Random music news for Friday, January 31, 2025
If you’ve had a bad week at work, remember that it could be worse. Your employment could rest on the whims of Elon Musk. Meanwhile, he has no sway over any of the music news for January 31, 2025.
- Amazon Music has raised its prices in Canada.
- There’s a talent war involving musicians in the world of high-powered agencies in LA. And a Russian tycoon is involved.
- Who are this year’s most powerful people in music? Billboard has a list.
- The US Copyright Office has published a report on AI and what can be copyrighted.
- Is AI coming for voice actors and voiceover people? Yes, but…
- The AI wars have begun. Did China’s DeepSeek steal all of OpenAI’s data?
- Looks like there will be a lot of AI commercials during this year’s Super Bowl at US$8 million a pop.
- Spotify just won an important lawsuit over the practice of “bundling.”
- Let’s review the pliught of Ian Janes, a Nova Scotia musician who is having AI problems with his Spotify profile.
- The Warped Tour is returning for a few dates this summer. We have the first headliner.
- The VELD Music Festival returns to Toronto August 1-3.
- Both Blue Rodeo and Broken Social Scene have received the deluxe documentary treatment. See here.
- Ringo Starr says he’s never eaten pizza. Ever. Wait–what?
- The makers of Zig-Zag Rolling Papers now has a portable record player.
- Songs by Toto are played three million times a day.
BONUS: Does the switch to Daylight Saving Time affect dogs? (In my house, yes. Definitely.)