Anthony Fantano on politics in music: “Advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking is just lame”Should music stay out of politics? Should every protest anthem blow your mind? And is it really fair to expect a chart-topping banger to double as a political manifesto?
Anthony Fantano, host of The Needle Drop and one of the internet’s most influential music critics, says no – and thinks our expectations around political music might be the real problem.

READ MORE: “It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thing

“I think advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking, like broadly speaking, is just kind of lame,” says Fantano on a recent episode of Joshua Citarella’s Doomscroll podcast.
But that doesn’t mean political music gets a free pass. Fantano argues that while injecting big ideas into your art is a good thing, it’s also incredibly hard to pull off – especially when fans expect deep ideology and catchy hooks in the same breath.
“Making political art is difficult because not only does that require you to put yourself in a position where you’re saying or advocating for something that you know may automatically turn off,” he explains.
“But also in terms of the people that do actually agree with you… you’re faced with the difficulty of putting it in such a way where it’s said well and advocated for well and doesn’t come across as just like some dumb sloganeering.”
In short, it’s tough to strike the right balance. Fantano adds that even when an artist and their fans share the same worldview, disappointment can still set in if the message doesn’t go deep enough.
“There’s a lot of people that have the expectation that… even though this band may align with me ideologically, they didn’t say anything that blew my mind or caused me to have a revelation… which I feel is kind of an unfair expectation especially if you are somebody who’s politically well read.”
His advice? Don’t expect a three-minute track to change your life: “We have to kind of like set our expectations a little bit when it comes to a song,” says Fantano. “It’s not a political dissertation. It’s not an article. It’s not a think piece. Not every song is going to be like System of a Down’s Prison Song where they’re rattling off statistics or whatever.”
Watch the full interview below.

The post Anthony Fantano on politics in music: “Advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking is just lame” appeared first on MusicTech.

“If artists are lucky, we get in your ‘For You’ page”: Loco Dice on the harsh truth of modern music discoveryLoco Dice has played the biggest clubs in the world, collaborated with legends, and just dropped a new album packed with stars like Skrillex, Carl Cox and Marco Carola. But in 2025, even he’s at the mercy of the algorithm.
Speaking to Billboard about his latest project Purple Jam, the German DJ and producer shares how making great music is only half the battle – getting people to actually hear it is the real challenge.

READ MORE: “It’s our job to question the algorithms”: Jaden Smith on experimenting with release methods

Asked what success for Purple Jam looks like, Dice says, “That a lot of people get this album. These days it’s not like you put it in the record store and people know… These days we are driven by algorithm, so we’re kind of screwed.”
“If we are lucky, we get in your ‘for you’ page. If we are not lucky, you find out a year later, or never.”
The harsh reality, Dice explains, is that even in front of a packed dance floor, the artist often goes unseen.
“[At live sets] maybe 20% of people know [who I am], but for sure 50% don’t care,” he says. “They just come because you’re a badass DJ, or because the party is great. So this is the difficulty, and that’s why, when you ask what is success for the album, it’s that everybody gets a chance to listen to and appreciate it.”
According to Loco, the deluge of new music across digital platforms has also made “finding good music” an uphill task.
“There’s too much music. I’m flooded with music on WhatsApp, iMessage, Instagram here, there. I can’t follow up anymore,” says the DJ. “Then you spend like, four hours of your time and don’t find one track. It’s kind of demotivating.”
“Everybody’s trying to do the copy/paste or trying to pick up samples that you played live. It’s devastating. For me this is the most challenging part – finding the right artist, sent to me through the right channel, music that I can play it, release, or just get inspired by to make more music out of it.”

The post “If artists are lucky, we get in your ‘For You’ page”: Loco Dice on the harsh truth of modern music discovery appeared first on MusicTech.

How This Artist Manager Deepens the Fan Relationship and Prioritizes Mental HealthThis week, Ari is joined by Jaclyn O'Connell—artist manager and media strategist—to talk touring, fan growth, and career sustainability.

