Check out this Teenage Engineering-inspired gaming console built by a university studentA designer studying at Karnavati University in India has created a Teenage Engineering-inspired gaming console, similar to that of the Nintendo Switch.
Nidharshan Suresh, who studies Industrial Design at the university, has showcased his work online. The console follows the minimalist and futuristic design approach taken by the brand, featuring pops of orange colour as often seen across its product range.

READ MORE: Teenage Engineering co-founder on ‘Fadergate’: “We guessed there would be transport damage, but not at this rate”

To create the concept, Suresh and his team – Nishi Shah, Anoushka Pawar, Dhananjay Vispute, Aditi Rakhunde and Vishesh Jaiswal – looked at the designs of TE’s OP-1 field synthesiser, sampler and drum machine, as well as its TP-7 audio recorder. They also studied the different types of gamers, and the sorts of consoles they may play – for example, gamers who like to play on the go, or those who like to play in a social context and try different games out.
According to Suresh’s Behance page, Rapid Cad was implemented into the design process to more easily visualise interaction, form and function of the product.
“Mastering minimalism was a key takeaway from this project. Every detail matters in achieving clean, functional design,” writes Suresh. “This project journey also gave me knowledge on Design for manufacturing (DFM), intricate product detailing, aesthetics and how design communicates brand values and target markets.”
Check out more images of the design below:
Credit: Nidharshan Suresh
Credit: Nidharshan Suresh
Last November, Teenage Engineering dropped its EP-133 K.O.II pocket sampler/composer, to much excitement from fans of the brand. Following the release, David Eriksson (co-founder and head of hardware at the brand) told MusicTech of the response to its launch, “It was a bit overwhelming — we knew it would be popular, but that popular? I think we had different opinions.”
He added, “We’re not at all market-driven. I mean, most big companies on this planet are; they try to predict what might sell well. I think we’re probably the opposite.”
Check out more of Nidharshan Suresh’s work via Behance, and view all of Teenage Engineering’s latest official products.
The post Check out this Teenage Engineering-inspired gaming console built by a university student appeared first on MusicTech.

AlphaTheta Euphonia rotary DJ mixer is a digital/analogue hybrid with Rupert Neve Designs components /AlphaTheta, previously known as Pioneer DJ, has released a rotary DJ mixer for the first time in its 30-year history. The Euphonia is a seriously luxe mixer combining digital and analogue technology, including a transformer circuit from Rupert Neve Designs that AlphaTheta promises “enhances harmonics in your music to create an energetic and polished sound.”
READ MORE: The best rotary mixers to buy in 2024: 12 best mixers for DJs
The Euphonia is the first DJ mixer with the new AlphaTheta logo stamped on it. And it seems like it’s built to last — we checked it ahead of release and can confirm that it feels like a truly well-considered design. AlphaTheta says that “after extensive testing, the perfect knob sizes were chosen…the rotary faders feature a carefully developed design.
“You’ll notice a difference in the feel of the knobs when you turn them at different speeds. A higher load is applied when you turn a knob slowly for delicate fine-tuning and a lower load is applied when you turn a knob quickly to instantly reach your intended volume level.”

According to AlphaTheta, the Euphonia combines analogue and digital to boast a sound that’s “never been heard before”. It uses 32-bit A/D and D/A converters plus a 96kHz/64-bit floating point mixing processor thanks to digital signal processing tech. The audio passes through the transformer circuit co-designed by Rupert Neve Designs — the maker of some of the most coveted analogue gear and mixing desks on the market right now.
The custom-made transformer circuit introduces third-order harmonics to bring a “glossy and energetic sound that’s smoother for mixing,” says AlphaTheta.
For mixing, you can use the “next-generation” 3Band Master Isolator for precise control over sound shaping. Meanwhile, a Boost Level will increase the volume of each frequency band depending on the setting you select; +12dB is for dynamic performances, +6dB for sound quality adjustments, and +0dB for spatial effects without any boost.

The Energy Visualizer is the display in the top right of the mixer, which sports AlphaTheta’s spin on a traditional VU meter, the Mix Level Meter. This shows a level needle per channel, giving you a quick glance at all levels at the same time. A Spectrum Analyzer also lets you keep an eye on the Euphonia’s spectral output.
A built-in digital effects section lets you apply delay, tape echo, echo verb, reverb, shimmer and a high-pass filter to get even more creative with your mixing.

