PreSonus Studio One Pro becomes Fender Studio Pro: here’s what it means for producersPreSonus Studio One has found a new home under the Fender umbrella as Fender Studio Pro – as the Big F looks to provide the most cohesive DAW environment possible for creators and producers.
Alongside the consolidation of PreSonus Studio One into Fender Studio Pro, PreSonus’s Quantum and AudioBox interface lines are also being rebranded under Fender. Meanwhile, the PreSonus brand remains focused on studio and live gear, maintaining its popular lines of studio monitors, PA speakers, and digital consoles. Fender acquired PreSonus back in 2021.
What does this mean for current Studio One users?
Credit: Fender
If you’ve been using Studio One in your recording, music production, and mixing workflows, there’s no cause for alarm. Fender Studio Pro 8 is the next logical progression of Studio One, and it sits at the centre of the new Fender creator universe. In preparation for this shift, the PreSonus and Fender teams have been working hard to ensure that Studio Pro 8 is the most advanced, efficient, and creative DAW platform that it can be.
As there hasn’t been a UI update in Studio One in some time, Fender Studio Pro brings a fresh look and feel. It’ll still feel familiar to existing users, but features like the Arrangement Overview improve the experience on smaller displays, as well as a new Channel View that gives you an overview of the inserts on the selected channel, with access to key parameters.
Futher feature enhancements include the addition of Mustang and Rumble native plugins, with a range of 39 amps for guitar and bass, and over 70 effects pedals. These plugins have similar interfaces to the Fender Tone app and the Fender Studio mobile and desktop app, the latter of which has also been updated to version 1.2. The Fender Studio app becomes the pocket partner of Studio Pro, with full real-time Wi-Fi integration that allows you to transfer projects and scale your ideas up to fully-fledged productions.
Credit: Fender
Meanwhile, for producers and beatmakers, there are improvements to the range of included virtual instruments. This includes interface updates across the board, as well as some user-requested feature additions for the Impact and SampleOne instruments. This is particularly exciting in the context of the newly redesigned Fender Motion MIDI controllers coming this Spring. This will provide a tactile platform to harness all the new and existing features, giving you a similar feel to some of the legendary sampler/sequencers of the past.
“We live so much of our lives in music today in the digital domain compared to where we were even 10 years ago,” says Max Gutnik, Chief Product Officer at Fender. “As the modern signal chain has gone digital, an iPhone could easily become the guitar amp for the new generation of musicians. This is why we want to ensure that the modern signal chain evolves with them, and the level of creative inspiration is consistent as they move between hardware and software.”
What are some of the notable music production and live performance features?
Credit: Fender
Fender Studio Pro brings a range of improvements which expand the platform’s potential from a creative standpoint. The integration of AI-assisted stem splitting has been refined for more practical applications. For accurate drum replacement, you can isolate the drum hits in an existing audio file and convert them to MIDI in a single-step process called Extract Drums. Equally, you can use the Extract Notes feature to transfer a recorded instrument take into MIDI and use it with a software instrument of your choosing.
The same process can also be performed with chords, and the extracted information is instantly transferred to the Chord Track. The Studio Pro Chord Track, with its drag-and-drop import functionality, is particularly useful because it can feed chord information to 3rd-party plugins like Celemony Melodyne and others from developers like UJAM. Also, with the new AI enhancements, you can access the chord recommendation database in the backend of Studio Pro. There is also some crossover functionality, because the new version 1.2 update of Fender Studio adds the Chord Track, with a chord detection function to find out the chord sequence of any song.
On top of all this, Studio Pro’s Show Page now enables you to send a video file alongside each of your backing tracks via HDMI, visually enhancing your stage performance. What’s impressive, too, is the new integration with the Fender Tone Master Pro guitar processor, as it becomes a controller for your setlist and transport functions while being able to receive program changes that ensure you have the corresponding tone for each of your songs.
What inspired the change from PreSonus to Fender?
Credit: Fender
The change came as Fender recognised the potential for musicians to user their affinity for guitars and Fender as a brand to channel that inspiration into the creative workflow of Studio Pro. With the marriage between Fender and PreSonus, the development teams create a symbiotic system that can deliver the best of both technological worlds to benefit both new and experienced users alike.
This consolidation will allow Fender to evolve with the next generation of musicians, and by doing so, remain at the forefront of creative technological development in this ever-changing space.
“One of the biggest challenges we face today is inspiring new creatives to actively make music,” says Arnd Kaiser, General Manager for Software at PreSonus. “Rather than simply providing a range of integrated technological solutions, the synergy between Fender and PreSonus bolsters the way we relate to musicians. Studio One was already a popular DAW with guitarists, but this new transformation presents the creative potential of Studio Pro to a wider range of users, in any musical genre.”
How can I get Fender Studio Pro?
Fender Studio Pro is available now, with a perpetual license priced at $199.99/£169.99, or a monthly subscription priced at $19.99/£19.99. A number of upgrade options are also available for existing users.
You can learn more by heading over to Fender.
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Loewe teams up with Kylian Mbappé on new Bluetooth speaker, the We. HEAR ProAfter tapping Kylian Mbappé for the launch of its first-ever over-ear headphones back in September, German electronics brand Loewe has partnered with the French football star once again on a new Bluetooth speaker, the We. HEAR Pro.
Designed in collaboration with the Real Madrid striker, the We. HEAR Pro features a cylindrical design in an array of colours – with one emulating even the most neon of football boots – and aims to symbolise the “fusion of sporting excellence and cutting-edge technology”.

