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Several.com: One Buyers Guide. Your Go-To Resource

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<p>Ask around outside of country radio's core listenership, and the responses tend to cluster around some version of "wait, which song is that?" It is a strange position for a record to be in: setting all-time chart marks and also functioning, for a huge swath of the pop-culture-consuming public, as something close to a stealth hit. That gap between statistical dominance and cultural recognition says less about Langley, who by every account has written a genuinely sturdy, hook-forward country single, than it does about how little the modern Hot 100 has to do with actual monoculture anymore.</p>

<p>The Hot 100 has never simply measured what people are talking about. It is, and has always been, a blended index. Billboard pulls data largely from Luminate and folds together three inputs: streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and single sales, both physical and digital. The exact ratio moves week to week, but recent methodology changes have tilted the formula harder toward on-demand streaming, particularly paid-subscription streams, while ad-supported and passive "programmed" streams count for less. Airplay, meanwhile, is not measured in raw spins but in estimated audience reach, so a song in morning drive rotation on a 50,000-watt station in a major market outweighs the same song getting played at 2 AM somewhere smaller.</p>

<p>That distinction is where the actual story is, and it undercuts the assumption a lot of people reasonably make about a country song with a nearly five-month grip on the chart. In the tracking week of August 7 to 13 alone, "Choosin' Texas" logged 25 million official streams, 54.6 million radio airplay audience impressions, and roughly 8,000 in sales, according to <a href="https://www.billboard.com/lists/ella-langley-choosin-texas-number-1-hot-100-18-week/" target="_blank">Billboard's own weekly breakdown</a>. It has ruled the all-genre Streaming Songs chart for 18 consecutive weeks and Digital Song Sales for 15. But on the pure Radio Songs airplay chart, the one that strips out streaming and sales entirely, it sits at a comparatively modest No. 6, after peaking at No. 4. Pop radio, in particular, was slow on the draw.</p>

<p>So the record run was not built on radio blanketing the airwaves into submission. It was built on streaming, on a devoted audience returning to the same song over and over, long after the algorithm stopped pushing it on them.</p>

<p>That leaves the more interesting and slightly uncomfortable question of what a No. 1 even means now. In the old model, a 15-, 16-, 18-week run at No. 1 meant a song had become genuinely unavoidable, playing in every format, every region, every context, at once. "Old Town Road" (19 weeks), "One Sweet Day" (16), "Despacito" (16), and "Uptown Funk!" (14) were monoculture events in the fullest sense, the kind of songs that colonized television, film trailers, and every radio format simultaneously, whether you wanted them to or not. "Choosin' Texas" has built its record almost entirely from inside country's own ecosystem, dominating Hot Country Songs for 36 weeks, one of the longest reigns that chart has recorded, while the rest of the pop landscape caught up in fragments and, in some corners, not at all.</p>

<p>None of this is really Langley's fault, and it says something about the strength of the song that it has been able to sustain 18 weeks purely on the strength of people choosing to hear it again rather than radio force-feeding it to them. The streaming-first formula rewards exactly that kind of durable, repeat-play devotion over the old blanket-saturation model, and it is worth remembering that plenty of songs feel ubiquitous in daily life right now, inescapable on TikTok, playing at every party, without ever sniffing the Hot 100's summit, because the chart no longer measures ambient cultural presence so much as it measures sustained, countable consumption from a specific, committed audience.</p>

<p>The Hot 100 is still, technically, an accurate record of what America is playing on repeat. What it has quietly stopped being is proof that everyone is hearing it at the same time. As the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2026/07/28/ella-langleys-choosin-texas-makes-billboard-hot-100-history/" target="_blank">Washington Post</a> noted when the song first broke the record for longest-running No. 1 by a solo woman, this is now simply how the biggest songs get made, in pieces, inside algorithmically sorted audiences, one loyal stream at a time, rather than in one loud, shared cultural moment.</p>

<p>For more articles like this, visit our <a href="https://several.com/news/tag/lifestyle" target="_blank">Lifestyle News Page</a>!</p>


"Choosin' Texas": The Hit That Doesn't Feel Like One. Why?

