Basic Music Theory For Music Producers
Music theory can seem daunting for self-taught musicians and producers, particularly when you haven’t had any formal musical education. However, ensuring you have a solid foundational understanding of theory can help you reach new heights of musical creativity. Music theory can help you with your musical projects by helping you understand the basics of melody [...]
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SideRack: mobile plug-in host from NovoNotes SideRack aims to combine the convenience of touchscreen-based plug-ins and instruments with the power of a full desktop DAW system.

How to maximize a music release’s potential for success [VIDEO]The right planning and preparation can make or break how well a music release does. This guide breaks down the steps needed to put out a successful song.....
The post How to maximize a music release’s potential for success [VIDEO] appeared first on Hypebot.

TikTok says its revamped creator fund has increased total creator revenue by over 250%TikTok announced today that its revamped creator fund has increased total creator revenue by over 250% within the last six months. The company says the fund, which launched a year ago and eventually replaced TikTok’s original $1 billion Creator Fund, is exiting beta in the coming weeks. TikTok also announced that its LIVE Subscription monetization […]
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Pager Lives Again Thanks to Python And MastodonPagers were a big deal for a while there, even if they never quite made it into the pantheon of excellent sitcom plot devices like answering machines did. Anyway, [Finnley Dolfin] had some pagers and gave them a refresh for the modern era, using them to receive message alerts from Mastodon.
The project is laced together with a bunch of Python code. It uses the Mastodon library for interacting with the social media website. When it detects an incoming direct message, it hooks into DAPNET – the Decentralized Amateur Paging Network.  Via this network, a message is sent out over the airwaves to [Finnley’s] pager, serving as a notification that someone’s reached out to chat on Mastodon.
It’s neat that the amateur radio world is keeping pagers alive, using distributed base stations to share messages. Unfortunately, given the existence of smartphones, we don’t quite see pagers catching on again any time soon. And yet, [Finnley’s] setup has a certain level of old-school cool that no modern phone could match.
We’ve seen only a handful of pager hacks over the years, but they’re still pretty neat. If you’ve got your own cooking up in the workshop, drop us a line, yeah?

No, Daniel Ek, the music industry isn’t like professional footballI’m sure Daniel Ek has a better grasp on the inner workings of the music industry than I do. The Spotify CEO probably has immense access to listener statistics and data, and a deeper understanding of the company’s royalties and revenue systems than most. But his apparent inability to empathise with artists, of all levels, is on frequent display and his input to the music industry’s discourse is often perceived by musicians as tone-deaf.
Ek’s latest gaffe came last week in the form of a selfie video posted to social media. In it, he boasted that Spotify “paid out more than $9 billion to the music industry in 2023” and then compared the music industry to professional sports. “The best analogy that I would have is that the music industry… is like professional sports,” said the Swedish CEO, who once tried to purchase Premier League club Arsenal.
READ MORE: “Football is played by millions of people – but there’s a very small number that can live off playing full time”: Daniel Ek addresses Spotify’s low royalty payments
“If you take football, it’s played by hundreds of millions of people around the world. But there’s a very, very small number of people that can live off of playing soccer full-time. FIFA tells us that there are about 100,000 people who can make it in football or soccer. [And there are also] hundreds of millions of people that are trying to make it in the music industry.”
He’s essentially saying that not all musicians will turn a profit. That’s not news – music-making is a rewarding hobby for many who accept that they’ll never reach superstar status. That’s been true for as long as people have been paid to write and perform music.

