Synsonic Instruments now offers their paid drum plugins for free
Synsonic Instruments has made three of its previously paid drum plugins free to download for macOS and Windows. If you’ve been following Bedroom Producers Blog for a while, you’ll probably recognize the name Synsonic Instruments from their old BD-808 Free (featured in our article about the best free 808 plugins) and BD-909 Free plugins. Those [...]
View post: Synsonic Instruments now offers their paid drum plugins for free

RCJacH releases FREE RCSiner distortion plugin for Windows and macOS
RCJacH has released RCSiner, a free distortion plugin for macOS and Windows, now available as a standalone plugin. RCSiner is a waveshaping and phase-distortion effect built around sine-based shaping formulas. While the project has been floating around in various forms before (I first saw it mentioned in 2025, but haven’t featured it on BPB then), [...]
View post: RCJacH releases FREE RCSiner distortion plugin for Windows and macOS

TWICE Electrifies with Four Shows at the Kia Forum, InglewoodWith ten years under their belts, it’s no surprise TWICE is one of the best-performing girl groups in K-pop. The group (who graced the cover of Music Connection in 2024) is currently touring across North America for their 2026 THIS IS FOR World Tour and stopped by the Kia Forum in Inglewood for four sold-out shows. The tour is different from any other tour they’ve done before. It’s more ambitious thanks to the 360-degree setup with the stage extending throughout the entire floor. This allows a smaller and more intimate experience, as the group expertly utilizes every inch of the venue and offers close-up views of each of the nine members. There were no bad seats in the house for ONCE’s (name of fandom) as they equally spend time in each area. 
Marking the start of the show on Jan. 22nd, the venue lights dimmed as the words “TWICE THIS IS FOR” dramatically appeared on the screens. The screens then lowered down as the opening visuals showcased Dahyun, Chaeyoung, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Mina, Momo, Nayeon, Sana and Tzuyu. It was fun seeing fans cheer with their glowing candybong light stick for their favorite member when they appeared onscreen. As the video montage ended, the screens raised to reveal the group on stage. TWICE aptly began their performance with “This is For,” from their fourth Korean studio album of the same name. This was the perfect song to start the night as the opening verse from Momo is meant to energize fans, “This is for all my ladies who don't get hyped enough / If you've been done wrong, then this your song, so turn it up.”
Photo credit: JYP ENTERTAINMENT, ANDY KEILEN
With a discography of over 200 songs, it’s no surprise that the setlist leaned heavily on their biggest hits. The first act started off strong with fan-favorite songs, including “SET ME FREE” and “I CAN’T STOP ME.” The stage setup allowed the group to freely move around with their dance routines, switching sides throughout the songs. Unfortunately, Dahyun sustained an ankle injury and remained seated for the entire show. That didn’t stop her as she participated by doing the dance routines with her hands. Most K-pop acts sing with a backing track, but that wasn’t the case for TWICE, as they had a live band performing alongside them. Each girl has a distinctive vocal tone that complements the others very well. The R&B track “Gone” specifically stands out for highlighting the group's strengths. Jiyho, Jeongyeon and Naeyon have powerful vocals with dynamic vocal ranges. Momo, Chaeyoung and Daeyon have great rhythm and rapping delivery, while Mina, Sana and Tzuyu have softer and breathier vocals. 
The middle act focused on solo performances, giving each member a chance to shine in the spotlight. Each girl, except Chaeyoung, performed shortened versions of their song from the album TEN: The Story Goes On. Tzuyu opened the act with “DIVE IN,” showcasing impressive high notes. The stage sparkled in gold and silver as Mina followed with “STONE COLD.” The performance featured intricate, hand-heavy choreography with dancers and highlighted Mina's strong whispery vocals. Nayeon is born to be a popstar as her song “MEEEEEE” is fun, catchy and showcases her confident energy. Earning the biggest cheers of the night was Jeongyeon, who was dressed in a pink cowgirl outfit for her country-inspired song “FIX A DRINK.” It’s always fun to see K-pop idols venture into different genres that they typically wouldn’t do. Dahyun began her song with a piano performance of Beethoven's famous piano piece "Für Elise," which is featured in her song “CHESS.” The song’s theatrical aesthetic was a real crowd-pleaser. Chaeyoung released her first solo album LIL Fantasy vol.1 last year and performed her dreamy pop single “SHOOT (Firecracker).” Jihyo is the strongest performer of TWICE and her urban-inspired song “ATM” indeed showcased her confident personality and powerhouse vocals. The energy in the venue grew as Sana’s sweet vocals and addictive chorus of “DECAFFINATED” had everyone jumping along. Momo closed out the solo performances with “MOVE LIKE THAT." The performance showcased why Momo is considered the best dancer of the group. She has a very strong onstage presence, very sharp and graceful with her movements. The act ended with Jihyo, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung performing “TAKEDOWN,” from Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters. The trio recorded a special version of the song that was featured in the ending credits of the movie. Thanks to the viral popularity of the movie, the song is definitely a fan favorite and had the entire venue screaming along with every word. 