READ MORE: Why you should – or should not – upgrade to Cubase 15

Promising 24 hours of battery life – chargeable to full in just two hours via USB-C – the We. HEAR Pro has a frequency range between 50 Hz and 20 kHz at an 88 dB sound pressure level for a “deeply immersive listening experience”, and boasts an array of drivers, passive bass radiators and a class-D amplifier for a “powerful and pristine” sound.
Credit: Loewe
Optimised for horizontal placement, the speaker allows for direct control of bass and treble, and also has the ability to wirelessly sync via Bluetooth to up to 14 other We. HEAR Pro devices, meaning you can get creative with multi-speaker setups.
The We. HEAR Pro is also built for portability and durability. It’s water and dust resistant and comes with a handy shoulder strap, while further useful features include a built-in microphone for calls, and the unit can even double as a power bank, too.
Credit: Loewe
As an added visual touch, the speaker also sports Kylian Mbappé’s initials.
Available in three colourways – denim, neon and black – the We. HEAR Pro is available now both via Loewe’s online store, and at Real Madrid’s flagship store at the Santiago Bernabéu in the Spanish capital.
Price-wise, the We. HEAR Pro clocks in at £249.99.
Learn more at Loewe.

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Hans Zimmer criticises Golden Globes for not airing Best Original Score category: “It’s a shame not to honour those people who work so hard”Hans Zimmer has shared his disappointment over the Golden Globes’ decision to not televise its Best Original Score category.
The 83rd annual Golden Globes, which honours work across film and TV, took place on Sunday 11 January in Beverly Hills, California. Zimmer was nominated in the Best Original Score category for his work on F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt.

READ MORE: “At that moment, I thought only an idiot would say no”: How an invitation from Pharrell Williams ended Hans Zimmer’s fear of performing live

Other nominees included Max Richter (Hamnet), Alexandre Desplat (Frankenstein), Jonny Greenwood (One Battle After Another), and Kangding Ray (Sirāt). Ultimately, Ludwig Göransson won the Golden Globe for his work on the score for Sinners.
Speaking to Variety prior to the ceremony, Zimmer shared his belief that the work on movie scores should always be acknowledged: “I think it’s a shame not to honour those people – my friends – who work so hard to become a voice, to give the tone to help you navigate the emotional content of the film,” he said.
“As a person who has been making films forever, everybody who works on a film does their utmost, doesn’t get any sleep, there are no weekends. Sometimes my children wonder who I am, I come into the house and they call the police,” he joked.
“I think the work should always be acknowledged. This year is a fantastic year for composers – don’t ignore them, you don’t have a movie without them.”
You can watch his interview from the 39:54 timestamp:

