Welcome new readers! There have been a lot of new signups, mostly coming from my recent Water & Music story: The problem with play-count purgatory.
I’d love for you to check it out if you didn’t read it yet. It’s a data story that follows an independent artist’s missing royalties and peeks into the world of distribution and play counts.
News
Sonos is suing Google again over five more patent infringements. This comes one day before Google’s hardware event where it will debut a new Nest speaker. (By the way, stay tuned as I’ll have hands-on thoughts of the new Google speaker next week.)
Apple’s newly released iOS 14.2 beta for developers includes a Control Center toggle for music recognition. Pushing the Shazam button will instantly start listening for the song playing to identify it, even if you’re wearing AirPods.
Roku is releasing a new soundbar with Dolby and 4K streaming. The tiny, $129 TV speaker looks like its meant for bedrooms.
Music
Yungblud mashes up Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan” and Avril Lavigne’s “I’m With You.”
Playlist
Here’s my fall 2020 playlist. As the weather starts to fade from summer to fall, these songs will hopefully match the crisp air.