Benn Jordan says “more than half” of music gear owners “aren’t really making music on it”Musician Benn Jordan has estimated that “more than half” of music gear owners don’t use their equipment, but says there’s “no shame in it at all”.

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He made the statement during the latest episode of My Forever Studio, a podcast that invites musicians and producers to dream up their fantasy forever music-making space.
In this episode, Benn Jordan – The Flashbulb musician, music tech journalist, and scientist – tells listeners about a fantasy brutalist, forest-based studio and the high-end gear within it. He also touches upon synth collecting, telling a story about Herbie Hancock and talks about an unusual sound-checking method.
“The people who buy music gear and are keeping the companies afloat, I would say more than half of them are not really making music on it,” he says. “They’re just collecting it and playing with it.
“Even DAWs and software. They just buy the software, they play with the knobs, they listen to it for a second, and there’s no shame in it at all. Everybody pretends they’re making music, but there are a lot of people who just like collecting synths and collecting DAWs and learning. Because they’re not producing music that people are listening to, for some reason they’re not as validated. I think that’s nonsense because it is a hobby one way or another.”
Jordan goes on to further defend collecting music gear for the sake of collecting rather than using it make and publish music: “Collecting synthesizers is a way cooler hobby than, like, a lot of other hobbies that people have. I mean, people have crazy hobbies. People play pickleball. They do all sorts of things that, like… fly fishing. People stand in rivers all day. There are tons of hobbies that are kind of absurd. I think that collecting synthesizers…is one of the less absurd hobbies.
“I wish that that was a little bit less of a secret… ‘Oh, you know what? Actually, I do like collecting synthesizers, and I have no intention of using them in music, and that’s fine.’”
The My Forever Studio podcast is a weekly podcast, created in patnserhip with Audient and now in its sixth season, that challenges music makers to build their dream fantasy forever studio anywhere they want in the universe – or even further afield. The catch? They’re only allowed to name six dream items. There will be drool-worthy gear. There will be juicy stories. There will be… NO BUNDLES!
Listen to the latest episode featuring Benn Jordan below:

Find all episodes on MusicTech.
The post Benn Jordan says “more than half” of music gear owners “aren’t really making music on it” appeared first on MusicTech.

Gibson Gives and 1500 Sound Academy Partner for Music Scholarships Across Los Angeles, CA, Beijing, China, and Taipei, TaiwanFor over 130 years, the iconic and leading American instrument brand Gibson has been shaping sound across generations and genres. Gibson, and its charitable arm Gibson Gives believe in the power of music, and that getting instruments into the hands of those with a desire to make music is a life-changing event. A state-of-the-art music school in Inglewood, CA, 1500 Sound Academy offers comprehensive courses to music students and aspiring professionals who want to learn the craft of Music Production, Engineering, Songwriting, Mixing, Music Business, and Artist Branding. Gibson Gives is proud to announce it will partner with 1500 Sound Academy this year to give five music scholarships valued at$25,000. in addition to instruments and gear totaling over $12,500 across the program inLos Angeles, California,  Beijing, China and Taipei, Taiwan.

"Music has the power to transform lives, and at Gibson Gives, we believe in amplifying that transformative potential. We're thrilled to announce our partnership with 1500 Sound Academy, a beacon of excellence in music education. This collaboration extends our commitment to fostering talent globally, reaching students in Los Angeles, Beijing, and Taiwan.”

--Erica Krusen, Senior Director, Global Cultural Influence and Gibson Global Executive Director, Gibson Gives

“1500 Sound Academy and Gibson Gives share a tireless commitment to providing musicians with the education, resources and support that is vital on their journey. We couldn’t be more excited this partnership and the opportunity the Gibson Gives Scholarships will afford to young, bright minds as they pursue their dreams in the music industry.”

