Full text of Justice Department Live Nation-Ticketmaster statementRead the full text of the statement released by the US Department of Justice on why they are suing to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster for alleged monopolistic practices that harm fans. artists and independent venues.
The post Full text of Justice Department Live Nation-Ticketmaster statement appeared first on Hypebot.

Watch replay of DoJ Live Nation Ticketmaster Anti-trust announcement hereThe United States Justice Department is expected to announce an antitrust action today at 11 AM ET that could lead to the breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. You can watch it live here.....
The post Watch replay of DoJ Live Nation Ticketmaster Anti-trust announcement here appeared first on Hypebot.

Beyoncé sued for alleged copyright infringement over sample on ‘Break My Soul’A group of former musicians in New Orleans say 'Break My Soul' infringed their copyright by way of a sample from Big Freedia
Source

Producer Kamaal Williams accused of sexual assault by three womenProducer Kamaal Williams has been accused of sexual assault by three women.
The London-born artist made his break in the music industry during the mid-2010s as Henry Wu. In a new investigation by Resident Advisor, the women allege that the incidents took place in 2010, 2021, and more recently in August 2023. The women do not know each other.
A representative for Williams tells the publication that the “very serious allegations are untrue” and are “emphatically denied by him and that he will be able to demonstrate the same.” Since the investigation has been published, a number of Williams’ scheduled live dates have been called off. Shows due to take place in Leeds, Manchester, London and Bristol have all been cancelled.
One of the women, given the identity of “Kylie”, says she was 17 years old when she met Williams in 2010. Kylie alleges that she ran into Williams at a house party where he “made passes to kiss her numerous times”, which she declined.
Following the party, Kylie claims she found a scarf in her bag which didn’t belong to her. After asking who it belonged to on social media, Williams replied stating it was his and allegedly invited her to his house to drop it off.
Here, Kylie alleges that Williams raped her. “I was nervous about fighting back in any physical way because I was nervous about him getting aggressive,” she says. “He was very manipulative and pushy. I kept telling him to stop, but he still did it.”
In 2020, Kylie reported Williams to the police. The police asked if Kylie wanted to take Williams to court, and due to family reasons she said no. Resident Advisor reports that it has reviewed a copy of the official statement given to the Metropolitan Police, as well as an email from the police confirming that Kylie first reported the alleged rape in September 2020, and later provided a video statement in January 2021.
Also in the RA investigation, “Jenna” alleges Williams raped her on two accounts, one of which allegedly occurred following a night out with a group of friends in 2021. “I didn’t see him put anything into my drink, but I don’t remember anything after that drink. Sitting down having a drink with him is the last thing I remember. I’ve been spiked before and recognise the feeling of being spiked. So when I woke up at his [place] the next morning not knowing how I got there, I recognised the feeling,” she says.
Jenna claims she had woken up feeling “disoriented”, with Williams asleep on the bed next to her in a place she did not recognise. Jenna says she did not feel confident enough to report Williams to the police at the time.
“Sara” also alleges Williams forcibly kissed her on multiple accounts, and alleges he sexually assaulted and raped her in a hotel room last summer.
If you feel you need support regarding the issues reported in this article, you can find resources for help via the NHS website.
The post Producer Kamaal Williams accused of sexual assault by three women appeared first on MusicTech.

“When Play was released, it kind of failed”: Moby recalls the slow commercial start of his landmark 1999 albumWith over 12 million copies sold to date, you might be surprised to hear that Moby’s career-defining 1999 album Play took a little while to get off the ground.
As he recalls in a new interview with Billboard, the album – which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year – “didn’t sell very well” at first, and “didn’t get great reviews for the most part”.

READ MORE: “A listening experience unlike any other”: Sonos’s eagerly awaited launch into the headphone market is here – meet Sonos Ace

That said, Play was later licensed for commercials and other projects, ultimately lighting the fuse of its success.
When the interviewer asks whether licensing was a key strategy in the album’s promotion, Moby replies: “I am kind of pleased you think there was a strategy…
“When Play was released, it kind of failed. It didn’t sell very well. It didn’t get great reviews for the most part. The tour was tiny. The first show I played was in the basement of a Virgin Megastore in Union Square and around 20 people showed up, and it was free.”

