What to get on a Spotify playlist? Add these 4 things to your pitchWant to be in the next Coffee House mix? Or in the next Best of Indie mix? Here are some important tips you need to know if they want to get music on official Spotify playlists.....
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The Guess Who can no longer perform hit songs that made the band famousLeni Demancari of Ten13 Entertainment joins Michael Brandvold and Jay Gilbert on the Music Biz Weekly podcast to discuss the story of the Guess Who and one of the more bizarre and consequential music industry battles we've seen in a long time.....
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“I’d love to sit with Rick, chew the cud and push him on his opinions”: Jacob Collier wants to have an in-depth discussion with Rick Rubin on the nature of good artRick Rubin might have made his name as a prolific producer, helping to push ’90s hip hop and nu metal into the spotlight, but in recent years he’s become something of a self-styled creativity guru. While he’s still producing albums, he also published a rather chunky book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, last year.
However, British multi-instrumentalist and producer Jacob Collier has had a thing or two to say recently about Rubin’s beliefs, even suggesting that “his audience is non-creative people for whom creativity is novel”.

READ MORE: Setting a goal “could be a limitation” in music creation, Rick Rubin says 

He has also previously said that he  disagrees with Rubin’s philosophy of “the audience comes last”, saying that he finds that approach concerning. “There’s no one way to do anything – you can make work for people; you can make work for an audience; you can conform to the algorithm; you can make an engaging thumbnail. That’s cool.”
Indeed, Collier has even suggested Rubin is “hypocritical” for saying something only counts as pure art if it’s made for oneself.  “I don’t trust him, because he started his career making this commercial music, which is beautiful and we all love it, and it’s amazing.”
And Collier says in the same episode of the Colin and Samir podcast – entitled We interviewed the Mozart of Gen Z – that he’s more than happy to talk things out with the Def Jam founder and bat ideas back and forth.

“I’m excited about this idea of a question culture rather than an answer culture,” he reasons after explaining why he dislikes that Rubin presented his ideas like they are a definitive answer. I look at Rick and I’m like ‘Has anyone ever debated him on this stuff?’ There are ways of approaching creativity, as someone who solves a lot of problems myself, I’m not the ultimate angle. I’m me, I’m Jacob, I see the world the way I see it.
“I’d love to sit with Rick at some point and just talk to him and chew the cud and push him,” he continues. “[I’d] also welcome to be pushed because all of us need to be examined. Our opinions need to be squeezed and broken and I just think that anyone sitting there and saying ‘This is the wrong way to do it’, like Rick saying art is only pure if it’s made for art’s sake. Absolutely false. You can make totally pure art any way you want, including reaching a ton of people for that purpose. It’s okay to be ambitious. It’s okay to want to reach people and move people.”
The post “I’d love to sit with Rick, chew the cud and push him on his opinions”: Jacob Collier wants to have an in-depth discussion with Rick Rubin on the nature of good art appeared first on MusicTech.

Grimes’ second Coachella set was fine — but she has the potential for so much moreGrimes was feeling “a lot better” after her Coachella Weekend 2 DJ set.
As pretty much everyone in the world knows, her DJ set during Weekend 1 didn’t go to plan. The tech-obsessed singer/songwriter/DJ stopped the music multiple times with more than a handful of frustrated yells. The major issue was apparently misanalysed track tempos in Rekordbox.
“I’ve outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm’s and letting someone else organize the tracks on the sd card etc.” she wrote in a tweet, apologising for the technical issues after the first performance. “The cdjs were showing me bpms like 370 so I couldn’t even mix manually by ear and the front monitors were off so it was literally sonic chaos on my end trying to guess how stuff was sounding for u guys.[sic]”

I want to apologize for the technical issues with the show tonight. I wanted to come back rly strong and usually I always handle every aspect of my show myself – to save time this was one of the first times I've outsourced essential things like rekordbox bpm's and letting…
— 𝖦𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 (@Grimezsz) April 14, 2024

For the second weekend, Grimes fixed the BPMs. There were no abrupt sound cuts and the visuals perfectly aligned with the music as she mixed her tracks, such as We Appreciate Power and IDORU. Every time she got on the mic, she expressed excitement more than anything.
The set went without issue…well, technical issues, at least.
But there was a bigger problem lurking between the perfectly timed transitions (which attendees speculated to be pre-recorded this time around).
Grimes settled for being just another big-stage DJ instead of creating something unique and special for Coachella.
Her set was basically a parallel of Anyma, who also played at Sahara on Sunday. It was so alike to the point that Grimes sang their collaboration track, Welcome To The Opera, with him during Weekend 1.