Last year it was reported that a planning application for a “retrofit-first refurbishment” of Maida Vale was officially submitted to Westminster City Council by a group consisting of Zimmer, his business partner Steve Kofsky, and British film producers Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan.
A website launched prior to the approval outlined the group’s mission to set “new benchmarks for excellence in British film and music post-production, fostering the creation of new jobs, driving innovation, and promoting industry investment.” The application was later approved, and it was reported that work on the site is due to commence in October 2026.
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Hip-hop remains Splice’s most downloaded genre for the third year in a rowHip-hop has taken the top spot as the most downloaded genre on Splice for the third year in a row, according to its joint Sounds of 2026 annual report with MIDiA Research.
The report tracks the genres, sounds, and trends shaping the sound of music, and the new data has shown a “turning point” is emerging in across the industry, as listening habits continue to fragment and micro-trends are leading to genre fluidity.

READ MORE: Universal Music Group and Splice are partnering to build “commercial AI tools” for music creation

Hip-hop holds its position as the most downloaded genre and trap remains the top sub genre, but throwback sounds like G-funk, boom bap, and underground sounds like rage and pluggnb are driving growth, according to the report.
Afro house has been chosen as Splice’s ‘sound of the year’, with house rising from 2023’s 5th most downloaded genre to 2nd in 2025. Afro house has driven 70 percent of that growth in the past year and melodic house has grown by 275 percent to 3.2 million downloads.
Pop has also made a resurgence in popularity across Splice, and is back in the top three after having dropped from 2nd to 4th position in 2024. Hyperpop and indie pop are leading sub genres, but bedroom pop is the biggest growth story within the genre, with downloads rising 297 percent. There were also two million downloads of a 2000s Power Tools pop pack from Oliver, the producer behind the key samples used in Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso.

Overall, the research shows that music is undergoing “a once-in-a-decade shift” as fans and artists are exploring what it means to “create and connect at a time when technological advances are bringing about changes in global exchange, democratisation, and personalisation at an unprecedented speed”.
“Music has entered an era where the biggest trends are personal,” says Kakul Srivastava, CEO of Splice. “Our data shows creators pulling inspiration from everywhere at once, blending global sounds and local scenes to create music that feels both deeply human and culturally expansive. Sounds of 2026 captures that shift in real time.”
Mark Mulligan, Managing Director and Music Analyst at MIDiA Research, adds: “In a music economy increasingly shaped by micro-trends, sample usage offers one of the clearest signals of what’s coming next. The sounds creators choose today reflect not only genre evolution, but deeper cultural shifts towards global exchange and scene-driven growth.”
Find out more and read the report over at Splice. You can also learn more about MIDiA Research.
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Suno Studio review: Is this AI DAW really the future of music production?£18 per month subscription, suno.com
As we start 2026, the battle for AI music-generating dominance is as fierce as ever. Suno has added Studio to its line-up, and we’re seeing competing products such as Moises AI Studio and ACE Studio flock to market.

READ MORE: Cubase 15, as reviewed by a Logic Pro user: “The most versatile DAW I’ve ever used”

We are now entering the era of the AI DAW. Up to this point, generative AI music involved inputting a prompt that would create a whole piece of music, but you had little control to edit the specifics beyond just extending the track. These new AI DAWs give you much greater control, with the ability to work on individual stems, generate specific instruments and even extract MIDI data.
Suno Studio is technically still in Beta and has a long way to go until it fulfils its potential. However, it’s an intriguing glimpse of a future that makes AI tools much more flexible and usable without it feeling like you’re giving up all creative control.
Since its launch in 2023, Suno’s influence has been far-reaching and controversial, with roughly seven million AI songs created on it every day. This review focuses on the recent release of Suno Studio, which adds extra DAW-like control alongside the main Suno feature set (Suno says that it’s a “Browser-based Generative Audio Workstation”.
I’m approaching Suno Studio as a producer who’s been writing electronic music for over 30 years, looking to find ways to enhance my workflow rather than completely change or replace it. Can Suno Studio really inspire me when I’m stuck, and generate improved versions of rough samples or ideas, or will it just offer up AI slop?

