AI Music Agreements need to address these 5 issues [Chris Castle]YouTube’s new deal with UMG to explore music and AI is among the countless initiates attempting to make sense of and monetize AI. Attorney Chris Castle cuts through the noise. Continue reading
The post AI Music Agreements need to address these 5 issues [Chris Castle] appeared first on Hypebot.

“I’ve never used a MIDI instrument in my life”: Jack Antonoff on his love of analogue gearProducer Jack Antonoff has spoken about his love for analogue gear and the way it “pushes you very hard” as a creator.

READ MORE: “They’re making bulls**t records with loops. Everything’s sampled”: Tony Visconti slams modern producers

In a recent chat with MusicRadar, Antonoff – known for his work with Pink, St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey and of course, Taylor Swift – describes his approach to gear as “completely out of the box”.
“I’ve never used a MIDI instrument in my life,” he says. “I’m always pushing myself by using different things, and what’s nice about analogue gear is everything is a completely new journey.”
The producer also says that while he likes modern stuff, “it takes a long time for something to develop a personality”.
“Very often the feeling of something after it’s been around for some amount of time has a different layer to it… I’ve noticed that the kind of music that I imagine in my head gravitates towards the mystery that comes out of things that are a bit more unwieldy.”
He explains, “When you have a new piece of gear – especially when it’s something that’s been around, and has a lot of life in it already, and is filled with ghosts – and you plug it in, you physically can’t make the sounds you’ve been making. You’re in the desert, you’re in a new frontier, and you just have to find your personality within it. I find that vintage gear pushes you very hard.”
“I think the most modern thing you can do is use things that have been around for a while in new ways,” says Antonoff, adding that the main thing about “older, analogue instruments”, is that “you truly can’t duplicate the sound.”
“Every time you turn it on, it’s on. The electricity, the fucking weather, all these things are changing the feeling of it. So it’s nice to know when you’re in the studio that you’re creating something that can only happen right there. Because at the end of the day, I don’t want to be able to duplicate things, I want to catch moments. I think vintage gear is very helpful for that.”
He adds that the sheer number of possibilities on a soft synth can sometimes cause musicians to “freeze up a little bit”, saying, “Sometimes, when it comes to soft synths, the ability to make so many sounds has an inertia within that.”
The post “I’ve never used a MIDI instrument in my life”: Jack Antonoff on his love of analogue gear appeared first on MusicTech.

Avicii’s Wake Me Up hits two billion Spotify streamsWake Me Up, one of the biggest hits by late EDM producer Avicii, has hit two billion streams on Spotify, joining an exclusive 40-strong club of songs in the two billion region.

READ MORE: Producer reveals how he made over $1,000,000 selling beats on YouTube

The track, which features Aloe Blacc and was released in 2013, joins the likes of 2018’s Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi, 2019’s Dance Monkey by Tones and I and Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee. It becomes just the fourth dance track to do so.

The milestone was celebrated by Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, who took to X to write: “Some big news today. Wake Me Up by Avicii is the first song by a Swedish artist to break 2B streams on Spotify. It’s so amazing to see Avicii’s influence and remarkable work continuing to bring joy to so many around the world.”
Achieving two billion streams is huge, and was an unthinkable number not that long ago. But, if you’re now thinking about who has three billion streams, we have been too. This club is, as you can imagine, far more exclusive. Only two artists have achieved three billion Spotify streams so far – Ed Sheeran with Shape Of You and The Weeknd with Blinding Lights.
Wake Me Up is not just smashing the numbers on Spotify streams. In June, it earned RIAA Diamond Certification, which means 10 million certified units have been sold.
There’s no doubt that Avicii, who sadly died in 2018, is now revered as a modern great of dance music. It was revealed in May 2023 that a documentary about the EDM artist is in the works, which will “accurately and objectively” tell his story.
In other Spotify news, it was recently revealed that the streaming platform is missing out on an estimated $38 million after its algorithm has suggested less cost-effective white-noise podcasts designed for studying and meditation.
Listen to Avicii’s music via Spotify.
The post Avicii’s Wake Me Up hits two billion Spotify streams appeared first on MusicTech.

Sampleson SKYWAVES: Analog Cinematic Soundscapes Creator SkyWaves is a soundscape and ambient creator built upon faithful recreation of analog synth oscillators and analog effects. High quality analog sound sources + spacious and... Read More

“I want to use chords I never used before”: Pharrell teases new N.E.R.D. musicPharrell has confirmed that new N.E.R.D. music is in the works.

