Critical Listening

For this month's installment of our monthly headlines show, we're digging into two stories around the increasingly entwined worlds of generative AI and music streaming.

First, a look into a new tool created by the French streaming platform Deezer that shows users how many gen-AI tracks are already on their own playlists. Is this just another hollow marketing campaign by a tech company, or something that's actually useful? What role should streaming services be playing in the fight to label AI slop? Who should be accountable for the labor impacts of extractive AI tech on music?

Then we look to the role lawsuits are playing in that equation, as we unpack the recent announcement that the American Federation of Musicians is suing Universal and Warner, claiming their AI deals violate the collective bargaining agreement set between the union and the majors.

As usual, this episode is available Critical Listening's Patreon members. If you are not yet a subscriber, please consider joining for five bucks a month to access this conversation along with all of our Headlines episodes, bonus segments, and Discord community. Thanks for listening!

We're back for another Headlines episode for the month of May 2026. As with all Headlines episodes this season, this episode is a subscriber exclusive. You can listen to it in full and catch up on older headlines and more by signing up for our Patreon at patreon.com/criticallistening.

This month we dive in to some major developments in the world of music tech as we discuss the acquisition of German music production software conglomerate Native Instruments by their American rivals InMusic, one of their only direct competitors as far as power and monopolization is concerned.

We also discuss the recently announced details regarding the new proprietary generative AI tools made for Spotify in direct partnership with Universal Music Group and what this new precedent in licensing and "fan-made covers and remixes" might mean for the other major genAI developers on the market.

Welcome back! This month we are joined by Peter McLaughlin and Scott Mohler of the Maine Music Alliance. They explain how local musicians in Portland, Maine successfully stopped Live Nation from opening a 3300-cap venue in their town. It is a truly inspiring story involving musicians organizing to save local spaces during the COVID-19 lockdown, and eventually turning that network out in massive numbers—building a broad coalition, showing up to city council meetings, and convincing local government to modify city building codes that ultimately stopped the development. “It was a good day for the little guys,” they told us. Peter and Scott get into the weeds with us to explain how and why it all went down, and advice for other artists who want to organize against Live Nation in their towns.

Learn more about their org at mainemusicalliance.com (https://mainemusicalliance.com/). And if you enjoy this episode please consider becoming a paid subscriber at patreon.com/criticallistening so we can keep interviewing artist-organizers about pushing back against corporate power in music!

We’re back with another Headlines episode, and this month it’s our first time spending the whole episode on one story. You probably already know which one it is.

For this month we are begrudgingly wading into the discourse that has ensued following the Wired piece “The Fanfare Around the Band Geese Actually Was a Psyop,” published April 14. We dive into the manipulative tactics of “trend simulation” agencies like Chaotic Good, how pre-existing laws around deceptive advertising can reign them in, and what music lovers can do to fight these attempts to manufacture taste.

Our monthly Headlines episodes are for Patreon subscribers only so please head to Patreon.com/criticallistening to support the show, get early access to all episodes, and also access our Discord community. Thanks for listening!

For today's episode of Critical Listening we are joined by guitarist, songwriter and improviser Wendy Eisenberg to launch a new segment, "Listening Habits." Wendy joined us a few weeks before the release of their new self-titled album, which is out now on Joyful Noise Records. In the first half of the show, we speak with Wendy about their own work as a musician and a teacher. We discuss the new album, a class they are teaching this fall on theorizing musical community, and also some headier stuff like virtuosity and hooks. In the second half of the show, we introduce the new "Listening Habits" series, where we are talking to musickers about how they actually listen to music on an everyday basis. We talk to Wendy about their mp3 player, how they learn about new music, why they hate listening to music on a phone, and what it means to be a Critical Listener. This episode features songs from Wendy’s new record. Thanks for listening and please head to patreon.com/criticallistening to support the show with a monthly subscription.