Growing BTC reserve requires Congressional legislation — VanEck execBuilding a permanent US strategic Bitcoin reserve would likely require targeted legislation rather than executive action, according to VanEck’s head of digital assets, Matthew Sigel. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, Sigel said the most viable path forward may involve inserting Bitcoin mining incentives into the congressional budget reconciliation process.According to Sigel, the most effective path to growing a US strategic Bitcoin reserve would be through targeted amendments to congressional budget legislation. These could include tax credits for mining companies that use methane gas and other incentives aimed at encouraging miners to share a portion of their mined BTC with the federal government. He argued that such an approach would allow the reserve to grow organically over time. Sigel also highlighted the limitations of executive actions in achieving this goal:"The problem with executive action is that it's going to prompt lawsuits. And anything over $100 million is going to get sued by the Elizabeth Warrens of the world. So, I would say start with something maybe in the Exchange Stabilization Fund for $100 million."US President Donald Trump established the US Bitcoin Strategic Reserve through a March 7 executive order. According to the order, the US government can only acquire Bitcoin through budget-neutral strategies or asset forfeiture, prompting a range of different ideas on how to add to the government’s stockpile of nearly 200,000 BTC.From left to right, Alex Thorn, Matthew Sigel, Matthew Pines and Fred Thiel. Source: Turner Wright/CointelegraphRelated: Bitcoin’s new highs may have been driven by Japan bond market crisisLawmakers, officials pitch different ideas to grow strategic Bitcoin reserveWyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, the US lawmaker who introduced legislation for a Bitcoin strategic reserve in July 2024, proposed converting a portion of the gold certificates held by the US Treasury to Bitcoin.Converting gold to Bitcoin would allow the US government to purchase more Bitcoin without incurring a cost to the taxpayer, Lummis said.Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, echoed the idea in March 2025.Hines called on the US Treasury to revalue its gold holdings, which are currently priced at just $42.22 per troy ounce, and convert a portion of those gains to Bitcoin. This strategy would also be budget-neutral, Hines said.The price of gold reached an all-time high of $3,500 per ounce in April but experienced a minor pullback to around $3,300 on May 27.Magazine: TradFi fans ignored Lyn Alden’s BTC tip — Now she says it’ll hit 7 figures: X Hall of Flame

Snoop Dogg embraces AI in new music video — and, yes, it’s kinda weirdLegendary rap artist Snoop Dogg has just dropped the official music video for his single, Sophisticated Crippin’, from his album Iz It A Crime? And it’s packed to the brim with generative AI footage.
The music video starts out with a suited-up current-day Snoop Dogg having a conversation with a younger Snoop Dogg, wearing crip colours — older Snoop pleads that younger Snoop “keep crippin, but keep it ‘sophisicated crippin’”. If you’re somehow not convinced that these two Snoops aren’t made with a generative AI model, the next scene definitely will. The video cuts to the front of a music venue with “Snoop Dogg” in lights at the top, and random, gibberish text underneath to represent other artists.
The rest of the music video, directed by Jesse Wellens, seems to be mostly AI, too. Generated clips of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Warren G, Nate Dogg and Tupac and more all appear, alongside some classic photos of Snoop Dogg that have been ‘brought to life’ with the generative AI software.
Check it out below.

The video is sure to unsettle some viewers, with its uncanny valley-esque animation and bizarre twists and turns — not to mention the conflict over the use of AI in the film indsutry right now. Others, however, may see the inspiring side of the video, knowing they, too, are able to harness the AI tools Snoop and his team used to make music videos.
This isn’t the first time Snoop has used generative AI on an official music video. In April, the artist dropped the video for Last Dance with Mary Jane ft. Tom Petty & Jelly Roll, was made using AI image creation software developed by Temple Caché. However, according to a report by Little Black Book, none of the scenes in the video were completely AI-generated. “To achieve subtle details and ensure consistency across shots, each frame was touched by human artists – reanimated, composited and layered manually,” said Psyop’s head of studio partnerships, Andrew Linsk.