--Twila True, Co-Founder, 1500 Sound Academy and CEO, True Family Enterprises

Students can apply through April 19, 2024 AT 5PM PT for the Los Angeles area program of the Gibson Gives Scholarship HERE, the Beijing program HERE, and the Taipei program HERE.

Recipients will be announced on May 8.

Ford’s hands-free BlueCruise system was active before fatal Texas crashIt's the first known fatality resulting from a crash involving the use of BlueCruise, which Ford first announced in 2021.
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Garage Door Automation With No Extra HardwareHome automation projects have been popular as long as microcontrollers have been available to the general public. Building computers to handle minutiae so we don’t have to is one of life’s great joys. Among the more popular is adding some sort of system to a garage door. Besides adding Internet-connected remote control to the action of opening and closing, it’s also helpful to have an indicator of the garage door state for peace-of-mind. Most add some sensors and other hardware to accomplish this task but this project doesn’t use any extra sensors or wiring at all.
In fact, the only thing added to the garage door for this build besides some wiring is the microcontroller itself. After getting the cover of the opener off, which took some effort, a Shelly Uni was added and powered by the 12V supply from the opener itself. The garage door opener, perhaps unsurprisingly, has its own way of detecting when the door is fully open or closed, so some additional wire was added to these sensors to let the microcontroller know the current state. Shelly Uni platforms have a WiFi module included as well, so nothing else was needed for this to function as a complete garage door automation platform.
[Stephen] uses Home Assistant as the basis for his home automation, and he includes all of the code for getting this platform up and running there. It wouldn’t be too hard to get it running on other openers or even on other microcontroller platforms; the real key to this build is to recognize that sometimes it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel with extra sensors, limit switches, or even power supplies when it’s possible to find those already in the hardware you’re modifying. This isn’t always possible, though, especially with more modern devices that might already be Internet-connected but probably don’t have great security.

Having spent over $200m on catalogs to date, South Korea’s Beyond Music eyes Latin Music market with Yandel music rights dealLatin Music star Yandel strikes music rights deal with Beyond Music
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Cryo-EM: Freezing Time to Take Snapshots of Myosin and Other Molecular SystemsUsing technologies like electron microscopy (EM) it is possible to capture molecular mechanisms in great detail, but not when these mechanisms are currently moving. The field of cryomicroscopy circumvents this limitation by freezing said mechanism in place using cryogenic fluids. Although initially X-ray crystallography was commonly used, the much more versatile EM is now the standard approach in the form of cryo-EM, with recent advances giving us unprecedented looks at the mechanisms that quite literally make our bodies move.
Myosin-5 working stroke and walking on F-actin. (Credit: Klebl et al., 2024)
The past years has seen many refinements in cryo-EM, with previously quite manual approaches shifting to microfluidics to increase the time resolution at which a molecular process could be frozen, enabling researchers to for example see the myosin motor proteins go through their motions one step at a time. Research articles on this were published previously, such as by [Ahmet Mentes] and colleagues in 2018 on myosin force sensing to adjust to dynamic loads. More recently, [David P. Klebl] and colleagues published a research article this year on the myosin-5 powerstroke through ATP hydrolysis, using a modified (slower) version of myosin-5. Even so, the freezing has to be done with millisecond accuracy to capture the myosin in the act of priming (pre-powerstroke).
The most amazing thing about cryo-EM is that it allows us to examine processes that used to be the subject of theory and speculation as we had no means to observe the motion and components involved directly. The more we can increase the time resolution on cryo-EM, the more details we can glimpse, whether it’s the functioning of myosins in muscle tissue or inside cells, the folding of proteins, or determining the proteins involved in a range of diseases, such as the role of TDP-43 in amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a 2021 study by [Diana Arseni] and colleagues.
As our methods of freezing these biomolecular moments in time improve, so too will our ability to validate theory with observations. Some of these methods combine cryogenic freezing with laser pulses to alternately freeze and resume processes, allowing processes to be recorded in minute detail in sub-millisecond resolution. One big issue that remains yet is that although some of these researchers have even open sourced their cryo-EM methods, commercial vendors have not yet picked up this technology, limiting its reach as researchers have to cobble something together themselves.
Hopefully before long (time-resolved) cryo-EM will be as common as EM is today, to the point where even a hobby laboratory may have one lounging around.

