Bandsintown launches free Release pagesBandsintown, already the go-to platform for live show marketing, has added free Release pages to help artists announce new music, merch drops, contests. tours, presales, and more. Artists keep the. Continue reading
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From Universal’s $2.93bn in Q2 to Spotify’s price hikes in over 50 markets… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThis week's biggest stories...
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Belles Ondes EQ1979 EQ1979 is a stereo VST analog console strip emulation inspired by a famous British console module with red gain knob. It features: An input saturation stage, which emulates... Read More

Beatport.io launch digital collectable series about Berlin’s techno sceneBerlin is known for a lot of things, from the architecture to the food, but one thing stands out, and that is its bustling techno scene.
Beatport has launched a digital collectable series in collaboration on new NFT marketplace Beatport.io with Berghain bouncer and photographer Mischa Fanghaenel, portraying the city’s techno community.

READ MORE: Damon Albarn praises “super musical and smart” producer James Ford 

The leading online music store for DJs has launched into the NFT space to celebrate the music and art that comes from this scene, named NACHTS – which translates to “at night” in English.
According to Beatport, the collection was also developed in collaboration with some of the scene’s biggest artists, such as Ellen Allien, Âme, Ben Klock, Dixon, DVS1 and many more.
“The NACHTS project started during the first lockdown as an idea,” explains Fanghaenel who has been a bouncer at the infamous Berlin club for ten years. “If this is it, if no club in Berlin will ever open again, how are we going to preserve what we had? How are we going to memorialize this culture?
“In the event that everything was gone, how could I document the range of characters that came together in the scene? Looking at the different people that shape this culture, I understand why it’s so important to have places in which everyone can simply come together and be themselves. That’s why I want to share how beautiful life can be.”
In August the first limited drop of the NACHTS series will be released – a collaboration with DJ and producer, Len Faki, including a bonus track from his latest album ‘Fusion’ that was produced exclusively for the edition.
Mischa Fanghaenel’s accompanying portrait exhibition NACHTS will open as part of the upcoming Berlin Art Week on 14 September where collectors will be able to use the NFT as a ticket to access.
For more information, you can head to Beatport.io.
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Do you need a digital music royalty broker to get paid?Some companies unnecessarily charge artists for something that SoundExchange offers for free. Keep reading to learn more. from SoundExchange NO! You do not need digital royalty brokers to get paid. Beware of independent. Continue reading
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Why songs are getting shorterThis week’s Hypebot Flashback Friday post digs into a trend that is showing no signs of abating. Bobby Oswinki shares why. Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 Songs today are shorter. Continue reading
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SSL’s G-Series Bus Compressor gets a multiband upgrade, the G3 MultiBusCompSolid State Logic has launched a new plugin, the G3 MultiBusComp – a multiband extension to its popular G-Series Bus Compressor.

READ MORE: 10 of the best mastering compressor plugins and software processors

While the original compressor, a digital version of its renowned SSL G-Comp Stereo Bus Compressor 500 Series hardware module, offers just single-band compression, this new upgrade lets you be more detailed with your mix.

Thanks to its multiband nature, the G3 MultiBusComp offers enhanced flexibility compared to standard single-band compression, resulting in a more natural and transparent sound. It provides greater control over shaping and managing dynamics by independently processing different frequency bands – the lows, mids and highs.
With three independently configurable frequency bands, the G3 MultiBusComp delivers SSL’s distinctive glue compression. The 4K Drive control, inspired by SSL’s SL 4000 Series, supposedly adds warmth and character, while the powerful sidechain routing allows customising high pass and low pass filter cutoffs for each band.
Usability has been improved too, with a resizable GUI that lets you take the plugin from 50 per cent of its original size to 200 per cent. You can also now test changes to your sounds using a new audition feature.
SSL has spent the year expanding its coveted plugin collection. In March, it added to its SSL Complete subscription with the SubGen sub-bass plugin. In June, it continued its appreciated run of hardware released with the UF1 single-fader DAW controller.
Solid State Logic’s G3 MultiBusComp is available for purchase at $199.99 / £159.99 / €199.99 on the SSL eStore or through SSL’s Rent-to-Own plan. For more details and free trials head to solidstatelogic.com.
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Tupac’s custom-designed crown ring sells for over $1 million – and it looks like Drake was the buyerA custom-designed ring once owned and worn by rapper Tupac has fetched over $1 million at an auction, and it looks like Drake may be the one who purchased it.
The ring sold last Tuesday (25 July), and its huge sale made it the most valuable hip-hop artefact ever sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s.

