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November 2025
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246 articles
- November 30
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- In my opinion, x0x machines are the best way to make beats and Amazon has the craziest deal I’ve seen on the Roland TR-8S, and besides, I can’t afford a TR-1000
- If you’re planning on buying a new MacBook Air or iPad this Cyber Monday, you’ll kick yourself if you miss out on Apple’s great gift card giveaway
- "A synth almost every pro producer seems to own – a modern classic": Moog’s semi-modular ‘Mother’ synths are all $100 off in Sweetwater's Black Friday sale; let's rank them from worst-to-best
- “Michael said he knew when he was writing it that it was a hit. Quincy thought it was a hit. But I don’t think any of us knew how huge it was going to be”: The making of Billie Jean, the single that transformed Michael Jackson into a phenomenon
- November 29
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- I don’t need another pair of small project studio monitors, but this deal on the IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitor is making me think I might need to sell my old ones
- I've spent all day looking at Black Friday synth deals and these are the 5 I'd actually buy - grab them while you can!
- Roland's TD716 electronic drum set is designed to be a VST killer. Now it's had a massive $1,800 wiped off the price at Sweetwater for Cyber Weekend – you’ll get a drum rug and throne worth nearly $500 for free, too!
- If I was buying my first Apple MacBook for music-making, this is the bargain $749 Black Friday deal I’d go for
- I've waited for Toontrack's Hitmaker SDX Expansion to be discounted ever since it was released. Now it's nearly half-price for Black Friday and I'm about to ruin Christmas by spending way too much on Superior Drummer samples in Thomann's Cyber Week Sale
- “Capping resale at face value is your right and we have a duty to encourage a fair resale market”: Olivia Dean calls on other artists to ensure fans don’t get ripped off
- “Big love to Jools for inviting us down to celebrate the New Year; it’s always such an honour and a genuine joy to be part of the show”: Ronnie Wood, Craig David, Olivia Dean and The Kooks all confirmed for this year’s Hootenanny
- "It was the best-sounding piece of kit ever, but they were so up themselves. We had so many arguments with them when we first bought it": Trevor Horn on the pioneering synth that defined the sound of Welcome to the Pleasuredome
- November 28
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- This amazing-value Walmart Squier Sonic Strat deal proves beginner guitarists have never had it so good - get 25% off for Black Friday
- Just £99 for 14 effects pedals in one? Surely this TC Electronic Plethora X1 compact multi-effects deal makes it the most value-packed stompbox this Black Friday
- Missed out on Thomann's Roland TD313 Cyber Week deal? Here's how you can still get one of the newest electronic drum sets on the market at a bargain price before Black Friday becomes Cyber Monday!
- I’ve scoured the Earth for the best Black Friday iPad deal, and this is the one I think musicians should go for
- Buy bleeps, get beats free – These modular synth and drum machine combos are the most genuinely tempting Black Friday deals I’ve seen so far
- OK, with $200 off, the Moog Messenger is still expensive, but this Black Friday weekend is definitely the time to buy one and use that money to add some effects
- "It will drag out your inner Brian Eno with frightening ease": Soundtoys makes some of the best effects plugins we've ever tested, and they're discounted by up to 75% for Black Friday
- I've found 9 free plugin deals for Black Friday, including a killer bundle - help yourself to something for nothing before the offers disappear
- I’d long thought that virtual piano plugins were cheating but this amazingly creative instrument from UJam changed my mind. This Black Friday it’s going cheap!
- I gave this ultra-slim and stylish Casio digital piano a four-star review – now it's $270 off in Sweetwater's still-live Black Friday sale
- Thanks to an exclusive Teenage Engineering freebie and Koala Sampler, a Google Pixel 10 is one of the best Android music making phones you can buy, and it'll cost you loads less than the latest iPhone this Black Friday
- Save 61% with this unbeatable Disney+ Black Friday streaming deal and catch the newly remastered The Beatles: Anthology series
- If I need a quick arp to enhance pretty much any arrangement, this is the first synth I reach for. Right now it’s 51% off, but be quick!
- With a year’s UAD Spark subscription plummeting to just $79, this plugin deal is the best way to improve your mixes over the next 12 months
- $300 off the 4.5-star rated Strandberg Boden Essential feels like the guitar deal of the year - save big on the most forward-thinking guitar around
- Jack White and Eminem light up the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day classic with unforgettable halftime show
- “Yoko would call us down into her office in Studio One. And John and I would be standing there like two school children": What did producer Jack Douglas do to provoke the ire of Yoko Ono?
