Quick: tell me how old you are by telling me which app you used to download free music. Was it Napster? Kazaa? Usenet? Gnutella? WinMX? Morpheus? The Pirate Bay? Were you, I don’t know, sending your friends songs on AIM or BBM? The possibilities are endless. For a decade or so, if you were online, […]
While there is plenty of criticism to be hurled at what music the algorithm serves to us, and how, the real problem with music discovery in the age of algorithmic recommendations is that listening has become a passive activity. It’s too easy to press play and let a pile of code take the wheel. Whether […]
Spotify is debuting a new tiered premium plans in five markets with the costliest tier gaining access to lossless streaming.
Much of La Ola Interior (Spanish Ambient & Acid Exoticism 1983-1990) sounds shockingly contemporary for a collection of tracks recorded in the mid to late ’80s. Ambient as a genre was already relatively well established by the time many of the artists on this compilation recorded their songs. But as we neared the end of […]
Arturia’s KeyStep is one of the most popular MIDI controllers ever made, especially with modular synth users and the DAWless crowd. It’s small, cheap, has an easy-to-use sequencer, and offers decent connectivity. But it was also released way back in January of 2016. The world of music gear moves more slowly than, say, smartphones, but […]
It’s not often that a band returns to soundtrack the same game nine years after its release – then again, most games aren’t No Man’s Sky. Once demoed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and at splashy E3 press conferences, in 2016, No Man’s Sky was heralded as gaming’s future. And it was all […]
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on how to break free of the algorithm and discover things you love, follow Terrence O’Brien. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started I used […]
If you’ve ever watched a synth video on YouTube, there’s a decent chance you’ve seen the Arturia KeyStep at some point. The affordable keyboard and controller has been a steady presence since its release in January of 2016, especially in DAWless circles. Now Arturia is finally releasing a proper successor, the KeyStep mk2, and on […]
Amazon is using Alexa Plus to bring new AI capabilities to its Music streaming service. Starting today, customers in the Alexa Plus Early Access beta will be able to access the generative AI assistant within the Amazon Music app on iOS and Android, allowing users across all subscription tiers to request obscure information or complex […]
Apple has shared a new intro sound and video that will accompany things you watch on the newly-renamed Apple TV streaming service. Apple rebranded Apple TV Plus to just Apple TV last month, and the previous intro prominently highlighted the plus, so it makes sense that Apple made a new version to accompany the updated […]