Rethinking Musical Genre for the Streaming Era

There’s no denying that streaming services profoundly shape how we listen to music. The cheap, on-demand access to millions of songs on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music makes exploring new artists and styles easier than ever. Personalized playlists and other recommendation features also drive music discovery, often leading to more fragmented and diverse listening habits than in the pre-streaming era.

As our listening behavior changes, so does our understanding of genre and its role in musical culture.

From Mono Audio to Spatial Audio: The Evolution of the Soundstage in Music

Before the invention of stereophonic audio, music was consumed monophonically. While there are still some scenarios where playback systems are set up in mono, most media formats now contain at least two audio channels, a left and right.

With spatial audio technology making its way into consumer audio equipment, stereo audio as we know it may soon become a thing of the past too. In this article, we investigate the gradual transition from mono audio to spatial audio over the past 150 years.

SXSW announces first-ever European edition in London

SXSW has now announced that it will be running its first European event in London, in June 2025. 

Child-safety-focused technology company Gabb launches Gabb Music +

Gabb is a child-safety-first hardware/software ecosystem, with smartphones, watches and other devices that offer enhanced parental controls.

Tencent Music’s AI-powered tech can ‘predict the next hit song,’ and 5 other things we learned from its latest annual report

The idea of using data from streaming services to predict hit songs has been around for some time, and a number of research papers have been written on the subject. But AI is bringing this idea closer to reality, and now, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), China’s largest operator of music streaming services, says it has cracked the code.

AM radio law opposed by tech and auto industries is close to passing

A recent test of the emergency alert system found only 1 percent got it via AM.

Spotify Might Soon Be Drowned in Nightcore. But What Is It?

Nightcore = sped up. Vaporwave = slowed down. Nightcore + Vaporwave = normal music.

Concord bows out of Hipgnosis bidding war, saying its $1.51bn offer is ‘final and will not be increased’

The bidding war for Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF), a company boasting a vast music catalog, started in mid-April when Concord, through Concord Chorus Ltd, launched an opening bid of $1.40 billion or $1.16 per share. Partly financed by Apollo Global Management, this initial offer aimed to secure all of HSF’s assets.

Radio Is Still Twice As Popular As Podcasts, Music Streaming

American adults still spend an overwhelming majority of their daily listening time on radio broadcasts despite the rise in popularity of podcasts and music streaming services, new Nielsen data on listening habits in the first quarter of 2024 shows, though younger audiences are starting to buck that trend by choosing on-demand audio at a higher rate than their elders.

Beatport president Matt Gralen talks revenue growth, downloads and reaching a new generation of DJs

“We have revenue in almost every country around the world. But what I'd say is that we're focused on more intentional investment into emerging markets, and into markets that maybe we just historically haven't focused as much on. So our biggest market is the US, behind that the UK and Germany are number two, number three.

Feed.fm Partners With Cyanite, Leveraging AI to Improve Music Discoverability

Cyanite’s AI solutions will help power the music compliance and recommendation engine in Feed.fm’s Unified Music System.

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