Killer Mike – and a host of top execs – joined ‘Award Season’ Grammy Week party, hosted by Milk & Honey and ReservoirMBW co-sponsored event alongside Splice, SoundCloud, Mark Music + Media Law, BMI, UBS, and Endurance Artist Management.
Source

Reservoir generated $35.5m in calendar Q4 2023, up 19% YoYThe company has raised its outlook for full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA, in the wake of "strong revenue growth"
Source

Spotify paid the music industry $9 billion in 2023Apparently, passing 602 million monthly active users was not the only big stat Spotify wanted to share this week. Two days after a solid report to investors that sent its stock up 8%, Spotify announced it had paid more than $9 billion to musicians and the music industry last year, its highest payout ever...
The post Spotify paid the music industry $9 billion in 2023 appeared first on Hypebot.

What Was AI Made For? AI’s Place in the Music IndustryJoseph Perla, the Founder & CEO of Hangout FM by Turntable Labs, cuts through the clutter to offer a music tech insider's look at the good and the bad of music AI...
The post What Was AI Made For? AI’s Place in the Music Industry appeared first on Hypebot.

13 Social Media Tips for Musicians [Bobby Borg]If your social media efforts have yet to be the fruit you'd hoped for, these 13 tips from Bobby Borg are the perfect place to start...
The post 13 Social Media Tips for Musicians [Bobby Borg] appeared first on Hypebot.

Music subscriber market shares 2023: New momentumWith UMG leading the charge to reshape the music industry into a more label-friendly form, 2023 may, with hindsight, go down as the year before everything changed. Whatever lies ahead though, new models will take time to deliver benefits. Music subscriptions are therefore going to remain the bedrock of music rightsholder revenues for the foreseeable future. So, it is a good thing that music subscriptions had such a good year in 2023.

As of Q3 2023, there were 713.4 million music subscribers globally, which was 90 million up on the 623.4 million one year earlier in Q3 2022. This matters for two reasons:

We are already nearly three quarters of the way to having one billion music subscribers globally. That is no small achievement. For context, as recently as five years ago, we had only just passed the quarter of a billion subscriber mark

The 90 million subscribers added in the 12 months to Q3 2023 was more, yes more(!), than the 83.5 million added one year earlier. In fact, the number added was nearly as many as those added in 2020. Not bad for a maturing category with key markets hitting near-saturation

However, there is a bit of a problem with looking at the global market: it is increasingly no longer a global market, but instead, one of two halves: the West and the Global South, with each region throwing off dramatically different metrics and growth narratives.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the market share rankings:

Spotify dominated the global music subscriber base in Q3 2023 with 31.7% market share. More than that, it actually increased its share from 0.4 points from Q3 2022. So, for all the flak Spotify has thrown at it, it outgrew the market in 2023. Newer, emerging market territories were central to this growth, but it was Spotify’s traditional heartland (North America and Europe) that drove the majority (59%) of its subscriber growth. Compare and contrast this with the all-DSP picture, where North America and Europe drove just 29% of subscriber growth, with Asia Pacific accounting for nearly two thirds of all non-Western subscriber growth

China, a market in which only Apple of the Western DSP operates, underpins this non-Western growth, and the clearest manifestation of this is Tencent Music Entertainment (TME). With 102.7 million subscribers in Q3 2023, TME represents 14.4% of all global subscribers, despite this being an effectively China-only number. NetEase Cloud Music (6.1% share and China-only) and Yandex (3.4% share and Russia-only), further represent the dynamic growth from regions where Western DSPs largely do not operate. This is the new, bifurcated nature of the global music subscriber market

Apple Music (12.6%), Amazon Music (11.1%) and YouTube Music (9.7%) represent the remainder of the leading Western DSP pack. Along with Spotify, these three DSPs represent 65% of the global market, but only 59% of 2023 growth. Western DSPs are still the core of the market, but they are collectively losing share. But, even within these four, there is a diverging picture, with YouTube Music and Spotify gaining share in 2023 while Amazon and Apple lost share. Between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023, Spotify added more subscribers than all three other leading Western DSPs combined

2023 was a strong year for music subscriptions, delivering more growth than perhaps had been expected in such challenging macro-economic and geo-political circumstances. Even North America and Europe grew slightly faster in 2023 than in 2022. But, as commendable as squeezing more growth out of otherwise mature markets is, the inescapable paradigm shift is the emergence of the Global South as the growth driver of tomorrow’s music subscriber base.

