Harmonizing Economics: The Unseen Power of Music in Urban Revival [Kyle Bylin]Former Hypebot Editor Kyle Bylin is back with a dive into how music can unite residents and drive economic development if communities look beyond superstars and corporate music behemoths, nurture. Continue reading
The post Harmonizing Economics: The Unseen Power of Music in Urban Revival [Kyle Bylin] appeared first on Hypebot.

Ardour 8.0 Released, What’s New?
Free and open-source digital audio workstation Ardour is updated to version 8.0, including several new features and improvements. Fans of the free and open-source digital audio workstation Ardour have plenty to celebrate this week! October 8th marks the release of Ardour 8, and the new version brings a bevy of interesting and useful features to [...]
View post: Ardour 8.0 Released, What’s New?

Tokenization is “securitization done on steroids" — Franklin Templeton CEOSpeaking at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha event, Jenny Johnson discussed how digital assets are disrupting securitization and the financial markets.

Song structure: How to build a song (with examples)
Let's discuss the concept of song structure and explore the individual song sections that help us turn our ideas into full pieces of music.

Afrojack: “It’s possible to achieve success in the music industry if you abide by certain disciplines and rules”Nick Van de Wall – known the world over as Afrojack – is one of EDM’s most prominent DJs and producers. With a career stretching almost two decades, he’s racked up over 388 million streams, taken home a Grammy and a number of other industry awards, and become a regular headliner at mammoth festivals such as Tomorrowland, EDC, and Ultra.
With all that under his belt, you might think the Dutch-born DJ would be content to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labour. But Van de Wall is not one to stay idle long. In fact, he’s been quietly working on a new studio, with a bold vision – to bring all the aspects of a modern music career under one roof, not just for himself, but for the next generation of producers and DJs.
Image: Frits Van De Clips
“My focus is on the long term,” says Van de Wall. “Bugatti’s, Lamborghini’s, all that stuff is fun, but it doesn’t add up to anything – a car is a car, but a studio can give so much to so many people.” It’s a philosophical view for a man married to Elettra Lamborghini, heiress to the legendary car manufacturer bearing her family name; when Van de Wall says he prizes studios over automobiles, he means it.
Setting his sights on a sprawling estate in the Belgian countryside, Van de Wall says he instantly saw the potential to build something truly special: “When I first walked through, it was literally just horse stables, sheds, and exposed brickwork – but I could envision the entire place. I was like ‘Hey, this spot for cleaning horses has the perfect dimension to be a studio’. The previous owner was looking at me like I was fucking crazy.”
Image: Frits Van De Clips
Now, after nearly three years of construction work – involving meticulously planned renovation, remodelling, and acoustic treatment – Van de Wall’s vision has become a reality. He’s now officially cut the ribbon and opened the doors of the new headquarters for his WALL Recordings label and artist development company.
“It’s sort of like a little creative factory,” says Van de Wall, with a smile that suggests his musical talent may be eclipsed only by his talent for understatement.
Sitting within an 800,000 square foot estate near the Dutch-Belgian border, and next door to the Grenspark de Kalmthoutse Heide nature reserve, Van de Wall’s studio complex encompasses three separate buildings, offering eight state-of-the-art recording and production studios; green screen stages for livestream performances and music videos; photography studios; office spaces; meeting rooms; sleeping quarters and kitchens; and even a wellness centre with spa, pool, gymnasium, and meditation room.
Image: Frits Van De Clips
This is no mere vanity, however, amazing though the facilities might be. Van de Wall says his goal is not to cater to elite producers who have already ‘made it’, but instead to offer a holistic creative space for emerging talent.
“DJs, especially in the EDM scene, get paid very well,” says Van de Wall. “Why is no one using that money to reinvest in the company side of things? And not just investing in your own brand, but in younger talent. So, my thinking was: ‘I can have everything right here. I don’t need to go anywhere else to do a photoshoot or record a set – and, if I can have it, I can also share it for free with young artists.’ That’s why I built this.”
Considering his previous personal studio was situated in the heart of Amsterdam, an estate nestled in the countryside, sitting next to a vast nature reserve, is a dramatic change of pace. However, when it comes to working with young producers, Van de Wall says the temptations of city life can be more distracting than inspiring.
Image: René van Dongen
“Everyone that goes to Amsterdam wants to see Amsterdam,” he says ruefully. “So, you do a session for a few hours, get to know each other, and then they want to go out and get drunk and smoke weed.”
In comparison, Van de Wall says a more remote location provides the focus people need to truly lock in with their music. “It’s almost like a retreat,” he says. “There are studios and creative facilities everywhere, and there’s a pool and gym – so, you can either be healthy or you can be productive. There’s nothing else to do!”
Mitigating distractions is only part of the artist’s strategy to motivate his guests. “I wanted to create an inspirational space for young artists,” he says. “I wanted to make it so nice that, when people come here, they’re motivated to work harder – so that they can come back again.” With its grand architecture, lush design aesthetic, and world-class studio gear, it’s hard to imagine any young producer not wanting to come back for more.
