Ashley King, writing for Digital Music News:
If you thought only streaming platforms were feeling the onslaught of artificial intelligence-created (AI) artists and generated music, think again. Even radio stations aren’t safe from the budding industry of AI-generated content. According to Billboard, an AI singer called Xania Monet has become the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a Billboard radio chart.
You know, we don’t have to do this…
Tom DeLonge is releasing a signature guitar pedal.
From the imagination of Tom DeLonge and To The Stars* comes the limited edition Adventure Box. Designed in collaboration with Tom’s recording engineer, Aaron Rubin, and crafted by the boutique pedal company Utility Belt FX, this 2-in-1 guitar pedal contains an analog compressor and delay to put the tones you’ve been listening to for 20 years right at your feet. Use either channel independently or together!
Mark Hoppus has put up a new pre-order for his hot pink bass.
Presenting the Fender Mark Hoppus Custom Jaguar Bass! The exact model I currently play. Alder wood Jaguar body (Fender Jaguar, not nature jaguar) finished in gloss polyester Hot Pink. Maple (mmm) Precision Bass neck with Rosewood fingerboard and White Pearloid Dots. Topped off with a delightful set of Lightweight Vintage-Style tuners.
Taylor Swift still has the number one album:
Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” era continues as the record notches a third straight week at No. 1 with 194,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate. The 12-song record shows no signs of slowing down — it’s only the second album of 2025 to spend its first three weeks atop the chart, following Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem,” which held the position for first eight weeks.
Radiohead sat down to talk with The Sunday Times:
But now it is Radiohead again. Last summer the band met for rehearsals in London, to test the waters. They started with the first track from The Bends and tore through their albums in chronological order. Their last gig was in Philadelphia on August 1, 2018, when their children were young enough to be excited about the bowls of free sweets backstage. Why has it been so long? “I guess the wheels came off a bit, so we had to stop,” Yorke says. “There were a lot of elements. The shows felt great but it was, like, let’s halt now before we walk off this cliff.”
Fall Out Boy talked with Rolling Stone about the anniversary of From Under the Cork Tree:
One of the things that has always been important to me, and speaks to the longevity of this record, is that we never really stopped playing any of those songs. I never wanted to. There are records that tanked, and it was really hard to play those songs because it hurt to think about ‘em. But in general, I never like to pretend a record didn’t happen. I never like to play a show without touching a record. Ever since Cork Tree came out, our sets have a substantial amount of the album. I have more respect for the album now than I did when I was a kid. Now, when I play those songs, I care about ’em a lot more than I did in 2007 because I understand what it means to people. It creates this responsibility.
Rolling Stone has merged with Vibe:
Vibe, the long-running music magazine centring on rap and R&B coverage, will merge with Rolling Stone in a deal announced last week. Vibe staffers Mya Abraham and DeMicia Inman announced as the news broke that their positions had been eliminated. Rolling Stone CEO Julian Holguin said that, as part of the move, Rolling Stone would “level up [its] hip-hop and R&B coverage,” as well as investing in Vibe “across video, podcasts, long-form journalism, social media, and experiential opportunities.”
Yellowcard talked with Spin:
Yellowcard’s lean years have made all the triumphs of 2025 that much more special for Key and Mackin, and they’re determined to savor this moment and deliver something special for their audience. “We are awash in social media and instant gratification and that really has, I think, unfortunately found its way into music, forcing a lot of music to be ‘content’ instead of creativity,” Key says. “And I think our generation of bands maintains writing music for ourselves and our fans, and that goes a long way.”
Ashley King, writing for Digital Music News:
After launching a trial in 2022, Ireland is due to make its basic income for artists program permanent starting in 2026. Under the program, selected artists receive a weekly payment of approximately $350, for around $1,500 per month. Applications are due to open in September 2026, with 2,000 spots available. Eligibility criteria has yet to be announced, but the Irish government expressed that it may expand the program to additional applicants in the future, if funding permits.
