Shinichi Atobe is releasing a new album. Silent Way arrives March 27 on the label he founded last year, Plastic & Sounds. The Japanese producer has also shared a lead single, “Rain 1,”—you can listen to it below.
Berlin-based artist Rashad Becker mixed and mastered Silent Way, and photographer Yusuke Yamatani shot its album cover. The record marks Atobe’s first full-length since 2024’s Disciple and follows the EP Ongaku 1, which he shared earlier this month.
Boston post-hardcore band the Saddest Landscape have announced their first new album in over ten years. Alone With Heaven is out April 24 on Iodine Recordings, and was co-produced by the late Steve Albini and Jack Shirley. According to a press statement, the LP was one of the final recordings Albini worked on before his death in 2024. The band have also shared a new song from the album, “From Home They Run.” It follows a lead single, “Hexes,” which the band released back in November. You can listen to both tracks below.
Other guests across Alone With Heaven include Julien Baker, Touché Amoré’s Jeremy Bolm, and Into It. Over It.’s Evan Weiss. Daniel Danger, who has collaborated with the Cure and Nine Inch Nails in the past, worked on the art for the album insert. The Saddest Landscape shared their most recent record, Darkness Forgives, in 2015.
Alone With Heaven:
01 The Hell I Know 02 From Home They Run 03 A Badge Of Sorrow 04 “Forever Undone” 05 Bury In Time 06 Hexes 07 A Loss Of Certainty 08 The Invisible Hurt ft. Julien Baker 09 Kissed By Strangers 10 Hold Until It Hurts ft. Jeremy Bolm 11 A Crow Black Wind 12 The Cold And The Stars 13 Where Angels Ascend ft. Into It. Over It. 14 A Badge Of Hope 15 A Shadow Of Faith 16 Alone With Heaven
Bruce Springsteen has released a protest song denouncing President Donald J. Trump and the “private army” of his Department of Homeland Security, in the wake of ICE’s killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. Listen to “Streets of Minneapolis” below.
Springsteen shared the following statement:
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free, Bruce Springsteen
The rallying full-band song memorializes Pretti and Good in verses that pull no punches on the crimes of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Trump’s federal thugs beat up on his face and his chest,” Springsteen sings. “Then we heard the gunshots, and Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead.”
A stirring refrain closes the song:
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice Singing through the bloody mist Here in our home they killed and roamed In the winter of ’26 We’ll take our stand for this land And the stranger in our midst
Earlier this month, Springsteen dedicated a rendition of “The Promised Land” to Good during an impromptu appearance at a New Jersey festival, telling the crowd: “If you believe in democracy, in liberty; if you believe that truth still matters, and that it’s worth speaking out, and it’s worth fighting for; if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it; if you stand against heavily armed, masked, federal troops invading American cities, and using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens; if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest; then send a message to this president. And as the mayor of that city has said, ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
Another impassioned speech in protest of Trump’s “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” given last year at a show in Manchester, England, was captured on a live EP released a week later.
01 Affordable Decorating 02 Wishing Luck Goodbye 03 R U 4 $ALE 04 No One Is Coming 05 No Song 06 Freaks 07 None of It’s Fun 08 Human(e) Volume 09 So Unpleasant 10 Destroyers
Adult.:
04-10 Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Lodge 04-11 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar 04-12 Brooklyn, NY – Good Room 04-14 Raleigh, NC – Kings 04-15 Atlanta, GA – The Earl 04-16 Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbits 04-17 Orlando, FL – The Social 04-18 Miami, FL – TBD 04-21 New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa 04-22 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs) 04-23 Austin, TX – 29th Street Ballroom 04-24 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger 04-25 Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves 04-28 Albuquerque, NM – Sister 04-29 Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge 04-30 San Diego, CA – The Casbah 05-01 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Forever (Masonic Lodge) 05-02 San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop 05-04 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios 05-05 Seattle, WA – Barboza 05-08 Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry 05-09 Cudahy, WI – X-Ray Arcade
Earlier today, Styles also announced a 30-night residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The shows are part of his larger Together, Together tour, which kicks off on May 16. The run will see him visit seven cities and perform alongside special guests including Robyn, Shania Twain, and Jamie xx.