The catch? Probably the price. At $3,799/£3,249/€3,799, this falls well outside the budget of hobbyist mixers and it’s a pretty big workflow change for pro DJs used to AlphaTheta/Pioneer DJ’s four-channel fader mixers such as the DJM-A9. This is definitely a niche mixer suited to DJs who are deeply passionate about sound quality and precise blending.
But, who knows, you may well see this pop up in your local hi-fi bar and maybe even some clubs.
Learn more at alphatheta.
 
The post AlphaTheta Euphonia rotary DJ mixer is a digital/analogue hybrid with Rupert Neve Designs components / appeared first on MusicTech.

Best Spotify alternatives: Music streaming platforms to consider in 2024We’d all love to be vinyl aficionados and Walkman fanatics but, for better or for worse, the most popular way people consume music is on streaming platforms. But which ones are the best?
The leading streaming platform in 2024, with over 350 million users and 150 million subscribers and counting, is Spotify. And while Spotify does, of course, have brilliant features — a vast, evolving library of music and podcasts, accurate music suggestion tools, Spotify Wrapped and even an AI DJ — its average royalty rate of $0.004 per stream, frequent layoffs, and CEO blunders has caused people to look at what else is on offer.

READ MORE: The music streaming revolution is here, thanks to these new streaming platforms

Spotify, it’s important to remember, is just one streaming service, and there are plenty to choose from. Each major platform has differences that set them apart and might tempt you into switching. You might not align with Spotify’s ethics. You might want to connect better with your favourite artists. You might just be bored of consuming music in the same way. Whatever the reason, we’ve examined and compared the differences between alternative streaming platforms for you, and can introduce you to some lesser-known services that offer unique benefits.
The best Spotify alternatives at a glance:

Nina
Bandcamp
Apple Music
sonu.stream
Qobuz
Tidal
SoundCloud
Beatport
Marine Snow

Nina – Best platform for artist royalties
ninaprotocol.com
Nina is a refreshing open-source music streaming platform and store for devoted lovers of music, donning the bold slogan, ‘100% MUSIC’. In its own words, it’s “the only platform and toolkit for independent music designed to give artists total freedom and ownership of their work”. When artists upload their music to the site, they pay a one-time transaction fee. After this, Nina takes itself out of the picture, offering full control of their output and 100 per cent of royalties, taking no fee itself. It also hosts a ton of intriguing editorial content, if you’re looking to dig deeper into a scene you just stumbled across.
While the music on Nina was once only purchasable with a Solana wallet, after a rigorous second update in November 2023, traditional forms of payment are now accepted. The v2 update also introduced uploads of multi-track releases and a discovery feed.

Artist royalty payout rate: artists/labels receive 100% of royalties
Subscription price: None
Audio fidelity: MP3, WAV
Key features:

Open-source platform
Earn 100% of royalties
Flexible control over parameters
Discovery feed
Playlisting and editorial features

Find out more on Nina Protocol.
Bandcamp – Best for underground music discovery
Bandcamp application on a smartphone. Image: Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
It sounds obvious, and some might say old-school, but trust us: if you love music and can afford to do so, buy it. It’s singlehandedly the biggest way to support artists in 2024.
Bandcamp is an online music store and haven for independent artists, partly thanks to its Bandcamp Friday scheme, where artists, once a month, receive 100 per cent of royalties for their music. It’s not just a site for buying music, though: you can stream tracks online or from its app (by default, you can only stream a song in full up to three times unless you’ve bought it). The radio shows are also excellent — we only wish there were more of them.
Bandcamp also has a keen focus on new music discovery, with a fantastic regularly updated editorial section highlighting new, exciting music. The home page even includes a real-time carousel showing what releases are being purchased globally, potentially inspiring you to find music you would have never heard of.

Artist royalty payout rate: On average, 82% of each purchase goes to the artist/label
Subscription price: None
Audio fidelity: MP3, WAV, AIFF
Key features:

Artist-focussed, DIY user experience
100% of revenue goes to artist/label on Bandcamp Fridays
New music discovery features
Quality editorial section

Find out more at Bandcamp.
Apple Music – Best for spatial audio and radio shows

Right up there as one of the most-used music streaming services in 2024, Apple Music, though not perfect, is a strong alternative to Spotify, thanks to its royalty rate – $0.01 compared to Spotify’s $0.003 – $0.005 – and better audio quality. It prides itself on lossless audio and spatial audio, supported by Dolby Atmos, even teaming up with Boiler Room to offer exclusive immersive live DJ sets. Many users also praise Apple Music for its intuitive playlisting and library-organising features.
At $11 per month, you get a vast catalogue of music that rivals all other major platforms. You also get access to all of Apple Music’s exclusive — and often excellent — podcasts and radio shows, such as The Zane Lowe Show and Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.01 per stream
Subscription price: None
Audio fidelity: AAC (256 kbps), ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz, Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos
Key features:

