News archive
February 2026
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68 articles
- February 12
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- “This is the king of synths. It will always be my favourite”: Howard Jones takes you on a tour of the synth he’s owned since 1983 that “sounds like no other”
- “Give your agent a music career”: New AI-only online radio station launches
- Inside Harley Benton’s 2026 mega-drop: Fresh colours and a baritone for the SC Custom III, a metallic makeover for hot-rodded S-styles, all-solid acoustics for under $250 and more
- "Not that Kirk doesn't get enough solos, but Cliff took his solo, which I think is just so cool": Robert Trujillo on the time Metallica mixed up their solos
- "Welcome to the dystopian future we only dreamed about three years ago": Deadmau5 blasts DJ using his AI-generated deepfake to promote music
- A whopping $900 discount on a stunning Gibson Les Paul is the headline act of Guitar Center's early Presidents' Day sale, plus a generous up to 30% off a range of music-making gear
- “Income from streaming simply isn’t enough to sustain most artists and that 99.9% them face a funding gap”: New app launched that could provide grassroots artists with a much-needed revenue stream
- “Thank you for everything, for your friendship, your wit and your generosity of spirit, and of course for the music, forever a true friend and brother”: Pogues drummer Andrew Ranken has died, aged 72
- February 11
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- Harley Benton just dropped an 8-string for southpaw players that has a multi-scale build, high-gain humbuckers – and it offers change from 300 bucks
- “He knew one day someone would come and look through this stuff. They’re not objects for veneration to be kept in a box": Rare footage of Bowie from 1978 to be included in new ‘immersive’ show
- Waldorf Protein hands-on: Four layers, '90s wavetables & MPE in a $399 mini synth
- “The reason everybody knows Eric Clapton’s name is not because he’s a great guitar player”: Billy Corgan says virtuosic guitar solos mean nothing in the social media age – and argues guitar influencers need to make a bigger impact on popular music
- “Every producer bows down to Dilla, whether they like it or not”: How J Dilla and his MPC changed beatmaking forever
- “She’s happy with the sale and has been celebrating by spending time with her kids”: Britney sells her back catalogue for a rumoured $200 million
- Cherry Audio’s SH-MAX takes on a trio of classic Roland monosynths called upon by everyone from Kraftwerk to Tame Impala
- “We weren’t like a normal group that’s ready to take a knock. We couldn’t fight back”: Carl Palmer on how punk killed ELP
- The Beatles-approved J-160E makes its return as Gibson unveils a trio of Original Collection flat-tops celebrating the golden era of acoustic guitar making
- February 10
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- “The legendary sound and feel, now reimagined for your DAW or desktop”: Amp modelling titan Fractal Audio unveils its first guitar plugin suite
- “If we could make this stuff too hot to handle, that’d be great!”: Chris Buck appeals for help to find his stolen Peli cases
- “I cheat, really. I’m not a great technical player at all. Because I was always writing for myself, I could avoid the things I couldn’t play”: Tony Banks says that virtuoso technique was never his priority, but avoiding "lazy" chord progressions was
- Ableton Live 12.4 introduces Link Audio and updates Erosion, Delay and Chorus-Ensemble devices
- "If any of those wet wipes songwriting teams, all 11 of them, want to have it out on the red carpet, I’m there": Noel Gallagher explains why he deserves his Brits Songwriter Of The Year award, despite not releasing any new songs
- “Ah man I’m so ready to go broke. When are these launching?” Billie Joe Armstrong debuts signature ‘Dookie’ Marshall amps during Super Bowl LX show
- “I just wanna know when Led Zeppelin's gonna be in the Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame. 'Oh, you can't do that?' Oh, really?”: Gene Simmons mouths off on The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the lack of talent required to make EDM and the state of modern music
- February 9
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- “A breach of his composer agreement”: Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson ask for track to be removed from Melania doc
- “Of course she wants to record that song - it’s the best song written by a human being”: James Taylor explains how he had to tell Carole King that he’d recorded one of her greatest songs without her knowing, and before she’d released her own version
- “Every child deserves to feel they have a place where they belong, and music has this incredible ability to create that sense of connection”: Guy Chambers to help school kids write their own school anthem
- “Forgets his lyrics during his song showing all the MAGA Far Right that he wasn’t even singing. What a complete and utter embarrassment”: Kid Rock lambasted for appearing to mime at ‘All American’ alternative Super Bowl half time show
- Slate + Ash's Primaries / Woods uses woodwind instruments as the raw materials for expressive sound design
- “One day, I said to myself, ‘I really want a song on this album that has a Kenny G solo.' But there was an issue. I don’t know Kenny G... but I had an idea”: How Charlie Puth used manifestation and Melodyne to get a sax legend on his new single
- "It is like saying that my love of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather makes me a mobster”: Campaigners hope to make lyrics and videos inadmissible as evidence
- "Challenging? I couldn't remember the words to the songs”: Foreigner’s Lou Gramm on touring the world a MONTH after brain surgery
- February 7
- February 6
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- Behringer unleashes the BMX, its $459 clone of the Oberheim DMX
- "This is not a contest or a gimmick. It's a genuine search for the right voice, presence and authenticity to carry Skid Row forward": Could YOU be the next Skid Row frontman?