Los Thuthanaka‘s Joshua Chuquimia Crampton has announced a new album. Anata arrives on February 6 on Puro Fantasía, and a lead single, “Ch’uwanchaña ~El Golpe Final~” is out now. You can listen to the song, and check out Anata‘s cover art, below.
“This album is dedicated to Anata, the Andean ceremony where we celebrate the Pachamama (Mother Earth) before the rainy season, giving thanks for harvest with offerings & the principle of reciprocity (Ayni) between humans/nature,” Chuquimia Crampton wrote in a statement. “I present it in a production style much like trying to capture a ceremony or a natural phenomenon with a phone camera.”
An Anata release show is set for February 6 in San Francisco, in collaboration with Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) and Sacramento Red Road Gathering. The event will feature a screening of Amaru’s Tongue: Daughter—a film Chuquimia Crampton made with his sibling and Los Thuthanaka bandmate Chuquimamani-Condori—a live performance, and an intertribal healing circle. Learn more about the event here.
Anata is Chuquimia Crampton’s first new LP since the self-titled Los Thuthanaka, which he surprise-released with Chuquimamani-Condori in March 2025. The duo performed songs from Los Thuthanaka at Pitchfork’s 2025 holiday party. Chuquimia Crampton released his most recent solo album, Estrella Por Estrella, in 2024.
Two dormant giants of experimental rock, Lightning Bolt and OOIOO, have teamed up for a split LP, The Horizon Spirals / The Horizon Viral. The Thrill Jockey labelmates will release the record on the label on April 24. OOIOO—the longstanding project led by Boredoms drummer YoshimiO—has also announced a rare live date, playing Open Melody Festival in Los Angeles, with more shows to come. Listen to Lightning Bolt’s “Cloud Core” below.
Lightning Bolt drummer-vocalist Brian Chippendale said in a press release, “OOIOO set the tone with The Horizon Spiral but we didn’t really roll with the spiral theme. We’re more Viral than Spiral though they both can dump you in a rabbit hole and we definitely like rabbit holes.”
Lightning Bolt’s last album for Thrill Jockey was 2019’s Sonic Citadel, though the duo has since released some music ad hoc via Chippendale’s Patreon. OOIOO released Nijimusi in 2020.
Charli XCX has shared a new song from Wuthering Heights, her soundtrack and accompaniment to the Emerald Fennel movie of the same name. Listen to it below ahead of the film and album’s dual release on February 13.
Charli’s recent singles “Chains of Love” and the John Cale-assisted “House” will appear on the album which she has described, on Substack, as a “dive into persona, into a world that felt undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, British, tortured and full of actual real sentences, punctuation and grammar. Without a cigarette or a pair of sunglasses in sight, it was all totally other from the life I was currently living.”
Moby has tiptoed into the studio for a new, mostly ambient album, Future Quiet. Out February 20, the follow-up to his similarly minimalist Ambient 23 takes cues from Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, the producer says. Leading the record is a rework of his 1995 song “When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die” featuring Gabriels’ Jacob Lusk. Listen to that below, and scroll down for the album art and tracklist.
That song, originally sung by Mimi Goese on Moby’s Everything Is Wrong, has had a streaming resurgence since its sync in the first season of Stranger Things (and reprisal in season 4). Of its new vocalist, Moby says, “Like anyone who’s heard Jacob sing, I immediately fell in love with his voice. After hearing him sing on the radio, I spent weeks tracking him down and begging him to work with me. And, lucky me, he agreed. The results speak for themselves, as his vocals on ‘When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die’ are, I say with something approaching objectivity, transcendent.”
Moby elaborates on the album’s influences in a press release:
When I was growing up I played in hardcore punk rock bands, and I DJed VERY LOUD hip hop and house music and industrial music, but I also needed the refuge of quiet records like This Mortal Coil, the Cocteau Twins, Eno & Bowie’s ambient music, Gorecki, Arvo Part, etc. Future Quiet is definitely the product of my influences, as I can’t count the number of times I’ve listened to ‘Song to the Siren’ or Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere.’