Image: Frits Van De Clips
The centrepiece of the complex is Van de Wall’s personal studio. With its glittering ceiling and Art Deco-inspired furnishings, at first glance, you could easily mistake it for a luxurious cocktail lounge rather than a recording and production space. Look closer and there’s some serious sonic power under the hood – four sets of PMC QB1 speakers ($125,000 per pair), paired with a Lynx Hilo converter, and a Monitor-ST1 Control System from Dangerous Music.
What you won’t see in Van de Wall’s personal studio are cluttered racks of outboard gear and needlessly huge mixing consoles. “One thing I don’t like about major studios is that there’s buttons everywhere,” he says. “They have all the equalisers and compressors, there’s always [an Empirical Labs] Distressor – no one ever uses it but it’s everywhere – but, for me, if it’s not being used most of the time then I don’t want to see it. I want the sound quality of a production studio but the feeling of a comfortable living room.”
His personal studio may be the pièce de résistance, but the other seven studios certainly pull no punches. Sporting a range of different layouts – some with vocal booths, some with live rooms – they boast top-of-the-line monitoring systems, microphones and, yes, outboard compressors and EQs.
However, Van de Wall’s ambitions go far beyond providing gorgeous facilities for emerging talent. He has a wealth of insider knowledge about the music industry gained from a career spent at the top of the international DJ circuit. This, he says, is what he really wants to share, and he’s doing it by designing an educational programme called WALL Academy.
“It is possible to achieve a level of success in the music industry if you abide by a certain discipline and certain rules,” Van de Wall says, adamantly. “A lot of people will say ‘it’s all luck.’ Well, sure, luck is part of it; playing the Tomorrowland mainstage as a headliner requires some luck. But a base level of success, like playing local clubs or having enough records out that people will buy tickets to see you on tour, this is completely possible to do.”
Image: René van Dongen
The first seeds of WALL Academy were planted years ago when Van de Wall began conducting monthly demo-streams. Here, he’d encourage unsigned producers to send in their tracks and get live feedback directly from the man himself.
“I started doing the demo-streams because I know there’s talent out there,” he says. “I know that if these people aren’t successful, it’s not because of a lack of talent – it’s because of a lack of knowledge about how the music industry works, how to network, how to get your records played.”
When it comes to a modern music career in the 2020s, one of the magic ingredients that Van de Wall cites is the all-important ‘hype’ factor. “I know artists with more than 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify who are not getting anywhere because no one cares. At the same time, there are artists with almost no monthly listeners and they’re playing fucking everywhere – because they have hype.”
Hype can often seem like a vague concept that some artists manage to stumble upon. But Van de Wall says a core part of what he wants to teach young producers is how hype and the art of self-promotion can be defined and systematically built up through conscious effort.
Image: René van Dongen
“We’re building an academic package on that side of things because there are so many tutorials on YouTube about how to make music, and there are so many tutorials about how to be a successful entrepreneur. Even though you’re going to need both if you want to make it in a creative industry, for some reason, no one thought to bring these two things together. So that’s a really big part of what we’re trying to teach.”
One of the biggest shifts producers are facing is the increasing prevalence of AI-powered tools. Far from being worried about the tech, Van de Wall says he sees a number of advantages for young DJs and producers looking to get their ideas noticed by labels.
“There are people that want to write a song but can’t afford to get a vocalist to fly in, sit with them, and sing it,” Van de Wall says. With the aid of generative AI, he says, producers can “have an idea, go to a website, upload their idea, and get back a vocal sung really well in a voice that sounds like Chris Martin or Drake.”
Rather than being the finished product, Van de Wall says these AI-generated vocals are a way to elaborate a song and give record labels a better picture of what the finished track could sound like – similar to how screen composers make audio mock-ups using sample libraries before recording a full orchestra.
“You’re just giving the musician more opportunities to get their ideas straight,” he points out. “By the time those ideas get up to the label, the label loves it and then they can pay for an artist to sing it even better – but that idea might never have gotten across if they didn’t have access to AI”
In addition to passing on knowledge and preparing producers for the future, WALL Recordings can also be seen as a very deliberate attempt to ‘pay forward’ the leg up that Van de Wall says he got from fellow EDM icon, David Guetta, in the early days of his career. “The first four or five years of my career I wasn’t signed to anyone,” he recalls. “I was building things up completely solo, and then Dave approached me and suggested we work together.”
In what he describes as a very simple management deal, Van de Wall gave Guetta a small percentage of his earnings in return for promotion, remix opportunities, and opening slots at gigs. “My first Grammy, a remix for Madonna [2009’s Revolver (Madonna vs. David Guetta One Love Remix), I did with him,” Van de Wall says. “He could have done that remix by himself, but he did it with me, purely because I was his guy, and he genuinely liked my music.

