Lil Yachty says hip-hop is in a “terrible place”American rapper Lil Yachty – AKA Miles Parks McCollum – has declared that hip-hop is in a “terrible place”.

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During a conversation at Rolling Stone‘s Musician on Musicians event in New York with fellow rapper Tierra Whack, McCollum was asked about the current state of hip hop, and let’s just say he did not hold back.
“Hip-hop is in a terrible place,” he admits [via Complex]. “The state of hip-hop right now is a lot of imitation. It’s a lot of quick, low-quality music being put out.
“It’s a lot less risk-taking, it’s a lot less originality. People are too safe now. Everyone is so safe. I rather take the risk than take the L.”
Whack then mentions an artist who she believes is taking risks, Atlanta-based rapper JID.
“I love JID,” Yachty adds. “JID is such a beautiful person. He has the spirit of like a real Atlanta Negro and he’s such a good, kind person and he just always embraced me with open arms so I got nothing but respect for JID. I never heard a bad verse from JID ever.”
In more hip-hop news, the nominations for best rap song at the 2024 Grammys have been announced, and the list is stacked, to say the least.
Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake and 21 Savage, and Killer Mike have all received nominations for this year’s category.
However it hasn’t come without controversy, as Lil Yachty himself has spoken out about his newest album missing out on a nomination.
“I just worked really hard from start to finish,” he says. “I just don’t know. I handled it way better than I thought I did. Like I thought I was gonna be like throwing shit around like mad as hell, but I didn’t care. When it came out I just honestly 0.5 seconds after deleted it out of my brain.”
The post Lil Yachty says hip-hop is in a “terrible place” appeared first on MusicTech.

#MUSICIANS: 2 Days Left to get ready for Spotify Wrapped 2023Spotify’s Wrapped is a major shared cultural moment that offers a unique opportunity to reconnect and celebrate with fans. But the deadline to prepare is this Wednesday, November 15th. Fortunately,. Continue reading
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WMG signs on to Deezer’s UMG-backed artist-centric royalty paymentsIn the latest sign that artist-centric royalties are set to reshape how artists get paid for streaming, WMG has signed on to the new payment scheme that Deezer co-created with. Continue reading
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Humane’s $700 wearable Ai Pin lets you control music using hand gesturesSan Francisco tech startup Humane has launched a new product, the Ai Pin – a wearable mini smartphone that lets you play and control music, take photos, and more.

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It’s a small, square device, weighing just 55 grams – nearly the weight of a tennis ball – that can be attached to clothing. It comes with a magnetic battery pack, a Battery Booster, which is placed on the inside of a shirt or other clothing item to provide a perpetual power system.
In most cases, users are encouraged to pin the device to their chest, so that a built-in laser projector can be projected onto their palm. This projected interface is where you can see the weather, text people, decide who you want to call, and, most importantly, control your music.

The Ai Pin has a built-in speaker system designed to create an intimate ‘sound bubble’ so that users can enjoy music discreetly. The Pin supports Bluetooth headphones for personalised listening, and the voice assistant, Ai Mic, taps into large language models, such as ChatGPT, letting you request and enjoy music with your voice.
It’s connected to the streaming platform, Tidal, for which users are provided with an account upon purchase, so you can reach your favourite music and podcasts. The device’s laser projector lets you navigate your music options by projecting visual cues onto your palm. You can also use hand gestures to skip, fast forward or pause tracks.
Credit: Humane
Humane emphasizes transparency by indicating when the 13-megapixel camera or microphone is in use through a “trust light.” There are no startup gestures for the device, the brand says, which means its mic or camera is never operating when you don’t want them to.
“AI now has become something that everyone is curious about and really wants to know how it’s going to change their life,” Humane CEO Bethany Bongiorno tells Wired. “We’re offering the first opportunity to bring it with you everywhere. It’s really touching people from every background, every age group, globally, in terms of what we’re feeling and seeing in feedback.”
The Ai Pin comes in three colours and is expected to ship in early 2024. Those in the US can start placing orders now, but a date for UK orders has not yet been announced. It costs $700.
Find out more about Humane’s Ai Pin via Humane.
The post Humane’s $700 wearable Ai Pin lets you control music using hand gestures appeared first on MusicTech.

