Critical Listening

The CEO of SoundCloud recently revealed that he regularly seeks advice from what he calls his “AI board”—a model he trained on the interviews and writings of top pop musicians and record industry executives.

So for our July 2026 Headlines segment we are wondering: did AI Billie Eilish tell him to buy Nina Protocol? We might not be able to give you an exact answer but we do dive into what we know about the deal and what it might mean for musicians.

We are also discussing the Kalshi power-users who recently learned that streaming is, in fact, not a meritocracy, and that digital charts are (shocker) very easily manipulated.

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Why did Panda Bear and Sonic Boom decide to not put their new record, A ? of WHEN, on any streaming services? And how did they get their label, Domino Recording Co, on board? For episode 20 we're joined by the Lisbon-based Animal Collective and Spacemen 3 members to dive into all of this and more.

Since the launch of the pod, we've been hoping to have these sorts of conversations centered on divestment from streaming platforms--not just about why artists are opting out, but the specifics of what they are doing instead--and we thank Noah and Pete for joining us to chat through it. We also couldn't pass the opportunity to ask the two about the ongoing AI debates in music, specifically for their perspectives on the differences between generative AI music and the culture of sampling, the latter of which has been integral to their artistic processes for many years.

This episode is now available for free, but if you'd like to support the show so we can keep having more conversations with artists challenging the inevitability of streaming, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on our Patreon. Subscribers also get access to our monthly "Headlines" episodes, our Discord community, and occasional bonus clips.

For this month's installment of our monthly headlines show, we're digging into two stories around the increasingly entwined worlds of generative AI and music streaming.

First, a look into a new tool created by the French streaming platform Deezer that shows users how many gen-AI tracks are already on their own playlists. Is this just another hollow marketing campaign by a tech company, or something that's actually useful? What role should streaming services be playing in the fight to label AI slop? Who should be accountable for the labor impacts of extractive AI tech on music?

Then we look to the role lawsuits are playing in that equation, as we unpack the recent announcement that the American Federation of Musicians is suing Universal and Warner, claiming their AI deals violate the collective bargaining agreement set between the union and the majors.

As usual, this episode is available Critical Listening's Patreon members. If you are not yet a subscriber, please consider joining for five bucks a month to access this conversation along with all of our Headlines episodes, bonus segments, and Discord community. Thanks for listening!

We're back for another Headlines episode for the month of May 2026. As with all Headlines episodes this season, this episode is a subscriber exclusive. You can listen to it in full and catch up on older headlines and more by signing up for our Patreon at patreon.com/criticallistening.

This month we dive in to some major developments in the world of music tech as we discuss the acquisition of German music production software conglomerate Native Instruments by their American rivals InMusic, one of their only direct competitors as far as power and monopolization is concerned.

We also discuss the recently announced details regarding the new proprietary generative AI tools made for Spotify in direct partnership with Universal Music Group and what this new precedent in licensing and "fan-made covers and remixes" might mean for the other major genAI developers on the market.

Welcome back! This month we are joined by Peter McLaughlin and Scott Mohler of the Maine Music Alliance. They explain how local musicians in Portland, Maine successfully stopped Live Nation from opening a 3300-cap venue in their town. It is a truly inspiring story involving musicians organizing to save local spaces during the COVID-19 lockdown, and eventually turning that network out in massive numbers—building a broad coalition, showing up to city council meetings, and convincing local government to modify city building codes that ultimately stopped the development. “It was a good day for the little guys,” they told us. Peter and Scott get into the weeds with us to explain how and why it all went down, and advice for other artists who want to organize against Live Nation in their towns.

Learn more about their org at mainemusicalliance.com (https://mainemusicalliance.com/). And if you enjoy this episode please consider becoming a paid subscriber at patreon.com/criticallistening so we can keep interviewing artist-organizers about pushing back against corporate power in music!