For the past few years, Anyma and his duo project, Tale of Us (who performed at Sahara at Coachella last year) have become immensely popular, thanks to their dramatic visuals that match their emotive melodic techno. Anyma essentially brings stadium-quality graphics to a DJ set. They’re also character-driven, with an I, Robot-style automaton as the central figure that connects all the different shows.
Because Anyma makes DJ-centric music and has always toured as a DJ, making these grandiose sets pushes the boundaries of his craft. His visuals set him apart.
But where Grimes should have curated a performance that set her apart from other Coachella performances, she just did the same thing as Anyma. Instead of a robot, the fairy-esque character who represents her in all her album artwork swirled through different, colourful, and technological environments and scenarios against mostly four-on-the-floor music. This is barely different from all the other big DJs who played Sahara, like Steve Angello, John Summit, and Dom Dolla.
Every artist is allowed to perform how they want. If Grimes wants to be a DJ, she should be a DJ.
But, frankly, she has the potential to do something far more unique.
Grimes’ music, while heavily electronic, is not strictly club music. On early hits such as Genesis and Oblivion, she gracefully dances a tightrope between pop punk and electro dance. The Canadian artist’s newest music isn’t just club music either. Her latest release Geidi Primes (Nightcore Edition) is an intriguing alternative rework of her 2010 album, Geidi Primes. Her latest official album, Miss Anthropocene, does have some pure dance music, like the drum & bass track 4ÆM, but she also touches on tech-tinged country music on Delete Forever.
She’s turned so many heads with her unique sound and has been a proud advocate for innovative technology; it’s permeated everything about her persona, down to her children’s names (X Æ A-Xii) and her performances.
Her 2012 performance on KEXP (which has over 4 million views on YouTube) sees her sitting on the floor manipulating synths and drum machines. At Glastonbury in 2016, she was singing and performing with hardware, accompanied by onstage dancers.

Her music and past performances demonstrate her exceptional creativity, and Coachella is the place for exceptionally creative performances. She even said in her apology tweet that she “wanted to come back rly strong.[sic]”
You can only come back so strong with a DJ set at Sahara. No matter what the visuals look like. It will just be one set among many.
Grimes had the chance to create a technical mastery, something people will talk about for years to come. People will be talking about her Coachella set for years to come, just not in the way she’d like.
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Wavelet Audio Releases Free Pulse Box Library For Kontakt Player
Recently, Wavelet Audio released the free Pulse Box cinematic pulse library for the free Kontakt Player.  The library was made for Kontakt Player, so you can use it without limitations, even if you don’t own the full version of Kontakt.  Wavelet Audio describes Pulse Box as vibrant and dynamic cinematic pulses. The library is primarily [...]
View post: Wavelet Audio Releases Free Pulse Box Library For Kontakt Player

Kenny Beats: “There is no one dumber than a person trying to get rich by making music”The music industry has changed considerably in the last few decades. Once upon a time, hitting the big time, landing a record deal and getting your music heard by millions was a fast-track to fortune. But the system has changed.
That was the pre-streaming era; millions more people were buying records and pumping money into the music-making market. It’s no secret that streaming has dealt an all-but-fatal blow to most musicians’ prospects of making a sustainable income directly through their art – at least without multiple other avenues of income.

READ MORE: No, Daniel Ek, the music industry isn’t like professional football

Obviously, it’s a relevant issue to every single artist out there today, so there are many varying opinions. Producer and DJ Kenny Beats has weighed in with a new Instagram post, in which he describes the music industry in its current form as “the worst get-rich-quick scheme in the universe”.
“I’ve been making music as a job since I was 16 years old and in my 30s I can support myself and my family comfortably, yes,” he begins.
“I’m telling you as a multi-platinum multi-Grammy-nominated producer that getting rich off music only in 2024 is impossible without many other sources of income. I’m not lying to you to hate on you. It’s a warning that you should be in it for the love.”
“We are talking 2024. Not all the rich artists you can remember in the past. People making music today,” he continues. “I’m talking about making money in music when you need to have more than a trillion streams to make 10 million dollars, deals are structured against your favour in every single way, and there’s 100,000 songs a day uploaded to Spotify.
“You should try because you care about what you are making in my opinion, not try because of the potential profits (which are way smaller than people assume).”
He goes on to stipulate a typical profit-split breakdown between an artist and their management, agents and other parties.
“Every situation is different, but in general: that first million, take out 15 per cent [for management], 5 per cent for lawyer[s], 5 per cent business manager, 30-40 per cent taxes… possibly 10 percent [for an] agent… You might be left with a down payment for a crib if you spend no other money.
“That 10 mil after came from mostly brand deals/shows/other things besides music if I had to guess.
“The point is, do music you love, this is the worst get-rich-quick scheme in the universe.”

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In another post on X/Twitter, Kenny Beats adds: “There is no one dumber than a person trying to get rich by making music.”