Snoop Dogg’s Iz It A Crime? is out now. 
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James Taylor at the Santa Barbara BowlJames Taylor played the Santa Barbara Bowl (SBB) on May 13th and 14th. Taylor most recently performed at the SBB on May 31st, 2023. Last year, Taylor played the Hollywood Bowl and every time Taylor tours, you can expect a new show and different setlist from the previous one. Last year's show was broken into two sets, though this time around his performance was just one set. Not only were there a few changes to the setlist, but the first two songs of the encore had changed. Taylor played an incredible show of hits, covers, and rarities with his band. Opening the show at 7 p.m. was the trio Tiny Habits. Taylor took the stage at 8:20 p.m. and played an hour and 40 minutes.His “All Star Band” really is elite with session greats Michael Landau (Guitar), Chad Wackerman (Drums), Jimmy Johnson (Bass), ‘Blue’ Lou Marini (Sax), Larry Goldings (Keys), and Luis Conte (Percussion). There were also four backing vocalists including Taylor’s son Henry, Kate Markowitz, Andrew McCuller, Dorian Holley, and Andrea Zonn. Wackerman is filling in for Steve Gadd while out with Paul Simon. The 21-song setlist included many hits like “Carolina On My Mind,” “Mexico,” and “Sweet Baby James.” "Steamroller" featured Landau on one unforgettable guitar solo and Goldings on an organ solo. The visuals were spectacular with the screen above the stage changing for each song. This was also a night of storytelling, including a bit about how a contract Troubadour founder Doug Weston had artists sign to come back and play there even once becoming famous and working with Carole King.On top of "Steamroller," during the encore, Taylor performed "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “You Can Close Your Eyes.” From Taylor’s self-titled debut in 1969 to his latest album American Standard released in 2020, all have made the charts—with the highest being 2015’s “Before This World” at number one. Of all those albums, 15 went between Gold and Platinum in the U.S.Taylor has been nominated for 19 GRAMMYs (and won six) on top of being a Kennedy Center honoree, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, MusiCares Honoree, an honorary doctorate from Berklee School of Music in his hometown of Boston, MA, and is even an Emmy winner. Taylor is also a member of both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. SetlistWandering

I’m A Roadrunner-J.R. Walker & The All Stars

Walking Man

Stretch of the Highway

My Traveling Star

Jump Up Behind Me

Mexico

Carolina in My Mind

Only A Dream In Rio

Up on the Roof- Carole King

The Frozen Man

You’ve Got a Friend- Carole King

Sweet Baby James

Fire and Rain

(I've Got to) Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That

 Shed a Little Light

Shower the People

Your Smiling FaceEncoreSteamroller

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)- Marvin Gaye

You Can Close Your Eyes Photos by Alex KluftThe post James Taylor at the Santa Barbara Bowl first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Anthropic launches a voice mode for ClaudeAnthropic has begun to roll out a “voice mode” for its Claude chatbot apps. The voice mode (in beta for now) allows Claude mobile app users to have “complete spoken conversations with Claude,” and will arrive in English over the next few weeks, according to Anthropic’s official account on X and updated documentation on the […]

Spotify has reached 100m paying subscribers in Europe, Daniel Ek confirmsSpotify reported on April 29 that it grew its global Premium Subscriber base to 268m paying users in Q1
Source

How to chop samples like a pro
Expert producer vvundertone breaks down the art of sample chopping, covering everything from sound design to the joys of using analog hardware.

8UP 8-Bit Pain8-Bit Pain is a collection of NES-era damage sound effect samples, capturing the classic sound of getting hurt by taking a hit. These are the 8-bit sounds of getting stabbed, scratched, shot, whacked, burned, bashed, and clobbered. The samples are organized into five sound categories: Slashes & Scratches – noisy swipes from blades or claws. Blows – bigger hits from heavy weapons and punches. Blunts – taking damage from dull objects like bats, bricks, and bullets. Low Buzzes – short, stinging hits with a low-pitched buzz. Moving Tones – painful shifts in frequency and pitch. This pack contains: 101 8-Bit Pain Samples (Slashes & Scratches, Blows, Blunts, Low Buzzes & Moving Tones). 1 SFX Patch for Native Instruments Kontakt, Ableton Live, Maschine, Logic Pro EXS24/Sampler, FL Studio, MPC Expansion Pack, and TAL-Sampler. 24-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV files. 6 MB. Pack Demo: Read More

Hand Truck Turned Into MotorcycleFor those motorcyclists looking to get a classic American-style cruiser, often the go-to brand is Harley-Davidson. However, these bikes not only have reputations for being stuck in the past, both in terms of design and culture, but they also tend to be extremely expensive—not only upfront, but in maintenance as well. If you want the style without all of that baggage, you might want to try out something like this custom motorcycle which not only looks the part, it reduces those costs by being built around a hand truck.
By the end of the project, though, the hand truck does not retain much of its original form or function. [Garage Avenger] has cut and welded it essentially into a custom frame for the diminutive motorcycle, while retaining much of its original look and feel. Keeping up with the costs savings aspect of this project, the four-stroke engine was free, although it did take some wrenching to get it running and integrated into the frame. A custom axle, a front end from another bike, a gas tank from an online retailer (that needed re-welding), and some wiring finishes out the build.
With a fresh paint job to match the original color of the hand truck, it’s off to the track. Of course it doesn’t have quite the performance of most street legal motorcycles, including some quirks with the handling and braking, but for the trails around [Garage Avenger]’s home it’s certainly a fun transportation mode he can add to his repertoire. If this is your first time seeing one of his projects, be sure to check out his other work including this drifting shopping cart and this turbine-powered sled.

