looking to buy a laptop for $500-600

basic internet usage, documents, email, maybe streaming videos, audio editing (i don't know if this comes with it's own hardware requirements), not a gaming laptop,

what would you guys recommend?

Go to bestbuy and buy something on sale with an i5 and an sdd. When it comes to non-high performance, it's hard to compete with their in store $100 off deals. Dont get baited into an i7, they will just drain battery faster and put out more heat.

Side note, when I worked retail back in the day, your statement used to drive me absolutely nuts.

Hey I want to spend 500-600$, I'm only going to do the bare basics.

That's all well and good, and you may indeed be doing the basics you list. However, my experience says that no one ever only does what they intend with a computer. No one goes in thinking "Hey let me spend extra money on things I'm not going to use!" No we go in wanting to spend the least amount, while getting the most.

All that being said, 5-600 is not a bad amount to be spending so please don't be offended by my rant, and I agree with Zell1luk that going to Bestbuy and grabbing the best i5 sale machine would likely perform the actions you listed.