- Cyber Monday plugin deals 2025 LIVE: all of today's most unmissable music software discounts on Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, Plugin Boutique and around the web
- Musician's Friend just kicked off its official Black Friday sale, and it's a big brand bonanza, with up to 60% off PRS, Fender, Casio, Shure, and more
- “Stealing the voice of an artist is theft. It is theft of his integrity, identity and humanity”: Johnny Cash’s estate sue Coke for running ad featuring Cash impersonator
- November 27
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- “A generational leap in modelling technology”: Neural DSP just gave your Quad Cortex and Nano Cortex an almighty power-up with “one of the largest virtual device expansions in the company’s history”
- “This is not about nostalgia, this is about vindication, redemption and celebration”: Billie Eilish introduced them to a whole new audience, and now '90s indie band Black Box Recorder are going back on stage
- Valhalla Supermassive 5.0 is capable of everything from clean delay to “nearly eternal space reverbs” – and it’s still completely free
- Is God a DJ? Pope makes appearance at religious rave in Slovakia
- "I thought, ‘I can’t play now. He’s going to be looking at my fingers and judging me’”: British acid jazz outfit The Brand New Heavies say that Prince came to watch them three times and Stevie Wonder once sang one of their songs to them
- “A jumbo-bodied 12-string cutaway acoustic that’s light on the pocket, but big on sound”: Harley Benton unveils Custom Line jumbo 12-string with a $350 price tag that’s for the Byrds
- “I think if he’d walked in, I’m not gonna lie, I would’ve gone, ‘Forget it’": Bob Dylan would fail American Idol audition, according to Simon Cowell
- Positive Grid is knocking up to 30% off its range of top-rated smart amps and software this Black Friday weekend - including the Spark 2, Spark Mini & Bias X
- "Artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions are used in new AI-generated music”: Warners and Suno link up to create new legal AI platforms
- Universal Audio's amazing Black Friday freebie is still live - for now. Take your pick from an 1176, LA-2A, Pultec EQ, and more completely free of charge
- "In terms of audio and signal performance, it delivers everything I would want as a vocalist": Positive Grid Spark Link XLR wireless system review review
- Save up to 95% on incredible plugins, software and bundles in Plugin Boutique’s Black Friday sale – and grab an exclusive free plugin for MusicRadar readers
- “These were both huge British bands with international followings so we’re expecting considerable interest”: How the “fingerprint” wood grain of this Warwick bass revealed a connection to not one but two British rock legends (and tripled its value)
- November 26
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- “I was always pushing him to go back to playing the organ through an amp for some solos… y’know, the sound that he had in the Machine Head days”: Steve Morse on why he loved writing with Jon Lord and the Deep Purple track that started with a cup of tea
- “It was never about the tech, never about ‘activating a catalogue’. It was only ever about love for the craft and curiosity”: The producers of ABBA Voyage say that it was "never a format to copy"
- "It's not just another recreation of the Jupiter-8": Cherry Audio goes "beyond Jupiter" with the Mercury-8 soft synth
- In 2015, JHS Pedals released what it called the “ultimate dirt pedal” – now it has made it better with a revised circuit featuring a heap of player-requested features and more headroom
- Neural DSP just sweetened the deal when you pick up a Nano Cortex for Black Friday - help yourself to a plugin of your choice free of charge
- “Famous musicians are indeed at risk of a premature death”: New study shows fame knocks on average four years off your life
- "This isn't just a new keyboard – it's a new era": Arturia releases small but mighty 37-key version of its AstroLab stage keyboard
- 5 Waves plugins for just $99 is the perfect Black Friday deal to fill the gaps in your music software arsenal – get them for less than $20 each
- As a Gibson and Epiphone super fan, I've pulled together the very best offers from around the internet this Black Friday - including $600 off a Les Paul Standard, $300 off the Hendrix Flying V, and so much more
- November 25
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- “I keep hearing people ask, ‘What have you done to Liam’s voice?' I’ve not done anything! He’s got to turn up with that voice in the first place”: How Oasis brought Noel and Liam’s touring crews together for their triumphant Live ‘25 reunion
- Hear your mixes like never before with up to $100 off Beyerdynamic's dependable studio headphones - including the DT 770 Pro X and DT 990 Pro
- “I said, ‘Andy, I can you build me an amp? I’ll send you a speaker…’ he built me one of these ODS models, and, to be honest with you, it blew me away”: Joe Bonamassa teams up with Fuchs Audio for a signature amp offering Dumble tone without the price
- My daily-driver podcast mic is 15% off for Black Friday at Amazon and it’s one of the smartest buys you can make for a spoken word setup
- “It’s exquisite. It’s a gift from someone, somewhere, that it fell into her lap”: Singer-songwriter Matt Maltese says that he doesn’t really know how one of his songs ended up on Rosalía’s new album, Lux
- Rave culture meets the first mass-produced electric guitar – Fender teams up with Palace Skateboards for limited edition Telecaster with “high-energy” graphic
- “I'm sure that sound influenced the Daft Punk song Get Lucky, because it uses the same trick”: The fascinating music theory behind the kicked-around track that Prince shaped into a hit
- I love Boss pedals and amps, and with massive Black Friday savings on everything from the Katana to DS-1, you can see what all the fuss is about for less
- “I hit the drum maybe five times. That was it. Concorde flights, 14 days in a 5-star hotel. The most expensive bit of drumming in history”: When stars of Duran Duran and Chic formed a decadent ’80s supergroup to rock out like Led Zeppelin
- “They say everybody has two lives, and the second life starts when you realise you have one”: Childish Gambino reveals he had a stroke in 2024
- November 24
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- “We’re seeing the future of music take shape in real time”: All three majors link licensing deal with AI start up
