Elon Musk and Mark Cuban hate Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s ‘guiding motto’Spotify CEO Daniel Ek shared his “guiding motto” on X (formerly Twitter) this week, and the reaction to it from other business leaders was swift and not particularly positive. Ek’s. Continue reading
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How AI is Affecting the Artist / Listener RelationshipWith the explosion in AI-generated music, it’s important to reassess the importance of human contribution to music and the music industry as well as where it’s needed and where it’s. Continue reading
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Get Audio Assault’s Prestige Amp Locker FREE For A Limited Time
Audio Assault offers the Prestige guitar amp suite as a free download for a limited time. I have a particular fondness for guitar software, so I always relish these announcements for amp sims. Audio Assault has introduced a new guitar processing ecosystem, Amp Locker. To help new users test the software, they are also offering [...]
View post: Get Audio Assault’s Prestige Amp Locker FREE For A Limited Time

99Sounds Releases FREE Drumplayer Drum VST Plugin
99Sounds released Drumplayer, a free drum VST plugin in VST, VST3, and AU plugin formats for Windows and macOS. Drumplayer is a free drum rompler developed by SampleScience and released by 99Sounds. It uses the drum hits from a free 99Sounds sound library called 99 Drum Samples and additional sounds from BPB Cassette Drums and [...]
View post: 99Sounds Releases FREE Drumplayer Drum VST Plugin

Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist release collab album, Voir DireThe Alchemist, arguably one of the hottest producers in hip-hop right now, has released an anticipated collaborative album with his rapper equivalent, Earl Sweatshirt.

READ MORE: New documentary MIXTAPE explores impact of mixtapes on hip-hop culture

The 11-track album, entitled Voir Dire, also features a track made with rapper MIKE, called Sentry, accompanied by a Ryosuke Tanzawa-directed music video. Watch it below:

The rest of the album is only available to stream via Gala Music, a music streaming service backed by Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records that lets listeners download music as a ‘digital collectible’.
This is not the first we’ve heard of a joint album by the pair. In 2017, The Alchemist told fans that they’d already put the album out on YouTube under a fake name. In a tweet two years later, he addressed the album again, writing: “We hid a whole album on YouTube under a fake name and YouTube page. Fake album cover, song titles, the whole 9. Nobody found it yet.”
Voir Dire comes ten years after Earl Sweatshirt’s Doris. The rapper has been running a ten-year anniversary tour celebrating the album and, at the LA show, was joined on stage by fellow OFWGKTA member and double Grammy-winner, Tyler, The Creator.
The full tracklist for the album is as follows:

100 High Street
Vin Skully
Sentry [ft. MIKE]
All The Small Things
My Brother, The Wind
27 Braids
Mac Deuce
Sirius Blac
Geb
Deadzone
Free the Ruler

Earl Sweatshirt isn’t the only in-demand rapper to have worked with The Alchemist recently. Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning Mr Morale And The Big Steppers also featured the production wizardry of the LA-based producer.
In October of 2022, The Alchemist launched a production masterclass on the educational platform Aulert called Beatmaking & Sampling for Hip-Hop.
See when Earl Sweatshirt is playing in a city near you by heading to earlsweatshirt.com.
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99Sounds Drumplayer Drumplayer is a free drum VST plugin that integrates drum sounds from the 99 Drum Samples library. The plugin aims to provide a straightforward interface to craft drum loops. ... Read More

Broadcast Music Inc sale raises songwriter royalty concernsBroadcast Music, Inc. – AKA BMI, a prominent US-based performing rights organisation – has announced its second attempt to sell the company within a year, prompting concerns from songwriters about the impact on their royalties.

READ MORE: Talks from Spotify, TikTok and YouTube will feature in ADE’s Essential Insider Knowledge Series

The organisation, one of the primary music rights collection entities in the US, is known for representing songwriters and collecting royalties on their behalf. The latest potential buyer being considered is New Mountain Capital, according to Music Business Worldwide, a private equity firm. Although MBW reports that sources have indicated that an agreement in principle for the sale has been reached, there are still uncertainties about the deal’s finalisation.
BMI’s move to a for-profit model last year marked a significant shift in its 84-year history and stirred concerns about how it will operate in the future. Songwriters’ groups are particularly concerned about the possible repercussions of a sale to a private equity firm, as such firms are known for their aggressive return-on-investment goals and potential restructuring measures that could impact payouts to songwriters.
In a recent letter to BMI’s CEO, Mike O’Neill, the Artist Rights Alliance, the Black Music Action Coalition, the Music Artists Coalition, Songwriters of North America and SAG-AFTRA wrote:
“Songwriters have a vested interest in changes at BMI and in any proposed transaction which is wholly dependent on songs they have written… BMI does not own copyrights or other assets; it is a licensing entity for copyrights owned by songwriters and, by extension, publishers.
“Songwriters have a right to understand these decisions and how it impacts us.”
Right now, artist royalties are a hot topic in the music industry. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Google and UMG were in talks to agree on how royalties worked in relation to AI-made deepfake music.
In July, a website called the Get Paid Guide was set up to help independent artists have a stronger understanding of metadata and royalties.
Find out more about the Artists Rights Alliance via artistrightsalliance.org.
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#MadeWithComposerCloud - EastWest giveaway Creators are being invited to submit musical pieces that have been made using EastWest instruments to be in with a chance of winning one of 50 one-year ComposerCloud+ subscriptions.

