This week on The Kettle we weigh in on Nvidia's Hugging Face acquisition and why it could spell a new, more fragmented and siloed era of AI development
Laneway Festival won the inaugural award in 2025.
The program won seven Emmys, more than any other Super Bowl Halftime Show in history.
Gavin Brivik and Andrew Bird were giant-slayers, beating both Lady Gaga and South Park's Trey Parker.
Last week, he blamed himself for being ‘a grade A nincompoop’ who assumed a system upgrade couldn’t possibly go wrong
"One more person to love," she captioned her pregnancy announcement.
PLUS: Fujitsu not yet budgeting Horizon compensation; DeepSeek's vast Huawei GPU buy; Korea plans sovereign security model; And more!
The pair, whose relationship spans two decades, performed "Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1" and "Ghost Town," plus "Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)," at Soldier Field this weekend.
Now, for a palate cleanser… The number one criterion for a book is readability. It’s got to be something that people want to read! Which is why you can buy the vaunted award-winner, the book with all the hype, and find yourself falling asleep on the second or third page.
If I see one more inane, insane article about the uptick in CD sales… They’re merch, not carriers of music, as anyone on the inside will tell you. Hell, most kids today don’t even have access to a CD player, never mind a cassette deck or Walkman to play the ancient tape format the press […]
Andy “The Butcher” Williams, a professional wrestler who played guitar with the bands Every Time I Die and Atomic Rule, died Saturday night after collapsing at the end of his match in Millvale, Pennsylvania. He was 48. Williams was rushed to the hospital but did not survive.
The Puerto Rican star discussed Red Bull Chapters, a production that fused his personal history with an athletic approach to live performance.
His passing was announced after he suffered a medical episode following a tag-team wrestling match.
Plus, Alex Warren’s WILDCHILD debuts at No. 2.
Macklemore opened for Ed Sheeran on Friday night in New Jersey at the MetLife Stadium, and during his set the rapper sang out “Free Palestine” before launching into a speech, telling the audience he wanted people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to know they had not been forgotten.
The duo took the stage at Discovery Meadow on Sept. 4.
Founding rhythm guitarist for Buffalo metalcore band successfully segued into wrestling at "The Butcher"
This marks the the second time she has beaten her friend Taylor Swift for an EGOT-level award.
Over a dozen concertgoers required medical attention for "suspected alcohol intoxication and drug-related issues," authorities say
Both Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter win their first-ever Emmys Saturday at the Creative Emmy Awards
Album Review | 'HYMPHOMANIA vol. 1 ' by Zee Machine Zee Machine gives his synth-pop sound a sophisticated pop makeover on his sophomore release.
Risk of an unprecedented negative adjustment prompts plan to let UTC drift by as much as an hour
Bad Bunny has won his first Emmy for the Super Bowl Halftime Show. He won in the outstanding variety special (live) category. “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” took home a total of seven nominations, winning music direction, choreography, sound mixing, lighting...
DoD controls on mobile ad identifiers haven't stopped military location data turning up for sale
The singer-songwriter discussed her Toy Story 5 song in rare appearance across three country radio stations
Oasis mania hit Venice Film Festival on Saturday night as Liam and Noel Gallagher presented the world premiere of their highly anticipated documentary “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” The rock doc received an eight-minute standing ovation as the once-estranged brothers held hands and raised them...
The film centers itself on Pete Townshend’s contradictions, his growing pains, his turmoil, and his complexity as a human being and rock artist. And that’s all good. But given where it sets the bar, there’s too much that's left out.
Mandy Moore knows how to travel with her kids. She hands them a tablet for some screen time. Not that the children have carte blanche on what they could watch. Instead, Moore uses ABCmouse, a childhood education app that she says keeps the kiddos occupied while teaching them how to read.
After feuding for the past few years, Kanye West and Kid Cudi have made up and reunited during West’s Chicago concert on Friday night. West performed the past two nights in his hometown of Chicago to promote his latest album, “Bully,” and welcomed several surprise guests to the stage.
There’s some real gems in there. | Photo: Terrence O’Brien / The Verge According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), CD sales exploded in the first half of 2026. A new report from the organization says 17.5 million CDs were sold in the first six months of the year, up from just...
“She’s unbelievable,” Robert Pattinson said of his musician co-star. "Even on the first day, she was so relaxed"
In news that might not surprise anyone, Liam and Noel Gallagher skipped the Venice Film Festival press conference for their upcoming Disney+ documentary “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger” on Saturday.
"Man, they lied about me so much. I don’t even know where to begin. All those cops in there was lying like a motherfucker," Davis says of witness testimony
Eight year after launch, Mercury probe and its Mercury Transfer Module consciously uncouple as orbit approaches
Jay-Z’s “Jay-Z30” tour has been filled with guest appearances and his opening night at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was no exception: He brought out Lauryn Hill and Wyclef for a mini-Fugees reunion on their 1996 hits “Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly” and “Fu-Gee-La.” The show was introduced...