These are the Essential Assets you need to Promote your Music CareerTo match the level of quality found in modern media, there are a few skills and tricks to market their music successfully. Dayna Young of Fred and Augustus and FANDA. Continue reading
The post These are the Essential Assets you need to Promote your Music Career appeared first on Hypebot.

“He’s a perfectionist just like me”: Peggy Gou on working with Lenny KravitzDance star Peggy Gou has shared her experiences working with one of rock’s modern greats, Lenny Kravitz, in a recent interview, saying that she felt “honoured”.

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Speaking to Zane Lowe as part of his The Zane Lowe Show Apple Music podcast series, the (It Goes Like) Nanana producer and singer recalls their recent – and unexpected – collaboration. The collab resulted in a new track, I Believe In Love Again, which is out now on XL Recordings.

“It was such an honour to get a chance to work with him,” she tells Lowe. “He’s very perfectionist just like me.”
In the interview, Peggy reveals that the collaboration was not a typical “modern” digital exchange but involved physical studio sessions in the Bahamas and Paris.
She goes on to say how Kravitz wanted to bring a “different DNA” to the track with an unexpected falsetto part, with Lowe and others agreeing they didn’t think it was sung by him at first, but by Peggy instead.
“Would you have guessed that it was Lenny if this was not written, Lenny?” She asks
Zane Lowe says, “Yes, I thought it was you. I thought it was you as well the first time.”
“I was like, ‘Really, Lenny? I don’t know if it’s a good thing, man. Seriously, I want people to know it’s you because it’s like I’m so honoured that my first collaboration song that I have a feature in the album is you.’
“He was like, ‘Pegs, we’re going to do a music video. People will know it’s me. Don’t worry.’ I was like, ‘That’s true, but,’ and he was like, ‘Girl, let me tell you something. I put different DNA to it when I sing this song.’”

Peggy also reflects on the simplicity and catchiness of ’90s music in the interview, highlighting what Lowe calls “sampling with optimism”.
“’90s music is timeless for me. I also love hip-hop and every song from that period.
Lowe says, “What I love about this song is when you come in with the, ‘Ch, ch, ch,’ it’s like no one uses upper register percussive instruments in songs anymore, but they were everywhere in the ’90s.”
“Also, if you think about it, ’90s music was simple. Although it is repetitive, I feel like it’s catchy and you don’t get bored of listening to it.
“It’s very true,” Lowe responds, “It’s almost like the drums were by design a blank canvas to write these songs over and it was like there’s a naivety to the way technology was working back then that people have mastered now. I love that you’ve captured that sense of optimism, sampling with optimism.”
You can subscribe to The Zane Lowe Show via Apple Music.
The post “He’s a perfectionist just like me”: Peggy Gou on working with Lenny Kravitz appeared first on MusicTech.

Vicious Antelope Northern Signs - Zebra HZ Northern Signs soundbank contains 101 cinematic synth presets for U-He Zebra HZ. With a dedicated view to more vintage sounds this collection is based on dark sounding synths and emotional... Read More

Brainworx bx_console AMEK 200 plug-in announced The latest Brainworx channel strip plug-in that promises to deliver the transparency, precision and detail of a selection of 1980s mastering-grade AMEK hardware. 

Bulky looking turntables be gone; a transparent turntable is entering the marketGone are the days of a bulky looking turntable set-up, as one company has created a completely transparent turntable.

READ MORE: Grammy Awards 2024: Which producers and dance/electronic artists are nominated for a Grammy?

