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Mac DeMarco: “I like to respect the way that recordings come to be”It’s odd to hear Mac DeMarco speak with candour and contemplation. You may have happened across him before – maybe covered in Vaseline, teaching you ‘Advanced Studio Recording Techniques’ or grinning and head-bopping to his old demos, which he lovingly calls “garbage,” in a viral clip.
The Canadian artist is adored for his goofy antics, surreal sketches and dreamy ; we catch glimpses of such traits when he tells us about his approach to creating his 2023 albums Five Easy Hot Dogs and One Wayne G. But mostly, (mostly,) DeMarco is surprisingly serious when talking about making music.
Mac DeMarco. Image: Kieram McNally
“I’m not much of a songwriter and I’m not much of a musician,” he says. We can’t help but crack a smile – it was only four months ago he released an album of 199 songs in One Wayne G. DeMarco shrugs off any labels we put forward for him, like producer, beatmaker or singer-songwriter. Instead, he sees his career as an appreciation of sound.
“I like to respect the way that recordings come to be,” he says.
As a result, much of his work involves setting up a recording rig, wherever it may be, and capturing the stream of creativity he has at that moment. To preserve its authenticity, DeMarco avoids lengthy mixdown sessions and endlessly tweaking a project. That explains the stripped-back nature of One Wayne G and Five Easy Hot Dogs.
“It’s like this form of ‘demo-itis’,” says DeMarco, “where I don’t want to change something because I feel like if I change it, then I’ll take away something of its purity, or something like that.”
One Wayne G by Mac DeMarco
If you take the nine hours to listen to One Wayne G and the 35 minutes of instrumentals on Five Easy Hot Dogs, you’ll hear how the stripped-back tracks almost put you in the room with DeMarco. They ooze the Mac DeMarco’s sound but are both starkly different records to the likes of 2014’s jangly Salad Days. And, although Five Easy Hot Dogs might not win over casual fans with its lack of vocal hooks, DeMarco claims it’s his most concise album yet.
“It just like, perfectly encapsulated. Wherever I was, you know, I didn’t go to some mixing studio or whatever. It’s just recorded the way it was.”
You can attribute the album’s sound to the unique way DeMarco recorded it. He went on a solo road trip around North America to create it, performing in hotel rooms along the way and keeping a low profile around cities. Naturally, he needed a pretty portable setup – thankfully, he’s used to keeping things lightweight and DIY. It did mean he had to saw a kick drum in half in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, though.
Image: Kieram McNally
“It’s interesting. [Along with] most of the people that I grew up with, it was just learning to record and learning to do everything yourself”, he explains. “We didn’t have any money. The idea of going to a real studio or something was never that appealing. It just wasn’t really an option. But it’s come to a point, I think where you get a certain outcome doing everything on your own; I get a certain satisfaction doing everything on my own. I mean, if I went to a studio, I’ve got most of the same gear, they would have been the nicest studios now anyway, so it’s kind of like…yeah, I don’t know, it’s just DIY. I’m just DIY.”
For the recording of Five Easy, DeMarco says he took a rig that included “a Lynx Aurora interface, eight API 312 preamps, and I took like a couple dynamic mics. I also took an old Neumann U47, my acoustic guitar, electric guitar, a P bass, a little drum set…I had a Minimoog with me and I had this, like, tabletop Yamaha DX7 – it’s a TX7. And I had two really tiny Genelec monitors.
“The Minimoog was the lead singer of the record. I’m so glad I took him along.”
It’s not exactly a bohemian setup; most bedroom producers would dream of access to gear like this, let alone have it to take on the road. We’re talking about a setup fetching around $20,000, at least. So the recordings DeMarco conjured with this mobile studio sound delightfully mixed and recorded – yet they still feel intriguingly barebones. Much of his process now involves experimenting with mic placements to capture such a sound.
Image: Kieram McNally
“I put the drums up with just four mics – snare, snare top, kick and an overhead – and I would just go to town, and then everything else would go through the U47 and that was it. I used the direct inputs on the API 312 pres and it gave a good sound. You know, it was a good little rig.”
DeMarco is practically spoiled with a collection of supremely sought-after recording gear – so how does he even know where to look if he needs a new piece?
“I don’t really buy gear any more,” he says dismissively. “I’ve got pretty much every super famous old preamp now, a couple consoles, every really old fancy mic you could ever want – I have a lot of nice shit; nice tape machines and synthesizers, nice guitars, you know. But I think that less is more for me at this point.
“I didn’t use a computer to record until probably like 2016 or 17. And, at first, I was like, ‘Okay, here we go – we’ll put this effect on here, we’ll do this, we’ll do this…’ And pretty quickly, I realised I should just really limit myself. I don’t know, I like getting the sound at the microphone…Instead of buying more gear, I’d rather just move the mic around or record in a different room. That’s what is more interesting to me now.”
Image: Kieram McNally
The multi-instrumentalist has a few new recording rules, too. His latest revelation is that it’s time to axe guitar pedals from his setup.
“Honestly, before I talked to you, I was just talking to my sound guy. I was sitting around the table outside and I was telling him how much I hate guitar pedals,” he says as we share a chuckle.
Why? “They’re stupid. They’re cheap pieces of shit with crappy electronics. It’s just crap in the path. I don’t like crap. I don’t care if it makes you sound like Jimi Hendrix or whatever. I don’t want it. I don’t want it! It just stresses me out thinking about it. And the cables that people use in between them. Oh, man. And then the power – crappy. Everything’s crappy. It’s just crappy. And I don’t want them crapping up my shit. No crap.”
All that said, he admits that he does have a small pedalboard for the Five Easy Hot Dogs tour that he’s embarked on, but that it comprises only a tuner, a vibrato pedal and an impulse response effect for his acoustic guitar. However, he reiterates his position on other ‘sound-goodizer’ pedals:
“Yeah, no more pedals. All the pedals should be put in a big pile and we should light ‘em on fire.”
So, instead of blatant effects, DeMarco reveals that he enjoys knowing there are more subtle forces at play within his music. For example, the way he records his acoustic guitar with his Neumann mic – “Maybe some people don’t really hear those little intricacies that I put in there, but I do.”
To that end, the artist behind cult classic tracks such as Chamber Of Reflection and Heart To Heart, (his ode to close friend and hip-hop artist Mac Miller), says that Five Easy and One Wayne G were the records that he made for himself.