The "Bee Keeper Collector's Box" was released in a limited quantity of 500 for the anniversary of B'Day, but does not include any vinyl records from her catalog
(I don’t recommend you watch the below trailer, best to go in fresh) I know you’re waiting for Tuesday when “Fauda” returns to Netflix to get your hit of Israeli TV… Don’t let your views on Gaza dissuade you.
Audacity 4 has been in the works for some time, and had its own mini controversy last year when an unfortunate redesigned logo started making the rounds. The final version of the new icon isn't nearly as bad as the early rendition that was circulating last October.
Now comes the harder sell: Convincing customers and merchants to trust AI with purchases
NOTE: FACTION TALK IS NOW ON CHANNEL 137 So, tune in Saturday August 5th to Faction Talk, channel 137, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. Phone #: 844-686-5863 If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
AI workstation promises to put up to 576 GB of HBM3e and 16 TB/s of memory bandwidth on your desk
Phishers find a new use for invisible Unicode tag characters
Big Sean joined Kanye West at his Soldier Field homecoming concert to perform "Clique," "Mercy," and "I Don't Fuck With You"
It's not quite the "push button; get song" of Suno, but Roland's new Melody Flip tool marks the company's foray into generative AI music. Available as a plug-in for your digital audio workstation (DAW), Melody Flip offers around 250 "Palettes," which are essentially themed collections of musical...
Dolly Parton‘s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been replaced after the original one was vandalized following the country superstar’s death. Parton died of cancer on Aug. 25 at age 80.
Two cases of agents escaping to solve unsolvable problems paints an uncomfortable question: Is the entire internet in OpenAI's experimental agentic firing line?
The biggest headlines from the past few days... Source
Built-in plagiarism police to hand in badge next month
Brady Ebert is facing life in prison after his charges for intentionally driving his car into the father of Turnstile singer Brendan Yates were upgraded to attempted first-degree murder
The Ubuntu Pastebin went in June, IRC gets demoted next
2016 and 2019 installations must meet the October 2025 baseline to reach cloud-hosted inboxes
Baked-in SQL syntax arrives through multi-vendor collaboration, although indexing still needs to catch up
“Nostalgia” as a trend isn’t new. However, there is more to the popularity of analogue than simply a backwards-looking aesthetic preference. Convenience, habit, and quality of experience are major drivers of use. Source
There are no surprises in Spotify’s annual list of the ‘songs of summer’ – it’s essentially the five biggest streaming hits of recent months, even if the company said ‘cultural impact’ and the expertise of its editors were also factors in the picks. The post is from Music Ally.
Waking up to find that Mary J. Blige appearing in an ad for AI-music platform Suno is quite the eye-opener. Waking up to find that said campaign has already been pulled because she hadn’t approved it… well, let’s just say our eyes are currently on springs like a classic Tex Avery cartoon character.
The increase in costs and red tape facing British artists wanting to tour the European Union since ‘Brexit’ are well known. But this summer, a different problem emerged for artists and labels selling physical music and merch to fans in the EU. The post is from Music Ally.
It’s not just Music Ally celebrating a big birthday this year (incorporated 25 years ago yesterday, since you ask). Pioneering independent labels NCS and Monstercat are both celebrating their 15th anniversaries in 2026. The post is from Music Ally.
The battle between TikTok, Instagram and YouTube isn’t just about videos and views: it’s about engagement – and that’s also a key metric for music marketers judging the success of their campaigns and content. The post is from Music Ally.
Kacey Musgraves is the latest artist to appear in a music concert made for Meta Quest VR headsets. A 49-minute performance of hits plus tracks from her latest album has been launched as ‘Kacey Musgraves Middle of Nowhere: An Immersive Experience’, filmed in the Billy Bob’s Texas venue in Fort...
Fully backward-compatible upgrade promises zero-friction speedup for monorepo wranglers.
No restoration time for platform used by more than 30,000 UK organizations, including NHS trusts and medical practices
Generative-AI music tools can be a powerful funnel for bringing complete beginners into human music-making, according to the CEO and CTO of Image-Line, the company behind popular DAW FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops). The post is from Music Ally.
15 Mustangs on the city streets, but the Nissan LEAF follow-up could dispense with the safety driver
The new extreme sport: Windows Updates
Customer alleges AI telco system had frequent issues, did not work as promised, as vendor sues separately for non payment
In April, it was announced that Singapore-based “artist-empowerment” social media platform Fenix360 was partnering with Gaana to integrate the entire suite of the former’s creator tools into the streaming service. […] The post is from Music Ally.
