Adele's first new music in half a decade, the single "Easy on Me" (Columbia), has set a new record, becoming Spotify's most-streamed song in a single day. Jeremy Erlich has tissues if you need them.

Adele and Kacey—singularly talented 33-year-olds who bare their souls with artful restraint on their fourth albums—are generating deafening chatter, making this a memorable autumn for a delighted Rob Stringer, an indignant Cindy Mabe and a beleaguered Harvey Mason Jr. Even Merck and Steve Cooper briefly took notice before they resumed counting their cash.  

HITS List is right up ahead

Adele’s first release in six years is garnering quite the buzz. Check out some of the fan reactions, including messages from Drake and Lil Nas X.

Released at the stroke of midnight on 10/15 in the U.K., Adele's "Easy on Me" (Columbia) is here—and everywhere. Pre-orders for 30 are now live...

“When it comes to problems, the Grammys have enough to fill a stadium,” writes Esquire’s Justin Kirkland in the lede of a critique headlined “Kacey Musgraves’ Grammy Disqualification is a Damning Look at the Recording Academy’s Priorities.”...

The booting of Kacey Musgraves’ star-crossed from the Grammys’ country categories has incensed UMG Nashville President Cindy Mabe. Writing to Harvey Mason Jr., she calls the decision...

When Adele’s third album, 25, was released on 11/20/15, the music business was in the early stages of a radical transition. “I know that streaming music is the future, but it’s not the only way to consume music,” she said at the time. “I can’t pledge allegiance to something that I don’t know how I feel about yet.”

As the Adele buzz increases in volume, handicappers are placing wildly varying guesses on how big the follow-up to the ginormous 25 could be. Let's take a look at total activity RTD on her previous LPs and singles…

Is it the melody? Lyrics? Vocal? All of the above? We take our best shot herein.

Odd though it may seem, songwriter extraordinaire Taylor Swift has never taken home a Song of the Year Grammy. Could "willow" put that coveted trophy on her mantle at last?