WNXC welcomes Chris Dalla Riva
Can't Get Much Higher podcast
WNXC/Radio Free Raleigh. I’m Christine Bush with some exciting station news for you. The talented Christopher Dalla Riva has agreed to share his Can’t Get Much Higher podcast with WNXC. Let me tell you about him.
Chris Dalla Riva brings an articulate voice and a critical eye to the music industry. His Substack profile describes him as someone exploring the tension between two different aspects of his work. One one hand, he is a musician who has a “deeply emotional connection with songs.” On another, he is a data analyst and researcher for a music streaming service with millions of monthly users. In other words, Chris Dalla Riva is as close to the human embodiment of Full Spectrum Listening as we are likely to find. His work has been featured by NPR and The Economist. I am thrilled to bring his voice and his experience to WNXC.
Here’s a sampling from some recent episodes of the Can’t Get Much Higher podcast:
…According to the IFPI, total recorded music revenues crossed $28.6 billion in 2023, up 10.5% from 2022 and 58.7% from 2019. Of course, much of this was driven by the global proliferation of streaming, but there was also growth in physical sales.
Anytime you read about the physical format revival, it is almost always focused on vinyl. But as I was digging through this year’s IFPI report, I was surprised to see that the CD market is still generating billions of dollars. In fact, 36% of those billions come from just one country: Japan. This week I decided to try to figure out why the Japanese love their CDs….
. . .This is the first piece of musical AI technology that has legitimately left me somewhere between astonished and scared. Below you can listen to “Kaleidoscope of Love”, the song I created using Suno just by entering the text “1960s style psychedelic rock about falling in love for the first time.”
Is this a good song? No. But I don’t think that matters. What matters is that it is a song. It has discernible sections and some understanding of the genre that I prompted it to create . . . but for now I want to talk about something else that popped into my mind while messing around with this technology: should music be this easy to make?
. . .The discourse around this album has been nothing short of astonishing. I’ve not only seen people reacting to the album, but I’ve seen people reacting to how other people are reacting to the album. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are also people reacting to the reactions. Regardless, I think one of the most fascinating things about this album has nothing to with the album itself but rather how the first single was announced, namely a Verizon commercial during the Super Bowl.
You might not think this is that strange. Global superstar partners with a billion-dollar corporation. Makes sense. But it got me thinking about how we are so far from the notion of caring about if a musician sells out that it’s not really even possible to do so anymore. . .
You will find Chris Dalla Riva’s Can’t Get Much Higher podcast on the WNXC Full Spectrum Listening Journal on Substack and you can wake up to it weekday mornings between 6am and 9am on our Live365 stream. I encourage you to support Chris by subscribing to his newsletter at chrisdallariva.substack.com to hear subscriber-only bonus episodes and additional content.