The mostly instrumental LP features a handful more guest vocalists, namely Serpentwithfeet, Elise Serenelle, and India Carney. BMG is releasing the record, which Moby will back with a major tour, soon to be announced.
Shabaka Hutchings, the former Sons of Kemet and Comet Is Coming musician who has since gone solo and mononymous, will release a new album on a new label on March 6. The inaugural release of Shabaka Records, Of the Earth, is partly inspired by D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar, and you can hear two new songs from it below: “A Future Untold” and “Marwa the Mountain.” Shabaka will soon embark on a run of U.S. shows that takes him from Solar Myth Philadelphia (March 25) to New York’s Knockdown Center (March 26) and finally Big Ears festival in Tennessee, where he will perform one solo set and one with Thurston Moore.
In a press release, Shabaka spoke about the D’Angelo record, as well as his own pivot from clarinet and saxophone to flute, as debuted on his last LP, 2024’s Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. “Brown Sugar was the first CD I bought and it sparked a lasting curiosity about the emotional possibilities allowed by the self produced and performed album,’ Shabaka said. “This record is my celebration of freedom in creative self expression. Before the pandemic I could only play the clarinet and saxophone and knew nothing about music production (or how to play the flute), so this has been a journey of learning and a reflection on the music that’s been created as a result.”
After Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, Shabaka’s last release was the EP Possession, from late 2024.
WU LYF’s only studio album to date, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, came out in 2011. News of the band’s return followed the dissolution of Roberts’ Lost Under Heaven project. In April, they’ll kick off their first North American tour since 2012, with planned stops on both coasts. Scroll down to check out all of WU LYF’s upcoming shows.
01-22 Manchester, England – Tib St. Bound and Infinity Gathering + Lyf Listening Party 02-19 Geneva, Switzerland – Antigel Festival 03-12 Paris, France – Les Inrocks Festival 04-24 Brooklyn, NY – TBD 04-26 Washington, D.C. – TBD 04-28 Boston, MA – TBD 04-30 Toronto, Ontario – TBD 05-02 Chicago, IL – TBD 05-04 Seattle, WA – TBD 05-05 Portland, OR – TBD 05-07 San Francisco, CA – TBD 05-08 Los Angeles, CA – TBD
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis have returned to the studio for a follow-up to their 2024 self-titled album. The Washington, D.C. outfit has titled its next LP Deface the Currency. Listen to the single “Gestations” below, and scroll down for their new tour dates. The album arrives February 20, via Impulse!
The Messthetics—the band formed around Fugazi rhythm section Joe Lally and Brendan Canty—released their debut album in 2018 and a follow-up a year later, before uniting with jazz saxophonist Lewis. Deface the Currency is a result of the musicians playing 150 shows together in one year, a press release notes.
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis:
04-17 Portland, OR – Star Theater 04-18 Seattle, WA – Clock-Out Lounge 04-19 Vancouver, British Columbia – Wise Hall 04-25 Raleigh, NC – Kings 04-26 Asheville, NC – Ayurprana Listening Room 04-27 Atlanta, GA – The Earl 04-28 Lexington, KY – Singletary Center for the Arts 04-30 Chicago, IL – Constellation 05-01 Detroit, MI – Third Man Records 05-02 Toronto, Ontario – 918 Bathurst 05-03 Erie, PA – Centennial Hall 05-04 Kingston, NY – Tubby’s 05-05 Boston, MA – City Winery Boston 05-06 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge 05-07 Pittsburgh, PA – Pittsburgh Jazz & Poetry Festival 05-08 Philadelphia, PA – Solar Myth 05-09 Washington, DC – The Black Cat
03-06 San Diego, CA – Casbah % 03-07 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy + Harriett’s % 03-08 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress % 03-10 Austin, TX – 29th St. Ballroom % 03-11 Dallas, TX – Rubber Gloves % 03-13 Denver, CO – Globe Hall % 03-15 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court % 03-17 Portland, OR – Polaris Hall % 03-18 Seattle, WA – Baba Yaga % 03-20 San Francisco, CA – Cafe du Nord % 03-21 Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room % 03-31 Washington, DC – Songbyrd * 04-01 Raleigh, NC – Kings * 04-02 Asheville, NC – Eulogy * 04-03 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade Altar * 04-04 Nashville, TN – Blue Room @ Third Man * 04-07 Minneapolis, MN – Zhora Darling * 04-08 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club * 04-09 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall * 04-10 Detroit, MI – Lager House * 04-11 Toronto, Ontario – The Garrison * 04-12 Montreal, Quebec – L’Esco * 04-14 Boston, MA – The Sinclair * 04-15 Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA * 04-16 New York, NY – Nightclub 101 * 04-17 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right *