- 7 of my favorite audio interfaces are still reduced on sale for Black Friday - including the one I use every day in my home studio
- Who Wants To Live Forever? Brian May says Queen are looking at a possible hologram show: “I’m very taken with the idea that we can be the original Queen again”
- Billie Eilish plays the final show on her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour… then immediately confirms the release date for the live concert 3D film that she’s directing alongside James Cameron
- “A true cultural giant… His music lifted people through hard times, inspired generations, and helped to shape the global respect that Jamaican culture enjoys today”: Jamaica and the world mourn Jimmy Cliff
- FabFilter's killer Black Friday sale just launched, including hefty discounts on the essential production tools I reach for with every mix
- “It doesn't seem to have affected my piano playing - I still seem to be very capable of hitting the odd wrong note here and there”: Rick Wakeman shares positive health update after brain surgery
- “It’s bittersweet, of course”: Soundgarden’s final album is “pretty close” to completion
- “We weren’t getting paid that much, so our only solace was whupping his ass on stage”: Jellybean Johnson, drummer with Prince associates The Time, has died, aged 69
- Thomann just carved some serious cash off Harley Benton guitars, pedals and accessories for Black Friday - here's 4 of my favourite deals for you
- “You can shake your head and say, ‘This isn’t real rock ‘n’ roll.’ Or you can look at it another way”: Joe Perry says that when Aerosmith recorded with Yungblud, "there wasn’t a single song that we did where we actually all played together”
- "With a DI box and some time to learn the layout, it's a robust, reliable and ridiculously well-equipped powerhouse for the stage and studio": IK Multimedia TONEX Pedal Bass Edition review
- November 23
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- “I don’t want to talk about it anymore, if that’s all right. I feel like the dust hasn’t settled”: The devastating personal pain behind one of Radiohead’s most affecting songs
- “Everybody used to say how great Clapton was, but I remember saying to Eric, ‘You try playing that one riff for eight minutes!’”: How rock legends Status Quo stole a riff from The Doors and built an entire career out of it
- “People would say, ‘OMG, if this guy is in the back of a guitar store, teaching, what does it say about the music business?’ But, of course, within a few years, everybody would know his name”: Testament’s Alex Skolnick on what he learned from Joe Satriani
- “I got woken up at 3 AM by a fan spamming my DMs. I looked at the stream and was like, ‘no way!’ I’m still in disbelief”: UKG phenom MPH on featuring in Thomas Bangalter’s comeback DJ set
- November 22
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- “John called us and said he thought that we were the best stuff that he had heard since the Beatles… To hear that from John Lennon was like, ‘What?’ It was a wonderful compliment”: Davey Johnstone on Elton John’s smash-hit Beatles collab with John Lennon
- “I’m still disappointed when people hear the chorus line as ‘got to’ rather than ‘get to’“: How One rescued Achtung Baby and saved U2
- With up to 85% off bundles, the 12 Days of UAD early Black Friday sale has some of the best plugin discounts you'll see this year
- “If we had stuck together we could have been as big as Led Zeppelin – or at the very least, Deep Purple. We had the stuff!”: The heavy rock innovators whose hard-hitting drummer was a star before John Bonham
- November 21
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- "When it comes to sound, I'm convinced there isn’t a bad tone in this pedal": Crazy Tube Circuits Mirage JR reverb pedal review
- I went to the Kraftwerk auction to buy their chairs, but came back with loads of gear from Florian Schneider’s studio and a massive bill instead
- New Thomann deals are still being added to its Cyber Week sale with fresh-but-serious offers on guitars, pedals, and more - save up to 70% while stock lasts
- “If the studio fits on a desktop, iLoud Sub fits right in”: IK Multimedia’s new sub is designed for small setups and includes ARC X room correction
- “We had to use a little bit of latex so I wouldn’t get arrested, because if you’re fully naked on the street anywhere in America... jail:” How Alanis Morissette followed the mega-hit Jagged Little Pill – with a spiritual anthem and its high-risk video
- “I hated it. Absolutely hated it. And I still do. Trip-hop had nothing to do with me”: Portishead’s Geoff Barrow on pigeonholing, production and beating imposter syndrome to become a film soundtrack composer
- How Burial used a "rubbish, dying computer” and primitive audio editing software to make one of the most influential electronic albums of all time
- “I’ve rocked my roll. It’s a boring dead end. The last thing I want to be is some useless rock singer”: How a disillusioned and drug-addicted David Bowie reinvented his music with a groundbreaking song he could barely remember recording
- Why LANDR Stems is the best solution for achieving pro-level stem separation on the market right now - and how you can get a whopping Black Friday discount
- November 20
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- Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist, dies, aged 63
- “Prince was always scared that we were going to give The Time’s sound away”: Prince’s close association with the LM-1 drum machine influenced Jam and Lewis’s decision to switch to the Roland TR-808 on one of their early ‘80s hits, says Jimmy Jam
- Meet Synido’s TempoPad C16, the minty fresh MIDI pad controller that’s functional, flexible and a whole lot of fun
- "It just shows the power of community skills and generosity and the value of repairing rather than replacing": Local repair cafe saves hip-hop legends' gig
- “If you already own an Apollo or Volt interface and want to upgrade your inputs, then the Volt 876 is a no-brainer”: Universal Audio Volt 876 review
- “No complicated setups. No software. No cables. Just play”: Popumusic’s PartyStudio is “the world’s first wireless MIDI synthesizer speaker”, and lets up to four people jam simultaneously
- "Your golden pipes remain this guy’s all-time favourite rock voice to ever grace the planet": Steve Vai salutes Whitesnake legend David Coverdale
- “We are, first and foremost, Bob Dylan fans - the idea of being excluded from future shows is truly devastating”: Owner of Dylan fansite is kicked out of gig for being an "unwanted person."