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A post shared by Daniel Ek (@eldsjal)

But by comparing music-making to professional football, Ek has presented a flawed analogy that hobbyists and professionals alike are queuing up to correct in the most robust terms.
Why? Because the statement leans harder into a competitive ‘tech bro’ mindset than into the core values shared by most artists. The music industry might be competitive but art should not be a competition.
But let’s humour this analogy for a moment. There may well be only 100,000 professional footballers, but the average player in the lowest UK professional division reportedly earns £750 a week, or £39,000 a year, before any potential sponsorship deals. Meanwhile, on Spotify in 2023, there were around 200,000 “professional or professionally aspiring artists,” and in 2022, the top 50,000th artist on the platform earned $12,584 annually.
So I dunno, Dan, it feels like I’d be better off trying to get a regular paycheck out of Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds at Wrexham than I would be trying to make a living from Spotify streaming revenue.
Daniel Ek speaks onstage during Spotify Investor Day at Spring Studios on March 15, 2018 in New York City.Image: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Spotify
The true aggravation for musicians, though, is that Ek’s statement follows other claims and blunders that seem to further distance him from the platform’s musicians – the people whose creative labour Daniel Ek’s company relied on to get where it is today.
Notably, in late 2023 — a few years after claiming that fast-produced albums will trump thoughtful, considered albums made over several years — he confirmed that Spotify would not ban music made by AI. At a time when OpenAI is giving media creators a glimpse of their potential demise with ChatGPT, DALL-E and Sora AI, Ek’s Spotify is teetering on doing the same.
It feels like Spotify cares about audio but not about music. I have no doubts that Ek and Spotify’s employees are avid music lovers and find deep value in sonic art. I’m sure that Ek’s dream is for all artists to be paid better for their artistic efforts. But the streaming model has changed the way artists are expected to release music, and Spotify’s pivot to podcasts and audiobooks felt like a kick in the teeth for the artists without whom Spotify wouldn’t exist. After all, who can explain giving $100 million to Joe Rogan when musicians who have worked their whole lives to build small but previously sustainable careers are told their labour is only worth $0.004 per stream?
Daniel Ek, Founder & CEO, Spotify, at The Future of Audiobooks Event with Spotify 2023 on October 03, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Spotify)
Music creators are worried that Ek’s Spotify is preparing us for AI-generated music to infiltrate our libraries; where ‘mood’ playlists aren’t made by a collection of lo-fi hip-hop makers and ambient artists, but by algorithms that are trained on those genres. Ek and Spotify might not be thinking of doing that, but you can’t help but feel that’s where we’re heading.
This weekend, trailblazing UK producer James Blake addressed this, too: “If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists. The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free.”
“And by the way,” Blake continued, “since it’s cheaper to produce fast, synthetic music to drop on streaming every week to capitalize on the strengths of the model, watch how the model is preparing you for AI-generated music that pays musicians nothing at all.”

And by the way, since it’s cheaper to produce fast, synthetic music to drop on streaming every week to capitalize on the strengths of the model, watch how the model is preparing you for AI generated music that pays musicians nothing at all.
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

Can you think of any football players, amateur or professional, who are expressing concerns about being replaced by AI? I don’t think Boston Dynamics robots are going to be shoulder-to-shoulder with Erling Haaland or Mo Salah anytime soon.
On top of this, Spotify is said to have enabled some practices that further create an unfavourable climate for many musicians. In 2023, Benn Jordan spoke at length about the alleged money laundering schemes that centre around Spotify and the royalty model the company runs. In fairness, Spotify has responded in The Guardian that such streaming exploitations are “an industry-wide challenge and Spotify has been working hard to address this issue…Less than 1 per cent of all streams on Spotify have been determined to be artificial and those are promptly mitigated prior to any payouts”
Still, Jordan asks: “How much of your money as a musician is giving a money launderer or con artist a 3 to 1 return?”
Meanwhile, by the way, Ek sold $57.5 million worth of his Spotify shares last month. Cool.
The wider streaming landscape and the modern music industry in general is a flawed environment that makes it harder than ever for artists to make a living from their art. But Spotify has driven this race to the bottom – the company has never turned an annual profit while globalising a business model that has completely changed the way we consume music, likely forever.
Photo by Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images for Spotify
Obviously, the concept of music streaming is amazing and it has generated opportunities for many that would have perhaps been unheard of in a pre-streaming era. But by telling the world that you can have the entirety of recorded music for what was initially five bucks a month, the company’s backed itself into a corner.
Because it wants to offer all music, rather than a curated selection like Netflix or HBO, it’s forced to cooperate with major labels who are far more corporately combative than Spotify tends to be — at least, according to ex-Spotify employee Tony Lashley, who went on to found Marine Snow. That results in too much revenue being diverted away from independent artists and into the deep pockets of major labels.
Making a sustainable income from music should be more accessible than ever but, instead, it’s never felt so far away.
So, yes, Daniel Ek. The music industry might well be like football in the sense that it has professionals and amateurs. But when it comes to fair payouts, grassroots schemes, and a pay-to-win model, the only likeness is that you’d have more chance of scoring with five Alisson Beckers on the goal line.
The post No, Daniel Ek, the music industry isn’t like professional football appeared first on MusicTech.