The group saved the best for last as the fourth act of the show included all their biggest hits, including “FANCY,” “What is Love?,""YES or YES,""Dance the Night Away,” and “ONE SPARK.” After a short break, the girls returned on stage dressed in their own merchandise for a very casual encore. The group focused their attention more on interacting with fans than actually performing, going along the stage saying hi to everyone and occasionally wetting them with water. Jeongyeon specifically let loose during this moment as she playfully drenched all the dancers with water. The group performed three more songs for the encore. The first song was the super popular “Feel Special.” They let the audience choose the second one, which ended up being the sub-unit song of Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Mina, “BATTITUDE.” The group then started to say their goodbyes and were ready to end the show, but the entire venue started screaming, “one more song, one more song.” The group heard everyone's plea and obliged by singing, “TWICE Song.” This was the perfect song to end the night, as it’s a fun anthem that calls out each member. TWICE’s THIS IS FOR World Tour continues across North America; for info visit twice.jype.com.
Photo credit: JYP ENTERTAINMENT, ANDY KEILENThe post TWICE Electrifies with Four Shows at the Kia Forum, Inglewood first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Informant told FBI that Jeffrey Epstein had a ‘personal hacker’The hacker allegedly developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold them to several countries, including an unnamed central African government, the U.K., and the United States.

Ordering Pizza On Your Sega Dreamcast Is Very Clunky IndeedIf you’re ordering pizza these days, you’re probably using a smartphone app or perhaps still making a regular old phone call. If you’re creative and a little bit tricky, though, you can order pizza right from your Sega Dreamcast. You just need to jump through a few hoops, as demonstrated by [Delux] and [The Dreamcast Junkyard] in the recent past.
You used to be able to order pizza on the Dreamcast natively, all the way back in 1999. However, the modern Domino’s website doesn’t really work on the ancient Dreamcast browser anymore. The simple fact is that web technology has advanced a long way in the last couple of decades, and Sega didn’t exactly spend a lot of time maintaining a browser on a console that died mere months after its rivals hit the market.
Thus, to place a pizza order on the Dreamcast these days, you need to work within its limitations. [Delux] uses the Dreamcast with the Broadband Adapter to access a PC on the local network via the XDP web browser. That PC is hosting Web Rendering Proxy, a tool which converts complicated modern websites into something a simpler machine can parse. From there, it’s a matter of connecting to the Domino’s website, and slowly clicking through the online ordering pages. Between the proxy delay, the Dreamcast’s glacial processing speed, and the clunky Domino’s ordering interface, it takes ages. Never before has adding coupons felt like such a hassle. Still, after 15 minutes of fuss, the order is completed… and a short time later, a hot fresh pizza arrives.
It’s a fun hack, but really it’s the PC running the proxy that’s doing the heavy lifting. In 2026, it’s far more elegant to order a pizza from your Nintendo Wii.