Kali Audio introduce the SM-8 Combining Kali Audio's proven three-way coincident architecture with top-quality components and skilled craftsmanship, the SM-8 is aimed at critical production applications, and promises to deliver unparalleled imaging, accuracy and detail.

Arturia’s new “future-proof” AstroLab 88 keyboard will receive regular firmware updatesArturia has launched a new stage keyboard, the AstroLab 88, which the brand describes as “future-proof”.
The new keyboard offers a responsive hammer-action keybed with 40 onboard instruments and over 1,600 presets (powered by the Arturia V Collection and Pigments), updated CPU for improved polyphony and load times, and a “forward-thinking ecosystem that lets artists perform with all their signature sounds – laptop-free”.

READ MORE: At $60, Arturia’s MicroLab MK3 MIDI controller could be perfect for bedroom producers

AstroLab 88 has a performance-first design, and is the first stage keyboard that integrates seamlessly with your DAW through Analog Lab Pro (included). Users can take their studio-crafted sounds to the stage, with no computer required, and the AstroLab Connect app is also included, which acts as a command centre for browsing, organising, and tweaking your sounds on the go.
The keyboard will continue to evolve and improve via regular firmware upgrades, with a major update due by 17 July set to bring new and updated V Collection 11 instruments, playlist transfer between Analog Lab Pro and AstroLab, plus the ability to send programme changes to external devices, and more.
Other key features include:

A navigation wheel and OLED screen
Four macro controls
10 preset buttons for one-touch access to sounds and setlists
Integrated effects: Two dedicated FX (Delay and Reverb) and two assignable FX slots
Chord, Scale, and Arp modes
Multi-instruments: AstroLab 88 lets you assign different sounds across the keyboard with programmable split points
Loop and record (with up to 32 bars of MIDI looping)
A vocoder engine

Additional useful appointments include wireless playback, a ‘one-finger’ song mode (combine the Chord, Scale and Arpeggio modes to play a full song with one finger), a playlist mode to organise and build live sets directly on the keyboard, and a curated selection of sounds from iconic artists, all on board.
To find out more, check out the video below:
Find out more about the AstroLab 88 keyboard via Arturia. 
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Live Nation is devouring live music, says Wall Street JournalLive Nation is devouring live music and the live music industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company's "flywheel" approach fueled its rise and could lead to its breakup as the Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit continues.
The post Live Nation is devouring live music, says Wall Street Journal appeared first on Hypebot.

How Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard, and Jonathan Zawada produced ‘Tall Tales’ in a Miro boardWhen Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard, and Jonathan Zawada started creating their new collaborative audiovisual album, Tall Tales, they did not set out to thematically bind it to the real world like a traditional tall tale. In fact, their approach serves to reject any sort of salient meaning.
As the musicians behind the project, Yorke and Pritchard leaned into their decades of experimentation with instruments and techniques. They’ve crafted alien marching band suites in Back in the Game, melancholy progressive dark wave on A Faker in a Faker’s World, and alternative minimalist synth pop on This Conversation is Missing Your Voice.
READ MORE: Who is the next Aphex Twin? Meet the producers warping the future of electronic music
Zawada, who has created imagery for notable artists including Flume, Röyksopp, and The Avalanches, directed a melange of random visual pieces for the accompanying film. The first shot after the opening credits is a lighthouse piercing the dark with prismatic frequencies. Later on, viewers see children playing in garbage dumps and robot arms painting on canvases in unison. The only uniting factor between these sporadic depictions is a psychedelic avian-human hybrid navigating a virtual floating island between clips.