“A lot of the Five Easy stuff was recorded on tour, you know, wherever, just years ago,” he says. “It has a transportational effect to it, I guess. But it’s interesting for me too, because I think that a lot of people know me for the bigger songs that I have, or that I have like a specific sound or whatever.
“But I think that One Wayne G is a broader scope of that. I think it all still sounds like me, you can tell that it’s me, but it’s way wider. And I think it goes to places that make people go ‘What? I didn’t know, he did stuff like this.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, I never showed it to anybody and now I am so you know, you can have it!’”
Alongside expressing himself further than his previous albums have permitted him to, DeMarco says that these albums allowed him to explore more esoteric ideas.
“There are a lot of things I like about the whole One Wayne G concept. It’s [processed] in high resolution, you know, purposefully, and just the sheer amount of songs; the way that people have to digest it. The way that you can kind of choose your own way with it. I don’t give a fuck if people listened to it or not. It didn’t matter if it came out. It just did. I just think it’s cool. And I just want to do things that I think are cool. And you know, I’ve been able to do quite a few of them this year. So it’s great. It feels great. I think people seemed to receive it pretty well. So I’m stoked about it.”
Image: Kieram McNally
DeMarco has assured that One Wayne G is far from a “middle finger” to the music industry, as some fans have previously speculated. At 199 songs, though, we can’t help but feel it’s a response to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s claim that artists can no longer afford to “record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.” As it happens, DeMarco’s relationship with Spotify and other streaming platforms is a little complicated.
“I wasn’t trying to be spicy to anybody,” he says, earnestly. “But, honestly, I’ll tell you this: It has something to do with streaming. I never used streaming until like two years ago. I’d just listen to YouTube and what was on my computer. And I got Spotify after being like” – he makes a grumbling noise as if he’s raising his fist to the sky – “and I was like, ‘oh my god, this is so amazing, it’s so easy to listen to music, I can’t believe this.’ It showed me that… I dunno, I just feel that’s the main way people ingest music now, is on these DSPs or streamers or whatever.
“But I just wanted to archive all of that music. Share it, sure, but also archive it – it’s easier for me to not have to carry a fucking hard drive around and be like, ‘Oh, I have this weird song.’ It’s like, I can just put it on Spotify and it’s there – anybody can do it now.”
As a tool for music discovery, he finds it invaluable. In the past year, new fans have found DeMarco’s music through another discovery tool: TikTok. His music has been used as backing tracks for countless viral clips, how-to videos, and mini-vlogs on the platform. Chamber Of Reflection has been used in over 138,000 videos at the time of writing. No doubt DeMarco has found that fruitful.
Image: Kieram McNally
“I think it’s weird, that whole thing where songs go viral on there. I want to believe that it’s like, ‘the people have taken back [the music], they’re the ones who decide what is popular or not.’ But I don’t think it’s fully that; I think it’s some like viral shit where it’s like, ‘oh, you had somebody make a dance to your thing and now it’s huge and like you’re the artist or whatever’ which is fine.
“I mean, I’ve had a couple songs go pretty crazy on there and you know the revenue off of those has been you know, quite helpful so… Yeah, I’m fine with TikTok, I don’t give a shit. I’m not on it. I probably never will be. I don’t know. It is what it is – people can have fun with whatever they want.”
Such an ethos has been present throughout DeMarco’s career – whether it’s encouraging people to have fun at his shows while he goofs around in his underwear, inviting a fan onstage, or having fun watching as he collaborates with his peers.
Though he admits he prefers to create music in private, he’s “opened up artistically” with the likes of Benny Sings, Myd, Eyedress and Kenny Beats. We ask how he found his time collaborating with Kenny Beats on an episode of his famous The Cave sessions.
“I love Kenny he’s one of my good friends, I absolutely love this man.”
“Kenny and I knew each other a little bit before [The Cave episode]. We’d hang every once in a while. But he wanted me to come to an episode and I was like, ‘Yeah, sure I’ll do it.’ The Cave is one thing, but I’ve worked on other stuff with Kenny, he’s coming over here a lot.”

