I woke up one day last year and realized I no longer listened to music. Instead I just listened to sludge—a blur of indistinguishable songs that imitated my music taste. My sludge addiction sprang from Spotify’s algorithmically curated playlists, which promised to help me focus or find music tailored to […]
Music
An AI Hit of Fake ‘Drake’ and ‘The Weeknd’ Rattles the Music World
For Drake and the Weeknd, two of the most popular musicians on the planet, the existence of “Heart on My Sleeve,” a track that claimed to use A.I. versions of their voices to create a passable mimicry, may have qualified as a minor nuisance — a short-lived novelty that was […]
Universal Music Group calls AI music a ‘fraud,’ wants it banned from streaming platforms. Experts say it’s not that easy
New York CNN — Universal Music Group — the music company representing superstars including Sting, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande — has a new Goliath to contend with: artificial intelligence. The music group sent urgent letters in April to streaming platforms, including Spotify (SPOT) and Apple Music, asking […]
‘It made me wish I had made more records’: Natalie Merchant on returning to music after losing her voice | Music
It was late 2018 and Natalie Merchant was in London visiting the V&A museum when she felt her arm start to tingle and then go numb. Next came intense pain. She flew home immediately and within days was in hospital having an MRI. The results were not good: she had […]
Face the Music: Vinyl collectors are a growing group, and Record Store Day is their Christmas
Taylor Swift’s 2023 Record Store Day release, “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.” Photo by Mick Werkhoven Record Store Day, which happens Saturday in Maine and all around the world, is the equivalent of Christmas and your birthday to those who love, collect and listen to vinyl and like to […]
‘Yellowjackets’ leans hard into ’90s music nostalgia, and we’re here for it
CNN — Of the many dark gifts Showtime’s eerie hit series “Yellowjackets” serves up for us, the juiciest this season is by far the music. The show – which bounces between a troupe of teen soccer players trapped in the 1990s Canadian wilderness after a plane crash and the survivors’ […]