<h2 id="show-details">Show Details</h2>

<p>The 2026 VMAs will air live on CBS and simulcast on MTV on Sunday, September 27, from 7:30 to 9:30 PM ET (4:30 to 6:30 PM PT). The show will stream on Paramount+ in the US and become available globally the next day. This marks the first time the VMAs have returned to Los Angeles since 2017, with the ceremony held at the Peacock Theater.</p>

<p>Fan voting is open now through September 25 at 6 PM ET across 13 categories. Voting for Best New Artist stays open through the live broadcast.</p>

<h2 id="video-of-the-year">Video of the Year</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</li>
	<li>Bruno Mars, "I Just Might"</li>
	<li>GENER8ION, "STORM starring Yung Lean"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>Sabrina Carpenter, "Tears"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</p>

<p>The most talked-about video of the year, more so a music film in its own right. Directed by TORSO (David Toro and Solomon Chase), the 13-minute continuous visual runs through the first six tracks of Confessions II, including "I Feel So Free," "Good for the Soul," "One Step Away," "Bring Your Love," "Danceteria," and "Read My Lips," shot over six months across London, Los Angeles, and New York. Madonna is shown being pursued by a camera-wielding "SWAT team," moving through a forest rave, a nightclub, and a packed bathroom dance party stacked with cameos, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Julia Garner, Kate Moss, Gwendoline Christie, and Sabrina Carpenter, who joins her for their duet &ldquo;Bring Your Love.&rdquo; It premiered at the Tribeca Festival before landing on YouTube, and Entertainment Weekly called it her boldest and best work in years. With a fully realized storyline and seamless transitions between songs, it's hard to argue there's a more ambitious entry in the category.</p>

<h2 id="artist-of-the-year">Artist of the Year</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ariana Grande</li>
	<li>Bruno Mars</li>
	<li>Madonna</li>
	<li>Morgan Wallen</li>
	<li>Sabrina Carpenter</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>Madonna</p>

<p>Madonna took over 2026 with her return. Confessions II, her 15th studio album and the sequel to 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor, reunited her with original producer Stuart Price and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 134,000 equivalent album units, her 10th chart-topping album and her best sales week since 2015. The promotional run was inescapable: a surprise Coachella appearance, a Times Square concert, the Tribeca premiere of the Confessions II film, and a headlining slot alongside BTS and Shakira at the World Cup halftime show. No other nominee dominated the year's pop culture conversation as thoroughly or as consistently.</p>

<h2 id="song-of-the-year">Song of the Year</h2>

<ul>
	<li>BTS, "Swim"</li>
	<li>Ella Langley, "Choosin' Texas"</li>
	<li>HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI), "Golden"</li>
	<li>Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter, "Bring Your Love"</li>
	<li>Olivia Dean, "Man I Need"</li>
	<li>PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson"</li>
	<li>RAYE, "WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction:</strong> Ella Langley, "Choosin' Texas"</p>

<p>This is the toughest category of the night, packed with genuine hits, but the numbers point to Langley. "Choosin' Texas" is spending its 18th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 as of mid-August, and it made her the first female artist in the chart's history to simultaneously top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts with the same song. It is still climbing months after release. The closest thing to a rival is HUNTR/X's Oscar-winning "Golden," from KPop Demon Hunters, which has real staying power of its own but is the oldest song in the category and has already had its commercial peak. "Choosin' Texas" is currently the biggest song here by the numbers, and it isn't close.</p>

<h2 id="best-new-artist">Best New Artist</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Bella Kay</li>
	<li>CORTIS</li>
	<li>Magnus Ferrell</li>
	<li>Malcolm Todd</li>
	<li>Myles Smith</li>
	<li>Sienna Spiro</li>
	<li>Stella Lefty</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>Sienna Spiro</p>

<p>Spiro had a massive year behind her debut album, Visitor, which opened at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 the same week Madonna's Confessions II claimed No. 1. Her single "Die on This Hill" reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100, and she followed it with "Material Lover," written exclusively for The Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack. She also sold out a US headlining tour along the way. A close second is Malcolm Todd, who has built real momentum off his 2025 self-titled debut album, but Spiro's run across charts, film, and touring gives her the edge.</p>

