2021 has been a difficult year. That’s true. But there are reasons to be cheerful as we look toward 2022. One main reason is of all years, 2021 was a banner year for music. I don’t mean exclusively ...

In a year saturated with excellent releases — luminous false starts idling in the shadow of this never-ending global tragedy — projects that maximized ferality won me over. Identifying and rejecting ...

As 2021 comes to a close, music giants like Billboard, Spotify, Apple Music, iHeartRadio and more are releasing their lists for the most-listened and best-selling songs and albums of the year, and ...

The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate every aspect of social and cultural life. Artists and technical workers in the music industry face conditions unlike anything seen in generations, ...

Well, we made it through another year. Even if it's only thanks to a technicality — a barely-there, hanging-by-a-thread type of completion — we made it. In 2021, we were more isolated than ever, ...

It’s brutal out there, and that’s why, more than ever, we needed the consoling and prodding pleasures of popular music to help everything make sense in here. [Stage direction: taps chest, knowingly.] ...

In 2020, Google’s streaming service offered a “Year in Review” playlist, while a handful of users got an email with top stats. YouTube Music’s 2021 Recap is much more extensive than previous Google ...

2021 has been a long year for the pandemic, but when looking back, it looks like a fast year that has already gone by, with all the listening experience that brought people to streaming websites.

Physical media showed strong signs of life last year. The 2021 RIAA Music Industry Data confirms that vinyl and CDs are going nowhere but up. Americans purchased how many new records in 2021? 40 ...

“Too much pain,” Young M.A. offers on her second LP, “could barely notice the beauty in things.” Not only did these albums provide comfort and commiseration, they also taught me new ways to listen, to ...