Talks from Spotify, TikTok and YouTube will feature in ADE’s Essential Insider Knowledge SeriesAmsterdam Dance Event has announced a new series of keynotes and talks, the Essential Insider Knowledge Series, which is set to feature industry insights from leaders at TikTok, Spotify, YouTube, Beatport, and TuneCore.

READ MORE: Avicii’s Wake Me Up hits two billion Spotify streams

This new series, which will be part of ADE’s new strictly industry-focused programme ADE Pro, will feature TikTok’s Global Head of Music, Ole Obermann. Obermann will share useful insights and strategies adopted by the global platform.
ADE-goers will also be able to discover how music communities are forming on YouTube via YouTube’s Mathieu Rousselot and the head of STMPD RCRDS, Coen Calkhoven.
Top-level names from major streaming platform Spotify are also set to “demystify the platform’s vast opportunities and provide hands-on tools to empower artists and music professionals alike”.
Electronic music distribution and production will be discussed by Beatport’s SVP of Creator Services, Helen Sartory. And, rather excitingly, TuneCore’s CEO, Andreea Gleeson, will explore the link between music creation and AI.
ADE Pro 2022 / Credit: James Ryan
In July, ADE revealed a string of immersive experiences and exclusive performances for the 2023 edition, including a deep immersion masterclass and audiovisual performance by Max Cooper.
Amsterdam really does care about dance music, with the city’s mayor recently saying that nightlife plays a “significant role in the renewal of Amsterdam’s culture”. Earlier this month, Dutch officials pledged to give €2.2 million to nightlife institutions over the next four years in a bid to boost the city’s nightlife scene.
Don’t know about ADE? Taking place from 18 – 22 October 2023, ADE is an annual city-wide event taking place in multiple venues throughout the Dutch capital. Regarded as probably the biggest date in the calendar for the global electronic music industry, each year the city is dominated by music tech brands, record labels, events brands and artists who deliver panel talks, workshops, exhibitions and gigs.
Find out more information and buy tickets to ADE at amsterdam-dance-event.nl.
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InMusic seeks to block AlphaTheta Corporation’s $100m Serato acquisitionUS audio equipment manufacturer InMusic has threatened legal action in several countries in an attempt to block the acquisition of Serato by AlphaTheta, Pioneer DJ’s parent company.

READ MORE: “Now you can do an orchestral piece on a computer with 200 tracks – but it’s good to impose your own restrictions”: Calvin Harris on the benefits of limitation in music production

AlphaTheta announced the $100-plus million buyout last month and said in a statement that both AlphaTheta and Serato will continue to operate as standalone companies after the deal.
Significantly, the move brings under the same umbrella Serato and Rekordbox DJ, which together account for a massive 90% of market share in the DJ software business.
Concerned that the buyout will “eliminate competition”, InMusic has taken out full-page advertorials in New Zealand media to publicise its position. The company says that it will be forced to discontinue a 20-year partnership with Serato (InMusic uses Sertao software in its DJ controllers) should the deal go through, given that Pioneer DJ is a direct manufacturing rival.
“When we work with Serato, we give them our product up to a year ahead of time so they can analyse it and put the software in. If I was handing it to the new dominant player, I’m essentially handing it to my competitor,” InMusic CEO Jack O’Donnell told The Auckland Post.
“I am quite confident what’s happening here and it’s an outrage as far as I’m concerned,” he continued. “In any market when you eliminate competition, it has an effect on consumers. It’s going to raise prices, eliminate innovation and limit choice. So it’s a big thing for a small industry.”
Speaking to the press, O’Donnell said that InMusic had “engaged legal representation in the US, UK, and Japan”.
“While New Zealand is the battleground, this is a global fight, as this is a global issue,” he said. “We’re in early discussions with them, but we think we have legal grounds to fight in multiple jurisdictions.”
As of now, the buyout is still subject to approval by the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office.
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YouTube is testing a search by hum feature on Android devicesYouTube is currently testing a new search tool which allows users to track down music by humming or recording a song that is currently being played.
The search tool rivals Apple-owned music search tool Shazam, which the tech giant acquired in 2018. Shazam, however, can’t recognise a song you hum yourself, but only a song being played.