There is no one dumber than a person trying to get rich by making music
— kennybeats (@kennybeats) April 19, 2024

In other news, earlier this year Kenny Beats recounted the time he gifted a young musician $20,000 in studio equipment, who then started “going live with strippers for 6 hours a day on Insta”.
See more from Kenny Beats via his official YouTube channel.
The post Kenny Beats: “There is no one dumber than a person trying to get rich by making music” appeared first on MusicTech.

SPL launch Phonitor 3 SPL's new headphone amp and monitor controller will serve as a direct replacement for the Phonitor 2.

Is EastWest’s Fantasy Orchestra the one sample library to rule them all?$995 (currently on sale at $389), or as part of Composer Cloud+ subscriptions, soundsonline.com
Last year, EastWest set out on a quest: capture the sonic essence of fantasy scoring, tame it into something usable, and place it in the hands of film, TV, and game composers worldwide.

READ MORE: Ableton Live 12 dives deep under the hood for its latest milestone Live update

The first offering, Fantasy Strings, got full marks from us here at MusicTech and, since then, each successive entry in the series has gone from strength to strength. Joining the string section, we now have brass, woodwinds, percussion, choir, and a new version of the all-powerful Orchestrator plugin.
The quest is complete, and it’s time for us to take a step back to appreciate the grandeur of Fantasy Orchestra as a whole.

What’s in the EastWest Fantasy Orchestra?
Let’s begin with the winds. Gone are the traditional flutes, bassoons, and oboes; instead, we have a collection of instruments that you might not know by name but you will instantly recognise when you hear them. There’s the soft, woody sound of renaissance flutes, the even softer and woodier ocarina, the sonic power of Ireland’s uilleann pipes, but, for my money, the Irish whistles are the star here.
There are four whistles on offer. In the upper register, we have a high B flat whistle with a rich and warm tone that works well for solo melodies. By contrast, the D whistle has a bright, almost cutting tone that can easily be heard amongst a thick musical arrangement. The low whistles have an overall darker and softer sound, but the differences between the low D and E flat whistles are fairly subtle; arguably, the low D whistle sounds a bit more breathy.
Hugely versatile, they’re perfect for fast, energetic scoring, or for slower, emotive passages – and all of them deliver that iconic timbre we instantly associate with rolling green hills and magical creatures.
While the woodwinds, brass, and string libraries stay firmly rooted in European traditions, the percussion section ventures further afield with ceng ceng cymbals from Bali, ashiko drums from Africa, a selection of taiko drums from Japan, and many more.
Fantasy Orchestra Library
The workhorse is likely to be the Celtic Bodhráns, since these feel very tactile and energetic to play — an ideal option if you need to bring some forward motion to an action sequence. There’s also nice articulation options throughout this library, with lots of rolls, flams, and extended techniques to add some extra authenticity to a passage.
Plenty of lovely samples are available for the upper register, with crotales, an orchestral bell ensemble, and many small hand shakers. On the bottom end, the standouts are Gran Casas and the gigantic Nagado-daiko drum, which, in its low turning, boasts some of the deepest resonances we’ve ever heard in a sample.
Sounds that thump, rattle, and ring are all well and good but if you need to go epic, then the brass section will be your destination of choice.
The Wagner Tubas have a huge sound that feels expansive and heroic straight out of the box, while the Alpen Horns — four-metre-long instruments that were originally designed to be heard across the mountains and valleys of the Swiss Alps — carry a sense of high drama and brooding intensity that is genuinely special. Their sound is unique, with a hint of pitch instability that you won’t get from modern brass.
Fantasy Orchestra Orchestrator Presets
What’s really nice about the brass section is that it has scope; there are the warlike textures aplenty, grandeur and mystique, but it’s also easy to conjure delicate and emotive swells from the flugelhorns and low brass ensemble.
Last, but far from least, is the vocal library. Female, male, and mixed choir ensembles have been beautifully captured with four vowels and three dynamic layers to work with. The Opus player’s Mood presets demonstrate their worth here, easily showcasing the emotional range of these ensembles from melancholy to majestic.
The choirs are impressive, but the undeniable showstopper here is Merethe Soltvedt, whose solo vowels, melodic phrases, and words — sung in Quenya, J.R.R Tolkien’s language of the Elves – make this library worth considering even as a standalone collection.
Soltvedt’s performance is so evocative that it left us wishing EastWest had also included a solo male vocalist as well. Sure, it’s much more common to hear a solo female voice in fantasy scoring, but a male tenor would have provided a wonderful counterpoint here.
Fantasy Orchestra Orchestrator MIDI Editing
These instruments do admirably well in isolation, but make no mistake — this is a library with a cohesive vision behind it. All five sections integrate beautifully with each other to make a formidable scoring tool and, as you start to build a full orchestral arrangement, it’s hard not to be impressed with the sound quality EastWest has achieved.
Of course, a good fantasy soundtrack needs more than just authentic instruments, it also requires specific scoring techniques. In an ideal world, composers would have tons of free time to get comfortable with the musical styles of the middle ages or the Baroque period but, if you’ve got a deadline to meet, EastWest’s Orchestrator plugin is going to be a godsend.
As we’ve previously noted, Orchestrator is an incredibly powerful tool that streamlines key aspects of modern composing. The new version (developed specifically for Fantasy Orchestra) arrives with almost 500 genre-appropriate presets covering everything from ensemble arrangements, rhythmic ostinatos, to fully realised scores. It’s an incredible resource that can take in a few chords and give you back a near-finished scoring cue, and, if you want to dig deeper, there is plenty of scope to tweak these presets, pull them apart to see how they work, or build your own from scratch.
Fantasy Orchestra Main Interface
Should you buy the EastWest Fantasy Orchestra?
As a standalone purchase, Fantasy Orchestra comes in at $995 — a serious investment for any composer. Of course, with regular sales at East West, or a Composer Cloud+ subscription, it’s possible to snag this library at a much lower price.
If you’re looking for affordable alternatives, consider Sonokinetic’s Fantasy, or the small but lovely Conservatoire Collection from Soniccouture. However, there really is no other sample collection that offers a full orchestra with this level of sound quality, usability, and genre specificity.
EastWest has managed to stick the landing, producing a library that will surely be an essential resource for screen and game composers for years to come.
Fantasy Orchestra Articulations
Key features

