Security startup Horizon3.ai is raising $100M in new roundHorizon3.ai, a cybersecurity startup that provides tools like autonomous penetration testing, is seeking to raise $100 million in a new funding round and has locked down at least $73 million, the company revealed in an SEC filing this week. NEA led the round, according to two people familiar with the deal. One person said that […]

Equi=Tech introduce the Model 1R Symmetrical power technology pioneers Equi=Tech have announced the launch of their latest balanced power system, as well as a new partnership with pro-audio sales, marketing and distribution company Sound Vision Works. 

How to mix music: An in-depth guide to audio mixing
Learn how to mix music with this beginner-friendly guide covering the essential steps, tools, and techniques.

SK Sharma joins PE giant Warburg Pincus as Senior Advisor, focused on investment opportunities in Generative AIWarburg Pincus LLC has more than $87 billion in assets under management
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From Burnt to Brilliant: A Toaster’s MakeoverAppliances fail, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end for them. This impressive hack from [solopilot] shows the results possible when not just fixing but also improving upon its original form. The toaster’s failed function selector switch presented an opportunity to add smart features to the function selection and refine control over its various settings.
Before upgrading the toaster, [solopilot] first had to access its components, which is no trivial task with many modern appliances. Photos document his process of diving into the toaster, exposing all the internals to enable the upgrade. Once everything was accessible, some reverse engineering was required to understand how the failed function selector controlled the half-dozen devices it was wired to.
Next came the plan for the upgrades—a long list that included precise temperature control and the ability to send an SMS showing the state of your meal. A Raspberry Pi Zero, a solid-state relay, a relay control board, and a thermocouple were added to the toaster, unlocking far more capability and control than it had originally. Some tuning is required to fully enable these new features and to dial in the precision this once run-of-the-mill toaster is now capable of.
The work wasn’t limited to the toaster itself. [solopilot] also seized the opportunity to create an Android app with speech recognition to control his now one-of-a-kind Cuisinart. It’s probably safe to say his TOA-60 is currently the smartest toaster in the world. If you check out his documentation, you’ll find all the pinouts, circuits, code, and logic explanations needed to add serious improvements to your own toaster. We’ve featured several other toaster oven projects over the years, most of which have focused on turning them into reflow ovens, so it’s exciting to see one aimed at improving upon its original design.
 
 

Teddy Swims Honored with BMI Pop Song of the Year Backstage at Radio CityTeddy Swims has made a name for himself blending powerhouse vocals with raw, emotional songwriting and now, he’s got the accolades to prove it. On Tuesday night, just before stepping onto the iconic stage at New York’s Radio City Music Hall for a sold-out show, Swims was met backstage by representatives from BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) bearing some very well-deserved news: he’d officially earned the title of BMI’s 2025 Pop Song of the Year.It’s all thanks to his chart-dominating hit “Lose Control,” which Swims co-wrote with Julian Bunetta, Marco “Infamous” Rodriguez, and Mikky Ekko—all fellow BMI-affiliated songwriters.A statement from the company discloses that “'Lose Control'” recently logged a record-breaking 92nd week on Billboard’s Hot 100, including a record 63 weeks in the Hot 100’s top 10." It’s a rare kind of success, not just in pop music, but in any genre—an endurance feat that speaks to the song’s resonance with listeners across the country.A statement from the company further reveals that “Swims received awards for ‘The Door’ and ‘Lose Control’ for being two of the 50 most-performed pop songs of the previous year in the U.S.” For anyone who’s been following his meteoric rise, the recognition is no surprise—Swims has become a steady presence on playlists, radio stations, and Billboard charts.The timing couldn’t have been more fitting. Radio City Music Hall has hosted legends for nearly a century, and now Swims joins the ranks of artists who’ve been celebrated not only by sold-out crowds, but by the industry itself.For BMI, the awards are part of their ongoing mission to support and spotlight the songwriters and composers shaping today’s music. For Swims, they mark another major milestone in a career that’s still clearly on the rise.The heartfelt energy that Swims brings to the stage is the same energy that powers his songs—and clearly, it’s connecting. With his voice, his vulnerability, and now, a handful of BMI awards in tow, Teddy Swims continues to chart a course all his own.The post Teddy Swims Honored with BMI Pop Song of the Year Backstage at Radio City first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

