Kentucky woman rejects $26M offer to turn her farm into a data centerA "major artificial intelligence company" reportedly offered a Kentucky family $26 million to build a data center on their farm.

4TH ANNUAL WOMEN'S DAY CELEBRATION AT THE HOTEL CAFEOn a night that felt both passionately celebratory and quietly poignant, the Hotel Café hosted its Fourth Annual Women’s Day Celebration, bringing together a beautifully diverse lineup of female singer-songwriters whose music reflected the spirit of International Women’s Day: creativity, resilience, vulnerability and strength.

The evening also carried an undercurrent of nostalgia. With the recent news that the beloved Hollywood venue will soon close this location, many of the artists acknowledged the space’s importance in the Los Angeles singer-songwriter community. For decades, the Hotel Café has been a place where artists share songs in their most intimate form—voice, guitar or piano, and a roomful of listeners ready to lean in.

That reality lent the evening additional emotional weight. The celebration became not only a tribute to women in music, but also a reminder of the vital role the Hotel Café has played in nurturing emerging artists and songwriting culture in Los Angeles.

That sense of shared musical purpose was palpable throughout the night. Performers lingered to watch each other’s sets, harmonized together onstage, and cheered each other on from the wings. It felt less like a conventional showcase and more like a gathering of artists united by the simple joy of making music.

Presented in conjunction with International Women’s Day, the annual showcase highlights female singer-songwriters from across the Los Angeles music community and beyond. The evening featured a stylistically diverse lineup spanning acoustic folk, blues, indie pop and alternative sounds, each sharing original material in the intimate listening-room environment the Hotel Café is known for.

As the lights softened and the room gradually settled into attentive silence, the evening’s celebration of women’s voices began. One by one, the performers took the stage, each introduced by emcee Lex Aguilar with a brief, colorful bio that offered a glimpse into the stories behind the songs.

The evening began on a lighter note with comedian Nthenya, whose quick wit and relaxed stage presence immediately put the room at ease. Her humor felt conversational rather than performative, like a friend sharing sharp observations with the audience. The ripples of laughter helped break the ice and set a welcoming tone for the night’s deeper musical expressions—reminding everyone that community, connection and a little levity are all part of what makes nights like this special.

The opening performer, Juliet, made an immediate impact, as if to signal that the evening would be both emotional and provocative. She brought her husky, impassioned vocal style and bold sonic palette to songs including the feminist anthem “Love or Die,” which pulsed with urgency and conviction, and “Liberté,” a confident declaration of independence propelled by a thumping groove and fuzzy guitar textures.

Next, Lucy Clearwater’s soothing voice and gentle acoustic style set a more reflective tone. Her song “Love a Friend” unfolded with soulful calm that drew the audience inward, while a preview of her upcoming folk tune “One of Those Things” showcased her gift for intimate storytelling. Another standout, “Liar,” explored the emotional fallout of a relationship with a narcissist, adding a deeply introspective dimension to her set.

Singer-songwriter Mary Scholz offered a slightly gentler but no less powerful presence. With her warm acoustic approach and emotionally direct lyrics, she recalled the storytelling intimacy of artists like Ed Sheeran. During one reflective moment, she observed that the word woman can sometimes feel complicated—but only because people choose to make it so. She also debuted one of the evening’s most visceral moments, a raw and emotionally charged song responding to the recent deaths of 165 Iranian schoolgirls following U.S. and Israeli bombings.

With swagger and attitude to spare—and backed by a delirious swirl of funky pre-recorded retro techno rhythms—husky-voiced teen powerhouse Ava James brought an immediate stylistic contrast to the evening’s largely acoustic flow. Her set demonstrated the wide stylistic range of the lineup, and she clearly relished the moment, duetting on a defiant “FU” jam with her friend, the equally gifted singer Layne Olivia.

After a playful interlude by Nthenya, a special highlight of the night was the appearance of Maisy Owen, who had been flown in for the event. With a gentle swaying stage presence and an angelic vocal tone, Owen captivated the room with “All For You,” a tender acoustic piece that showcased her delicate phrasing. She followed with the soon-to-be-released “On My Way Down,” maintaining a soft, emotionally sensitive atmosphere that perfectly suited the intimate setting.

