That ain’t Hank: An AI-generated “artist” named Breaking Rust hit #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, beating some real heavy-hitting artists. The Spotify numbers are suspiciously massive, and there’s zero disclosure. The fans? Possibly bots. The “singer”? Not real. I bet he’s not even a real outlaw! Give the song a listen.
15 hours
That’s Spotify’s new audiobook cap. If you’re into long books, then tough luck. Try squeezing The Way of Kings into that window. Spotify’s Audiobooks Plus gives Premium users double the time (30 hours). Need more? Buy another top-up or, radical idea, switch to Audible. Prime Members get three months free using this link. This way, you get to keep the book instead of renting it like a literary Airbnb.
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Control app volumes on Windows: Not everything needs to play at the same level. Right-click the volume icon in the task bar and select Open volume mixer. You can lower system sounds while cranking up Spotify. Just remember the Device slider moves everything at once, so the mix stays the same.
🎛️ ChatGPT’s got apps: You can summon Spotify, Zillow or Canva inside ChatGPT, no tab-hopping required. Make playlists, design posts or house-hunt mid-convo. Expedia, DoorDash and Uber are next. It’s all fun and games until $1,000 worth of Taco Bell shows up at your door. Update is rolling out now.
🎧 Spotify hits a high note: If you’re a Premium subscriber, you might now have lossless streaming, aka CD‑quality 24‑bit/44.1 kHz FLAC audio. I say “might” because it’s rolling out gradually. To turn it on, go to Settings > Audio Quality and choose Lossless under streaming options.
🎂 10 out of 10: YouTube opened the site a decade ago. To celebrate, YouTube Music just rolled out “taste match,” a Spotify Blend clone that fuses your questionable taste with your friends’ also questionable tastes. Fun fact: The YT app hit 125M paying subs with a 300M-track library.
Tesla pulls the plug: If this is true, it’s crazy. Rapper Big Huey says his Cybertruck got remotely shut off after he released his song “Cybertruck.” He even claims Tesla mailed him a cease-and-desist. That’s one way to take “don’t kill my vibe” very literally. Next up: Spotify turns off your fridge for skipping Ed Sheeran too much.
Fix Spotify recs: Getting songs on Discover Weekly that make you go, “Why … this?” Give it a nudge: Find the bad playlist, tap the three-dot menu and select Exclude from your taste profile.
🎧 Control podcast speed: Here’s a trick to save time or catch every word. Tap the “1x” on your podcast’s now-playing screen to change the playback speed. Speed things up to 1.25x, 1.5x or 2x to move faster. Or slow it down to 0.75x when you want to listen more carefully. Works on most apps, like Spotify and Apple.
🎧 Spotify sounding flat? On mobile, it might default to lower audio quality to save data. On iOS, go to Settings and privacy > Audio Quality and set it to High. On Android, go to Settings and privacy > Media Quality and set it to High. If you have Premium, there’s also a Very High option. One great option that always sounds great is my show, IMHO.
🔊 Customize Windows audio: You can control the volume of individual apps right from your task bar. Just right-click the volume icon and select Open Volume mixer. Slide it down for something like System Sounds, and bump it up for Spotify. FYI: The Device slider changes overall volume, but app levels stay put.
🚨 Don’t fall for it: Scammers are posting AI videos on TikTok promising free versions of Microsoft Office and Spotify. All you had to do? Run a short line of code. Plot twist: It installed malware that could steal your passwords and credit card info. And with no links involved, it was harder to detect.
Don’t buy drugs online: Investigators found over 200 Spotify podcasts with AI voices or no sound at all. The goal? Get people to click the link in the bio, which led to sites selling sketchy prescription meds like Xanax. They weren’t hard to find, either. Some appeared in Spotify’s Top 50 when you searched drug names.
🍝 Tunes al dente: Next time you boil pasta, skip the timer and hit play instead. Barilla’s Spotify playlists are perfectly timed for cooking different pasta types. When the music stops, your food’s ready to eat. Choose from Italian pop, indie or hip-hop artists to find your perfect vibe.
🎶 Auto-tune up: Driving an older car without Android Auto or Apple CarPlay? Load your favorite songs onto a USB flash drive, plug it into your ride’s USB port and rock on. Just stick to common formats like MP3 or AAC. It’s like turning your car into a Spotify time capsule.
🎶 Binge-worthy tunes: Stream music from your favorite shows on Spotify and Apple Music’s hubs for Netflix, Disney+, Max and more. Just tap Search > TV & Movies (Spotify) or Film, TV & Stage (Apple Music) for playlists filled with hits from those iconic moments.
Sick of hearing the same songs? On Spotify, tracks repeat in shuffle mode because it uses cached data. If you want more variety in your playlist, clear your cache. Here’s how: Go to Settings > Storage > Delete Cache. Do it every now and then.
$1 million
Royalties Spotify paid nearly 1,500 artists in 2024. You need over 20 million streams a month to earn that. Guess who is the number one earner on Spotify? Yup, it’s a “Tay Day” pay day for Taylor Swift who made an estimated $79.8 million to $133 million from 26.6 billion streams.
1 billion people
Watching podcasts on YouTube. Their monthly numbers blow Spotify and every other streaming service in the podcast game out of the water. Yup, you can watch my show there!