17 Killer Social Media Content Ideas for MusiciansA helpful guide for artists to cut through the noise of social media with time-tested and original content ideas that fit your brand.
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Akai’s new MPC Live III has launched: here’s everything you need to know about features, pricing, and availabilityAkai has launched the third iteration of its MPC Live workstation, offering the “fastest processor of any MPC to date”, and reimagined pads.
Building upon the MPC Live II, which landed back in 2020 and introduced built-in speakers, this new model offers a boatload of upgrades and new features, notably with the addition of new MPCe pads, which are 3D-sensing, ultra-responsive, and designed for more nuanced expression.

READ MORE: “Looping is merely the ultimate extension of overdubbing”: Top insights from the creator of the Akai MPC

Akai says that the MPC Live III has been crafted for “producers who move fast”, with a vast range of tools for all needs – from basic beatmaking to advanced music production – all within a standalone unit that requires no laptop. Let’s take a closer look at what it has to offer:
What are the key features of the Akai MPC Live III?
Credit: Akai Professional
Starting with the new MPCe pads, not only are they much more responsive, but they also enable X/Y control of one-shot layers, sample blending, plus dynamic note repeats and articulations. The unit also has a new 8-core processor with 8GB of RAM, stepping things up from its predecessor’s Quad Core, and has an onboard rechargeable battery, speakers, and a mic, plus deep MIDI and CV control.
For the first time ever in an MPC, this new unit also welcomes clip launching, step sequencing, and assignable performance buttons. Pro Stems Separation is onboard, and you can also load up to 32 instrument plugin instances and 16 audio tracks – all made smoother with its snazzy new processor, of course.
The MPC Live III also offers direct sampling via USB-C, and there are 32 channels of MIDI for seamless DAW integration if desired. Check out the video below for further details on its additional features:

How much does the Akai MPC Live III cost and when is it available?
The new Akai MPC Live III is priced at $1,699 USD / €1,649.99 / £1,399.99. It is available to buy now through select dealers including Thomann, Amazon, Andertons, and Bop DJ.
You can find out more about the MPC Live III or locate a dealer via the Akai Professional website.
The post Akai’s new MPC Live III has launched: here’s everything you need to know about features, pricing, and availability appeared first on MusicTech.

A Sound Effect offers the Circus Horror Strings sample pack FREE for a limited time
Whether you’re a fully-fledged horror movie superfan or you just like to embrace the madness of Halloween each year, there’s something strangely appealing about the sound of horror. You can now get that sound free of charge for a limited time with the Circus Horror Strings sample pack by A Sound Effect. But, you’ll have [...]
View post: A Sound Effect offers the Circus Horror Strings sample pack FREE for a limited time

Universal Audio launch UAD Showtime ’64 Tube Amp The latest addition to the UAD plug-in range brings another sought-after amplifier recreation to the collection, capturing the sound of Fender’s iconic Showman.

DAWJunkie releases RazorPluck Jr, a FREE pluck synth for macOS and Windows
DAWJunkie is offering RazorPluck Jr, a compact virtual synthesizer designed for crafting bright, expressive plucks — and it’s free for a limited time. The plugin is available for macOS and Windows. Although RazorPluck Jr is a streamlined version of DAWJunkie’s forthcoming RazorPluck ($49) synth, it feels like a complete instrument. Apart from a small Upgrade [...]
View post: DAWJunkie releases RazorPluck Jr, a FREE pluck synth for macOS and Windows

“I’m very, very scared… The new generation can’t afford to stay in the game”: Britney Spears hitmaker Justin Tranter warns “there won’t be anymore” songwriters if labels don’t step upJustin Tranter, the songwriter behind hits for Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Chappell Roan, and countless more has raised the alarm on the future of songwriting.
In a candid interview with Hollywood Reporter, the 45-year-old warns that if labels don’t start taking care of their writers, very soon “there won’t be any anymore”.
“The song is the most important part of the music business. It all starts at the fucking song. So why aren’t we taking care of the people who make the song? It’s crazy,” says Tranter.