Tips on making samples from the Soul Surplus team
Soul Surplus share some tips on sample pack creation from their recent studio takeover at Drexel University.

Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTok, despite no resolution in its dispute with UMGIt’s likely no coincidence that Swift’s music has reappeared on TikTok little more than week before the April 19 release of her new albu
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Benn Jordan: “I will get burnt out by YouTube. It’s gonna happen…”Musician and YouTube-based music journalist Benn Jordan has discussed his future as a content creator and how it will, eventually, burn him out.

READ MORE: Watch Depeche Mode play the final Memento Mori show in Cologne

On YouTube, Benn Jordan, also known as The Flashbulb, shares insights into his music production process, offers tutorials, and provides commentary on various aspects of the music industry. His account, at the time of writing, has 340,000 followers. On the latest episode of My Forever Studio, a podcast where guests run through their dream studio setup, he reveals that his time on YouTube might end sooner than we think.
“Yeah, I will get burnt out on YouTube,” he admits. “It’s gonna happen, you know, like, I’m gonna quit at some point.”
Despite this, he remains passionate about his music career, stating emphatically, “I’m not gonna quit writing music. I’m not gonna let that happen, because I know how these things build up.
“I think the reason why so many people, you know, tap out is because they over monetize their own craft, and then it becomes a job, and it becomes. And they wanna retire from working, whereas I don’t wanna retire from making music. I love it. I wanna retire to make music.”
Acknowledging the risk of over-monetisation leading to artistic compromise, Jordan mentions being inspired by Charlie Cooper, a member of the band Telefon Tel Aviv, who passed away in 2009.
“The late Charlie Cooper from Telefon Tel Aviv… He waited tables while Telefon Tel Aviv was in their height.
“And he did it because he didn’t want to monetize Telefon Tel Aviv as his primary source of income because then he would be more likely to write music that would be a pop hit than writing music that he actually wanted to write, which is such a logical, great way to look at that.”
He lauded Cooper’s approach of maintaining a separate job to preserve artistic integrity, emphasizing, “I’m okay with writing music for ads. It’s not really selling out as long as I put my art here and then have my service on this side.”
“Yeah…money and art just don’t really mix very well.”
Listen to the full episode below:

Also in the episode, in which Jordan dreams up a fantasy brutalist studio in a forest, the musician defends usic tech collectors. He estimates that “more than half” of gear owners “are not really making music on it…They’re just collecting it and playing with it.”
“They just buy the software, they play with the knobs, they listen to it for a second, and there’s no shame in it at all,” he adds.
My Forever Studio is a weekly podcast where guests musicians and producers are invited in to dream up their forever music-making space anywhere in the universe, or beyond. Sound easy, right? Here’s the catch: They must craft their dream setup using only six coveted items. Plus, no bundles are allowed!
Find all episodes on MusicTech.
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This beatmaker is going viral for proving that music production has no age restrictionsMusic production can feel like an ageing process. By the time you’ve finally cracked the perfect snare drum, you’ve got lines, and wrinkles and… jeez, don’t get us started on the lower back.
One viral UK-based producer, however, might be able to quell your ageing concerns, proving that age is no obstacle when creating noisy, electronic dance music, even experimental styles like EBM and industrial techno.