% with lots of hands * with mother soki
Heaven 2:
01 Car Anymore 02 Even Mountains Erode 03 Arrow 04 Tricks 05 Scammer 06 Heaven2 07 Anywave 08 Does This Go Faster? 09 This City 10 Wyoming Dirt
Robyn has finally announced her first new album in eight years, which boasts her most Robyn-esque title yet; Sexistential is out March 27 via Young. The Swedish pop star is dropping not one, but two new songs today to ring in the big news. “Talk to Me” comes with a music video directed by Casper Sejersen, while the IVF-themed “Sexistential” gets its own lyrics visual. Give those singles a listen below.
While the album title started as an in-joke, Robyn soon realized it encapsulated her overarching beliefs and moods. “Exploring my sensual life is the same feeling as when I make a good song,” she explained in a press release. “It’s such a beautiful kind of sensitive vibration that takes so much work to keep afloat. I feel like the purpose of my life is to stay horny – it doesn’t even have to be about sex, but it’s feeling sensual and attracted to things that I enjoy, and not letting anything take over that.”
Naturally, Robyn followed through on that with Sexistential by tapping Max Martin to co-write “Talk to Me,” uncorking her inner Prince and divulging one of her biggest turn-ons. Equal parts rousing and determined, Sexistential’s title track was co-written with Klas Åhlund as a direct riposte to André 3000 claiming nobody wants to hear him rap about his colonoscopy. “It was my cue,” said Robyn. “I have to do this, I have to write a rap about IVF.”
Sexistential is Robyn’s ninth studio album and follows her 2018 comeback LP Honey. It’s billed as a return to her pop songwriting and in line with her Body Talk era. She recently performed “Dopamine,” her first new song in seven years and the album’s lead single, live on New Years Eve.
At CES 2026, Ikea spent its first-ever time at the tech event showing off a number of new products, including a new Bluetooth speaker it calls the Kallsup. It’s a teeny tiny cube that is, in every way that matters, far more of a delight than its $10 price tag lets on. It will be available in April in red, white, and green colors.
The Kallsup is lightweight yet solid-feeling, a plastic box with speaker holes on one face, a USB-C port on the back for charging, and two buttons astride a small LED status light for power, playback, and pairing. It was immediately charming, and not just because it’s so dang adorable; every action you do on it prompts these whimsical human-made noises—like a boop or a whooshing sound. The speakers use Bluetooth 5.3 and up to 100 Kallsup speakers can be synchronized together by doing the proper sequence of long presses of the play button between them.
With a few paired together, the Kallsup cubes were able to quickly fill the room with better-than-you’d-expect sound—not tinny or muffled. They certainly didn’t push out much bass, and neither would I expect that at this size and price.
The only real criticisms I have, at first glance, spring from Ikea’s decision to only put two buttons on the box: a play button and one emblazoned with the Bluetooth logo. It’s not obvious to me that you’d long press the play button, rather than the Bluetooth one, for pairing speakers together, and neither is it clear how they’re turned off, or even if you can do that manually. If you wait long enough, though, the speakers time themselves out.
Gizmodo is on the ground in Las Vegas all week bringing you everything you need to know about the tech unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all our coverage here.
Days after the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a viral audio clip appears to show President Donald Trump yelling at advisers to stop the release of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
“Leaked Donald Trump audio about the Epstein files and Venezuela,” reads the caption of a Jan. 5 Facebook post sharing the purported recording that drew over 2 million views.