READ MORE: “These are not songs coming out of Sabrina Carpenter’s head”: Rick Beato says most modern popstars are just “vehicles” for songs crafted by professional songwriters

Arguing for better support for songwriters, he adds, “if the labels don’t start taking care of songwriters, there won’t be any anymore, and it’s just going to be old people like me, who can afford to work for free.”
Tranter notes that while a small number of privileged writers like him can still make a living, the next generation faces steep challenges, particularly in the streaming era.
“I want it to be clear that I’m not complaining for me,” he says. “The bulk of the money I made was through radio, film and TV, when songwriters could still make real money. Across all the streaming platforms that give you numbers, I think I’ve had just over 70 billion streams. Very little of the money I’ve made has come from that. I’m very, very scared for this next generation of writers.”
At the heart of the problem, says Tranter, is the imbalance between creatives and the executives running the show: “The songwriter problem is a billionaire problem. And that’s where we should be focusing. There are record label executives, tech executives that have made a lot of the money that me and my co-writers should’ve made.”
The looming rise of AI only adds to his fears. “If we haven’t already, we are going to start to see a decline in greatness, fewer great songs,” he warns. “And that will eventually be a decline in [the music business’s] bottom line. The new generation can’t afford to stay in the game, which is scary.”
“As someone who’s a fan first, I want new hitmakers, new people behind the scenes. I still want to keep going, but I can’t write every fucking hit.”
The post “I’m very, very scared… The new generation can’t afford to stay in the game”: Britney Spears hitmaker Justin Tranter warns “there won’t be anymore” songwriters if labels don’t step up appeared first on MusicTech.

Woodstock Audio debuts with Open Compressor – a plugin that lets you “see” your compression in real timeWoodstock Audio – the new company from the team behind Mastering.com – has launched its debut plugin, Open Compressor, a dynamics processing tool designed to demystify the art of compression.
Core to the Open Compressor user interface is the variety of enhanced visualisers, which show the type and amount of compression, EQ and saturation being applied, in a granular way that goes beyond existing compressors on the market.

READ MORE: Heritage Audio transforms its Tubesessor Optical Tube Compressor into plugin form

A central waveform display shows gain reduction, clipper and limiter thresholds, and before-and-after waveforms, while additional displays reveal everything from the shape of the compressor’s knee to the ratio of odd and even harmonics in the signal. The Oscilloscope gives a snapshot of waveshape and, together, the real-time displays help users identify pesky areas faster and make better mix decisions, improving overall workflow.
According to founder Rob Mayzes, the plugin continues the educational philosophy that drives Mastering.com: “I built Mastering.com on the principle of objectivity, and we’re taking the same approach with Woodstock Audio,” he says. “By giving engineers and producers the knowledge and understanding of technical processes, they can make more informed and objective decisions using any tools, and apply their skills wherever they find themselves.”
Functionally, Open Compressor combines a modular design with extensive visual feedback. Users can switch between Peak or RMS operating modes, feed-forward or feedback architectures, and Regular or Optical ballistic models – covering a wide range of creative processing styles.
There’s also built-in saturation with separate drive controls for odd and even harmonics, a Low Level control that sweeps between downward expansion and upward compression, and an auto-threshold mode that applies source-dependent gain reduction, regardless of the input level.
Mayzes adds that Open Compressor is the first of a range of tools planned by Woodstock Audio: “I already know that I want to develop an EQ next. It will follow the same approach of providing building blocks and revealing first principles.”
Priced at £72 (U.P £89), Open Compressor is available now for macOS and Windows in VST3 and AU formats.

Learn more at Woodstock Audio.
The post Woodstock Audio debuts with Open Compressor – a plugin that lets you “see” your compression in real time appeared first on MusicTech.