Exclusive Apple content
Better royalty rate than Spotify
Lossless and immersive audio
100m+ songs
Ad-free

Find out more on Apple Music.
sonu.stream – Best for Web3 users
sonu.stream. Image: sonu.stream
Co-founded by Laura Jaramillo and producer TOKiMONSTA, sonu.stream uses Web3 technology, utilising blockchain to ensure fair compensation for its artists. Like Marine Snow, sonu.stream‘s not fully released to the world, but we recently spoke to its founders, who gave us a bit more information about the upcoming streaming service.
In our chat, Jaramillo emphasised the platform’s unique Web3 model, saying, “It allows you to create a strong foundation that decentralizes the permission for AI-generated music…People are disappointed in these giants and they see sonu.stream as an opportunity for change.”
Features:

Artist royalty payout rate: N/A
Subscription prices: N/A
Audio fidelity: N/A
Standout features:

Web3-powered streaming
sonu auctions
Protocol-generated rewards
No ownership transfer of music rights; artists retain full control
Biweekly streaming royalties payout

Find out more on sonu.stream.
Qobuz – Best for community
A user using Qobuz on a desktop
Qobuz is a serious contender to Spotify if you’re a passionate music fan seeking the feel of a record store when finding new music. It’s a premium music streaming service – leaning more into jazz and classical territories – that prides itself on high-fidelity audio listening, exclusive editorial content, and Qobuz Club. The latter is a social media-style platform where users can discuss and share music.
It’s not just a music streaming website – Qobuz is also a store with purchasable or downloadable high-res digital files available alongside online listening.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.04 per stream
Subscription prices:

Studio plan: £10.83/month
Sublime plan: £14.99/month

Audio fidelity: Lossless, FLAC (24-Bit up to 192 kHz)
Key features:

High-quality audio
100m tracks available
Exclusive editorial content
Passionate community on Qobuz Club

Learn more on Qobuz.
Tidal – Best for exclusive music

In 2015, Jay-Z splashed $56m on a Norwegian streaming service, rebranded it, and launched it as an “artist-owned” streaming service called Tidal. Nine years later, Tidal has had an interesting journey but has managed to establish a core user fanbase and attract artists with its satisfyingly high royalty payout rate.
Some of the biggest rap and R&B artists today, such as Ye, for example, choose to release their music exclusively on this streaming service. Beyoncé released her phenomenal LEMONADE album on Tidal and Rihanna, Jay-Z and Drake have also released albums exclusively onto the platform.
The exclusivity of Tidal is not just what attracts both artists and listeners to the streaming service. Tidal’s royalty rate is $0.0125 to $0.015 per stream which, compared to Spotify’s average of $0.004, is a steep improvement. Plus, Tidal builds a tight-knit community through engaging editorial content, from conversations with new artists about upcoming releases to reviews of gigs or look-backs on important music that has shaped music and its culture.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.0125 to $0.015 per stream
Subscription price:

HiFi: £10.99/month
HiFi Plus: £19.99/month

Audio fidelity: Up to 24-bit, 192 kHz
Key features:

Exclusive music
High-quality audio
Curated editorial content
Artist-centric approach

Find out more on Tidal.
SoundCloud – Best for up-and-coming artists and sharing your music

SoundCloud, which launched in 2007, started out as a music-sharing platform, later developing into its own streaming service. The platform lets you easily upload, promote, and share your music and DJ mixes, so you can reach global audiences directly and engage with them through comments and a message inbox. Because of this, SoundCloud has built up a dedicated community of listeners, producers, and – most notably – rappers, having birthed a sub-genre of rap called SoundCloud rap in and around 2016.
Compared to Spotify, SoundCloud offers more flexibility for independent artists to showcase their work and engage with fans without the need for label support. Since 2021, SoundCloud has featured a fan-powered royalty system, where artists are paid based on the actual listening habits of their fans, rather than overall listens being pooled up with major artists.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.0025 to $0.004 per stream (if artists sign up to SoundCloud For Artists)
Subscription price:

Free (with ads)
SoundCloud Go: £5.99/month (no ads)
SoundCloud Go+: £9.99/month (no ads)

Audio fidelity:

SoundCloud Go: 128kpbs MP3
SoundCloud Go+: 256kbps AAC

Key features:

Fan-powered royalties
Upload DJ mixes (3 hours max.)
Engagement with fans
Direct artist-to-listener model

Find out more on SoundCloud.
Beatport – Best for DJs

Beatport, founded in 2004, is a digital music store focused solely on electronic music. Beatport’s EDM-centred library is vast and varied, home to everything from drum ‘n’ bass to house, garage, techno, right through to trap, amapiano and more, offering niche sub-genes from each.
In 2019, Beatport expanded into streaming with the launch of Beatport LINK. It provides subscribers access to all of Beatport’s catalogue tracks and DJ mixes for streaming through web browsers or on your phone. Beatport LINK is integrated into modern DJ decks, such as the Pioneer CDJ-3000, giving you access to Beatport’s library directly from the decks without the need for a USB stick or, thanks to its offline streaming capabilities, Wi-Fi.
In 2021, Beatport launched its own iOS app, later expanding into Android. This condenses all of Beatport’s catalogue into a mobile-friendly format, letting you stream music, browse artist-curated playlists, and create unlimited playlists. The app is a handy solution for DJs who want to discover and be inspired by new music on the move, instead of sitting at a desk.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.10 per stream
Subscription price:

Essential: $9.99/month
Advanced: $15.99/month

Audio fidelity: MP3, WAV, AIFF
Standout features:

Extensive dance music catalogue
DJ-friendly features (key, tempo, advanced filters etc.)
Stream via desktop or on smart phones
Stream tracks directly to DJ decks via Beatport LINK
No need for Wi-Fi when DJing with offline streaming

Find out more on Beatport.
One to watch: Marine Snow

Marine Snow is a streaming service that has been in the works for over three years and is set to officially launch very soon. We’ve been speaking to its lead creator, ex-Spotify employee Tony Lashley, about what the upcoming streaming platform will provide for artists. It certainly sounds like, if it takes off, it could change the streaming landscape.
One of the main exciting features of Marine Snow is its unique artist-focused take on usual streaming models. Marine Snow offers artists an upfront payment equal to 500,000 Spotify streams, and gives subscribers the option of a subscription-as-investment – if you choose to pay more than the minimum subscription rate, you’ll gain a stake in the platform. Marine Snow also rotates tracks exclusively for 90 days, guaranteeing each contributing artist a fixed share of revenue regardless of stream numbers.
In a recent interview with MusicTech, Lashley explained the platform’s shift towards artist empowerment: “You can only help artists as much as you can capture money or attention from consumers…you have to create new forms of value if you want to succeed.
“An artist can think they’ve written a really good song, and it can get 10,000 plays and it’s still a really good song, no matter how many plays it gets.”
Features:

Artist royalty payout rate: N/A
Subscription prices: N/A
Audio fidelity: N/A
Key features:

Upfront payment to artists
Gamified music discovery
90-day track rotation
Subscription-as-investment model

Read more on Marine Snow.
The post Best Spotify alternatives: Music streaming platforms to consider in 2024 appeared first on MusicTech.

How to style your #RSS feed.

AlphaTheta dives into rotary world with launch of the euphonia: a 4-channel rotary mixerAlphaTheta Corporation announced the release of the company’s first-ever rotary mixer: the euphonia. The 4-channel mixer is the also the first piece of hardware from the company that features the AlphaTheta brand logo, replacing the Pioneer DJ branding. euphonia is a combination digital/analog mixer with rotary faders that features a custom-designed 3Band Master Isolator, built-in […]
The post AlphaTheta dives into rotary world with launch of the euphonia: a 4-channel rotary mixer appeared first on DJ TechTools.

Fanlink.to server is down...after biglink.to and other domains. Does it mean EventBrite is closing the ToneDen.io completely?

OpenAI’s deals with publishers could spell trouble for rivalsOpenAI’s legal battle with The New York Times over data to train its AI models might still be brewing. But OpenAI’s forging ahead on deals with other publishers, including some of France’s and Spain’s largest news publishers. OpenAI on Wednesday announced that it signed contracts with Le Monde and Prisa Media to bring French and […]
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Goldilocks Beverage Coaster Tells You When It’s Just RightIf you ask us, morning is the only excuse we need for a hot caffeinated beverage — weather be damned. Wherever [gokux] is, they may be experiencing actual winter this year, given that they are out there getting cozy with a hot cup of what-have-you. But how do they know it’s at the right temperature for drinking? Enter the temperature-monitoring smart coaster.
At the heart of this build is a GY-906 infrared temperature sensor, which senses the warmth (or lack thereof) and displays the degrees on a small OLED screen thanks to a Seeed Xiao SAMD21. To make things simple, there is also an ideogram that corresponds to the current temperature — snowflake for too cold, danger sign for too hot, and thumbs up for that just-right range. Although this coaster is mostly 3D-printed, the mug sits on a slotted piece of aluminium that is removable for easy cleaning. This would be a good-looking and useful addition to any desk.
This is isn’t the first temperature-indicating beverage coaster we’ve seen. The most recent one ultimately used a probe, which is likely about as accurate (and messy) as you can get with these things.