ModeAudio offers BPB Exclusive FREE sample pack + updated Label Sampler
ModeAudio offers the exclusive free Spring ‘25 Selections sample pack for Bedroom Producers Blog, as well as the updated ModeAudio Label Sampler with more free sounds for newsletter subscribers. Some developers and sound design teams deliver quality with such consistency that we approach each new release with a certain level of expectation; ModeAudio is one [...]
View post: ModeAudio offers BPB Exclusive FREE sample pack + updated Label Sampler

Fairness in ticket resales ‘is neither expected nor delivered’"The manipulation of inventory, unchecked speculative listings, and aggressive affiliate networks have created a system where fairness (in ticket resales) is neither expected nor delivered," says artist manager and ticketing crusader Randy Nichols on fairness in ticket resales.
The post Fairness in ticket resales ‘is neither expected nor delivered’ appeared first on Hypebot.

Kemper Profiler MK 2 Head The Kemper Profiler enables a user to capture the soul of any amp inside a lunchbox-sized amplifier. Kemper uses cutting edge technology to capture the sonic DNA of virtually any guitar amp. The resulting profiles are as living, vivid and dynamic as the original amps. Imagine you've used some sweet-sounding, well-maintained vintage tube amps in your last studio session: With the Kemper Profiler, there's no need to leave those sounds behind anymore. Simply create your own profiles from these amps and take them with you to use anywhere you like. Variations with alternative amp settings can be created and even the cabinet of a profiled combo amp can be exchanged at any time. Dozens of pro-grade onboard effects and stomp boxes can be used to spice up the profiles. Included are profiles of many exceptional signature amps. They were created by professional guitarists, engineers and producers in studios all over the world. Right out of the box, you will find classic tones of studio standards as well as profiles of highly sought-after amplifiers, some costing many times the price of the Kemper Profiler. Create your own profiles from your own amps: If you happen to have access to tube amps, feel free to make your own profiles. You will probably feel more familiar with profiles of your own gear, than with those other people have made. It might be also a nice idea to hire a professional studio for a day or two, where you can create your signature profiles with the help of an experienced sound engineer. You then have the luxury of being able to use these profiles wherever you like, and with no time constraints. If you are tracking in a studio, you should profile the guitar amps that you record with. Later, you simply take these profiles with you and know that you can recreate the exact sound of the recording, both in the rehearsal studio and live on stage. Share your own creations If you are looking for a particular sound, search the Rig Exchange database on the Kemper website, and download profiles and rigs from fellow users. So much more than just flicking channels. Play completely different amp models rather than just switching amp channels on stage! Imagine playing the verse with a sparkling profile of a 1965 black-faced 2x12" combo, done in a premiere studio in Nashville, while burning through the solo with a hot-rodded, British 100Watts monster, driving a 4x12" cab you just profiled last week in your buddy's rehearsal space. Features: The Amplifier Section. The Amplifier section is the heart of the Kemper Profiler. The sound of the amplifier is based on the profile loaded into the rig. A great selection of intuitive and powerful macro parameters empowers you to perform modifications which are impossible with an traditional hardware amplifier. Many things become possible from changing the age of the virtual hardware to the response to your play. You gain direct access to tube settings, such as the tube symmetry. : The Equalizer Section. The Kemper Profiler is equipped with a traditional bass / mid / treble / presence equalizer similar to what you already know and love from many amp heads. Kemper found that many equalizers used in the tone stack section of more or less famous amplifiers lack of grip and blur your sound in an unnecessary fashion. That's why they decided to go with their own, original design which is based on a traditional tone stack but is designed to deliver what you expect from a modern pro-grade equalizer: The Cabinet Section. The Kemper Profiler captures the cabinet as a part of a profile. Thanks to digital alchemy we can distinguish in between the cabinet and the amp head within a profile and therefore enable you to mix and match both in which ever way you like. Imagine you can exchange cabinets freely in between