Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers out there covered how to build a brand as a musician, popular social media myths everyone falls for, and more…. Continue reading
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REWIND: The new music industry’s Week In ReviewLast week was a busy week by any definition, and the music industry was no exception, with more answers on AI copyrights, creators on Fanfic making a $70k salary, and. Continue reading
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Focusrite FAST Bundle currently on sale The FAST Bundle contains five of the Focusrite’s AI-driven plug-ins, and is currently being offered at a greatly reduced price. 

Singular Sound Announces Aeros Loop Studio Firmware 5.0With major new features like: 

Backing TracksOne of Singular Sound users' most requested features has arrived. You can now upload wav files as backing tracks for songs on the Aeros. Read the step-by-step process on the community forum.AutoquantizeCreate a Quantized song out of a freeform recording you make live, and do it on the fly. The algorithm will define the tempo of your track based upon the start and stop point of your recording.Hands-Free NavigationAeros revamped the entire user interface on the Aeros Loop Studio, making it a dream for live musicians and songwriters alike.  All new Hands-Free Slideout Menu gives you lightning-quick access to important options like Undo/Redo, Save/Clear/Repeat, Reverse and Fade settings, as well quick-nav to the Mixer Mode, 2x2, 6x6 and more.  

Here's a couple important reminders:Download Aeros Firmware 5.0 right on your device. Just make sure you have a Wi-Fi connection and follow the on-screen instructions.5.0 and all Firmware Updates are available on the original Aeros Loop Studio and Aeros Gold Edition. 

Tip Jar: The Mysterious Art of the Fade OutWhy do some songs fade out at the end? How does that choice affect the meaning of a song? And who came up with the idea, anyway? Jim Anderson—multi-Grammy winner and 2022 nominee for Immersive Audio album (Jane Ira Bloom’s Picturing the Invisible: Focus 1)—has answers.

Parts of the following interview are excerpted from Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter, available everywhere, including: | Bookshop | Books Are Magic | Amazon  | Bandcamp (signed copies) 

The popular expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” has a less-celebrated corollary: You don’t get a second chance to make a last impression, either. A major songwriting challenge is how to construct those first and last impressions in order to bookend the musical universe writers have created.

Unlike artists who work in other forms (novels, paintings, etc.), songwriters have a tool that takes advantage of the audio medium: the fade out. Part technological, and part metaphorical, the fade out can imply continuity—the song goes on forever—as easily as loss—the song goes on forever without you. One reason a fade is so expressive is because it reintroduces us to the universal language of silence—fade outs remind us that, as in life, silence always gets the last word. 

There’s just one problem: At the moment of this writing, fades are very out of fashion. I teach songwriting at several universities, and when a student of mine uses one, they get applause from classmates for the audacity. Fades are retro. They’re vintage. They’re even cinematic, which is actually true: the term “fade” is borrowed from film, which originated around the same time as recorded music. The gradual deprivation of sound in a fade out parallels the deprivation of sight when a scene “fades to black.”

In order to better understand why writers and producers choose to fade, I spoke with Jim Anderson, producer and sound engineer; former president of the Audio Engineering Society; multi-Grammy Award–winner; and nominee (along with partner Ulrike Schwartz) for this year’s Grammy for Immersive Audio Album, Jane Ira Bloom’s Picturing the Invisible: Focus 1.

What causes someone to decide on a fade? I think sometimes the song kind of tells you what it wants to do at the end. Sometimes it’s an artistic choice, and sometimes you really don’t have an ending, or you just want to vamp and let it go. Years ago, I observed [bassist] Jaco Pastorius recording the Word of Mouth album at [New York City recording studio] Power Station. It was Jack DeJohnette [drums], Herbie Hancock [keys], Toots Thielemans [harmonica], and a room full of brass players and all that kind of thing. And I heard Jaco say to the engineer, “What we’re going to do is, when we get to the end of the chart, they’re going to vamp and I’m going to leave the room. And one of two things is going to happen: We’re going to run out of tape; or the whole thing will just fall apart, and that’ll be my fade.” It’s another bow in the quiver.

To what degree did fades come from the limitations of the studio—the wax rolls, tape reels, and such? 

Well, popular music was always being dictated by the medium or by the technology. So, if you had a cylinder or a 78, you were always limited to two and a half, three minutes. If the song went on beyond that, you had to fade. Then they developed the slightly ultrafine groove—Edison came up with this—so you could get about four minutes on a cylinder. But when the 45 came out, you were still kind of locked into something in the neighborhood of two and a half to three minutes. And so on.

Are there fades that predate technology? 

The first one that I’m aware of, and it’s fairly famous, is the Haydn Symphony No. 45 [“Farewell,” 1772]. Basically, the story was that Haydn and his musicians were held longer than anticipated [at patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy’s Hungarian summer palace], and they wanted to go home and be with their families. So, Haydn wrote an extra movement after the piece: Every musician played their part, and when they were done, they’d blow out the candle on their music stand and leave the stage. Eventually, all that was left were two violinists sitting there, and [Esterházy] got the hint. 