He continues: “The only interest we received was from people who wanted to licence the music for advertisements, TV and movies. We kind of just said ‘Yes’ to almost everything, because it was the only sort of interest we were getting.”
Yet, Play was born as a sort of sleeper hit. Despite only selling 6,000 copies in the week after its release, the album ultimately went on to become not only Moby’s best-selling album, but the best-selling electronic music album of all time.
But that didn’t spare Moby from the misery of what he perceived to be a failed record in the few months following its release.
“Almost a year after it came out in 2000 I was opening up for Bush on an MTV Campus Invasion Tour,” Moby told Rolling Stone in 2009. “It was degrading for the most part. Their audience had less than no interest in me.”
But then in February 2000, his manager called him to inform him that Play was Number One in the UK.

“The week Play was released, it sold, worldwide, around 6,000 copies,” he continued. “Eleven months after Play was released, it was selling 150,000 copies a week. 
“I was on tour constantly, drunk pretty much the entire time and it was just a blur. And then all of a sudden movie stars started coming to my concerts and I started getting invited to fancy parties and suddenly the journalists who wouldn’t return my publicist’s calls were talking about doing cover stories. It was a really odd phenomenon.
The post “When Play was released, it kind of failed”: Moby recalls the slow commercial start of his landmark 1999 album appeared first on MusicTech.

MIDiA Research 2024-2031 global music forecasts | Rise of the Global SouthIt appears to be the time of year for music forecasts. Today MIDiA is proud to announce the release of our global music forecasts report, which marks the tenth year of us doing these! The full 75+ page report and 40+ page datasheet for 45+ countries and regions, is available to MIDiA clients and for purchase here. And for the first time, we have also created a public page for the forecasts where you can watch a video of the music forecasts team talking about some of the big themes, and there’s a free summary report to download too. Of course, data without context are just numbers, so here follows some of the key themes and thinking that underpins MIDiA’s music forecasts.

First off, just to showcase our ‘creds’, this is how our forecast from last year for 2023 total revenues lined up with the actual figure. Yes, you read right, our forecast was just half a percentage point off from what the actual number proved to be! And going back further than that, the average variance from 2019 to 2023 for our forecasts for 2023 streaming revenues was just 6% from the actual figure. So, hopefully, that will give you some confidence that we know what we’re talking about 

With that little flex out of the way, onto this year’s edition…

2023 was a positive year for the global recorded music market. Crucially, it was a year in which the industry demonstrated its ability to diversify revenue growth with strong performance across not only streaming, but also physical, performance and expanded rights. Streaming remains the beating heart of revenue and will remain so for the forecast period covered in the report, but it now exists as one part of a robust, diversified revenue portfolio. The strong growth in 2023 should not be taken lightly. It came against the backdrop of uncertainty in the wider global economy and geo-political turmoil. What is more, subscriber growth continued at a good pace, despite the first wave of major price increases in the history of music subscriptions.

All these factors point to a recorded music market that has demonstrated its inherent consumer appeal, even in challenging times. 

However, it would be wrong to assume that this is an industry without its fair share of challenges. The proliferation of new artists with the democratisation of the means of production and distribution has put the industry’s ecosystem under a level of strain it was not designed for. Bigger artists aren’t getting as big as they once were (the reality distortion field that is Taylor Swift aside) and smaller artists are struggling to make streaming pennies add up. Meanwhile, everyone is struggling to cut through and DSPs, social platforms and rightsholders are bickering over how much music is worth. All of these factors of course, are not isolated events. They are inter-dependent and represent the birthing of a new era for the industry. A coming bifurcation of the industry between the traditional streaming-centred business on one side, and the continued rise of a more social and fan-focused business on the other. And we’ve got a number for that. In fact, we’ve got a lot of numbers for that, in the shape our first ever bifurcation forecast in the report.

We have also for the first time forecasted expanded rights, which along with our non-DSP and physical formats forecasts, mean that we also have a fan economy forecast, to help paint a picture of what tomorrow’s, transformed music business will look like. 

When you add these together with all the other components of the recorded music business, music industry revenues will reach $100 billion by 2031 in retail terms. Recorded music growth will be defined by strong performance across most formats, however streaming will add most revenue between 2023 and 2031 to reach three quarters of all revenues. Global music subscribers hit 737.9 million in 2023, adding more subscribers than in 2022. Music subscribers will break the one billion mark in 2027 and continue to grow, driven by Global South markets.