Swedish brand Transparent has previously made headlines for its aesthetically pleasing see-through speakers, but they have taken it one step further with the Transparent Turntable.
The new turntable is a belt-driven system with a built-in phono stage, and is being described as a “reinvention of a classic vinyl record player for a modern home and an ever-evolving technology.”
The turntable itself is built out of either black or white aluminium and tempered glass and has been built with a modular design, meaning all of the parts can be removed and replaced whether that be for an upgrade, or a repair.
Just like many turntables, it needs to be connected to a sound system to play. While Transparent recommends its Transparent Speaker, it’s also compatible with other brands, offering playback with either a cable or through Bluetooth. The additional phono stage switch allows users to run the unit through any amplifier as well.
In more whacky turntable news, manufacturer Pro-Ject recently unveiled The Dark Side of the Moon Turntable to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s iconic album and to pay homage to its album cover.
The unique triangle-shaped glass turntable recreates the iconic album artwork of the 1973 album, with a dimmable LED backlit rainbow coming off of the arm.
The Transparent Turntable is currently retailing for £1,100/€1300 in either a black or white finish, or available in a bundle with the Transparent Speaker for £1,700/€1955.
For more information, you can head to Transparent.
The post Bulky looking turntables be gone; a transparent turntable is entering the market appeared first on MusicTech.

Orchestral Tools launch Konduit Created in collaboration with Belgian techno producer and live performer Peter Van Hoesen, Konduit delivers a collection of dual-layer sounds created with modular synths and processed electric guitars and basses.

Grammy Awards 2024: Which producers and dance/electronic artists are nominated for a Grammy?The Recording Academy has announced the nominees for the Grammy Awards 2024, which includes nominations for the new electronic music category, Best Pop Dance Recording. So, who’s in the running for the new category and other music production-focused categories, Producer of the Year, Best Dance/Electronic Recording and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album?
READ MORE: Peggy Gou shares what influenced her collaboration with Lenny Kravitz during interview with Zane Lowe
Fred Again.. and Skrillex’s Grammy nominations
Having made himself a household name in 2023, British producer Fred Gibson AKA Fred Again.. is leading the charge with a total of four nominations in three categories. Gibson’s prolific collaborator and fellow superstar producer Skrillex makes a return to the Grammy’s this year with nominations for his album Quest For Fire, and for his collaboration with Gibson and UK grime act Flowdan on Rumble, which has been nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Recording.
Andy Ford
Gibson is up for Best Dance/Electronic Recording twice, with Rumble and also for his track Strong, made in collaboration with The XX’s Romy. His album, Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022), is pitted against Skrillex’s Quest For Fire in the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album.
Elsewhere, Gibson is listed alongside the likes of Ice Spice and Victoria Monét in the Best New Artist category. This will be Gibson’s second time as a contender at the Grammy’s, having been nominated in 2022 for his work on Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits. Skrillex, meanwhile, may be picking up his ninth and tenth Grammy Awards, following 15 nominations and eight wins since 2011.
Aphex Twin’s Grammy nomination
Electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin won a Grammy in 2015 with his sixth studio album, Syro. Since then, the British producer – real name Richard D. James – has released a handful of EPs under various monikers but it’s this year’s single, Blackbox Life Recorder 21f, that’s been nominated for a Grammy. Placed in the Best Dance/Electronic Recording category, Aphex Twin will be going up against fellow UK artists Disclosure, James Blake, Romy and Fred Again. Only one non-Brit is up for Best Dance/Electronic Recording: Skrillex.
Image: Edd Westmacott / Alamy
Check out a selection of music production-related Grammy Awards below.
Best Dance/Electronic Recording
Aphex Twin – Blackbox Life Recorder 21f
Disclosure – Higher Than Ever Before
James Blake – Loading
Romy & Fred Again.. – Strong
Skrillex, Fred Again.. & Flowdan – Rumble
Best Pop Dance Recording
Bebe Rexha & David Guetta – One in a Million
Calvin Harris Featuring Ellie Goulding – Miracle
David Guetta, Anne-Marie & Coi Leray – Baby Don’t Hurt Me
Kylie Minogue – Padam Padam
Troye Sivan – Rush
Best Dance/Electronic Music Album
James Blake – Playing Robots Into Heaven
The Chemical Brothers – For That Beautiful Feeling
Fred Again.. – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)
Kx5 – Kx5
Skrillex – Quest for Fire
Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical
Jack Antonoff
Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II
Hit-Boy
Metro Boomin
Daniel Nigro
Best Remixed Recording
Alien Love Call – BADBADNOTGOOD, remixers (Turnstile & BADBADNOTGOOD Featuring Blood Orange)
New Gold (Dom Dolla Remix) – Dom Dolla, remixer (Gorillaz Featuring Tame Impala & Bootie Brown)
Reviver (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Remix) – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, remixer (Lane 8)
Wagging Tongue (Wet Leg Remix) – Wet Leg, remixers (Depeche Mode)
Workin’ Hard (Terry Hunter Remix) – Terry Hunter, remixer (Mariah Carey)
When are the Grammy Awards 2024?
The Grammy Awards are an annual event, typically taking place in February. The 2024 Grammy Awards will be on 5 February, 2024 at 1:00 am GMT, hosted at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California.
See the full list of nominees and learn more at grammy.com. 
The post Grammy Awards 2024: Which producers and dance/electronic artists are nominated for a Grammy? appeared first on MusicTech.