<h2 id="best-collaboration">Best Collaboration</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Clipse, Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T & Malice, "Chains & Whips"</li>
	<li>French Montana x Max B, "Ever Since U Left Me"</li>
	<li>Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter, "Bring Your Love"</li>
	<li>PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson"</li>
	<li>Shakira & Burna Boy, "Dai Dai"</li>
	<li>Teyana Taylor & Lucky Daye, "Hard Part"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction:</strong> PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson"</p>

<p>"Stateside" peaked at No. 7 on the Hot 100, becoming a Top 10 hit and the first Global 200 entry for both artists, a run that got a major boost after figure skater Alysa Liu skated to the song during an exhibition performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The Charlotte Rutherford-directed video sets PinkPantheress and Larsson up as mannequins in facing storefront windows, each styled in the aesthetic of their own era, PinkPantheress' tartan-and-red Fancy That world against Larsson's sequined, sun-soaked Midnight Sun universe. Shakira & Burna Boy's "Dai Dai" is the only real competition, though it plays more like an attempt to recapture the "Waka Waka" magic than a moment that stands fully on its own.</p>

<h2 id="best-pop">Best Pop</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</li>
	<li>Charli xcx, "SS26"</li>
	<li>LISA, "Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi"</li>
	<li>Olivia Rodrigo, "drop dead"</li>
	<li>Sabrina Carpenter, "House Tour"</li>
	<li>Tate McRae, "Nobody's Girl"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction:</strong> Toss-up between Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia," and Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</p>

<p>Both are the two biggest commercial hits in this category, and both landed to more divided critical response than their chart numbers suggest. "hate that i made you love me," directed by Christian Breslauer, opens with Justin Long burying Grande's character, only for her ghost to haunt him through a fiery car crash, a house fire, and a diner full of patrons who all look like her, before he returns to the grave to find her standing over him with a shovel. "The Fate of Ophelia," directed by Swift herself, reimagines Hamlet's Ophelia with a happier ending tied to her relationship with Travis Kelce, with the aesthetic of The Life of a Showgirl all over it. Between two hits critics picked apart while audiences kept streaming, this one is genuinely too close to call.</p>

<h2 id="best-hip-hop">Best Hip-Hop</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Cardi B ft. Kehlani, "Safe"</li>
	<li>Don Toliver, "E85"</li>
	<li>Drake, "Janice STFU"</li>
	<li>Megan Thee Stallion, "LOVER GIRL"</li>
	<li>Travis Scott, "DUMBO"</li>
	<li>Tyler, The Creator, "SUGAR ON MY TONGUE"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>Tyler, The Creator, "SUGAR ON MY TONGUE"</p>

<p>Tyler knows how to build a world and a character for the camera, and this self-directed video is one of his most ambitious yet. Set in a stark, tiled room, it opens with him trying to win over a woman across the room before the scene erupts into a full-on rave, with surreal, provocative imagery throughout that critics called some of his most creative work yet. It comes off Don't Tap the Glass, his fourth album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Megan Thee Stallion's "LOVER GIRL" is the closest challenger, a tightly choreographed video built around her relationship with Klay Thompson, but Tyler's world-building edges her out here.</p>

<h2 id="best-r-b">Best R&B</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Bruno Mars, "I Just Might"</li>
	<li>Chris Brown, "It Depends/Obvious"</li>
	<li>Dave & Tems, "Raindance"</li>
	<li>Justin Bieber, "YUKON"</li>
	<li>Kehlani, "Folded"</li>
	<li>Mariah the Scientist & Kali Uchis, "Is It a Crime"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction:</strong> Kehlani, "Folded"</p>

<p>"Folded" is one of the biggest R&B hits of the decade so far, becoming Kehlani's first song to crack the Hot 100's top 10. Directed by City James, the video opens with Kehlani behind the counter at a dry cleaner called Nini's Fluff & Fold before moving into a dark, water-soaked back room, where she dances and spins atop a rotating clothing rack between costume changes. Fans singled out the choreography as some of her best work yet, and the visual anchors her self-titled fifth album. A close second is Dave & Tems' "Raindance," shot in Lagos with dinner scenes and beach walks, capturing the intimate feel of the song.</p>

<h2 id="best-alternative">Best Alternative</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Geese, "Taxes"</li>
	<li>mgk & Fred Durst, "FIX UR FACE"</li>
	<li>Noah Kahan, "The Great Divide"</li>
	<li>Olivia Rodrigo, "the cure"</li>
	<li>SOMBR, "Homewrecker"</li>
	<li>Tame Impala, "Dracula"</li>
	<li>twenty one pilots, "Drag Path"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>Olivia Rodrigo, "the cure"</p>

