Beyoncé won big at the Grammy Awards this year, including nabbing the Best Country Album award for Cowboy Carter. There’s been backlash, with some insisting the Texas native’s work isn’t really a country record.
The argument feels a little thin when internet denizens use AI to replace her voice with a fake Chris Stapleton, like in this altered version of “Protector” or the below take on “Just for Fun.”
The best selling Super Nintendo game of all time (thanks in part to Super Mario World being bundled with the console at launch) is now available for your listening pleasure through the Nintendo Music app.
There are 49 tracks from the game with a total runtime of an hour and five minutes. If you’re listening at work and are racing a deadline, I’d recommend avoiding “Hurry Up!” Invincibility BGM which is still surprisingly stressful.
Silo’s second season may be over, but if you’re not ready to engage with the outside world again, this vibey tour through the show’s sets might be right up your alley.
If you’re free Thursday night, I recommend tuning into the star-studded FireAid concert that will stream live from Los Angeles. The massive lineup includes Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Gracie Abrams, and more. I’m 40 now, so I’m most excited about Dave Matthews and John Mayer performing as a duo.
It’s all for an important cause, and Steve Ballmer has pledged to match donations during the broadcast. As for where you can stream it, the better question is where you can’t. It’s nice to see all the services come together for this one.
Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, is composing some music for the revival of an RPG called Off. You can listen to two tracks and read about Off’s influence on Undertale in an interview on the game’s website, and I’ve included one of the tracks below.
As we await news about the next version of the game potentially debuting on the Switch 2, Nintendo has added the soundtrack for Super Mario Kart — which debuted on the SNES back in 1992 — to its music app. The update includes 37 tracks with a 33 minute runtime that will have you feeling nostalgic or struggling with rekindled red shell trauma.
According to a behind the scenes look at its creation, it took eight days and 1,043 takes for the band to shoot the 64 one-shot videos used in the music video for “A Stone Only Rolls Downhill.”
The band is already well known for its creative music videos, but a sequence featuring 42 iPhones playing a mosaic of synchronized clips is especially mind-boggling.
Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine offers a history of the biggest player in streaming.
As the catalog of soundtracks in the Nintendo Music app continues to expand, Warner Music Japan is releasing a three LP vinyl set on April 30th, 2025, featuring music and sound effects from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. It’s available for preorder through HMV Japan for around $74, which appears to ship to the US.
In this interview clip that 404 Media spotted, CEO Mikey Shulman, who runs bad AI song generator Suno, says that “it’s not really enjoyable to make music now.”
Having lost countless nights to it, and considering my days in recording studios were some of the best of my life, Shulman seems to be either flatly lying or has no idea what he’s talking about.
An attempt to crush myself to death.
According to Netflix and Nielsen, peak viewers for the streamer’s Christmas Day NFL games reached over 27 million during Beyoncé’s halftime show. Now, it’s available to stream directly without the football game.
The music streaming service responded to Drake’s accusations that it used bots and payola to “artificially inflate” Lamar’s streaming numbers, saying Spotify “invests heavily in automated and manual reviews to prevent, detect, and mitigate the impact of artificial streaming on our platform,” Billboard reports.
Have you ever wondered who makes the tunes for Spotify’s “ghost artists?” Real musicians, including a jazz artist interviewed by Liz Pelly, in an excerpt from her upcoming book, Mood Machine. I wonder how long that gig will last...
[Harper's Magazine]
Brilliant decision by The Game Awards Orchestra. The rest of the music in the annual GOTY nominees medley was awesome, too. And yes, Flute Guy was there.
She’ll be doing a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Netflix says.
Beyoncé’s halftime show later in the day will be live.
Roblox now has a Top 100 music chart that highlights “this week’s most popular music on Roblox based on listens and experience adoptions.”
Don’t sleep on “Jazz Medieval” (#54).
It just usually doesn’t involve posting a fake all-Springsteen top songs list for New Jersey political cred:
When reached Monday afternoon, Gottheimer confirmed his post was indeed a manufactured list and not pulled directly from Spotify.
“This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year-old kids,” Gottheimer said in a statement to NJ Advance Media.
Last year, Joseph Inzerillo announced SiriusXM’s new logo (below) and plan to conquer new audiences. Now he’s out, as the company cuts spending on marketing to “high-churn” streaming audiences with plans to cut an additional $200 million in annual costs.
CEO Jennifer Witz announced it’s “doubling down” on automotive customers, using streaming as a companion in the app and in Teslas.
Apple Music is expanding its lineup of radio stations today with Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill. They’re all pretty self-explanatory, don’t require a subscription, and will be airing original shows featuring some notable artists like Jamie xx, Nia Archives, Brian Eno, and more.
I’ll definitely be giving the Chill station a try during the workday this week.
Whether it’s during Bandcamp Friday or not, buying music sends more money to musicians than playing a subscription stream. So, it might be worth celebrating this event where Bandcamp waives its cut of the money you spend one last time for 2024 as it continues for the next seven hours or so.
Bandcamp has changed hands twice and had significant layoffs since the pandemic tradition started; we’ll see if it continues in 2025.
This year, Spotify teamed up with Google to let you generate a podcast with two AI ‘hosts’ based on what you’ve listened to.
Even Amazon Music is getting in on the yearly recap trend, as its app will now show your top songs, artists, and podcasts of the year, along with other interesting stats under the “2024 Delivered” banner.
The satellite radio service has been available in the Model S and X since 2020 but was conspicuously absent from Tesla’s two best-selling models and electric truck.
Like the Apple Watch app, it’s part of Tesla’s 2024 holiday update, and SiriusXM’s offering a one-month free trial. Of course, Tesla Premium Connectivity ($9.99/month) or an active Wi-Fi connection is also required.
For the anniversary edition of her album, “Goodies,” Ciara removed her collaboration with R. Kelly, but the album includes a very funny mistake: the Windows pop-up sound.
Stereogum found a couple examples of fans playing their records and finding the error on the song “1, 2 Step.” I love it, personally.