READ MORE: Mike Dean leaks a glimpse of Moog’s Muse, a forthcoming mystery synth

That man is Global Shuffle Dance Music – real name Nick Hayes – a relatively older producer who, for three years, has been posting clips of him making hard-hitting dance music to YouTube, then sharing the results on Instagram (techno producer Blawan follows him, obviously). According to Hayes, his music-making journey began six years ago in 2018.
Check out one of his brilliant videos below:

The clips, which are becoming increasingly popular with each upload, see Hayes play with a range of cutting-edge gear built for electronic syles. In one, he creates a devastating techno drum track using the Elektron Syntakt. In another, he takes Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 for a ride. Hayes’ music tech arsenal also includes a Roland S-1 and a Maschine MK3 (watch out, Fred again..)
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A post shared by Nick Hayes (@the_last_dj_)

Hayes is not the only unexpected producer to go viral in recent years. On the other end of the spectrum, then-six-year-old musician Miles The Kid stunned the music world in 2023, when a video of him making a track in the legendary Electric Lady Studios went viral. In it, he makes the studio his own, constructing a track from scratch with complete confidence.
This and many of Miles’ other videos display the youngster’s acute ear for a good melody, arrangement skills and strong work ethic to get tracks finished in time. Let’s be honest, we could all take a leaf out of Miles’ book.
Follow the Global Shuffle Dance Music YouTube page, follow him on Instagram and check out Nick Hayes’ music on Spotify.
The post This beatmaker is going viral for proving that music production has no age restrictions appeared first on MusicTech.

Watch Depeche Mode play the final Memento Mori show in CologneIconic electronica band Depeche Mode have completed their Memento Mori world tour. The show, which you can watch in full below, was an emotionally charged final sendoff at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany on 8 April.
The tour, spanning 112 shows and captivating over two million fans, commemorated the band’s 15th studio album of the same name and marked their first since the loss of longtime bandmate, Andy Fletcher, in 2022.

READ MORE: Producer James Ford on working with Depeche Mode for Spirit: “A lot of it felt like marriage guidance counselling”

The setlist for the memorable Cologne performance featured a blend of classics and newer tracks. From the energy of the 1990-launched Enjoy the Silence to the poignant rendition of World in My Eyes, dedicated to Fletcher, each song carried a weight of significance, considering the band has now been going for a whopping 44 years.
In a recent interview with NME, Depeche Mode members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore shared their thoughts on the future following the conclusion of the tour.
Gore emphasized the importance of creating music that resonates with fans, stating, “The most important thing is to be putting out good music and that people like it.” He outlined their post-tour plans, mentioning a break before considering future projects. “Once we finish this tour we’ll take a break, then we’ll see if and when we feel like doing it again,” Gore explained, highlighting the band’s flexible approach to their creative journey.
Gahan reflected on his own journey, acknowledging his initial reluctance and eventual compulsion to rejoin the group. “That is a good word. It was like that; I was compelled. Just when I thought I was out, they dragged me back in!” he confessed, alluding to the magnetic pull of the band’s camaraderie.
The passing of bandmate Fletcher added a poignant layer to their reflections. “Losing Fletch made that feeling more real. Everything will come to an end. I don’t know when that is.”
Monday’s final show of the tour in Cologne is available to watch in full below:

For more artist news, head to MusicTech.
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To build a fanbase, you need to reach every level of fandomLearn how to target different kinds of fans in order to drive engagement and get the most out of your content.....
The post To build a fanbase, you need to reach every level of fandom appeared first on Hypebot.

Spotify wants to use podcasts to help market musicSpotify intends to explore an untapped marketing strategy that would marry podcasts and music streaming for years to come. by Rutger Rosenborg of MIDiA Research Last summer, Variety published an article. Continue reading
The post Spotify wants to use podcasts to help market music appeared first on Hypebot.

Record labels have some bad news for radio [Bobby Owsinski]Radio is still an important medium, but it is not as popular - particularly with music fans - as it once was. So many record labels are cutting their radio promotion teams.....
The post Record labels have some bad news for radio [Bobby Owsinski] appeared first on Hypebot.

Slate Digital introduce SD-PE1 plug-in The latest addition to Slate Digital's Virtual Mix Rack offers a versatile take on Pultec's classic passive EQ design.