<p>"the cure" is the thesis statement of Rodrigo's album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and Rodrigo herself has called it her favorite song she's ever written. Directed by Cat Solen and Jaime Gerin, the video casts her as a nurse pacing the halls of a hospital, hunting for a cure to her own heartbreak, only to end up as the patient herself, hooked up to a heart machine as multiple red yarn threads unravel from her body. The set was built almost entirely by hand: cardboard walls, a life-sized cardboard guitar, a motorized animatronic heart with a felt skin, and beakers with liquid made from puppet-controlled beads. The video ends with the camera pulling back to reveal the entire hospital was a miniature diorama, which the life-sized Rodrigo picks up and crushes underfoot in a single, meticulously rehearsed take.</p>

<h2 id="best-dance">Best Dance</h2>

<p>Best Dance returns to the VMAs for the first time in seven years.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Bebe Rexha & Faithless, "New Religion"</li>
	<li>Harry Styles, "Aperture"</li>
	<li>Lady Gaga & Doechii, "RUNAWAY"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson"</li>
	<li>Slayyyter, "DANCE&hellip;"</li>
	<li>Tate McRae, "Nobody's Girl"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction:</strong> Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</p>

<p>After seven years without this category, the win should go to the video that most literally calls people back to the dance floor, and that's Madonna. It's a stacked field, though. Lady Gaga & Doechii's "Runway," directed by Parris Goebel for The Devil Wears Prada 2 soundtrack, is camp at its highest level set in a ballroom-meets-editorial fantasy world. Slayyyter's "DANCE&hellip;" is the darkest, most seductive cut off Worst Girl in America and stays locked into her album's moody visual identity. Bebe Rexha & Faithless' "New Religion" marks Bebe's return to the dance-pop lane she's always done best. Any of them could realistically take this after seven years without the category, but Confessions II is still the video that best embodies why it exists.</p>

<h2 id="best-latin">Best Latin</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Anitta with Shakira, "Choka Choka"</li>
	<li>Bad Bunny, "NUEVAYoL"</li>
	<li>Fuerza Regida, "TU SANCHO"</li>
	<li>KAROL G, "Papasito"</li>
	<li>Rosal&iacute;a ft. Yahritza Y Su Esencia, "La Perla"</li>
	<li>Ryan Castro, Kapo & GANGSTA, "LA VILLA"</li>
	<li>Shakira & Burna Boy, "Dai Dai"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>Bad Bunny, "NUEVAYoL"</p>

<p>"NUEVAYoL" is the opening track off Deb&iacute; Tirar M&aacute;s Fotos, which won Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammys, and Bad Bunny performed it during his historic, primarily Spanish-language Super Bowl LX halftime show. Directed by Renell Medrano and shot partly at Bronx Community College, the video is a celebration of Nuyorican identity, opening with Bad Bunny heading to a quincea&ntilde;era and moving through street party scenes, including a cameo from real-life Bronx nightlife fixture To&ntilde;ita. It builds to him saluting from the Statue of Liberty draped in the Puerto Rican flag, an homage to a 1977 nationalist protest at the same site, before cutting to a group huddled around a radio playing a deepfake of Donald Trump apologizing to immigrants. Released deliberately on July 4, it's one of the most pointed statements of Puerto Rican pride of the year. Rosal&iacute;a and Shakira & Burna Boy both have strong contenders in this category, but it's tough to take this one from the reigning king of Latin pop.</p>

<h2 id="best-k-pop">Best K-Pop</h2>

<ul>
	<li>BLACKPINK, "JUMP"</li>
	<li>BTS, "SWIM"</li>
	<li>CORTIS, "REDRED"</li>
	<li>KATSEYE, "PINKY UP"</li>
	<li>LE SSERAFIM feat. j-hope of BTS, "SPAGHETTI"</li>
	<li>LISA, "Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction: </strong>KATSEYE, "PINKY UP"</p>