A personal favorite of the night was multi-talented singer, songwriter and virtuosic guitar picker Abby Posner, who immediately owned the stage sporting an effortlessly cool alt-Americana look—wide-brim hat, casual jacket and acoustic guitar slung comfortably across her shoulder. Delivering one of the evening’s most dynamic and socially engaged sets, her blues-tinged tune “Night Train” carried a lively rhythmic pulse, while “Till We Heal” addressed the slow, often frustrating process of social progress. Reflecting on her work supporting California’s Proposition 8 marriage equality campaign, Posner noted that change can sometimes feel like “five steps forward and three steps back.” Her hopeful anthem “I Do Believe in Love” transformed that sentiment into an uplifting audience clap-along moment, while her closing song “Darkest Hours” featured rich harmonies shared with Scholz and her harmony singer Paula Fong.

Kate Grahn followed with a soulfully grounded yet energetic set suggesting a young Sara Bareilles in the making. Her song “Scot Free” blended melodic charm with lyrical wit, delivered with a confident vocal presence. Perhaps the most atmospheric voice of the evening belonged to closing performer Sofia Gomez, whose airy tone and emotional phrasing evoked the moody intimacy of Billie Eilish. At moments her voice rose into a soaring register, giving her performance a cinematic sense of emotional release that brought the evening to a graceful close.

Throughout the night, what stood out most was the unmistakable camaraderie among the performers. These were not artists competing for attention, but musicians celebrating each other’s voices and stories. In honoring International Women’s Day, the showcase became a reminder that music remains one of the most powerful ways to share experiences, amplify voices and build community.

As the final notes faded, the night felt like a fitting tribute not only to the women who took the stage but also to the venue itself—a space where countless artists have found their voice over the years. For one evening at least, the Hotel Café once again lived up to its reputation as one of Los Angeles’ most cherished listening rooms, filled with songs, stories and the unmistakable feeling of artists supporting artists.The post 4TH ANNUAL WOMEN'S DAY CELEBRATION AT THE HOTEL CAFE first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Elektra Magika Phonk DrivePush loudness without compression and sculpt harmonics with our unique soft-clipper. Designed for modern electronic music, Phonk Drive lets you hit harder. Use it as a gentle dynamics tool or absolutely crush your drums, bass and mixes. • Compressionless loudness algorithm. • Musical saturation with soft clipping. • Zero-latency, CPU-efficient DSP. • 2 clipping modes. Read More

Get free dry acoustic drums for Splice INSTRUMENT
Download our free acoustic drums preset for Splice INSTRUMENT—grab these presets during the drop window and they’re yours to keep forever.

Spotify launches SongDNA in beta for Premium subscribers, tracing how songs connect through shared producers, samples and coversSongDNA lets subscribers trace how one song connects to another through shared producers, samples and covers.
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US FCC Prohibits Approval of New Foreign-Made Consumer RoutersThe US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is tasked with regulating both wired and wireless communications, which also includes a national security component. This is how previously the FCC tossed networking gear made by Huawei and foreign-manufactured drones onto its Covered List, effectively banning it from sale in the US. Now foreign-made consumer routers have been added to this list, barring explicit conditional approval on said list that would exempt them during a ‘transition phase’.
As per the FCC fact sheet, this follows after determination by an interagency body that such routers “pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States [..]”. This document points us to the National Security Determination PDF, which attempts to lay out the reasoning. In it is noted that routers are an integral part of every day life, and compromised routers are a major risk factor, ergo it follows that only US-manufactured routers are to be trusted.
These – so far fictional – US-manufactured consumer routers would have to feature ‘trusted supply chains’, which would seem to imply onshoring a large industrial base, though without specifying how deep this would have to go it’s hard to say what would be involved. The ‘supporting evidence’ section also only talks about firmware-related vulnerabilities, which would imply that US firmware developers do not produce CVEs.

Currently there do not appear to be any specific details on what router manufacturers are supposed to do about this whole issue, though they can continue to sell previously FCC-approved routers in the US.
Although hardware backdoors are definitely a possibility, this requires a fair bit of effort within the supply chain that should generally also fairly easily to detect. Yet after for example Bloomberg claimed in 2018 that Supermicro gear had been infested with hardware backdoors, this started a years-long controversy.
Meanwhile actually verified issues with Supermicro hardware are boringly due to software CVEs. In that particular issue from 2024 two CVEs were discovered involving a lack of validation of a newly uploaded firmware image.
All of which is reminiscent of an early 2024 White House ‘memory safety appeal’ that smelled very strongly of red herring. Although it’s easy to point at compromised hardware with scary backdoors and sneaky software backdoors hidden deep inside firmware of servers and networking devices, the truth of the matter is that sloppy input validation is still by far the #1 cause of fresh CVEs each year, especially if you look at the CVEs that are actually being actively exploited.
As for this de-facto ban on new routers being sold in the US, this will correspondingly not change much here. The best defense against issues with networking equipment is still to practice network hygiene by keeping tabs on what is being sent on the LAN and WAN sides, while a government could e.g. force consumer routers to pass a strict independent hardware and software audit paid for by the manufacturer.
Speaking as someone who used to run DIY routers for the longest time built around FreeSCO and Smoothwall Linux, there’s also always the option of turning any old PC into a router by putting a bunch of NICs and WNICs into it and run SmoothWall, OpenWRT, etc.. A router is after all just a specialized computer, regardless of what the government feels that it identifies as.