From BMG’s reported Concord acquisition talks to UMG’s $3bn Anthropic lawsuit… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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Oliver talks production tips, the “Espresso” sample, ’00s hip hop, and more
Oliver discusses his tips for producers, biggest sample placements, philosophy on music creation, and more.

Kymátika Sounds offers FREE Ptone for Audiomodern Soundbox
Kymátika Sounds has released PTone, a free sample library for the Audiomodern Soundbox virtual instrument, and it’s available as a pay-what-you-want download (starting at $0) for a limited time. The developer came across an old Casio keyboard at a flea market in Poland, discovered it was still working perfectly, and decided to turn it into [...]
View post: Kymátika Sounds offers FREE Ptone for Audiomodern Soundbox

DUY Software Time TravelDUY Time Travel is a cutting-edge marvel that utilizes advanced audio processing technology to recreate the experience of time travel. To achieve it DUY analyzed the thousands of new and old recordings from all eras and dissected them into their core elements. By modeling the unique characteristics and nuances of each era, Time Travel dynamically modifies the sound, allowing it to seamlessly pass from one time period to the next. With a time-traveling range spanning from the mid 19th century to the current day, Time Travel opens up a world of sonic possibilities. Whether you're a history enthusiast, a music lover, or simply curious about the past, Time Travel will captivate your senses and ignite your imagination. Among many other things, with DUY Time Travel, you can: Listen to your recordings as your grandparents would have listened to them. Hear what your favorite songs would sound like if they were covered by a band from a different era. Travel across time in multiverse mode through different sonic realities where the dynamics, the physics and the spectrum belong to different sonic epochs. Process the whole mix or one sound at a time. Features: Dynamically modifies the sound of any recording to create the illusion of time travel. Range of time travel from the mid 19th century to the current time. Easy to use interface. Compatible with all major platforms and operating systems: AAX, Audio Units and VST3, for Mac and Windows. Benefits: Experience the passage of time in sonic ways that have never been possible before. Create new and unique soundscapes. Get to know new sound perspectives you've never tried before. DUY Time Travel is the perfect tool for any musician, producer or mixing engineer who loves sound design. With Time Travel, you will be able to explore the passage of time in sound as never before possible. Imagine being able to listen to your favorite songs as they seamlessly transition from one era to another, capturing the essence of different time periods. With our unparalleled expertise in audio manipulation, we have achieved the impossible: bringing the past into the present. You'll feel as if you're immersed in a time capsule, witnessing the evolution of sound firsthand. But Time Travel isn't just limited to music. Picture yourself listening to speeches, ambient sounds or even music instruments. With its versatility, Time Travel delivers an unparalleled experience that transcends time itself. Read More

How Musicians Can Leverage New In-App Spotify Group ChatsWord-of-mouth has always been the gold standard for music discovery. Spotify is leaning hard into that reality with its latest update. The streamer expanded its "Messages" feature to include Spotify Group Chats. Now, users can share and discuss music with up to 10 people directly within the app.
The post How Musicians Can Leverage New In-App Spotify Group Chats appeared first on Hypebot.

What Luminate Report Reveals About Fan Engagement in 2026Engaging fans - true (aka super) fans - is key to the success of any artist or release. A new report by the music analysts at Luminate look at the state of fan engagement in 2026.
The post What Luminate Report Reveals About Fan Engagement in 2026 appeared first on Hypebot.

Steinberg release WaveLab 13 The latest version of Steinberg's popular editing and mastering software introduces a whole host of new features, many of which centre around the suite’s Dolby Atmos capabilities.

Deezer plans to license its AI-detection tool to other companies – after using it to demonetise 85% of AI music on its platformStreaming services are under increasing pressure to clamp down on AI-generated music, with many musicians and industry professionals saying it dilutes royalty pools – meaning less money in the pockets of human artists – and muddies real human creativity.
French service Deezer has been a frontrunner in dealing with AI music – and its consequences – on its platform. As far back as 2023, the company made its intention to “detect and delete” AI-made music clear. In June last year, Deezer unveiled a new AI content tagging system which filters such content out of royalty payments and blocks it from showing up in editorial playlists. Despite this, in September, the platform revealed up to a third of music uploaded every day was fully AI-generated.

