Music

The Story Behind Music’s Most Important Symbol

Even the musically illiterate can appreciate the intricate beauty of a physical piece of sheet music—though, to them, the score itself means jack shit. But even the notationally disinclined can now, thanks to the Smithsonian’s design blog, know where those pretty little pictures at the beginning of those big long lines come from—otherwise known as…

Report: Apple Is Finally Sealing Deals For Its Internet Radio

The New York Times is reporting that Apple’s much-rumored music streaming service may soon be ready—even in time for next week’s WWDC—thanks to the company finally signing contracts with major music labels. https://gizmodo.com/bloomberg-apples-pandora-killing-internet-radio-servic-5954986 The report suggests that Apple signed a deal with the Warner Music Group over the weekend for both recorded music rights and…

A guy chases his dream girl through all our favorite ’80s movies

Jon Marco is chasing a girl in the cheerful music video for Rhianna, and the object of his affection flees through some of the greatest flicks of the 1980s, from Back to the Future to Tron to Return of the Jedi. It’s a fun music video, but the outtakes running through the credits might be…

This New Music Video Recycles Soviet Space Imagery Quite Well

Hungarian etno-funk (or what) group called Kerekes Band published the music video above a few days ago. I do not want to comment on the music (mix of traditional Hungarian instruments and rather simple dance basics, just not my cup of tea), but the visual is fine enough and you should give it a chance…

Do you like free money? Well, it’s your lucky day—because for today only, you can get yourself a $50 iTunes gift card for a mere $40. Go get ’em, tiger. [Ebay via 9to5Toys]

Watch how music travels across the U.S. through Facebook

To date, over 110 million songs have been played some 40 billion times through Facebook apps integrated with Open Graph. This 3D visualization shows how three of these tracks propagated throughout the United States during a 90-day span. This video is called a Beatquake, and it’s the result of a collaboration between Facebook and Stamen…

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

Every quarter-aged hipster wants to be a DJ at one point or another. The only problem is that DJing is actually a really expensive hobby, if you do it right. (And by right, I mean legally.) It used to be that you needed turntables, a mixer, an audio interface, crates of records, a controller and…

The Most Batshit Insane Performances in the Eurovision Song Contest

As an American outsider looking in, Eurovision looks like a demented alien celebration. In a competition where normal pop numbers have WTF backup dancers and over-the-top melodrama, it takes a truly special performance to stand out. Here are a few of the most jaw-dropping insane acts from Eurovision Song Contest history. For anyone unfamiliar with…

With a Full-On News Feed, Spotify’s Serious About Suggesting New Music

While Spotify’s a powerhouse for streaming music, its social elements for sharing what you find have always been rather underpowered. Now, though, it’s launched a new Discover news feed, which promises to give you a constant supply of new music. Leveraging data from its 24 million monthly users, the new Discover service—currently available on the…

Control This Lovely Wireless Speaker By Just Putting Your Phone On It

Dismayed by the over-complicated control schemes of wireless speakers that usually result in redundant playback and volume controls, Victor Johansson, an inspiring product designer, came up with a better solution: a minimalist ceramic speaker that only cares about where you place your phone. Instead of buttons or other physical controls, the speaker uses a set…

Of Course a Musician Has a Music Box Business Card

It’s probably one of the most expensive ways to promote yourself we’ve ever seen, but there’s no doubt that experimental musician Richard Eigner’s music box business cards leave a lasting impression on whoever’s lucky enough to receive one. Created by Katharina Hölzl, the design was inspired by the musician’s live shows which involve audience members…

How Many of These Viral YouTube Videos Did You Watch?

For YouTube’s comedy week, Dane Boe created this music video ‘We Didn’t Star the Viral’ (riffing off Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Star the Fire) that recaps pretty much all the viral videos that became infamous on YouTube over the last 8 years. You know the usual suspects: Keyboard cat, Star Wars kid, evolution of dance,…

The Oddest-Looking Musical Instruments on Earth

Most musical instruments look a little weird, if you stare at them for long enough. When aliens finally make contact, they’ll be confused by our habit of gripping wood and metal structures and throttling sound out of them. But some devices are odder than others. Here are the strangest musical instruments of all. The Contrabass…

Are Cassettes the Best Music Format for Toddlers?

As many of us do, I recently ended up in a Facebook conversation about parenting or music. In this case, it was about both conversational mainstays: Namely, how do you allow a child in 2013 to decide to listen to something of their choosing? “I’ve been thinking lately about the downside of having a digital-only…

Steve Aoki explores the Singularity in this futuristic new video

This dazzling new scifi-themed music video by electro house musician Steve Aoki looks like it could be made into an actual movie. It features Angger Dimas, My Name Is Kay — and none other than Ray Kurzweil who adds his two cents about the future. You might want to crank the volume — this song…

Pandora’s new Premieres station will let you listen to new albums up to a week before they launch. Starting with new work from John Fogerty and Laura Marling, the station will highlight pre-release music right up until it drops, and won’t be subject to the same limitations as the normal Pandora player. [FastCompany]

Spotify’s getting a little more granular with its data; starting today, you’ll be able to see the top 50 most-played and top 50 most viral songs on the streaming service right here. You’ll be able to see total playcounts (rolling out over the next few weeks), filter by country, and embed a delightful widget on…

Spotify Takes on Billboard With Free-to-Play Most-Streamed Charts

Spotify has decided to take on the likes of Billboard with its own charts, making available a list of the top-50 most-streamed and most-shared songs to the public. Wall Street Journal reports that, in a push to broaden its user base, the music streaming service is sharing the data—and the music to match. The top-50…

How a Trumpet Works Explained In One Animated GIF

Compared to electric gadgetry, something like a trumpet is a pretty simple contraption, but the way it actually works is super clever when you see it in action. The principle is very straight-forward, but the construction of the actual pieces that re-route your hot air are damn cool to see at work. Now does anyone…

Share Your Rare Music Collection with the Internet

Sometimes, you love a song and it’s not on the web. That’s just not right, because the three or so generations alive today are largely responsible for making sure that all the important and interesting stuff (and not just cat videos) make it onto the Internet. Note: This tutorial for Windows was adapted from this…