Tilr RipplerXRipplerX is a physically modeled synth, capable of sounds similar to AAS Chromaphone and Ableton Collision. Features: Open source and Cross-platform, available on Windows,... Read More

Meta CTO says staff should quit if they don’t like Meta’s new policiesMeta's CTO said staff unhappy with the tech giant's latest policies should work somewhere else, an internal chat reveals.
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Get the 1176 Classic FET Compressor plugin FREE in Universal Audio’s Valentine’s Day Giveaway
You can now get the 1176 Classic FET Compressor plugin for free as part of Universal Audio’s Valentine’s Day Giveaway. After all these years, the famous 1176 compressor, in all its revisions, is still one of the most sought-after pieces of vintage hardware. To a lesser extent, the same is true of re-issues, hardware clones, [...]
View post: Get the 1176 Classic FET Compressor plugin FREE in Universal Audio’s Valentine’s Day Giveaway

The Nokia 3310 Finally Gets A USB-C UpgradeThe Nokia 3310 has a reputation of being one of the most indestructible devices ever crafted by humanity. It’s also woefully out of date and only usable in a handful of countries that still maintain a GSM network. It might not be easy to bring it into the 5G era, but you can at least convert it to work with modern chargers, thanks to [Andrea].
[SGCDerek] whipped up their own solution for USB-C charging.If you don’t want to buy the parts, you can just DIY the same mod. [SGCDerek] did just that a few years ago. From what it looks like, you likely don’t even need to worry about doing any fancy charger handshaking. The 3310 will happily grab a charge from a low-current 5V supply straight off the USB pins.
You might think this is a messy, complicated mod, but [Andrea] engineered it as a drop-in upgrade. He’s combined a USB-C port with a small plastic adapter that enables it to sit in place of the original phone’s charge port module.  Contact between the port and the rest of the phone is via spring-loaded contacts. The only additional step necessary is popping out the mic from the original charge module and putting it in the new one. You need only a screw driver to disassemble the phone, swap out the parts, and put it all back together.
If you want to upgrade your own handset, [Andrea] is more than happy to provide the parts for a reasonable price of 25 euros. It’s almost worth it just for the laughs—head around to your friend’s house, ask to borrow a charger, and then plug in your USB-C 3310. You’ll blow some minds.
Once upon a time, it was big news that someone hacked a USB-C port into the iPhone. Video after the break.

Music Business Worldwide launches The MBW Database, a vital new resource for the music industry (and its investors)New site offers over 150 charts, built from more than 2,500 data points. It will be constantly updated.
Source

Range Music Publishing Announces New SigningsOn the heels of a massive first year with five chart-topping hits across multiple radio formats, Range Music Publishing kicks off 2025 by adding writers/producers Darius Coleman, Alex Goose, James Maddocks and Simon Oscroft to its diverse roster.
Coleman, signed in partnership with Tommy Brown and Champagne Therapy Music Group, has worked with an impressive array of artists, including Normani, Chris Brown, Renee Rapp, DJ Khaled and Coco Jones. He co-wrote "You See Me" from The Color Purple soundtrack, which was nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 67th Grammy Awards.
Los Angeles-based producer/songwriter Alex Goose has collaborated with Childish Gambino, Vince Staples, Brockhampton, Aaron Frazer, Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), Freddie Gibbs, and Kevin Gates. He’s also composed original music for global brands such as Nike, Apple, Samsung, Google, and Target and produced the iconic Ghostbusterstheme for the 2016 soundtrack Ghostbusters (Answer the Call).
Maddocks, signed in partnership with Charlie Handsome, is known for his versatility across country, hip-hop and R&B. Recent successes include co-writing Morgan Wallen’s No. 1 country radio hit “Cowgirls” (feat. ERNEST) and collaborating with artists such as Post Malone, Khalid, Lil Baby and H.E.R.
Simon Oscroft, signed in partnership with Baxter House, is a songwriter from New Zealand now based in Los Angeles. He’s a long-term close collaborator with Almost Monday and co-wrote and produced their current #1 Alternative hit, “Can’t Slow Down.” Other cuts include songs with Pale Waves, The Aces and OneRepublic.
Casey Robison, Head of Range Music Publishing, says, “We’re excited to introduce the latest additions to Range Publishing. These exceptional writers bring remarkable talent, creativity, and expertise, further elevating our roster. Their contributions will play a vital role in our continued growth as we build on the momentum of our first year.”
In its first year of operation, Range Music Publishing celebrated five chart-topping hits across multiple radio formats. Notably, Shaboozey’s “Bar Song (Tipsy),” co-written by client Sean Cook and co-signed with Warner Chappell, reached #1 across Top 40, Country, Hot AC, Rhythmic charts and tied “Old Town Road” as the longest-running number-one song of all time on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Shaboozey as a breakout star.
Beyond Cook’s work on “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Paul Russell’s “Lil Boo Thang,” Range has also found success with Geoff Warburton (Tyler Hubbard’s “Back Then Right Now,” Luke Bryan’s “But I Got a Beer in My Hand”, co-signed by Big Machine) and Tyler Dopps (#1 Dance radio hit “Young & Foolish” by Loud Luxury featuring Charlieonnafriday).
Last year, Range Music Publishing inked an exclusive, global administration deal with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), the global music publishing division of Universal Music Group. The new agreement expanded on Range Media Partners’ existing relationships with Universal Music Group’s Capitol Music Group and Virgin Music Group.
Range Music represents a wide range of talent including Jack Harlow, Shaboozey, Tanya Tucker, Cordae, Pentatonix, Saweetie, Midland, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Lauv, Dylan Gossett, MAX, Bazzi, Sean Douglas, Paul Russell, Wondagurl, Russell Dickerson, Coi Leray and more. The publishing division is supported by Range Music’s entire partnership, which includes Matt Graham, Jack Minihan, Tyler Henry, Melissa Ruderman, Chris Thomas, Evan Winiker, Cory Litwin, Shawn McSpadden, Rachel Douglas and Jared Cotter.
Range Media Partners is one of the most disruptive new representation businesses in entertainment, with a foothold in the music, film, television, production, comedy and sports industries, as well as offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Nashville.The post Range Music Publishing Announces New Signings first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