READ MORE: Native Instruments CEO updates users: “Business continues as usual at Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance and Brainworx”

Back then, that third of uploaded music accounted for about 30,000 tracks – all AI-generated. Now, Deezer says, that figure has doubled, with around 60,000 new AI tracks uploaded to the platform every day, around 39% (per Mixmag).
But the platform’s fight against AI music continues; it says over 13.4 million AI tracks have been tagged using its system launched in June. Up to 85% of those have been marked as “fraudulent”, and subsequently “removed” from the royalty pool.
“Music generated entirely by AI has become nearly indistinguishable from human creation, and with a continuous flood of uploads to streaming platforms, our approach remains crystal clear: transparency for fans and protecting the rights of artists and songwriters,” says Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier.
“Every fraudulent stream that we detect is demonetised so that the royalties of human artists, songwriters and other rights owners are not affected.”
Deezer is also taking things a step further, with plans to license the technology behind its AI tagging system to other brands and platforms.
“We’ve seen a great interest in both our approach and our tool, and we have already performed successful tests with industry leaders, including Sacem,” Lanternier adds. “From now on, we are licensing the tech to make it widely available.”
You can learn more about the latest findings, plus the platform’s AI tagging tool, at Deezer.
The post Deezer plans to license its AI-detection tool to other companies – after using it to demonetise 85% of AI music on its platform appeared first on MusicTech.

Why the music industry needs to learn to live with AIIt has been some time since I last posted here. Most of my blog activity now takes place over at MIDiA Research https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog and in the MIDiA newsletter (including the newsletter-only ‘Letter from the MD’). Follow me there and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmulligan/ for regular updates and posts. Now onto today’s Music Industry Blog post. It’s a controversial one, so hold onto your hats…

If life is a party, AI gate crashed it in 2025. With financial losses rising even more quickly than critical voices, AI will not find things quite so easy in 2026. You don’t have to look very far to find alarm bells being rung. Deutsche bank said of OpenAI’s $143 billion cumulative negative cash flow, “No startup in history has operated with losses on anything approaching this scale” (per Adweek). Meanwhile, at the World Economic Forum, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella said that we must “do something useful” or lose “social permission” for the vast quantities of electricity it requires. So much of the financial system is vested in AI’s success that a bubble burst akin to the dot-com era is possible. However, with an MIT report claiming 95% of businesses are getting “zero return” from AI investments, something is going to have to change. 

This is the state of AI at the start of 2026 – but it is not the state of music AI. Music is emerging as a case study of where AI is actually delivering (and getting better by the day). This means that everyone in the music industry needs to start thinking about how to co-exist with AI, whether they like it or not.

The impact of generative AI on music creation

The music creator economy may be the canary in the coal mine for AI’s impact on music. Leading company Native Instruments just announced that it is entering preliminary insolvency (per Music Radar). Native Instruments make beautiful software, hardware, and sounds that appeal most to established, successful music creators – creators that have spent years honing their craft. What it doesn’t do so well is cater for the emerging generation of younger creators that want to go to 0-100 in a millisecond. 

This new breed of creators want making good music to be as easy as taking good photos and videos on their phones. A growing number see making music as personal entertainment rather than chasing dreams of multi-platinum success. It is a dynamic we explore in our brand new report: Music creator survey | Creation: Rise of the new breed.

