Netflix will add Music Streaming in 2025 predicts Bobby OwsinskiWe asked a few of our favorite new music industry pros to help us identify trends that will drive the music industry this year and Bobby Owsinski offered a bold. Continue reading
The post Netflix will add Music Streaming in 2025 predicts Bobby Owsinski appeared first on Hypebot.

The biggest music technology news in 2024If you’ve been following the headlines, 2024 was an exciting, eventful, and often anxious year in music. From AI and legal controversies to innovative new instruments and festival blunders, this year really brought us more than we bargained for.

READ MORE: These are the 10 best synthesizers of 2024, according to MusicTech’s reviewers

In case you missed what went down, this list will catch you up on some of the most interesting, divisive, and entertaining news stories we covered this year.
Telepathic Instruments
Telepathic Instruments’ Orchid. Image: Telepathic Instruments
One of the biggest developments this year in the music tech community was the launch of Telepathic Instruments and the fledgling company’s first product, the Orchid. With Kevin Parker of Tame Impala as one of its founders and Tom Cosm as its technical director, Telepathic promises to be a manufacturer with a “by artists for artists” philosophy.
This is certainly evident in the Lo-Fi branding aesthetic and the creative versatility we’ve seen so far in the video demonstrations of the Orchid. In case you’re wondering, the Orchid is a compact 16-voice digital synth with a single-octave keyboard. The idea behind the Orchid came to Kevin over 10 years ago, bringing a new approach to chord generation.
The first 1000 units of the Orchid go on sale from 18th December, directly from the Telepathic Instruments home page.
Read more about the Telepathic Instruments Orchid here.
The US Election and Music Tech
DJ Snake and Beyoncé. Image: Frazer Harrison/Michael Buckner/Getty
With this year being an election year, we saw an unprecedented amount of campaign coverage on YouTube and Spotify, where candidates were platformed by some of the biggest podcasts globally including The Joe Rogan Experience and Call Her Daddy. Whether this held much sway in the polls is another matter.
However, what was surprising was how little pushback and critical dialogue there was from interviewers like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Alex Cooper who let the candidates control their respective narratives completely. Conversely, entertainment figures in music picked and chose their allegiances explicitly, with artists like DJ Snake and Beyoncé preventing their music from being used by one candidate or the other.
Read more about the music used illegally by US Election candidates here.
Drake vs Kendrick
Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Image: Joseph Okpako and Prince Williams/Getty
If you’re a music fan and you were on social media platforms at any point this year, chances are you would have heard about the unavoidable tale of the Drake vs Kendrick beef. In May, the long-standing online animosity between the two artists came to a head with the release of Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us, which is now nearing a billion streams on global platforms.
Drake’s response to this was to sue his (and Kendrick’s) label UMG and Spotify, claiming that the companies colluded to purposefully push the viral diss track in an allegedly elaborate illegal scheme to sabotage his brand as an artist. From using Bots to cutting royalty rates, all of Drake’s lofty claims filed in the lawsuit have so far been denied by UMG, so we can only watch it unfold.
Get the details on Drake’s allegations against UMG and Spotify here.
UMG vs TuneCore (Believe)
Universal Music Grouop Logo. Image: Zuma Press/Alamy
Of course, this wasn’t the first time UMG was in the headlines this year. After pulling its entire catalogue from TikTok, the label eventually settled its dispute with the popular short video platform in early May after finally coming to a mutually beneficial agreement regarding licensing.
Meanwhile, just last month, UMG, as well as ABKCO Music & Records and Concord Music Group filed a lawsuit against the music distributor TuneCore and its parent organization Believe for alleged broadscale copyright infringement. According to the filings TuneCore is said to be involved in the distribution of fraudulent remixes of major artists, as well as manipulating the Content ID system on YouTube.
Read more about UMG vs TuneCore here.
Rick Rubin on Creativity
Rick Rubin. Image: Christian Charisius/picture alliance via Getty Images
Back in 2023, multi-platinum-selling producer Rick Rubin launched a book entitled The Creative Act: A Way of Being. As a disciple of the creative process, Rubin often appears on podcasts, both as a guest and an interviewer on his own Tetragrammaton series. Because he speaks on the subject so often, Rubin has become a target in the media for artists who in one way or another disagree with his views.
One such commenter was award-winning artist and producer Jacob Collier who strongly disagreed with many of Rubin’s statements surrounding what constitutes “pure art” and its creation process. More recently, Pete Townsend of The Who also spoke out on the Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt podcast, regarding some of Rubin’s views as contradictory or even hypocritical. Although he never intended to come across as an authority on creativity, it seems many of Rubin’s statements were simply taken out of context.

