Random music news for Monday, December 29, 2025

How many TV shows have you binged so far? How do we feel about the end of Stranger Things? Any under-the-radar discoveries we should know about? I need to spend more time on the couch eating little cubes of cheese–and compiling music news for December 29, 2025.

1. Google has apologized for its AI falsely identifying Canadian fiddler Ashley MacIsaac as a sex offender, reminding us once again that AI is far from perfect.
2. Taylor Swift is dealing with a weird lawsuit against a poet from Florida who claims that Tay-Tay stole her words.
3. Here’s the issue with music discovery today: “More channels, more problems.”
4. On a related topic, what’s Apple’s plan for Apple Music?
5. Let’s kill some time with some rare video. (a) The first public performance of Rage Against the Machine, and (b) Nirvana in Hawaii in 1992. (Via Rick J)
6. As we reach the end of 2025, the Berklee College of Music’s Music Business Journal looks at the legality of generative AI in the music industry.
7. Accurate metadata is more essential than ever because of AI music companies. Here’s an explanation.
8. France has given electronic music a special designation: “Intangible Cultural Heritage.”
9. Tobias Forge recently offered up Ghost’s origin story.
10. No, former KISS drummer Peter Criss wasn’t selling downloads of his new album for $1,000. He explains.
11. New study: “Phones are ruining the dance floor.”
12. How far have radio signal from Earth managed to travel through space? That’s a good question. (Time to watch Contact again.)

More music news? Go here.

BONUS: Why hasn’t Trump gone after South Park for being mean to him? Here’s a possible explanation.