“A mechanical tool is following an intricate signal.” “These are coaxial speakers, and the tweeter’s in the throat of the woofer.” “Now you have 16 sets of stampers for a set of lacquers.” The language can get pretty heady when Bernie Grundman is talking shop at his sprawling, 20,000-square-foot studio in the heart of Hollywood….

On its 25th birthday, revisit the seminal album that changed the course of alt-rock—and the Athens, GA quartet’s career. R.E.M. are an absolute anomaly, and, coincidentally, perhaps one of the biggest benefactors of the cultural sea-change that was the early 1990s alt-rock explosion. In the mid-’80s the Athens, GA, quartet were already college radio stalwarts,…

Under pressure from the music labels and Apple Music, Billboard magazine is ending its practice of giving equal weight to paid streams and free streams in its music charts. Currently a single that is bought from Apple’s download store or streamed on its paid subscription service is viewed the same as a free stream on…

The world’s biggest streaming service is kicking its music discovery efforts into a higher gear. Friday (Oct. 20) marks the launch of RISE, an emerging artist program that leverages the platform’s promotional resources for a hand-picked roster of up-and-coming musicians. “We have the biggest distribution system in the world for streaming music so why not…

This article originally appeared in The Sounding Off Issue, no. 350, Winter 2017. “I… don’t… know,” Kendrick Lamar says when asked to explain why Donald Trump became President of the United States. Few people understand America the way Kendrick does, so surely he must know something about how the billionaire reality TV star has happened…

When cultivating a career in music, cash can be hard to come, and when it does finally begin to roll in, it’s critical that you take the time to reinvest at least a portion of the funds back into your career. Here we look at some smart and effective ways to invest in your music…

In every era and in every country, groups of people have been excluded for their differences and ideas. Today is no exception. But we know that cultural tensions and injustices inevitably find an expression in music — and champions in artists. This is why today Spotify is launching its original series, “I’m with the banned,”…

In 2017, pitching tracks to the in-house playlisters at Spotify, Apple Music and other music-streaming services is an important cog in labels’ marketing campaigns. But it’s also a discipline with plenty of mystery around it. How do labels pitch these curators, and what kind of pitches are most likely to succeed? A panel at Music…

There are plenty of unconventional methods to make music, like Shawn Wasabi’s MIDI controller, which is fashioned with 64 arcade buttons, or the cute, squawking Otamatone, which YouTubers have mastered to cover a wide range of beloved tunes. Now, novelty Chinese calculators might be the latest instrument of choice for burgeoning bedroom musicians, particularly the…