Music Tech News

Microsoft's new Windows 11 Media Player replaces Groove Music and the classic Windows Media Player, but it comes with significant drawbacks. The redesigned application consumes 3.5 times more RAM than its predecessors and now charges users for popular video codecs.

Bobby Prince, the legendary composer behind the iconic soundtracks for classic first-person shooters like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has passed away. Tributes from fans highlight his lasting legacy, noting that his metal-inspired music defined the immersive atmosphere of early gaming and recently earned a spot in the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

Wolfram Language and Mathematica version 15 introduces major AI enhancements, including a built-in AI Assistant, computation-augmented generation, and a new Agent Tools framework. The update also expands capabilities in data processing, visualization, and mathematical modeling while significantly improving performance for handling gigabyte-sized notebooks. Additionally, users gain new functions for automated model selection, symbolic music, and advanced algebra and differential equation modeling.

Despite being an analog format, vinyl records are increasingly compromised by the music industry's ongoing loudness war as mastering engineers prioritize maximum volume over dynamic range. This pushes the physical limitations of vinyl grooves to their breaking point, resulting in audible distortion and degraded sound quality that undermines the premium listening experience.

A developer shared a free web-based ear-training game that challenges users to reproduce musical sequences using a piano or microphone. In response to community feedback, the creator iteratively updated the tool with adjustable difficulty settings and a new sandbox mode to encourage musical experimentation without immediate failure.

Mac users have long dealt with the annoyance of the Apple Music app automatically launching whenever the play media key is pressed. Fortunately, step-by-step instructions are now available to disable this default behavior entirely. This simple workaround provides relief for those who prefer alternative media players and want to avoid unwanted app interruptions.

Ableton has introduced the Extensions SDK, an open JavaScript toolkit designed to expand the capabilities of its Live 12 Suite. This framework empowers developers and users to build custom tools that introduce fresh functionalities directly into the music production software.

Jef Raskin, Apple's 31st employee and a former music professor, founded the original Macintosh project that popularized the graphical user interface. He departed the team in 1981 after Steve Jobs took over, but his foundational vision laid the essential groundwork for the Apple Mac. His pioneering contributions remain a defining milestone in the evolution of personal computing.

Spotify has announced a new feature called Reserved that will hold a pair of concert tickets on select tours for fans to purchase. Unveiled at the company's investor day, the initiative aims to reward dedicated listeners by giving them priority access to live shows.

A newly launched interactive map offers a comprehensive visual history of heavy metal music. Users can trace the evolution of its many subgenres by exploring the influential bands that shaped the scene. This data visualization provides an engaging digital experience to discover the origins and connections of heavy metal.

Rocksky is a new music scrobbling and discovery platform built on the AT Protocol, despite being described in its launch as a next-generation social coding platform. Showcased on Hacker News, the application primarily allows users to track their listening habits and explore new music.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this month, Kraftwerk's 1976 single Radioactivity remains a groundbreaking milestone in electronic music. Over the decades, the pioneering track evolved into the German band's most significant political protest song.

A new project named rockboxd introduces a modern, network-enabled music player daemon built upon the classic Rockbox firmware. This platform brings contemporary networking capabilities to the established audio technology, enabling seamless music management and streaming.

A new guitar tuner application uses a smartphone's accelerometer to detect physical vibrations and determine musical pitch. However, readers warn that this technique poses significant privacy and security risks, as the sensor could potentially be exploited to eavesdrop on surrounding sounds or capture keystrokes without requiring explicit microphone permissions.

Spotify is introducing verified badges to help listeners distinguish between human musicians and AI-generated tracks. The streaming platform will evaluate criteria such as an artist's social media presence and live performance dates to confirm their human identity.

A developer successfully used the AI coding assistant Claude Code with Opus 4.6 to revive and complete an abandoned project connecting YouTube Music and OpenSubsonic. The tool significantly accelerated the development process, transforming an unfinished idea into a fully working application in a remarkably short amount of time.

A newly launched GitHub repository now hosts Martin Galway's original music source files from classic 1980s Commodore 64 games. This open-source initiative allows developers and retro gaming enthusiasts to access, preserve, and contribute to the historical audio code.

Music streaming service Deezer reports that 44% of daily song uploads are now AI-generated. Despite this high volume of new tracks, actual listener consumption of AI music remains low, accounting for only 1% to 3% of total streams. Furthermore, the company detects and demonetizes 85% of these AI streams, identifying them as fraudulent activity.

Reader discussions surrounding the SPEAKE(a)R paper explore the technical and creative practice of repurposing audio speakers as microphones for DIY music production and professional recording. Participants also note that the dual functionality of a single audio transducer serves as a foundational physics principle for establishing absolute sound pressure measurements.

Connie Converse was a pioneering folk musician who created forward-thinking songs in the 1950s. She remained largely unknown during her lifetime and mysteriously disappeared at the age of 50. Today, a new re-release of her recordings has finally earned her widespread recognition as a trailblazer.