3AC co-founder avoids contempt charges following evidence of Singaporean citizenshipLawyers for Kyle Davies filed evidence that his U.S. citizenship had been renounced in 2021, which, according to a bankruptcy judge, left him outside the court's jurisdiction.

It’s official: Better.com is going publicWe didn’t think we’d see the day.
Digital mortgage lender Better.com’s proposal to combine with Aurora Acquisition Corp. via a SPAC (special purpose acquisition) has been approved by shareholders, the company confirmed today.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Better.com will combine with Aurora, or go public, “on or about August 22, 2023.”  
“At least 65% of the outstanding ordinary shares of the company entitled to vote at this meeting have voted in favor of (the) proposal,” Arnaud Massenet, CEO of Aurora Acquisition Corp, said in a shareholder’s meeting on Friday, as reported by HousingWire.
Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined entity will see an infusion of $750 million in new capital, according to Aurora’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in July and as reported by HousingWire. 
Better.com had originally began making plans to go public via a $6 billion SPAC in May 2021. Things took a dramatic turn for the worse later that year, and the SPAC was delayed.
With so many challenges facing Better.com over the past two years – including layoffs, high-profile executive resignations, a housing market slowdown and negative publicity – industry observers were skeptical that the company’s going-public plans would actually materialize.
TechCrunch reported last week that the long-awaited vote for Better.com to go public was scheduled for today ahead of the extended deadline to complete the merger deal on September 30.
In late July, Aurora had said in an SEC filing that shareholders would be asked to vote on a proposal that if the SPAC merger did take place, with Aurora surviving the merger, Aurora would change its name to “Better Home & Finance Holding Company.”
Last year, Better.com declared that it intended to move forward with its planned public debut, despite the lackluster performance of blank-check combinations in previous quarters. Better.com itself had seen its fair share of turbulence since it announced its plans to merge with a SPAC, including multiple botched layoffs (more on those here and here) and changing market conditions that impacted parts of its business, including a surge in mortgage interest rates. In one layoffs meeting, CEO Vishal Garg famously was recorded saying the company had “probably pissed away $200 million.“

‘We probably pissed away $200 million,’ Better.com CEO told employees in layoffs meeting

Last week, TechCrunch reported that the SEC had said it did not intend to recommend an enforcement action against Better.com. The pronouncement came after an investigation on the part of the SEC to determine if violations of federal securities laws had occurred. Last July, the SEC began looking into whether Better.com had violated federal securities laws, requesting documents from both the company and SPAC partner Aurora Acquisition Corp. about their business activities. 
The embattled fintech startup laid off its real estate team on June 7, shifting from an in-house agent model to a partnership agent model. It also continues to bleed cash.
According to HousingWire, other Aurora filings from July show that Better.com had posted a net loss of $89.9 million in Q1 2023 and had slashed about 91% of its workforce over an approximately 18-month period. While Better.com seems to have narrowed its loss compared to a net loss of $327.7 million in the first quarter of 2022, it’s clearly still struggling.
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2B Played Music PrimeVerb Introducing PrimeVerb: Elevate Your Sound with Unparalleled Reverb Mastery! Unleash the potential of your music with PrimeVerb, the ultimate VST plugin that redefines the way... Read More

Warner Records Sets Joint Venture with Steve "Steve-O" Carless' Defiant RecordsWarner Records has announced Defiant Records, a joint venture led by Steve “Steve-O” Carless, President of A&R, Warner Records. To help mark the occasion, the influential record executive and 2023 Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Power Player is proud to announce the release of Defiant Presents: Jiggy In Jersey (ft. MCVERTT), which pairs emerging producer and artist MCVERTT with rappers Bandmanrill and Sha EK, making for a project on the cutting edge of Jersey Club music, New York Drill—and Hip-Hop dance. The news also arrives with a scorching new video for MCVERTT's "Face Down" ft. A$AP Ferg and Sexyy Red.

Listen HERE via Defiant Records/Warner Records.

Carless

Steven “Steve-O” Carless has held senior leadership roles and delivered commercial A&R success across the Major Label business - including Atlantic Records, Def Jam Recordings, Republic Records, and Uptown Records - before accepting the President of A&R role at Warner Records in September 2021. Across his career, he has guided the careers of culturally significant and iconic artists including Pusha-T, Big Sean, YG, 2 Chainz Nipsey Hussle and Polo G. Steven and Nipsey Hussle co-founded The Marathon Agency together and he continues to play a role in safeguarding the legacy and estate of Nipsey Hussle.

“Defiant will be filled with individuals who are always challenging the status quo, always going to be in an innovation phase of their career,” says Carless.  

From the 3 majors’ joint $12.99bn in H1 to HYBE’s $100m+ deal… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-upFive of the biggest headlines on MBW this week...
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Ohm Force Ohmygod Ohmygod is both an FX and an Instrument. Play that combfilter with a MIDI keyboard. Adding a delayed version of the signal to the original to create constructive and destructive... Read More

AVID acquired by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $1.4 billionAVID Technology Inc – the company behind Pro Tools and Sibelius – will be bought by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $1.4 billion, in a deal reported by Reuters.
The news comes after it was revealed that US firm Francisco Partners – a major investor in Native Instruments and iZotope – made a bid to acquire AVID just earlier this week.

