Blog: Infinite Midwit

I agree with them. It’s cool that AI can fold proteins, create websites, fact-check journal articles, etc. but it can’t write anything that I am interested in reading. The problem isn’t that it hallucinates or makes mistakes. It’s that everything it writes vaguely sucks. I drag my eyes across the words and I feel nothing. That’s not quite right, actually—I feel like, “I would like this to be over as soon as possible.” When I see the ideas that the machines think are insightful, I wince. Talking to the computer is like taking a sip of scalding hot coffee: keep doing it and you’ll lose your sense of taste.

The Aadam Jacobs Live Music Collection

Jason Tate 2 months ago

A fan that secretly recorded over 10,000 live shows has started sharing the collection online.

Jacobs surreptitiously recorded the performance, documenting the fledgling band in raw, fiery form more than two years before Nirvana’s global breakthrough with the album “Nevermind.”
Jacobs went on to record more than 10,000 concerts, with increasingly sophisticated equipment, over four decades in Chicago and other cities. Now a group of devoted volunteers in the U.S. and Europe is methodically cataloging, digitizing and uploading them one by one.

Chad Gilbert Talks Cancer Battle

Jason Tate 2 months ago

Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory talked with Rolling Stone about his lates cancer battle:

Even after the hellish month he just experienced, Gilbert is still unwaveringly positive. “It felt good to know that there’s still a battle to be going on and that I can recover from this and grow stronger from this,” he says. “My hope is to really get my energy and strength back. I don’t want to lay in bed all day. I want to be able to get up and do my thing,” he adds.
New Found Glory will kick off their tour with Yellowcard in May, and is set to play in Nashville on June 8. “I won’t be able to tour normally ever again,” Gilbert admits. “But I will be able to play shows that are closeby.” As Cimorelli confirms. one of his goals is to be strong enough to play at that show, even if he has to sit for it.

Letting Artists Vet Releases Before They Appear on Streaming

Jason Tate 2 months ago

James Hanley:

The streaming platform is piloting a new opt-in feature that lets artists review and approve eligible releases before they go live.
The company says protecting artist identity has become “a top priority for 2026,” noting that “the rise of easy-to-produce AI tracks has made the [misattribution] problem worse” across streaming services.
Spotify’s new Artist Profile Protection feature — now in limited beta — has been designed to combat ongoing issues with misattributed releases, whether from metadata errors, artists sharing the same name, or “bad actors” who are “maliciously” attaching music to artists’ profiles.

This is one of those things that’s almost unbelievable it hasn’t always been the default. And seeing the Cartel fake AI song appear last week is another reminder why.

Apple Photo’s (Lack Of) Concert Identification

Jason Tate 3 months ago

Chris Devers, writing about how Apple Photo’s “concert tagging feature” often fails:

This would be a lot less annoying if Apple provided some basic tools to help out here.
If we could edit the concert event tags, we could fix the problem ourselves. Alas, the tags are added (or not) automatically, and we have no way to control them. Better still, if we could edit the tags to note which artist was performing, that would also help, particularly for events where two or more names were on the lineup. If the software gave greater weight to geotags, that might help. Few events span miles, nevermind dozens of miles, so if the photos are of different places, they shouldn’t be grouped together as the same event.

Spotify to Let Your Edit Your Algorithm

Jason Tate 3 months ago

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

This Taste Profile is key to Spotify’s recommendations, including personalized playlists like Discover Weekly, Made For You recommendations, and the year-end review known as Spotify Wrapped, among other things.
Starting with Premium listeners initially in New Zealand, Spotify will allow users to see all their listening data in one place in the app, including music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Users will then be able to edit this profile and even fine-tune future recommendations by asking for more or less of a certain vibe. After doing so, the app’s home page will reflect a different set of suggestions.

Blog: ‘This Is Not the Computer for You’

Jason Tate 3 months ago

I loved this essay from Sam Henri Gold:

Somewhere a kid is saving up for this. He has read every review. Watched the introduction video four or five times. Looked up every spec, every benchmark, every footnote. He has probably walked into an Apple Store and interrogated an employee about it ad nauseam. He knows the consensus. He knows it’s probably not the right tool for everything he wants to do.
He has decided he’ll be fine.

I was that kid too.

Live Nation Executives Brag About “Robbing” Ticket Buyers

Jason Tate 3 months ago

Walden Green, writing for Pitchfork:

The conversations are between Ben Baker, now head of ticketing for Venue Nation, and Jeff Weinhold, currently a senior director in the ticketing department. Baker and Weinhold joke about overcharging and price-gouging fans—“Robbing them blind, baby,” Baker brags in one exchange pertaining to a Kid Rock show in Tampa Bay—as well as being able to raise prices on ancillary services such as parking seemingly at will. “These people are so stupid,” Baker writes. “I almost feel bad taking advantage of them BAHAHAHAHAHA.”

