Home Sweet Home: Three Versions of a Nostalgic Song
By José Gandour @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio Nostalgia, melancholy, homesickness. That rash in the heart that makes us say such unverifiable phrases as "the past was always better," "nobody beats my mother's cooking," "rock is...".
The new electric bass: ideas, brands and sounds that are changing the instrument
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art Zonagirante Studio Introduction / current landscape The electric bass has lived for decades in a comfortable zone: four strings, standard scale, heavy body, established sound. It was the instrument that sustained...
Between AI, rights, and new opportunities: key news for the independent artist
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Introduction The pulse of the music industry accelerates every week. New technological tools, legal disputes, and alternative proposals are reshaping a landscape where independent music can be both a...
Groove Thing: The most intimate musical device on the planet
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio ⚠ Responsible Advice We know that most readers of this article on Zonagirante are adults. However, if you are a minor and browsing here, please...
Digital Destinations: A Manual for Destroying a Video Clip (and How to Prevent It)
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio There are music videos that seem like punishments. You watch them and think: "Was this really their best idea?" In the name of indie (or worse: low budget), they've made...
Spotify, drones, and other uncomfortable truths about current streaming (Or why we're still here, even though it breaks our hearts)
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio Don't get me wrong: at Zonagirante.com we're not Spotify defenders. But we're not naive either. We know what's what. We know it's a monster, but—for now—it's the monster that...
It's not enough to just press a button (Illustrate with AI and have no regrets)
By José Gandour @zonagirante Why we started illustrating with AI This is an independent media outlet that has been around the web for over 25 years. We've gone through many stages: we were a weekly digital magazine with a Raygun-style editorial cover—yes, that same one, the one that...
AI without anesthesia: How to use artificial intelligence without losing your soul (for musicians and creatives)
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Artificial intelligence is no longer the future: it's the out-of-tune instrument playing in the rehearsal room. And yes, it can be scary. It can seem like a cold monster coming to replace us. But it can also be a...
Spotify isn't your enemy. But it's not doing you any favors either.
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio 🎧 The contradiction of using what you question Yes, our playlists are on Spotify. Updated, curated, lovingly, and patiently. And yes, we know Spotify isn't paradise...
Rock al Parque 2025: A bear climbs onto the stage to shout
By José Gandour @zonagirante We're back. Because someone has to talk about this. We return to the digital stage and, sometimes wearily, sometimes with diminished enthusiasm, we offer our comments on what will be the festival that, in the not-too-distant future, will...
Digital Destinations: Independent record labels seeking Latin talent
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio Latin America is making waves in the world's catalogs A journey through non-Latin independent record labels that are betting on the South In recent years, Latin American music has stopped...
Gaza: A diatribe against genocide
By José Gandour @zonagirante Cruelty is a tyrant sustained only by fear. William Shakespeare Context of the diatribe: blockade and violence in Gaza Perhaps it's too late to say it, and perhaps there's no way to excuse myself for not having said it before. I also don't think...
Digital Destinations: Rare Effects Pedals: The Toys of Creative Musicians
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante 💡 Distortions that defy logic Let's just say it: rock—and all its sonic relatives—would be much more boring without that arsenal of magic boxes that distort, delay, reverberate, multiply, melt, and...
Public radio must mean democracy and the future
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio Public radio isn't dead, it's fighting. Public radio, democracy, the future isn't a nostalgic fantasy. It's alive, even if it sometimes fights against itself. And it needs...
The new Argentine pop: bizarre, noisy, and unapologetic
By the Zonagirante.com team @zonagirante Cover art by Zonagirante Studio "It's pop. Because it's pop, because it reaches the people, and the people celebrate it" (we heard it in a bar or any inhospitable place out there) What is the new Argentine pop? There was a time when...
