Critical Listening

Episode 23: August Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

As usual, this Headlines episode is for paid subscribers only. Head to Patreon.com/criticallistening to access all of our monthly Headlines episodes, as well as our Disco

Episode 22: L'Rain

For Episode 22, we spoke with songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and curator Taja Cheek, on the brink of her group L’Rain’s fourth record, fata morgana, out tod

Episode 21: July 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

The CEO of SoundCloud recently revealed that he regularly seeks advice from what he calls his “AI board”—a model he trained on the interviews and writings of top pop musi

Episode 20: Why Panda Bear & Sonic Boom's New Record is Not Streaming

Why did Panda Bear and Sonic Boom decide to not put their new record, A ? of WHEN, on any streaming services? And how did they get their label, Domino Recording Co, on bo

Episode 19: June 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

For this month's installment of our monthly headlines show, we're digging into two stories around the increasingly entwined worlds of generative AI and music streaming.

Episode 18: May 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

We're back for another Headlines episode for the month of May 2026. As with all Headlines episodes this season, this episode is a subscriber exclusive. You can listen to

Episode 17: Maine Music Alliance

Welcome back! This month we are joined by Peter McLaughlin and Scott Mohler of the Maine Music Alliance. They explain how local musicians in Portland, Maine successfully

Episode 16: April 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

We’re back with another Headlines episode, and this month it’s our first time spending the whole episode on one story. You probably already know which one it is. For thi

Episode 15: Wendy Eisenberg

For today's episode of Critical Listening we are joined by guitarist, songwriter and improviser Wendy Eisenberg to launch a new segment, "Listening Habits." Wendy joined

Episode 13: Following the Money with Henk Willem Smits

What happens when a private equity company takes over a music festival? For this Critical Listening live taping at the ESNS Conference in Groningen, we spoke with Dutch i

Episode 14: March 2026 Headlines (PATREON PREVIEW)

Hey all, we're back with another headlines episode. This month we start by digging into UMG CEO Lucian Grainge's recent appearance on stage at a NVIDIA-hosted conference

Episode 12: February 2026 Headlines

Welcome back to another episode of Critical Listening. For this month’s Headlines, we’re joined by Hearing Things co-founder and longtime music critic Jill Mapes to discu

Episode 11: Live from Groningen

WE’RE BACK. Today we start the year with a dispatch from what some may call the front lines: a bunch of AI-related panels at a European music biz trade conference. It’s a

Episode 10: Season Finale w/ Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop)

As 2025 comes to a close, so does the first season of Critical Listening. And with us to send off the year, we have none other than the internet's busiest music nerd hims

Episode 9: November 2025 Headlines LIVE at Purchase College

We are back for our penultimate episode of Season 1 of Critical Listening! Recorded on November 13th at the coveted Stood at Purchase College, we're discussing the latest

Episode 8: Amirtha Kidambi

For Episode 8 we have composer, educator, curator, and activist Amirtha Kidambi stopping by. We discuss Amirtha's various musical outputs, including her Elder Ones ensemb

Episode 7: October 2025 Headlines

We’re back with another headlines ep, where Liz and Max each bring one story from across the music-tech biz press to summarize and contextualize. On this ep we are unpack

Episode 6: Why Sound Matters w/ Damon Krukowski

We're back from a month of touring and we missed you! We are thrilled to have musician and author Damon Krukowski on the show to discuss his upcoming book "Why Sound Matt

Episode 5: August 2025 Headlines

Max & Liz return for another installment of their series diving into some intriguing headlines from across the music, tech and business hellscape. What does it mean for o

Episode 4: QUITTING STREAMING w/ Andy Cush of Hearing Things

We're back with another esteemed guest! With us today we have writer, musician, and co-founder of the worker owned music publication Hearing Things, Andy Cush. We discuss