 
Manoeuvres from Moog Music
Moog Muse. Image: Simon Vinall for MusicTech
This year was a busy one for Moog Music with a range of new hardware synths to increase your gear acquisition syndrome. For starters, the manufacturer expanded the Moog Studio line with two new 60 HP modules. This includes the Spectravox 10-band vocoder and the Labyrinth generative synthesizer, both equipped with extensive patching matrices for creative sonic exploration.
However, the headliner was the impressive Moog Muse, a 61-key 8-voice dual-layer analogue synth with amazing sound-shaping capabilities and all the bells and whistles you’d expect with its $3000 price tag. From built-in effects and a programmable macro control to a 64-step pattern sequencer, the Muse has all the hallmarks to make it that aspirational piece of gear worth saving up for.
Check out the Moog Muse review here.
The Generative AI Saga
Suno AI. Image: MusicTech
One of the most controversial topics on the internet this year in music production circles and among fans was generative AI. When Roland and UMG joined forces to create a manifesto outlining the principles for using AI technology in music creation, most of the major music industry players and music tech companies co-signed the list of guidelines in support.
As positive as this was, in an almost inevitable turn of events, Sony, UMG, and Warner subsequently sued the generative AI music platforms Udio and Suno for widespread copyright infringement. Led by RIAA, the plaintiffs claimed that the AI platforms used technology modelled upon popular songs, seeking damages of up to $150,000 per instance.
Find out more about the Generative AI Lawsuit here.
A Big Year for Teenagers
Teenage Engineering OP-XY. Image: Teenage Engineering
2024 was a big year for the cult Swedish tech manufacturer, Teenage Engineering. From design collaborations like the Rabbit R1 to being featured at the Art Of Noise exhibition in San Fransisco, the brand covers plenty of ground. With the EP–1320 Medieval, the company showed it certainly has no qualms about doing something completely leftfield for fans.
However, the main event for Teenage Engineering this year was undoubtedly the release of the new OP-XY portable performance synthesizer. With an array of synth engines and effects, sampling capabilities, and a 16-track sequencer, the OP-XY promises endless hours of fun. Will it stand up to the hype previously generated by the OP-1? Only time will tell.
Art of Noise

 
Find out more about Teenage Engineering here.
Grimes’ Coachella Catastrophe
Grimes at Coachella Weekend 2. Image: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Coachella
One of the year’s most confusing moments for Grimes and her fans was when she took the stage at Coachella for her highly anticipated DJ set. To say that things did not go smoothly for the indie electro-pop queen would be an understatement. From around the 20-minute mark onward the transitions between songs became intermittent with some tracks playing at double their original tempo.
Although she explained to the crowd over the mic that she was experiencing technical difficulties, she continued to plow through her set claiming partial responsibility for the blunder. Apparently, the Rekordbox analysis of her tracks had bugged out, resulting in most of them reading at double speed (with the tempo sync active) in the CDJs which threw her off completely. Overall, this type of drama is completely on-brand for Grimes, and probably endeared her to her fans even more.
Read more about Grimes’ Coachella performance here.
Fred… Again?
Fred Again. Image: Kieran Frost/Getty
This year was also a massive year for electronic music artist Fred Again, who did his first sold-out stadium show at the 77,500-capacity Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum stadium. Shows of this magnitude at the Coliseum are historically associated with acts like Pink Floyd or Metallica, so it certainly shows us exactly how far EDM has come as a cultural phenomenon.
From inventive stage design that created a more engaging experience for fans to a sound system that used a circular arrangement with 68 triple 21-inch cardioid subwoofers, you can be sure that the show was a night to remember. Hopefully, we can look forward to more exciting performances from Fred again and other artists of his ilk in 2025.
Read more about Fred Again here.
The post The biggest music technology news in 2024 appeared first on MusicTech.

Augmented Mallets Play: free instrument from Arturia Arturia’s Augmented series offers a blend of synthesis and sampling, combining a range of acoustic...

Splice in 2024: New sounds, mobile recording, and AI-powered creativity
As we look towards 2025, Splice remains committed to helping you explore new artistic directions, find your signature sound, and bring your ideas to life faster and more completely.

Elon Musk’s xAI lands $6B in new cash to fuel AI ambitionsxAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing (97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities). xAI later announced (confirming some earlier reporting) that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Kingdom Holdings, […]
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Aave mulls Chainlink integration to return MEV fees to usersThe DeFi protocol aims to capture around 40% of MEV profits from adding Chainlink's new oracle service.

Major Music Legislation pulled from final Federal Funding BillThree major pieces of music related legislation were pulled from the bill which passed Congress Friday and was signed by President Biden to fund the US government.
The post Major Music Legislation pulled from final Federal Funding Bill appeared first on Hypebot.

