YouTube Music now labels AI-generated songs, and Deezer will let you hide them
YouTube Music began labelling songs made mainly with generative AI on 14 October. Deezer will let users hide AI tracks from search before the end of 2026.
Compilations & Discography
Italy investigates Suno’s terms of service, from account closures to moral rights
Italy’s competition authority has opened case CV278 against Suno over terms that let it close accounts without notice and make users waive their moral rights.
DistroKid is pulling songs over Universal’s AI slop lawsuit, and artists say they got no warning
DistroKid has confirmed it is taking down tracks in response to Universal Music’s “AI slop” lawsuit. What the suit claims, and what removed artists are saying.
AI streaming fraud: Michael Smith gets 18 months and forfeits $8 million
Michael Smith used up to 10,000 bot accounts to stream AI-generated songs billions of times. A Manhattan judge gave him 18 months and an $8.09m forfeiture.
Spotify’s 1,000-stream rule: what it means for small labels
Spotify pays no royalties on a track below 1,000 streams in a trailing year. Here is what the rule, its unique-listener test and its artificial-streaming fines mean for small labels.
Blue Monday: the floppy-disk sleeve Factory said lost money on every copy
New Order’s Blue Monday sold over 700,000 UK 12-inch copies. Peter Saville’s die-cut sleeve cost £538.20 to design, and Factory said it lost 5p a copy.
Why Synthwave Would Be Dead Without These 5 Legendary Bands
Synthwave is no longer just an underground internet phenomenon. What started as a niche homage to 1980s VHS tapes and arcade games has exploded into a massive, multi-genre empire. The synthwave landscape in 2026 is undergoing a massive evolutionary wave, shifting from neon-soaked nostalgia to heavy, industrial “cyber-metal” boundaries. But this retro-electronic empire wasn’t built … Read more
5 Darksynth & Cyberpunk Releases You Need to Hear This August
The summer heat may be breaking records, but the underground electronic scene is getting progressively darker. While outrun producers continue to score sunset highway drives, a heavy, aggressive wave of industrial cyberpunk and darksynth is currently taking over the late-night club circuits. If your playlists are currently lacking the punch of distorted analog basslines, mechanical … Read more
Anoraak ‘Reworks EP’ Review: The 2014 Club Evolution of Chronotropic
Editorial Notice: This page represents the official 2026 historical restoration and expansion of Future City Records’ original June 23, 2014 broadcast. As part of our cultural archive initiative under Editor-in-Chief Sahil Chopra, this URL cited directly by Wikipedia as a primary historical source has been rebuilt from a brief news announcement into a comprehensive, definitive … Read more
Betamaxx: The Discography, 2026 Updates, and Synthwave Legacy
Editorial Notice: As part of our 2026 cultural archive initiative under Editor-in-Chief Sahil Chopra, Future City Records is dedicated to preserving the history of the retro-electronic landscape. Because the name “Betamaxx” holds significant weight in both the original synthwave production scene and the live 1980s tribute circuit, we have compiled the definitive guide to both … Read more