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41 stories
Stories filed under Music on Sampled — sound, style, and scenes, all in one place.

What Is Happening in Music This Weekend? October 17–18, 2026
Harry Styles debuts a song for Liam Payne, Fontaines D.C. and The Avalanches drop albums, Iron Maiden plots 2027, and where to catch shows.

What Song Does Wale's "Conundrum" Sample?
Wale's "Conundrum" is built on Keith Sweat and Kut Klose's 1994 slow jam "Get Up on It." Here's the sample, who produced it, and why it works.

What Song Does TV Girl's "Not Allowed" Sample?
TV Girl's "Not Allowed" is stitched together from the Yeastie Girlz's 1988 "Ovary Action" record, used with the group's permission. Here's the full breakdown.

Does Taylor Swift's "Patient Zero" Sample Hadestown?
Fans said the "Patient Zero" teaser sounded like "Wait for Me" from Hadestown. Here's what the credits actually say.

How Does a Vinyl Record Actually Store Sound?
From Edison's tinfoil cylinder to the stylus on your turntable: a plain-English, photo-by-photo guide to how music gets carved into a groove and played back.

Why Is Sha Ray and DJ Haram's Critical Thot So Iconic?
A title that stopped critics cold, formats that sold out, and a debut built entirely over DMs. Here's why Critical Thot became one of Backwoodz Studioz's standout records of 2026, and what's on it.

What Is Backwoodz Studioz Releasing This Fall? (October 2026)
From Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal's DOOMED! to Curly Castro's Yaphet on vinyl and Mike Ladd's Nonechosen, here's what billy woods' label has out now and coming soon.

What Are the Top 10 Songs on the Billboard Hot 100 This Week? (October 17, 2026)
Taylor Swift's "Patient Zero" holds No. 1 for a second week, Drake and Don Toliver debut at No. 5, and ADÉLA lands her first top 10.

What Is Happening With Dolly Parton's Estate Dispute?
Weeks after her death, Dolly Parton's longtime manager and her nephew are on opposite sides of a Nashville court case. Here is what each side says, and what comes next.

How Is Dolly Parton's Legacy Being Honored After Her Passing?
Since Dolly Parton died on August 25, 2026, a museum, a hotel, a Dove Award, a CMA tribute special and a Broadway musical have kept her story going. Here is what is new and what is still to come.

How Can You Tell If a Song Is AI? YouTube Music and Deezer Just Made It Easier
On October 14, 2026, YouTube Music started labeling songs made mostly with AI, and Deezer said a switch to hide AI music entirely is coming before the year ends.

Who Killed Tupac, and What Sentence Did Keffe D Get?
On October 13, 2026, Duane "Keffe D" Davis was sentenced to 40 years to life for orchestrating Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder in Las Vegas. Here's how the case was finally solved.

What Happened in Music This Week? Eminem, Britney, Björk and Mastodon's Fossil Vinyl (October 11, 2026)
A new Eminem verse, a lost Britney Spears song, a Björk choir album, vinyl pressed with real mastodon fossils, Grimes' AI-themed single and A Perfect Circle's 2027 tour.

How Do You Sample Music Legally Without Getting Sued?
What clearance really means, the two permissions you need, what it costs, and the legal ways to sample when you have no budget.

Where to Find Records: Shops, Antique Stores, and Selling Your Own
Crate digging beyond the algorithm — local shops, antique malls, estate sales, and the underground artists pressing and selling their own vinyl at pop-ups.

The Oasis desk tapes are going to auction — who owns the recordings you never released?
A sound engineer's archive of concerts, rehearsals, and unguarded conversation is heading to sale. The band wants it back. The lesson applies to every hard drive in your studio.

Are CDs Worth It? Why You Should Be Listening to More of Them
Uncompressed audio, original masters, full albums in order — and a used bin where good records still cost fifty cents.

System of a Down's "Johnny" is finally on streaming
The rarest song in the Toxicity era arrived on DSPs on September 6, 2026 — and the anniversary reissue quietly fixes a tracklist error the band has lived with for 25 years.

Dolly Parton's career, start to finish: the songs, the albums, and the coat she gave everybody
From Locust Ridge radio to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — the records that matter, the copyrights she refused to give away, and what a working artist can actually take from sixty years of it.

The Opry is giving Dolly Parton back to the room that made her: how to watch tonight
Tonight the Grand Ole Opry dedicates its Saturday show to Dolly Parton, with Carly Pearce, Kathy Mattea, Molly Tuttle, Dan Tyminski and more. Here is the start time, the lineup and every free way to watch or listen.

Dolly Parton's impact on music: the songwriter who rewrote what a country star could own
She built a catalog, a business and a blueprint — and you can trace the line from "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" straight through Reba, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Miley Cyrus and Lainey Wilson.