Crawler Challenge: Building Rope-Traversing RobotsRope-climbing robots are the stuff of engineering dreams. As kids, didn’t we all clutter our family home with constructions of towers and strings – Meccano, or Lego – to have ziplines spanning entire rooms? Good for the youngsters of today, this has been included in school curricula. At the University of Illinois, the ME 370 students have been given the task of building a robot that can hang from a rope and walk across it—without damaging the rope. The final projects show not only how to approach tricky design problems, but also the creative solutions they stumbled upon.
Imagine a tiny, rope-climbing walker in your workshop—what could you create?
The project is full of opportunities for those thinking out of the box. It’s all about the balance between innovation and practicality: the students have to come up with a solution that can move at least 2 meters per minute, fits in a shoebox, and has some creative flair—no wheels allowed! The constraints provide an extra layer of challenge, but that’s where the fun lies. Some students use inverted walkers, others take on a more creature-like approach. The clever use of motors and batteries shows just how far simple tech can go when combined with a bit of engineering magic.
This project is a fantastic reminder that even small, seemingly simple design challenges can lead to fascinating creations. It invites us adults to play, and by that, we learn: a win-win situation. You can find the original article here, or grab some popcorn and watch the video below.

THING TH2 is a new FREE Synth plugin from Acustica
Acustica, who have created numerous freebies in the past, just released a free synth called THING TH2. Exclusive “Christmas gifts” from Acustica are nothing new, and this year, they’ve got a versatile synth to offer, which is derived from another one of their synths, THING-8. THING-8 is Acustica’s emulation of the Roland Jupiter 8, a [...]
View post: THING TH2 is a new FREE Synth plugin from Acustica

A Pi Pico Makes A Spectrum LaptopThere are many retrocomputer emulation projects out there, and given the relative fragility of the original machines as they enter their fifth decade, emulation seems to be the most common way to play 8-bit games. It’s easy enough to load one on your modern computer, but there are plenty of hardware options, too. “The computer we’d have done anything for back in 1983” seems to be a phrase many of them bring to mind, but it’s so appropriate because they keep getting better. Take [Stormbytes1970]’s Pi Pico-powered Sinclair ZX Spectrum mini laptop (Spanish language, Google Translate link), for example. It’s a slightly chunky netbook that’s a ZX Spectrum, and it has a far better keyboard than the original.
On the PCB is the Pico, the power supply circuitry, an SD card, and a speaker. But it’s when the board is flipped over that the interesting stuff starts. In place of the squidgy rubber keyboard of yore, it has a proper keyboard,. We’re not entirely sure which switch it uses, but it appears to be a decent one, nevertheless. The enclosure is a slick 3D-printed sub-netbook for retro gaming on the go. Sadly, it won’t edit Hackaday, so we won’t be slipping one in the pack next time we go on the road, but we like it a lot.

It’s not the first Spectrum laptop we’ve covered, but we think it has upped the ante over the last one. If you just want the Spectrum’s BASIC language experience, you can try a modern version that runs natively on your PC.