These keyboards can control your DAW – and have a built-in trackpad to replace your mouseNUX is launching three new keyboard controllers with built in track pads, so you can say goodbye to your desktop mouse.
The NUX NTK is available with either 37, 49, or 61 keys. The lineup marks the brands’ first series of USB keyboard controllers, which are designed to make working with your DAW much more seamless, and streamline your desktop setup.

READ MORE: The feature set of Minimal Audio’s Wave Shifter frequency modulator is seriously impressive

All three models have buttons for DAW transport control, plus a range of pre-configured presets for simple integration with DAWs such as Cubase (Cubase LE is included with all models), Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Nuendo, Ableton Live, Studio One, FL Studio, and GarageBand. There’s also a memory slot for a custom DAW configuration, plus a MIDI mode on each model, allowing users to configure controls via the keyboard using its display and push encoder, or through the included software editor.
Each keyboard hosts two wheels for pitch bend and modulation, and has nine programmable faders. The 49- and 61-key models also have eight rotary knobs, with the mighty 61-key NTK being the only keyboard in the range to feature eight velocity-sensitive pads, plus a Bank A/B button. All three keyboard controllers also feature a five-pin MIDI output and a sustain pedal jack, alongside USB-B connectivity.
Take a closer a the NTK-61 model in the video below:

For 2025, MusicTech has rounded up the best MIDI controllers to buy in this year, starting with the 12 best Ableton Live controllers you can currently find on the market. Among our picks is the Ableton Push, Novation SL MkIII, and Yaeltex TURN – just to name a few.
To find out more head over to NUX. Official pricing details and availability are yet to be confirmed.
The post These keyboards can control your DAW – and have a built-in trackpad to replace your mouse appeared first on MusicTech.

Joe Satriani: “Anyone can make decent music at home, which is good for people who – because of their sex or appearance – have been cut out of the music scene”Technology has made the barriers to entry in music production lower than ever. Nowadays, Google can be your music teacher, music tech equipment is affordable and social media can get your name out there fast. In the eyes of guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani, that’s definitely a good thing.
Of course, while modern musicians have to fight to get their name out their in a more saturated market, Satriani acknowledges that the industry has been “democratised” and is keen to emphasise its benefits.

READ MORE: Can labelled AI content help preserve the music industry?

The topic came up during an interview with Terrie Carr of WDHA, during which Satriani discusses how technological advances have helped musicians from marginalised backgrounds.
“If you happen to listen to Alyssa Day, she can shred any guy out there,” he says [as transcribed by Ultimate Guitar]. “There’s no difference in aptitude and technical prowess… The opportunity is so important. I don’t think it’s any different for any other art form or business form, if society, either locally or on a bigger scale, doesn’t provide an opportunity for someone to grow into that niche, that business, that art form, then it it sits dormant. And I think, with the digital age, music production has become democratised.

