Critical Listening

For Episode 22, we spoke with songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and curator Taja Cheek, on the brink of her group L’Rain’s fourth record, fata morgana, out today on Mexican Summer. Taja is ...

14 Aug 53min

The CEO of SoundCloud recently revealed that he regularly seeks advice from what he calls his “AI board”—a model he trained on the interviews and writings of top pop musicians and record industry exec...

31 Juli 2min

Why did Panda Bear and Sonic Boom decide to not put their new record, A ? of WHEN, on any streaming services? And how did they get their label, Domino Recording Co, on board? For episode 20 we're join...

24 Juli 1h 1min

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 c...

29 Juni 4min

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 old...

1 Juni 4min

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 openi...

15 Maj 1h 1min

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 wad...

1 Maj 4min

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 rele...

17 Apr 1h 44min