The music industry is engineering artist popularity – listeners are right to be angry
Numerous tactics, including payola-like deals on Spotify, are promoting artists people haven’t chosen to hear – but the industry refuses to discuss it
CDs sales are growing. How I wish I hadn’t given my beloved collection away
Compact discs provided the soundtrack to his life. Then came streaming and he couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. As CDs enjoy a renaissance, our writer looks back at what he lost
Mungo Jerry frontman hopes new anti-piracy tech stops artists losing out
Ray Dorset says band lost £23m in royalties but suggests fingerprinting software could help musicians
‘It’s basically inaccessible without a phone’: are kids losing their love for music?
Children used to obsessively put CDs and 7-inches on repeat, but streaming means they need digital devices and parental permission to play music. And there’s little being done to help
Diva Cups: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)
The pop DJ duo are old enough to have Omegle trauma but young enough to have brain rot. It’s a winning combination
On my radar: Andrew O’Hagan’s cultural highlights
The novelist on a comedic TikTok sensation, the importance of a good suit and his favourite educational app
Everyone Knows That: internet music mystery solved via 1986 adult movie
The search for song that has consumed thousands of Reddit users is over, with discovery that it was written for pornographic film
Bait, ting, certi: how UK rap changed the language of the nation
Fuelled by music fandom and social media, young British people’s slang is evolving to include words with pidgin, patois and Arabic roots – even where strong regional English dialects exist
Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder and more musicians demand protection against AI
Letter signed by more than 200 artists makes broad ask that tech firms pledge to not develop AI tools to replace human creatives
James Blake’s music subscription model is a fantasy that disadvantages fans and musicians
With unrealistic costs, the inability to share music and the pressure of consumer expectations, the producer’s collaboration with Vault doesn’t add up, writes Tom Vek
Danish man found guilty of fraudulently profiting from music streaming royalties
Unnamed 53-year-old made at least £230,000 from artificially generated plays of hundreds of tracks
Swedish composer becomes Spotify’s most-famous musician you’ve never heard of
Johan Röhr’s 2,700 songs have been streamed 15bn times and have more plays than Britney Spears or Abba
‘Where honour and ridiculousness collide’: in praise of karaoke’s inventor, on his death at 100
Shigeichi Negishi’s invention invites us to cast off humility and take a shot at singing stardom. His legacy will be credited – and blamed – for us living out our popstar fantasies
‘There’s joy I haven’t felt for years!’ How an app finally got me hooked on the piano
Thirty years after failing his grade two exam, our writer is banging out Handel, Billie Eilish and Elton John - and he’s not alone. With apps to help with learning, there’s never been a better time to tinkle the ivories
Neil Young to return music to Spotify as he attacks ‘disinformation’ across streaming services
Rock star left Spotify in 2022 in protest over podcaster Joe Rogan, but says he can’t keep up fight as Rogan broadens distribution to Apple, YouTube and Amazon