Want even more detail? Check out the full music subscriber market shares report and data set, with data for more than 20 DSPs across more than 40 territories, with data for every quarter from Q4 2015 to Q3 2023.

For more info email stephen@midiaresearch.com

Oneohtrix Point Never announces spatial audio remix of acclaimed Again albumOneohtrix Point Never has announced a limited deluxe edition of his acclaimed 2023 album Again, featuring a spatial audio mix.

READ MORE: NAMM 2024: Audient’s ORIA is an all-in-one interface that “prioritises immersive audio workflows”

The immersive Dolby Atmos mix has been mixed by Mike Dean, Tommy Rush, and Sean Solymar, and will debut at private listening events in New York, Los Angeles, and London on 29 February. Although they’re mostly private affairs, some limited tickets for the public will be available once you automatically enter a draw upon pre-ordering the Blu-Ray from the OPN site.
Alongside the standard and Dolby Atmos mixes, the Blu-Ray includes visuals from the album, including the new music video On An Axis by Andrew Norman Wilson.

The deluxe edition’s packaging is a work of art, housed in a slipcase made from 3mm acrylic in two colour variants, containing a pulsing green LED light powered by 2 AAA batteries, developed specifically for this release.
Credit: Oneohtrix Point Never
Oneohtrix Point Never was also recently announced as part of the Coachella 2024 lineup, and has revealed that this will kick off the North American leg of his Again tour. The tour features a new live production with design, creative direction, and visuals by Freeka Tet and additional digital animations by Nate Boyce.
OPN is not the only artist working with spatial audio engineers to create immersive versions of their music. Dolby recently teamed up with Ed Sheeran to remix his recent track, Magical, to show how musicians can “push music to new boundaries”.
In an unexpected move, Apple Music recently revealed it would be rewarding musicians who mix their songs in Dolby Atmos format. In a statement it said it would “give added weighting” to streams of songs mixed in Dolby Atmos, giving those artists more chances to earn bigger royalty payments.
Not everyone’s on board with the Dolby Atmos for Apple Music, though. Kid Cudi took to Twitter, now X, in July 2023 to write, “Yo Apple Music, Dolby Atmos is ruining my artwork. This is a problem that fans can’t hear the music as intended. This is very bad. I am listening to multiple songs of mine that are completely full of errors. Drums drop out middle of verses, start off not on the one, all messed up. Artists should not have their music manipulated like this.”
Find out more about Oneohtrix Point Never’s – hopefully not ruined – spatial audio mix of Again via Point Never.
The post Oneohtrix Point Never announces spatial audio remix of acclaimed Again album appeared first on MusicTech.

DrumThrash releases FREE acoustic drum samples in WAV format
DrumThrash recently released a free acoustic drum pack in WAV format, which is universally compatible with any DAW or setup.  As the name DrumThrash suggests, the pack seems a natural fit for use with hard rock or metal, given the demos on the product page have names like Beat Blaster and Snare Slayer.  That said, [...]
View post: DrumThrash releases FREE acoustic drum samples in WAV format

Where You At – an app that allows you to accurately find your friends at music venues – rolls out in East LondonWhere You At (WYA), an app that helps you stay connected to your friends even offline, is rolling out at select East London venues including Colour Factory, Night Tales and EartH.