amps, even though those amps were combo amps before. You can even warp cabinets from "tiny as a cigarette box" to "larger than life" with one parameter: The Stomp Boxes. The Kemper Profiler offers 4 independent stomp effects slots which can host a full arsenal of stomp box effects including painstakingly modeled famous overdrive and distortion stomp boxes, compressor, reverb, several delays, and a beautiful rotary speaker emulation. We've also created accurate models of classic retro modulation effects such as a variety of chorus, phaser and flanger pedals. All stomp effects can be edited and copied conveniently between presets. And for your overview and convenience, we use color coded LEDs indicating which type of stomp has been used per slot: Looping In and Out External Effects. The Kemper Profiler includes an external effects loop which you can patch in anywhere among the virtual stomps boxes. The location and other details can be stored per rig. The monitor outputs also can serve as a pure analog buffer amp for re-amping: The Master Section. The master effects section features reverb, delay and additional slots for stomp boxes and studio effects to refine your amplifier's tone. The six knobs on the front panel offer convenient access to the most important settings. The reverb section features a dense and lively reverb algorithm which won't mask the original signal. The delay section features several tape and stereo delay algorithms which can be synched to MIDI clock. A special control allows for continuous crossfade between a serial and parallel routing of the delay and reverb. Both delay and reverb feature a full spillover when switching between rigs. Tails are never cut off at any time, even when the upcoming rig features totally different effects: The Input Stage. Thanks to a Hi-Z input optimized for passive guitar pickups, the Kemper Profiler offers a crystal clear signal path. We use only professional-grade analogue components to ensure that your guitar tone remains unchanged. We include a single-knob smart noise gate on the front panel that is completely transparent. It's faster than any other noise gate we have experienced and doesn't need an adjustment of the release time. Damping a string results in immediate silence: The Output Stage. The Kemper Profiler features two independent main outputs which can be used in multiple ways. The mains feature a balanced studio level connection and a parallel pair or TSRs. The monitor output optionally provides the amplifier's sound without the cabinet. This proves beneficial for musicians with an existing power amp / cabinet on stage. It makes a perfect silhouette on a 4x12 cabinet. Yet it's so light and compact that it can be taken onto a plane as hand-luggage. It is extremely versatile in terms of inputs, outputs, signal routing and remote control, as well as countless other aspects. It includes effect loop, aux-in or wet-dry-wet configurations. You could also drive a physical guitar cabinet with a signal that excludes the cabinet simulation, while simultaneously feeding a mixing desk with a complete simulation. A multitude of buttons and knobs on its front panel offer direct access to all critical parameters and are very intuitive to use. PROFILER PowerHead models just add a fanless digital power amp providing 600 watts at 4 as well as 8 ohms, and 300 watts at 16 ohms, without trading any other capabilities or connectivity options. These models with built-in power amp are the perfect choice to directly drive an unpowered KEMPER Kabinet - or any other classical guitar cabinet. Any PROFILER model can be complemented by one (mono) or two (stereo) KEMPER Power Kabinet s for your personal monitoring. For interactive remote control, you can connect the perfectly integrated one cable plug & play solution: PROFILER Remote. KEMPER Rig Manager for macOS and Windows connects via the same USB cable as USB audio and offers editor and librarian functionalities. If you connect any of these PROFILER models to a WiFi-router, you could also use Rig Manager for iOS on your iPad or iPhone to edit your sounds. All these Rig Manager variants are free-of-charge. Features: KEMPER PROFILING technology. Amp PROFILE s from various top studios and tone designers. Studio grade FX. Most comprehensive output section features full-range, guitar cab and KEMPER Kone modes. Performance Mode with seamless preset switching. Unique morphing. Wireless remote editing with iOS devices (WiFi-router required). https://youtu.be/WcZDdcErslM?si=vcS05-8xoLuOfWK2 Read More

Tascam launch the MP-800UDAB The latest addition to Tascam’s range of media players offers playback from SD Cards, USB drives and a built-in DAB and FM radio receiver, as well as the option of adding wireless Bluetooth streaming. 

