Music
Honest gear reviews, artist interviews, and sound stories from inside the music world. Audio Chronicle is your trusted guide to music gear and culture.
CD Growth Is Outpacing Vinyl. The Jewel Case Makes Sense Again.
First-half US sales figures show fresh momentum for the compact disc, along with a peculiar playback gap among younger collectors.
The Full Album Has a Setup Problem
A new UK poll shows how easily album listening can slip away, while a few practical changes can put the running order back in the room.
Madonna’s New No. 1 Proves Legacy Pop Never Learned to Behave
A fresh chart crown for CONFESSIONS II says less about nostalgia than about how veteran stars now work the same fractured attention economy as everyone else.
Hannah Cole’s Debut Announcement Has Great News for Anyone Recording at Home
A self-played album tracked in a home studio still feels like one of the healthiest ways to make a record in 2026.
Dub Taught Modern Music How to Think in Versions
A new book on dub lands at a useful moment: everyone lives inside remix culture now, even when they no longer call it that.
When a Song Becomes a Bet, Streaming Starts to Look Different
Spotify’s removal of streams tied to Malcolm Todd’s “Earrings” points to a stranger future, where chart movement can attract the logic of gambling as much as fandom.
“Rhythm is music’s life.”
— Antonio Buonomo
Jorja Smith’s New Album Announcement Makes Quiet Feel Strategic Again
With What Are The Odds on the way, the singer’s latest move points to a release style that trusts mood, patience, and audience memory over constant spectacle.
Jay-Z on Google Maps Feels a Little Strange — and Completely Inevitable
As Reasonable Doubt turns 30, a map of Jay-Z’s New York shows how rap history now lives inside the same apps we use to find coffee and avoid traffic.
FKA twigs and Lil Yachty Make the Weird Pop Feature Feel Alive Again
A new single with an unlikely chemistry arrives at the right moment for pop stars who seem tired of perfectly optimized collaborations.
More Music articles
Two Shell’s New Album Arrives in an Era That Punishes Mystery
Infinite Now gives one of UK dance music’s slipperiest acts a bigger stage just as audiences have grown addicted to constant proof of authenticity.
Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith Turned Primavera Into a Shared Frequency
A surprise duet in Barcelona showed how a festival cameo can still feel thrilling, strange, and emotionally precise instead of prepackaged for the feed.
Ariana Grande’s Opening Night Setlist Treats the Arena Like an Arrangement
The first Eternal Sunshine Tour show suggests a pop star thinking like an editor: managing vocal load, memory, and momentum one sequencing choice at a time.
Primavera Sound and the Rise of the Split-Screen Festival
Barcelona’s giant weekend by the water now plays to two crowds at once — the people at the barricade and the people watching from bed.
Skrillex’s ‘SOMA’ Turns the Surprise Drop Back Into a Producer Sport
The new album landed without a runway, which makes every transition, guest choice, and low-end decision hit harder on first contact.
Primavera’s Surprise-Set Machine Still Knows How to Mess With Your Head
Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith turned a heavily networked festival into a briefly unstable place again.
Phoebe Bridgers Just Made Madison Square Garden Cost One Dollar — and Everyone Else Look Weird
A one-dollar arena show lands like a gift, a stunt, and a sharp little indictment of what live music has trained fans to accept.
Jay-Z’s Roots Picnic Set Felt Like Rap Remembering How to Be an Event
A rare headlining set in Philadelphia turned nostalgia, local pride, and strategic scarcity into the kind of live moment streaming still can’t flatten.
Drake Sets a New Record: 12 Albums Simultaneously on the Billboard 200
How the rap icon redefined chart history and what it means for music culture today
7 Musicians You’ve Probably Never Heard Of — But Who Changed the Sound of Everything
They never topped charts, but they bent genres, rewired minds, and whispered through the headphones of your favorite artists.
How One Album Can Change an Entire Production Scene
It only takes one record to flip a whole generation of producers.
If Hounds of Love Dropped Today, It Would Break the Internet
And Most People Wouldn’t Understand Why
K-Pop vs J-Pop: One Became a Global Machine. The Other Went Full Goblin Mode.
What idol factories, hologram girls, and the ghost of city pop say about the future of East Asian pop culture.
Microtones and Madmen
How Tunings Beyond the 12-Step Scale Are Shaking Up Modern Music
Music That Feels Like Weather
Songs that drift, sting, crackle, and condense — because some sounds don’t just hit your ears. They shift the air.
No Chorus, No Rules
How Rosalía’s “SAOKO” Rewired Pop Songwriting
Post-Punk Isn't Dead — It Just Moved to Ireland
Dublin’s scene is loud, literate, and more vital than anything coming out of London right now.
The Emotion Engine: Why Tempo Is More Psychological Than You Think
Your track is at 90 BPM. Why does it feel like 60… or 120? Because tempo isn’t just math — it’s mood.
The Fade-Out Is Dead — And That Says Everything
Once a staple of pop music, the fade-out has vanished. What does that tell us about how songs end now?
The Oasis Reunion and the End of History
If Liam and Noel are back on stage, we’ve officially run out of new gods.
Untrue Forever
Why Burial’s 2007 Album Still Haunts Music Today
Nina Protocol Is Shutting Down — and Taking a Certain Indie Internet Dream With It
The platform’s July shutdown is more than a product obituary — it’s a reminder that musicians keep building homes on rented servers, then acting surprised when the floor disappears.
DJ Screw Is Coming to Streaming. The Platforms Will Have to Learn How to Listen.
As DJ Screw’s mixtapes arrive online for the first time, a whole digital system built for frictionless consumption meets music that moves at the speed of memory, cars, and heat.