READ MORE: A producer is remaking classic songs in the style of RuneScape music – and we absolutely love it

Created by Tamzin Lent, WYA was developed following experiences of sexual assault on nights out, and is touted as the first app offering peer-to-peer safety features.
The app uses Bluetooth to allow friends to communicate with one another in a venue where signal might be poor. Not only is it able to pinpoint an individual’s location in case they get lost, WYA also offers a detailed map of each venue, including club facilities and other useful features within the premises. Simply search for your friend on the venue map provided and send them a PING as needed.
Where You At is currently operational in eight London venues, including E1, HERE, Outernet, The Lower Third, XOYO, and Drumsheds, a nightclub with a capacity of 15,000.
Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) Director Silvana Kill says [via Mixmag]: “We’re thrilled to see Where You At expanding its reach and enhancing the nightlife experience through exciting new NTIA member venue partnerships.”
“With the support of the Night Time Industries Association, the app continues to make nightlife safer and more enjoyable for everyone. It’s not just about finding friends; it’s about ensuring customers are creating unforgettable moments for all the right reasons!”
Vlad Bungianu, Night Tales Venue Manager, also adds: “The most I am looking forward to from this partnership is to make the party space safer and more enjoyable for everyone who comes through our doors. The WYA platform is a great addition, I am looking forward to seeing how the customers will benefit from using it.”
Where You At is now available for download on both Android and iOS.
Learn more at WYA.
The post Where You At – an app that allows you to accurately find your friends at music venues – rolls out in East London appeared first on MusicTech.

Brian Eno’s new £20,000 LED turntable has LEDs which change colour at randomAmbient legend and visual artist Brian Eno has launched the Turntable II, the second iteration of his signature colour-changing neon record player.

READ MORE: Skrillex says the next big music-sharing app after TikTok will be whatever’s “accessible to the kids”

As with the original release that debuted in 2021, Eno’s latest turntable is a collaboration with London’s Paul Stolper Gallery and is limited to just 150 units across the globe.
The record player, which comprises a round platter and base, is able to change colours “independently”, offering “seamless phasing” through a combination of “generative ‘colourscapes’”. In addition, the pattern of lights – the speed at which they change and how they change – are programmed to do so randomly and slowly. Bask in the mesmerising hues of pink, blue, orange, and green as the LED lights shine through the acrylic body of the device.
Image: Luke Walker/ Paul Stolper Gallery
“It’s the softness of these colours and the way they merge with each other that is so seductive,” Eno says in a statement [via Fad Magazine]. “When it doesn’t have to do anything in particular, like play a record, it is a sculpture.”
Specs wise, the Turntable II plays both 33 and 45rpm vinyl, and sports a white 8.6” Pro-Ject aluminium tonearm, Ortofon 2M cartridge, high precision stainless steel bearing block, and an electronic speed switch.
At $25,000/£20,000 (excluding VAT), the Turntable II is as swanky as they come. Each unit will also feature a signature from Eno and an edition number engraved into the side of its base.
The Turntable II is currently on display at Paul Stolper Gallery until 9 March 2024.
Learn more at the Paul Stolper website.
The post Brian Eno’s new £20,000 LED turntable has LEDs which change colour at random appeared first on MusicTech.

You could win a Moog Source synthesizer signed by Bob Moog himselfThe Bob Moog Foundation has announced a fundraising raffle for an excellent condition vintage Moog Source synthesizer signed by Bob Moog himself.

READ MORE: These gold speaker systems are a level of bougie we’d probably never be able to afford