“The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free”: James Blake on TikTok’s impact on the music industryJames Blake has spoken out on TikTok’s impact on the music industry and the financial difficulties facing artists.
Although TikTok has become a platform where many new artists are discovered, Blake argues that labels are now waiting for their artists to get lucky and land on a viral hit, and even then those artists are not always fully compensated for their virality.

READ MORE: James Blake: “It takes about six months before you can get anything out of a modular synth”

On his X (Twitter) account, alongside a repost where Blake is quoted saying that neither himself nor Frank Ocean made any money from his viral Godspeed cover, Blake adds further context to his concerns over fair royalty payouts for artists in the TikTok era.
“It’s worth noting this is just an example I used in a post talking about the wider effect of TikTok on music,” he says. “Just seeing this part makes it seem navel gazing but I’m speaking on a thing that’s affecting artists all over the world.

It’s worth noting this is just an example I used in a post talking about the wider effect of TikTok on music. Just seeing this part makes it seem navel gazing but I’m speaking on a thing that’s affecting artists all over the world. https://t.co/4pd2iRuNlB
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

​​“Something I keep seeing is, ‘If you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way.’ Musicians should be able to generate income via their music. Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for?”
Blake further adds, “If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists. The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free.”

Something I keep seeing is ‘if you’re lucky enough to go viral, just use the exposure to generate income some other way’. Musicians should be able to generate income via their music.
Do you want good music or do you want what you paid for?
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

If we want quality music somebody is gonna have to pay for it. Streaming services don’t pay properly, labels want a bigger cut than ever and just sit and wait for you to go viral, TikTok doesn’t pay properly, and touring is getting prohibitively expensive for most artists.
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free.
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

Also via X and his Instagram account, Blake comments on the impact of both AI and sped up/slowed down versions of tracks being used online:

James Blake on the TikTok-ification of music (sped up/slowed down versions of songs) pic.twitter.com/pjLBCEbcsR
— w-lar (@w_larproducer) March 2, 2024

And by the way, since it’s cheaper to produce fast, synthetic music to drop on streaming every week to capitalize on the strengths of the model, watch how the model is preparing you for AI generated music that pays musicians nothing at all.
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

Despite his concerns over AI, Blake has previously made music integrating the tech. In 2022, he released an ambient album called Wind Down, made to help its listeners have a better night’s sleep. The music was originally made for Endel, an app that uses AI technology to provide personalised soundscapes.
The record became the first-ever full-length LP made using AI technology to be released on a major record label. Asked about this contradiction online, Blake explains how Endel takes what is considered an ethical approach to artificial intelligence:

There’s a difference. Endel uses AI to take music an artist has already made, and remix it into ambient form designed for sleep/other functional applications. They then give the artist a cut and it lives as a separate entity.
— James Blake (@jamesblake) March 3, 2024

View James Blake’s upcoming live dates via his website.
The post “The brainwashing worked and now people think music is free”: James Blake on TikTok’s impact on the music industry appeared first on MusicTech.