“Everybody can pretty much make a decent musical product at home with their laptop, or their iPad, or something like that. And this has been a good thing for people who, maybe because of their sex or their appearance, have been cut out of the music scene, because they don’t fit. They don’t have a TV look, or they don’t have the right sound for a particular radio station.”
Satriani goes on to talk about how you can find “the most amazing guitar players” on Instagram, who are breaking boundaries in terms of the skills they’re showing off.
“That’s all broken down; the artists and the fans connect without the need for the music industry infrastructure. This has been great for music. If you go to Instagram, you just see the most amazing guitar players from ages eight to 18. They’re just playing better than guitar players have ever played before in the history of the world. So this is a great thing.”
The post Joe Satriani: “Anyone can make decent music at home, which is good for people who – because of their sex or appearance – have been cut out of the music scene” appeared first on MusicTech.

‘Banned’ TikTok still outperforms YouTube, Facebook in U.S.TikTok outperforms YouTube and Facebook in the US in January, according to a new report from Guggenheim Partners and Apptopia. Unofficial app stores are seeing up to 2000 TikTok downloads per hour.
The post ‘Banned’ TikTok still outperforms YouTube, Facebook in U.S. appeared first on Hypebot.

Streaming is losing steam. It’s time to reimagine music’s futureStreaming was supposed to save the music industry, but it's leaving artists behind. As streaming is losing steam, it’s time to rethink the model and put creators back at the center of their own success, writes Alexandre Saboundjian, the CEO of Winamp.
The post Streaming is losing steam. It’s time to reimagine music’s future appeared first on Hypebot.

Sampleson releases rePEDAL, a FREE AI guitar pedal maker for macOS and Windows
Sampleson’s rePEDAL is an experiment in machine learning; the project is currently in beta, and feedback is welcome. In short, rePEDAL is an AI-powered overdrive pedal generator. You get an infinite amount of overdrive pedals in a single plugin. The HD interface looks fantastic and incredibly user-friendly, with just a few controls. In terms of [...]
View post: Sampleson releases rePEDAL, a FREE AI guitar pedal maker for macOS and Windows

DR-05XP & DR-07XP recorders from Tascam Tascam have announced the upcoming launch of two new handheld recorders that build on the strengths of their popular DR-series devices.

AI training on copyrighted content ruled not “fair use” by US court – how could this impact the music industry?In a landmark decision, a US district court has ruled that using copyrighted material without permission to train AI does not constitute “fair use”, a ruling that could have far-reaching implications for the music industry’s ongoing legal battles against AI companies.
The case in question saw news conglomerate Thomson Reuters, proprietor of the renowned Reuters news agency, face off against Ross Intelligence, a now-defunct legal AI startup.
The dispute centred on Ross Intelligence’s use of Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw legal research database to train its AI-powered search engine without authorisation. Ross argued that its use of copyrighted material qualified for a “fair use” exemption – an argument strikingly reminiscent of those made by AI firms facing lawsuits from the music industry.

READ MORE: So…How did Apple Music become a hero of streaming services, and Spotify a supervillain?

On 11 February, Judge Stephanos Bibas of the US District Court for the District of Delaware rejected Ross’s fair use defence, overturning a 2023 decision that had previously sent the case to a jury trial.
In his ruling, Judge Bibas noted that “originality is central to copyright.” And per court documents, Thomson Reuters’ headnotes (“A headnote is a short, key point of law chiseled out of a lengthy judicial opinion”) were determined to “have original value as individual works.”
“More than that, each headnote is an individual, copyrightable work,” the judge noted. “That became clear to me once I analogised the lawyer’s editorial judgment to that of a sculptor. A block of raw marble, like a judicial opinion, is not copyrightable. Yet a sculptor creates a sculpture by choosing what to cut away and what to leave in place. That sculpture is copyrightable.”
The court also ruled that Ross’s use of Thomson Reuters’ data was “not transformative” because, “it does not have a ‘further purpose or different character’ from Thomson Reuters’”
“Even taking all facts in favor of Ross, it meant to compete with Westlaw by developing a market substitute. And it does not matter whether Thomson Reuters has used the data to train its own legal search tools; the effect on a potential market for AI training data is enough.”
Ross’s use was “commercial”, which undermined its fair use defense.
While the ruling appears to favour copyright holders, Judge Bibas stressed that his decision specifically addressed non-generative AI, stating, “Because the AI landscape is changing rapidly, I note for readers that only non-generative AI is before me today”.
This distinction opens the door for future debates, particularly in cases involving generative AI tools, such as those used to create music, like Suno or Udio. These tools don’t just analyse and categorise data — they generate new content, and are likely to be treated differently under copyright law.
Regardless, the Thomson Reuters versus Ross case marks a crucial moment in the ongoing legal conversation surrounding AI and copyright. It signals that courts are becoming more vigilant in scrutinising the relationship between AI and copyrighted material, which would hopefully pave the way for more cases in which the music industry — among others — fights to retain control over their intellectual property.
The post AI training on copyrighted content ruled not “fair use” by US court – how could this impact the music industry? appeared first on MusicTech.