145 GB library
36 instruments across five orchestral sections
474 Orchestrator presets
Available as part of a Composer Cloud+ subscriptions

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Tekton Audio allegedly threatens critics with legal action for leaving negative reviewsUS speaker company Tekton Audio has allegedly been threatening popular critics with legal action for leaving negative reviews of its products.
Erin’s Audio Corner and Audio Science Review published negative reviews of the Tekton Audio Troubadour and M-Lore speakers, citing technical flaws according to tests they carried out.

READ MORE: “We aim to make this an indispensable tool for DJs, independent artists and producers”: New AI stem separation technology secures UK government funding

Erin Hardison of Erin’s Audio Corner published a review of the Troubadour speaker, taking a look at its frequency response. Hardison contacted Eric Alexander of Tekton Audio before reviewing to get setup advice and followed his instructions, then explained that his original review was aactually quite positive; he hadn’t highlighted any major issues. You can watch his second review below:

Per Headphonesty, Tekton’s Alexander claims he’d have offered more specific guidelines if he’d known Hardison was going to measure the speakers, and Hardison alleges that Alexander “suggested that in the future, I provide him with data before I publish anything. I told him that’s not how my channel works and that I always try to remain transparent to my audience.”
Hardison asked for advice in his Facebook group, purporting that he’d received a threat of litigation. He also claimed in another post that a designer at Tekton took issues with his review methods. He never made a direct link between Tekton and the litigation threat in his posts, but many of his viewers have drawn inferences – particularly as the company removed the Troubadour speaker from its website too.
Meanwhile, Amir Majidimehr of Audio Science Review published a negative review of the Tekton M-Lore speaker. And, in a now-deleted video, Alexander reportedly claims that Majidimehr misinterpreted the data he took. Assering that the negative review affected sales, with no M-Lore speakers sold in two months, he says, “I feel blindsided by Amir. I believe he owes me a personal and a public apology. I believe Amir should be doing everything in his power to rectify this problem.”
Commenters have since weighed in on the drama, with many criticising Tekton and Alexander’s approach. One commenter writes: “The facts are you have not posted your measurements and a tutorial on how they were done and what Amir or Erin has done wrong. Show us your science?”
“You should be ashamed of the threat of legal action against an honest review. No one has an agenda against Tekton, a simple posting of the results by the reviewer and Tekton would be sufficient to support your position. (or not).”
Read more music technology news. 
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IK Multimedia announce TONEX ONE  IK Multimedia's latest TONEX hardware offers a compact and budget-friendly way to take their Tone Models to the stage.

We Can Learn A Lot From the Dance Music IndustryThis week, Ari is joined by Moody Jones, the General Manager of Dance at EMPIRE.

Highlighting this post for productivity and the pics are cool too 🤓 and it relates to anything

Using my phone built-in voice recorder a lot to not forget new ideas

Tracktion present Dawesome MYTH Tracktion say that MYTH has been designed to provide the joy and inspiration of playing a hardware instrument, and takes a different approach to sound creation that your average soft synth. 

How to grow profit? -Decrease expenses, open new lineup, don't pay royalties with less than 1000 streams. #Spotify #FairSpotify #MusicBusiness