<p>BTS, KATSEYE, and BLACKPINK all have genuinely massive names in this category, but BLACKPINK has the weakest shot. "JUMP" faced heavy backlash over its apparent use of AI-generated visuals and lack of live choreography, with many fans calling it one of the group's worst videos to date. BTS's "SWIM," shot against the ocean in Lisbon and featuring actress Lili Reinhart, already won Song of the Summer at the 2026 American Music Awards. But KATSEYE has its own award-season momentum: two Grammy nominations this year, including Best New Artist, and a telecast performance, even though the "Gnarly" set itself split reactions online. "PINKY UP" turns a parking lot and waiting room into the group's playground and marks their first video as a quintet since Manon Bannerman's hiatus. Between the two, KATSEYE's Grammy nod and the more purely fun video give them the win.</p>

<h2 id="best-country">Best Country</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ella Langley, "Choosin' Texas"</li>
	<li>Kacey Musgraves, "Dry Spell"</li>
	<li>Lainey Wilson, "Somewhere Over Laredo"</li>
	<li>Luke Combs, "Back in the Saddle"</li>
	<li>Shaboozey, "Cowgirl"</li>
	<li>Stella Lefty, "Boston"</li>
	<li>Tucker Wetmore, "Brunette"</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Prediction:</strong> Ella Langley, "Choosin' Texas"</p>

<p>No contest here. "Choosin' Texas" has spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 so far, tying some of the biggest chart runs in the song's history, and it remains the most obvious win of the entire night. The video, co-directed by Langley, Wales Toney, and Caylee Robillard and shot at Fort Worth's historic Stagecoach Ballroom, casts Langley and Luke Grimes as a couple driving toward an old flame in Abilene, with Kaitlin Butts warning that "Texas has a way of keeping what's hers" before Langley hitches a ride out with Miranda Lambert, who plays the bar band's frontwoman. Shaboozey's "Cowgirl" is the only nominee with a shot at pulling off an upset, given he already shares the record for longest-running Hot 100 No. 1 with "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," but even that history isn't enough to overcome Langley's ongoing, record-setting run.</p>

<p>The categories below are juried, not decided by fan vote, so no prediction is included.</p>

<h2 id="best-direction">Best Direction</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</li>
	<li>Bruno Mars, "I Just Might"</li>
	<li>GENER8ION, "STORM starring Yung Lean"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>Sabrina Carpenter, "House Tour"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "Opalite"</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="best-art-direction">Best Art Direction</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Charli xcx, "SS26"</li>
	<li>Lady Gaga & Doechii, "RUNAWAY"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson"</li>
	<li>SOMBR, "My Body Isn't Ready"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="best-cinematography">Best Cinematography</h2>

<ul>
	<li>A$AP Rocky, "PUNK ROCKY"</li>
	<li>Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</li>
	<li>LISA, "Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>Shaboozey, "Cowgirl"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="best-editing">Best Editing</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</li>
	<li>Bruno Mars, "I Just Might"</li>
	<li>LISA, "Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>Sabrina Carpenter, "House Tour"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="best-choreography">Best Choreography</h2>

<ul>
	<li>GENER8ION, "STORM starring Yung Lean"</li>
	<li>Harry Styles, "Dance No More"</li>
	<li>KATSEYE, "PINKY UP"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>Tate McRae, "Nobody's Girl"</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<h2 id="best-visual-effects">Best Visual Effects</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Ariana Grande, "hate that i made you love me"</li>
	<li>JISOO X ZAYN, "Eyes Closed"</li>
	<li>Madonna, "Confessions II &ndash; The Film"</li>
	<li>PinkPantheress, "Stateside + Zara Larsson"</li>
	<li>RAYE ft. Hans Zimmer, "Click Clack Symphony."</li>
	<li>Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"</li>
</ul>

<p>For more articles like this, visit our <a href="https://several.com/news/tag/lifestyle" target="_blank">Lifestyle News Page</a>!</p>


2026 VMA Nominations & Predictions: Who Will Win?

Who's Nominated for the 2026 VMAs? Full List & Predictions

<h2 id="a-milestone-for-ferrari-rsquo-s-electric-future">A Milestone for Ferrari&rsquo;s Electric Future</h2>

<p>The Luce represents one of the biggest changes in Ferrari's nearly 80-year history. Best known for its high-revving V8 and V12 engines, the Italian manufacturer has spent years preparing for an electric future while insisting that performance and driving emotion would remain central to the brand.</p>