Kind of the opposite of how a bar will turn the house lights on at the end of the night.  Yeah, you know—lights on, and out come the vacuum cleaners, and it’s time to go. 

Outros can be dangerous, because they can serve as clearinghouses for all the extra ideas that didn’t make it into a tight, well-constructed song: wanky solos, excessive drum fills, vocal histrionics, endless space jams that linger like guests who aren’t getting the hint that the party’s over. In order to make a great last impression, I recommend a few possibilities:

1. Keep it. Whatever your music is getting people to do is something they want to keep doing. Dancing, running, chilling, sexing—you know. Don’t kill the vibe. Be the vibe. Extend the vibe. (But do a radio edit, too.)

2. Cut it. Many pop songs over the past decade end at the very last note of the final chorus. In short: Once you’ve said what you wanted to say, stop saying it. 

3. Fade it. Let your songs admit to their own impermanence and slip from the listener’s grasp. 

Which one gives the listener the best last impression?

This is a question that instinct and practice will answer. When we’re really lucky, we don’t make the decision—the song does. Some songs want to use traditional forms the way water fills a bucket. Others break the forms into the shapes they need to finish themselves. In those moments, it’s not entirely clear who’s doing the writing, who’s in the room, who’s pushing the pen or finishing the melodic phrases without your conscious assistance.

These are magical moments that keep songwriters coming back over and over, and that sense of runaway songwriting never fully leaves the finished product. You can hear it in there, forever. 

Crypto Biz: Twitter’s DOGE bet, Canada’s new crypto conglomerate, UK banking newsThis week’s Crypto Biz explores Canada’s new crypto conglomerate, the recent premature passing of the Cash App creator in San Francisco, as well as DOGE news, and U.K. crypto challenges.

The AI machines are coming for thought work, and other TC newsWelcome back to The TechCrunch Podcast, where we break down the biggest stories in tech with the people who covered them.
The internet is always changing, but something about generative AI feels different. With the advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the machines are evolving beyond remix and delivery machines to become the content creators themselves. In this week’s episode, Darrell Etherington talks with Techcrunch senior reporter Devin Coldewey about how the AI hype is overshadowing some of its shadier possible cultural side effects.

Use promo code TCPOD to get 40% off Founder and Investor passes to Early Stage on April 20 in Boston.
Articles from the episode:

The Great Pretender
The takeaways from Stanford’s 386-page report on the state of AI
A knife so sharp you don’t feel it cut

More from TechCrunch

Thousands of Gen Z creators are using Fanfix to monetize content and interact with fans
Hype grows for SpaceX’s Starship orbital flight test, but barriers remain
Twitter’s new dog icon is sending dogecoin — sigh — to the moon
Twitter’s new homepage logo is very doge-y
Bob Lee, creator of Cash App and former CTO of Square, stabbed to death

The AI machines are coming for thought work, and other TC news by Maggie Stamets originally published on TechCrunch

Why did Universal ask YouTube to take down an AI-generated Eminem ‘cat-rap’ track?On this occasion, UMGs concern was with the music, rather than with the AI vocals, say MBW sources
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Big Fish Audio Golden Herb: Hip Hop Construction Kits Golden Herb: Hip Hop Construction Kits from Big Fish Audio brings you another massive growth of 50 construction kits in classic sticky-icky Hip Hop styles. Roll up to discover top-notch... Read More

‘You can’t work with someone if they’re not going to trust you. That’s when it all goes out the window.’Nonstop Management founder Jaime Zeluck-Hindlin talks about her career to date and how her clients had a hand in two of the biggest tracks of the year
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Most Popular Playlists On SpotifyHere is an updated list of Spotify’s most popular playlists based on followers. Today’s Top Hits – 33.4M followers Top 50 Global – 17.2M RapCaviar – 15.2M Viva Latino –. Continue reading
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Stream farms and the West African music market: an insider’s viewMdundo’s Regional Music Licensing Lead for West Africa speaks with the team at Byta about how music stream farms in Nigeria affect the entire music ecosystem. from Byta Umeadi Onyekwelu. Continue reading
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Recording Academy extends Grammys eligibility period after pushbackThe Recording Academy has extended the eligibility period for its 2024 Awards to Sept. 15,2023, two weeks later than the Aug. 31rd date it set just a month ago. “After listening. Continue reading
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Get AudioThing Frostbite 2 For €19 Until April 11th
VSTBuzz offers the Frostbite 2 (€59 value) multi-effect plugin by AudioThing for only €19 for a limited time (68% off the regular price). So now is your chance to get a high-quality, multi-purpose audio manipulation and sound design plugin at an unbelievable discount. The deal expires on Tuesday, April 11th. The regular price for Frostbite [...]
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