Huff-Post lists several reasons why we should try and discover new music, especially if it seems hard to do so:

It nourishes our brains - new music listening activates areas of the brain from root to tip, from the early auditory processing centres to the outer reaches of our cortex

New music provides the potential to add to our valuable music memory bank

Acts as social cue, helping us better understand other people

Music has ability to keep us open-minded, which experts believe is key to helping us think better.

Primavera Sound held a clinical trial, with the help of experts, to see if a live music event held at an indoor venue with proper precautions but no social distancing guidelines could be safe from coronavirus transmission, NME reports. On December 12th in Barcelona, 463 individuals entered a concert hall featuring two DJ sets and two live bands. Attendees were between the ages of 18 and 59, they were all given a rapid Covid test and received a negative result within 15 minutes. They were each given a N95 mask, alcoholic drinks were served, the venue had optimized airflow and ventilation, and attendees were only allowed to remove their masks when drinking. There were however no social distance restrictions, and dancing and singing along were allowed. The event lasted five hours. Eight days later none of the group members tested positive to Covid.

BBC aired a lovely Christmas story about northern lights turned into music. The two people behind it are biologist Karin Lehmkuhl Bodony who lives in Alaska, and Alaskan composer Matthew Burtner, who works with natural sounds and scientific environmental data to make a piece of music derived from the sounds of the aurora.

Israeli company Noveto Systems has invented a new product named SoundBeamer 1.0 that can beam music directly into the listener's head, without the use of earbuds or brain implants. It reportedly works by creating a personal sound bubble for the user with 3D audio of their choosing, be it from an album, movie, or video game, while filtering in the natural sounds already occurring around them, AP reports. The company promises surround-sound experiencing of proper audio.

“As a piece of engineering, it’s really impressive” - an electronic musician and academic dr Matthew Yee-Kin says to the Guardian about audio deepfakes - “they break down an audio signal into a set of lexemes of music – a dictionary if you like – at three different layers of time, giving you a set of core fragments that is sufficient to reconstruct the music that was fed in". The G in convinced, rightly so, deepfake music is set to have wide-ranging ramifications for the music industry - any company that wouldn't want to pay the market rate for using an established artist’s music, they could create their own imitation. And big companies are getting into it: Google is working on it within their Magenta Project; startup Amper Music is producing custom, AI-generated music for media content; Spotify employed François Pachet, former head of Sony Music’s computer science lab, in its AI research group...

With mask-wearing, seating, proper ventilation, reduced capacity, and hygiene protocols, the risk of the virus spreading through indoor concerts is "low to very low", a study by a group of German scientists has shown. They have put on a concert in August to see how COVID-19 spreads at shows and found that "the risk of getting infected is very low", New York Times reports. "There is no argument for not having such a concert" - dr. Michael Gekle, one of the scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg who did the study, said.

An excellent text by Matthew Ball about the connection between technology and music, how the development of tech has changed or steered the way through the future of music. He predicts that the next big step in the development of technology and music will be based on user-generated content, somebody just has to find the right model. His argument is that "almost all new music today, with exception of indie rock, is 'all digital' and thus fully separable by instrument, beat, vocals, etc. In many cases, a hit track is made up of numerous samples, beats, and sounds that come from a patchwork of creators", so everything is already there, except the model.

Rock musician Jason Barnes started drumming at age 14, but lost his arm in an accident. He learned that he can continue drumming with drumsticks taped to his stump. With the help of Gil Weinberg, a Georgia Tech professor and inventor of musical robots, the pair utilized electromyography and ultrasound technology to make a bionic hand for Barnes. Now, the "super-able" Barnes holds the world record for most drumbeats in one minute (2400) using a drumstick prosthetic. Big Think brings the encouraging story.

Cherie Hu, one of the biggest authorities on music technology and music industry, predicts the future of music business and technology for Beats & Bytes blog. Hu sees futuristic brain-computer interface for music consumption, and the rise of "fake" artists like algorithms, holograms, vocaloids...