Independents accounted for 50% of Spotify industry revenue last yearIndependent artists generated $4.5 billion on Spotify in 2023. This is the first year ever that Indies accounted for about 50% of what the entire industry generated on the streamer, which totaled $9 billion....
The post Independents accounted for 50% of Spotify industry revenue last year appeared first on Hypebot.

Attorney Chooses Music Over Law & Invests In Audient ASP4816-SEMusic producer, Thomas Shea favours a ‘scattered workstation approach’ to his home studio. “I like to work in different places. I just like the variety,” he says. With the ASP4816-SE a significant part of his music production arsenal, he acknowledges that his way of doing things “is unusual.”

Not as unusual as his back story, however. Tom originally trained as an attorney and practised law, until one day 16 years ago he had an epiphany! He decided he was going to become a music producer. “Lightning struck me. I closed down my law practice,” he says. He went about finding local musicians, taught himself songwriting, made connections and bought himself some recording gear - he was well and truly hooked!

The Audient brand first came to his attention when looking for a replacement audio interface. His first purchase was the latest iD44. “I liked the quality, the test measurements, the form factor and the metal construction.”  Now he uses that as a headphones amplifier with his ASP4816-SE, and has since picked up an iD4 as well.

Shea shares what he particularly likes about the console. “First, the sound.  I am one of those producers who likes a very clean sound and the ASP4816-SE really delivers on this.  Second, the build and finish quality is excellent.  I am very fussy about things like that.  The quality of the faders and knobs, the beautiful aesthetic redesign and the flawless finish are very satisfying to me.  It is a pleasure each time I see it.“

He continues, “Third is the functionality.  I am constantly pleased with the way the console functions are designed.  The layout and functions make sense and are easy, relative to its many capabilities.  It seems to me other consoles are overly complex and confusing to use.  Not the ASP4816-SE!”

Tom Shea can be found on many global music services. He’s currently working on a new album, with a few songs already in final production stages. 

Read more here: audient.com/news/2024/02/26/tom-shea/

Visit audient.com

Sales from K-Pop stars including Jungkook and Seventeen pushed HYBE’s revenues to over $1.6bn in 2023South Korea-based entertainment giant HYBE has published its earnings for Q4 and FY 2023
Source

How jazz samples can inspire your next track
The musicians behind the Signature sample label discuss the importance of jazz in today's music.

REZZ breaks down new track ‘Can You See Me’ and gives studio tourFuture bass producer REZZ has given fans a glimpse into her red-lit creative lair in Toronto, where she makes her music.

READ MORE: “There’s 800 ways to skin the DJ cat”: Deadmau5 on the why DJing is more than just a live performance

From the depths of her converted shed studio, with Medusa’s decapitated head overseeing the process, the Canadian DJ unravels how she created her new track Can You See Me? in a new clip posted to YouTube.
In terms of equipment, REZZ’s mixing station is stripped-back, with eight-and-a-half-inch JBL studio monitors, a Focusrite Scarlet Solo sound card, and Sol Republic headphones. She’s also working on Ableton Live. It’s a setup she calls “minimal,” but it is clearly effective.
She starts the track breakdown with the drums: “The drums in my opinion have a very industrial feel, which is sort of the vibe that I’m going for this project,” she explains. “For the clap and the snare… there’s two layers. It gives it that punch, and then the layer underneath has this sort of reverb. [It makes an] atmospheric sounding snare clap.”

FabFilter’s Saturn saturation plugin also helped REZZ fine-tune the track’s drums. “I use a preset on it called Basic Saturator,” she explains. “It makes the kick sound fatter, and there’s a slight distortion to it.” As she plays the drum track, you can hear the ‘fat’ quality – it feels impossibly atmospheric, like an ominous wasteland.
As REZZ explains, the key ingredient when constructing Can You See Me?’s haunting sound was layering. Much like the drumming tracks, the vocal tracks are also layered to heighten the unsettling, twisted sensation of the track.
After playing a set of whispered vocals in isolation, REZZ explains “I felt like I needed some atmosphere, some reverb, so I created a different version to layer it.” The multiple vocal layers vary from light, ghostly whispers, to frazzled, scratchy howls of “Can you hear me?”.  The contrasting whispers and more frantic vocals add an unnerving quality to the track, an undercurrent of panic.