It was the start of a fruitful creative and professional partnership – the pair’s track, Hero earned them yet another Grammy nomination in 2021 – and one that Van de Wall hopes to replicate at WALL Recordings: “My thinking was – ‘how can I take that luck that I had with David, and make it available to young artists? How could I take that concept and make it into a company?’ That’s why we started focusing on artist development.”
It’s not all altruistic either. After nearly 20 years making music, Van de Wall says working with young producers and DJs is the creative shot of adrenaline he needs to keep his own process from becoming routine.
“I’ve been producing for such a long time and things can get boring very quickly,” Van de Wall says frankly. “It makes it difficult, especially on the club music side, for me to start a new project and make something that will both work well and also get me excited. That is why I love producing with young people. Being surrounded by younger producers and seeing what they come up with inspires me; it keeps me creative, it keeps me happy, it keeps me excited.”
Image: René van Dongen
Underneath the desire to share his knowledge and the creative energy he gets from collaboration, there is another factor in all this: the simple joy of helping people realise their musical dreams. It’s a theme Van de Wall returns to often, both when he reflects on his own career and when he talks of the emerging artists he now surrounds himself with.
“The first time someone gets to perform or have their song played for 50,000 people… I remember the feeling. I remember when David Guetta played my records for the first time. The people I’m working with, it’s life-changing for them when I play their music at Tomorrowland and it costs me nothing – I have that stage all to myself, I could do an hour of my old music, or I can use some spots to promote someone new. Just a little effort and I can give life-changing experiences to others. That’s fun.”
Learn more about Afrojack and WALL Academy at wallrecordings.com.
The interior of WALL Recordings studios is designed by Winch Design. You can find them on Instagram and at winchdesign.com.
The post Afrojack: “It’s possible to achieve success in the music industry if you abide by certain disciplines and rules” appeared first on MusicTech.