One of the key themes in the report, as reflected by its title, is the rise of the Global South. Global South markets will drive a growing share of growth, especially in user terms, though western markets will still dominate global revenues due to higher ARPU. Perhaps most significantly of all, China will become the second largest recorded music market by 2031. The US will remain the top subscription revenue market in 2031 due to high ARPU, but China will become second due to subscriber growth.

ARPU – it’s not just about price

With streaming being the majority of revenues, now and by 2031, ARPU is fast becoming the music industry’s key metric. Indeed, one of the key conversation points around streaming is price increases and their ARPU impact. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as forecasting forward an annual average price, much as we would like it to be, because it would make our job much easier if we could just say ‘we’re assuming an average of x%  

price increase across the period’. But we’d be letting our clients down if we did that, because ARPU does not work in such a simplistic way. 

It is instead shaped by: 1) price; 2) product mix; 3) free trials; 4) churn; 5) retention; 6) regions. 

One of the most important, and sadly too often overlooked, components of ARPU is average subscriber months (ASM) i.e., how many months a year an average subscriber is subscribed. In a fast-growing market, ASM is lower as many of the subscribers at the end of the year were not subscribers at the start of the year. The inverse is true of mature markets. 

Price increases have a direct impact on ASM because they affect retention (i.e., more people are likely to churn because of higher prices) and acquisition (i.e., fewer people are likely to subscribe because of higher prices). What is more, price increases have not had an equally proportionate impact on different tiers. Because price increases are often applied in full dollar amounts, the difference between cheaper tiers (e.g., Student Plan) and standard premium is narrowing, making those lower tiers less appealing.

Global ARPU is also shaped by regional shifts. For example, the price can go up by exactly the same proportion in Asia Pacific as North America, but if the former adds more subscribers than the latter, its overall lower average ARPU will pull down global ARPU. 

This is why MIDiA’s ARPU model considers all these factors, as well as the potential impact of ‘super premium’. If we didn’t do this we’d end up with a bigger number, but not a better number.

If you like what you’ve seen so far, go check out the free summary report, and if you’re a client, go check out the full thing!

Watch Andrew Huang and Maylee Todd control synths using their brainwaves aloneFor most of his career, YouTuber Andrew Huang has made music in unconventional ways – water, balloons and dental equipment, for example. He once even played Bach’s Air On The G -String with… an actual G-string.
Now, he’s outdone himself by making music entirely with his brain. More specifically, he and artist Maylee Todd teamed up in their latest videos to explain how you can control synths with your brainwaves.

READ MORE: Andrew Huang teases new Moog synth used during Usher’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Huang tries on a Muse headband, made by the Canadian company InterAxum, that reads his brainwaves and uses them to control synths. His brainwaves then become visible on a screen. The information goes into Todd’s phone through an app called MindMonitor which is connected to Ableton through a series of third party apps.
They attempt to change the sound the synth is producing by getting Huang to relax, which has an influence on the beta waves his brain is producing. Naturally, however, relaxing proves a little tricky when he’s getting excited about making sounds with his brainwaves.
He’s then able to produce different sounds when asked to do some simple maths, “It did feel like the soundtrack to a game show where people have to do math,” Huang jokes. Todd then attempts to change the sound again by stressing him out, but this is a bit less successful.
Later on, they connect the device to Huang’s modular synth and finds that when he relaxes, the sound changes. He later works out when he can control what he’s thinking or feeling, it alters the sound.
Check out their experiments below:

The post Watch Andrew Huang and Maylee Todd control synths using their brainwaves alone appeared first on MusicTech.

Universal Audio’s FREE Luna DAW is now on Windows, too!
Universal Audio announced its analogue-inspired Luna digital audio workstation is now finally available for Windows as a free beta.  Luna was previously only available for macOS users with Universal Audio Apollo interfaces, but now the developer has made it available for all Windows and Mac users.  As development progresses and Luna becomes compatible with both [...]
View post: Universal Audio’s FREE Luna DAW is now on Windows, too!