Open internationally, the raffle is currently ongoing and will end on 26 February at 1159pm ET, or when all 5,000 tickets are sold. Tickets are $20 each, 6 for $100, 14 for $200, or 40 for $500, and can be purchased at the Moog Foundation website. The winner will be announced on Friday, 1 March 2024.
Originally released in 1981, the Source is a unique piece of music history that embodies both tradition and progression in the sonic world. The unit in the raffle was donated by musician, composer, and sound designer Erik Norlander, who co-designed the legendary Alesis Andromeda analogue synthesizer. It has a serial number of 3948 and was built in Cheektowaga, New York. The synth also has an estimated value of $3,500 and makes for a valuable collector’s item, even more so with Bob Moog’s signature on it.
“This Source is signed by Bob himself, and its new owner will have an extremely special piece of synthesizer history in addition to a beautiful sounding musical instrument,” Norlander says.
“It is a solid performer with the epic Moog transistor ladder filter sound that we all know and love. For me the Source brings much of the weight of the Minimoog Model D but also some noticeable midrange punch that gives it its own sonic character. Owners of multiple Moog instruments will find that the Source occupies its own unique space and will be a worthy and treasured addition to any synth collection.”
Image: Bob Moog Foundation
Funds raised from the raffle will be used to expand the Bob Moog Foundation’s hallmark education project, Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool. The raffle will also support the Bob Moog Foundation Archives and the Moogseum, an immersive, experiential facility in Asheville, North Carolina, which brings Bob Moog’s pioneering legacy and the science of sound and synthesis alive for people of all ages. The Moogseum opened in May 2019 and has since welcomed over 30,000 visitors worldwide.
Often regarded as the most iconic, archetypal analogue synth of all time, the Moog Source boasts rich sound quality and a technical lineage rooted in the iconic Minimoog. The Source was manufactured from 1981 through 1985 and was the first Moog synthesizer to offer patch memory storage in 16 preset locations.
It also features a cassette tape jack, allowing for transfers of patches to and from an external tape. In addition to its mylar touch control panel, single-knob functionality, and trademark Moog sound, the Source is lauded for its sequencers, sample and hold, arpeggiator, presets, and unique data wheel.

Learn more about the raffle and get your tickets at the Moog Foundation.
The post You could win a Moog Source synthesizer signed by Bob Moog himself appeared first on MusicTech.

The Saltburn Effect: Princess Superstar and Mason on the conception and rebirth of Perfect (Exceeder)The Saltburn Effect — this is the phenomenon that caused Mason and Princess Superstar to have their careers flipped upside down, all over again.

READ MORE: Chromeo: “We’re still as enthralled by funk and analogue synths as we were before”

When Perfect (Exceeder) landed in 2007, it climbed all the way to number three in the UK Singles chart, and number one in UK Dance, but neither of them have found themselves faced with an unexpected resurgence quite like this one.
Nearly 20 years on from its release, its streaming figures are reaching roughly one million plays per day, according to Mason, and it’s all thanks to the twisted tale of wealth, desperation and lust of Saltburn by British filmmaker Emerald Fennell, with its immense soundtrack of early noughties bangers.
Featuring Arcade Fire, The Cheeky Girls, MGMT, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor (whose track Murder On The Dancefloor has also rocketed back into the charts), Saltburn encapsulates a nostalgia that’s infatuated new listeners and reminded older ones of the magic of 00s electro, indie and pop. It also provides some nice dance break opportunities between a few, er, awkward scenes, let’s say.

American rapper Princess Superstar, real name Concetta Kirschner, is pretty exhausted by the madness. But she’s riding the high as she joins us for a video call. She appears on camera, coffee in hand, having been awake since 1:30 am for a previous media engagement. “I mean, I got my career handed back to me on a silver platter, so I’m not complaining,” she says. “It was like a low fee [I was paid for the track’s use in the movie]. So I was like, ‘Okay, sure you can use it’ – little did I know! I don’t think [the film’s production team] knew what was about to hit them either.”
DJ and producer Mason (Iason Chronis), calls in from his home city of Amsterdam: “For half of the people it’s like a revival record — like, ‘hey, we used to dance to this 17 years ago!’ — and for the other half, it’s a younger generation who just discovered it for the first time.
“For them, it’s new music — that’s really cool. And I realise they’re a fan of that actual song, so it’s a bit of an entity on its own. I’m super grateful for whatever one or two per cent clicks onwards and starts following me.”
Mason’s original 2006 instrumental version of Exceeder was one of the first tracks he released. The explosive electro house track starts with a French house-style flip of Let It All Blow by Dazz Band before dropping into a rolling synth bass that tantalises you to the dancefloor.