Audio Damage releases Evil Otto, a free OTT multiband compressor plugin
Audio Damage has released Evil Otto, a free OTT-style multiband compressor for desktop. The iOS version is a separate $2.99 purchase in the App Store. To download the desktop version, you just need to join the Audio Damage mailing list (or log in if you are already a member), and you will receive a download [...]
View post: Audio Damage releases Evil Otto, a free OTT multiband compressor plugin

Electro-Harmonix release Oceans Abyss editor Previously limited to preset management only, EHXport App now presents all of the Oceans Abyss' controls and settings in a dedicated software editor with a user-friendly GUI.

Akai Pro unveil the MPC Sample The MPC Sample draws its inspiration from the likes of the MPC60, and allows users to sample, chop and arrange beats anywhere with no computer required. 

INTERSECT is a free open-source sample slicer plugin
INTERSECT is a free, open-source sample slicer plugin for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It has been steadily improving over the past several releases. BPB reader bmovie suggested I give it another try in our community section (thank you!), and I have to say I am impressed with how polished it has become. If you need [...]
View post: INTERSECT is a free open-source sample slicer plugin

UVI Sparkverb algorithmic reverb plugin is FREE on KVR until April 12th
UVI’s Sparkverb algorithmic reverb is available for free on KVR Audio for a limited time. The plugin normally costs €79, and the giveaway runs until April 12th. Unsurprisingly, to claim your copy, you need a free KVR account. I made my first steps in the world of music production there, so if you ask me, [...]
View post: UVI Sparkverb algorithmic reverb plugin is FREE on KVR until April 12th

Renowned mastering engineer Chris Athens has diedMastering engineer Chris Athens has sadly passed away due to complications following a planned heart surgery.
The news has been shared in a statement posted on social media by his wife, Judi Krant Athens. She has confirmed that his successful mastering company, Chris Athens Masters, which he founded in 2010, will continue on in honour of his legacy.
Athens ran his company alongside engineers Kurt Bradley and Dave Huffman. Together, their work has reached over 288 billion streams, achieved 833 platinum records, and 54 diamond records. You can view Athens’ discography via the Chris Athens Mastering website.
“Dear Friends, Clients, and Collaborators, it’s with profound sadness that I share the passing of my husband, Chris Athens, after complications following a planned heart surgery,” Judi says.
“Chris dedicated his life to music and to the art of mastering. He felt privileged to spend his days (and nights) working on music he loved with artists he deeply respected. Those who knew Chris know he was more than just those bionic ears, he was singularly funny, kind, and generous.
“In honouring his legacy, Chris Athens Masters will continue operating, carrying forward the standards and sonic sensibility Chris built throughout his career. Although Chris was the founder and namesake of the studio, it wasn’t a one-man operation, it has always been a team.”
She adds, “Over the last decade and a half, Dave and Kurt have been an integral part of Chris’s process, instincts, and approach to mastering. We’re grateful for the trust so many artists and labels placed in Chris, and we remain committed to continuing the work he loved. We’ll share information about a celebration of life at a later date. Thank you for being part of his journey.”

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Athens had over 30 years of experience in the industry. His career began at Sony Music Studios, followed by 13 years as a Senior Mastering Engineer at Sterling Sound in New York City. He went on to relocate to Austin, TX, where he founded Chris Athens Masters.
He also received Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for his work with Drake on Views, Scorpion, and God’s Plan, and has three Latin Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, and Best Engineered Album for Rosalía’s El Mal Querer and C. Tangana’s El Madrileño.
The post Renowned mastering engineer Chris Athens has died appeared first on MusicTech.

