Quick Hits: AI music, CD distributors, and Virginia’s surprising podcast fandom

Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:

How AI-generated music is changing the way hits are made: A few bold creators are experimenting with artificial intelligence in creating music. The Verge profiled one such project between AI platform Amper Music and performer Taryn Southern, whose debut album is titled I AM AI. “I don’t look at it like artificial intelligence,” Amper Co-Founder Michael Hobe said. “It’s more of intelligence augmentation. We can facilitate your creative process to cut a lot of the bullshit elements of it. For me, it’s allowing more people to be creative and then allowing the people who already have some of these creative aspects to really further themselves.” Despite the positive pitch, The Verge writer opined that the tech isn’t quite ready to be top of the charts.

Meet the company preparing to be the last CD distributor standing: All signs and all data are pointing to dwindling importance for CDs. Consumers’ shift toward digital and streaming models has caused a rippling effect of consequences on other facets of the music industry. Billboard profiled one such group: CD distributors. Although Alliance Entertainment has diversified into DVDs and video game discs, it’s still taking a contrarian approach toward music. “We are long on physical — we want to be the last guy standing,” Alliance Chairman Bruce Ogilvie said.

Virginia is for podcast lovers: Panoply has a strong listener base, and they or anyone else who’s curious can see where people are tuning in to the company’s podcasts. In a blog post, Panoply shared an interactive map for tracking its audience. Apparently Virginia really likes podcasts; who knew?

Brad Hill