This month in digital music libraries - February 2026
February 27, 2026 in digital music by Dan Gravell
This month’s digital music topics in social media cover hardware and software, music creation and reflections on music economics and ownership. Sadly, we also reflected on the loss of one of the communities stalwarts.
Rob Kaye, MetaBrainz
Before diving into the month’s developments, we want to highlight a poignant moment in the music metadata community.
We've worked with Rob for many years; his integrity, honesty, belief, drive and enthusiasm for @MetaBrainz were an inspiration.
— Astiga - the streaming service for your own music (@asti.ga) 2026-02-24T13:19:29.694Z
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Social media was flooded with shared appreciation for Rob’s years of dedication to MetaBrainz—a reminder that the open music data infrastructure we all benefit from is built by committed individuals.
Hardware innovation and player UX
The hardware side of personal music continues to evolve, with creative experiments in player interface design and practical storage infrastructure improvements.
Experiments in (hardware) music player UX emilechuffart.com/project/tiles
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-26T15:30:55.263Z
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Storage remains a critical foundation. Backblaze’s annual drive statistics continue to provide useful data for building reliable storage solutions.
Backblaze drive stats, 2025. Annual failure rates down, lifetime failure rates stable. www.backblaze.com/blog/backbla...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-22T15:01:59.166Z
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And a security reminder: be mindful of which tools you’re downloading.
Be careful which version of 7-Zip you download! www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-20T15:45:14.159Z
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Self-hosting your music
For those maintaining personal music collections, practical guides to integration and discovery continue to emerge.
Some good tips on musical acquisition and discovery post-streaming here... hidde.blog/owning-music/
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-10T15:15:28.371Z
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Connecting your Navidrome installation to ListenBrainz unlocks personalized recommendations and detailed listening analytics.
Connecting Navidrome to @listenbrainz.org for generated playlists and more stat-tastic listening analytics chhs1.github.io/blog/2026/01...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-06T15:15:37.677Z
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Music, creativity, and culture
Beyond the technical, this month brought reflection on what we do with music—and what music does to us.
An experiment in AI and music composition showcased what’s possible when you combine Claude Code with musical creativity.
A nicely written and presented series of experiments getting #ClaudeCode to write music www.josh.ing/blog/claude-... thanks @jshchnz
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-16T15:04:32.107Z
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And what of AI’s taste in music? The results were predictable… and amusing.
AI bots' musical tastes are undeniably #Radio2 moltdj.com/discover
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-14T15:45:05.213Z
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The economics of music and how the industry shapes artist sustainability remained on people’s minds.
"The result is a disappearing middle class of artists. Musicians either play stadiums or work day jobs." an article on intentional listening, shared musical experience and music economics linernotesxr.substack.com/p/when-music... thanks @TyDosh
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-02T14:15:16.715Z
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And a nostalgic reminder of MTV’s role in music discovery and culture.
MTV Rewind is a tour through MTV's glory days wantmymtv.vercel.app/player.html
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-01-31T15:30:20.634Z
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Collections and community
Finally, a few parting thoughts on collecting music, staying thoughtful about technology, and understanding what our listening data reveals.
Very nice (and the free CDs were a bonus!) #cdcollectors www.reddit.com/r/Cd_collect...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-18T15:05:04.157Z
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A timely reminder to think critically about the tools and skills we adopt.
Be careful blindly using AI skills... www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-12T15:04:53.059Z
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And finally, what our listening patterns reveal about how we consume music.
Interesting analysis (ignore the overly specific title) of musical listening stats - interesting how music streaming peaks during work hours www.statsignificant.com/p/whats-the-...
— bliss - automated music library management (@blisshq.com) 2026-02-04T15:30:55.836Z
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