The 2026 VMA nominations are a reminder that the video budget still decides the narrative
Madonna leads the field, Taylor Swift follows. Underneath the names is a fairly blunt lesson about where visual money goes and what it buys.

Small rooms are the new platform marketing — and that is good news for local promoters
A streaming service is putting established artists in tiny hometown venues. The format is old; the reason it is back is data.

A 20th-anniversary single is a business decision as much as a reunion
BIGBANG marked two decades with a new digital single. Anniversary releases work because they solve a problem catalogue marketing cannot.

The Jonas Brothers turned a nostalgia run into a 45-city arena tour
Sold-out Madison Square Garden dates became a full North American arena run this fall. The mechanics behind that upgrade are the interesting part.

Jillian Cardarelli is 33, has no family history, and is about to teach a lot of young women how to check for cancer
The Nashville country singer says she "does not fit the profile" \u2014 which is exactly why she is telling the story.

Dolly Parton at 80 is still doing the most, and it still works
A new all-star cut of "Light of a Clear Blue Morning," a travel stop opening in Tennessee, a summer show at the Stampede, and a children's hospital getting the check. A feature on one of the busiest people in music, period.

Winamp just handed three artists $3,000 a month and a full team — meet the 2026 Creators Program class
Out of 4,000+ applications from 110 countries, Winamp picked Louve, Sorvina and Bleu Nuage. Here is what the program actually gives them, and why this is the artist-development model everybody else stopped funding.

Future and Tyla just dropped Game Time — and hip-hop finally has a place on the FIFA World Cup soundtrack
The Cirkut-produced single lands on the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album, debuts live at the opening ceremony at Los Angeles Stadium on June 12, and becomes the first hip-hop track ever on a World Cup album.

Sha Ray & DJ Haram Join Forces on 'Critical Thot'
The Bay Area rapper and the 700 Bliss producer pair up for a cross-country collaboration interrogating power, sexuality, and feminine authority.

TAY KEITH, PRODUCER BEHIND SOME OF RAP'S BIGGEST HITS, FOUND DEAD AT 29
The Memphis-born producer, whose minimalist sound shaped hits for Drake, Travis Scott and Beyoncé, was found dead during a welfare check. He was 29.

Korea's $2.2M indie K-pop fund and the 'fortify the backbone' moment
The Korean government is directly subsidizing independent K-pop labels as the Big 4 hollow out the middle tier. It is industrial policy for pop music — and the US and UK do not have anything close.

World Cup 2026 Opens With a Global Soundtrack as Music Takes Center Stage
From Mexico City's opening ceremony to fan festivals across the U.S., music is playing a major role in welcoming the world to the tournament.

Platform brief: SiriusXM lands on Tubi, iHeart books Vegas and your LG TV, Tidal hands Phoebe Bridgers a phone-free MSG for a dollar
A companion to last weekend's back-office piece — a Sunday brief on what the platforms themselves shipped, signed, and programmed the past two weeks, pulled directly from the SiriusXM, iHeartMedia, Deezer and Tidal press rooms.

The summer touring desk: a Chappelle arena run, a new Kansas City amphitheater, and Spotify quietly becomes a box office
A Sunday roundup of the live-business news that actually moved the week of June 1, drawn straight from the Live Nation and Ticketmaster newsrooms — five days that put a comedy heavyweight on sale, opened a 16,000-seat room outside Kansas City, and tied a Spotify listening history to a reserved ticket window.

Skrillex drops 'Thistle' with Blawan, Randomer and MC Dricka as the CONTRA era opens up
A surprise UK-techno linkup arrives ahead of a 2026 festival run that runs Primavera to Bonnaroo to Head Trip — and turns Berlin's Kraftwerk into his new home base.

Melanie Martinez maps the Main Idea Tour, a 2026 arena run for a dystopian new era
After "Disney Princess" and a globe-spanning Trilogy Tour, the alt-pop architect lines up 24 arena nights across North America and Europe.

Alex Warren announces 'Wildchild,' drops 'Passenger' as a summer opener
The Best New Artist of 2025 maps out his sophomore album for August 28 and serves the first single as a top-down anthem.

Muse drop 'Nightshift Superstar' as 'The Wow! Signal' comes into focus
The fifth transmission from Muse's tenth album collides arena rock with French house — and the LP lands June 26.

Steve Lacy returns with 'The Feeling,' the first signal from 'Oh Yeah?'
The Internet alum re-emerges with a lean, hooded video and a July 17 album date — the first new Steve Lacy material since 'Gemini Rights'.

Lucki finally became mainstream by refusing to stop sounding like Lucki
Dr*gs R Bad debuts at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, a Bad Influence Tour with Sk8star is locked in, and a documentary is on the way — all without sanding down the mumble.