Between 2011 and 2015 in Argentina more than four million students received a computer, a netbook - measuring in at 10 inches, with a 1.66 Ghz processor, a 300K pixel camera, one to two-GB of RAM, the netbook didn’t pack much of a technological punch. But, for most kids, it meant they didn’t have to ask for permission to use a computer for the first time. And - these were exactly the years that saw the rise of a budding generation of rappers, trappers, and freestyles. The Rest of the World tells the encouraging story.

In 1989, Norweigan pop sensation A-ha's singer Morten Harket and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen brought back from Switzerland to Norway something rarely seen back then - an electric car. Once in Oslo, A-ha boys started breaking the rules with the car: parking it illegally, driving it in bus lanes and blowing through toll booths without paying, sending a message that people should be allowed to drive electric cars - which weren’t classified for registration in Norway at the time - and, in fact, should be exempt from tolls, parking fees and bus lane restrictions for doing so. Harket's antics, heavily covered by the press, kicked off the country’s EV revolution - the following year, the government began implementing incentives for driving EVs, many of them closely resembling those that had been highlighted by the A-ha bandmates’ joyride. Last year, over half of all cars sold in Norway in 2020 were fully electric. Reasons to be Cheerful tells the whole nice story.

Filmmaker Jed I. Rosenberg directed a documentary 'System Shock' which provides an intriguing and insightful overview of how the MP3 set in motion a series of events that completely disrupted the music industry. The bottom line of this docu is that the MP3 technology nearly destroyed the music industry, but that its principle made much more money elsewhere.

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...

Geeks & Beats podcast talked to Audeze founder Sankar Thiagasamudram who is convinced that the next big thing in audio is - 3D headphones. The headphones of the future will be spatially aware, and adjust to your listening preferences using artificial intelligence.

Not all streamed or downloaded music needs to be of low quality - Rolling Stone offers advice on how to get the high-quality resolution. First, you need a good digital analog converter (DAC) - it’s the component that converts digital files into sound. It's there in computers, tablets, phones, TVs, and stereo receivers, but not all of them support high-resolution audio files. Rolling Stone also recommends a few high-resolution streaming services, and places to download high-resolution music.

Psychologist and DJ Bertolt Meyer designed an electronic circuit that attaches to his arm, which then controls a synth with his thoughts. The SynLimb attaches to Meyer's arm prosthesis instead of his prosthetic hand. It converts the electrode signals that his prosthesis picks up from his residual limb into control voltages for controlling his modular synthesizer. The SynLimb allows him to plug his prosthesis directly into his synthesizer so that he can control its parameters with the signals from his body that normally control the hand. "For me, this feels like controlling the synth with my thoughts," Meyer says.

Pone was a beatmaker who helped shape the sound of French hip-hop in the 1990s, but when he fell to the motor neurone disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - (ALS), he wasn't able to produce music, at least not in the way he was used to. In 2019, with Ableton Live installed on his computer, he started producing again - using his eyes to operate like a mouse. He could do everything he used to, just at a slower pace. This way he produced a full album, 'Kate & Me', an instrumental beat record created as an ode to Kate Bush, and the first album in history to be entirely produced through an eye-tracking device.

To hear a snippet on new Pearl Jam single, 'Superblood Wolfmoon' fans have to visit moon.pearljam.com via their mobile phones and point their phone camera at the moon. As Billboard explains, the regular moon will turn into a bright red "Superblood Wolfmoon" and the song will automatically start playing. The experience is available through Feb. 18. The song is coming out on Pearl Jam's 11th studio album, 'Gigaton', March 27.

Modern technology can be used to put on big unlicensed raves that have an old-school mentality - Mix Mag argues in their article about illegal rave crews in the UK setting up parties under the noses of the police. London-based party crew "SGL" was formed in November last year, and they have already organised three raves via a specially designed smartphone app. It transmits the party location to ravers in a way that can’t be monitored by police, and once there are around 200 people in the building then it’s much harder for the police to shut the party down, so they release the location over social media without worrying too much.