How to use Suno Studio
Although you can get a Pro plan for £6 a month to generate AI music, you’ll need the full Premier Plan at £18 a month to get access to Suno Studio. This also gives you 10,000 credits per month to experiment with — plenty for the average user.
Suno Studio is a browser-based tool that can be accessed as a tab alongside the other Suno features. The main interface is split into four sections: a creation window, a library that displays your tracks and projects, the main arrangement window, and a clip and track detail window.
The first interface is where you generate your content. You can add your own lyrics (or get Suno to write them for you), you can prompt for the style of track that you’re looking for, and you can tweak a number of other parameters to tailor how closely or loosely Suno will follow your guidelines. It’s obviously different from directly composing your own music, but prompting a well-written, original sounding and cohesive track is still a skill that has to be learnt to get the best results. The online documentation can get you started, but the finer details about how to get decent-sounding tracks are ambiguous. Your best bet is to pore over the many YouTube videos with tips from other creators and then experiment yourself.
Image: Press
Suno Studio’s generative AI music in practice
One of the main issues with AI generation is the lack of consistency. You’re essentially putting information in, clicking ‘Go’ and hoping for the best. And each time you generate anything, you’re using up some of your (admittedly generous) monthly allowance of credits. Suno has gone some way to improving the situation with the ability to upload a piece of audio as a starting point that can then be remixed. There’s also a feature called Inspo, which lets you build a playlist of four tracks that it uses as inspiration for a new piece, and also Persona, where you can teach Suno the sound of a specific voice and then use the same vocal for every track. I find the Remix audio function extremely useful when working on tracks where I’ve hit a dead-end. It provides endless new musical motifs, chord progressions and drum fills that I would never have come up with, and I can cherry-pick the best of these ideas to then recreate within my Logic Pro project.
Persona is less successful. I generate a couple of voice profiles from some of my old tracks with different singers, but it takes all of the edge off of them and makes them sound generic and too polished, even turning one from an English to an American accent. Making generic music is an argument that’s often thrown at Suno and AI music, as the technology’s natural tendency is to go for the most popular and common-sounding results. I find this especially when working on electronic dance music; it seems desperate to make everything sound like over-produced EDM. It can be wrangled into sounding more characterful and original, but it takes time, practice, and often experimenting with multiple generations of audio.
There’s no doubt that you get a dopamine hit when generating prompts, as you wonder whether the next one might hit on gold. But if you’re a working professional, then the lack of consistency and time-wasting required might prove a dealbreaker when working to a deadline. Although the overall sonics will generally sound well mixed, it doesn’t stand up well to increased scrutiny. Top-end transients tend to appear smeared, and you still hear the subtle artefacts of a lower bit-rate output. It’s definitely come a long way in two years, though, and a careful choice of prompting with phrases like ‘high-quality’ and ‘studio-quality’ can improve the results. The musical content that can be generated (when all goes well) is often excellent. It has flair, with musical and production embellishments that sound professional.
You may have read about the recent deal between Suno and Warner Music. Suno plans to replace its current AI models with licensed ones built on authorised data sometime in 2026, which will no doubt affect the style and quality of its output. Dubious ethics aside, the ever-growing pile of AI slop tracks and the threat to musicians’ livelihoods are genuine concerns for the industry. As things progress, I hope that an expanded feature set encourages producers to be more creative with these tools.
Image: Press
Suno Studio as a DAW
The most exciting element of Suno Studio is its ability to work at a more granular level. Any audio that you import or generate can be split into stems to work on further with a DAW-like workflow.
On a basic level, you can change volume, panning, the arrangement of any track, and a six-band EQ for further shaping. The quality of the stem separation can be a little hit and miss, with some parts being attributed to the wrong instrument stem. However, for the most part, it’s not far off what you would get using one of the current third-party stem separation services. Finally, being able to get access to a capella vocals and individual instrument parts is a dream come true for someone who loves to sample snippets of records in a traditional sense.
Another hugely useful feature is the ability to extract MIDI parts from a stem. I use it to generate intricate chord stabs for a garage track, and then export the MIDI to refine it in Logic Pro. The output can sometimes be a bit messy, as it’s simply converting the audio into MIDI, but the beauty of this workflow is that you can use your own pristine instrument sounds to improve the sound quality.
Perhaps most impressive is that you can load in a track and then generate a specific instrumental part over a chosen section. So you could highlight a middle eight and say that you want an “energetic saxophone solo”, and it will listen to the rest of the track and create something appropriate.
Suno Studio lets you record, so you can even sing in a melody and then convert it into a chosen instrument. As a test, I roughly record several parts using just my voice and a microphone. Then I convert them all into drums, bass, brass and vocal parts. The workflow is a bit clunky and it takes quite a few tries, as the generated parts drift out of time and some have mismatched swing. Several short parts also get turned into complex, wandering epics. It’s like having a real guitar player that can’t stop showing off with wild jazz noodling when all you want them to do is play the simple progression you’ve given them. Despite these frustrations, the final results were pretty impressive given how bad my original performance is. I can see myself using this generative replacement of audio to take some of my boring piano chords and give them a performative boost.
Some music creators may choose to work solely within Suno Studio, but for many, the ability to finally download audio and MIDI stems means they can import parts into a more powerful DAW for editing and processing. I encounter several bugs when using Safari, but things run smoother when I switch to the recommended Google Chrome.
EQ in Suno Studio. Image: Press
Suno Studio — the future?
It’s pleasing that Suno has listened to its users, and the many features that are being added offer finer control and more repeatable results. But there’s still an air of mystery about how to create a successful prompt, and the large amount of unpredictability can lead to time-consuming frustrations. Sometimes you think you’ve written a prompt that explicitly tells it what you want, but it still disobeys you and adds in an extra random synth solo on top of your a capella.
Suno Studio is still in Beta. I feel like my journey with using AI to enhance my music is just beginning, and I can see my own knowledge and prompting skills improving over time alongside Suno’s audio quality, feature set and predictability.
For all the times it frustrates me and doesn’t give me what I want, there are moments where it truly blows me away and creates a part that transforms the track I’m working on. Even if it’s not totally there yet, it’s an exciting glimpse of a future where we can work alongside these tools without them simply writing the music for us.