Daniel Ek just stepped down as CEO of Spotify — now what?After nearly two decades running the world’s largest music streaming platform, Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO of Spotify and into Executive Chairman. The move comes at a time when Ek has increasingly become a pimple on the face of Spotify, with his flippant comments about the music industry and morally questionable investments provoking an artist backlash that now seems to be snowballing into an avalanche. In that context, removing his name from Spotify’s front page can be seen as an attempt to distance the company from continued criticism.
Artists began boycotting Spotify after Ek’s venture capital firm, Prima Materia, led a €600 million round of investment in the AI defence company Helsing. In 2022, electronic music artist, Skee Mask, was among the first to take a stand on this issue. In 2025, the protest gained more momentum with indie-rock band Deerhoof who pulled their music from Spotify and published a scathing take-down of Ek, who, they maintained, has “never shown the slightest commitment to moral integrity”.

READ MORE: Fake artists, real opportunities: Hoaxes and scams are holding back the potential of AI music

“We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech,” they added. The more of the killing you can get computers to do, the better your bottom line. AI violence also finally solves the perennial inconvenience to war-makers — It takes human compassion and morality out of the equation.”
The list of names departing Spotify grew bigger: WU LYF, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Cindy Lee, Xiu Xiu, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Hotline TNT, Young Widow.
Artist discontent reached a new level of publicity when hugely influential British trip-hop band, Massive Attack, put their weight behind the protest.
“The economic burden that has long been placed on artists is now compounded by a moral and ethical burden, whereby the hard-earned money of fans and the creative endeavours of musicians ultimately fund lethal, dystopian technologies. Enough is more than enough. Another way is possible.”
We can’t say for sure if the artist backlash put pressure on Ek, or the company Helsing, where he also holds the role of chairman. But following Massive Attack’s announcement, and just a week before he announced he was stepping down as CEO of Spotify, Helsing was forced to address some of the criticisms that were being voiced by artists.
“Currently we see misinformation spreading that Helsing’s technology is deployed in war zones other than Ukraine. This is not correct. Our technology is deployed to European countries for deterrence and for defence against the Russian aggression in Ukraine only.”
Of course, the whole ‘AI death machines’ thing is just one episode in a long string of controversies with David Ek at the heart of them all.
To briefly recap, Ek once tried to compare the music industry to professional sports in a blithe attempt to explain why so many artists earn next to nothing. When MusicTech took a swing at the numbers, it turns out you might actually have a better chance at a decent paycheck from playing football than you would earning livable wages from Spotify streaming revenue.
In another tone-deaf statement, he once posted on X that the cost of making music was “close to zero” causing deadmau5 to issue a seething response. “Incorrect. The cost of creating content was 25+ years of my life and much of those proceeds going to your company you complete fucking idiot.”
Ek has gotten in trouble for more than just his words. In the 2025 book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, author Liz Pelly explains how Spotify was caught stuffing its recommendation playlists with music they had commissioned from partners. In short, they were asking for generic, bargain-bin imitations of the music they knew no one paid attention to, i.e. ‘music to fall asleep to’.
In an investigation by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, it was found that as few as 20 songwriters were behind more than 500 “artists” work on Spotify. A scheme that, in theory, would have allowed Spotify to avoid paying out royalties.
As for the threat of AI-generated music flooding the platform? Only in 2025 has Spotify begun to take action by removing 75 million ‘spam’ tracks from its platform. However, artists are still grappling with the impact of AI generated music and while Deezer has been transparent about the problem, Spotify has avoided releasing the number of AI tracks currently on its platform, and haschosen not to identify or label potential AI-generated music.
Perhaps what is most telling is that in his farewell statement, Ek never once mentions the word “music”. However, he does use the word “product” three times. It’s this attitude towards music that gets to the heart of the problem: Spotify is first and foremost a tech company rather than a music company. The 42-year-old Swede has a $9.9 billion net worth that was built on the backs of countless artists and musicians, yet he failed to give even a passing mention to the group of people upon whom he certainly built his business empire.
For a tech company, the primary concern is simply ‘the product’. Whether that product is music or AI weapons? It doesn’t matter.
Daniel Ek is both chairman of the world’s largest music streaming platform, and of an AI weapons company. And while he may be stepping down as CEO, he is still very much driving the company. As Ek himself writes, “Let’s be clear, I’m not leaving. I’ll remain deeply involved in the big, defining decisions about our future”.
In this game of musical chairs, Ek is still a core part of the Spotify business. Switching CEO’s doesn’t change the fact that so many problems raised by artists continue to plague the platform. As long as this remains the case, we are likely to continue seeing artists take their music off Spotify.
The post Daniel Ek just stepped down as CEO of Spotify — now what? appeared first on MusicTech.