James Blake’s Alexandra Palace show was a live electronic masterclassBritish electronic music titan James Blake returned to London’s Alexandra Palace last night and delivered a career-spanning live performance that effortlessly weaved between all-out rave catharsis and stripped-back vulnerability.
READ MORE: Modular racks, Moog synths and sandwiches: Inside ‘Betty’s’, Sylvan Esso’s “off-grid” studio
Having conquered Village Underground in 2016, and then Eventim Apollo in 2019, this was his second time commanding the 10,000-capacity Ally Pally (having previously played there in 2022).
As the lights faded to black, the melancholic yet hopeful opening sounds of Blake’s new record Playing Robots Into Heaven rang in search of connection, while James walked across the stage with the weighty machinery that adorns the album cover on his back – a cinematic entrance befitting of the soundscapes that followed.
James Blake at Alexandra Palace. Image: Getty
Joined by the James Blake live band – Rob McAndrews, AKA Airhead, on guitar and modular synth, and Benjamin Assiter, AKA Mr Assister, on drums – Blake teased early on that the set would consist “of a bit of everything.” The news was no doubt a delight to the audience, who had forked out £40 for tickets to the show and many of whom were sporting his newest merch.
The performance was evenly split between piano-led emotion (Overgrown, Fire The Editor) and energetic club-ready workouts (Tell Me), allowing Blake to showcase the many different sides of his artistry throughout the evening. Often, he paired old favourites with newer creations, subtly bridging between two decades: the stripped-back piano keys of Frank Ocean cover Godspeed segued seamlessly into the new record’s heartbreaking If You Can Hear Me. Similarly, the air sirens and flashing strobes of 2013’s Life Round Here blended into the recent heavy-hitter Big Hammer.
After some typically humble (and very British) ‘thank you’s, Blake made clear that every sound coming from the stage was 100 per cent live. “There’s nothing going on behind the scenes,” he told the crowd; “no laptops or weird automated shit you can’t see. I’m not just trying to flex, I’m saying that because I’m really proud of it and, to me, that’s what being in a band is,” he continued. Blake added that while in other music genres that aspect of a live show is “accepted”, it’s “harder to do in electronic music.”
James Blake at Alexandra Palace. Image: Getty
Even the lights were fully live, Blake explained, shouting out his concert lighting designer, Christopher Bushell. “It’s insane,” he commended; rightfully so, too: the cloud-like lighting that accompanied an indulgent Fall Back conjured the feeling of flying through a storm. “He’s playing in time with us, even though he’s miles away at the back of the room and is on a delay,” Blake added, astoundedly.
The historic venue’s cavernous Great Hall proved a fitting setting for the incredible light show and futuristic sonics that accompanied Blake’s career-spanning set. “The reverberation is great,” he declared later on, having sent his angelic voice soaring around the room during Asking To Break and I Want You To Know, while the chest-rumbling bass of the timeless Limit To Your Love proved strong enough to propel a helicopter. Similarly, a full-band rendition of CMYK was the ultimate treat for Blake fans.
“This is a very life-affirming sight from up here,” Blake said at the close, smiling. Undoubtedly, the thousands in the audience felt the same way.
Catch James Blake live and check tour dates via his website. 
Set list:
Asking to Break
I Want You to Know
Limit to Your Love (Feist cover)
Life Round Here
Big Hammer
Loading
I’ll Come Too
Fall Back
Love Me in Whatever Way
CMYK / Stop What You’re Doing
Tell Me
Voyeur
Retrograde
Fire the Editor
Godspeed (Frank Ocean cover)
If You Can Hear Me
Playing Robots Into Heaven
Encore:
Improv / Modern Soul
The post James Blake’s Alexandra Palace show was a live electronic masterclass appeared first on MusicTech.