Ticketmaster / Live Nation Lawsuit Settled

Jason Tate 3 months ago

Associated Press:

A “term sheet” spelling out details of the pact said Live Nation had agreed to let venues reach deals that would let a certain portion of tickets be sold by entities other than Ticketmaster. It also would let up to 50% of all tickets to be sold through any ticketing marketplace at amphitheaters that Live Nation owns, operates or controls.
The term sheet also called for Ticketmaster to cap its service fees at those amphitheaters at 15% and to divest ownership or control of 13 amphitheaters, including venues in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Syracuse, New York, and Austin, Texas. It said Live Nation will create a $280 million settlement fund to settle claims or pay civil penalties to states.

Wasserman Agency Rebrands

Jason Tate 3 months ago

The Wasserman Agency is rebranding as “The Team.”

The name change is the first concrete move away from the company’s namesake, who last month agreed to sell the agency, which is among the largest sports and music agencies in the business. While the music division was roiled by turmoil as several artists, most notably Chappell Roan and Laufey, left in the wake of the Epstein revelations, sources say things inside the division have calmed down, as executives (nearly all of whom are bound by contracts) and many of the artists (who are not) take a wait-and-see approach while the company’s name change and sale move forward.

25 Years of iPod Brain

Jason Tate 3 months ago

Molly Mary O’Brien, writing about the iPod:

I was imputed upon. The first song I played on my iPod was “Anthem Part 2” by Blink-182. It was a favorite song from middle school, and it felt right to begin with a sentimental choice. But it wasn’t long before I was approaching mp3 collecting with an almost deranged reverence for eclecticism. I needed to max out the hardware’s potential. I needed representation from as many genres as possible. Some of this desire came from the UX itself—when I used my thumb to rotate the pale gray click wheel, I felt a strong desire to scroll through a long list of artists, with each letter of the alphabet represented many times over. So Blink-182 got nestled between Black Sabbath and Bloc Party, followed by Billy Joel and Blonde Redhead.

Some days I really miss the iPod. The simplicity of it. Heading out for a walk with just music, no social media, no communication apps, just some headphones and an empty road.

And when music is pulled from Apple Music … even more so.

The Format on Surviving the Pandemic and Hoping for the Best

Jason Tate 3 months ago

The Format talked with the Last Donut of the Night newsletter:

Nate: It’s tough, and this harkens back to our conversation about how America is eventually going to burn down, and that’s when new and good stuff will start up. As far as bands, Sam has his ear to the streets way more than I do. But I’m encouraged now more than ever—and I sound like a fucking old guy—but I just like seeing guitars. If that’s not your thing, cool. I’m fine with that. But I remember the community that we had as pop-punk kids growing up in Phoenix, going to see shows, and what that meant to my life. I wouldn’t be here without any of that, and I couldn’t be happier with where I ended up in my own personal life—and those formative years of going to see bands played such a huge part.

MC Lars Launches ‘The Graduate’ Kickstarter

Jason Tate 3 months ago

MC Lars has launched a Kickstarter for a vinyl pressing of The Graduate.

The record came out of a specific moment: early Myspace, the height of the RIAA lawsuits, cheap laptops, long van drives. I was making what I called “post-punk laptop rap” in bedrooms and studios from Oxford to Long Island to San Francisco, trying to connect literature, punk energy, and hip-hop in a way that felt natural.

Apple Music Introducing AI Transparency Tags

Jason Tate 3 months ago

Music Business Worldwide:

The platform has launched what it is calling Transparency Tags — a system of disclosure labels that record labels and music distributors can begin applying to content delivered to Apple Music immediately, and will be required to use when delivering new content in future.
The new framework covers four key creative elements: Artwork, Track, Composition, and Music Video. The Artwork tag, applied at the album level, flags when AI has been used to generate a material portion of static or motion graphic artwork.
The Track tag — available at the track level only — is used when AI generates a material portion of a sound recording.
The Composition tag covers AI-generated lyrics or other compositional elements, while the Music Video tag applies to any visual content, whether bundled with albums or delivered as standalone.

A Wilhelm Scream Talk New Album

Jason Tate 3 months ago

A Wilhelm Scream talked with New Noise Magazine about their new album.

Usually, I know that I’m done with a song when I feel like it’s gotten as close as it can to the idea’s potential. That’s good, but also bad. You can spend 12 years writing an album, because every song has to be the best song that’s ever been written. Once I let go of (perfection), the songs came out so much cooler—more me, in terms of just spitting insults nonstop in a song. It’s like 90s rap beef. That was our biggest fucking influence (back in the day), before they called it hip hop! The writing boot camps came into play because everybody’s busy. Like, Nuno has a job and a family! So to be able to dedicate the time and focus that it takes, Ben had the idea, “Hey, let’s go out to the desert.”