Key features

Browser-based Generative Audio Workstation
Lets you generate whole tracks or individual parts
Remixes your audio
Record ideas and then recreate parts using different voices and instruments
Persona feature lets you create re-usable voices
Inspo creates a new track based on up to four inspiration tracks
Auto lyric and artwork generation
Generate downloadable stems from your tracks
Audio to MIDI conversion
V5 models offers more intelligent and natural sounding songs and tracks
Premier Plan required for Suno Studio: includes 10,000 credits per month

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Universal Audio releases UA 610 Tube Preamp & EQ Collection, FREE for a limited time
Universal Audio has released the UA 610 Tube Preamp & EQ Collection, a native plugin bundle for macOS and Windows, available as a free download for a limited time. The UA 610 Tube Preamp & EQ Collection includes software versions of the UA 610-A and 610-B tube preamp and EQ channel strips. Both of these [...]
View post: Universal Audio releases UA 610 Tube Preamp & EQ Collection, FREE for a limited time

Why Amazon bought Bee, an AI wearableAmazon explains where its wearable Bee fits in and whether it will merge with Alexa.

The Distroless Linux Future May Be ComingOver the decades the number of Linux distributions has effectively exploded, from a handful in the late ’90s to quite literally hundreds today, not counting minor variations. There lately seems to be a counter-movement brewing in response to this fragmentation, with Project Bluefin’s Distroless project being the latest addition here. Also notable are KDE’s efforts, with KDE Linux as its own top-down KDE-based distro, but now with a switch to BuildStream from Arch likely as a distroless move.
It should be clear that there is no obvious course here yet, and that opinions are very much divided. The idea of ‘Linux’ becoming a more singular OS appeals to some, while to others it’s the antithesis of what ‘Linux’ is about. This much becomes clear in [Brodie Robertson]’s exploration of this topic as well.
The way to think about ‘distroless’ is that there is a common base using the Freedesktop SDK on which the customization layer is applied, such as Bluefin, KDE or Gnome’s environments. You could think of this base as the common runtime, using the Freedesktop standards for interoperability for a user-selected layer that’s installed on top. This way the idea of basing a distro on a specific distro is tossed out in favor of something that’s vaguely reminiscent of the Linux Standard Base attempt at standardization.