Last November, we wrote about Noida-based music school the Global Music Institute and Indian mental health service Tatva partnering with Goldsmiths college and research consultancy Creative Empirical from London to […] The post is from Music Ally.
Project PANOPTES puts £5M on the table for an autonomous, vehicle-mounted defense
The clip, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, references Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge, Birth, and Babygirl
We first caught wind of startup Songscription in July 2025 when TechCrunch profiled its “automatic music transcription” service. The post is from Music Ally.
It will be UMHL's first hotel in the UK, and its second in Europe after UMusic Hotel Madrid, with Madrid the only UMusic Hotel currently operating. Source
The Soul Train Awards are coming home. Today, BET announced that the long-running awards show will return to television this fall with a show taped in Chicago, the city where Don Cornelius first launched “Soul Train” more than 50 years ago.
The transaction was announced on Thursday (September 3). Financial terms were not disclosed. Source
Primary Wave announced the deal on Wednesday (September 2). Financial terms were not disclosed Source
Ufenau intends to back the initiative as investor and majority shareholder, and says it is already reviewing initial investment opportunities. Source
With music consumption now widespread, affordable, and accessible, music fandom has become less about consuming and more about spending as a demonstration of superfandom.
Since the temperature started creeping up this summer, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the songs that would come to embody the season. Our editors made their predictions in May, we shared an update in July, and now the time has come to share the final results.
Suno’s legal team are certainly having a busy week. Hot on the heels of the lawsuit filed by four US-based artists against the company comes another legal action – this one from Canadian collecting society Socan. The post is from Music Ally.
Ticketmaster is giving its mobile app a refresh in 21 countries, with a bigger focus on recommendations and personalisation, including a ‘watchlist’ for keeping tabs on upcoming concerts and events. The post is from Music Ally.
“No spreadsheets. No juggling apps. No guessing. Just ask,” is the pitch for Roster, which has just been launched by South African music-tech firm JO:LA Labs as “an end-to-end music business operating system” for artists and managers. The post is from Music Ally.
We wrote about the songs featured in the ‘extended look’ trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI last week. Now Spotify has released some data on which tracks benefited the most from their inclusion. The post is from Music Ally.
Reservoir Media’s India-based subsidiary PopIndia has announced its newest deals in the country. It has acquired the catalogue of Vincey Productions, which specialises in Christian devotional music in south Indian […] The post is from Music Ally.
On this week’s episode, veteran producer, engineer, and Grammy nominee Bruce Sugar explains why staying relevant means embracing new tools without sacrificing the feel and emotion that make music connect.
The Justice Department argues in the New York Times v. OpenAI case for a fair use standard that would allow extensive copying of copyrighted works for AI training without licensing.
It appears to be the first time Washington has intervened in any of the copyright cases now stacked up against AI companies Source
STE will develop and manage artists for the Greater China market, and says it's preparing a new Chinese idol group for a debut within two to three years Source
Smółka, who joins from Spotify after eight years at the company, will take up the newly created role on Monday (September 7). Source
The move would close a police investigation into the K-pop company's 2020 stock market listing that has been running since December 2024. Source
Judge André Birotte Jr. ruled that plaintiffs failed to identify a single copyrighted work of their own combining the elements they say defendants took. Source
India’s music streaming economy is growing like never before. That’s the big takeaway from the India edition of this year’s Loud & Clear report, Spotify’s annual look at how artists earn money from streaming and where the country’s music economy is headed next.
Music has spent the last decade optimising for infinite choice . Streaming libraries expanded without limit, shuffling became ever more personalised, and feeds manoeuvred themselves into narrower loops. Source
CRAE raises worthwhile economic questions about the proposed Phonorecords V Subpart B settlement, but the Copyright Royalty Judges should not be expected to build the missing economic record themselves.
6.9% Growth Outpaces US Inflation as Streaming, Physical and Sync Revenues Rise Paid Subscriptions Generate $3.4 Billion in First Half of 2026 The Recording Industry Association of America® (RIAA) today announced that US recorded music revenues for the first half of 2026 were up 6.9% from the first...
The Picard team is excited to announce the first release candidate for Picard 3. With this release we are confident that Picard 3 is now suitable for testing by a wider audience. The final 3.0 release is planned to happen in a few weeks.
MusicBrainz is announcing a set of upgrades for its search service on November 30, 2026. The main change will be upgrading Solr from version 9 to 10. Fixes and improvements will be released alongside this. Some of these changes may break some specific search requests.
AI company faces multibillion dollar lawsuit over misuse of copyrighted songs to train Claude models All AI wants for Christmas is a vast back catalogue of songs without paying for it, according to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the startup behind the Claude chatbot.