Waves’ ILLUGEN text-to-sound engine can create sounds nobody has heard before using ultra-specific prompts – here’s how it worksWaves has launched an AI-powered text-to-sound engine called ILLUGEN, and it’s capable of making unique sounds from specific and incredibly weird prompts.
The new tool is available as a subscription-only app as of current, with three tiers (basic, premium, and pro) available, and prices starting at $7.99 per month. This model is an interesting choice, given Waves’ previous u-turn on making its plugins available through subscription plans only after significant backlash.

READ MORE: Waves’ Curves AQ is the “world’s first autonomous EQ plugin”

Those who do fancy signing up can simply feed ILLUGEN a text prompt, pick from their favourite of three generated sounds, and then simply drag and drop it into their DAW. Examples provided on the Waves website suggest your prompts can be as specific as “a snail’s journey scored with synths”, or “disco beat played by robots that are 20 percent funky and 80 percent malfunctioning”.
As ILLUGEN is rather new, some of its functions remain pretty straightforward – it currently doesn’t fully support musical keys and scales, and though you can still request them, Waves says it can’t guarantee precise results at this time. ILLUGEN also only works in a 4/4 time signature right now.
You can find out more in the video below:

Some questions have already been raised as to how copyright works if you were to use these sounds in your music, and as to how ILLUGEN’s AI model was trained. Waves has stated that the model was trained “exclusively on documented, legally owned material”, and that ethical AI development is a “top priority” for the brand.
It also notes that users of ILLUGEN own the rights to use the samples they generate in their own creative work, such as music, sound design, games, or films. However, “you may not repackage or resell the samples as standalone sound libraries, nor use them to train other AI models”.
To find out more about ILLUGEN (including answers to a list of FAQs) or subscribe, you can head over to Waves.
The post Waves’ ILLUGEN text-to-sound engine can create sounds nobody has heard before using ultra-specific prompts – here’s how it works appeared first on MusicTech.

Meta, TikTok, Spotify & New Rules of Soft Power [Mark Mulligan]Soft power hasn’t disappeared - it’s just moved online, where tech companies now shape what we watch, share, and care about. Behind the screens, writes Mark Mulligan of MIDiA. algorithms are quietly rewriting the rules of culture.
The post Meta, TikTok, Spotify & New Rules of Soft Power [Mark Mulligan] appeared first on Hypebot.

The Lost Art of the Ticket Stub — and its Futuristic RevivalIn an age where concert entry constitutes little more than a digital barcode, it feels like music fans have lost a once crucial part of their connection to a favourite artist. With e-tickets deleted the morning after and print-outs often primed for the trash, it’s a sad development – especially for those who, like this writer, have actively kept gig and festival tickets archived in a folder for the past decade and a half.
For avid gig-goer Nathan Flaskett, who has also collected signed albums and posters for many years, his ticket stub collection (which recently went viral on TikTok) is full of nostalgia. “I like to look back at memories I’ve had over the years,” he says, “even just to keep track of who I’ve seen because it’s easy to forget.”

READ MORE: Will GTA 6 change the way gamers discover music?