“I’m not really notorious for using any of my own vocals on my tracks,” REZZ goes on to explain. “This is what I consider to be the first debut of my vocals on a track. and I’m actually super stoked about how it sounded!”
Pitching down and twisting previous sounds used on the track served as the finishing touch. With industrial samples, and rehashing previous drum samples, amping up the BPM to 156 for the climax, the track is a whirl of disorienting mental horror. At times throughout the creation process, REZZ admits she was thinking “am I literally all right or should I be in the psych ward?”
While REZZ is incredibly DIY-minded, she’s a lover of presets. In her eyes, they help artists create their own sounds, giving them a foundation to build upon. “This is a Serum preset – there’s nothing wrong with using presets, I like to use a preset and then I like to edit it afterwards, sort of make it my own,” she says.
REZZ is always ensuring tracks are wholeheartedly ‘her own’, taking a hands-on approach to her mixing. “I always mix as I go,” she asserts. “The only time I ever get someone else to mix or master my tracks is if it’s a collaboration with someone and I trust their judgement, like deadmau5… He’s such a genius with mixing and mastering. I just, like, let him do it.”
The track comes as the second taste of REZZ’s 14th March release, Can You See Me?. Considering REZZ has said the record is set to be her “heaviest yet”, we’re sure the record will have many other treats in store.
Subscribe to REZZ on YouTube.
The post REZZ breaks down new track ‘Can You See Me’ and gives studio tour appeared first on MusicTech.

Lumina Delay by Mountainroad DSP Rather than relying on knobs and buttons, Lumina Delay allows users to plot delay taps and control their parameters using an intuitive visual interface.

More than 100 Focusrite RedNet units were used at the Super BowlThe Super Bowl Halftime Show has become arguably the biggest live entertainment moment of the calendar year. And for a big show, you need a big rig.
A big rig was exactly what was powering Usher’s spectacular halftime show, run by California audio-visual equipment hire service ATK Audiotek at Super Bowl LVIII, held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on 11 February. The show saw an attendance of 70,000 and was watched by a whopping 123 million people. No pressure, then.

READ MORE: Yes, Alicia Keys’ Super Bowl performance was fixed afterwards – but why do we care?

The vast audio rig was shared recently by Focusrite, who interviewed ATK Audiotek’s Kirk Powell, Engineer-in-Charge at the Super Bowl.
In the revealing chat, he emphasises the significance of the Focusrite RedNet setup, stating, “This is our ninth year using Focusrite RedNet with our Dante Audio-over IP network at the Super Bowl. This year we are employing over 100 RedNet units, which is the largest Focusrite setup used on a Super Bowl to date.”
The extensive RedNet infrastructure, featuring components such as RedNet D16R MkII, RedNet A16R MkII, RedNet D64R, RedNet MP8R, and RedNet AM2 units, ensured fluid connectivity across a range of interfaces and made for effective clock management during the event.
Speaking to Focusrite, Powell highlights the challenges of designing and installing the audio system, particularly regarding rigging and cable management due to the unique ceiling structure of Allegiant Stadium. He explains, “Flying the P.A. Allegiant Stadium’s ceiling structure is cable-based, just like SoFi Stadium, which restricts options for placing clusters and similar components due to weight restrictions and rigging points.”
Despite these challenges, Powell notes, “The system worked out really well. Also, with renowned mixers Dave Natale and Alex Guessard handling FOH duties, the audio for the performances sounded great.”
Read more news via MusicTech.
The post More than 100 Focusrite RedNet units were used at the Super Bowl appeared first on MusicTech.