- Roland's new Earth Electric Piano instrument brings "every electric piano you've ever loved together at last"
- “Timeless songs that translate beautifully to guitar”: Ed Sheeran is the king of the guitar tabs
- “When Bruce came back I wasn’t 100% sure of the reasons behind it. I was like, ‘Well, okay, let’s see.’ I’ll be honest – I wasn’t sure”: How Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris made his peace with singer Bruce Dickinson
- November 19
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- “That's the weird thing. I'm thinking, ‘I can hear John, he's never even heard this and he was there!’”: Giles Martin explains how AI de-mixing has resulted in fresh live audio for the Beatles Anthology remaster
- “It’s been on stage with everyone from Deep Purple to Janet Jackson. It kind of blows me away that people ever responded in that way”: PRS reworks Mark Lettieri’s signature Fiore as super-versatile dual-humbucker model with serial/parallel switching
- UK electronic musicians aren't getting the royalties they deserve and underground scenes are subsidising mainstream producers, according to a new report
- “I did that by myself at my house in about 20 minutes. They said, ‘Sing this.’ I said, ‘OK’”: How Bon Iver’s billion-stream collab with Taylor Swift came together in record time
- “I burned my leg real bad once back in the ‘70s, man. A smoke bomb ignited too early inside the cavity of the guitar”: Ace Frehley’s ‘Smoker’ Les Pauls were spectacular but dangerous – now one from his final Kiss tour heads to auction
- “I’ve always loved this kind of hard-clipping circuit as it’s really responsive to playing dynamics”: Great Eastern FX finds stash of super-rare NOS germanium diodes and makes a distortion inspired by MXR and DOD classics with a cocked-wah twist
- “Most musicians can’t easily find notation for the songs they actually want to play – we’re using AI to close that gap”: Songscription is an AI-powered platform that converts any audio file into notation, tabs and MIDI
- “Now, more than ever, we believe it’s critical to spotlight the humans, creative process, and stories behind the music”: Spotify expands its song credits and previews a SongDNA feature that reveals samples, cover versions and more
- “We were recording Michael Bolton’s version of (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay. And right next door was Steve Cropper, who wrote the song with Otis Redding and played on the original. I was kind of nervous!”: When a legendary guitar hero got the jitters
- “This is the first time ever that Abbey Road has created a musical instrument that you can physically pick up and play”: Gretsch teams up with Abbey Road for the Studiomatic – a hollowbody with a filter circuit inspired by tech from the studio
- November 18
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- The band didn't like the English lyrics, the record company didn't want to release it as a single, and the song had no chorus: The story of the 'foreign language song' that became an international hit
- “It was right after high school. I was 18. That was the first Gibson bass I had ever played. That became my sound for a long time – and my look”: Epiphone unveils signature G-3 Grabber with Gibson USA pickups for Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt
- Ashun Sound Machines launches Diosynth, its follow up to the Hydrasynth – but it’s probably not what you were expecting
- “Just another Tube Screamer clone, or something more?”: Warm Audio Tube Squealer review
- Is this the future of the DAW? Melosurf is a voice-controlled AI assistant that lets you talk to Ableton Live
- “Ringo used to say that the Beatles would have only made three albums if it wasn’t for Paul”: Giles Martin unpacks the upcoming remastered Beatles Anthology series
- Secondary ticket rip-offs – UK Government to finally act?: Next King’s Speech likely to include ban on profiteering
- "You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul": Legendary $1 billion Jim Irsay Collection to be auctioned in 2026, including Kurt Cobain's Teen Spirit Fender Mustang
- “Dua sings everything”: Dua Lipa’s live engineer reveals the special sonic sauce he uses to add the “pop shine” to her vocals on her Radical Optimism tour
- “When I brought up the talk box, everybody in the band started laughing at me. But when it actually worked, it became an integral part of that hit song”: How Bon Jovi created their signature rock anthem – with a 'hit doctor' and a 'goofy' guitar effect
- “I’m drifting, broken, shell shocked, just watching one foot fall in front of the other”: Gary Numan opens up about his brother’s sudden death
- “Every metal component – from the silver-nickel covers and baseplates to the screws and springs – has been expertly aged”: Gibson cooks up “holy grail” PAF mojo with the 1959 Humbucker Collector’s Edition Series 3 – the ultimate Les Paul tone hack?