READ MORE: “I’m an engineer first, producer second, performer third”: Deadmau5 follows up on his comments about pre-recorded DJ sets

In a new interview with Tyler, The Creator for GQ, Pharrell reveals that he has been working on “12 N.E.R.D. records” while in Paris.
Speaking about the process behind the new material, Pharrell says, “They’re big choruses, but you know, out of nowhere, I’ll just come out of nowhere with the three-bar, crazy-nuts chords that go three-bar to four-bar to eight-bar. It’s good bro, it’s good.”
“This is like that feeling that I felt when we made [2001 album] In Search Of…,” the musician adds. “I won’t sit here and tell you that they were hits. I knew it was different, and I knew there won’t be nothing out there like this. But I’m talking about the feeling.”
As for the kind of music fans can expect to see, Pharrell says: “I wanted to do everything. I wanted feelings. I wanted the motherfuckin’ great composition. I wanted great chords.”
“I want to use chords I never used before, and not just the dreamy ones. The ones that I’ve never done, that I fuckin’ hated. But using them in ways to get to other chords where the changes are such a release. And then, lyrically, the harmonies here…all the songs just have rainbow harmonies.”
N.E.R.D.’s most recent album No One Ever Really Dies was released in 2017. The record famously featured guest appearances from a number of industry heavyweights including Rihanna, André 3000, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar.

The post “I want to use chords I never used before”: Pharrell teases new N.E.R.D. music appeared first on MusicTech.

Night Tapes: “Other producers seemed like wizards. Then we found out they just had better plugins”Night Tapes are a seriously talented three-piece band creating electronic-tinged, psychedelic dream pop. Hailing from London, the outfit is made up of Max Doohan, Sam Richards and Iiris Vesik, three musicians who formed the band after a series of late night jam sessions.

READ MORE: Best synthesizers to buy in 2023: 18 of the best synths under $600

Perfect Kindness is the title of just Night Tapes’ third EP – which is early on in their journey when you consider how pristine each track sounds. It helped, we must add, with the maestro hand of mixing engineer Nathan Boddy, who’s worked with PinkPantheress, James Blake, Mura Masa and London Grammar. We speak to the band and find out about the plugins in particular that helped shape this stunning EP and why digital tools and synths help their music-making process.
Perfect Kindness by Night Tapes
Hey, Night Tapes! How are things?
Iiris: Hey, MusicTech! We’re deep into making a new EP (which will probably be the last EP before an album), preparing for a little tour in the UK and Europe in September/October and trying to enjoy the rainy summer we’re having in London.
What are your individual roles and how do you work together?
Ritchie: We don’t really have defined roles so much. We were all producing music individually before Night Tapes and this carries across to how we write now. Most of the songs start as a demo from one of us individually, which we then collectively work on it to carry over the line.
Tell us about your love of plugins.
Max: There’s a lot of innovation going on in plugins and plugins are generally a lot cheaper and easier to demo. While we love old hardware that’s tried and tested there’s something to be said for using new tools that create new outcomes in your music.
Iiris: I remember how everything I made used to sound shit and other producers seemed like wizards who could just magically make stuff sound better. Then I found out they just had better plugins and eventually I had to get a good microphone. Until those things happened, everything was just frustrating.
What’s your latest plugin purchase?
The God Particle. Image: Cradle
Max: We recently got a plugin called The God Particle by Cradle which is an enigma. It has a definite sound which either really works or really doesn’t. There’s a track on the latest EP Perfect Kindness on which we recorded the lead vocals with an iPhone and then cranked that plugin to 200 per cent to emphasise all of the artefacts.
What’s the best-value plugin you own?
Effect Rack. Image: Soundtoys
Max: SoundToys Effect Rack. This multi-plugin rack was a ray of light in the lockdown when it came out for $99. We use the presets all the time and it’s such a creative toolbox to have access to.
What’s the weirdest plugin you own?
Soundgrain. Image: Olivier Belanger
Ritchie: It’s not really a plugin exactly, but Soundgrain is an amazing tool for manipulating audio. It’s a little hard to explain exactly what it does, but it effectively time stretches and loops samples at different frequencies to create amazingly interesting textures. It’s an amazing way to create beds of sound and ambient pads.
What plugins go on your master bus without fail?
Max: Sonarworks SoundID Reference. our studio is not currently acoustically treated so it’s helpful for getting a more accurate sound in the room- especially for mixing.
What plugin would your latest EP, Perfect Kindness, be incomplete without?
ValhallaRoom. Image: Valhalla DSP
Max: ValhallaRoom by Valhalla DSP. It’s our go-to reverb across all of our music and has become an instrument in its own right. It doesn’t really imitate a real space like most VST reverbs – it’s got an ethereal quality.
You’ve created a really distorted atmosphere on Humans. How?
Richie: A big part of that distorted sound is running various instruments through cassette multitrack preamps – primarily our Tascam four track mixer. On certain parts, we’ll track to cassette tape and transfer that to our project. The cassette tape has quite a limited dynamic range, so it compresses the tape saturation in a musical way.
When it comes to vocals, we’ll often combine this saturated sound with software saturation so it’s easier to bed into the mix. Like many others, we’re big fans of using Soundtoys’ Decapitator to do this. Saying that, I’m a big fan of Logic Pro’s stock clip distortion. You have a lot of control over where clipping occurs, and it runs well in parallel with the mix turned right down. The big vocal sound on both Humans and Inigo is a result of this. It has a really bright, sparkly saturation that compliments the heavier, more midrange tape saturation of the Tascam.
Do you have any secret sauce plugins?
Virtual MixBuss. Image: Slate Digital
Max: Virtual MixBuss by Slate. It’s an analogue desk emulator which has become our default first plugin on our output chain. It adds a little more air and color to everything.
Richie: Virtual Tape Machines, also by Slate. It’s really subtle, but sounds warm and lifelike. I’m a massive fan of Waves’ (slightly less realistic) Kramer Tape too. Flux control is dangerously addictive.
What about a guilty pleasure plugin?
Richie: Fabfilter’s Pro L 2. Turning a mix up by 4db is apparently the real secret to impressing friends, family and A&Rs.
Listen to more of Night Tapes’ music on Bandcamp.
The post Night Tapes: “Other producers seemed like wizards. Then we found out they just had better plugins” appeared first on MusicTech.

