The Manacor-based bands Nita, Garrafa Nadal, Saïm, and Reïna have announced the formation of the association Punyeta Món, a collective created to foster mutual support in the face of the precariousness and difficulties inherent in the music industry and its inconsistencies: "To pool financial resources, have shared equipment, and self-finance concerts, where and why." Their first action will be a joint boycott of Spotify on March 27th. The members have invited other artists and supporters to join the boycott and support the initiative. "Puñeta Món is an escape, but also a meeting point. It's the expression of a shared rage among like-minded groups who don't see music as a commodity," they explained in a statement.

They hadn't even been playing their first concert for a year, back in July 2023, when the members of The Ripples – Toni Sbert, Nacho Andreu, Juan Andreu, Berto Meana, and Jordi Rullán – entered the famous Abbey Road Studios to record one of their songs. It was April 2024 when, after the band's first few tracks, they reached a milestone they hadn't even set out to achieve. "I always say that, whatever happens, the band has already been worth it for that," confesses Toni Sbert, singer and guitarist of The Ripples, "and I was already telling them that while we were there."

Just a few weeks ago, the group Fades, along with Maria Hein from Felanitx, were crowned the big winners at the eighth edition of the Enderrock Awards for Balearic Music. The gala took place in early November at the Principal Theatre in Palma, and Enderrock director Lluís Gendrau celebrated the current boom in Catalan-language music in the Balearic Islands, with a record number of releases: 125 albums and 250 tracks between September 2024 and September 2020. Members of Fades, upon receiving their three awards—including Best Song for "Mon cheri, go home," a track co-written with Maria Jaume—offered another perspective on these figures. "We're here to celebrate Catalan music," they said at one point, "but the reality is quite different. Spanish is being spoken again in the Catalan Parliament, the exclusivity of Catalan in the City of Palma has been eliminated, and its use as a language of instruction in schools is being questioned," declared Vicenç Calafell, Ferran Pi, and Àngel Exojo. None of them were even born—all three were born in 2001—when some of the most veteran bands on the current scene, which have remained active with little or no interruption, began their careers, many of them with the defense of the Catalan language as one of their main objectives. This is the case of Al Mayurqa, a band celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, which has also been 30 years of advocacy. "The fact that singing in Catalan is no longer an act of rebellion, as it was when we started, and that it has even become normalized, doesn't mean the problem is solved, not by a long shot. It will always be necessary to stand up for certain things, even more so in such a globalized, totally capitalist world. They've even allowed interviews to be conducted in Spanish," says Miquel Carbonell, one of the founders of Al Mayurqa.

We walkedThis is the title of the new album from the Manacor-based band Montenegro, their first in over 30 years without new music. The group, led by Guillem Sansó (and retaining many of its original members), returns with a fresh and renewed sound, but with the same hallmarks of personal lyrics and carefully crafted, joyful arrangements.