Yellowcard talked with the LA Times about their new album:
Key says he was initially intimidated singing in front of Barker in the studio and had a few moments where negative, self-conscious thoughts were getting the better of him in the vocal booth during recording. Instead of getting annoyed, he says Barker helped ease his anxiety with a few simple words.
“Travis came into the booth, closed the door, put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, ‘You’re gonna do this as many times as you need to do it. I’m gonna be here the whole time.’” Barker was truly speaking from experience. He told Key at the time that he’d just recorded 87 rough takes of his parts on “Lonely Road,” his hit song with Jelly Roll and MGK. “That was a real crossroads for me,” Key said.
Ben Folds has a newsletter and he recently wrote about Hayley Williams’s performance on Fallon:
Something that’s striking from the start of “True Believer” is Hayley radically singing in her lower register. It ain’t indie baby voice and it’s not rock chick affectation. It’s assertively at the bottom of her speaking range. She’s not hiding. She’s serious. This is a human being speaking her mind without blinking – taking ownership for what she’s saying.
In terms of musicality, in a world where we all assume it must be all dumbed down, especially when it’s taking up valuable ad time(!) Hayley brought the eloquence of a proper string section (arranged by Doug Peck), but she didn’t use them as props. They occupied their own space (there were blocked upstage of her.). They had a voice, and a turn to be featured. They weren’t buried or used like a synthesizer. In 2025 when each symphony orchestra still might only have a small handful of black musicians (until the 80s it was ALL men, no women), this stunning section of black and brown players was as good as you’ll ever hear.
Ryan Key of Yellowcard talked with V13.net about the band’s recent album:
One of the things, one of the challenges that we faced with this record, particularly for me when writing lyrics, was how do we make a record at 45 that sounds like we’re 25, but we don’t sound like we’re trying to be 25. It’s a tough thing. Grounding myself in family and my past and the mistakes that I’ve made along the way. It’s funny because the song doesn’t really have this happy ending or positive turn or turn to it. It’s really more about living in that feeling of that time in your life, and that feeling of being young, and that it’s gone and it’s not coming back. Again, it was a tricky thing to try to dig up some of those themes and not have it sound forced.
Paris Hilton and Andrew McMahon are teaming up for the romantic comedy series Aught to Be.
Amazon is currently developing the romantic comedy series “Aught to Be,” Variety has learned exclusively.
The half-hour series hails from the Tornante Company, with Paris Hilton attached to executive produce under her 11:11 Media banner. Andrew McMahon, the front man of bands like Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate, will also executive produce, as the show is inspired by his hit song “Konstantine.”
According to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate, the tracks on The Life of a Showgirl have generated more than 460 million on-demand official streams in the United States since the album’s release on Oct. 3. There are multiple versions of album on streaming services: a standard 12-song edition, a track-by-track commentary edition that includes the 12 songs plus commentary tracks from Swift, and a track-by-track commentary edition that has Swift’s commentary and lyric videos for each of the songs. […] The sales continue to come in to Luminate for The Life of a Showgirl and it may soon topple Adele’s longstanding record for the largest sales week for an album in the modern era. Adele’s 25 debuted with 3.378 million copies sold in its first week in 2015 — the biggest sales week for any album since Luminate began tracking data in 1991 (when the modern era of music sales tabulation began).
Yellowcard broke down their new album track-by-track for Rocksound.
In Yellowcard, I think the two biggest Alkaline Trio fans would be Sean (Mackin, violinist) and myself. We spent hours in the van driving around the country listening to Alkaline Trio. When Travis Barker, who produced and played drums on the record, heard us talking about that, he kind of just said, ‘Do you want me to see if Matt will sing on the song?’ And we all just laughed out loud and said, ‘Well, yes, of course we would. We would be beyond stoked if he was a part of it’. So personally, this is one of my favorite songs on the record.