DeMarco featured most recently on Kenny’s album, Louie, which picked up MusicTech’s Album Of The Year in 2022. Interestingly, DeMarco is credited as a producer and engineer on the record – two titles that he’d usually not give himself. But it seems like the artist was keen to get involved with Kenny’s debut in a natural, unforced way. He laments the way collaboration is often framed in modern music.
“The whole feature culture that we’re living in nowadays is kind of gross to me,” he explains. “It’s like people put out records that are just all features. I don’t know; I’m happy to record with my friends, but for me to actually artistically write that kind of material can be tough. Especially in the scenario that collaboration usually comes about now, it’s like ‘yo pull up on the studio, let’s work!” I’m like, “What the fuck?”
“I think the collaboration works in some worlds, like in the beatmaking world and in other different of music, and it’s great. This is the way that I am but then I’ll be in a studio and a rapper will come through and just be able to, like, fucking unload onto the microphone I’m like, ‘How the fuck do you do that?’ It’s crazy.”
Image: Kieram McNally
Lucky for him, DeMarco’s relationship with Kenny isn’t as intimidating or serious. Instead, he appreciates the process with the revered producer.
“I have a nice collaborative experience with Kenny actually – he’s deeply interesting to me. The ground that he covers, musically…Like, he’s always interested in something new, and the genre doesn’t really matter to him, he’s down for whatever. He’s an interesting guy. I’m glad that he’s in my zone.”
For DeMarco, whether he’s collaborating or not, the crucial aspect of creating is to enjoy the process. His advice to fellow artists and budding producers rings the same.
“What I’ve always said is you should enjoy what you’re doing. Because if you’re enjoying what you’re doing, you’re happy with making art, that’s the most important thing.”
Image: Kieram McNally
Check out more of Mac DeMarco on his website.
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Drumdrops Pop Punk Pop Punk is a collection of powerful, energetic and beautifully recorded drum loops and samples capturing the convivial optimism of the 00s pop punk scene. With nearly 250 loops across... Read More

Confidence Man throw the ultimate dance party at All Points East 2023Everyone seems to be obsessed with Confidence Man right now, and it’s easy to see why. The Australian electro-pop outfit – consisting of vocalists Janet Planet and Sugar Bones, and intriguingly masked instrumentalists Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild – are curators of the perfect, delightfully silly party.