Having kept a physical record of these memories, and particularly the variety of gigs he attended — from Justin Bieber to Bring Me The Horizon —makes him feel connected to artists he grew up as a fan of. It also often prompts him to get back into certain artists that he feels he’s grown out of. “I may see the ticket and think, ‘I’ve really got to listen to them, it’s been forever,’” he says.
A Grateful Dead ticket from 1990. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
With most tickets now being digital, Flaskett feels that the art of ticket stubs has been truly lost – especially when it comes to festivals. “I remember Reading 2015; I have a ticket and it’s pristine. I know you still get wristbands, but they get dirty. There’s nothing quite like a ticket you can keep.”
In a 2023 article, journalist Scott-Ryan Abt observed this unfortunate change, suggesting that two things are now “missing from the concert experience and not coming back”. Ticket stubs and cheap t-shirts, he argued, were once “the evidence that it actually happened and that you were there. But advances in technology insist that there is a better, more efficient way”, he added. “As a result, we are missing something without the physical paper tickets that used to be a part of going to a show.”
With all this in mind, it seems unfathomable to think that concert tickets were once treated like pieces of art — a timeless collectable, even — by the biggest bands of the 60s, 70s and 80s, including Led Zeppelin, Motörhead, The Grateful Dead and The Beatles.
“It’s actually pretty tragic,” says Blaise Hayward, a Canadian artist who has lived and worked in New York since 1996. His recent online art collection, Tickets Please, chronicles some of the most iconic gig tickets ever printed. Full of colour, character and personality, these are items that a collector would be ecstatic to own.
A Dolly Parton ticket from 1983. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
An avid music fan and admirer of fonts and graphic design, Hayward began making his collection in March 2023. The inspiration? He walked by Irving Plaza concert hall in New York and noticed groups of music fans heading into a concert, flashing their phones. “It made me start to reminisce about my youth,” the 60-year-old photographer and sculptor recalls. “I began thinking about how I cherished my stubs as a teenager.” During his youth, he’d purchase tickets at a physical outlet, keep them safe in a scrapbook and pin them on a wall.
“It was all part and parcel of the experience,” he enthuses; “you would treat them like gold and make sure they were very secure in a pocket and want to go home to put them somewhere safe so you wouldn’t lose them”.
Around the same time, a friend lent him some ticket stubs to photograph, and Hayward’s “labour of love” quickly escalated into an official project. Curated from a number of music memorabilia websites, eBay, private collectors and word of mouth, he describes himself as “pretty selective” when sourcing tickets, adding that he “doesn’t always buy the first one I see”. Some, he says, have proved elusive, such as The Last Waltz, though he does have Japanese tickets and one for a Russian Nine Inch Nails gig among his collection.
With Tickets Please now spanning 1964-2015 and including artists as wide-ranging as Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, he hopes to have a ticket from every country.
While his ambition for “music and authenticity” is unending, Hayward finds it “a shame [that] it went from beautiful ticket stubs to terrible-looking QR codes”. But why? Hayward thinks that while environmentalists would be happy that paper and harmful inks are no longer being used, the main reason is likely band economics.
A Smashing Pumpkins ticket from 1992. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
“I think it’s a cost-cutting measure, and it’s just moved with the times that we live in now – everything is digital and on your phone,” he says. “[Artist] management would probably say, ‘Why do we want to spend $50,000 on printing these tickets if we can just do it on a QR code? It’s lost money?’ But I don’t think they’re thinking it through.”
Hayward also feels that bands have missed out on an artistic aspect of their livelihood. “Ticket stubs allowed bands to stretch their artistic muscles, brand themselves and have fun with it,” he considers, citing that groups would collaborate with artists to work on the graphic design. “They’re all out of business, and no one’s doing it anymore.”
Now, the only band Hayward is aware of that still issues physical tickets (“with stunning designs”) are American rockers Phish, who send tickets via post (for a small fee) for use at the point of entry.
LP Giobbi, meanwhile, focuses on physical concert programmes as opposed to tickets. The electronic artist hopes her handwritten, beautifully designed creations, which outline what to expect at her gigs, will have a similar impact to Phish’s stubs.
“I grew up playing in high school bands, and there was always a programme handed out so people could get excited about certain parts or know where to go to the bathroom during others,” she says. The idea with her programmes is for her audiences to have “an open mind and be ready to go on a journey”. Beyond that, she hopes her fans will want to keep them. “I definitely wanted people to walk away with something to remember the show by,” she says. “I used to love collecting concert tickets, so maybe this can be that for them…”
A Motorhead ticket from 1984. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