It’ll be fascinating to see how things will move from here, as there are definite arguments to be made in favor of less fragmentation and resultingly less duplicated effort. In many ways this would bring Linux closer to for example FreeBSD, which avoids the Linux Chaos Vortex problem by having a singular codebase. FreeBSD ‘distros’ like GhostBSD and NomadBSD are therefore essentially just specialized customizations that target a sub-group of FreeBSD users.
Of course, when we start talking about package managers and other base-distro specific features, we may very well risk igniting the same problems that tore apart the LSB so many years ago. Will we also standardize on RPM over DEB package files and kin, or something else?

‘When you can’t see the whole picture, you don’t truly understand what’s going on in your business.’Absolute Label Services co-bosses, Henry Semmence and Simon Wills discuss Anthology, a new system they believe is key to the future of their company – and the success of their clients…
Source

Waves Curves Resolve: more info on the latest freebie from Waves
Waves recently announced Curves Resolve, a new freebie to kick off 2026, and we have some more information to share. Besides breaking out of their typical Black Friday free plugin schedule, Waves stayed true to form for the most part. After announcing the freebie, the developer provided a sign-up page and minimal information. Now, we [...]
View post: Waves Curves Resolve: more info on the latest freebie from Waves

Seay Interactive Materia PrimaMateria Prima — Sound Design Engine & Library for Kontakt Materia Prima is an expressive, multi-layered sound design engine and Kontakt library built to ignite creative inspiration and sonic exploration. Designed for composers, sound designers, and producers, it blends sound design features with a rich library of ready-to-play presets — from cinematic pads to evolving pulses, dirt-ready basses, lush keys, organic textures, and much more. At its core, Materia Prima combines three independent sound layers per voice with extensive modulation (Pulse Engine), filters, and a flexible effects suite — giving you complete control over every aspect of your sound. With its intuitive drag-and-drop sample support, you can sculpt custom sounds in minutes, or use the included waveforms to build entirely new patches. Key Features: Multi-Layer Engine: Three dynamic sound layers with independent envelopes, tuning, and routing options. Inspiring Presets: Over 230 presets & multis spanning bass, pads, synths, pulses, leads, organic elements, percussion, FX, plucks, and keys. Includes many multi-sampled (velocity and round-robin) instruments. Robust Effects Suite: 16 simultaneous processors including distortion, modulation, delay, convolution reverb (with 700+ IRs), compression, EQ, and more. Pulse Engine: Tempo-synced LFOs and sequencers for rhythmic modulation and expressive motion. BYOS Edition: Bring Your Own Samples — drag your own samples into one of the three layers. Features automatic root note detection and looping support. Performance Controls: MIDI CC mapping, user-configurable aftertouch, and pitch-bend support for expressive playability. Who Is It For: Materia Prima thrives in soundtrack, ambient, cinematic, electronic, and hybrid production workflows — ideal for composers and producers who want deep sound design capabilities and inspirational libraries in one integrated engine. System Requirements: Requires the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt (6.7.1+) — not compatible with the free Kontakt Player beyond 15-minute demo mode. Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp1Pbh5HguY Preset Demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1hQrEu_q34 Create Your Own Preset Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuuxHTZN1bs Read More

The 2026 NAMM Show Artist Lineup AnnouncedSome big news to kick off the week, as NAMM announces the artist lineup for its 2026 show, and there are some significant names on the list.

Global Media Day, on January 21, will see alt-rockers The Runarounds perform, as well as "critically acclaimed artist Margaret Glaspy and two-time GRAMMY winner and Best New Artist nominee Molly Tuttle."

Smashing Pumpkins frontman and founder Billy Corgan (pictured) will be honored on January 22 with the 2025 TEC Innovation Award at the 41st Annual NAMM TEC Awards.

Also on January 22, the 2026 Bass Magazine Awards takes place at The Observatory in Santa Ana, and that bill will feature performances by "Mike Dirnt of Green Day, Les Claypool of Primus, Marcus Miller (Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock), Laura Lee of Khraungbin, and Blu DeTiger. Presenters include Robert Trujillo of Metallica, Justin Chancellor of Tool, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Derrick Hodge, Victor Wooten, and more to be revealed. Additional performances will include Stu Hamm, Vincen Garcia, Scott Mulvahill, and Pops Magellan."