Night Tapes: “Other producers seemed like wizards. Then we found out they just had better plugins”Night Tapes are a seriously talented three-piece band creating electronic-tinged, psychedelic dream pop. Hailing from London, the outfit is made up of Max Doohan, Sam Richards and Iiris Vesik, three musicians who formed the band after a series of late night jam sessions.

READ MORE: Best synthesizers to buy in 2023: 18 of the best synths under $600

Kindness is the title of just Night Tapes’ third EP – which is early on in their journey when you consider how pristine each track sounds. It helped, we must add, with the maestro hand of mixing engineer Nathan Boddy, who’s worked with PinkPantheress, James Blake, Mura Masa and London Grammar. We speak to the band and find out about the plugins in particular that helped shape this stunning EP and why digital tools and synths help their music-making process.
Perfect Kindness by Night Tapes
Hey, Night Tapes! How are things?
Iiris: Hey, MusicTech! We’re deep into making a new EP (which will probably be the last EP before an album), preparing for a little tour in the UK and Europe in September/October and trying to enjoy the rainy summer we’re having in London.
What are your individual roles and how do you work together?
Ritchie: We don’t really have defined roles so much. We were all producing music individually before Night Tapes and this carries across to how we write now. Most of the songs start as a demo from one of us individually, which we then collectively work on it to carry over the line.
Tell us about your love of plugins.
Max: There’s a lot of innovation going on in plugins and plugins are generally a lot cheaper and easier to demo. While we love old hardware that’s tried and tested there’s something to be said for using new tools that create new outcomes in your music.
Iiris: I remember how everything I made used to sound shit and other producers seemed like wizards who could just magically make stuff sound better. Then I found out they just had better plugins and eventually I had to get a good microphone. Until those things happened, everything was just frustrating.
What’s your latest plugin purchase?
The God Particle. Image: Cradle
Max: We recently got a plugin called The God Particle by Cradle which is an enigma. It has a definite sound which either really works or really doesn’t. There’s a track on the latest EP Perfect Kindness on which we recorded the lead vocals with an iPhone and then cranked that plugin to 200 per cent to emphasise all of the artefacts.
What’s the best-value plugin you own?
Effect Rack. Image: Soundtoys
Max: SoundToys Effect Rack. This multi-plugin rack was a ray of light in the lockdown when it came out for $99. We use the presets all the time and it’s such a creative toolbox to have access to.
What’s the weirdest plugin you own?
Soundgrain. Image: Olivier Belanger
Ritchie: It’s not really a plugin exactly, but Soundgrain is an amazing tool for manipulating audio. It’s a little hard to explain exactly what it does, but it effectively time stretches and loops samples at different frequencies to create amazingly interesting textures. It’s an amazing way to create beds of sound and ambient pads.
What plugins go on your master bus without fail?
Max: Sonarworks SoundID Reference. our studio is not currently acoustically treated so it’s helpful for getting a more accurate sound in the room- especially for mixing.
What plugin would your latest EP, Perfect Kindness, be incomplete without?
ValhallaRoom. Image: Valhalla DSP
Max: ValhallaRoom by Valhalla DSP. It’s our go-to reverb across all of our music and has become an instrument in its own right. It doesn’t really imitate a real space like most VST reverbs – it’s got an ethereal quality.
You’ve created a really distorted atmosphere on Humans. How?
Richie: A big part of that distorted sound is running various instruments through cassette multitrack preamps – primarily our Tascam four track mixer. On certain parts, we’ll track to cassette tape and transfer that to our project. The cassette tape has quite a limited dynamic range, so it compresses the tape saturation in a musical way.
