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This Month in Music: November 2025
Nadia Mair
December 03, 2025
This Month in Music
Welcome to a review of music for November - including new opportunities, playlists of released music, news in the industry, and more!
Featured Interview: Robert Lydecker & Kevin Lax
Robert Lydecker is an Emmy-winning, classically-trained composer who grew up playing drums in punk bands.
Credits include Orion and the Dark, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Iron Fist season two, Lethal Weapon seasons two and three, ABC’s Designated Survivor (co-scored with Sean Callery), and the Fox series Sleepy Hollow (co-scored with Brian Tyler).
Kevin Lax is also an Emmy award winning composer, rapidly emerging for his compelling, versatile, and skillfully written music. He started his music journey studying piano, voice and music composition, and attended USC's Thornton School of Music for undergraduate and graduate studies in composing.
Having scored 2018's summer blockbuster The First Purge, he recently wrapped up work on Dreamworks' feature film Orion and the Dark (written by Charlie Kaufman) and TV series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. Other notable credits include work on Apple TV's See and Foundation, Netflix's The Witcher: Blood Origin, ABC's Agents of Shield, as well as AMC's Walking Dead.
Industry News
Industry Shifts in November 2025 that will Change Streaming Music
Spotify is launching a new audiovisual license, which could change how people listen to and find music, possibly shifting the majority of discovering music to Spotify. Read more…
BMI Announces 2025 HHMA Winners
Check out the winners here: Read more…AI-Powered Music Streaming Startup
Universal, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group have licensed their catalogs to Klay, an AI-powered music streaming startup… Read more…
Music Releases
Listen to the latest and greatest compositions that came out this month, including orchestral works, experimental music, film scores, and more.
Check out the custom playlist I created for you here:
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Upcoming Opportunities:
Berlin International Film Scoring Competition
Register by: December 15th
Deadline: January 15th, 2026
An international film scoring competition with prizes to be won.
Queens New Music Festival Composition Competition 2026
Deadline: January 15th, 2026
Seeking music for a trio: piano, cello, and clarinet, with the winner’s piece being performed at the festival in May of 2026.
Philharmonia Composer’s Academy
An opportunity for composers to attend master classes, receive 1:1 mentoring, and compose a 10 minute piece to be performed - keep an eye out for the application next year!
More Competitions
You can find more opportunities for composition competitions linked below.
This Month in History
November 1877 - Symphony No. 2
Brahms premiered his Symphony No. 2 in Vienna, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic on the 30th of November 1877.
Happy holidays! Make sure to share this newsletter with other composers who’d love to stay in the loop.
Until next time,
Nadia