“When I think about what the film is about to me, from the very beginning, the feeling I got was one of disorientation or confusion,” Zawada says. “It’s quite tricky to construct something to get a feeling of confusion and disorientation across, because in making something, you have to do something concrete. Then, especially once you start talking about it, all of that confusion sort of dissipates.”
Zawada was right in anticipating that the shroud of confusion would be lifted from the project. As the work has been finished and shared, an underlying meaning has begun to form between its elaborate layers. The ostensible story is artistically incredulous, just as in tall tales like that of the giant Paul Bunyan, who dragged his axe across the southwest to form the Grand Canyon. As outrageous as that is, the Grand Canyon is real.
Tall Tales was written and visualised completely uncurated, delineating a profound truth: the world is uncurated. There is no one way forward. Everyone is doing their best to make sense of the insanity every day.
“The tall tale is that anybody is in control of anything,” Zawada continues. “When I was doing research for stories with the videos, it was during COVID. So everything felt like it was about COVID. Everybody’s telling you this is a completely unique time. Then that period faded into the past, and as I was working on other stuff, uncovering all these other crazy stories that were informing what I was doing. You slowly realise it’s like this all the time. The world is just a swirling mass of craziness.”
Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard. Image: Pierre Toussaint
To create an album that represents the absurdity of the world, the three contributors worked through a unique process that was both separate and collaborative. Yorke, Pritchard, and Zawada were never once in the room together over the several years they spent on it, and they only had a handful of Zoom calls to align their progress.
They trusted each other’s creative abilities because they had all worked together in the past. Zawada designed visuals for multiple projects from Pritchard, including his 2016 album, Under The Sun, which features a co-production between Pritchard and Yorke entitled Beautiful People. Pritchard had also remixed one of Yorke’s solo productions, Not The News.
With that preexisting trust (and a lack of deadlines from their label, Warp), the trio were free to let the project evolve at its own pace and lean into its uncurated nature. On Pritchard’s part, creating much of the backing music while Yorke mostly handled lyrics and vocals, he explored a vast range of synths. Some were rare and esoteric, such as the Korg PS 3100, Roland CR-78 drum machine, and a Triadex Muse.
While Pritchard does own a Minimoog, Arp Odyssey, and other impressive synths after over 30 years of producing music, he accessed many of the more obscure synths through Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. By paying a membership fee and then a separate fee for each studio session, anyone can experiment with the same arsenal Pritchard used to create Tall Tales.

“You get a chance to play on these synthesizers that are really hard to keep working, let alone afford,” Pritchard says, also being sure to mention he used numerous bits of tech that were very cheap. “You could pick up Casios, old Yamahas, cheap toy things for between $30 and $100. There’ll be something in there. There’ll be a sound. There’ll be a source. It’s good to limit yourself to something [and think] ‘I’m going to make something out of this today’. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but it’s fun to try things out.”
As Pritchard tried these different synths, he would place new ideas in their shared Miro Board, an online collaborative workspace often used by corporations. All three of them would populate the board with updates, allowing each other to see everything evolve in real time, both taking and fueling inspiration.
“It was really useful to me to see the world growing, even though I might not know what some of the imagery was on the Miro Board,” Pritchard says. “It helped keep me excited because when you’re doing weeks of technical, painstaking work, it’s nice to have a lift where you see Jonathan working on a clip, and I see something come to life.”
Zawada adds, “So much of the time, nobody shows me anything until [the album’s] been mixed. In this instance, working on everything while Mark and Thom were working on the music, even if we weren’t necessarily feeding back, the outcome of the work, because it was all evolving in tandem, all felt much more meshed together. It gave me an opportunity to hear the layers of the songs build and respond to those with more nuance.”

Before the music came together, Zawada didn’t even intend for Tall Tales to have an accompanying film. He only knew he wanted to make a separate visual piece for each song, but as the musical layers built up, one core narrative that was in Zawada’s head was a protagonist washing up on an island where all the absurdity in the songs was taking place. This character would make its way through the madness and come out on the other side.
That’s where the floating island and the avian lead came from. They were the last pieces of visuals Zawada created for the project, and they bound it all together into a singular visual piece.
“It was based on something that Thom said when we were watching videos. He didn’t make the suggestion of the island, but said something about the way they all connect. That made me think I need something to give people something to latch onto, so you’re not just floating in space amongst all this material. But at the same time, we’re not forcing a connection between these things that may or may not be there,” Zawada says.
The connection is for the listener and the viewer to decide, which emphasises the prevailing sentiment of the project. Everyone is doing their best to make sense of all the craziness in the world. Tall Tales is what happens when three artists create the space for one another to make sense of it towards a common goal.
Learn more about Tall Tales at warp.net.
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