Music & Culture

Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek in 2012, just one year after the service launched in the U.S. It now has 50 million paying subscribers.

Music & Culture

Are We Witnessing The Beginning Of The End For Free Music Streaming?

11:06am April 06, 2017

by Andrew Flanagan

Spotify has long evangelized free listening as a way to pull users in to paying for its service. The music industry's patience with the strategy seems to have run out.

Britney Spears, onstage in Las Vegas in September 2016.

Music & Culture

Britney Spears Inadvertently Delays An Election In Israel

11:03am April 06, 2017

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

A primary election for Israel's Labor Party has been moved — because of a Britney Spears show taking place next door.

Sam Outlaw's new album, Tenderheart, comes out April 14.

Music & Culture

First Listen: Sam Outlaw, 'Tenderheart'

10:53am April 06, 2017

by Jewly Hight

Exceptionally serene and pleasing, the second album from this country songwriter is easy to get lost in.

The Aces' debut EP, I Don't Like Being Honest, comes out June 23.

Music & Culture

The Aces' Sparkling 'Physical' Asks Pop Music For Some Substance On Sex

10:22am April 06, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

Channeling HAIM and Tegan And Sara, the Utah band has made a fun pop song about wanting more out of a relationship than just sex.

Spoek Mathambo's new album, Mzansi Beat Code, comes out April 14.

Music & Culture

First Listen: Spoek Mathambo, 'Mzansi Beat Code'

8:20am April 06, 2017

by Piotr Orlov

Mzansi Beat Code is a groove-packed, sociopolitical statement that places the 34-year-old producer at South Africa's creative center.

Ruthie Foster performs live for Mountain Stage.

Music & Culture

Ruthie Foster On Mountain Stage

8:00am April 06, 2017

The Grammy-nominated blues and gospel singer returns to Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va.

Adam Roszkiewicz, Jeremy Darrow, Melody Walker, Jacob Groopman and Leif Karlstrom make up the modern bluegrass band Front Country.

Music & Culture

Get To Know The 'String-Band Pop' Of Nashville's Front Country

6:26pm April 05, 2017

by Jewly Hight

Though each of Front Country's five members has had a vastly different musical education, they all share a no-rules approach to modern bluegrass that honors the craft of pop music.

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Alejandro Escovedo's latest album is Burn Something Beautiful.

Music & Culture

Alejandro Escovedo On World Cafe

5:44pm April 05, 2017

by Talia Schlanger

The trauma of a near-death experience could have ended the rock veteran's career, but his latest album, Burn Something Beautiful, proves otherwise.

Music & Culture

Sink Into TALsounds' 'Disgrace,' A Bathtub Full Of Synthesizer Ooze

3:37pm April 05, 2017

by Lars Gotrich

Good Willsmith member Natalie Chami's late-night gurgle of oscillator-pop exists somewhere between Bjork's hushed confessionals and The Knife's minimalist synth experiments.

Music & Culture

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Melds Jazz And Hip-Hop Beats On 'Ruler Rebel'

3:05pm April 05, 2017

by Kevin Whitehead

The New-Orleans-born trumpeter salutes the earliest jazz recordings on his new album. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Ruler Rebel showcases Adjuah's "commanding personal voice and ... sense of direction."

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