READ MORE: YouTube partners with Universal Music Group to develop AI tools that offer “safe, responsible and profitable” opportunities to music rights holders

YouTube’s search by hum tool is currently available to Android users only, and is confirmed by the video sharing and music app on its official help page, as of 22 August.
YouTube says that those in the experiment can toggle from the voice search feature to the new song search feature, where here you can record a playing track or hum a song. You’ll need to do this for at least three seconds, from which it will then suggest relevant music content, user-generated videos and possibly even YouTube Shorts (its rival to TikTok).
The company says it is rolling out this feature to a “small percentage” of users across the globe who use Android devices.
Google, the parent company of YouTube, launched the hum-to-search capability across the Google app, Google Search widget and Google Assistant back in 2020. YouTube’s offering appears to be slightly more advanced though, as Google’s version required a much longer 10-15 seconds of humming to identify a song.
It has not been specified exactly how the new YouTube search tool works, but Google rolled out its own AI tool, Music LM, back in May this year. Users can feed Music LM text prompts such as “soulful jazz” or “a calming violin melody backed by a distorted guitar riff” for it to create two versions of a song for you. Users can then vote on which one of the tracks they like better, which serves to “help improve the model”.
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Andrew Huang teams up with Baby Audio on new FX plugin, TransitProducer extraordinaire Andrew Huang has teamed up with Baby Audio to create Transit, a multi-effects plugin that will give your mix “transitions super powers”.

READ MORE: AI-powered music creation app Moises launches new tools for easier production

Transit hosts 18 powerful effect-modules, freely loadable across 7 slots. You get classic modulation effects, distortion and degradation options, motion FX, reverb, delay, two filter types – and even a synth oscillator and noise generator for adding risers and sweeps to your transitions. All effect parameters can be linked to a global Macro Control, which you automate to create complex FX transitions with one knob movement.
There’s also a Sequencer Mode allowing users to program and trigger DAW-synced automations at the click of a button. Perfect for live use or for writing perfectly timed automations into your mix session without entering the automation lanes.
In addition, Transit comes preloaded with more than 300 presets created by Huang and sound designers at Baby Audio. Users can also get creative with a flexible randomisation engine that lets you set specific random-ranges and lock modules/ parameters to only randomise certain parts of the plugin.
“We wanted to create a type of plugin that hadn’t been done before – one that would make it easier and more creative to dial-in the transitions and ‘ear candy’ that modern tracks rely on,” a statement from Baby Audio reads. “Transit delivers on this idea, and its semi-modular architecture, along with 300+ high quality presets, makes it as deep or as fast as you need it to be.”
“Initially the concept was about speeding up the workflow when you’re creating transitions in songs, but as the development process went on, we just kept discovering new, really cool possibilities with it,” Huang says, adding that he’d had this plugin idea “kicking around for a while”.
“And then I decided there’s no way I could make it myself. And when I started thinking about who I’d want to collaborate on with it, Baby Audio was at the top of my list just for their sound quality, their aesthetic… So I reached out to them and it was just this amazing moment of serendipity because they got back to me and they were like, ‘hey, we were actually thinking of reaching out to you just because we think you have cool ideas and maybe you’d wanna do a plugin together.’”
The plugin is compatible with all major DAWs for Mac and PC and is fully Mac M1 native.
You can now pick up Transit at an intro price of $59 (U.P $99).

Learn more at babyaud.io
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BLEASS Fusion’s wavetables open up a near-limitless world of distortion for $20There are many different degrees of audio distortion, ranging from supremely subtle to devastatingly destructive – and within that range exists an infinite potential for tone and character variation. Most plugins therefore hone in on a particular flavour of distortion, such as tape saturation, valve overdrive, or bit crushing.

READ MORE: IK Multimedia’s UNO Synth Pro X is what the synth community deserved from the start

Fusion, the latest desktop and iOS plugin from French developer BLEASS, promises to do the lot (and a bit more).
Wavetable waveshaping
Fusion uses waveshaper processing to distort audio. Waveshaping works by applying a mathematical shaping function to a source signal to reshape (distort) it. That shaping function is usually derived from a static waveform, with the shape of that waveform determining the intensity, tone and character of the resulting distortion.