“I’m doing it for something bigger than me”: Telepathic Instruments’ Orchid is Kevin Parker’s dream synth — he hopes it’ll be yours, tooIn the past couple of years, many music makers have been subject to an endless number of online advertisements for ‘MIDI chord packs’. These ‘get-pro-results-quick’ tools promise to bypass the so-called toil of creating and composing chord progressions, replacing it with a catalogue of premade progressions with a convenient drag-and-drop solution.
“Each to their own,” smiles Kevin Parker. “I would never slag off anyone’s preferred method. I wouldn’t use a chord pack because I don’t think I would love songwriting as much if I didn’t have the journey. For me— the journey of it— that is the part that I love doing. That’s why I do it.”
The Telepathic Instruments Orchid is on the MusicTech Cover. Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
The Orchid chord-generating synthesizer, the debut release of Parker’s newly co-founded Telepathic Instruments, has been out barely a year, and it’s already a runaway success.
According to Telepathic, two launches of the Orchid sold out in minutes; the first batch of 1,000 in January, followed by a further 3,000 in May. Units have been spotted in the loving custody of musicians, from Fred Again.. to Gracie Abrams to Murda Beats, and social media feeds are awash with short-form videos of creators exploring its idea-sparking capabilities. This Friday, the Orchid will finally have its global launch — and largest release.
A single-octave keyboard on one side and a selection of chord buttons on the other, the Orchid is a unit of choice functionality designed to be a songwriting tool, a portable creative canvas. Hit a note on the right, and assign it a chord type and extension on the left. Choose a playing style—the chord could be strummed, held, arpeggiated or delivered as a pattern sequence—and one of its litany of onboard synth sounds, and you’re away. It’s battery-powered, stylish, has onboard speakers, and even comes in its own carry case.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
In practice, the synth is tremendous fun to play. Within seconds of switching it on, I’m tinkering with novel chord sequences and voicings (EbsusM7? No problem. Fdim9? Easy), layering ideas via the onboard looper as I go.
Its name is inextricable from that of Parker and his titanic project Tame Impala, but this compact ideas machine is no mere cash-in for one of indie’s most successful musicians. In fact, it was never intended to be a business at all.
“I used to have this Casio keyboard that belonged to my dad,” explains Parker. “There was a little section right in the corner of it with these tiny little buttons, and you could punch in sequences of chords to program a little backing track, then play your Stevie Wonder lead line over the top of chords.” He laughs: “I didn’t know how to actually sequence with it, I just used my index fingers to make these chord combinations.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Parker kept this relic from the age of 11 and used it all the way up to the release of Tame Impala’s seminal 2012 album, Lonerism. The sounds of this Casio keyboard are all over the album, and are paired with his Ace Tone Phasor; a prime example of this pairing is in the intro of Why Won’t They Talk To Me?.
“When I first signed a record deal, [our label] sent us touring, fucking non-stop. I used to love sitting on the aeroplane with a pair of headphones and this Casio keyboard, just writing songs with chords that were different to the chords I’d usually write on guitar,” Parker continues. “By that time, I’d gotten so good at guitar that the muscle memory part was automatic. And that’s what I’ve always loved about the idea of a chord generator: that you can land on chords that your fingers otherwise wouldn’t want to do. In the back of my mind, I always thought, ‘Man, I would love something that only did this.’ If I ever made something, it would be this sort of crazy songwriting tool.”
The semi-serious idea lay dormant for years, until the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the brakes on touring schedules the world over. “I just said, ‘fuck it,’” Parker remembers. “I decided to try and find someone to make this thing that I’d been fantasising about for all that time. The only person I knew of who might be able to do this kind of thing was this guy I used to watch on YouTube, giving techno music production tutorials. He was the only person I could think of who might know how to code and create software and then turn it into hardware. So I DM’d him on Instagram…”