<p>The production Luce starts at around <strong>&euro;550,000</strong> (roughly <strong>$640,000</strong>), making the auction result more than <strong>60 times the vehicle's retail price</strong>. The record-breaking example, however, is no ordinary production car. "Chassis 0" was specially customized by Ferrari's Tailor Made division and serves as the symbolic beginning of the company's electric lineup.</p>

<h2 id="breaking-the-auction-record">Breaking the Auction Record</h2>

<p>The $40 million hammer price surpassed the previous record for the most expensive new car sold at auction, a mark also held by Ferrari after a customized <strong>Daytona SP3 raised $26 million in 2025 for charity</strong>. The latest sale demonstrates that collectors continue to place enormous value on historically significant first-production vehicles, especially when they mark a turning point for an iconic manufacturer.</p>

<p>Industry analysts also view the sale as a sign that demand for Ferrari's first electric model remains strong despite early criticism surrounding its unconventional styling. Reports indicate Ferrari has already reached its planned 2026 production allocation for the Luce, with interest coming from buyers in several key markets, including China.</p>

<p>While the record price is unlikely to influence the cost of standard Luce models, it gives Ferrari an early public relations victory as the company enters the competitive luxury EV market. The charity auction generated global attention while reinforcing Ferrari's strategy of combining exclusivity, limited production, and bespoke craftsmanship with new electric technology.</p>

<p>For more industry updates, visit our <a href="https://several.com/news/tag/automotive" target="_blank">automotive news section</a>.</p>


Ferrari's First Electric Car Sells for Record $40 Million at Auction

Ferrari's First Electric Car Sells for Record $40 Million

<p>Flock Group Inc., which does business as Flock Safety, is a Delaware company that sells a &ldquo;surveillance as a service&rdquo; system to police departments and private communities. Its cameras, many of which are installed along public roads, photograph passing vehicles and use AI to read license plates. The system can also record details such as a vehicle&rsquo;s make, model, and color, creating searchable data that authorized customers can access across Flock&rsquo;s network.</p>

<p><a href="https://haveibeenflocked.com/" target="_blank">Have I Been Flocked?</a> site searches audit logs, which document when someone manually looked up a particular license plate in Flock&rsquo;s system and the reason given for that search. A result does not provide a complete history of when or where a vehicle passed a Flock camera, nor does it show everything the cameras may have recorded. It also does not necessarily mean the driver was stopped, suspected of a crime, or formally investigated. The person who performed the search may not have been a law enforcement officer.</p>

<p>The database also includes the reasons operators provided for their searches. Drug-related investigations appear most often, followed by motor vehicle theft. According to the site, plate numbers entered by visitors are not saved.<br />
Its database does not contain records from every agency using Flock cameras, so a plate returning no results does not necessarily mean nobody has searched for it. Records may be incomplete, outdated, or unavailable if the relevant agency has not provided its logs. Hunyar has encouraged residents to request audit logs from their own police departments and contribute those records to help expand the database.</p>

<p>The site arrives as Flock Safety faces growing scrutiny over how its network is accessed and who can use the information it collects. Questions have emerged over access by immigration enforcement agencies, while documented cases of misuse have raised concerns about how closely searches are monitored. In one North Carolina case, an officer was arrested after authorities said she used Flock&rsquo;s system more than 30 times to track her boyfriend&rsquo;s ex-wife.</p>

<p>For more articles like this, check out our <a href="https://several.com/news/tag/tech" target="_blank">Tech News</a> page!</p>


Was Your Car Searched by Flock? There’s Now a Way to Check

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<p>Back in July, Stripe and Advent floated $60.50 a share for PayPal, a bid that valued the company at around $53 billion and represented a 28 percent premium to where the stock had been trading. PayPal's board balked, deciding the offer undersold the company. Talks apparently kept going behind the scenes anyway, and now Stripe and Advent are said to be weighing a higher number. PayPal's stock has moved accordingly, climbing more than 30 percent in July alone and ticking up again on the latest reporting.</p>

<p>Stripe and Advent would each hold an equal stake in PayPal rather than one absorbing the other, and both have signaled they don't intend to break up the business. Roughly $50 billion in bank financing has reportedly already been lined up, with Stripe and Advent splitting the equity contribution.</p>