Fusion is not unusual in using waveshaping for distortion; many plugins use it to emulate the sound of different types of analogue distortion, and some even let you choose from a selection of waveforms to vary the sound of their effect. But Fusion has a unique quirk that takes this concept to a new level: it sources its shaping waveforms from a selection of 58 wavetables.

BLEASS already developed a powerful wavetable engine for its acclaimed Megalit synth, and it has repurposed the same engine for use in Fusion. Like any wavetable engine, BLEASS’ design allows you to extract different waveforms from the wavetable by adjusting the wavetable position.
When applied to the world of waveshaping, this means you can, for example, morph a distortion from a gentle soft clipping to an intense tube saturation, so long as you have a suitable wavetable.

The engine also features wavetable folding, a technique that compresses or stretches the wavetable’s waveforms either symmetrically around the centre point or asymmetrically from beginning to end.
When operating symmetrically, this tends to impact the intensity of the distortion, with lower fold values equating to more intense distortions. In asymmetric mode, the impact tends to be more radical and unpredictable. All told, this adds completely new dimensions to the different distortion characters that can be teased out from any of the included wavetables, or from your own custom wavetables, which Fusion is able to import.

Distorting signals can lead to some very loud levels, and one of Fusion’s few shortcomings is its lack of a limiter. This can surprise you with sudden intense blasts of sound when loading presets and adjusting settings. The master output gain isn’t stored and recalled with presets, though, so you can dial in some protective headroom when needed.
Shaping the waveshaper
You can shape the base distortion tones with a pair of resonant multimode filters. The first offers high-pass, bell and notch modes, while the second filter replaces the high-pass option with a low-pass.
BLEASS Fusion filters. Image: BLEASS
Each filter can be switched to operate pre or post the waveshaper’s effect.
In the pre position, a filter allows particular frequencies to be driven harder (or softer) into the waveshaper, which significantly impacts the tone and character of the resulting distortion.
In the post position, the filters shape the spectrum of the distorted signal, removing low-end woolliness and high-end fizz, for example. Further tonal variations are possible thanks to each filter’s independent input gains and wet/dry mix controls.
The filters sport the standard BLEASS design, with an interactive visualiser that lets you control the cutoff and resonance of both bands with a drag of the mouse or finger. This is very intuitive, especially when using the iOS version of the plugin, but it can feel a little bit inexact too. We were pleased, therefore, to see that BLEASS has added cutoff and resonance dials to its standard filter design as an alternative, more accurate, method of setting filter parameters.
Modulated movement
Having an apparently limitless pool of different distortions at your fingertips is powerful, but a sound can quickly become boring if it’s static and unchanging. This is where Fusion’s various modulators come in handy.
The pair of advanced LFOs which, like the wavetable engine, are taken from Megalit, allow you to create surprisingly complex modulation patterns. This is thanks to their Time Shape and Smoothing parameters, which can run freely or be synced to the host DAW. For dynamic modulations that respond to transients within the input signal, there’s also a simple envelope follower.
The final modulator is a built-in pattern sequencer. Patterns can consist of up to 16 steps in length, and each step can produce either a static modulation value, or a ramping one that changes over the duration of the step.
BLEASS Fusion modulators. Image: BLEASS
Fusion’s sequencer only syncs to the host DAW – it can’t be induced to free-wheel – but it can add a randomising factor to the values it creates, and automatically smooth the changes between values. What we particularly enjoy here is how easy it is to create really juicy, rhythmic effects by using the sequencer to drive the wavetable position and fold, and/or the filter cutoffs.
You can route each modulator to any two destination parameters with varying strength and polarity. This does sometimes feel limited though, especially when it comes to the pattern sequencer which just cries out to be mapped all over the plugin. On the other hand, this limitation helps minimise the plugin’s resource usage (a common BLEASS feature) and ensures patches never become overly complicated.
BLEASS Fusion sequencer. Image: BLEASS
The full gamut
It’s only when you’re presented with so many different characters of distortion – and so many ways of tweaking, adjusting and evolving them – all in one place, that you really start to appreciate just how vast and deep the world of distortion truly is.
The most remarkable thing about BLEASS Fusion is that it can run this entire distortion gamut, from smooth valve saturation to hard-edged transistor trashiness, from subtle colouration to full-on frequency frying, and from the lightest sprinkle of fizz to the most depraved depths of sonic destruction. And you get all of this for less than $20!
Key features

Waveshaping distortion plugin for AAX, AU, AUv3 and VST hosts
Desktop and iOS versions; Apple Silicon native
58 included wavetables plus custom wavetable import
2 multi-mode filters
2 LFO, envelope follower and sequencer modulators
Low system resource footprint
Price: Desktop: $19.99 / €19.99; iOS: $9.99 / €9.99
Download: bleass.com

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