READ MORE: Four Tet played at his daughter’s birthday to “deeply unimpressed” teenage girls following Coachella set

As reported, the all-cash deal means that AVID shareholders will receive $27.05 per share in cash.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023, and AVID says Sixth Street Partners and Silver Point provided debt financing for the deal.
“Since our founding over 30 years ago, AVID has delivered technology that enables individuals and enterprises who create media for a living to make, manage and monetise today’s most celebrated video and audio content across the globe. We are pleased to announce this transaction with STG, who share our conviction and excitement in delivering innovative technology solutions to address our customers’ creative and business needs,” says Jeff Rosica, AVID’s Chief Executive Officer and President.
“STG’s expertise in the technology sector and significant financial and strategic resources will help accelerate the achievement of our strategic vision, building on the momentum of our successful transformation achieved over the past several years. This transaction represents the start of an exciting new chapter for AVID, our customers, our partners and our team members and is a testament to the importance of AVID and our solutions in powering the media and entertainment industry.”
“After carefully evaluating a variety of options, the Board determined that this transaction is in the best interests of AVID and its stockholders,” adds AVID Chairman John Wallace.
AVID is an industry-leading provider of music software, owning both digital audio workstation Pro Tools and music notation software Sibelius. Its products are among the most popular in the music world, with Pro Tools likely the most used digital audio workstation.
Sibelius is also one of the most commonly used scoring softwares in the composition world, and counts the likes of Hans Zimmer among its users.
The post AVID acquired by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $1.4 billion appeared first on MusicTech.

Kits.AI voice generation technology Kits.AI are a new AI-generated voice platform who are working directly with artists in order to licence and release their voice models. 

Warner Records launches Defiant Records joint venture with Steve ‘Steve-O’ CarlessCarless was named President of A&R at Warner Records in September 2021
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99Sounds Releases FREE City Sounds Library (WAV)
99Sounds released City Sounds, a free collection of city audio recordings created by Marcel of Free To Use Sounds. City Sounds contains 42 city sound recordings. Inside the collection, you’ll find city ambiance, street noises, cars, busses, trains, sirens, horns, crowds, church bells, rain, and many other city sound effects. These are perfect for movies [...]
View post: 99Sounds Releases FREE City Sounds Library (WAV)

Four Tet played at his daughter’s birthday to “deeply unimpressed” teenage girls following Coachella setFour Tet’s last-minute set with pals Skrillex and Fred again.. at this year’s Coachella festival was one of the most talked about shows in the electronic music community, but it seems the musician wasn’t feeling the same hype as everybody else afterwards.
The festival ran back in April, and the trio took the Sunday evening headline slot after Frank Ocean withdrew from the line up citing medical issues as his reason.

READ MORE: Skrillex reunites with speed stacker Rachael Nedrow, whom he sampled on Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites

The set went down a treat, with footage also going viral online, and in a new interview with The Guardian, the musician – whose real name is Kieran Hebden – reflected on the madness of his time at the festival, and how things afterwards felt pretty underwhelming despite the positive responses online.
“That concept was coming at me after Coachella – ‘He’s finally getting the success he deserves’ – but it didn’t really feel like that,” he explains. “I did Coachella and the next gig was a three-and-a-half-hour set at my daughter’s 13th birthday party to 20 teenage girls, who I felt looked at me deeply unimpressed the whole time.”
One clip in particular of the trio’s set has been shared countless times on social media – this being Four Tet’s mix of the looping riff of the Smells Like Teen Spirit intro from Nirvana, before he smashed right into Country Riddim from HOL!
“I actually had an out-of-body experience,” he says of the experience. “Absolutely lost my marbles. It was like knowing I’ve got the funniest joke in the world and 100,000 people are about to lose their minds. It’s one of the most powerful feelings I’ve experienced in my whole life.”
Watch the moment below, where the response is summed up by the look Fred Again…’s face:

@hol.mp3
@fredagainagain + @skrillex + Four Tet playing Country Riddim at @coachella #fredagain #skrillex #fourtet #countryriddim #coachella #hol #riddim #dubstep
♬ original sound – HOL!

Check out Four Tet’s list of upcoming live dates on his website.
The post Four Tet played at his daughter’s birthday to “deeply unimpressed” teenage girls following Coachella set appeared first on MusicTech.

Salisbury Plugins Offer FREE Tonebox Saturation Plugin
Salisbury Plugins offer Tonebox, a freeware saturation plugin with tilt EQ functionality in VST3 and AU plugin formats for DAWs on Windows and macOS. Tonebox takes all the non-linearities and harmonic goodness you’d expect from a typical saturation effect and pairs them with a 3-band equalizer. The result is a powerful tone-shaping toolbox for adding [...]
View post: Salisbury Plugins Offer FREE Tonebox Saturation Plugin

To ‘Make Fans Super Again’ nurture Fandom, don’t harvest it [MIDiA’s Mark Mulligan]The music industry mantra is that superfans are the key to success, and while there’s still truth in that statement, the value of a superfan is not what it used. Continue reading
The post To ‘Make Fans Super Again’ nurture Fandom, don’t harvest it [MIDiA’s Mark Mulligan] appeared first on Hypebot.

KISS held the first paid VIP 20 years ago. What have we learned since?Twenty years ago, KISS launched the first paid meet and greet. These VIP programs are now common, and this episode of the Music Biz Weekly Podcast looks at what’s been. Continue reading
The post KISS held the first paid VIP 20 years ago. What have we learned since? appeared first on Hypebot.