Music

Thom Yorke: Spotify Is “the Last Desperate Fart of a Dying Corpse”

Thom Yorke has already made his feelings on music streaming services known: he doesn’t like them. But now he’s spoken at length about Spotify and the current state of music distribution and he’s… well, angry. Speaking to the Mexican website Sopitas, Yorke has expanded on some of his criticisms of Spotify and its ilk. Here…

Report: Piracy Isn’t Killing Content

Contrary to what the popular press might have us believe, piracy isn’t killing content. At least, that’s what a team of scholars from the London School of Economics has found after conducting a deep analysis of the situation. Sure, there are content casualties along the way—the physical music record is doomed, sorry—but there always were.…

Your Parents Are Right: Music Really Has Gotten Louder

You know how your mom or grandma or whoever is always complaining about how “kids these days” listen to louder music than when she was young? Turns out, she was scientifically correct. Echo Nest, a Boston-based startup that builds music recommendation engines for folks like Spotify, just released a study that analyzes the top 5,000…

Sinéad O’Connor Begs Miley Cyrus to Stop “Prostituting” Herself

Sinéad O’Connor recently wrote Miley Cyrus begging the ex-Disney star to stop allowing herself to be pimped out by the music industry. Cyrus recently said that her Wrecking Ball video was inspired by the Irish songstress’s Nothing Compares 2 U. So, Sinéad’s basically your Jameson-chugging, slut-shaming, older sister.

Rdio’s New Free Mobile Radio Service Is Available From Today

Rdio’s rumored free radio service is now real: from today, it’s offering free, personalized radio to non-paying users on iOS and Android. Time to get listenin’. The new service, called Stations, will be available in the United States, Canada, and Australia. In the past, users who had reached the end of Rdio’s 14-day free trial…

At last, the beautiful song that Dimetrodon deserves

This latest song from The Doubleclicks is about one of my favorite animals, Dimetrodon, a mammal-like reptile called a synapsid who lived during the Permian period, millions of years before dinosaurs evolved. Somehow, The Doubleclicks have figured out exactly why I love Dimetrodon. I have been whining for years that somebody should write a song…

This Harmonica-Housed USB Drive Contains All of Bob Dylan’s Albums

Not that any of us needed proof that the times are a-changin’, but grown-up hippies looking to grab this impressive omnipedia of Bob Dylan’s music might be dismayed to discover that instead of vinyl, it comes packaged on CDs as—well as this adorable USB flash drive housed in a faux harmonica. At least this special…

Hip-Hop From the Future: Inside Deltron’s First New Record Since 2000

In May of 2000 three legends of hip-hop formed a supergroup and created something nobody saw coming: A futuristic, sci-fi rap album. Over the years, Deltron 3030 has developed an almost fanatical cult following. The long awaited sequel—officially released today—is likely to do the same. Deltron’s debut was different. It was weird. It was awesome.…

NI’s New Maschine Studio: A Big-Ass Controller for Your Beats

Native Instruments just released version 2.0 of its beat production software Maschine, and alongside it, Maschine Studio, a hot new hardware controller. As its name implies, this is some serious music machinery. The key advantage to the Maschine ecosystem, as with other Native Instruments products, is that it’s a focused approach. Unlike humungous digital production…

Watch a DIY Synthesizer Get Built From Scratch in this Absurd Timelapse

Building a synthesizer is a lot of work. It seems pretty safe to assume, but if you had any doubts, just watch this one come together from scratch like the behemoth of circuit boards it is. Synth-creator themonkeybars timelapsed the entire build process using app on his iPhone that took one shot every five seconds…

What is the greatest science fiction-inspired song ever written?

Science fiction themes have ruled pop music, from 1950s rockabilly tunes about Martians, to David Bowie’s 1970s Ziggy Stardust and Janelle Monae’s current tales of the android Cindi Mayweather. But what is the absolute best song with science fiction themes that’s ever been written? Tell us your choice, and be sure to include a picture…

Beats Has Ended Its Relationship With HTC

Beats has had enough: it’s walking out of its relationship with HTC and buying back the 25 percent stake currently held by smartphone manufacturer. HTC ponied up $300 million back in 2011 for a 50.1 percent stake in Beats. Then, the headphone manufacturer paid $150 million to buy back 25 percent last year. Today, it…

Trent Reznor Explains Just How Far Electronic Music Has Come

Nine Inch Nails frontman and music genius Trent Reznor gave a fantastic interview to the Fader, and it sums up just about everything about the state of electronic music and how we listen to it. Reznor says when iPods first came out, he was resistant to the take-your-music-everywhere tech. What with music being more prevalent…

YouTube just launched a library of royalty-free songs you can use in your videos. The generic-but-not-bad tracks let you add some audio spice without risking a copyright-related takedown. [YouTube via Verge]

What Movies Think Aliens Look Like

Here’s a fun little music video about aliens cut from movies and TV shows by our friends Eclectic Method. Aside from the song hypnotically inducing you to nod your head, the video also reveals what Hollywood thinks aliens will look like: green, large brained and funny looking. How many of these movies have you seen?…

Future: Sh!t

It’s very likely that Future is from another world, because the music he’s put out in the past year is on a different level. Produced by Mike Will Made It, “Sh!t” is the latest single off his upcoming November release Honest. It sounds like nothing else I’ve heard lately—maybe like Meek Mill with a really…

Crazy theories on how Breaking Bad will end, in musical form

How will Breaking Bad end? We don’t know, but the Key of Awesome has plenty of insane theories, and they’re singing all about them. Now I know what’s been missing from Breaking Bad all along: epic kung fu battles. How Breaking Bad Should End [Key of Awesome via Neatorama]

Why feeling the rhythm can be essential to speaking language good

Sorry, I realize that phrasing was kind of atrocious and very definitely not grammatical, but, in my defense, I have the worst sense of rhythm on the planet. (Seriously, ask anyone who’s ever seen me dance… if any such people existed, because I never, ever dance.) And that apparently matters when it comes to language…

The First In-Flight Movies Had a Live Orchestra

Soaring through the clouds in 1925, passengers on an Imperial Airways flight traveling over Germany were treated to a brand new novelty—one of the first in-flight movies. Even more astounding? The film had live orchestral accompaniment. But not in the way you’re probably thinking. No, Imperial didn’t cram the Berlin Philharmonic into stowage, with cellos…

A Brilliant Madman Rigged a Player Piano to Score Classic Video Games

A YouTuber who goes by the name of ‘roboband‘ has posted this delightful clip showing a couple of player pianos and a robotic drummer scoring and creating the sound effects for classic Nintendo games—in real time! On the technical side the setup uses a series of solenoids, Raspberry Pis, and custom software to create the…