READ MORE: Romy brings life-affirming rave euphoria to All Points East

With dance routines, tongue-in-cheek choruses and warm golden strobes, their incredibly fun live shows are in high demand for very good reason.
Although an hour-long set may seem a long time when looking at an All Points East festival schedule, the four-piece makes light work of the packed big top tent.
Confidence Man at All Points East
Trading in theatrical concepts and oversized shoulder blade black suit jackets, vocalists Janet Planet and Sugar Bones kick things off with some Adams Family-style strutting during piano-house heater, Toy Boy.
At times it feels like a workout class, or a session on the iconic PlayStation game Just Dance, especially as the pair hit each move to achieve the highest score.
Their show – camp, carefree, and full of costume changes – is one of the most fun gigs you’re likely to experience: late summer banger Now U Do (produced by DJ Seinfeld) is paired with galaxy-travelling visuals as friends scale shoulders and a unicorn head is hoisted in the air.
Confidence Man at All Points East / Credit: @khaliphotography
Even when the pair leave the stage to change outfits, the hedonistic vibe is unaltered, as the keyboardist plays a ravey track while strobes flash. Of course, the crowd lap it up.
Feels Like A Different Thing sees them return with colour-changing add-ons (luminous boobs for Janet) and sporting sunglasses, both adding an otherworldly, futuristic element to the show.
As they flail their arms behind them, it’s like they’re getting sucked into the on-screen vortex, much like the audience who feel like they’ve stepped through a portal.
“The choreo is insane!” shouts one audience member close to us as Janet and Sugar spell out the word ‘cool’ YMCA-style for C.O.O.L. Party, an upbeat track that would’ve worked brilliantly on the Barbie movie soundtrack.
Continuing to lovingly poke fun at the 90s pop scene, Sugar grabs a bottle of champagne and sprays it over the crowd. The Daniel Avery-assisted techno punch of On & On (which subtly satirises music’s repetitive but catchy formula) comes with Strictly-style lifts as Sugar and Janet score all 10s from the crowd. The most industrial track of their set, it suits the darkening sky that’s creeping in from outside and proves that Confidence Man can do both moods: underground puncturing or sun-drenched hedonism (see Holiday).
Confidence Man / Credit: @khaliphotography
Contrastingly, the satirical Don’t You Know I’m In A Band (a hilarious but kind-hearted nod to Right Said Fred) gives Sugar his own main character moment. After waving his top in the air I’m Too Sexy-style and flinging it into the crowd, he does a headstand, has a dance-off with Janet and climbs into the audience – while singing in his lower register, of course. The energy is tireless.
As if they’ve not already given it their all, they instruct everyone to get down (literally) for a sit down during the build-up of acid-tinged ‘Repeat’. The thousands-strong audience happily oblige, jumping back up together and pogo-ing on the spot for the remainder of the song – a real moment.
Put simply, letting loose is unavoidable at a Confidence Man show. If you’ve not come to party, don’t bother coming at all.
Want to keep the party going? Find out when the band is on tour via confidence.com.au.
The post Confidence Man throw the ultimate dance party at All Points East 2023 appeared first on MusicTech.

Music Marketing appoint Group Technologies Music Marketing Inc have announced that Group Technologies Australasia Pty Ltd have been appointed as their exclusive Marketing Center for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.

ASCAP throws shade, highlights nonprofit status as BMI eyes $1.7B saleAs reports intensify that BMI is in the final stages of a $1.7 billion sale to private equity firm New Mountain Capital, which would negate its long-standing non-profit status, ASCAP. Continue reading
The post ASCAP throws shade, highlights nonprofit status as BMI eyes $1.7B sale appeared first on Hypebot.

Build fans, don’t chase streams [Madelynn Elyse, Shark Attack Records]The founder and president of Shark Attack Records, Madelynn Elyse, shares her insights and industry experience on the importance of building a strong artist-fan relationship in the modern music marketplace.. Continue reading
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The CD Booklet: How to elevate your next album releaseAn album cover, though important to your brand, is just the surface of possibilities at hand when releasing music. In this post, learn how to get creative with your packaging. Continue reading
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Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final studio performances at NHK Broadcast Center Studio arriving in new film, OpusFive months following his death, the final performances of legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto are set to be shared with the world as part of a film called Opus.