READ MORE: RZA’s signed E-Mu SP-1200 sampler sells for $70,000 in auction

It was designed by the rapper himself, and worn during his last ever public appearance at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). It sold for more than three times the auction house’s estimate at a hip-hop-themed sale in New York, and now possibly belongs to Drake.
The ring is inscribed with “Pac & Dada 1996,” a reference to his engagement to actress and model Kidada Jones, the daughter of record producer Quincy Jones. It has a diamond-encrusted gold band topped with a gold circlet, and is studded with a cabochon ruby and two pavé-cut diamonds, as reported by CNN.
In an Instagram story posted by Drake where he shouts out the new release from Travis Scott, Utopia, he appears to be holding that very same crown-shaped ring. Take a look below:
Image: @champagnepapi on Instagram
Tupac’s ring was sold among a collection which comprised of 119 items, from art to letters to flyers to the hardware used to create some of the biggest hip-hop anthems, and more.
This included one of the first-ever KAWS figurines, a pair of rare Nike Dunks, the SP-1200 sampler RZA used on Enter The Wu-Tang, and RZA’S original three-page handwritten liner notes for the Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) album sleeve.
Drake is currently touring, and you can get tickets at his official website.
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Sound Dust PLANKTON SONAR PLANKTON SONAR for Kontakt. PLANKTON SONAR is a friendly Kontakt device for building beautiful, organic system music and deep undersea pinging ripples. Like a warm... Read More

Damon Albarn praises “super musical and smart” producer James Ford Blur’s Damon Albarn has praised producer James Ford who worked on the band’s latest and ninth studio album, The Ballad Of Darren.
The producer also worked on The Car, the latest record from Arctic Monkeys, and Albarn believes his vocal register sounds pretty similar to their frontman Alex Turner on the new album.

READ MORE: Producer James Ford on working with Depeche Mode for Spirit: “A lot of it felt like marriage guidance counselling”

“I think he’s great, I sing a lot like him on the new album,” says Albarn in an interview with German publication Musikexpress (via NME).
“You know our producer James Ford?” he adds. “He also worked with the Arctic Monkeys, I mentioned that to him. But what could I have against that? I love Alex’s voice. I just prefer to sing in a lower register now.”

I had an incredible, surreal time making “Ballad of Darren” with some absolute heroes. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/LPP6uo7UOs
— James Ellis Ford (@jamesellisford) July 21, 2023

Albarn also went on to discuss Ford’s impact on The Ballad Of Darren, and praised his work ethic: “James is just super musical and smart, he works very intuitively, he also likes a drink. We have the same sense of humour,” he says.
Earlier this year when speaking of working on The Car, Ford explained why he resist the urge to over tweak: “I try not to do that with other people’s records, not putting things in time and in tune too much because I think that human-ness and that wonkiness is what I love to hear in other people’s records and often gets ironed out in a modern production process,” he said.
“To not do that to yourself is harder – it’s easy to hear someone else’s mistakes and see the value in it, but it’s hard to see the value in your own mistakes a lot of the time.”
Check out The Ballad Of Darren below:

To view all of Blur’s upcoming live dates, check out their official website.
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Microphones stolen from KMR Audio London-based pro audio retailer KMR Audio are urging manufacturers and the pro audio community to be on the lookout after a large number of microphones were stolen from their store.

“I know neither of us wanted this”: Off The Grid Campout organiser accepts John Summit apologyDJ, producer and label owner John Summit has publicly apologised to organisers of Off The Grid Campout festival following a dispute over its name, and the name of his record label. He has now vowed to rebrand to resolve the issue.