PDP-10 Fits in Your Living Room[Oscar] at Obsolescence Guaranteed is well-known for fun replicas of the PDP-8 and PDP-11 using the Raspberry Pi (along with some other simulated vintage computers). His latest attempt is the PDP-10, and you can see how it looks in the demo video below.
Watching the video will remind you of every old movie or TV show you’ve ever seen with a computer, complete with typing noise. The PDP-10, also known as a DECsystem-10, was a mainframe computer that usually ran TOPS-10. These were technically “mainframes” in 1966, although the VAX eclipsed the system. By 1983 (the end of the PDP-10’s run), around 1,500 had been sold, including ones that ran at Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and — of course — MIT. They also found homes at CompuServe and Tymshare.
The original 36-bit machine used transistors and was relatively slow. By the 1970s, newer variants used ICs or ECL and gained some speed. A cheap version using the AM2901 bit-slice CPU and a familiar 8080 controlling the system showed up in 1978 and billed itself as “the world’s lowest cost mainframe.”
The Knight terminals were very unusual for the day. They each used a PDP-11 and had impressive graphics capability compared to similar devices from the early 1970s. You can see some of that in the demo video.
Naturally, anyone who used a PDP-10 would think a Raspberry Pi was a supercomputer, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Still, these machines were the launching pad for Adventure, Zork, and Altair Basic, which spawned Microsoft.
The cheap version of these used bitslice which we’ve been talking about lately. [Oscar] is also known for the KIMUno, which we converted into a COSMAC Elf.

Believe generated $952.7m in annual revenues last year, up 15.7% YoYThe company’s full-year financial results were published on Wednesday, March 13
Source

Stu Bergen named interim CEO of DeezerAnnouncement follows the departure of Deezer CEO, Jeronimo Folgueira
Source

Basic #Music theory for #Producers.
#musicproduction #artists

Critter & Guitari’s Kaleidoloop returns for the first time since 2016 with all-new featuresCritter & Guitari has released a new version of its portable looper Kaleidoloop with extra features, including new playing modes.
The Kaleidoloop was discontinued in 2016, but it’s back. It’s now white and has a smaller form factor to make it more portable, while the interface has been adjusted slightly too.

READ MORE: iZotope’s revived distortion plugin is Trash – no, seriously

The mono input and output have moved over to the left, while the button keys are in different positions too. But it’s not all change – it’s still a great looper to travel with or use on the go, while you can sample into it with the goose-neck microphone. And, everything you record gets saved to the microSD card.
There are six different playback modes, three speed manipulation modes, and three effects. And previously, the looping would stop when you recorded another sound, but in the new version, looping continues, making it easier to build layers without any additional equipment.
Credit: Critter & Guitari
One of the most eye-catching features, however, is the way in which users can customise the modes coded in Pure Data. You can create new modes, or upload modes that other people have shared. As a result, you can turn the Kaleidoloop into, for example, a granular or spectral processor.
It has a USB-C port on the back, while you can also use batteries. There’s a microSD slot with an 8GB card for 7GB of storage and around 20 hours of recording time, and a USB-A host port.
While Critter & Guitari hasn’t released a promo video for the new version, we’ll take any excuse to share the video for the 2016 model, which you can check out below:

The Kaleidoloop is available for $375, and you can learn more at Critter & Guitari.
The post Critter & Guitari’s Kaleidoloop returns for the first time since 2016 with all-new features appeared first on MusicTech.

