Music Tectonics names 5 music tech startup finalistsMusic Tectonics has named the five music tech startup finalists in its 2023 Swimming With Narwhals Pitch Competition. All five finalists will pitch live during the October 24 -26 Music Tectonics. Continue reading
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Recorded music industry revenues hit $8.4bn in the US in H1 – but paid streaming account growth slowed againWhile growth in new subscriptions was slower in H1 2023 versus H1 2022, the subscription accounts that were already active in H1 2023 were paying more
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After growing Warner Chappell revenues by 93%, Guy Moot and Carianne Marshall ink new 5-year deals to run publisherRobert Kyncl pays tribute to duo, who are now contracted through to 2028
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accentize dxRevive Pro dxRevive is a versatile speech restoration plugin, dedicated to enriching the quality of various dialogue recordings. Unlike many other restoration plugins, dxRevive doesn't merely filter... Read More

Waves launches AI-powered mastering tool, Waves Online MasteringWaves Audio, a company known for its audio software and hardware products, has launched an online mastering service powered by AI.

READ MORE: Mastering The Mix’s FUSER plugin is “like having a personal mixing engineer”

The service, called Waves Online Mastering, lets you easily create professional audio masters. It incorporates advanced machine learning technology, Waves’ award-winning processing, and input from human experts in the field of audio mastering, including Grammy-nominated mastering engineer Piper Payne.
Upload your track, and an AI mastering engine will provide a master in a style of your choosing – ‘Precise’, ‘Elevated’ or ‘Organic’ options are provided. You can adjust the tone of the master, adding ‘Depth’ or ‘Presence’, for example, and you can even provide a reference track for the tool to base your master on.

You can upload WAV, AIF, AIFF or MP3 formatted files with sample rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz and export them as either WAV or MP3.
Users can try the service for free, and pricing is based on a credit system, starting at $6 for a single credit and going up to $180 for 60 credits, making it an affordable and efficient option for musicians looking to prepare their music for release. Payment is required only when users decide to export the final master.
We’ve seen an influx of AI-powered music production tools in recent years, especially in mastering, with the likes of LANDR, Soundcloud, Roex, Cloudbounce and Masterchannel launching their own AI-powered tools.
In a recent piece, What does AI mastering mean for artists, engineers, and music?, MusicTech explored the evolution of AI mastering technology in the music industry. In it, Masterchanel explains the advanced mastering technology it uses, which sees “reinforcement learning” and thousands of human engineers’ input to enhance the quality of its AI mastering service.
If you’re interested in having AI and Waves master your project, try it out at waves.com.
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Universal Audio UAD V76 Preamp The venerable V76 Preamplifier is arguably the most coveted standalone mic preamp ever made. Developed in the 1950s by the German Institute of Broadcast Technology (IRT), the V76's distinctly... Read More

MIDI Innovation Awards 2023: Winners announced This year’s MIDI Innovation Awards have now drawn to a close, with winners of all five categories announced during a live stream event hosted on The MIDI Association’s YouTube channel.

Machina Bristronica, a festival of knobs, buttons and discussions, returns to BristolMachina Bristronica – the synth and electronic music festival based in the South West of England – is returning in September 2023 after a three-year hiatus.
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The synth fest was first launched in Bristol in 2019 to great success. Unfortunately, the 2020 event had to be cancelled, making this year’s event four years in the making. It’s organised by the team at Stokes Croft-based synth shop Elevator Sounds, who have been hard at work to make the line-up bigger than ever.
The event is being held at Document, on 30 September, and you can expect a full day and evening of synth stalls, live hardware performances, panel talks, DIY modular workshops, music production and performance training, and more. The event is taking place in four large warehouse spaces and an outdoor stage.