READ MORE: Producer Jeremiah Chiu uses Vintage Synth Museum to create album in two days

The film, which will debut at the Venice Film Festival on 5 September, includes performances of works by Sakamoto’s former band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, his film scores, and music from his final album, 12. Watch the trailer for Opus below:

The film was directed by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son, Neo Sora, and produced by his wife and manager, Norika Sora. It was recorded at studios with “the finest acoustics in Japan”, Sakomoto said in a posthumous statement, in Tokyo’s NHK Broadcast Center in the months leading up to Sakamoto’s death.
In the posthumous statement regarding the film, Sakamoto said: “The project was conceived as a way to record my performances – while I was still able to perform – in a way that is worth preserving for the future. We borrowed the NHK Broadcast Center’s 509 Studio to record in, which is a place that I think offers the finest acoustics in Japan.
“I played every piece at home which we recorded on an iPhone to construct the overall composition of the concert that will express the progression of time from morning into night. Everything was meticulously storyboarded so that the camera positions and the lighting changed significantly with each song. I went into the shoot a little nervous, thinking this might be my last chance to share my performance with everyone in this way. We recorded a few songs a day with a lot of care.
“In some sense, while thinking of this as my last opportunity to perform, I also felt that I was able to break new grounds. Simply playing a few songs a day with a lot of concentration was all I could muster at this point in my life. Perhaps due to the exertion, I felt utterly hollow afterwards, and my condition worsened for about a month. Even so, I feel relieved that I was able to record before my death – a performance that I was satisfied with.”
Find out more at sitesakamoto.com.
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Behringer’s Kobol Expander synth is officially available – here’s everything you need to knowBehringer’s Kobol Expander synthesiser, based on the RSF Kobol Expander of 1979, is officially available with shipping available immediately.
The music gear manufacturing brand teased the product in April last year and announced that it was in its testing phase.

READ MORE: The first prototype of Behringer’s OB-X clone, the UB-X, is here

The original RSF model was dubbed “the French Minimoog” back during its prime. Only 200 units of the original RSF Kobol (which also hosted a keyboard) were made, yet it still was used by musical greats such as Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel.
To compete with competition from US and Japanese-based brands, RSF broke down the Kobol into three racks, where the Kobol Expander came into play.
Behringer says its iteration is an authentic reproduction of original Kobol Expander circuitry, but of course with implemented modern elements, such as a MIDI socket on the front panel this time around.
The duophonic, analogue model is being branded as an “affordable and accessible” version of the vintage gem. It has two VCOs and seven morphing waveforms, with a semi-modular design and a pure analogue signal path.
It features a unique four-pole VCF, only found in Kobol synthesisers, and its analogue LFO has two selectable waveforms and multiple destinations. There are also 32 Eurorack-friendly patch points for advanced modular connection, an external audio input for processing external sound sources, a 16-voice Poly Chain option, and Voice Priority selection.
Check out more in the video below:

Earlier this month, Behringer also launched its JT-4000 programmable four-voice hybrid synth. Behringer says it is a reproduction of the classic Roland JP-8000 sound engine with a Supersaw waveform. It also has 32 memory presets, and hosts 16 touch sensitive keys, as well as two LFOs.
The small but mighty model uses analogue filters coupled with a 12-bit DAC to provide the “warm and natural sound” associated with classic full-sized synths, but in a much smaller enclosure.
The Kobol Expander currently has a list price of $199. You can find out more information, including full specs, and locate a dealer directly from the Behringer website.
The post Behringer’s Kobol Expander synth is officially available – here’s everything you need to know appeared first on MusicTech.

KIT Plugins launch BB A5 channel strip As well as capturing the sound of API's 212L preamp, BB A5 also models three of their most coveted EQs: the three-band 550A, the four-band 550L and the proportional Q-based 560L graphic equaliser.