Tip Jar: That Elusive Creative Flow and How to Get ThereBy George Whitty and Ellis Hall, aka WHAT!!!!Ellis and George come to the creative process from two very different angles, but with the same goal in mind: getting the most inspired, unimpeded creative flow going when writing songs, finding a way to get up on the wave rather than slogging away in the trough.  Ellis has composed more than 4,000 songs in his lifetime and describes his process as grabbing hold of any fragment in his mind and taking the right instrument in hand and working to flesh it out from there. “My hands will start to tell me where to go be it on guitar or keyboard, and then just like a magical flow of water, it continues as my brain says OK, let’s go here or go there. Sometimes my brain goes way too fast, especially when it comes to the lyric. I love writing at all, but I particularly love writing the lyric.” George describes himself as a classic case of overly-perfectionistic writer’s block; even by age 30 he’d finished only a handful of songs.  What changed?  He got a gig writing music for As The World Turns, which paid about $60 per minute of music they used on the show.  “Go ahead, spend a year writing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, you’d never make a dime. Volume was the secret to getting cues placed from the show’s library.” So George learned what he calls the “rule of 80%.” Get the cue to where it’s 80% good, then Keep Moving. Do the next section. Put it away and start the next one. Don’t get hung up or stop because it’s not The Perfect Cue To End All Cues. 80%. “The next day? Inevitably I’d start with fresh ears and get it to 90%. And that was often what I’d turn in. Twenty cues later, with this kind of crass pay-by-the-minute formula, my new 80% was where my previous 90% had been. And understanding my own process that way, I wrote 250 cues for that and two other shows. And finishing so many tracks got me to where I write with a great flow and typically don’t spend much more than a few inspired hours on a piece of music. “Die Living” from our new CD is an example; it pretty much sounded like the final cut after just a couple hours of good flow.” Some points to consider as you work to get the maximum positive flow to your writing:1.Ellis points out that to him, writing on the right Instrument helps him get in the groove.  “From our new CD, ‘Some Days Were Meant For Rain’ was written on guitar, ‘Itch In Your Ear’ started with a bass idea, ‘Soul Street’ I wrote on a keyboard,” he says.2.“Let each tune be what it is” suggests George. “Trying to shoehorn too much into one track starts an internal competition to make this many-headed hydra work. One focussed hydra head is better, the most direct line to a strong finished product. 3.From Ellis: “Flow with it while it’s flowing, but don’t force it. Once you are in that zone where you can’t sleep because of it, write then.” George adds: “Just get something going. You’ll know where it needs to go from there, and the more you write, the more sure your sense of what needs to come next”4.And on that note, “Learn to get things framed but not necessarily finished, so the ideas can keep flowing without you stopping to ‘perfect’ things;  the minute The Perfectionist shows up, half your mind is diverted off of the original inspiration” says George.5.Ellis likes to sit with a guitar or keyboard and get close to figuring the whole tune out before he hits “record.” He writes his lyrics on a Braille typewriter, but has the whole idea mostly composed without engaging any technology first. But George likes to hear a little something to build on, so he sketches into the machine as he goes. “Hearing it back without playing it myself prompts “what comes next,” he says.6.On that note, George advises to “get as fluid as you can using your software to quickly bang in ideas; any ‘mechanical’ impediment diverts resources from your creative side to your logical side.  Something as simple as a key command for “Record/Record Repeat” in Logic lets you execute takes as quickly as possible, so you don’t get bogged down in mechanics.”About Ellis Hall and George Whitty:  Ellis and George together are WHAT!!!!, a pairing of two master musicians, making a great modern Soul CD for the ages.  Ellis’s credits include 4 years singing lead and writing for Tower of Power, performing with The Spinners, Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael McDonald, and the Ray Charles Experience.  George is a multiple Grammy-winning, Emmy-winning composer, producer and player who has worked with Carlos Santana, Celine Dion, Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, Grover Washington and Richard Bona. The debut CD of WHAT!!!!, In The World dropped in January, and the first single, “Die Living,” is already reaching millions of listeners weekly on FM and Internet radio and streaming services. Follow them on Instagram at whittyhallartistteam or at whittyhall.com.The post Tip Jar: That Elusive Creative Flow and How to Get There first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Release details
Release title:
Plug the jug
Main artist name:
Plexine
Release date:
20th Dec, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/Plugthejug
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #experimental #hiphop

Release details
Release title:
Jihadi Jackboy
Main artist name:
KingPollo
Release date:
1st Dec, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/JihadiJackboy
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #trap #hiphop

Vevo DSCVR Artists To Watch: 2025: Shallipopi, Diss Gacha, TZ da CoronelThe final three Next Big Things to feature on Vevo's DSCVR Artists To Watch 2025 list...
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Behringer launches the Phara-o Mini, a synth inspired by “the mystical sounds of ancient Egypt”Behringer really is the brand that never stops, as it’s squeezed in another late 2024 release with the Egyptian-inspired Phara-o Mini synthesiser.
In stock and available for immediate shipping, this new launch offers a “gateway to the mystical sounds of ancient Egypt, embodying the spirit of the pharaohs and the mysteries of the pyramids,” according to Behringer.

READ MORE: Behringer channels the classic LinnDrum drum machine with the new LM drum

Given its mini title, this synth is of course portable, and is aptly decorated with hieroglyphs. It is an analogue polyphonic and programmable synth, with a pure analogue signal path based on authentic VCO, VCF, and VCA designs.
At its core, the Phara-o Mini is said to offer a unique filter architecture, inspired by the “complexity and intrigue of Egyptian mythology”, which is capable of crafting “unpredictable and otherworldly” tones. It hosts a trinity of VCOs, each offering saw or square waveforms to shape your sound, and users can also use the multi-mode ring modulator on square waves to unlock metallic effects.
It also has a 16-step motion sequencer to record knob movements and weave melodies, and you can experiment with a range of play modes, including poly, unison, octaves, fifths, ring unison, and ring poly.

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As Behringer often releases emulations of other classic gear items, some have questioned if it’s inspired by Korg’s Volca Keys, though Behringer does not state that this item is an emulation of any kind, and responding to a user on Facebook who suggested the Phara-o Mini is a clone, the brand simply replied “na”.
Certainly a release that nobody had on their bingo cards for 2024, reactions so far to the news have been mixed. One user on YouTube has referred to it as a “meme synth”, while others have pointed out that the launch video (which is the only video from the brand on the Phara-O Mini at the time of writing) doesn’t exactly give much detail, and is seemingly AI generated.
Take a look below:

The Phara-o Mini is available now for $99. Head over to Behringer  for more information. 
The post Behringer launches the Phara-o Mini, a synth inspired by “the mystical sounds of ancient Egypt” appeared first on MusicTech.