GRAMMY(R) NOMINATED JOHN ONDRASIK OF FIVE FOR FIGHTING PARTNERS WITH THE TULLMAN FAMILY FOR THE “MUSIC MATTERS CHALLENGE”Tying in with "Music In Our Schools Month," GRAMMY® nominated John Ondrasik of FIVE FOR FIGHTING and The Tullman Family Office, through its operational philanthropic wing Tullman Community Ventures, announce the “Music Matters Challenge,” which will launch on March 26, running through April 30;  with the Grand Prize winners to be announced on May 14.  The national online music challenge asks Americans to create an original rendition of the song “Let Music Fill My World,” a song recorded and written by Five For Fighting’s John Ondrasik and students of the Farragut Career Academy in Chicago, Illinois; while sharing their own story of a time where music greatly impacted them, changed their life, or moved them to where they remember that story today.   The challenge is designed to spotlight the magic of music and bring awareness to the generational impact of removing music from schools.  To enter the contest, visit: www.letmusicfillmyworld.com.  Listen to “Let Music Fill My World” HERE.

The “Music Matters Challenge” is hosted by “Let Music Fill My World,” an organization founded by The Tullman Family Office, and is on a mission to ensure that every child in America has access to music education in their schools.  Two Grand Prize winners will be awarded – one for individual entries: $10,000 in cash, plus the opportunity to participate in selecting a music teacher for an under-resourced school to receive a salary of up to $300,000 for three years;  and one for school entries, where the winning school receives a $25,000 school grant.

The idea for the competition began in 2023, when Cayley Tullman, President of The Tullman Family Office, partnered with Ondrasik of FIVE FOR FIGHTING to write a song with students from Farragut Career Academy in Chicago, Illinois.  Ondrasik, Tullman, and a group of eight students participated in weekly after-school workshops and composed an original song, “Let Music Fill My World,” which passionately expressed why music matters in their lives.  The students wrote all of the verses in the song themselves, and had the opportunity to professionally record their song and create a music video with the help of seasoned industry music producers. As a part of this effort, the Tullman Family Office fully funded a full-time music teacher for the students at Farragut Career Academy, which propelled the idea to create the “Music Matters Challenge.”  Check out video message from John Ondrasik and Cayley Tullman.

Says Ondrasik, "In speaking with philanthropist Cayley Tullman about how we can best support music in the schools in inner-city Chicago, I thought of my mom, Anna Marie.  Mom was a USC music grad and piano teacher. When LA Unified cut all music funding for schools in the 1970s, she volunteered at Van Gogh Elementary School and began putting on full musicals with the 5th and 6th grade classes.  The impact that my mother had on me, and my classmates resonates over 50 years later. Many students still keep in touch with my mom, and for the most, music has continued to be instrumental in their lives. That is why I was so proud to collaborate with students at Farragut Academy in Chicago in writing “Let Music Fill my World.” Though the title was mine, the lyrics are the kids! That effort, due to the Tullman Family Office, now provides a full-time music teacher for three years at Farragut! Lives will be changed for the better. The “Music Matters Challenge” will bring our mission and efforts to the nation, raising awareness for music in the schools while letting everyone sing and lend their voice to such a critical cause while having fun, and again, participating in a prize that will bring another full-time music teacher to a school in desperate need.”

Adds Cayley Tullman, President of The Tullman Family Office and former U.S. Diplomat: "I remember sitting on the floor in front of the couch at my grandparents’ home in California, mesmerized watching my Uncle Stan play guitar and sing. Stan struggled with mental health and addiction, but when playing music, he shined so bright.  Looking back, I believe music was his solace and gave him a way to express himself that he could not do with words alone.  I miss him a lot and know he would be proud of our mission to connect more young people with the magic of music.”

After the initial round of submissions, 10 public entries and 10 school entries will be selected for the finals, which will be voted on by the public. The top 10 winners will be selected through a combination of digital views and a panel of judges, including John Ondrasik and Cayley Tullman (additional judges TBA).

During the 2008-2009 recession, public school per-pupil spending dropped by 7% nationally, leading to drastic reductions in art and music classes. Music programs have since not recovered, with only 19 out of 50 schools including arts as a key area of their state accountability system. Students are not only losing a creative outlet. Music programs have been shown to increase standardized test scores, reduce disciplinary infractions, and improve graduation and attendance rates (College Board, 2002), (Bowen et al, 2019), (NAMM Foundation, 2015).  With the “Music Matters Challenge,” The Tullman Family Office, with the help of Five For Fighting’s John Ondrasik, is creating this initiative to help turn around these statistics.

Multiple SXSW Protests: Festival Organizers, Texas Governor respondSXSW is under fire on at least three fronts from musicians and panelists who are unhappy with how the festival, now co-owned by Penski, the publisher of Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Variety, does business.....
The post Multiple SXSW Protests: Festival Organizers, Texas Governor respond appeared first on Hypebot.