“I’m honored to be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Bass Magazine Awards, but more importantly to be surrounded by the titans of bass and some of my heroes. I will get to jam out with some of my closest friends and it is going to be one hell of night! You DO NOT want to miss this! Let’s go,” said Mike Dirnt of Green Day,

“I’m very honored to be given the Future of Bass Award at the 2026 Bass Magazine Awards," said Laura Lee of Khruangbin. "It’s such an honor to be embraced by the bass community and to be performing alongside some really amazing bass players. I hope to see you there!”  

It has been revealed that Primus will be performing a set too--expect more surprises as the days progress.

January 23 will see the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage host Yamaha All-Star Concert on the Grand. Performers there include The War & Treaty, Alana Springsteen, Sheléa, and Ethan Bortnick.

On that same Friday, the She Rocks Awards will honor Carnie Wilson and Margaret Glaspy.

January 24 is the final day of the event. "Joining NAMM President and CEO John Mlynczak will be Chad Smith, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and longtime advocate for music education, and Victor Wooten, the five-time GRAMMY® Award-winning bassist, educator and author, whose work has inspired generations of players and students," reads a statement. "The Grand Rally reaffirms NAMM’s and The NAMM Foundation’s commitment to expanding access to music education and supporting the next generation of creators."

“We have a deep commitment to making The NAMM Show a global platform for live artist performances and musical appearances," John Mlynczak, NAMM President and CEO, told MC. "The 2026 line-up of award-winning artists and bands is a direct reflection of that commitment.”

For more information about The 2026 NAMM Show, event schedules and registration, please visit www.namm.org.

The post The 2026 NAMM Show Artist Lineup Announced first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Linux Audio Conference 2026 The Linux Audio Conference, or LAC, is an international conference dedicated to free/open-source software for music, audio and other media where GNU/Linux features as the main creation platform.

Phone screens are “ruining the club experience”; could wearable tech save screen-plagued dancefloors?“Phones have been a blessing and a curse in my DJing life,” ponders Fat Tony when asked about smartphone use on the dancefloor. “Clubbing is all about energy and connection to the music, and while capturing that matters, the reality is that screens take us out of the moment.”

READ MORE: Remember that CDJ-3000 firmware bug? AlphaTheta and pro DJs explain what really happened — and how to avoid it in the future