Epic Games sells Bandcamp to music marketing company, SongtradrMusic marketplace Bandcamp has been sold by Epic Games to music marketing company Songtradr just 18 months after it was acquired.

READ MORE: Fender, Yamaha, Korg, Roland and Casio face class-action lawsuit for price fixing

Bandcamp was acquired by Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, in March 2023, with the shared vision of “building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world”. Now, however, Epic Games’ stepped back from Bandcamp, having now sold the site to Songtradr for an undisclosed sum.
Songtradr, a music licensing and marketplace company, says it will “continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share.”
According to Songtradr, it will work with Bandcamp to give artists opportunities to secure licensing deals. This includes deals with Fortnite itself, as it will continue to collaborate with Bandcamp for projects such as Fortnite Radio, says Epic Games.
The news comes as Epic Games also lays off 16 per cent of its workforce and is divesting Bandcamp and SuperAwesome.
The Vice President of Epic Games, Steve Allison, has said in a statement that the sale of Bandcamp will “make it easier for independent artists to connect with creators and developers looking to license their music and enable Epic to focus on its core metaverse, games, and tools efforts.”
In March, a number of Bandcamp staff, under the name of Bandcamp United, unionised in a push for fairer wages and greater transparency from its leadership. Bandcamp’s CEO Ethan Diamond later responded, saying, “following the NLRB’s process and timeline. Bandcamp will respect the election outcome and if a union forms, we will negotiate in good faith.”
See more industry news via musictech.com.
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FMC - Film Music Contest 2023 This years Film Music Contest is now underway, with composers of film, television and video game music invited to register submit their original compositions.

RackBlox: This 3D-printed modular Eurorack case solution can even hold your beerMoog software engineer and 3D printing enthusiast Geert Bevin has unveiled RackBlox, a system of 3D-printable modular Eurorack case boxes, for single modules or groups of modules that belong together.

READ MORE: The Scarlett 4th Gen story: Focusrite’s journey from George Martin’s AIR to bedroom studios everywhere

RackBlox is available in a variety of sizes (4HP to 20HP), and works by using an innovative mechanical connector that allows case boxes to easily and sturdily attach together without tools.
No screws are required to put modules in the boxes, thanks to a novel ‘slide and snap’ design. Since the case boxes are fitted together individually, users can create cases of varying sizes, and even reconfigure their system without removing their modules. Each box can also be protected with a lid that works both when used in a larger case or standalone for storage.
More importantly, you can even 3D print a beverage holder to ensure that your preferred drink stays within reach.
“I’ve open-sourced the unique and innovative design elements, including the sliding box connector, the screwless module attachment, the snap-on lid and more,” says Bevin. “The 4HP and 10HP finished designs are available for free, as well as the sides.”
The full set of STL files is available to Patreon backers for $5.
Check out a prototype of the case box below.

Learn more at Printables.
The post RackBlox: This 3D-printed modular Eurorack case solution can even hold your beer appeared first on MusicTech.

Almost half of working musicians can’t afford equipment and transport, a study findsA new census of almost 6,000 working musicians in the United Kingdom has found that nearly half struggle with equipment and transport costs.