The skies do sound different during the pandemic, as many have noticed, and indeed, birds are singing different tunes during lockdown, according to a scientific study by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. By analysing the calls of sparrows recorded over decades, scientists confirmed a change in the birds' vocal repertoire when the city fell quiet, Science Alert reports. The birds upped the quality of their songs, as they called to defend their territory and entice a mate. The sparrows also sang more quietly.

Video producer and YouTuber Andrew Huang has made an amusing music theory video arguing - with plenty or arguments! - that there's AAA-LOT of D tone in pop music right now. Why is it a supersonic right now? - it just goes well with the others.

The Oasis pop star Noel Gallagher announced his suspicion of masks last week proclaiming - “There’s no need for it… They’re pointless”. Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown declared: “NO LOCKDOWN NO TESTS NO TRACKS NO MASKS NO VAX”. Tommy Scott of Space, did not disappoint. “I do not believe in any germs. If they are real, and there’s loads, why don’t they have a smell?”. Guardian tries to explain the "reasoning" behind - "it is asking a lot of the Britpop stars of yesteryear to believe in laws. Dominic Cumming’s [chief adviser to UK prime minister] lockdown drive to Barnard Castle, undertaken to 'test his eyesight', eroded the rules". Plus, it's not really their field of specialties...

Another great video by Adam Neely about white supremacy and music theory. A great topic to talk about (whether you agree with the thesis or not), starting with a comparison of Lady Gaga and Tchaikovsky.

English scientists created a miniature version of the Stonehenge monument to test its acoustic properties, and discovered it amplified voices and improved the sound of any music being played for people standing within the massive circle of stones. The stones were arranged in a way that would also have prevented sound from leaking outside the circle.

Scientists from Leipzig have held three pop concerts last Saturday to investigate the risks posed by mass indoor events during the pandemic, CNN reports. About 1,500 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 50 - only a third of the expected number - took part, but the head of the study from Halle University said he was "very satisfied" with how the event unfolded. The first of Saturday's three concerts aimed to simulate an event before the pandemic, with no safety measures in place. The second involved greater hygiene and some social distancing, while the third involved half the numbers and each person standing 1.5m apart. Singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko performed at all three successive gigs.

A new U.K. study has found there was not a substantial difference in the spread of aerosols (tiny particles that are exhaled from the body and then float in the air) between talking and singing when done at a similar noise level, which is good news, of course. What did make a difference, though, was the volume of the voice, where singing or shouting at the loudest level possible could generate 30 times more aerosol, which is bad news for metal bands. BBC reports on the study.

Playing a musical instrument positively impacts mental health for 89% of adults, particularly by increasing feelings of relaxation and happiness, a new scientific study commissioned by Spotify revealed. Out of 400 adults included in the survey, 56% felt relaxed, 48% felt satisfaction and 43% felt peaceful, and over said that playing music gave them “a sense of purpose in life”.

Elon Musk‘s startup Neuralink is working on a brain-computer interface that will allow wearers to stream music directly to their brain, Tech Spot reports. Responding to computer scientist Austin Howard, Musk confirmed on his Twitter that Neuralink’s technology would allow people to “listen to music directly from our chips”.

German scientists are seeking 4,000 music fans to attend a concert by singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko at Leipzig’s Concert Hall on August 22, the Guardian reports. Volunteers are going to be equipped with bottles of fluorescent disinfectant and tracking devices to get a clear idea of how the spread of coronavirus can be prevented at large indoor concerts.

The average tempo of 2020's top 20 best-selling songs is 122 beats per minute, the highest it's been since 2009, BBC reports. The lyrics follow suit - this year they celebrate joy and sensuality and thrill. For the last few years, pop has been getting slower, as artists like Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish incorporate the leisurely cadences and rhythms of southern hip-hop and trap music into their songs. This year the songs are faster and happier, just like in the times of the last crisis.