AI did not create this dynamic but it did supercharge it. If music software democratised the means of production, AI has set it free. Thom York sang “anyone can play guitar” but anyone who has tried  (as I have done since I was five) will tell you that you have to spend a lot of time being bad before you are good. This is the case with all instruments. Gen AI, however, takes away being-bad-to-be-good. Anyone can write a text prompt. Now, is a single line of text ‘creation’. I’d personally say ‘no’, but those doing it will likely think ‘yes’. It is a similar question to whether an unmade bed installation in a gallery art? Does that text prompt become creative if it is a deeply considered paragraph of text defining melodic feel, lyrical content, instrumentation and arrangement? If so, what is the word count cut off between being creative and not?Is entering a text prompt ever going to be creative in the same way as sitting down at a piano and writing a song? No. But neither is opening a DAW and building a track from samples and typing in MIDI notes. But does that make electronic music not creative? (And before you answer, I know there are still plenty of people out there who would say electronic music is not ‘actual’ music!). And we should expect gen AI music to develop and become more sophisticated, as all consumer apps do over time. But whereas most consumer apps improve convenience and reduce friction, gen AI music will likely go in the opposite direction. It started as zero friction but make music creation too easy and the creative satisfaction soon wears thin. Creative friction is what make music making so important to people. And, from a cynical perspective, the longer it takes to make music, the more time spent on an app.

Regardless of whether current gen AI is creation or not, the result is a whole new wave of people making music – and the number paying do so is rising rapidly. In 2025, gen AI music users were already 10% of all music creators, and the number paying to create with AI doubled. Meanwhile the number of people buying traditional music software fell in both 2024 and 2025, as did revenues. This indicates that not only are new creators flowing in, established creators are shifting activity and spend to AI too.

One of the reasons is that gen AI music is improving. While licensing disputes roll on, gen AI has learned from the best chord progressions, vocal performances, arrangements, etc., that music has to offer and – crucially – what consumers do with that. The constraint on quality was always going to be computation technique, not innate capability. 

Industry stakeholders can make the AI slop argument, and music critics can claim that they can identify even the best AI songs as not being made by humans. But that misses the point. AI is for the masses, both on the creation side and the consumption side. 

Tracks on Suno can sound convincing enough to the average listener. AI artists like Sienna Rose command millions of Spotify listeners, while earlier this month ‘Jag vet, du är inte min’ hit the top of the Swedish charts only to be banned for being AI (per the BBC). AI is not going to replace human content, but it will increasingly displace it. 

AI is here to stay in music

The music industry needs to learn not just where AI fits in it, but where it fits in AI. This requires work from the industry, such as creating ‘lanes’ for AI as we argued in our Future of music streaming report. However, it also requires artists to put in work too. 

Last year, YouTube-first music creator Mary Spender laid bare the challenge: 

“First it was about gigs and selling CDs, then it was streams, then it was about content, now it is something else entirely.”

Her solution? To use her YouTube channel as her ‘proof of work’, the thing that communicates the humanness of her music. As this piece from It’s Nice That lays out, this is an approach being pursued throughout the creative industries.

Gen AI music enters 2026 of the back of two years of hockey stick growth. The coming 12 months will likely be more of the same. None of this is to suggest that creators and rightsholders should simply sit back and let unlicensed activity continue unabated – those battles still need to be fought. But, just as happened with music piracy, consumer behaviour is accelerating regardless. 

Some rightsholders are already leaning into AI’s capabilities – as explained by UMG’s Jon Dworkin at MusicAlly’s great Connect conference. Others are resisting with every effort they can muster. Neither approach is more right or wrong than the other. Part of carving out a role is deciding whether you want to be part of or apart from. Whatever your choice, music AI is not going away – at least not anytime soon.Gen AI music is going to get bigger before (if) it gets smaller. Legislation isn’t going to be fast enough to stop this near term surge. Until it does, everyone in the industry needs to work out what they want to do in that time. To be ‘part of’ or ‘apart from’. Doing nothing and hoping for it to go away is not an option anymore. And whether AI stays or goes, it has catalysed the consumerisation of creation. That genie is out of the bottle. And the implications for music listening are clear. The more time that people spend making music, the less they spend listening to music. Whether the music they make finds an audience is almost besides the point. As I wrote about consumer AI music back in 2023: the music industry should worry less about the song with 1 million streams and more about the 1 million songs with 1 stream.

Sony Music buys 49% stake in music unit of Vietnam media giant YeaH1; companies launch new SYE Holdings joint ventureSME, through Sony Music Entertainment Hong Kong, agreed to acquire a 49% stake in YeaH1-owned 1Label for an undisclosed sum last month.
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