READ MORE: Touring in the US “not viable”, say The Chemical Brothers

These statistics come from the first Musicians’ Census, a project that was created by the Musicians’ Union and charity Help Musicians. This census is hoped to be repeated every three to five years to reflect the changes in the music industry.
The rather bleak findings show that many of those working in the music industry struggle to make ends meet. However, what these statistics do present, is that there is more support needed for musicians working in the industry.
“I recently started to work freelance as a producer,” explains one participant in the study. “This is much more flexible, but I’ve had to start with very low prices to build up a portfolio, meaning I need to fit it in around my ‘day job’ to be able to earn a sustainable income and access employment benefits.”
“I now need assistance with driving and carrying equipment,” explains another participant, “but as a solo performer in a niche genre, the fees are never enough to support a tour manager or roadie”
The study also revealed that 46 per cent of working musicians earn less than £14,000 a year.
Considering that the minimum wage in the UK equates to an average of £19,000 annual salary, and more in London, this means that around half of working musicians in the UK are earning far below what should be the minimum.
Regarding the next steps, Help Musicians seem eager to find new ways to support musicians, however, has not revealed any support schemes as of yet.
Elsewhere, even the most successful artists in electronic music are running into financial hurdles in their careers. Last week, The Chemical Brothers revealed that touring in the US is “not viable.”
Speaking to Billboard’s Katie Bain, bandmember Ed Simons said: “The costs have gone up so much. It’s just not really viable at the moment… I’m apologetic to the people who do want to see us that it is increasingly difficult for us to get to America, because we have had the times of our lives playing there.”
To read the full study, you can visit the Music Census website.
The post Almost half of working musicians can’t afford equipment and transport, a study finds appeared first on MusicTech.

DJ.Studio 2.0 is an AI-assisted “DAW for DJs” that lets you export mixes to Ableton LiveEver tried to construct a DJ mix for a radio show or party in your DAW? It can be a pain. DJ.Studio 2.0, which lets you build DJ mixes the same way as you would a song in a DAW and uses AI to quicken the process, could help.

READ MORE: Best DJ Gear 2023: 8 of the best Standalone DJ Controllers in 2023

The software, founded by Siebrand Dijkstra, syncs with popular DJ software such as Rekordbox, Virtual DJ, and Serato, so you can sync your libraries and drag and drop tracks into the app. You can even take tracks from YouTube if there are any missing from your own collection.
DJ.Studio will then order the tracks by BPM and key, and automatically create your mix for you using harmonic intelligence. You can then go in and edit the transitions, meticulously adjusting parameters such as the percentage of crossfade, the filter action, how the bass is cut and more. You can also save certain transitions as presets for reuse in the future.
DJ.Studio integrates seamlessly with Mixed In Key, using the Camelot wheel and other useful features to master harmonic mixing, making over 250 million calculations in seconds for professional-quality mixes in under fifteen minutes.
After your mix is complete, you can export directly to Mixcloud or YouTube, or export the file to Ableton Live for further editing and mastering. Impressively, any effects you alter in DJ.Studio – such as an EQ setting or phaser, for example – will be transferred into a Live Effect, complete with the automation you’ve applied in DJ.Studio. If you’re exporting the mix to Mixcloud, the software can also generate the tracklist instantly.

Founder Dijkstra says: “I have been passionate about electronic music for more than 25 years and I have been creating DJ mixes for the last 15 years. In that period I used an old legacy application, which unfortunately was only running in Windows and it got deprecated 10 years ago, so it was time for me to build it myself with my team.”
The recent update to the app has transformed the platform’s interface so it now offers a more intuitive, streamlined, and versatile user experience.
AI technology is being elsewhere in DJ tools. Launched in 2022, Serato Stems uses AI tech to let you separate stems from a track, such as the drums, bass and vocals, on the fly.
If you’re interested in this new approach to crafting DJ mixes, check out DJ.Studio, which costs $9 per month as a subscription model.
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MODCAF Test Chamber project Electronic music community MODCAF's latest project centres around a series of recordings and performances in a disused wind tunnel.

Lenovo debuts gaming glasses and portal PC handheldIFA technically kicks off today in Berlin, but it seems like Lenovo may have won the thing outright. I’ve given the company plenty of credit in the past for its willingness to try new things in this oft-staid world of consumer electronics, and it’s really come out of the gates swinging. Much of its IFA […]

How to Prepare A Song For Mixing
Let’s explore how mix prep can speed up your mixing process. Here’s how you can get your song ready for mixing. Mixing music is so cool that it is tempting to dive straight in and ride those faders, sculpt your signature tones, and slam that loudness limiter – it will be okay, right? Well, maybe, [...]
View post: How to Prepare A Song For Mixing