Steve Albini’s four-hour Mix with the Masters lesson is now available to watch for freeEarlier this month, the music world mourned the loss of legendary recording engineer Steve Albini, who passed away due to a heart attack at his Chicago studio, Electrical Audio.
In a tribute to Albini’s extraordinary life and career, online recording school Mix with the Masters (MWTM) has released the whole four hours of the engineer’s masterclass for free on their YouTube channel.

READ MORE: “A listening experience unlike any other”: Sonos’s eagerly awaited launch into the headphone market is here – meet Sonos Ace

Filmed at Studios La Fabrique, the video offers an in-depth walkthrough of Albini’s work with the English rock band, Rat The Magnificent. In the demonstration session, Albini shares his complete recording process, best practices, as well as his philosophies on music and creativity.
“I’m going to show you my normal working methods and procedures for recording mixing and finally producing a finished stereo master for an analogue recording session,” the engineer opens the session.
Whether you’re a fan, musician, or studio professional, the tutorial offers amazing insights into Albini’s recording techniques, covering everything from guitars and bass to vocals and his distinctive drum sound. You get tips on microphone selection and placement, along with valuable advice on tuning and dampening drums “in a reversible manner”. The producer also reveals some of the secrets to achieving the coveted ‘Albini sound’.
In particular, the session should prove highly useful for anyone looking to capture traditional rock band instrumentation using Albini’s ‘sound-in-the-room’ methodology. The video also includes a new Q&A segment featuring Electrical Audio engineer Greg Norman and longtime collaborator Tim Midyett.
Watch the full lesson below.

The post Steve Albini’s four-hour Mix with the Masters lesson is now available to watch for free appeared first on MusicTech.

US House approves FIT21 crypto bill with bipartisan supportDemocratic and Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act.

Meta’s new AI council is comprised entirely of white menMeanwhile, women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by irresponsible AI.
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Passive Diplexer Makes One Antenna Act Like TwoStay in the amateur radio hobby long enough and you might end up with quite a collection of antennas. With privileges that almost extend from DC to daylight, one antenna will rarely do everything, and pretty soon your roof starts to get hard to see through the forest of antennas. It may be hell on curb appeal, but what’s a ham to do?
One answer could be making one antenna do the work of two, as [Guido] did with this diplexer for dual APRS setups. Automatic Packet Reporting System is a packet radio system used by hams to transmit telemetry and other low-bandwidth digital data. It’s most closely associated with the 2-meter ham band, but [Guido] has both 2-meter (144.8-MHz) and 70-cm LoRa (433.775-MHz) APRS IGates, or Internet gateway receivers. His goal was to use a single broadband discone antenna for both APRS receivers, and this would require sorting the proper signals from the antenna to the proper receiver with a diplexer.
Note that [Guido] refers to his design as a “duplexer,” which is a device to isolate and protect a receiver from a transmitter when they share the same antenna — very similar to a diplexer but different. His diplexer is basically a pair of filters in parallel — a high-pass filter tuned to just below the 70-cm band, and a low-pass filter tuned just above the top of the 2-m band. The filters were designed using a handy online tool and simulated in LTSpice, and then constructed in classic “ugly” style. The diplexer is all-passive and uses air-core inductors, all hand-wound and tweaked by adjusting the spacing of the turns.
[Guido]’s diplexer performs quite well — only a fraction of a dB of insertion loss, but 45 to 50 dB attenuation of unwanted frequencies — pretty impressive for a box full of caps and coils. We love these quick and dirty tactical builds, and it’s always a treat to see RF wizardry in action.

Key Songs In The Life Of… Max LousadaMBW hands our turntable over to Max Lousada, Global CEO of Recorded Music at Warner Music Group
Source

Cruel World 2024Cruel World 2024 celebrated its third birthday at Brookside Park at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl.

Mother Nature hit last year’s festival as a lightning storm forced the show mid-way though Iggy Pop’s main-stage performance.  This year there were no natural disasters jeopardizing the event – just new wave massiveness and some big “firsts” that many didn’t think would ever happen. The lightning was all on stage – Duran Duran, Blondie, Simple Minds, Adam Ant, and two dozen other acts lit up Pasadena with their timeless musical energy.  With 3 stages and 30 or so bands spread across them, some hard decisions had to be made in order for even the most hardcore new wave fan to see all their faves on stage. 