The MusicTech Magazine March/April 2026 issue is coming: here’s how to get your copyThe MusicTech Magazine March/April 2026 issue goes on sale this week, bundled with NME Magazine. Here’s how you can get a copy.
Last April, we announced the relaunch of the MusicTech print edition after a four-year hiatus, and we’ve since had producer Blake Slatkin and artist Sudan Archives on the print cover. Now, we’re gearing up to launch the March/April 2026 issue, which will as always come bundled with a copy of NME Magazine.
Mark your calendars for Thursday March 26 at 2pm GMT – that’s when the cover stars of both magazines will be revealed and the mags go on sale exclusively via retailer Dawsons. The waiting room is open, so check it out now.
Besides MusicTech, Guitar.com has also returned to print. Guitar.com, MusicTech and NME are sister publications under NME Networks. The new Guitar.com and MusicTech print editions alternate with every bi-monthly edition of NME Magazine – which itself was relaunched in 2023 – meaning three print editions per calendar year for each brand.
Subscribe here for more information about MusicTech Magazine and to receive an exclusive queue jump opportunity, where readers can get their hands on a copy before anyone else. MusicTech will send out queue jump tickets shortly before the magazine goes on sale to subscribers.
The post The MusicTech Magazine March/April 2026 issue is coming: here’s how to get your copy appeared first on MusicTech.

Fraudster earned millions with AI songs no humans ever even listened toA 54-year-old man from Cornelius, North Carolina, has pleaded guilty to music streaming fraud, which earned him over $8 million in royalties through AI generated songs and bot streamers.
Michael Smith was charged by US federal prosecutors in 2024, when it was reported that his fraudulent operation began all the way back in 2017. Smith has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and has also agreed to pay $8,091,843.64 in forfeiture.

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A press release shared via the Department of Justice website states that Smith created thousands of bot accounts across streaming platforms and used software to cause the bots to continuously stream songs that he owned. He used AI to create “hundreds of thousands” of songs for which he could manipulate the streams.
Smith spread his automated streams across thousands of songs to avoid anomalous streaming as to any single song, which would have likely caused the streaming platforms to discover his scheme, the press release also states.
A statement from U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton reads, “Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times.
“Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”
Smith is scheduled to be sentenced in July this year.
In other AI news, Mikey Shulman, the CEO of AI music platform Suno, has reflected on his controversial statement that most people “don’t enjoy” making music.
Shulman made the comment during an interview on the 20VC podcast last year, when he claimed that most people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music because of how time consuming it is, but also because it “takes a lot of practice” and “you need to get really good at an instrument or really good at a piece of production software”.
Looking back on the controversy in a new interview with Billboard, Shulman admitted: “I really wish I had chosen different words.”
The post Fraudster earned millions with AI songs no humans ever even listened to appeared first on MusicTech.

MQA Labs Inspira and Endura fix one of the oldest problems in digital audio conversionInspira: $249
Endura: $349
mqalabs.com
When zooming in on the start of a waveform in your DAW, have you ever noticed that the initial transient of the recording is preceded by a wobble of waveform activity? It almost looks like the waveform is revving-up for the big jump of the transient. This strange signal is extremely low in level, so most of us ignore it, but if you were to stick a mic in front of a drum and feed its signal to an old-school analogue oscilloscope, you’d see nothing of the sort, but just a clean, crisp transient.

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So what’s up with those DAW waveforms? Are they actually a bigger problem than we realise? With the release of the Inspira and Endura plugins, MQA Labs certainly thinks so.
Endura. Image: Press
What is pre-ring, and why does it matter?
What you’re seeing is known as time smear or pre-ring; an artefact of the delta-sigma oversampling design used in (practically) every audio analogue-to-digital (AD) converter that’s ever been on the market. If you’d like to understand why pre-ring occurs, check out MQA Labs’ white paper on the topic, but be warned — it gets rather technical!
Pre-ring doesn’t only affect the first transient in a recording, but is an ever-present pre-echo of the upcoming audio. With extremely low amplitude and an extremely short time offset (around 150µs at 48 kHz), you may assume it has no discernible impact. But overlaying audio with a time-offset copy of itself results in phase interactions that amplify some frequencies while attenuating others, and pre-ring causes this to happen.
The actual sonic impact is exceptionally small, but if you know what to listen for (and are able to compare to an analogue source with no pre-ring) it can be heard as a slight over-emphasis of the mid range and coinciding muddying of upper-mid and high frequencies. It can also blur the apparent position of individual sounds within stereo sources.
Inspira. Image: Press
What are Inspira and Endura?
So, where do MQA Labs Inspira and Endura fit into this picture? The company’s goal is to improve conversion technology, and it has developed systems that eliminate pre-ring by preserving the time-domain accuracy lost in delta-sigma converters. Inspira and Endura harness this technology in a way that brings its benefits directly into your DAW, and that works no matter what converters your audio interface employs.
The plugins look incredibly similar (although not identical) to each other, but are intended for different purposes. Inspira is for use on individual parts and tracks, although can be used on submix and mix buses too, if desired. Endura, on the other hand, is only for the master mix bus, where it should be applied as the last processor in the chain after the master fader (although not all DAWs allow inserts following the master fader).
Looked at another way, Inspira deals with pre-ring stemming from the analogue-to-digital (AD) side of things, while Endura applies processing that mitigates pre-ring in the DA conversion process.