- November 17
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- With a massive 89% discount, $99 for a year's worth of Guitar Tricks online lessons is the best way to upgrade your guitar playing this Black Friday
- “Very worrying to see him so emotional”: Fans voice concerns after Gary Numan breaks down during Birmingham gig after hearing "worst news ever"
- Fender just launched its Black Friday sale and I can't believe the Player II Stratocaster is this cheap - save up to 30% off a range of Squier and Fender guitars
- "Why don't we take a moment, a little quiet, think about him looking down on us”: Kiss pay tribute to Ace Frehley at Las Vegas shows
- Babyface's recording studio – home to "125 Top 10 hits, 45 No 1 R&B hits and 13 Grammy wins" – goes on sale for $7 million with $800,000 worth of gear
- “As close to perfect as we have ever heard”: ValhallaDSP’s new plugin is the product of eight years of research and development
- “I've spent 20 years of my life learning how to be good at music. To hear someone get rewarded so quickly for something made by AI is just so disappointing”: BBC Introducing under fire for featuring artist that uses AI
- “No, your uploaded files do not earn royalties”: Tidal launches Tidal Upload, an artist-aimed free route to get independent music on its platform. There are cash incentives - but don’t expect any royalties
- November 16
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- “Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it.’ I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’”: Kelis and the complicated story of Milkshake
- “I'm getting on an airplane, I'm listening to a song and it has my sound in it”: How DECAP's Drums That Knock became the must-have sample pack for modern producers
- “My legs began to shake and my fingers cramped. My lips started bleeding, but I told myself not to stop playing”: Nigerian musician tells what it’s like to play the trumpet non-stop for 25 hours
- “He said ‘Look, I want you to take all those albums and destroy them and I’ll pay for whatever cost was incurred in manufacturing.’ And he actually paid us out of his royalties”: What made Prince abruptly pull his new album days before release in 1987?
- November 15
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- “Marc is criminally underrated as a guitarist. All rock ’n’ rollers love T. Rex, and there’s a little bit of T. Rex in every rock ’n’ roll band”: When T. Rex opened the floodgates of glam rock with the riff-driven groove of Get It On
- “I'm quite interested in AI... getting some of my songs that didn’t quite work and putting them up onto Suno... there might be hits”: Why Pete Townshend is interested in using AI
- “Tim wasn’t feeling good, and then Jeff said something derogatory, and Tim just punched him in the face!”: The dramatic story of Jeff Beck’s explosive ’70s supergroup and the song that Stevie Wonder gifted to them and then reclaimed
- November 14
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- “I send this mix to Rick Rubin and he says, ‘Anthony sounds old. Make him sound younger.’ And I'm like, ‘Oh, I wish there was a knob for that’”: Red Hot Chili Peppers mix engineer Ryan Hewitt recalls Rick Rubin's unusual request on 2006's Stadium Arcadium
- "This pedal excels at delivering a completely clean volume boost - and there's plenty of volume on tap": Fender Hammertone Boost review
- “I was afraid. The idea of being unable to sing and perform was horrifying. All the things you take for granted suddenly taken away from you. It was a very troubling time in my life”: An epic interview with rock legend and Whitesnake star David Coverdale
- “One of the greatest electronic music songs of all time”: Disclosure give an official release to their updated edit of a ‘90s club classic
- It’s now nearly impossible to detect whether a track is human or AI-made, new survey reveals
- How innovative minds are developing new technology to support music makers with disabilities
- “I said, ‘Before we start, you know that if I audition I’ll get the gig. But be warned – I’m gonna be a pain in the arse!’”: Bruce Dickinson recalls his audition for Iron Maiden – and his crazy times with his previous band
- “I was smashing a guitar at every show. I had to use this special glue called Cascamite – it’s a powdered glue and I managed to string them back together. I got very good at putting guitars together”: Pete Townshend remembers The Who’s first US tour
- November 13
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- “I certainly got a new appreciation for the Megadeth stuff… it was amazing to see how far guitar quality had come in our genre of music”: Alex Skolnick on the time he was on standby for Megadeth – and what to do when you can’t match a player lick for lick
- “For a budget amp, it offers an impressive feature set without costing the earth”: Harley Benton DNAFX AmP20 review
- I’ve seen a lot of Black Friday sales, but this one’s next level - Sweetwater just dropped thousands of discounts of up to 80% off guitars, drums, keys, and more
- “We've just upped it to 256 channels, which sounds crazy”: Coldplay’s live engineers reveal the lengths they go to to record every single show on the band’s never-ending Music of the Spheres tour
- “I nearly made a record with Ray Davies and David Bowie back in the late '90s”: Damon Albarn on the dream collab that got away
- “Dipping our toe into the cosmic pool of glitchy synth pedals with this one”: EHX expands its Pico series with the Atomic Cluster Spectral Decomposer – a mini-pedal that sounds so wrong its right
- “I put the headstock on the buffing wheel. It threw it out of my hands. That day I learned how to fix a broken headstock”: Cesar Gueikian on building the SG Kirk Hammett played to honour Black Sabbath and how his designs might shape future Gibson releases
- “By the end of the process I sort of felt like I was squeezing blood from a stone, trying to get every last drop of liquid life out of an idea I had already been sat with for years prior”: Charli XCX reveals the extent of her post-Brat creative comedown
