‘I did things I cringe at’: Alex Warren, rough-sleeper, viral prankster and now No 1 pop sensation

He slept in cars, found notoriety on social media and could be pop’s next superstar. The singer of Ordinary, the longest-running No 1 of the year, talks about his journey to breakout success

My petty gripe: we need nature, not Nickelback – please put on your headphones

I get that the noise in your head is so unbearable it must be drowned out by Mambo No 5. I just don’t think it should be inflicted on the rest of us

Views of TikTok posts with electronic music outgrow those using indie

Videos tagged #ElectronicMusic attracted more than 13bn views worldwide last year, an increase of 45% on 2023

Spotify running again after users around world report problems

Audio streaming app confirms service restored following more than five hours of disruption

‘One minute it’s “would you like to listen to Galaxie 500?”, the next humanity’s enslaved’: can anyone escape Spotify?

As a new book skewers Spotify’s effect on music, two Guardian music writers spent a week assessing the limits of living with and without it

Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez and four others arrive back on Earth after space flight – as it happened

Pop star kisses ground after landing and all-female crew describes feelings of joy, camaraderie and connection to our planet post space flight

The composer still making music four years after his death – thanks to an artificial brain

In Australia, a team of artists and scientists have resurrected the US composer Alvin Lucier. It raises a storm of questions about AI and authorship – and it’s also incredibly beautiful

Which celebrities are lying about their height? This website’s done the research

On Celebheights.com, thousands of users measure the statures of the rich and famous. The methods are scientific and the debates are fiery

On my radar: George the Poet’s cultural highlights

The author and podcast host on a favourite restaurant, adventures in scholastic research for his PhD and the second series of Squid Game

Daveed Diggs’ sci-fi rap trio Clipping: ‘We are at war all the time. It’s one of the great tricks of capitalism’

Diggs’ harrowing music is a world away from his Hollywood films and a Tony-winning run in Hamilton. But his band’s world-building – setting resource wars in imagined cyberpunk clubs – is no less dramatic

UK ministers consider changing AI plans to protect creative industries

Exclusive: partial climbdown over use of work protected by copyright considered after intense lobbying by top artists

Kate Bush and Damon Albarn among 1,000 artists on silent AI protest album

Recordings of empty studios represent impact on musicians of UK’s plans to let AI train on their work without permission

EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act

Architect of copyright law says EU is ‘supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas’

‘We’re projecting into the future’: sounds of BBC Radiophonic Workshop made available for public use

Software goes on sale that replicates the distinctive analogue sounds of celebrated unit where Doctor Who theme was created

More rhythm, less algorithm: why Deezer’s boss is vowing to put users in control of their music

Alexis Lanternier, chief executive of the French streaming service, says it can compete with bigger rivals by rewarding the real musicians its subscribers want to support