When it comes to vocals, we’ll often combine this saturated sound with software saturation so it’s easier to bed into the mix. Like many others, we’re big fans of using Soundtoys’ Decapitator to do this. Saying that, I’m a big fan of Logic Pro’s stock clip distortion. You have a lot of control over where clipping occurs, and it runs well in parallel with the mix turned right down. The big vocal sound on both Humans and Inigo is a result of this. It has a really bright, sparkly saturation that compliments the heavier, more midrange tape saturation of the Tascam.
Do you have any secret sauce plugins?
Virtual MixBuss. Image: Slate Digital
Max: Virtual MixBuss by Slate. It’s an analogue desk emulator which has become our default first plugin on our output chain. It adds a little more air and color to everything.
Richie: Virtual Tape Machines, also by Slate. It’s really subtle, but sounds warm and lifelike. I’m a massive fan of Waves’ (slightly less realistic) Kramer Tape too. Flux control is dangerously addictive.
What about a guilty pleasure plugin?
Richie: Fabfilter’s Pro L 2. Turning a mix up by 4db is apparently the real secret to impressing friends, family and A&Rs.
Listen to more of Night Tapes’ music on Bandcamp.
The post Night Tapes: “Other producers seemed like wizards. Then we found out they just had better plugins” appeared first on MusicTech.

Scalpers are selling Aphex Twin’s £5 Field Day vinyls for hundreds on eBayThose limited edition 12’’ vinyls that Aphex Twin released prior to his recent headlining performance at London’s Field Day festival are now going for more than 100x their original price online.

READ MORE: RØDE announces the “most powerful wireless microphone ever”

The producer, real name Richard D James, surprised fans with a similar limited edition vinyl when he headlined the festival back in 2017 — and it’s clear that getting your hands on one now is just as hard as it was years ago.
Limited to just 100 copies, the Field Day-exclusive 5-track vinyls were said to be snapped up by 2:30pm on the day of its release. Those records soon surfaced online, some even before Aphex Twin — whose set began at 9:25pm — had taken to the stage.
A quick scan through online marketplace eBay shows the vinyl, which cost just £5 originally, being listed for a whopping £699 on one listing; a bidding war is also taking place on another listing, with 6 bidders and a current bid of £520.
The record’s tracklist, according to Discogs, is as follows:
A1 Korg Funk5
A2 Korg 1B RU,EC,E
B1 Soog E
B2 Body Pads
B3 Dgitne Tst1e
Aphex Twin put on his first UK show since 2019 at Victoria Park last weekend, setting the festival ablaze with an hour and a half of groovy techno beats and intoxicating visuals. The performance saw the 52-year-old musician sampling tracks from his extensive discography, including hits from his new EP ‘Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760’.
We were lucky enough to attend Aphex Twin’s show at Field Day 2023 – you can live vicariously through us by checking out our review of his set.
In other news, the producer has recently launched a new augmented reality app called ‘YXBoZXh0d2lu’, which translates to ‘aphextwin’ when decrypted using Base64 binary-to-text encoding.
Created by Tokyo-based spatial internet studio KALKUL, visual artist Weirdcore with Warp and Aphex Twin himself, the app is said to offer an “alternate world of interactive AR bringing the artwork, music and video to life in 3D”.
All you have to do is use your smartphone’s camera to scan the packaging of ‘Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760’. After which, you can choose between various immersive experiences that accompany the EP’s four tracks.
The post Scalpers are selling Aphex Twin’s £5 Field Day vinyls for hundreds on eBay appeared first on MusicTech.