- Guitar Center just dropped its biggest sale of the year, with thousands of discounts and up to 40% off for Black Friday
- “I ended up rewriting the lyrics and changing the whole song because Tony broke up with me”: How Gwen Stefani channeled the pain of rejection into the No.1 song that catapulted No Doubt to worldwide fame
- Concerts or copulation? 70% of music fans would choose riffs over rumpy pumpy
- “The internet is not a self-service store and human creative achievements are not free templates”: Crucial German court victory against OpenAI as ChatGPT ruled to have illegally harvested lyrics
- November 12
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- "Over 11,000 genre-defining Roland sounds in one powerful instrument": Roland brings Zen-Core to Galaxias with Zenology GX
- “The guitar tones alone were worth the price of admission”: Jon Bon Jovi was impressed by Oasis live
- “We’d look at each other like, ‘Oh my God, are we going to say that?! OK, we’re going to say that’”: The "hysterical" songwriting sessions with Sabrina Carpenter that propelled Amy Allen to four Grammy nominations
- “A feral supernova awaits if you dime those dials”: EarthQuaker Devices Barrows Fuzz Attacker review
- "A pivotal moment for the UK music industry": UK music generated a record £8bn for the economy in 2024, but challenges from AI and Brexit remain
- My go-to audio interface is now even better value at under £80 in Gear4Music's early Black Friday sale
- The No. 1 country song in the US right now is AI-generated
- The PRS Black Friday sale is already here and there's huge discounts on SE CE 24, SE Custom 24, SE Studio and other workhorse models – here's 5 deals I rate
- “A multi-purpose, studio-grade delay device like you’ve never seen before”: Jack White used the prototype of this “studio-grade” delay on No Name and now you can buy it – meet the JHS Pedals x Third Man Hardware Troika
- “They’re the absolute pioneers – like a mix of thrash metal and Allan Holdsworth”: Why Wolfgang Van Halen is in awe of a “super heavy” cult band
- November 11
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- “If my first acoustic guitar were as easy to play as this, I’d have been insanely happy”: Fender California Standard Redondo review
- “We’ve listened to our users… we’re giving them more creative freedom to shape their tone”: Universal Audio gives its UAFX amp modelling and effects pedals an almighty power up, adding MIDI connectivity, improving presets and app integration
- KV331 Audio is giving away one of the best iPad synths we've ever tested for free
- “I wanted to create an instrument that feels classic but also pushes players to explore new tones and possibilities”: Fender and Johnny Marr reimagine the Jaguar with a limited edition signature stunner featuring three custom-wound lipstick single-coils
- “Journey wanted to make a musical change. Next thing I know I’m in Denver, Colorado with Neal Schon and we wrote our first song together that night”: How Steve Perry became the voice of Journey and took the band to its peak – before he had to bow out
- “The Purple Rain guitar was in the corner, his lava lamps were everywhere and the mixing desk had been used by Sly and the Family Stone”: Fine Young Cannibals confirm that She Drives Me Crazy was recorded at Paisley Park using Prince’s studio gear
- Behringer clones the classic Korg SQ-10 analogue sequencer with BQ-10
- The early Black Friday guitar deals don't get much better than this sale at Thomann - save up to 69% on two top-rated guitars, a Warm Audio condenser mic, a Behringer synthesizer, and loads more
- “I asked Taylor, ‘How would you feel about putting a five-string guitar on a six-string neck tuned in a very strange way”: Taylor teams up with Jacob Collier for signature acoustics that declare standard tuning DAEAD – and they’re accessibly priced
- “An incredible gesture, demonstrating once again that artists absolutely understand how vital grassroots music venues are to their careers and to their communities”: Sam Fender to donate his Mercury winnings to the Music Venue Trust
- “The guitar I built in Kirk’s hands… paying tribute to Tony, Ozzy and Black Sabbath, it was amazing and strange, humbling and epic”: The unique SG built by Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian and played by Kirk Hammett at Back to the Beginning heads to auction
- “When it was finished, I collapsed in exhaustion”: How Moby carefully crafted Play and rescued his career
- November 10
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- We didn’t expect this rising artist to snag a Producer of the Year nod for the 2026 Grammys - but we’re glad he did
- “Delivers outstanding value for budget-conscious users”: the t.bone freeU HT 823 review
- "He closes the guitar case, he hands it to me and he says ‘take care of this for me’”: Shortly before he died, Warren Zevon gave David Letterman a guitar, and after 22 years, it just went “back to work” in the hands of The Killers’ Dave Keuning
- “I had a White Stripes fan account when I was 13”: Olivia Rodrigo sings The White Stripes' praises and performs one of their songs as she and Feist help to induct the band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
- Stevie sings, Flea slaps and Beck blows on his harmonica: Sly Stone got an all-star tribute at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony
- “Xania is an extension of me so I look at her as a real person”: Tulisha ‘Nikki’ Jones reveals the person behind her AI ‘artist’ Xania Monet
- “This business can really get tough sometimes, and you have to dig deep inside you. Paul looked for something else to lean on, and the thing he leaned on had no future in it”: How a gifted guitarist’s descent led to the rise of ’70s supergroup Bad Company
- November 9
- November 8
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- “I got a hacksaw and I chopped down the stand and put the hi-hats down there”: How the right-handed Simon Phillips learned to play left-handed as a young drummer – with inspiration from two fusion legends and some drastic DIY
- “We would like to leave the verdict of price versus value to the customers”: Is the Roland TR-1000 really too expensive?