<p>Stripe, started by brothers Patrick and John Collison, built its reputation as the developer-friendly upstart that made PayPal look clunky by comparison, and it's been steadily pulling merchants away for years. It's now privately valued around $159 billion, with some secondary market trades suggesting investors think it's worth even more than that. A combined Stripe-PayPal would process something like $3.7 trillion a year, instantly making it one of the largest payment networks on the planet, and it would give Stripe a way to lean less on Visa and Mastercard's rails. Advent, for its part, is a Boston-based firm with more than $90 billion under management and a track record in financial services deals.</p>

<p>Enrique Lores took over as PayPal's CEO in March, brought in from HP after the board lost patience with predecessor Alex Chriss's turnaround efforts. He's since reorganized the company into three units, one for checkout and core PayPal, one for consumer products like Venmo, and one for payments and crypto, and he's pushing a cost-cutting plan that could eliminate up to a fifth of the workforce over the next few years. Lores has also talked about repositioning PayPal as more of a technology company, leaning harder into AI.</p>

<p>Before the July offer surfaced, PayPal's stock was trading near historic lows, with the company's market value briefly dipping to around $40 billion, a fraction of the roughly $320 billion it was worth at its pandemic peak. Not everyone is sold on the logic of a deal in the first place, either. An analyst at William Blair called the original bid a lowball offer and questioned why Stripe would even want to take this on.</p>

<p>Putting PayPal and Stripe under the same roof would combine two of the biggest names in online payments, and any agreement would likely draw close scrutiny from antitrust authorities in both the United States and Europe. How exactly Stripe and Advent would split the financing on a deal this size hasn't been disclosed, and PayPal has yet to comment publicly on any of it. Stripe, for its part, has only said it doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.</p>

<p>For more articles like this, visit our <a href="https://several.com/news/tag/b2b" target="_blank">B2B News Page</a>!</p>


Stripe & Advent International in Renewed Talks to Buy PayPal

PayPal in Advanced Talks to Sell to Stripe, Advent

<p>The new "AI Persona" badge is aimed at artist accounts whose public identity, meaning the name and imagery on the profile, is fully AI-generated rather than tied to a real person. According to <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2026-08-11/ai-persona-badges-transparency/" target="_blank">Spotify's announcement</a>, the badges will begin appearing in mid-September on artist profile banners, in the About section, in search results, and on track rows across playlists.</p>

<p>Artists can self-disclose that they run an AI Persona starting now through Spotify for Artists. For accounts that don't disclose, Spotify says it will review profiles itself, starting with artists who have already built up a sizable audience.</p>

<p>Once a profile is labeled, its music is excluded from Spotify's editorial and algorithmic recommendations by default. That means AI Persona tracks won't appear in personalized mixes, curated playlists, or algorithmic recommendations like Discover Weekly. The only way listeners will see that music recommended to them is by directly following the artist, which Spotify treats as an explicit signal of interest.</p>

<p>Spotify says the label applies to artist identity, not to how a track was produced. A musician who uses AI tools during production, for mixing or mastering, for example, won't be flagged as long as their public profile represents a real person. The badge is specifically meant for cases where the artist itself, not just the music, is synthetic.</p>

<p>As AI-generated music is rising on streaming platforms, other services are adopting similar moves. Deezer, a competing streaming service, said in April that AI-generated tracks made up a large share of new daily uploads to its catalog, putting the number in the tens of thousands per day. Fully AI-generated acts have also gained real traction with listeners, including the band Velvet Sundown, which went viral earlier this year despite not being made up of real musicians.</p>

<p>Royalties for AI Persona tracks are not affected by the new policy. Spotify's approach targets visibility rather than payouts, which puts it in contrast with TIDAL, which announced in July that it would strip AI-generated tracks of royalties while still keeping them in its catalog.</p>

<p>The AI Persona label is part of a broader set of transparency features Spotify has rolled out this year, including the "Verified by Spotify" badge for confirmed authentic artist accounts and AI-related song credit disclosures. Spotify also plans to introduce a tool that lets listeners report suspected AI Persona profiles that haven't been labeled, along with an appeals process for artists who believe they were mislabeled.</p>

<p>For more articles like this, visit our <a href="https://several.com/news/tag/tech" target="_blank">Tech News Page</a>!</p>


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