How To Hack Spotify (and TikTok)This week, Ari is joined by Ryan Vaughn, Artist Manager at Backline Creative and CFO of Head Bitch Music.

YouTube Music launch AI Incubator YouTube Music AI Incubator is a new programme that has been developed to help to inform the platform’s approach to generative AI use in music. 

OpenSea manager accused of insider trading sentenced to 3 months in prison, $50K fineNathaniel Chastain will reportedly have until Nov. 2 to surrender himself following his conviction for wire fraud and money laundering related to insider trading on OpenSea.

Join Depeche Mode on Tour & Support MusiCares's Relief Efforts for MauiIn support of those affected by the Maui wildfires, MusiCares staff is directly assisting those in Lahaina – helping with basic living expenses, medical expenses, and more.Here's your chance to do your share and support MusiCares' efforts by Donating To Win this exclusive VIP trip to meet Depeche Mode at a U.S. show of your choice as they travel across the world for their Memento Mori Tour!With your donation you are entered to win:  Round trip travel + 2-night hotel stay for two (2) at a Depeche Mode “Memento Mori Tour” U.S. destination of your choice Two (2) amazing seats for a U.S. Show Meet & Greet with Depeche Mode An Arturia MicroFreak Hybrid Synthesizer signed by Depeche Mode One (1) Memento Mori vinyl record signed by Depeche Mode Depeche Mode merch bundle Donate To Win  fandiem.com/depechemode 

Visit Here: fandiem.com

Arturia release Acid V TB-303 emulation Acid V offers an authentic emulation of Roland’s legendary TB-303 bass synth, and also greatly enhances it with a range of new and interesting features.

OpenAI brings fine-tuning to GPT-3.5 TurboOpenAI customers can now bring custom data to the lightweight version of GPT-3.5, GPT-3.5 Turbo — making it easier to improve the text-generating AI model’s reliability while building in specific behaviors.
OpenAI claims that fine-tuned versions of GPT-3.5 can match or even outperform the base capabilities of GPT-4, the company’s flagship model, on “certain narrow tasks.”
“Since the release of GPT-3.5 Turbo, developers and businesses have asked for the ability to customize the model to create unique and differentiated experiences for their users,” the company wrote in a blog post published this afternoon. “This update gives developers the ability to customize models that perform better for their use cases and run these custom models at scale.”
With fine-tuning, companies using GPT-3.5 Turbo through OpenAI’s API can make the model better follow instructions, such as having it always respond in a given language. Or they can improve the model’s ability to consistently format responses (e.g. for completing snippets of code), as well as hone the “feel” of the model’s output, like its tone, so that it better fits a brand or voice.
In addition, fine-tuning enables OpenAI customers to shorten their text prompts to speed up API calls and cut costs. “Early testers have reduced prompt size by up to 90% by fine-tuning instructions into the model itself,” OpenAI claims in the blog post.
Fine-tuning currently requires prepping data, uploading the necessary files and creating a fine-tuning job through OpenAI’s API. All fine-tuning data must pass through a “moderation” API and a GPT-4-powered moderation system to see if it’s in conflict with OpenAI’s safety standards, says the company. But OpenAI plans to launch a fine-tuning UI in the future with a dashboard for checking the status of ongoing fine-tuning workloads.
Fine-tuning costs are as follows:

Training: $0.008 / 1K tokens
Usage input: $0.012 / 1K tokens
Usage output: $0.016 / 1K tokens

“Tokens” represent raw text — e.g. “fan,” “tas” and “tic” for the word “fantastic.” A GPT-3.5-turbo fine-tuning job with a training file of 100,000 tokens, or about 75,000 words, would cost around $2.40, OpenAI says.
In other news, OpenAI today made available two updated GPT-3 base models (babbage-002 and davinci-002), which can be fine-tuned as well, with support for pagination and “more extensibility.” As previously announced, OpenAI plans to retire the original GPT-3 base models on January 4, 2024.
OpenAI said that fine-tuning support for GPT-4 — which, unlike GPT-3.5, can understand images in addition to text — will arrive sometime later this fall, but didn’t provide specifics beyond that.

Strymon Deco Tape: The First Effect While modern recording engineers and producers are used to the huge variety of effects options available these days, tape machines were the first devices... Read More