- November 7
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- “Lily arrived with the song titles, which is really unusual. She would come in and say, ‘I want to write a song called Dallas Major,’ and we’re like, ‘OK, let’s have some backstory”: The group songwriting sessions that yielded Lily Allen’s West End Girl
- "It's a pain that every producer knows: a desktop full of old sessions, forgotten mixdowns, and endless folders": Struggling to keep track of your DAW projects? This free app can help
- “I love John McLaughlin’s stuff, all those great Mahavishnu Orchestra records. There’s so much there musically. I just admire real musicians”: Journey guitarist Neal Schon on the band’s wild early days and the players who inspire him
- “I sent him some songs… he recorded something and sent it to me. And it was… well, it made me cry”: Charli XCX on how a phrase John Cale once used about the Velvet Underground’s music led to their new Wuthering Heights collaboration
- Best Christmas gifts for music producers 2025: 9 affordable ideas they'll actually use
- “I think that’s what grabbed people – the fact that there were real moments of humanity in it. And the melody was catchy, the rhythm and my vocal was hypnotic”: The story of Cyndi Lauper’s first No.1. hit – later recorded by Miles Davis
- “We wrote the biggest-selling single that Rod ever had, and it took us an hour to put it down. It ended up selling millions all around the world”: When Rod Stewart and drummer Carmine Appice created a controversial disco-era smash hit
- November 6
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- “Roland has always been extremely good at marrying the playability of its samples with the physical feel of its hardware - this kit is no exception”: Roland VAD316 review
- “For percussionists who want to take matters into their own hands when it comes to effects”: Walrus launch the DFX-1, an effects unit built for drummers
- “If you can live with just two channels, there’s a lot that impresses about this DJ controller”: Native Instruments Traktor MX2 review
- Waves is teasing a free plugin release for Black Friday – sign up today to be first in line
- “To quote Prince, ‘If the first words out of an artist’s mouth when they hit the stage aren’t heard, you’re a horrible engineer’”: Drake’s live sound engineer on why he had to be at the top of his game from first song to last on his recent European tour
- “Practise late at night, rehearse in silence, or warm up on the go – all without losing the soul of your sound”: IK Multimedia unveils the Tonex Plug – is this pocket-sized powerhouse a gamechanger for headphone amps?