“It’s been really nice to be able to put my 12 years of synth nerd-ery into something like this” – Kevin Parker
New Zealand/Aotearoa-born Tom Cosm is a musician, Ableton Certified Trainer, self-professed ‘audio mad scientist’ and Technical Director at Telepathic Instruments. “I noticed that Tame Impala had started following me on Instagram,” he remembers. “Which, you know… was sort of a big deal! I reached out and said, ‘What’s up?’ [Parker] messaged back saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea for a thing. Can you build it?’”
Cosm was under the impression he would be creating a one-off unit “for [Parker’s] personal use”. And at the time, he was right.
“I didn’t really have a commercial drive for it initially,” explains Parker. “It was one of my best friends, Chris [Adams]— we stay up late all the time and think up stupid ideas and whatever— who was like, ‘Man, we should make this a business!’ This would have been at, like, one o’clock in the morning.
“I wouldn’t know the first thing about starting and running a company. But my wife [entrepreneur Sophie Lawrence Parker] knew someone who was into marketing and business-building. And that was Charl.”
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
Charl Laubscher, who is now Managing Director at Telepathic Instruments, initially thought Parker “wanted to do celebrity soap or something”, he laughs. “But then he said, ‘I want to make a diatonic chord-generating synthesiser.’ And I was like, ‘Oh. Awesome.’ So my team and I jumped on board.”
Parker had reached a critical stage in the realisation of his chord-generating fantasy. “Then came the time to turn this from a weird aluminium briefcase into a… beautiful thing,” he remembers. “Charl knew someone who was up for the task: Ignacio.” That’s Ignacio Germade, whom Laubscher had become close to through work he’d done at Polaroid, and whom he hails as “one of the greatest living product designers”.
Orchid’s team was now in place: Parker, Cosm, Laubscher, Germade, Chris Adams and Sophie Lawrence Parker as Marketing Director. “I’ve definitely never felt part of anything so serendipitous, with its own kind of momentum,” reflects Laubscher. “People just sort of seem to… get it, which is really wonderful. When you see somebody play the instrument for the first time, you can see it on their faces.”
“I’ve definitely never felt part of anything so serendipitous, with its own kind of momentum” – Charl Laubscher
Cosm agrees: “I had a friend nearly tear up the other night because she’s never played a musical instrument in her life, who just hit a few things and found something that worked. To see that is very impactful for me.”
Kevin Parker’s boyish enthusiasm about the Orchid’s journey is palpable. “It’s been really nice to be able to put my like, 12 years of synth nerd-ery into something like this,” he says. “Making albums, I’m just so focused on the music. I’m not one of those people who goes deep on a synth. This whole thing has been a way to flex the muscles I’ve developed over the years, but in a way where music isn’t the primary thing that comes out the other end.”
At least, not music by Tame Impala, I offer.
Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
“Exactly! And being a producer, I like the idea of helping other people make music. That’s one of my other joys. So the idea that I can help make something that brings music into the world through other people is a joy. It feels like I’m doing it for something bigger than just me.”
Of course, for Tame Impala fans everywhere, doubtless questions will burn about the relationship between Parker’s music and his instrument — especially with the next Tame Impala album, Deadbeat, due out later this month. Does Kevin Parker himself use the Orchid in private?
“When I talk about Orchid and I talk about Tame Impala, I don’t want to cross-pollinate too much,” Parker replies. “I feel like that would cheapen both things. If I talk about Orchid and Tame Impala’s music together, it’ll make it seem like I’m just plugging my instrument to you by talking about my music, and vice versa. I don’t want people to think of the Orchid as ‘the Tame Impala synth.’”
Parker pauses to choose his words. “What I will tell you, is that if I didn’t use it — this thing, that I’ve been fantasising about for so long — it would be a failure.”
Telepathic Instruments’ worldwide release of the Orchid takes place October 10.
Words: Vincent Joseph
Photography: Simon Vinall
The post “I’m doing it for something bigger than me”: Telepathic Instruments’ Orchid is Kevin Parker’s dream synth — he hopes it’ll be yours, too appeared first on MusicTech.