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Gear nerds, fret not: you can get your hands on over 100 tables of the latest synths, drum machines, modular gear and more from big-name brands and boutique manufacturers. There are also 11 hours of live hardware performances from the likes of Dopplereffekt, Steevio & Suzybee, Mount Kimbie’s Kai Campos, Scanner, Surgeon’s Girl, Saskia, JacqNoise, and Julia Bondar, plus a Konx-Om-Pax live AV set and other visuals throughout the day.
If you’re looking to expand your knowledge, then you can attend six panel talks including The Relationship Between Artist and Equipment with Imogen Heap and Kai Campos; Navigating the Label Landscape, the Past, Present and Future of the UK Sound; and a one-on-one conversation with YouTuber Mylar Melodies and synth designer Vlad Kreimer called Emotional Synthesis: The Art of Romantic Engineering.
On top of this, there are five educational sessions that cover visual synthesis, live performance, audio-visual and hardware production techniques, and advanced modular patching. Plus, there’s a DIY area where attendees can build hardware pieces alongside the designers. There are seven of these workshops to choose from and each one is ticketed with a specific price that includes all components for the build.
Throw in some food stalls, bars, merch, installations and more and you’ve got the makings of a pretty delightful day out for anyone who has an interest in electronics and music making.
Tickets to the event are now on final release at £29.99, and are available via Resident Advisor. It’s open from 11:30am to 10pm, and for those who want to carry on after the event, there’s also an afterparty packed with live music and DJs from 10pm onwards at Dareshack.
More info can be found at headfirstbristol.co.uk.
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This YouTuber just played Tony Banks’ Roland JD-800 – which still contains the Genesis man’s patches from the ’90sYouTuber Alex Ball has managed to borrow a Roland JD-800 which once belonged to Genesis’ Tony Banks in the 1990s.
Along with giving you a demo of how it sounds, he’s also shown how his patches were programmed so you can unlock the tones yourself.

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The JD-800 is a digital synth that was released in 1991, and these days it can be tricky to get your hands on one. Most being sold online will set you back over £1,000. This specific one now belongs to avid synth collector Andrew Ward, who kindly loaned it to Ball to use in his video.
Roland did release a plugin emulation of the synth back in 2021 as a Zen-Core Model Expansion on the Roland Cloud. It offered the same retro sounds as the original, as it was crafted using the original waveforms along with with advanced modelling techniques. As of yet though, there has been no physical remake of the synth.
In Ball’s video, he walks through patch by patch and plays them through. They handily have correlating names to matching song titles such as Invisible Touch and Mama, but some for some of them Ball had to research into the band’s former live performances to figure out which parts of the song they were used in.
Each track is timestamped in the video’s description, too. Take a look at the full video below:

Earlier this month (September), Ball also got hold of an E-mu SP-12 from the ‘80s. For the occasion, Ward dug out some of Phil Collins’ and Mike Rutherford’s original floppy discs from part of his Genesis equipment collection.
“Chris Poacher lent us a floppy drive and I fired up the discs, possibly for the first time in over 30 years,” writes Ball on YouTube. Watch here:

Roland is set to open its first retail store in Japan on 1 October this year. Last year it also opened a retail space in London in honour of its 50th anniversary. The stores form part of a wider plan to expand Roland’s global reach, but no further shops have yet been announced.
The post This YouTuber just played Tony Banks’ Roland JD-800 – which still contains the Genesis man’s patches from the ’90s appeared first on MusicTech.

Recorded music revenue grew 9.3% to all-time high of $8.4B in first half of 2023, says RIAAThe Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) mid-year 2023 report shows that the industry hit new revenue milestones in its ninth consecutive year of growth. Total recorded music revenues grew. Continue reading
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“The minute I stopped mixing my stuff I became my most creative”, says dubstep pioneer SkreamBritish producer and dubstep pioneer Skream has sparked a debate on Twitter – now X – on the role of mixing in electronic music production.