After a juicy tease earlier this week, Apple’s second generation of PowerBeats Pro earbuds are hereApple has given Beats’ Powerbeats Pro an upgrade. Following on from the sporty earbuds’ first-gen release in 2019, the brand new Powerbeats Pro 2 model is set to be Beats’ most secure earbuds to date, as well as boasting Active Noise Cancellation, Heart Rate Monitoring and 10 hours of battery life.
Tested by nearly 1,000 different athletes, the Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds are designed to suit just about any sportsperson’s requirements. The nifty hooks are 50 per cent smaller this generation, designed with an ultra-flexible nickel-titanium alloy to adjust to any ear shape. They’re also able to withstand rain, snow, and heat, meaning they’re suitable for even the sweatiest of athletes.

READ MORE: Stevie Wonder demoed the Apple Vision Pro, according to CEO Tim Cook: “It’s always great to get feedback from Stevie”

While the 10-hour battery life, runners can comfortably set off without concerns of your podcasts cutting off mid-run. The portable charging case also ups the ante, holding up to 45 hours of battery life. That means you can get plenty of miles out of your buds before needing to recharge via USB-C or wirelessly.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 will also be the very first Apple-branded headphones equipped with built-in heart rate monitoring. As it stands, the Apple Watch is currently the only Apple product able to track your heart rate. The addition will allow users to share and track data with fitness apps, a vital feature for athletes hoping to keep tabs on their progress.

Apple has also upgraded the buds’ noise cancellation potential, fitting the earphones with an Apple H2 chip, which is also used in the AirPods Pro 2. It means that the earbuds can adapt the intensity of their noise cancellation depending on your environment. There’s also a Transparency Mode, allowing you to switch off noise cancellation if you’d like.
Adaptive EQ is also a new feature that will adapt the listening experience to each user. The Powerbeats Pro 2 will continuously scan your ear shape to optimise your listening experience, actively customising the sound. There’s also five different sized ear tips included, so your customised listening experience will also be extra comfy.
Tactile buttons allow you to adjust volume and skip tracks on-the-go. However, there’s also a voice control option if you don’t want to break your stride.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds currently come in four colours. There’s more classic options Jet Black and Quick Sand, but a vibrant Electric Orange and Hyper Purple are available to give that extra touch of personality.
You can grab a pair of Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds for £249.99 from Apple now.
The post After a juicy tease earlier this week, Apple’s second generation of PowerBeats Pro earbuds are here appeared first on MusicTech.

The feature set of Minimal Audio’s Wave Shifter frequency modulator is seriously impressiveMinimal Audio has introduced its Wave Shifter “warped” frequency modulator plugin.
Wave Shifter offers frequency shifting, ring modulation, and amp modulation effects that modulate the input signal, generating new harmonics and inharmonic sidebands. Flexible frequency controls like BPM sync, tuning, and stereo spread gives you additional control over your sound.

READ MORE: “The first take is ‘the take’… if you keep it on a loop, you get unlimited options which blocks your process”: Jungle’s J Lloyd on keeping creativity free and imperfect

The plugin includes controls typically found in synthesizers, such as FM and soft sync, enabling the creation of “unique harmonic distortion effects”. Dive into FM feedback routing for chaotic textures, add grit with noise operators, or use the external sidechain input to turn any sound into a frequency modulation source.
The onboard morphing LFO lets you build anything from high-tech data rhythms to complex harmonic movement. Feel free to customise its behaviour with adjustable waveforms, randomisation, and stereo offset to create unique, evolving effects.
In the event that you’re feeling uninspired, Wave Shifter also features a diverse collection of presets – over 70, in fact – ranging from futuristic, sci-fi-esque sound effects to high-powered distortion and beyond.
The plugin is fully compatible with macOS 10.11 and higher, including native Apple silicon, as well as Windows 10 and higher. It can be used in any major DAW that supports 64-bit AAX, AU, VST2, and/or VST3 formats.
Wave Shifter is available at an intro price of $29 (usual price $49), or $15 per month as part of Minimal Audio’s All Access subscription plan.

Learn more at Minimal Audio.
The post The feature set of Minimal Audio’s Wave Shifter frequency modulator is seriously impressive appeared first on MusicTech.