Dubstep producer Vaccine dies aged 43US dubstep producer and DJ Christine Clements AKA Vaccine has sadly died at the age of 43.
The news was broken by Clements’ husband and fellow musician James Clements AKA ASC. In an Instagram post published last Thursday 24 August, he wrote that she “radiated warmth and kindness”, winning the hearts of her fans through her “delicate and emotional approach to dubstep and autonomic” music.
“It’s with immense sadness that I announce the death of my beautiful wife, Christine,” Clements’ husband writes in the post. “She passed away in the early hours of August 22, after being admitted to hospital on the 16th for a sudden downturn in health.”
“Everyone that met Christine would say she radiated warmth and kindness, was a beautiful person, and was simply a joy to be around. She lit up the room with her smile and humour. She was selfless and always wanted to help people, whether she knew them or not. Life was all about love and compassion for her,” Clements goes on.
“Many of you know her for the music which she released under the name Vaccine. I know she touched a lot of people’s hearts and minds with her delicate and emotional approach to dubstep and autonomic.”
Clements, as Vaccine, was a prominent name in the early dubstep scene in the US. She released tracks on Scuba’s Hotflush label and Boddika’s Nonplus label, becoming one of the first female producers to be signed to a dubstep-related record label.
Her tracks, such as Anaesthetic and Wishful Thinking, boast a melodic, ethereal take on the dubstep genre. XLR8R once described her tracks as “not necessarily main floor rave fodder, but rather, comedown music for a 6 a.m. all-back-to-mine”

“She was the light of my life, and life seems so much darker since she departed. I can’t even begin to try and put into words what I’m feeling right now, or begin to understand the void her death has left for me and her family,” continues the post.
“I will never forget how you changed my life and made me a better person. You will always be with me in my heart and mind, and I will love you forever. I miss you so so much.”
The electronic music scene has taken to X to react to the sad death of the producer:

RIP Christine Clementsbeloved Vaccinem/a..x pic.twitter.com/VBZn95cs4x
— maryanne hobbs (@maryannehobbs) August 25, 2023

Woke up to the awful news of Christine Clements’ passing, far too young. Through her alias Vaccine, she composed dubstep from the exact palette I love most: soft and feminine, dark and heavy, ethereal, unreal. Her songs meant so much to me when I was young. Rest in peace angel pic.twitter.com/saYqpPxdeo
— the real love inside me (@Post1000Tension) August 26, 2023

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AI, music rights, and known unknownsThe music industry is approaching a tipping point, with the building blocks of what will be the post-streaming era beginning to fall into place. The streaming era will make way for something new. Innovation, disruption, and change will define the coming years, with AI, fandom, and the creator economy centre stage. Consumer behaviour will enter a new phase too, having gone from the listening era of the CD, through the consumption era of streaming. What comes next will likely be a polarisation of those two extremes, with participation carving out a path down the middle.

Humans like to think about the history of the world in chapters or eras. The music business is no different. We have had the CD era, the piracy era, and the streaming era. While it is easy to look back and see those changes, it was not as if someone (with the possible exception of Daniel Ek) looked at their calendar on the 7thof October 2008 and said “oh, we are now in the streaming era”. We need to look for early warning signs to try to understand when change is coming. The music industry is full of them right now and the change to come will likely be so fast that music licensing will need a new playbook. Rights normally play catch up to new tech, but this next wave of change threatens to run far faster than rights can.

Technology’s exceptionalism

A recurring theme in the history of rights is rightsholders translating and transposing traditional frameworks into digital contexts, while trying to grapple with how things change when technology does something instead of a human. For example, when someone sings a song on a livestream to an audience of 20 people, that is considered in an entirely different context to someone singing to 20 people in their local bar. Similarly, if someone was to spend weeks learning every chord progression and melody of an artist to write a song in their style, there would be no rights permutations unless the resulting work actually replicated the music of the artist, as opposed to the style. But get a machine to do the learning and suddenly there is a (contentious) rights conversation to be had.

This is because technology can do the input stage once but the output an infinite number of times. The 20 people on the livestream could suddenly become 200,000. The music learning could be used by millions of people, not one. This approach has enabled music rights to be both protected and remunerated, but it has also led to incongruous work arounds. This is happening even in streaming, where there is both a mechanical right and a public performance right, because a stream is simultaneously considered a copy and a performance. In practice, it is just a stream. 

The music world has changed and so will music rights

The reason music rightsholders were able, to put it bluntly, to shape the streaming market in their image is because the majors had a de-facto monopoly over supply of content (Amazon was the only global streaming service that was able to launch without all three majors on board). Streaming services had to curb their enthusiasm and make their propositions fit rightsholders requirements (both in terms of rights and cold hard cash).