READ MORE: “Most of the music released nowadays is empty of any soul and emotions”: Folamour on modern dance music

Summit, who founded Off The Grid Records, took to Twitter last week to write that the owners of Las Vegas-based dance music festival Off The Grid Campout had sent a cease and desist letter to Summit demanding what he called a “seven +” figure sum if he didn’t change the name of his label.
The festival’s founder, Mikey Cromie, later responded via a Facebook post, saying that there was never any lawsuit or demand for seven figures in the dispute over the name. Cromie also said that attempts had been made to contact Summit’s team for over a year with no response, leading to the cease and desist letter. Summit’s management contacted Cromie, suggesting coexistence, but this was declined.
Worryingly, according to Cromie, he also received “hateful” messages from John Summit’s community of fans.
In a new development, John Summit has apologised to the festival organiser, vowing to change the name of his record label. John Summit’s record label, Off The Grid Records, will now rebrand, which will surely resolve the issue.
The tweet by Summit, posted on Tuesday, reads: “about the label name, i acted out of emotion and truly apologise for all the drama i stirred up in taking it to social media… to all my fans, please stop sending negative messages to OTG campout. i was wrong in condoning that behaviour in any way.”

about the label name, i acted out of emotion and truly apologize for all the drama i stirred up in taking it to social media. i’ve been talking w the OTG campout team and apologized to them directly but i also wanted to do so publicly. they’ve agreed to stop pursuing legal action…
— John Summit (@johnsummit) July 25, 2023

not gonna lie this past weekend really put everything into perspective, spending time to realize what really matters in life and taking my ego out of things and looking at the bigger picture. i’m not a perfect person whatsoever but i’m trying to be a better person everyday
— John Summit (@johnsummit) July 25, 2023

Summit later posted a screenshot of a thankful message from Off The Grid Campout’s Instagram account, highlighting that the public apology had put a stop to the hateful messages, with some fans even making their own apologies. “I know neither of us wanted this”, the message reads.

so fkn happy to hear this from OTG campout and proud of u all for listening and treating them w the respect they deserve now we on to bigger & better things! pic.twitter.com/KaWeiejyFK
— John Summit (@johnsummit) July 26, 2023

Find out more about Off The Grid Campout.
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PSP audioware introduce BinAmp plug-in BinAmp aims to capture the sound of the Class-A triode preamp used in Binson's iconic Echorec 2 magnetic drum delay machine.

Georgia on feeling “liberated” working with Rostam and Dave Fridmann on new album Euphoric: “I was very open-minded; I wanted to learn everything”As Georgia leads us down the garden path to her home studio in north London, she explains the history behind the room. Though originally built by her dad Neil Barnes at the turn of the millennium to write and record with his band Leftfield, the UK electronic legends split up before they had the chance to work in the space.

READ MORE: Lindstrøm’s space disco modular cave once belonged to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club