Majority’s Teton Plus raises the bar for what an entry-level home AV system should aspire toCambridge audio company Majority is shaking up the budget end of the consumer tech market with the Teton Plus, a ‘bar and wireless subwoofer combo priced at the £100 mark.

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That’s cheaper than the Yamaha SR-C30A combo and the entry-level Sonos soundbar, the Ray.
Aimed at buyers on a budget who aren’t bothered about niceties like Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround, the Teton Plus is a straightforward 2.1 system with an attractive price tag. If your TV needs a boost in the sound department, but you have neither the spare cash, patience or space for tiny side speakers to be dotted all around your living room, Majority is hoping that you’ll take a shine to the Teton Plus.
There’s no upgrade path here, so don’t look at the Teton Plus as a stepping stone to 5.1, because that’s not what this is – what you see if what you get. That’s how it measures up on paper, so how does a £100 system actually perform?
Majority Teton Plus in a living room
Design and dimensions
The Teton Plus is about 80cm wide and 10cm tall, so that’ll just about fit underneath most TVs and TV stands. There are two hooks on the back, so it can be mounted on a stand or wall bracket. The body is made from shiny black plastic and painted metal, and the grille covering the speakers is a fine metal mesh. On the right hand edge of the bar are a number of controls for power, input/source, volume, and Bluetooth pairing – all of these controls can also be found on the remote.
The shiny plastic does’’t look like it’ll weather scratches well, and the grille feels flimsy. The unit we were sent even had a minor dent in the centre, which we hope is a one-off. Either way, you will want to handle the Teton Plus with care. It feels churlish to point out, given the Teton Plus’s price, but there’s no kind way of saying it – it looks and feels cheap.
The subwoofer stands 28cm tall, has a cone mounted on the right hand side, and a circular port on the front, and four rubber feet on the base. This looks and feels a bit more reassuring.
Setting up
Setting up the Teton Plus is easy. It’s a case of plugging the ‘bar into your TV – you’ve got the option of HDMI, optical, or RCA – and then connecting it to the mains. No connection to the Internet is required.
You’ll need to cycle through the various source options on the remote in order to establish a connection. It didn’t automatically detect that I’d connected it to my TV via HDMI, and so we had to keep tapping the ‘Input’ button until the status LED changed to light blue before it started working.
Pairing with the subwoofer is no trouble, once the soundbar is set up. Simply power on the sub and press and hold the ‘pair’ buttons. The wireless connection has an effective range of 10 metres, so keep this in mind.
Majority Teton Plus subwoofer and remote control. Image: Thomas Newton
Sound quality and speakers
The soundstage generated by the Teton Plus has a surprising amount of height and breadth given that there are only two front-firing mid-range speakers. Generally, sound quality is very good, even if low end noises tend to be a bit exaggerated by the sub.
The Teton Plus has a few presets designed to enhance TV and movie watching and music listening, some of which can be customised.
The ‘Dialog’ preset as you’d expect raises voices in the mix, while keeping everything else low. ‘Movie’ appears to do the same, but accentuates bass frequencies. This makes for mixed results – when watching Bodies on Netflix for example, speech was sometimes drowned out by background noise. Football matches also sounded strange, with the crowd noises sometimes threatening to overwhelm commentary.