With plans for a book and gallery shows to present his Tickets Please collection in different ways, Hayward is optimistic about a potential return to the golden age of ticket stubs. “It would take a popular younger artist of the current generation — Taylor Swift, or Post Malone, or Billie Eilish — to come in and say, ‘We are now going to be issuing the coolest tickets’ to start the ball rolling. And I guarantee, if one of them did it, others would follow suit, and it could be a rejuvenation of the entire concept.”
Crucially, Hayward’s confident that “their fans would go absolutely bonkers for them”. He adds that the merchandising opportunities are endless: “they could take the art they do for the ticket and print it on hoodies, t-shirts, beanies, keychains and coffee cups”.
However, Ticketmaster, which offers the option of souvenir tickets at the point of purchase, argues that it’s already on the way there. Having first launched souvenir tickets in 2021 at Sheffield Arena, they have since been rolled out across hundreds of events, covering everything from music and comedy to sport, family shows and theatre.
Front of a Ticketmaster souvenir ticket for Isle of Wight festival 2024
“These are collectable versions of traditional paper tickets that fans can keep as a memento after the show,” a Ticketmaster spokesperson tells MusicTech, adding that these are “especially popular” for milestone gigs or special one-off performances. “We’re the only ticketing agent offering this kind of souvenir in the marketplace,” they said – “it’s a simple, unique way for artists and event partners to add a personal touch to their fans, giving them a special way to remember the moment forever”.
Ticketmaster feels that feedback on these souvenir tickets has been extremely positive —“We’ve seen great uptake so far, and fans love having something tangible to remember the event by” — but not everyone seems to have been impressed by what they receive in the post.
In a Reddit thread from three years ago, a concert-goer branded the souvenir ticket he ordered for metal band Ghost’s Manchester show as “bog standard”. He added: “when they eventually turned up, they looked like the tickets that we would have originally received pre-Ticketmaster-app.” Concluding the post, he said: “Absolutely would not do it again”.
Back of a Ticketmaster souvenir ticket for Isle of Wight festival 2024
Having paid £3 to commemorate their first ever gig experience, a third buyer said their souvenir ticket for Conan Gray was “just paper with a shiny stamp on it. I thought it was going to look much more special,” they added.
Ticketmaster’s efforts are certainly positive steps towards a more artistic ticketing experience, but the current offer to customers is a far cry from the eye-popping stubs of the past.
Savvy tech companies seem to have noticed this fandom-led gap in the market in recent years, with the likes of Tixologi offering attendees the chance to ‘immortalise their tickets as a unique printed memento’ in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) — a term that, frankly, may elicit a groan from many readers. But Tixologi is optimistic: “We don’t offer hard copy tickets today, but our tickets are digital collectables that live on forever as a memory of the event,” Asher Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Tixologi, told Forbes in 2023.
Weiss added that the original idea for Tixologi came from fans and attendees missing the collectable aspect of the ticket. “We have found a way to bring that back in a mostly digitally-ticketed world and give attendees something to hold onto for years to come,” he told Forbes. “Today, our tickets can include special imagery from the event, and in the future will include event highlights, videos, songs, and partner offers…We see this as the rebirth of ticket stubs, but better.”
In a 2023 article for NFTnow, journalist Langston Thomas seemingly backed this claim, arguing that NFT tickets are actually the future of live events. Crucially, Thomas suggested there are benefits for both parties. “Issuers can keep a more in-depth record of attendance numbers by utilising the blockchain as a ledger, and then send out notices, host surprise giveaways and create token-gated sites and services,” they said. Some might question the ethics of such data-mining, but Thomas adds that “NFT tickets grant holders access to exclusive experiences, including fan clubs made up only of holders of similar NFT tickets”.
A 2015 ticket for Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well Tour. Image courtesy of Blaise Hayward, Tickets Please.
Also in 2023, Mixmag argued that the adoption of NFT ticketing was “inevitable for music festivals”, citing EXIT in Serbia as the first large-scale festival (bar Coachella) to employ the technology. One of the main advantages, it said, is “the potential to create a sense of exclusivity and reward for dedicated fans”, with the ability to add perks such as backstage passes, meet-and-greets or exclusive merchandise to the digital collectible.
Perhaps younger music fans and new artists are unaware of what came before — “I’ve had people completely unaware that ticket stubs ever existed”, Hayward says disheartenedly — but there’s no denying the longevity and sense of connection that comes from physical tickets.
In fact, a scan on Etsy reveals several homemade tickets for Sabrina Carpenter, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Busted and more with different designs that fans can snap up to commemorate her BST Hyde Park show in London this July. They’re unofficial and fan-made, but the attention to detail is very impressive, and it’s easy to imagine fans purchasing them as keepsakes of an unforgettable concert.
If artists and labels start paying attention, the comeback of physical stubs might not just be wishful thinking — it could be the return of a merch goldmine.
Check out Blaise Hayward’s Tickets Please collection at blaisehayward.com
The post The Lost Art of the Ticket Stub — and its Futuristic Revival appeared first on MusicTech.