Now, the iconic British selector thinks he’s found a remedy that will protect the very foundations of dance culture: wearable tech. “They give people freedom to experience the night while keeping the memories alive,” he says, having recently partnered with Ray-Ban to promote the Meta Gen 2 Glasses (as did popstar-rapper Doja Cat, who wore a pair in a backstage tour video posted to her Instagram).
“When I first tried them, I figured two things,” Fat Tony recalls of the smart glasses, which offer high-definition photo and video capture, AI-powered assistance, hands-free communication, and live translation. “Using them to capture a moment feels a lot more special,” he suggests, likening the experience to bringing out a digital or disposable camera… “And you no longer have to worry about everyone being on their phones in the club.”
Having banned phones at his gigs eight years ago, Fat Tony isn’t alone in feeling this way. A recent study showed more than half of clubbers believe that mobile screens are ruining the raving experience; the Keinemusik show that went viral for having such a dead crowd is disheartening proof — all phones, no dancing, it was bitingly satirised by Resident Advisor as ‘The Great Regression’.
Image: Press
Since then, the idea of switching off and dialling in has proved increasingly popular, with more and more venues and artists following in the footsteps of Fat Tony, London clubs Fabric and Fold, Pikes hotel in Ibiza, and, famously, Berghain in Berlin. Recent phone-ban converts include The Warehouse Project’s Concourse venue in Manchester, Lakota Moon Club in Bristol, Sankeys and Amber’s in Manchester. On the live circuit, Jack White, Bob Dylan and metal band Ghost have adopted no-phone policies for their tours. Last summer, pop superstar Sabrina Carpenter considered doing the same.
Back to the dancefloor, though, and Fat Tony makes it clear why he was among the first. “The dancefloor is about connecting people,” he states bluntly — “and what could be less connecting than everyone collectively having their phones out in a club?” While he likes that it’s easier than ever for people to capture a memory, he is unsure whether this is always a good thing. “I don’t mind someone taking a quick video here and there, but when you see clips of certain DJs, and there’s not a single person in the crowd that isn’t filming… it makes you wonder what the point of being there is if you’re not present.” He’s also not convinced that people even look through the majority of their pictures.
All this points to one simple question, then: why do we need cameras on dancefloors at all? “Some of my favourite memories were created on a dancefloor,” Fat Tony says bluntly, before pausing to respond: “Don’t you want to be able to relive yours?” It’s reasonable to think that most people would answer ‘yes’, but how can all this phone-based intrusion be removed?
Image: Press
Having put the Meta glasses to the test at a recent event, he’s confident that wearable tech is the answer. On 29 November last year, he DJ’d at Club 2.0, a one-night event at London venue FRAMELESS’ Blank Canvas gallery where attendees were asked to keep their phones hidden and on airplane mode. Those who still wanted to document the night were instead offered a pair of Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 smart glasses. “It gave an insight into what a club would look like when guests move away from their cameras and stay present more,” he says. The collaboration included the creation of an Ibiza sunset visual room, which was inspired by Fat Tony’s history of DJing on the island. “That instantly drew me to the project,” he says of the vision behind the party at which attendees placed their devices in sealed pouches.
“Clubbing need not choose between memory and presence,” concluded Nisa Serin in a post-event feature for Luxuriate Life. “One could fully engage with the beat and energy, while still taking home something more enduring than a blurry phone video. They also wondered if Club 2.0 could be a “beacon for change” in nightlife and events… where “curated, immersive, tech-enabled experiences prioritise attendance over documentation, presence over posts…”
While this remains to be seen, London Evening Standard journalist Allegra Handelsma has also given a personal account of her time testing the “nightlife tool”. “To me, the glasses initially felt like another AI gimmick, an accessory just for tech bros,” she said in a feature focusing on her days wearing them at London club Lost, as well as Lorde’s 02 arena show in the capital. In the end, her experience was unquestionably positive: “They gave me the freedom to record my favourite songs without any pressure to constantly check my screen,” she wrote. “Instead, I could dance, sing and look straight at the artist. In other words, I was fully present.”
FRAMELESS Colour in Motion. Image: Press
There’s no denying, however, that this type of technology isn’t as ubiquitous, necessary or affordable as a smartphone (Ray-Ban’s Meta Gen 2 glasses cost between £370 and £450, depending on the make and model). Concerns have also been raised about the privacy of this technology; just this month, the Manchester Evening News reported that residents were left feeling ‘violated’ after being recorded by strangers wearing Meta glasses. Last October, Forbes published that two Harvard students went viral as they demonstrated how they used Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses to access the personal information of people on campus—including name, age, home address and phone number—raising significant security concerns about facial recognition and artificial intelligence technologies.
Nonetheless, Fat Tony is confident that the trend of wearing Meta glasses in clubs will soon catch on. “They’re way more accessible than you might think,” he suggests. “As with any new technology, developers will make them a crucial part of people’s lives soon enough.”
The key positive of these types of glasses, Fat Tony suggests, is that “they will allow us to all look up again. As a Londoner, especially, I love my city, and as so many of us are constantly on our phones, we take that for granted.” He suggests that AI glasses can fix this.
When asked to highlight any negatives, Fat Tony reaches a blank. “Their invention in itself is so revolutionary,” he says. “The more we invent tech that is more integrated with our lives, the less we’ll be on our phones — that will help bring back the human connection our dancefloors depend on so much.”
While Handelsma concluded in her London Evening Standard piece that she is “not convinced these glasses will redefine nightlife or fix our relationship with technology, Fat Tony is more optimistic. “I can easily see AI glasses shaping the way we communicate and capture memories in a positive way,” he offers. Whether or not wearable tech such as Ray-Ban’s smart glasses become the norm at clubs in the near-future remains to be seen, but if the price were to drop enough, it doesn’t seem unfeasible.
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Apple Music and Shazam report record growth"Apple Music had its best year ever in 2025, breaking records across both listenership and new subscribers," Apple said in a statement Monday. Strong Apple Music growth is indicative of its increasing popularity and market influence.
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