Need to escape the news (or your job, or your life) for a few minutes? Then put on a pair of headphones and Listen to the World, courtesy of NYT Magazine. “The sound of the earth cracking in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The deafening roar of Iceland’s Dettifoss waterfall. The relaxing quake of wind through aspens in Utah. What if we chose where to travel based on sound?” (I did that recently when I went to NYC to see Springsteen on Broadway!)

+ Speaking of sounds, SiriusXM is acquiring Pandora (which is still around and still quite popular) for $3.5 billion.

+ Pitchfork: How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music.