Waffles eat BlueskyA waffle-centric controversy underlines ongoing tensions between Bluesky and some of its most vocal users.

DeFiLlama to delist Aster perpetual volume data over integrity concernsThe decentralized finance analytics platform said that perpetual trading volumes on Aster were almost perfectly correlated to Binance volume.

Divining Air Quality With A Cheap Computer Vision DeviceThere are all kinds of air quality sensors on the market that rely on all kinds of electro-physical effects to detect gases or contaminants and report them back as a value. [lucascreator] has instead been investigating a method of determining air quality that is closer to divination than measurement—using computer vision and a trained AI model.
The system relies on an Unihiker K10—a microcontroller module based around the ESP32-S3 at heart. The chip is running a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on 12,000 images of the sky. These images were sourced from a public dataset; they were taken in India and Nepal, and tagged with the relevant Air Quality Index at the time of capture. [lucascreator] used this data to train their model to look at an image taken with a camera attached to the ESP32 and estimate the air quality index based on what it has seen in that existing dataset.
It might sound like a spurious concept, but it does have some value. [lucascreator] cites studies where video data was used for low-cost air quality estimation—not as a replacement for proper measurement, but as an additional data point that could be sourced from existing surveillance infrastructure. Performance of such models has, in some cases, been remarkably accurate.
[lucascreator] is pragmatic about the limitations of their implementation of this concept, noting that their very compact model didn’t always perform the best in terms of determining actual air quality. The concept may have some value, but implementing it on an ESP32 isn’t so easy if you’re looking for supreme accuracy. We’ve featured some other great air quality projects before, though, if you’re looking for other ways to capture this information. Video after the break.

PsychoCircuitry TransientREShaper+ The PsychoCircuitry TransientREShaper+ is a dynamic and intuitive plugin designed to give you unparalleled control over the attack and sustain characteristics of your audio. Whether you need to punch up drum hits, tighten a bassline, or soften the attack of a plucked instrument, this tool provides precise manipulation of transients, allowing your sounds to cut through the mix or sit back as desired. It's an essential weapon in any mix engineer's arsenal for adding definition, clarity, and impact to individual tracks or entire buses. Equipped with a simple yet powerful interface, TransientREShaper+ offers independent control over "Attack" and "Sustain" along with a "Clip" feature to tame extreme peaks, ensuring a clean and musical output. Its ability to radically reshape the perceived envelope of sounds without affecting overall gain makes it an indispensable creative and corrective tool for drums, percussion, guitars, and any audio that needs precise dynamic sculpting. Features Intuitive transient shaping controls. Independent "Attack" and "Sustain" adjustment. "Clip" feature for peak management. Mix knob for parallel processing. Output Gain control. Sidechain HPF. Oversampling options. Resizable GUI. Read More

Music Business News Last Week: TikTok, Facebook, PROs & MoreImportant music business news last week included concern over the TikTok U.S. ownership change, new Facebook fan marketing tools for musicians, a global music revenue update, a shift at Ticketmaster, an expanded PRO database, and more.
The post Music Business News Last Week: TikTok, Facebook, PROs & More appeared first on Hypebot.

Tracktion announce Kontrast Tracktion latest collaboration with Dawsome offers a radial new take on wavetable synthesis, and promises to brings back the excitement that producers have been craving since the early days of Serum and PPG.