NEWS
Rivers Cuomo of the rock band Weezer performs to a sold out crowd during the Hella Mega Tour at T-Mobile Park on September 06, 202 1 in Seattle, Washington.
Xander Deccio/imageSPACE/MediaPunch /IPX/AP ImagesAs more musicians pull their music from Spotify amidst the controversy surrounding Joe Rogan, listeners are contemplating making the jump to alternate streaming services. There are a few options available, the more obvious choices including Apple Music and Tidal, but Rivers Cuomo is adding his own self-made app to the mix: Weezify.
“Tired of Spotify” the Weezer frontman wrote on Twitter. “Come on over to Weezify.” The only catch with Cuomo’s venture is that when he created the app last year, he filled it with the more than 3,200 demos he recorded between 1975 and 2017 — and nothing else.
Similarly to Spotify’s interface, Weezify offers a number of curated playlists for users to follow, or they can create their own. The library of demos is split into 12 bundles broken down by era. For instance, there’s “Weezma,” which holds demos made with the California band Ozma between 2012 and 2014, and “Patrick & Rivers,” which boasts music created with Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson between 1991 and 2012.
The bundles cost $9 each to purchase and play through Weezify, less than a monthly subscription to Spotify. Weezify also appears to be an outgrowth of another tech project Cuomo launched in 2020, a digital marketplace where he was also selling bundles of old demos.
Weezify arrives as Weezer plot their new four-part seasonal album cycle. “Spring is kind of like happy chill. And then we move through to dance rock, like a Strokes-style album for the fall, and then sad acoustic, Elliott Smith-style for winter,” Cuomo told Good Morning America of the project which plans for a new release on the first day of each season throughout the year.
Metallica bassist Jason Newsted says he is now “free and clear” after facing throat cancer.
The 63 year old musician, who played with the Enter Sandman legends from 1986 through 2001, has shared details of his diagnosis publicly for the first time. He explained that doctors discovered it early, and on May 8, 2025 he “underwent a procedure” to treat the condition.
Speaking on the Let There Be Talk podcast, he said: “They took a bunch of s*** outta here and then they went in with lasers this way and took a bunch of s*** out.
“So the cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early. And I got my ‘free and clear’ about three weeks ago. So I beat it.”
Jason contributed to several of Metallica’s most iconic releases, including 1988’s ...And Justice For All, their self titled 1991 album, 1996’s Load, the 1997 follow up Reload, and 1998’s Garage Inc.
After going through his cancer experience, the bassist made a point to slow down and actually give himself time to recover instead of constantly pushing forward.
He explained: “I promised myself I was going to rest, and that was the first time I’ve done that in my life.
"I’m usually just on or off. And so I promised myself I was gonna take the gravity off and lay down for the right amount of hours."
The health scare also led Jason to give up smoking weed and drinking alcohol, something he admits he likely would not have done otherwise.
He added: “The great spirit got my attention and said, ‘That’s not good right now, man.’ And so it pulled me off it.
"And so now I’m more clear-headed than I’ve been in my entire adult life. And so there’s blessings within everything. The lemonade I’m making this summer, bro — mm. Sweet. Ooh.”
Jason has previously said that his unexpected departure ultimately helped Metallica continue moving forward, while James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich later admitted they struggled to process his decision at the time.
Lars told Apple Music in 2021: “Jason is the only member of Metallica who has ever left willingly. And that in itself is a statistic.
"And the resentment from James and I was just so… 'You can’t do that. You can only leave if we want you to leave'.
"And then we weren’t equipped at the time to do a deep dive into why he was leaving. So of course, now you can see 20 years later, it makes complete sense.”