KV331 Audio SynthMaster One is just $9 + you get Bitwig Studio 8-Track for free
KV331 Audio’s SynthMaster One, a powerful wavetable synthesizer, is currently available for just $9 on Plugin Boutique until June 9. And there’s a cherry on top—if you purchase it before the end of May, you’ll get Bitwig Studio 8-Track for free. This is an excellent opportunity to get one of the most user-friendly and feature-rich [...]
View post: KV331 Audio SynthMaster One is just $9 + you get Bitwig Studio 8-Track for free

Anthony Fantano on politics in music: “Advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking is just lame”Should music stay out of politics? Should every protest anthem blow your mind? And is it really fair to expect a chart-topping banger to double as a political manifesto?
Anthony Fantano, host of The Needle Drop and one of the internet’s most influential music critics, says no – and thinks our expectations around political music might be the real problem.

READ MORE: “It would basically kill the AI industry overnight”: Nick Clegg thinks asking artists for use permission is a bad thing

“I think advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking, like broadly speaking, is just kind of lame,” says Fantano on a recent episode of Joshua Citarella’s Doomscroll podcast.
But that doesn’t mean political music gets a free pass. Fantano argues that while injecting big ideas into your art is a good thing, it’s also incredibly hard to pull off – especially when fans expect deep ideology and catchy hooks in the same breath.
“Making political art is difficult because not only does that require you to put yourself in a position where you’re saying or advocating for something that you know may automatically turn off,” he explains.
“But also in terms of the people that do actually agree with you… you’re faced with the difficulty of putting it in such a way where it’s said well and advocated for well and doesn’t come across as just like some dumb sloganeering.”
In short, it’s tough to strike the right balance. Fantano adds that even when an artist and their fans share the same worldview, disappointment can still set in if the message doesn’t go deep enough.
“There’s a lot of people that have the expectation that… even though this band may align with me ideologically, they didn’t say anything that blew my mind or caused me to have a revelation… which I feel is kind of an unfair expectation especially if you are somebody who’s politically well read.”
His advice? Don’t expect a three-minute track to change your life: “We have to kind of like set our expectations a little bit when it comes to a song,” says Fantano. “It’s not a political dissertation. It’s not an article. It’s not a think piece. Not every song is going to be like System of a Down’s Prison Song where they’re rattling off statistics or whatever.”
Watch the full interview below.

The post Anthony Fantano on politics in music: “Advocating that art should avoid any topic generally speaking is just lame” appeared first on MusicTech.