Instead, it became the room where Georgia – who started out as a drummer for the likes of Kae Tempest and Kwes before launching a solo career in 2015 – made the entirety of her first two studio albums and where the genesis of what would become her third LP Euphoric also began.
Georgia in her home studio. Image: Domino Records
Inside, we’re told that things are a little less cluttered with gear than normal – Georgia is currently in rehearsals for a summer of festivals – but multi-coloured tube lights sit behind the mixing desk and parts of her signature red Simmons electronic drum kit are strewn around the room in between stacks of keyboards and synths.
“I’m a studio girl really,” she smiles, delighting in showing off the mix of vintage gear and plugins at her disposal as she explains how opening herself up to collaborators and searching for a more rustic, earthy sound led her to Euphoric.
After releasing her self-titled debut album in 2015 and emerging as a producer and singer with an ear for melody and echoes of the club-ready beats of her father’s band, it was in 2019 that Georgia truly arrived as a pop star. That summer, her gigantic, euphoric singles Started Out and About Work The Dancefloor barely left the Radio 1 playlist for months and positioned her as a new alt-pop icon.
Georgia. Image: Domino Records
Live, she performed solo and managed to balance thrashing away on the Simmons kit with dancing and riling up the crowd, closing her sets with exuberant covers of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (prior to the Stranger Things wave taking hold). That summer, she brought the house down at Glastonbury and beyond, and solidified the hype with more dance bangers on 2020 LP Seeking Thrills.
It was during that summer of 2019, though, that a new path began to emerge for Georgia. Around this time, Rostam Batmanglij – former member of Vampire Weekend, current mononymous solo artist and producer for Haim, Clairo and more – heard a demo of Live Like We’re Dancing, which Georgia sang on for London-based producer Mura Masa.
“[Rostam] sent me a DM and said he really loved my voice,” she smiles, particularly encouraged because she already knew she wanted her third album to prioritise vocals over club production. “He didn’t really mention much about the production,” Georgia remembers. “I really wanted to think about what I was singing, the rhythm of the melodies, but that’s not my natural thing.”
Georgia and Rostam in Georgia’s home studio. Image: Domino Records
The pair then met for a session when Georgia was in Los Angeles later in 2019, and they wrote the entirety of the new album’s pseudo-title track, It’s Euphoric, in a single day. More of a slow burner than the turbo-charged club bangers of Seeking Thrills, the album’s first single uses acoustic drums – a fixture of the record at large – and a more grounded perspective, shifting from the pure escapism of her second album.
“I wanted to work with someone where I was being challenged in a good way and learning new skills in the studio.”
“It was pretty obvious that we got on musically; personally, we’re on the same level as well,” Georgia says of her collaborator. This is the first time she’s worked with an outside producer on her solo work. “I was really yearning to work with somebody else for this next record. I had collaborated with a few people beforehand, and suddenly started to see the merits of collaboration.
“I wanted to work with someone where I was being challenged in a good way and learning new skills in the studio.”
Georgia and Rostam in Georgia’s home studio. Image: Domino Records
Speaking to NME in 2020, Rostam said of the first collaboration: “I feel like, in the span of four minutes, we were able to create something that starts in the disco era, then migrates to the house era, and then finally lands in the EDM era. Maybe in the most tasteful sense of EDM… It’s cool, because it just keeps getting bigger.”
After she spent the 2020 lockdowns fleshing out ideas for the record at her London home studio, Georgia returned to Los Angeles to work with Rostam at the end of 2021. “It didn’t matter where Rostam was, I think I would have just travelled there to work with him,” she smiles, though admitting that “there was no guarantee that what made that first day wasn’t just a fluke.”
“It didn’t matter where Rostam was, I would have travelled there to work with him.”
Euphoric features more live instruments than Georgia’s previous work – a decision she made before the first song was written with Rostam. It was the producer’s meshing of live and electronic sounds that impressed Georgia about his production before they’d met, and a big part of why Euphoric feels like a significant breakthrough for her.
“I was listening to a lot of early Gary Numan and how he added live drums over synth bass,” she says, with large chunks of the new album also embracing this dual approach.
Georgia. Image: Domino Records
Her background in dance music is still honoured, with the Daft Punk-tinged hit Some Things You’ll Never Know being a prime example. But any reach for clubland euphoria is mixed with live instruments and a connection to the album’s core sound. On All Night, Georgia sings with Auto-Tune for the first time – an effect that suits her well – but is backed by acoustic drums. It’s a track full of unusual but stirring juxtapositions.
“Dave Fridman gave the album a little extra sprinkle of something – it doesn’t sound like anything else.”
After recording was complete in Los Angeles, Georgia and Rostam headed up to snowy Buffalo, New York to throw another curveball into the Euphoria universe by recruiting Dave Fridmann to mix the record. Across work with The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, MGMT and more, the 77-year-old has become the go-to producer for psych rock bands across the globe, adding kaleidoscopic waves of noise to records and bringing them into his hazy world.
For Georgia, Fridmann’s involvement in the album took the album further away from straight-up radio pop and into a deeper, more textured space that she was looking for.
“Other names were being tossed around, and Rostam and I knew that we’d get a really good mix from them, but in going to Dave we got a little extra sprinkle of something – it doesn’t sound like anything else.
“We really got him to go back to Fridmann zone!” Georgia laughs. “‘Dave, this needs to be more distorted!’” she and Rostam would tell him. “‘Do your thing!’ I think he really loved that.”
Georgia and Rostam in Georgia’s home studio. Image: Domino Records
During the process of creating the album, Georgia says she relished learning new ways of creating music and the differences between Rostam’s musical background and her own.
“I’m from the dance world, and my vinyl deck is hooked up to my interface in this studio, so I can play something and record it straight into Logic Pro, and then fuck around with it and add beats on top of it. I’m quite experimental when it comes to beatmaking, but I also wanted his take.
“Straight from the first day I spent with him, I knew he was going to be very open with me,” Georgia says. “I would ask him, ‘Oh, why have you added that EQ?’ and he’d say, ‘Well, that’s this frequency here’ or whatever. He’s very technically gifted so I was constantly learning. I didn’t really get in on myself and think, ‘Oh no, I don’t know any of this’. I was very open-minded and I wanted to learn everything.”
“I loved writing all the lyrics in LA, because it’s so visceral there.”
In line with her initial ambitions for the foregrounding of her vocals on Euphoric, it was using the mythical Sony C-800G microphone that allowed this new approach to flourish. “I’m actually in the process of buying the microphone because I fell in love with it on my voice,” she laughs, saying that the piece of kit will likely become integral to all future Georgia recordings. “It’s a very expensive microphone [around $10,000], but it’s got this clarity. Some people find it quite off-putting because it’s so clear.
Georgia with a Sony C-800G microphone. Image: Domino Records
“I’ve never really experimented with different vocal mics on my vocal before because I’ve never been able to afford it,” she adds. “I’ve always just gone with whatever is there and I’ll make it work.
“Here, I felt really liberated that I could have a mic set up in the corner and be able to just go over, record it, and know that it’s gonna sound good.” Elsewhere on the album, she shouts out an old Hohner organ, a bounty of guitars and mandolins, Rostam’s piano and beyond, giving Euphoric an earthy and varied sound palette.
This new clarity in her vocals naturally spilled over into Euphoric’s lyrics, which counter the giddy escapism of Seeking Thrills with a more real sense of peace and satisfaction. “I really wanted the adventure of going to Los Angeles and experiencing living somewhere new to affect my lyric writing,” she says. “I loved writing all the lyrics in LA, because it’s so visceral there. I found it very freeing, because it’s so expansive. I had ideas before I got out there, but it really took form when I was there.”
The new lyrical perspective is perhaps best shown on album standout Friends Will Never Let You Go, a hammerblow of crashing drums, thunderous synths and Georgia’s crystal clear, brilliant vocals.
“I finally let go / Now it’s coming home / Finally I’ve accepted what I can be / The only thing is I can’t do it on my own” – Georgia on Friends Will Never Let You Go
“That song came from the liberation of me not feeling like I’m a producer and a singer. I just felt like I was a singer, and Rostam made me feel like that. He just really freed me. That song came out of me, and I remember thinking that this performance was a culmination of everything I had been trying to change. I’m a singer!”