A California company Production Club came up with the Micrashell, a protective suit people can wear to music festivals and clubs to prevent the spread of COVID-19, NBC LA reports. There’s a N95 filter, an air ejection system, a “cell link pouch”, and even snap-in canisters for drinking and vaping.

“Sad songs make me feel better because I’d rather feel something than nothing. Music that changes your mood is like alchemy for your feelings” - Phoebe Bridgers told Nylon about how sad music actually makes her feel better. Science has put it this way - listening to sad music can raise levels of the hormone prolactin, which produces “a consoling psychological effect”.

A great article by General Intelligence about music generated by artificial intelligence, so good it's nearly impossible to tell the difference. What these algorithms do is they analyze large collections of an artist’s songs, find patterns in the audio data that humans would correlate with hallmarks of music style, and then use those patterns to generate new audio. One such is Jukebox, an algorithmic system able to generate music - complete with lyrics - in the style of famous musicians like Elvis and Frank Sinatra.

Diligent people from The Pudding made an entertaining music historic test, which leads up to a specific point - that music fades from cultural knowledge, pop hits at the fastest rate. Try the test - here.

Listening to music can help people manage anxiety, become motivated and stay productive, the catch is - to make the right playlist, the Guardian reports. The songs at the beginning of the playlist should match how you're feeling, and then gradually you should alter the songs to get you into a state of productivity. Then, you should go faster, to a "power song" - in one study that examined the relationship between music tempo and productivity, most test subjects performed best while listening to songs paced at around 121bpm. Lyrics are tricky - it's best to avoid too familiar songs and choose instrumental music or songs with innocuous or subtlely performed lyrics. Still, it's music so it needs to be enjoyable. Get to work!

An amusing article in the Vice about how joggers prefer bad music while running - a landmark example coming from Haile Gebrselassie, the Ethiopian runner who broke the 10,000 meter record while 'Scatman' was playing. "Music you can easily synchronize with is also beneficial to quite some people - it can help you to maintain a steady pace, which is beneficial, but it also has a sort of psychological effect of feeling as if you are supported by the music in a way" - dr. Edith Van Dyck, a musicologist, explains the science behind this. Dr. Jasmin C. Hutchinson, who studied music's effect on running, also said that "beat perception is a pretty low order brain function", and the brain's bandwidth is being used up by the act of running, possibly unable to process double entendres or themes self-actualization.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have translated the structure of famous spike protein of the notorious coronavirus into music, The Next Web reports. The sounds all represent different aspects of the spikelike protein, and like all proteins, the spikes are made of combinations of amino acids. Using a new technique called sonification, MIT's scientists assigned each amino acid a unique note in a musical scale, converting the entire protein into a music score. Sound quite classical, slightly disharmonic, and benign... Listen to the 2-hour long composition below.

Fermentophone is part a musical instrument, part a scientific instrument, constructed by artist and professor Joshua Pablo Rosenstock, and played by the release of bubbles from live microbes (bacteria and yeast) fermenting foods and drinks. Rosenstock wanted to make "something unexpected and cool", as he told in Justine Dees blog interview, and, on a deeper level, to suggest that the microbes "may even control our thoughts and feelings in ways that we don’t totally understand".

There are two possible ways that music might be beneficial in the workplace: by making us smarter, or by making us feel good - BBC Worklife writes in an analysis of science about music in the workplace. So, does it help us work better? The answer is: it depends - a person’s response to music changes based on many, many factors, such as the type of job or work, the genre of music, their control over their music listening and their personality.

The Macrostylis metallicola is a worm-like creature that lives in the Clarion Clipperton Zone off the coast of Hawaii, at depths where the pressure is 400 times greater than that of the earth’s atmosphere. According to doctors Torben Riehl and Bart De Smet, who discovered the new creature, named it after the band due to specific details of their habitat, and Metallica is one of Riehl's favourite bands, the Phys reports.