- Steinberg unveils Cubase 15, a "major leap forward" for its flagship DAW with new instruments, effects, modulators and AI-powered stem separation
- Everything In Its Right Place: Radiohead switch up their setlist on the second night of reunion tour
- “I don’t know what that is – but it is an awesome guitar and I love it to bits”: Bleed From Within’s Craig ‘Goonzi’ Gowans and Steven Jones on the high-performance shred machines behind their heavyweight metalcore sound
- Waves just made the first move on Black Friday with 3 jaw-dropping offers - and one’s completely free
- “This is a step in the right direction”: Ed Sheeran gives thumbs up to government’s national curriculum changes
- "A substantial, non-trivial percentage appear to be the work of a sprawling network of Bot Accounts": Class action lawsuit claims Spotify claims has overlooked billions of fraudulent streams of Drake's music
- November 5
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- “If you're looking for a do-it-all acoustic guitar for well under $500, then there really aren't many better options”: Harley Benton CLG-650SM-CE review
- Planet-friendly power for your rig? Ernie Ball declares war on single-use batteries with USB-C rechargeables that promise “consistent, full-voltage performance” for pro musicians
- “We’ve played some big shows in England, but I don’t know about that one": Lindsey Buckingham claims not to know if he’s ever played Glastonbury as he reacts to Florence and the Machine’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain at the 2010 festival
- “For the majority of producers the iMac probably isn’t the right choice”: Apple iMac M4 review
- "Metamorph isn't about replacing the human voice – it's about expanding what's possible when human creativity meets responsible AI": Antares unveils MetaMorph voice modelling plugin
- “What I wanted to achieve was the J-20 sound without the reverb and the trem”: Thorpy FX teams up with boutique amp specialist Lazy J to give guitarists premium vintage Tweed tone in a pedal
- “Create endless, rich, lively soundscapes out of almost any sound”: Soma Laboratory Warp is a digital effect powerhouse with CV control
- “It was the easiest song I ever wrote, and it's the most popular, and that really scares me!”: Inside the towering M83 monolith that left its creator with mixed feelings
- “Once we had that chorus, it’s like everything came from that. Some songs you agonise over, but this was not one of them”: Boy Meets Girl on how having one song rejected led to them writing Whitney Houston’s biggest ‘80s hit
- “A dozen pickup combinations, the ability to summon both humbucker and single-coil sounds, and beautiful woods”: The ultimate semi-hollow? PRS Guitars’ latest 40th Anniversary release is a jaw dropping electric with an “artist grade” top
- “I really think this is the one that I want them to hear. I love this one”: Finneas writes new three-second ‘mnemonic’ for Apple TV
- Radiohead kick off their European tour with a career-spanning setlist in Madrid - here's everything they played and where they're headed next
- Teenage Engineering launches EP-40 Riddim, a spin on its EP-133 sampler deeply inspired by reggae, dancehall and sound system culture
- Wot no hip-hop?: The Billboard Top 30 is rap free – for the first time in 35 years
- Even Better Than The Real Thing? Xania Monet becomes the first AI ‘artist’ to reach the Billboard charts
- “No Pro Tools, no tricks or whistles. We as a band helped change the production of heavy metal records”: With one song, Pantera reinvented their sound to become one of the most influential metal bands of all time
- November 4
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- “All my new acoustic guitars get to listen to OutKast for about 40 hours the first week they’re in the house”: Jason Isbell shares unorthodox tone tip for new acoustics as he unveils not one but two signature Martins – and a set of strings
- Arturia launches KeyStep Mk2 with OLED display, expanded connectivity and new generative tools
- "Why are we still putting up with this?": AlphaTheta suspends CDJ-3000 firmware update after DJs complain of vanishing playlists
- “I’m still playing my original 1984 guitar on the Oasis 2025 tour, and I wouldn’t have it any other way”: Epiphone goes 'madferit' as it rolls out signature semi-hollows for Oasis's Bonehead and Gem Archer
- “I knew what I wanted but I didn’t know how to get it in a nice co-operative way… I know that I was not always the most pleasant person to work with”: David Byrne admits he was a ‘bossy pants’ in Talking Heads
- "We've seen this before - everyone talks about 'partnership,' but artists end up on the sidelines with scraps": Music Artists Coalition on Universal/Udio deal – More Details Please!
- Stuck for ideas? Here's how to create fresh basslines and melodies with Ableton Live 12’s MIDI tools
- “Step inside the studio that made history”: Universal Audio's new plugin puts "America's Abbey Road" in your DAW
- “With this poisoned music out there, we can bring AI firms to the negotiating table for fair licensing of training data for independent musicians”: Could Poison Pill be the antidote to illegal AI scraping?
- November 3
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- Eventide’s Temperance Lite is a new modal reverb plugin that lets you tune your reverb tails – and it’s free until December 31
- “The meaning behind all of this is right in front of our faces, we’re just overlooking it”: Just what was the Radiohead Binary Code theory - and was there any truth in it?
- “Do it yourself, keep it simple, don’t get overblown. You’ve done the Beatles, you’ve done A Day in the Life, you’ve done Sgt Pepper. Now come back to basics”: Paul McCartney on how he kickstarted his solo career in a remote Scottish farmhouse
- "This analogue synth will blow your mind": Behringer unveils SDS-3, a $249 clone of the classic Simmons drum synth
- “I hadn’t stopped from ’62 till ’73 – on demand continuously. And walking away was hard… because I don’t exist if I don’t have a record in the charts”: The cosmic inspiration and bitter irony in one of John Lennon’s last and most poignant songs
- “Every day, you’d go round the house and Johnny would play some riff sat having a spliff in his jimmy-jams. You’d be like, ‘That’s amazing. What’s that?’”: Mike Joyce remembers the early days of The Smiths
- “We started with the drum beat and I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to do something kind of like The Way You Make Me Feel.' And I sat at the Wurly and I went, ‘duh-du-duhh’”: Olivia Dean on writing Man I Need and the Michael Jackson hit that helped to inspire it
- “Together, we can foster a healthy AI ecosystem in which artists, songwriters, music and technology companies can all flourish and create incredible experiences for fans”: Universal and Udio lay down their arms to collaborate on new legal AI platform
- November 1