HITS HIGH FIVE: A POOL REPORT

Now that every last firecracker has been set off, we can get back to sparking something more familiar. While we’re doing that, take a gander at news from last week while you were jetting to the Maldives for some midyear r&r and we were soaking our tootsies in the HITS inflatable pool.

Jay-Z and Roc Nation acquiesced to consumer demand and made available his new album 4:44 on iTunes, Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited. It enjoyed a seven-day exclusive on his service, Tidal.

We filed reports on Nashville’s heavy hitters—label execs, lawyers, gatekeepers at radio and artists, everyone but the owner the local Waffle House. Here are the results of out conversations with Randy Goodman, Cindy Mabe, Sam Hunt, Joel Katz, iHeartCountry’s Rod Phillips and CBS Radio’s Tim Roberts.

They might not celebrate the Fourth of July, but majors in the U.K. had plenty to toast at the midyear mark, especially Max Lousada’s WMG.

"Despacito" perked up ears for anything in Spanish with potential crossover appeal. Candidate #1 is J Balvin & Willy William’s "Mi Gente" from Universal Latin.

With only three months left in the Recording Academy’s definition of a year, our Grammy Whisperer looks at contenders from Record and Song of the Year, Best New Artist and Album of the Year.