What comes next will not play out that way because:

Major labels’ market share has lessened 

Cultural fragmentation means mainstream is less important (you do not necessarily need the hits anymore)

Future music experiences will be less focused on traditional recordings

So, if music rightsholders were to lock themselves in another long-term debate about whether something is a copy or a performance or both, the market will likely work out a way to progress without them. What is more, many of the rights that will be implicated or created in this new era — such as the right to an artist’s voice (not the recording of it) — belong to the artist, not the label (or at least not yet, as labels should and probably will try to write these rights into future contracts).

To be clear, this is 100% not an advocation of avoiding rights – quite the opposite in fact. If the compositional rights side of streaming had just been a new streaming right, there is no inherent reason why songwriters would have got paid a penny less. The simpler and more streamlined music rights can be for future formats, the more likely that more of the resulting revenue will result in royalty payments.

When they were licensing streaming, rightsholders could threaten to throw up a roadblock. In this new world, they will only be able to throw up speed bumps.

AI will accelerate change 

The path to a vibrant and licensed music future will require a more agile and future-facing approach to music rights. The technology we have in place today is already throwing up rights questions that are not easily answered. The rate of change is going to accelerate due to the role of AI, less in terms of the apps created and more because of how AI itself will accelerate learning and development. Look no further than the AI programme that generated 40,000 new bioweapons in just six hours. AI is going to power a new industrial revolution process that will likely leave today’s tech landscape looking like the agrarian economy that the first industrial revolution rendered obsolete.

So, how do we plot a path forward? For that, I am going to turn to Donald Rumsfeld’s ‘known unknowns framework’, or the ‘Rumsfeld Matrix’ as some like to call it. For those of you too young to remember it, this is what I am talking about. Basically, it is a framework for splitting the world into what you know (known knowns), what you know you do not know (known unknowns), and what you do not know you do not know (unknown unknowns). It translates really well to music rights.

The known unknown rights are those we either already know we need or that there is the start of a conversation around (e.g., live streaming is hardly new, yet we still lack a global licensing solution). The unknown unknown rights are all the new possibilities merging technologies may throw up. Here are two key examples:

Temporary rights: Much of the social world is defined by content that only exists for a limited time (e.g., Instagram Stories lasting for just 24 hours). It is reasonable to assume that much of the music content consumers will create in the future will also only be temporary, but revenue will still likely be generated against them. So, unless a rights framework exists, the creators (consumers in this context) would not be renumerated for their creation.

Generative rights: Most of the rights conversation around generative AI has focused on the works that AI learns from being protected and remunerated. But that is only the input. There is also the output. Just like De La Soul, that spent years clearing samples to get onto streaming, still own the rights to their songs, the creators (and consumer creators) that use AI to generate music will have created a work that should have a right of its own. Years spent clearing source rights will not work. So, the generative AI right will likely need to incorporate some form of derivative rights to ensure money flows to the rightsholders. AI start-up Boomy somewhat cynically claims the rights to all works created by users on its platform but has, perhaps inadvertently, established the precedent for a generative creation right.

None of this will be easy. But little will be easy about what comes next. If you thought change was fast this last decade, wait for the next one. 

As William Gibson’s quote goes: “The future is already here – It’s just not evenly distributed.”

Get your music professionally produced and engineered with MusicTech and BandLab’s Final Mix opportunityGot a demo track or idea that you’d love to get mixed and released? MusicTech is teaming up with BandLab Opportunities to offer you the chance to have your demo track produced by a professional at Tileyard Studios.

