Laurie Spiegel on the difference between algorithmic music and ‘AI’
Laurie Spiegel on the difference between algorithmic music and ‘AI’

In 1986, electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel created Music Mouse, a way for those with a Mac, Atari, or Amiga computer to dabble in algorithmic music creation. Music Mouse is deceptively simple: Notes are arranged on an XY grid, and you play it by moving a mouse around. Back in 1986, the computer mouse was […]

Georgia Tech announced the finalists in its wild musical instrument competition
Georgia Tech announced the finalists in its wild musical instrument competition

Georgia Tech has announced the finalists in its annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. Every year, for the last 28 years, the school invites inventors from around the world to submit new instruments of their own design to compete for $10,000 in prizes. Past finalists have included founding members of Teenage Engineering, Artiphon, and Roli. And […]

Ableton Live is adding audio streaming for real-time musical collaboration
Ableton Live is adding audio streaming for real-time musical collaboration

Ableton is rolling out the Live 12.4 Beta with a number of new features, but the headliner is Link Audio, which enables real-time collaboration between devices on a local network. Having to be on the same network is a serious limitation and, as the name implies, Link Audio only supports streaming audio. That means your […]

An ice dance duo skated to AI music at the Olympics

Czech ice dancers Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek are learning the hard way that LLMs sometimes spit out straight-up plagiarism.

Live Nation’s monopoly trial is reportedly fracturing Trump’s Justice Department
Live Nation’s monopoly trial is reportedly fracturing Trump’s Justice Department

Live Nation executives have reportedly sidestepped the Justice Department’s antitrust division to negotiate directly with more sympathetic senior officials in the hopes of avoiding a monopoly trial. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” Semafor reports that some talks have excluded antitrust chief Gail Slater, who has pushed for a trial to take place in March […]

YouTube Music starts putting lyrics behind a paywall
YouTube Music starts putting lyrics behind a paywall

Free YouTube Music accounts are now seeing their access to lyrics limited, according to multiple reports. Google started testing lyrics as an exclusive feature for Premium users in September, but it appears that it’s now receiving a wider rollout. It seems that free users will be limited to viewing lyrics for five songs per month, […]

You need to listen to the new Mandy, Indiana record: URGH
You need to listen to the new Mandy, Indiana record: URGH

Often, I focus on recommending older media that isn’t currently getting a ton of attention. But this week, I can’t stop listening to the new Mandy, Indiana album long enough to even think about anything else. It’s early still, obviously, but URGH is my favorite release of 2026 so far. The band that I fell […]

Spotify has a new feature that takes you behind the scenes of your favorite tracks

Spotify is rolling out About the Song in beta, a new feature for Premium users that lets listeners explore the stories, inspirations and background details behind the tracks they’re playing.
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Spotify’s About the Song offers context and trivia about your favorite tracks
Spotify’s About the Song offers context and trivia about your favorite tracks

Spotify is launching About the Song in beta today, which offers context and facts about the song you’re listening to. Premium users can scroll down to the new About the Song section for information while in the Now Playing view. At launch, it’s only available for a limited number of tracks, but there are plans […]