The ‘Music’ preset lets you raise and lower treble and bass levels between 0dB and +8dB, while ‘Flat’ resets everything to default settings, and lets you adjust levels between -8dB and +8dB. This gives you plenty of room to tweak things to suit.
Majority Teton Plus soundbar and remote control. Image: Thomas Newton
For TV and movies, we would stick with ‘Dialog’, or switch to ‘Flat’ and kick the bass up by a couple of increments. For music, the ‘Music’ preset is generally best, but you may prefer to use ‘Flat’ here as well.
On either mode, good separation between the kick drum, bass guitar and lead guitar on Yes’ Heart of the Sunrise is noticeable. Even at high volumes, everything sounds nicely spaced during the thundering intro, and when the track gives way to just lead vocals and guitar, everything sounds pristine and clear.
That said, distorted bass and kick drums on both Radiohead’s The National Anthem and Dead Prez’s Hip-Hop tend to merge when the volume is raised above the 20th increment.
High pitched details like the percussive hits, reverb trails and lead guitar on Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime and I Zimbra respectively stand out clearly with the volume turned up, but snare hits in Dave Brubeck’s Take Five — a clean track we use in testing — start to sound distorted at similar levels.
Majority Teton Plus soundbar controls. Image: Thomas Newton
Despite low tones sounding overly aggressive at times, you’ll only ever notice this if you’ve got the system cranked up to loud, anti-social levels – we’d say that you’re unlikely to encounter any distortion 90% of the time.
As there’s no Wi-Fi unit in the Teton Plus, music streaming options are limited to Bluetooth, which is all well and good when streaming from your phone, until you have to take a call. That’s the only real drawback of the Teton Plus, which is an excellent value for money option.
If you’re not interested in a system that you will one day want to expand with side speakers, and you just want a simple soundbar and sub, at present, the Teton Plus is hard to beat on price and performance.
Alternatives to consider are the Denon DHT-S517, another soundbar and sub combo which is a little more expensive, but features a wider soundstage, and the Polk React, a soundbar which costs a little more, but can be upgraded with side speakers and a sub, and features Wi-Fi.
Majority Teton Plus in a living room
Key features
Soundbar

Power: 100 Watts
Speakers: Two mid-range speakers
Frequency response: 30Hz – 20KHz
Inputs/outputs: HDMI In (with ARC), RCA, 3.5mm headphone jack, Type-A USB (for services/updates)
Dimensions: 102 x 812 x 96 mm
Weight: 1.62kg

Subwoofer

Power: 80 Watts
5.25” (13.3cm) speaker
Ported cabinet
Dimensions: 150 x 280 x 382 mm
Weight: 5.9kg

The post Majority’s Teton Plus raises the bar for what an entry-level home AV system should aspire to appeared first on MusicTech.

VET, IMX, GRT and ALGO show bullish setups as Bitcoin trades above $37KLarge and small-cap altcoins are flashing bullish signs as Bitcoin price holds above $37,000.

Keep IT complexity in check with pragmatic composable commerceMariano Gomide de Faria Contributor Mariano Gomide de Faria has over 20 years of experience in digital commerce and is the founder and co-CEO of global enterprise digital commerce platform VTEX. Legacy digital commerce architectures are no longer sustainable in today’s commerce arena. With every component tightly integrated into a monolithic architecture, a legacy platform’s […]
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