READ MORE: Can ChatGPT be useful for sound design? YouTuber TAETRO finds out

One artist will be selected through the BandLab Opportunities platform to record their music at the London-based studio complex. Their reputable producer will help record and mix the single so that it’s ready for release. MusicTech will spotlight and support the chosen artist with an interview feature, social media content, newsletter coverage and a behind-the-scenes video that documents the production process.
If this sounds like your perfect day out, here’s how to enter. You’ll simply need to submit your demo track via the BandLab platform, and include your artist name, track name, and a short bio about yourself. You’ve got until 25 September 2023 to upload the track, so if you’ve got a musical idea brewing, you’ve got a little bit of time to lay down the demo.
This Opportunity is genre-agnostic – it doesn’t matter whether you’re a hip-hop head, a dance producer, or a singer-songwriter, so long as your idea is sound. MusicTech’s panel of experts will make their selection shortly after submissions close, and will get the opportunity underway. By 25 October 2023, your song will be recorded and we’ll start publishing content to support your new single.
Additional details:

Artist must own 100% of the rights to all submitted content
The selected artist will be chosen by the MusicTech editorial team
Selected artist will be the subject of a MusicTech-produced editorial feature
Entrants require a BandLab Membership

Head to BandLab Opportunities to enter.
[Editor’s note: BandLab Technologies is part of Caldecott Music Group, which is also the parent company of MusicTech, NME Networks]
The post Get your music professionally produced and engineered with MusicTech and BandLab’s Final Mix opportunity appeared first on MusicTech.

Romy brings life-affirming rave euphoria to All Points EastA sweaty big top tent is the perfect setting to indulge in Romy’s uninhibited rave utopia.

READ MORE: TSHA’s live band brings the sunshine to Field Day 2023

Performing for a packed All Points East audience, thousands of carefree gig-goers ensure the artist’s London show – structured in two halves, moving from DJ set to live show – is among the Victoria Park festival’s busiest.
Casually stepping behind the decks, Romy’s name – written in large, gloopy, neon pink – luminates from the huge backing screen. As does her turquoise roll neck – a contrast to the all-black attire she formerly wore when playing guitar and singing as one-third of atmospheric indie pop trio The xx (alongside Oliver Sim and Jamie XX).
Equally vibrant are the Fred Again collaborator’s serotonin-boosting track selections, which included club-ready edits of noughties pop classics like Rihanna’s Only Girl (in the World) and a trance-y reimagining of Rihanna and Calvin Harris’ This Is What You Came For.
Romy at All Points East festival / Credit: Sharon Lopez
Gradually teasing snippets of her own tracks (Love Her), Romy dips into nostalgic dance anthems such as Sonique’s 2000 hit It Feels So Good and Alice Deejay’s iconic 99 floor filler, Better Off Alone. This bridging of time pays homage to the nostalgic influences that inspired the sound of her solo project and upcoming album, Mid Air.
As dancers join her on stage, the emotional release of her acclaimed track Lifetime blends perfectly into Cher’s Believe.
Bouncing around behind the decks as pink strobes flashed over the crowd, Romy’s rave mode has been well and truly activated. The Brit’s selections also chimed perfectly with the current 90s trance and Euro dance revival.
While she’s undeniably a stellar selector, the show’s second half sees Romy take on more of a leading role as the performance transitioned into a live-DJ hybrid. Continuing the workout, but now from centre stage, a DJ arrives to deliver the beats while Romy sings at the microphone.

After first easing herself in, she gradually starts to move away from the mic stand and interacts with the dancers. It’s a delight to see Romy’s confidence grow in real time; making a heart sign with her hands, telling everyone she loves them; it’s clear how much this show means to her.
Absorbing the energy of those in the crowd who cheer, dance and jump along, when the titular message of Enjoy Your Life shows on screen, its positive ethos lifts everyone’s spirits even further. With a sea of arms reaching skywards, the empowering mantra is rapturously received by the audience who sing the chorus at the top of their lungs.
Similarly, Lights Out, which starts with just Romy’s voice and sombre keys, erupts when thousands in the audience unite to belt out the infectious chorus; the urgent lyrics plead “I never want it to end” as white strobes blind, conjuring the feeling of a spiritual awakening.
An unreleased song from her imminent debut album – her love letter to formative years of queer clubbing and 00s Euro-dance – has everyone clapping along to its simple foot-tapping beat. Closing the 60-minute workout with an emotive beacon of hope, Strong, she leaves the stage with the dancers to deafening cheers and applause.
After such a euphoric, technicolour performance, it’s easy to see how once-introverted Romy has ascended to become a shining light of the UK’s underground dance scene. A main character moment, indeed.
See Romy’s tour dates via romyromyromy.com.
The post Romy brings life-affirming rave euphoria to All Points East appeared first on MusicTech.