What do the plugins do?
The first stage of both plugins shows a single Align control and a graphical representation of an impulse waveform. When the Align dial is in the zero position, no alignment processing is applied, and the graphic shows both pre- and post-ring surrounding the impulse (post-ring equates to decay and reverberation in real-world acoustics and so is considered a natural part of the sound – i.e., we can ignore it). Increasing the Align value shifts the pre-ring forward into the post-ring area; decreasing the value does the opposite.
This pre-ring shift is reflected in the graphic, but this is only an indicator and not something that’s actually being measured from the audio passing through the plugin. Achieving the best Align setting, then, means listening closely to the results… and I mean very closely! I’ve already mentioned that the sonic impact of pre-ring is subtle, and so it follows that the impact of the corrective processing is equally subtle. Accordingly, this makes finding the sweet spot, where the mids are least plummy, and the upper ranges are spacious and detailed, tricky. If it’s possible, MQA should add a real-time pre-ring visualiser.
The second stage of both plugins is dedicated to dithering. Dithering adds a low-level random noise that eliminates the ugly distortion caused by digital quantisation errors. It’s an important stage in any digital signal processin,g but we normally only pay attention to it at output — for example, when your pristine 24-bit mix may be heading for a 16-bit playback format. Having control over dithering in Inspira – essentially the input stage – is therefore unusual but helpful. Still, I find what makes this particularly useful is that it allows control over noise shaping, a key part of both plugins’ dithering stages.
Noise shaping is an EQ curve applied to dithering noise to move the dithering energy away from the frequencies at which our hearing is most sensitive, thus giving the perception of improved sonic detail around those frequencies. Inspira’s dithering, then, is more about using noise shaping to focus accuracy and detail than it is about reducing bit depth. It can have an impact even when the dithering Depth control (expressed in terms of the number of bits being effectively removed) is at zero, while increasing the Depth value (removing bits, in effect) imparts a form of dynamic compression that can be useful too.
Each plugin offers a slightly different choice of six noise shaping curves. Inspira has a flat curve, three Air curves that lift high-end detail, and two Psy curves designed to focus detail where the human ear is most sensitive. Endura trades one of the Air curves for an extra Psy curve, and also has a Learn function that measures the noise floor of a mix from which to produce an appropriate curve. These options are accompanied by a visual readout that overlays the chosen noise shape on a real-time frequency analysis.
Endura Export and Verify view. Image: Press
What on earth is Assurance Metadata?
One of the reasons Endura needs to be placed at the very end of the mix chain is to ensure the proprietary Assurance Metadata generated by the plugin isn’t corrupted by further signal processing. This is data encoded into the audio stream, its primary function being to verify the exported audio is a bit-perfect match to what the DAW is producing.
The metadata is inaudible, and the export/mixdown procedure of most DAWs will leave it intact; if the metadata is corrupted, it means the exported file will not be bit-perfect. Endura can check the metadata and, if it turns out your DAW is not creating a bit-perfect export, you can use the plugin’s built-in export functionality instead.
MQA Labs’ QRONO d2A converters also respond to the metadata, applying specific filtering tailored to settings applied in Endura. This means QRONO-equipped playback systems, which are already gaining a reputation for delivering excellent results, can do an even better job of turning the digital audio data stream back into accurate, realistic, analogue audio.

Do I really need these plugins?
As I’ve mentioned, the impact of Inspira is subtle, but its benefits have a cumulative effect. Mixes take on an analogue-like quality, with the airiness and high-end detail associated with classic recordings from the pinnacle of the analogue era. However, while not a bank-breaker, Inspira isn’t the cheapest of plugins, so it’s perhaps something that will be of most interest to pros, although anyone’s mixes will benefit from it.
Adding Endura to the brew ensures Inspira’s analogue-like detail and naturalness remain locked into final mixes and masters, but it’s aimed primarily at mastering engineers and studios, with a steeper price tag to match.
It’s undeniable that the sonic benefits wrought by these plugins are delicate, but if we sound engineers and producers were unconcerned with audio quality, we’d still be clustering musicians around a ribbon mic connected directly to a wax master cutter!
Key features

VST3, AU and AAX plugins
Compatible with macOS 10.13+ (Intel or Apple Silicon) and Windows 10/11
Realigns time-smear and applies advanced dithering
Supports MQA Labs Assurance Metadata system

The post MQA Labs Inspira and Endura fix one of the oldest problems in digital audio conversion appeared first on MusicTech.