congrats!! Very excited to read

Cannot wait to read this

Episode 15: Wendy Eisenberg | Critical Listening Get more from Critical Listening on Patreon

it's here: Critical Listening ep 15 w/ @wendyeisenberg.bsky.social! we have a looong chat with Wendy about their new album, teaching practice & more, plus debut a new series called "Listening Habits" where we talk to musickers about how they actually listen to music

www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

(they're trying to do lean-back / functional listening for books)

screenshot from spotify newsletter: "Books have always moved with us, whether tucked in our bags or humming in our headphones. With audiobooks, Spotify is building new ways to bring our favorite stories along for the ride."

can someone tell Spotify's head of audiobooks (no background in books, has worked in product there for 15 years) that a book being carried around in a bag is not actually being read? reading starts once you sit down, open the book & direct your attention to the page w/o distractions. hope this helps

on social media platforms like instagram (which is abundant amongst so-called music critics doing short form) and also extends to lack of disclosure on tracks promoted by programs like discovery mode. whatever form they take, advertisements should be labeled! (2/2)

I read the geese piece in wired & what I have to contribute is that undisclosed advertising campaigns, in addition to probably being literally illegal (like FMC points out in my LRT), are extremely harmful to media integrity. this includes not just paid UGC campaigns but unlabeled spon-con (1/2)

there are probably whole marketing agencies dedicated to that kind of thing huh.. I haven't seen anyone write about that specifically but would def be interesting to read!

there is def something to be said for how deceptive fake ugc campaigns are (that is "fake user generated content campaigns" for those who don't spend their days studying music biz hell) & they seem to be increasingly common

I think it is important that people in the music industry start thinking about ai not just in relation to copyright debates but to the broader political & social stakes- but my expectations are not high

Bernie & Naomi Klein & Ro Khanna talking about AI live from dc right now, worth a listen~ www.youtube.com/live/xGJ2DkF...

none of the box for buddy box for star covers are as good as the originals but I guess that's kind of the point lol

A Widening Burst of Forever, by Try The Pie 9 track album

details are tk but im helping put together a show in nyc on sunday may 3 for try the pie & if you are around maybe just plan to be there :) this record was so good
trythepie.bandcamp.com/album/a-wide...

📣was everybody lying📣

Old Myth Dying, by Wendy Eisenberg from the album Wendy Eisenberg

wild song on an album full of them~
wendyeisenberg.bandcamp.com/track/old-my...

Hannah Lew, by Hannah Lew 9 track album

new Hannah Lew record out today is great
hannahlew.bandcamp.com/album/hannah...

Sonic Spaces at NYC PIT Pop Up: Liz Pelly Author Liz Pelly will be joined by moderator Jeff Tobias to discuss her recent book Mood Machine.

I am very excited to be in conversation with @jefftobias.bsky.social on April 22 in a location I always thought we'd one day discuss music streaming in a public interest technology context: the World Trade Center Oculus
www.eventbrite.com/e/sonic-spac...

I'll be in DC this Saturday to speak on a panel at the Georgetown Music Sustainability Forum with @lizpelly.bsky.social and @peretsky.bsky.social

X-Ray Spex - Art-I-Ficial YouTube video by Taktwo2

prophetic
www.youtube.com/watch?v=abu2...

You’ll learn more about the state of Spotify payments from this than from any of their own press releases or the music business publications that repeat them

Episode 14: March 2026 Headlines | Critical Listening Get more from Critical Listening on Patreon

and for episode 14 we're back with more headlines! digging into UMG CEO Lucian Grainge's recent appearance at NVIDIA's "Super Bowl of AI" conference plus the 2026 "Loud and Clear" report, Spotify's annual crisis PR campaign disguised as royalty "transparency" effort>>
www.patreon.com/posts/episod...

if you want to own a copy of the first article I wrote about Spotify for the baffler (2017) it’s issue 37 (“power corruption and lies”) and right now it costs four dollars and 75 cents ($4.75)

I despise when tech execs describe resistance to a new tech product or paradigm as "being scared" i.e. "I understand why musicians are scared but.." it's so condescending. being politically against something or exercising your right to opt out can come from many places other than "being scared"

It's like demanding emotional cliche. no thanks!

and anything else getting written off as "not meeting the moment" or "not understanding the stakes", which I personally find so insulting to both music and listeners and the complexity of what people are capable of both expressing and understanding

building on some thoughts in prev posts. I have noticed for years in phoned-in music journalism this tendency to say that if someone is taking on topical songwriting or anything even vaguely addressing politics/society that there must be a certain blistering/frenetic delivery to match its "urgency"

also great choice for a second entry in the column. I'm also really glad to see a column like this in PRINT not video/audio. I find it much more effective to read this sort of analysis than attempt following along w someone explaining it verbally

quoted passage from Hearing Things piece-- "Next up in this newly inaugurated column, which I'm calling In Theory, is Townes Van Zandt’s “I’ll Be Here in the Morning,” prompted by the late Texas songwriting legend’s birthday last weekend. As with “Upside Down,” I’m interested in the way “I’ll Be Here in the Morning” uses its harmony to create emotional subtext that wouldn’t necessarily be apparent from the words on the page. I don’t know exactly what else I’ll get into as the column progresses, but I suspect this will be an ongoing theme: looking at how words and music interact to create effects more powerful and richly complex than either could convey on its own."

yesterday I was thinking about why so many record reviews today feel like the writer just read the lyric sheet, w/o actually listening. so I love the concept of this new hearing things column, using accessible music theory to help better understand classic songs:
www.hearingthings.co/townes-van-z...

passage from Ben Ratliff's Run the Song "Music is difficult to write about, for the simple reason that it must always be caught up with. Music moves from here to there; it is always running away from us. The fact that it runs away from us is a source of joy but also of displeasure: a song can drive you crazy, or beguile you, or perplex you, or threaten you. For this reason, many ignore its motion, or are asked to, and write about music (or are asked to) as if it were a finite historical event, which has to mean something; it's better if that something can be sharpened to a weapon-like point. Much that has been written for a general readership around music--especially lately, and especially about pop, but not exhaustively so--could have been written with the writer's having had access only to a lyrics sheet, a press release, and a transcript of an interview with the musician talking about the meaning and intent of their work, but not the actual music itself. I think there might be a double bind here. As I see it--by which I mean, as I hear it--the truth of music it in its motion. But as soon as a writer starts describing the motion of music, their editors and readers, even some who would prefer the truth, start to turn away."

I liked how Ben Ratliff wrote about this in Run the Song. a book I highly rec, whether you are into running or not

I know it's bc album reviews don't pay well but also, why does anyone want to review a record that they're not actually listening to