Attendees are still talking about the “firsts” that they witnessed on the Cruel World stages.  Gary Numan was the initial act to deliver as he treated the fans to a rare performance of his 1979 debut album “The Pleasure Principle.” Numan strategically executed a very different and unique set compared to his Cruel World performance last year.  In typical Gary Numan fashion, he exploded on stage and poured out the energy and brilliance that you come to expect at his shows.

Cure and Siousxie fans clawed their way to the Sad Girls stage to witness a one-of-a-kind performance by Lol Tolhurst x Budgie – former drummers from The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees / The Creatures.  The dynamic drumming duo cunningly performed their distinctive and quirky set with pre-recorded vocals and a handful of guest vocalists.  It was a truly standout and innovative production that may never happen again.

Ministry - in what seemed to be the surprise festival highlight - took over the Outsiders stage.  This time, the Chicago wax-trackers did not deliver the expected guitar onslaught; instead the band assaulted fans with synth-pop.  Yes, it really happened! In a daring move, Al Jourgensen, along with a 13 piece band, performed music from the first two Ministry albums, 1983’s With Sympathy and 1986’s Twitch, which Jourgensen had vowed to never perform again in his lifetime. 

Tones On Tail ended the firsts with the only proper and stand alone Tones On Tail show since 1984.  Even with original bass player Glen Campling not taking part for reasons unknown, this was a big deal to fans of Bauhaus and its universe. With Daniel Ash, drummer Kevin Haskins and his daughter Diva Dompe on bass, the trio delivered the dark and gloomy goods - Go, Twist, Performance, Ok This Is The Pops, Lions and There’s Only One.

Goldenvoice has done an incredible job evolving and maturing the Cruel World Festival year after year.  Not only do they know their target audience, but the promoter has figured out how to open this niche up to a new generation of music fans by keeping the spirit alive with a modern touch.  The diverse lineups on the three stages now include a handful of contemporary artists that would please even the most critical Gen Xer. The pride of Nebraska - The Faint, and California Super-Group - Dream Car dazzled attendees at the Outsiders stage while New York Innovators - Interpol headlined the Sad Girls stage later that evening.

In classic Pasadena style, the weather was perfect for an all-day music festival.  The music started early and continued without a glitch – nearly 12 hours of non-stop performances.

The Motels kicked off my day.  Martha Davis took over the stage and proved she still has the voice and the heart that catapulted her to the top of the early 80’s L.A. music scene. The band delivered a powerful set with all the hits you would hope for - Where Do We Go From Here, Suddenly Last Summer, Take The L, andof course Only The Lonely.

Currently on their 50th anniversary tour, The Stranglers, who are down to just one original member, brought the audience to its feet early in the afternoon.  Original bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel is still going strong and continues to offer fans sweet pop songs with an early punk attitude like Golden Brown and Always The Sun. 

Dave Wakeling returned to Cruel World, this time with General Public.  Wakeling’s first visit was with The English Beat at the very first Cruel World Fest in 2022.  These days, it seems that the band names and the songs are interchangeable, but the hits are consistent - Never You Done That, Tenderness, Mirror In The Bathroom, and Save It For Later.

Following the secret Viper Room warm up show as “Blood Brothers UK” that kicked off their recent leg of their 2024 tour, The Mission UK reminded fans of their power to mix the dark moods of early ‘80s goth with colorful melodies, proving they are just as good today as they were 30 years ago.  The post-punk innovators retuned to Southern California and delivered a high-energy set featuring crowd pleasers such Tower of Strength, Severina, Wasteland and Deliverance.

In a rare daylight performance, The Jesus And Mary Chain dazzled the fans with their unique blend of pop hooks and shattering feedback.  Despite equipment problems that brought on some strong sibling stares, the Scottish bothers Reid poured out their hearts and the hits - Happy When It Rains, Head On, Some Candy Talking, In A Hole and Just Like Honey.

Simple Minds took the stage in their first US show in 6 years.  Vocalist Jim Kerr’s performance and energy just got bigger and better as the show went on.  At one point Kerr yelled out, “We don’t want to go home.”  Waterfront, Promised You A Miracle, Sanctify Yourself, and Alive & Kicking were some of the highlights in their set.

Adam Ant, who was originally scheduled to play at last year’s festival but cancelled shortly before the event, was one of the day’s most anticipated performers.  Ant looked ageless and delivered a blistering set that covered his time with both Adam and the Ants and his illustrious solo career - Ant Music, Stand And Deliver, Vive Le Rock, Friend Or Foe, Goody Two Shoes, and Prince Charming.

