Spotify

Last December, in the thick of finals, I clicked on the BuzzFeed article "14 Films and Series You Should Add to Your List to Look Smarter."

Computer science and music may seem like unrelated disciplines, but at today's Music Education Hackathon, Spotify and iZone will give aspiring hackers -- including some Columbia students -- a chance to unite the two and win up to $10,000 in cash.

Everyone loves a good auction, especially when the items up for the bidding are donated by some of the best-known celebrities and fashion figures. The one item that seems to be on everyone's lips (pun intended) is Kate Moss's new retrospective photo book, signed and kissed, in the Re/Create New York auction benefitting Hurricane Sandy relief. While the bidding is still open for a few days on this particular item, it is already up to a few thousand dollars, the highest-priced item so far. The book retails for only $85, so it seems the highest bidder wants to feel closer to Kate Moss's lipsticked pout. more Accompanying almost every item is a playlist curated by the donator. Though Moss's includes her own playlist to accompany the book, it isn't quite as long as the others and includes some revealing choices. Every song is one that she either contributed to or starred in the music video. It seems this is self-preservation as well as a charitable cause for this heroin-chic model. But Kate Moss isn't the only one with something covetable. Anne Hathaway donated a bejeweled and autographed strapless dress, Kanye West a signed pair of Air Yeezy II sneakers, "superblogger" Leandra Medina a Marchesa clutch, and designer Alexander Wang a custom leather tote bag.  My personal favorite is a sixty-second grab-and-dash through Net-a-Porter's New Jersey headquarters. Who knows how much you can grab? There's also some artwork by big name artists, which, for anyone interested in art, is completely and utterly swoon-worthy. Unfortunately, none of these items are in the college-student budget, but luckily for those of us dedicated to higher learning, the playlists are free on Spotify. So we can listen to Kate Moss's dedication to herself, Burberry designer Christopher Bailey's favorite indie rock songs, and Alexander Wang's taste in electronica. These are only a fraction of the more than fifty items to dream about. Lucky for us, the auction's founder, digital agency Createthe Group, plans on making this a yearly event. So there just might be another chance to snag something once we're employed for real.

It's no secret that the music industry has been floundering for a long time. In nine of the past 10 years, the Recording Industry Association of America has reported declining revenue, with an average 8 percent fall in album sales each year. In 2013, the total revenue of global sales was $16.5 billion—a far cry from the $38 billion the industry boasted over a decade ago, according to the New York Times.