For her new live show, trialled at an intimate London gig at Omeara in the spring, Georgia now also has a live band, freeing her up to take this newfound vocal confidence into a live setting.
At shows on the Seeking Thrills tour, one could sense that being behind the drum kit was holding her back; in almost every song, any drum-less section saw her sprint from behind the kit towards the front of the stage and dance and sing in front of her fans before running back just in time to drum the next section. With a new drummer now playing with her, the transformation is closer to being complete.
“I had been really looking forward to handing the reins over a bit, just because this record is so vocal-lead,” she says. “I wanted to really make sure I translate my vocals well to the audience, and we’ve choreographed bits in this new set where I’m still on the drums and we have like this drum conversation on the stage.
“It’s about representing the new music as closely as I can, and because live drums are such a feature on this record, playing acoustic drums standing up is quite challenging. It’s been really liberating to have another drummer on stage.”
Georgia and a drum kit. Image: Domino Records
Closing the circle that brought them together, Euphoric also features a sequel version of the song that brought Georgia and Rostam together, Live Like We’re Dancing Part II. While the version from Mura Masa’s 2020 album R.Y.C. (Raw Youth Collage) is a tropical pop hit, the new version brings it into the Euphoric universe, adding more acoustic instruments, a percussion-heavy sound and some bright sprinklings of piano. It stands as a representation of Georgia’s journey through this album, and a shining example of her and Rostam’s unique chemistry.
“It’s a nod to how we met, and it’s also a great song that never got its time because [Mura Masa’s] album came out at the start of COVID,” Georgia says. “I called Alex [Crossan, aka Mura Masa] and asked to play him the song,” she adds. “He said he loved it, and said that if his was the midnight version, this is the 4 am version.”
If Georgia’s previous work placed us in the middle of the rave – a room full of escapism – Euphoric is the walk home, a place that’s a little stranger, full of surprises, and a lot more real.
Check out Georgia’s music and upcoming shows at georgiauk.com.
The post Georgia on feeling “liberated” working with Rostam and Dave Fridmann on new album Euphoric: “I was very open-minded; I wanted to learn everything” appeared first on MusicTech.