“(We’re) not releasing the Epstein file, f— Marjorie Taylor Greene, I don’t care what you do, start a f—— war, just don’t let them get out. If I go down, I will bring all of you down,” Trump appears to say.
A reporter can then be heard asking Trump if he is all right, to which Trump says, “I feel great, I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something.”
That part of the recording is authentic. But the first part — about Epstein and Greene — isn’t.
The fake audio matches the audio in a TikTok video from Nov. 18, 2025, before the U.S. captured Maduro on Jan. 3. Fact-checkers from Lead Stories and Snopes found a similar version of the audio first published Nov. 5, 2025 by the @fresh_florida_air TikTok account, which is no longer available. The archived version of that video shows a Sora watermark, which is OpenAI’s video-generating platform. With the launch of Sora 2 on Sept. 30, 2025, the tool can generate audio-only results.
The TikTok account, @fresh_florida_air, posted another version of the “leaked” audio that featured a Sora watermark that said @bradbradt31. PolitiFact searched for that username on the Sora app, but that account is also unavailable.
The TikTok user, @fresh_florida_air, told Snopes that the videos were AI-generated. “My intent is creative expression, not presenting anything as factual,” the user said.
The second part of the audio clip in the Facebook post that features a reporter asking Trump if he’s OK is real, but it was taken out of context. On Nov. 17, 2025, a reporter questioned why the president sounded hoarse. A longer version of Trump’s response reveals he said he had been shouting during trade talks with a foreign country. Trump was not being asked about a leaked audio or the Epstein files.
Our ruling
A viral Facebook post claims to show “leaked Donald Trump audio about the Epstein files and Venezuela.”
The audio was created with artificial intelligence.
PolitiFact found the first part of the clip was generated with OpenAI’s video-generating platform, Sora.
The second part of the clip is real but it’s from November 2025, before Maduro was captured by the U.S. government. At that moment, Trump was not being asked about leaked audio or the Epstein files. We rate this claim False.
The time for gift-giving is over. Now, all that’s left is the few days until New Year’s revelries and the resulting hangover. So while we’ve all been spending time with friends and family, the folks on Gizmodo’s consumer tech desk have also had the chance to reminisce on the year’s best, wackiest, wildest, and worst tech products. Thankfully, there were a few standout products that have kept things interesting even as we slide into the new year.
Long-promised gadgets, including pop-out mobile controllers and 360-camera drones, finally saw the light of day in December. In the same month, we went hands-on with some great, affordable earbuds and even an at-home facial device. December’s gadgets also proved that you can’t trust everything companies tell you, especially regarding newfangled AI devices. Senior consumer tech reporter James Pero tested out a purported “AI translator” that proved so bogus, the company that made the device asked us not to review it.
Next year will be a standout for gadgets. Come January, CES 2026 will unleash a deluge of tech products on our heads. Companies like LG, Samsung, and more are already promising all-new TVs and monitors to showcase your shows, artwork, and even the occasional bit of odd 3D gaming content. We expect to see more laptops, speakers, AR glasses, bird feeders, and far too many gadgets promising AI will change everything. At the same time, the ongoing RAM shortage caused by the proliferation of AI data centers will inevitably spike prices for all computing products, from desktops to laptops to game consoles. We can already tell that 2026 will—somehow—be even more chaotic than 2025.
Shark’s facial device is built to keep you from spending extra money at the salon for something you can do just as easily at home. The device includes several attachments that will help exfoliate your skin, tighten pores, and boost circulation. There are a few too many moving parts to get it working, but actually using the device is relatively easy and fun.
The Soundpeats Air5 Pro+ prove you don’t have to spend well over $200 to get excellent portable audio. The $130 earbuds have a comfortable fit and an incredibly clear, even sound considering the price. The ANC on the earbuds was also surprisingly robust, partially aided by the tight, comfortable fit.
There is no drone like the Antigravity A1. It’s weird, occasionally perfunctory, and easily the most innovative drone to arrive in years. Instead of a single gimbal-mounted lens, the drone uses a 360 camera. Combined with the AR headset, this lets you experience the skies like the good witch Glinda from The Wizard of Oz, floating in a giant bubble in the sky. The drone also uses a unique aim-and-fly controller that is easier to comprehend for any drone novices.
