious souls, we say: Let us now descend into the wilderness of mirrors that is the online pop-stan, rage-bait engagement economy — where what’s fake is real, what’s real is fake, where truth is fiction, and fiction may just contain an element of truth. It’s where the only thing that matters, at the end of the day, is riling up enough people so that someone can make a couple hundred bucks off this slop from clicks, views, and comments.
Upon initial closer inspection, the whole thing certainly seems like a haphazard hoax. The original “offending” post calling Swift “talentless” was credited to the official BTS X account. Obviously, the pop group shared no such thing. And if they did, that probably would have been way more inflammatory than Mars giving it a like. (As several extremely online heads pointed out, too, the “talentless” post was actually repurposed from a completely different pop stan account that was actually criticizing Swift.)
But the whole thing gets a little funky — and possibly verges on Pepe Silvia territory — thanks to a piece of evidence proffered by the fine folks at PopFlop. As they noted in the replies to their own aggregation, the post with the BTS branding was obviously bogus, but it was originally shared not by Pop Faction, but a third account called BopBase (self-described as “your best source for all parody culture related entertainment”).
It was a BopBase Instagram Reel, which contained the fake “talentless” post, which Mars allegedly liked. And a screen-recorded video shared by PopFlop does appear to lend some credence to this theory, enough for them to declare that Mars’ allegedly incriminating like is “real and verified.”
Rolling Stone, however, could not — alas — do the same. As of this morning, March 16, in the year of our Lord 2026, the Instagram account for BopBase has been mysteriously deactivated.
Obviously, it goes without saying that, what with everything else going on in the world, this is the definitive story of the day, if not week, or month, or perhaps even year. Only time will tell. Either way, we promise to stay on this beat until the case is cracked and all guilty parties are vanquished to the Khia Asylum. If you have any information that might help us solve “The Mystery of Did Bruno Mars Throw Shade at Taylor Swift?” please reach out to tips@rollingstone.com.
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©2026 ROLLING STONE, LLC. Published under license.