- “I'm like, ‘OK, put the drum machine in.' When I played it, she said, ‘Oh, I like that. I like that.' And she said, 'I want to do a song about the nasty boys’”: How Janet Jackson and Jam & Lewis made Control – with a little help from the Ensoniq Mirage
- “A perverse or healthy attraction to crazy ideas”: Soulwax aka 2manydjs are throwing a rave – at Abbey Road Studios
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Save a colossal $500 off one of my favourite Sterling by Music Man guitars, grab $200 off a super cool D'Angelico, plus all the week's biggest sales on music gear
- Not The Same As It Was: Harry Styles announces special one-off Manchester show with cut-price £20 tickets
- Behringer's "supercharged" Roland Juno-60 clone is now available for pre-order
- February 5
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- “What the heck were you thinking, dude?”: As Alex Honnold reveals just how much Tool he listened to during his free climb of the Taipei 101 skyscraper, the band’s frontman Maynard James Keenan speaks for all of us
- "I think it helps to not have too much music theory. Taking inspiration from different genres and being open-minded is important”: Dimmu Borgir’s Silenoz on playing a guitar inspired by a shark – and why you can be black metal and still love the blues
- "It ended up as the sound palette for a whole new generation": Inventor of FM synthesis John Chowning honoured with Technical Grammy Award
- Can ROLI's new AI Music Coach really match up to a human piano teacher? We get the exclusive first look
- “They were my favourite band growing up. Dave was my hero, and this was his keyboard": How The Repair Shop restored The Stranglers’ vintage keyboard
- February 4
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- “This is probably one of the last years where it's only humans on the red carpet... That agent and robot will be here before 2030”: Will.i.am thinks Grammys will be given to bots by the end of the decade
- “I’m just a piano tuner, man”: Could Leo Woodall’s very particular set of pitch identification and safe-cracking skills make Tuner the audiology thriller we never knew we needed?
- "An extraordinary ability to elevate each project he works on… his creative influence spans every corner of contemporary culture”: Mark Ronson to receive Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the Brits
- LALAL.AI brings its AI-powered stem separation into your DAW with its first plugin
- “I didn’t want something too radical but I also wanted something heavy metal”: Mark Morton and Gibson unveil a signature Les Paul Modern Quilt that brings the fire with a “flamethrower” bridge humbucker
- “We did that song, I think, the day that David Bowie died… It just kind of flowed”: Anderson .Paak on how the death of a music legend inspired Dang!, the 2016 pop-rap masterpiece that he would eventually record with Mac Miller
- “She’s kept all of her costumes, all of her clothes, all of her instruments": Is Meryl Streep playing Joni Mitchell in Cameron Crowe's upcoming biopic?
- February 3
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- “That whole thing of doing the trades with other players is a really nice thing”: Vernon Reid says he hopes he and Jack White have started a trend for pro guitarists swapping signature models
- “He was distant and uncommunicative… and wore a different wig every day”: Starsailor singer James Walsh on working with Phil Spector
- This free, super-glitchy multi-effects plugin is designed for happy accidents
- “Mars argues that it is immoral for him to be cast aside... I am not unsympathetic to this argument but it is not for me to weigh in on the morality of the band’s decision”: Judge rules Mötley Crüe were within rights to fire Mick Mars
- “It’s a great feeling. I wish we’d had something like this at my school”: Justin Hawkins opens recording studio at Hereford Cathedral School
- “We had nothing to do with it creatively. We hope it sparks interest in him and his work”: Chili Peppers distance themselves from documentary about founder member Hillel Slovak
- “40W of stereo sound with studio-grade tone – packed into a travel-ready design”: Mooer Audio’s flagship Intelligent Amp lets you find guitar tones using AI prompts
- “Lorne Michaels said, ‘Hey, do you want to host SNL?’ I said, ‘Yeah, can I do the music?’ He’s like, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Alright, I’m not doing it'": Timothée Chalamet says that he had to self-fund his Bob Dylan musical performances on Saturday Night Live
- You’re Working For No-One But Me: New survey reveals Harry Styles is the UK pop’s biggest contributor to the taxman
- February 2
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- APT with a twist: Bruno Mars plays a Gibson Les Paul as he and Rosé deliver a hard rock version of their 2024 hit at the Grammy Awards
- “Another huge win for the video game music scene as a whole”: 8-Bit Big Band pick up their second Grammy for their Super Mario medley
- "Once upon a time I was a kid making beats in his bedroom in Canada and now I'm here": Cirkut takes home Producer of the Year, Non-Classical at the 2026 Grammy Awards
- “It is clear why creators are concerned. Tech firms train models on copyrighted works without permission”: Four in five musicians are “worried” about AI music
- “We were at a club, and some guy was punching on a girl, and James says, ‘Kill him!’ This guy turns around and looks at the two of us and says, ‘Who’s gonna kill me?’ And James pointed at me…": Dave Mustaine on early days with, and split from, Metallica
- Justin Bieber just gave the most literal ‘stripped-down’ Grammys performance possible, playing an ‘80s Yamaha electric guitar and an Akai MPC Live III in just his underwear
- “The only thing more powerful than hate is love, so please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love”: Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish all win big at 2026 Grammys