Mobile controllers are better when they are—well—mobile. MCON takes that idea and runs with it thanks to its MagSafe disc that connects to your phone. A single button press pops open to reveal a full suite of game controls, TMR joysticks and analog triggers included. Sure, it won’t feel as ergonomic as a regular controller or other Backbone-like mobile controllers, but it’s certainly the most portable of the bunch.
There are a few big reasons you don’t want the Boox Note Air 5C e-notetaker. Its color E Ink display won’t look as sharp as a regular iPad screen with its limitation of only 4,096 colors. It’s not as fast as other, non-E Ink devices, either. But for reading and taking notes with a wider color spectrum available, you won’t find many more devices for cheaper, at least not one with E Ink. It helps that the Boox Note Air 5C feels nice in hand and comes with a fantastic stylus.
The same company that brought us the excellent GB Operator now has a new way to let you play physical Super Nintendo or Super Famicom cartridges on your PC, Mac, or Steam Deck. Like the similar $50 device built for Game Boy games, the $60 SN Operator hooks up to your PC and then uses software emulation to let you play your retro titles. The device will let you rip your game files to the PC, and it will support your saves on console or PC. In addition, the SN Operator has extra benefits, like checking for the authenticity of your cart. The connected app also supports RetroAchievements.
MP3 players will have their day in the sun once more, judging by how big audio nostalgia has become as of late. The Snowsky Disc is an MP3 player with a few modern amenities, including a circular touchscreen for controls. Otherwise, the digital audio player has ports for a 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone jack alongside USB-C. It supports up to a 2TB microSD card, so there’s no shortage of songs you can potentially pack into this pint-sized audio device. The MP3 player may eventually come to the U.S., and we’re hoping it does soon so we can finally escape the hell that is Spotify.
There’s one big reason to pay attention to JLab’s latest ANC earbuds: battery life. The Epic Pods cost $100 and promise around 13 hours of battery life when outside the case. When charging regularly with the case, JLab promises that you can get a total of 50 hours of run time without having to plug the pod in. The sound may not be the peak of quality, and there are plenty of solid earbuds that come in at cheaper prices. Still, for longevity, the Epic Pods have many beat for that price.
Pebble creator Eric Migicovsky’s first non-watch product for his revived brand was bound to be controversial. The Index 01 is a very simple product with a simple premise. It is a stainless steel ring built for offering users a chance to record thoughts when on the go. The small button activates the microphone, and thankfully there’s no internet connection or subscription needed. There’s also no sign of unnecessary AI integration like on so many other smart wearables. The catch is that the device does not have any rechargeable battery. When you’re done, Pebble expects users to send it back to the company to be recycled.
Ever since Robosen debuted its first Transformers self-transforming kit with its Optimus Prime figure, we’ve wondered how long it would be before we could get the fan-favorite communications lieutenant for the dastardly Decepticons. Robosen finally showed off its Soundwave figure that will automatically collapse into a tape deck. Here’s the important part: it won’t play your old cassettes, but it will act as a Bluetooth speaker. The figure will cost an astronomical $1,400, so just know there are far cheaper speaker options available elsewhere that—unfortunately—don’t transform into a cool robot.
It’s not every day that a common Wi-Fi speaker manages to pique your interest, but Samsung is at least trying to spice things up with its new Music Studio 5 and Music Studio 7.
Samsung’s new speakers, which will be showcased at CES 2026 in January, were made in collaboration with French designer Erwan Bouroullec, who is best known for contemporary and minimalist work in interior design. According to Samsung, the speakers both feature a “timeless dot concept… inspired by a universal symbol in music and art.” Whether it’s your thing is subjective, obviously, but I kind of dig it. Personally, I get more monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey vibes than anything, though that’s probably less marketable than the “timeless dot concept.”
