“Fake Jazz” on Spotify

Ted Gioia has been following music on Spotify that he suspects is AI-generated. Music that exists only for the purpose of saving the company money every moment it is playing instead of something that would require paying royalties.

This is the kind of technology and attitude towards art that must be resisted.

The Ugly Truth About Spotify Is Finally Revealed:

In early 2022, I started noticing something strange in Spotify’s jazz playlists.

I listen to jazz every day, and pay close attention to new releases. But these Spotify playlists were filled with artists I’d never heard of before.

Who were they? Where did they come from? Did they even exist?
Keep reading here…

CARROT Weather Introduces CarPlay App and Automatic Live Activities – MacRumors

One of the apps I continue to pay a subscription for is CARROT Weather. And the app just got way better this week. I love the Live Activities feature of iOS where apps can publish live info to my Lock Screen. CARROT for long has shown a rain or snow graph as a live activity, but you have had to launch the app first to get it running, which for me has sort of defeated the purpose of having this kind of information there.

The latest update pushes these Live Activities to the lock screen without opening the app. There is also a CarPlay app that shows a weather map overtop your driving directions, though I have not found this compelling enough to give up Apple or Google Maps in the car.

CARROT Weather Introduces CarPlay App and Automatic Live Activities – MacRumors:

The popular weather app CARROT Weather today was updated with two key new features: CarPlay support and automatic Live Activities.

Keep reading here…

25+ Ways to Use Canva to Create Teaching Resources – Midnight Music

I’ve been experimenting with Canva more this school year, and I have to say, it’s really finding a place in my workflow. There are plenty of times when I need to design something that serves a simple, temporary purpose but doesn’t need to look particularly polished or bespoke. In these moments, the Canva Mac app has helped me get the job done quickly.

Katie Miller has shared some fantastic ideas for using Canva in the music classroom. An edu account is free for teachers and packed with powerful features. Give it a shot, and read Katie’s post.

25+ Ways to Use Canva to Create Teaching Resources:

Being a teacher encompasses so many different skills. Some skills are taught and practiced in our pre-service work while others we have to figure out once we are deep in the trenches of student learning. 

One of the skills that didn’t get much attention, at least in my pre-service program, was the practice of design in helping students gain, organize and use information.  I understood the importance of design to prepare, present and practice standards that students needed to master but I didn’t have a way to easily do it. 

I can remember copying transparencies to project onto paper so I could trace images to make my classroom materials more appealing. I also remember searching through clipart collections to find the perfect addition to digital items I created. And I will never forget making copy after copy to enlarge, reposition or get things to fit just right. Designing materials in my classroom  involved lots of magic tape!

Thank goodness that things change! I have learned new skills and new tools, like Canva, have been created to make design as easy as drag and drop!

Connected #535: Proper Governance – Relay

It’s always great to hear your own feedback on a podcast you love. The hosts of Connected asked who buys the large iPad Air, and I wrote in.

Check out the beginning of Connected #535 to hear it. I learn a lot about technology from this show, it’s worth a follow.

Connected #535: Proper Governance – Relay:

Federico, Myke, and Stephen consider turning their podcast over to a non-profit for all decision-making. Other points of business include Unifi networking, Focus modes, daily notes, and other items.

Micro.blog

Speaking of federated social services…

With all the upheaval in social media over the past few years, I think it is so important for people to own their own spaces on the internet where they share and post what is meaningful to them.

With Micro.blog, you can get just that, for a reasonable price, and with the same ease you get posting to Bluesky, Threads, or Mastodon (it even integrates with them).

Micro.blog:

Another term for cross-posting is POSSE: Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. Micro.blog embraces this and many other IndieWeb principles.
Keep reading here…

I love the idea.

Emad Zolfaghari: 10 Years of Viola Progress

I recently came across a violist named Emad Zolfaghari, and I had to share. Emad won the Primrose International Viola Competition and created a video showing his progress over 10 years, from when he started playing at age 10 to now, at 20.

The video is an example of what dedication and consistent practice can achieve. It’s a perfect reminder for any music student that progress takes time but pays off.

Share this with your students for a dose of inspiration!

Instagram alternative Pixelfed now has apps – The Verge

In an effort to keep preaching that we all move to federated social media services, allow me to suggest you give Pixelfed a try. It is pretty much the utility of Instagram, but with none of the nonsense.

Instagram alternative Pixelfed now has apps – The Verge]:

Pixelfed, a decentralized and ad-free Instagram alternative, now has apps on iOS and Android, as reported by TechCrunch. The iOS app launched today, while the Android app launched on January 10th.

The platform is seeing a surge in popularity following Meta’s announcement last week that it would be drastically changing its content moderation policies; over the weekend, Pixelfed said that it’s seeing “unprecedented levels of traffic” to the pixelfed.social server and was working to increase resources.
Keep reading here…

OpenAI’s ChatGPT adds scheduled tasks feature in beta – The Verge

OpenAI’s ChatGPT adds scheduled tasks feature in beta – The Verge:

OpenAI is launching a new beta feature in ChatGPT called Tasks that lets users schedule future actions and reminders.

The feature, which is rolling out to Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers starting today, is an attempt to make the chatbot into something closer to a traditional digital assistant — think Google Assistant or Siri but with ChatGPT’s more advanced language capabilities.
Keep reading here…

Now this is a compelling use for ChatGPT. That said, I would far prefer them integrate directly with platform apps like Apple Calendar and Reminders, which are far more developed. This seems inevitable given how ChatGPT has taken the time to make a native app for many major computing platforms.

A ChatGPT that can integrate more deeply with the productivity software on my Apple products would get me excited. Siri is still really bad at the language interpretation and conversational piece, but it does integrate with my devices. If the ChatGPT app could be the place to trigger those automations in natural language, and then offload the action to third-party apps, I would be on board.

Robby Burns named 2025 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year

I am very excited to share that I have been named the 2025 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year.

From the TI:ME website… (click to read their entire blog post)

Robby Burns named 2025 Mike Kovins TI:ME Teacher of the Year.:

Robby’s use of technology within the band room and the studio is breathtakingly brilliant. He infuses all of his work with excellent choices of apps and utilities that help students learn music, both in class and during their private practice. He is generous with his skills and his learning, constantly helping other instrumental teachers throughout the school district, and running many professional development sessions on the integration of technology into the ensemble classroom.

You can see the list of all past TI:ME TOTYs here.

It is an incredible roster that I am honored to be in any way associated with. And hey, many of them have been past guests on the Music Ed Tech Talk Podcast. Go check them out in the backlog.