In a rare West Coast appearance, Soft Cell, consisting of Marc Almond and sadly – due to health reasons - without fellow bandmate and fellow founding member Dave Ball dazzled the Cruel World crowd just as the sun was dropping.  Soft Cell was the first act to take advantage of extravagant stage lighting and strong pre-filmed elements, taking the festival to a new level of visual excitement.  Bringing their dirty and dingy New York ‘80s feel to the stage, the band delivered some of Soft Cell’s most iconic songs, including Memorabilia, Seedy Films, and Sex Dwarf.

Hailing from Manhattan, NY, Interpol closed out the Sad Girls stage.  Some consider the band to be a bit too contemporary for the annual gloom fest, but the band’s set proved the influence and staying power of the ‘80s post-punk era.  The band delivered a flawless set both musically and visually that included Narc, My Desire, Obstacle 1, Evil, PDA and Slow Hands.  Thanks to the genius of Goldenvoice, Interpol finally gained their rightful place in the allegiance of dark and gothic music legends by playing The Cruel World Festival.

Blondie also made their triumphant return to Cruel World.  Debbie Harry looked stunning in her shimmering outfit and classic dark sunglasses, wowing the crowd as only she can do.

Harry exploded on stage with her super solid bandmates and solid gold hits.  Drummer Clem Burke and bass player Glenn Matlock drove the beat through classics like One Way Or Another, Rapture, Heart Of Glass, and Hanging On The Telephone. 

Pasadena lit up as Duran Duran took to the stage.  Many considered the band to be a bit of a risky headliner for the massive dark wavers in attendance.  But in classic Duran Duran foresight, the Birmingham boys opened their set with The Chaffeur – arguably the band’s darkest and gloomiest of their hits – a genius move.  The band delivered a brilliant set including just about every song a hard core “Duranie” would have on their wish list - Wild Boys, Hungry Like The Wolf, Save A Prayer, Notorious, Careless Memories, A View To A Kill, New Moon On Monday, The Reflex, Girls On Film and Rio.

If anything, the Cruel World Festival proves that new wave and post-punk was not just a fad…the music that was created in the 1980’s has impacted the lives of so many and continues to influence bands of today.  Cruel World 2025?  Absolutely!  Vegas is probably already taking bets. 

The post Cruel World 2024 first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Amber Compiles to BashIt certainly isn’t a new idea to compile a language into an intermediate language. The original C++ compiler outputs C code, for example. Enhanced versions of Fortran were often just conversions of new syntax to old syntax. Of course, it makes sense to output to some language that can run on lots of different platforms. So, using that logic, Amber makes perfect sense. It targets — no kidding — bash. You write with nice modern syntax and compile-time checks. The output is a bash script. Admittedly, sometimes a hard-to-read bash script, but still.
If you want to see the source code, it is available on GitHub. Since Windows doesn’t really support bash — if you don’t count things like Cygwin and WSL — Amber only officially supports Linux and MacOS. In addition to compiling files, Amber can also execute scripts directly which can be useful for a quick one-liner. If you use Visual Studio Code, you can find a syntax highlighter extension for Amber.

To get a flavor of how it works, here’s a simple Amber file to rename some files:

let files = ["config.json", "file.txt", "audio.mp3"]

loop index, file in files {
$mv {file} {index}{file}$ failed {
echo "Failed to rename {file}"
}
}

Here’s the output shell script:

__AMBER_ARRAY_0=("config.json" "file.txt" "audio.mp3");
__0_files=("${__AMBER_ARRAY_0[@]}");
index=0;
for file in "${__0_files[@]}"
do
mv ${file} ${index}${file}
__AMBER_STATUS=$?;
if [ $__AMBER_STATUS != 0 ]; then
echo "Failed to rename ${file}"
fi
let index=${index}+1
done

Looks much easier. Still, bash isn’t that hard. If you must have bash scripts for some reason, this might be worth a look. As a general-purpose programming language, you should probably stick with something more traditional.
Catching errors early is a good thing, but there are other ways to do that. While you could probably use a debugger on the output bash code, it looks a bit hard to follow, so an Amber debugger would be welcome.