Samsung says the Music Studio 7 is its “most immersive model” in the product series and comes with 3.1.1-channel spatial audio that you can hear through the left, front, right, and top-firing speakers. It has up to 24-bit audio processing at 96 kHz, which should be enough for any hi-fi enthusiast, and can be paired with other Samsung Wi-Fi speakers.
The Music Studio 5, on the other hand, is “designed for homes where aesthetic harmony is as important as sound,” according to Samsung, which is its way of saying that the device is a little smaller and less obviously a speaker. This speaker comes with a 4-inch woofer, two tweeters, and also (like the Music Studio 7) has Samsung’s AI Dynamic Bass Control, which is meant to enhance low end and minimize distortion.
Both speakers will be able to cast via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and they also support voice control, which aren’t groundbreaking features by any means, but still good to know before you buy.
These speakers are really more about the look than anything, though, and if you’re into minimalism, these could be the Wi-Fi speakers for you. If nothing else, these are definitely going to be an alternative for any Sonos fans out there who want to make a switch for aesthetic or app-related reasons.
While the Music Studio speakers are all about the looks, you’ll have to be okay with black since that’s the only color they come in for now. There’s no word on pricing yet, but I wouldn’t expect either speaker to come cheap. I assume we’ll have the full details on pricing and a release date once CES rolls around next week, though.
02-06 Silverdale, WA – Central Kitsap PAC 02-07 Tacoma, WA – Pantages Theater 02-09 Abbotsford, BC – Abbotsford Centre 02-10 Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 02-11 Bend, OR – Tower Theatre 02-14 Walnut Creek, CA – Lesher Center for the Arts 02-15 Folsom, CA – Harris Center 02-18 Burbank, CA – Luther Burbank Center for the Arts 02-20 Modesto, CA – Gallo Center 02-21 Las Vegas, NV – The Smith Center 02-22 San Diego, CA – UC SD Artpower 02-25 Ogden, UT – Browning Center at WSU 02-26 Grand Junction, CO – Avalon Theatre 02-28 Beaver Creek, CO – Vilar PAC 03-01 Denver, CO – Boettcher Concert Hall 03-03 Albuquerque, NM – Popejoy Hall 03-06 Galveston, TX – The Grand 1894 Opera House 03-07 Dallas, TX – The Majestic Theatre 03-08 Tyler, TX – UT Tyler Cowan Center 03-10 Lawrence, KS – Lied Center of Kansas 03-12 Anderson, IN – Paramount Theatre 03-13 Dubuque, IA – Five Flags Center 03-14 St. Louis, MO – Stifel Theatre 03-15 Skokie, IL – North Shore Center for the Performing Arts 03-18 Interlochen, MI – Corson Auditorium 03-19 Bay Harbor, MI – Great Lakes Center for the Arts 03-20 Clinton Township, MI – Macomb Center 03-21 Toronto, ON – Meridian Hall 03-22 Pittsburgh, PA – Heinz Hall 03-24 Richmond, KY – Eastern Kentucky University Center for the Arts 03-25 Portsmouth, OH – Vern Riffe Center for the Arts 03-26 State College, PA – Eisenhower Auditorium 03-27 York, PA – The Pullo Center 03-28 Brookville, NY – Tilles Center for the Performing Arts 03-29 Newark, NJ – NJPAC 03-31 Scranton, PA – Scranton Cultural Center 04-01 Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Center for the Arts 04-02 Portsmouth, NH – The Music Hall 04-03 Worcester, MA – Hanover Theatre 04-04 Philadelphia, PA – Miller Theater 04-07 Newberry, SC – Newberry Opera House 04-08 Greensboro, NC – Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts 04-09 Sandy Springs, GA – Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center 04-11 Fairfax, VA – George Mason Center for the Arts 04-12 Norfolk, VA – Virginia Arts Festival at Chrysler Hall 04-13 Baltimore, MD – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall 04-16 Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre 04-17 Orlando, FL – Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts 04-18 Peachtree City, GA – The FRED Amphitheater 04-19 Auburn, AL – Gogue Performing Arts Center 04-21 Oxford, AL – Oxford PAC 04-24 Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Parker 04-25 Miami, FL – Dennis C. Moss Cultural Arts Center