READ MORE: INVT and Skream on blending Latin beats with dubstep and garage: “If you’re going to play this game, try to figure out a way to play it right”

Skream’s initial tweet sparked a discussion on the social media platform, with fans expressing their views on mixing in electronic music production. Some argue that mixing is a separate skill and shouldn’t be considered a prerequisite for artists, while others see mixing as an integral part of the creative process.
The Skreamizm producer and Magnetic Man star started the discussion by mentioning that Fred again.. doesn’t mix his own tracks, emphasising that it’s not a criticism but rather a valid approach to music production.
“That isn’t a bad thing.” Writes Skream. “Artwork once said to me ‘if you had a leak in your roof would you fix it?’ I said no and he said, ‘Exactly’. Don’t ever criticise people for making there [sic] product sound the best it can be.”
In the thread, he also shares his personal experience of letting mix engineers handle his music, which in turn has allowed him to focus more on creativity.
“The minute I stopped mixing my stuff (I was always terrible at the mixdown side of things, just wasn’t my strong point) I became my most creative.
“There’s a huge difference between having someone mix your track and someone ghost-produce it, people need to understand.”
“Nobody changes my art though. The mix engineer just enhances the art that’s provided to them by a producer or musician.”
Not all producers share Skream’s view that mixing should be a separate process to production, however. When MusicTech spoke to Flava D at Glastonbury 2023, she gave our readers the advice that you should “mix as you go” as opposed to “leaving it until the end”.
Skream played a rare surprise dubstep set at the Siren stage at Waterworks festival in London on Saturday.
He also just released Skreamizm Vol. 8, which you can check out via Bandcamp.
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Why is #SPOTIFYCORRUPT trending on X / Twitter?The hashtags #SPOTIFYCORRUPT, #HYBECORRUPT, and #GEFFENRECORDSCORRUPT are all trending on X / Twitter after apparent mistakes and changes by Spotify. HYBE is the Korean music company behind BTS, Blackpink, and. Continue reading
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Variety of Sound Releases epicPLATE mkII FREE Plate Reverb Plugin For Windows
Much to everyone’s delight, Variety of Sound has been on a roll with updated releases and has now released epicPLATE mkII, a FREE classic plate reverb plugin for Windows. Earlier this month, we covered NastyDLA mkIII, a plugin that might be one of the best free delays around for Windows users. This time, we have [...]
View post: Variety of Sound Releases epicPLATE mkII FREE Plate Reverb Plugin For Windows

How To Sell Sample Packs (And Make Money As A Sound Designer
If you want to make money as a sound designer, learning how to sell sample packs is essential. When I initially ventured into the business of selling samples, I was completely clueless. It took me several years of dedicated learning to grasp the various business models within this domain.  In this article, I intend to [...]
View post: How To Sell Sample Packs (And Make Money As A Sound Designer

DistroKid acquires website builder Bandzoogle in effort to “empower artists”DistroKid, a music distribution platform that helps independent artists sell their music, has acquired the website hosting company Bandzoogle.

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The acquisition will merge their services, according to a statement made by both companies’ CEOs. Bandzoogle’s suite of direct-to-fan tools will be integrated into the DistroKid ecosystem, enabling artists to manage their online presence more effectively.
DistroKid offers easy music distribution to digital platforms, fast release times, affordable annual pricing for unlimited releases, and tools for royalty collection and analytics. Bandzoogle provides various website-building services, including web stores for selling music, merchandise, and tickets, crowdfunding, fan subscriptions, and mailing lists.
“At DistroKid, we’re always working on innovative ways to help artists,” said Philip Kaplan, Founder and CEO of DistroKid. “Bandzoogle has built incredible tools that make it super easy for every artist to set up an impactful public website & e-commerce store.”
In this statement, Bandzoogle’s CEO Stacey Bedford also added, “DistroKid has always put artists first, just like we have, so we’re thrilled to join forces to continue to empower artists.”
In February, DistroKid unveiled Mixea, an AI-powered instant mastering tool. The tool was built to help artists get their music “radio ready” by optimising bass, compression, stereo enhancement, eq, limiting, and loudness.
In 2022, the company launched a music video distribution service called DistroVid, which lets artists upload their music videos to digital service providers for a fixed fee. The service lets you upload an unlimited number of music videos per artist to Apple Music, Vevo, Amazon Music, and Tidal.
In other music distribution news, Universal Music Group and Deezer recently announced they’re launching an artist-centric music streaming model that doubles payouts for professional artists, rewards actively searched songs, and deprioritises non-musical content like white noise podcasts to better support established musicians and address streaming platform challenges.
You can sign up for DistroKid now.
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