At the time, Mason DJ’d regularly for Electronation – an electro music event hosted regularly by a collective of European DJs. “Sometimes we were doing two or three a week in different cities, Netherlands, Belgium, England. From the pool of DJs, I was more on the bright or happy side of electro, so this tune kind of represented the feeling of those parties.”
The production process for Exceeder was simpler than you might imagine. At the time, he was between two studios so he didn’t have a proper space to create: “For two months or so, my setup was at home in my kitchen. So it was really nothing. I made it on a Mac and the main lead sound was made with Minimonsta by GForce. And well, that’s it! It was all in the box, and I was really at the start of my production [career], so I don’t think there’s any sidechain compression or anything like that in it.
“It’s super basic and you can hear all the chunky beats. It’s glued together and just stacked on each other — and I think that’s also maybe sometimes a bit of a lesson. We can go super nitty-gritty with plugins and make everything ideal sonically, but sometimes something has character even if it’s not ideally mixed.”
Mason. Credit: Mason
Princess Superstar’s original version of Perfect sat on her fifth album, My Machine, and took more of a classic hip-hop approach. Produced with DJ Mighty Mi, the track was a satirical jab at fame, poking fun at being imperfect.
Though Superstar has dabbled in music production – if you dig around on Soundcloud, you may just find some demos she produced for a certain Lana Del Rey with Ableton Live circa 2008 – she says she decided she “wasn’t very good at it…Which is fine! I think it’s good to know what you’re good at and what other people should do for you. I couldn’t mix for shit,” she confesses.
“My Machine was my favourite album that I did, and it was a really big endeavour for me back then. I wanted to do a concept record. I was brought up on The Who’s Tommy, my parents loved that stuff. Pink Floyd, all that amazing English music.” She adds, “As far as the lyrics go, I borrowed from my favourite hip-hop songs. [The lyrics] ‘Push it, push it’ came from Salt-N-Pepa, and ‘work it’ is Missy Elliot. So it was an homage to other female rappers.”

The remix launched both artists into a new league in their careers, yet neither Mason nor Princess Superstar can remember the exact details of how they actually put together the mash-up of their two tracks. But they do recall bootlegs of it making their rounds online. “It’s so funny, somebody else put them together and we both don’t really know who,” chuckles Princess Superstar. “I really wanna give this guy a cake!”
Both of them admit they’d perhaps have done things a little differently with hindsight. One thing they’re certain of is that staying grounded and being faithful to your craft is vital. “Try to follow too much what other people are doing,” says Mason. “Try not to repeat yourself too much. Maybe I went a little bit too much the other way. Straight away, I released all kinds of obscure records and focused on an album instead of follow-up singles.”
Princess Superstar knows all too well that the words “tough” and “music industry” go hand in hand. The music video for Perfect (Exceeder), pulled together by Ministry Of Sound, did not include her. She says that, contractually, she should’ve had creative control. “As an artist that’s really fucking important,” she stresses. “They made a video with three models in it lip-syncing and even sent those models out on tour as Princess Superstar to some UK club dates.”

Though she managed to send a cease and desist to stop the touring, she says she wasn’t in a position to sue the company over the music video. “Many people love that video and I don’t want to take away the joy either… It’s iconic in the sense of capturing a certain era in dance music. Like Eric Prydz’s Call On Me and Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction – that’s a certain look and aesthetic.” MusicTech has contacted Ministry Of Sound for further comment.
Holding grudges gives you wrinkles, she says, and today Superstar feels she’s “getting a second chance.”
“I went through a lot of pain as an artist. People used to say I was ‘so underrated’ and I felt like that was such a weird compliment because you’re like, ‘well, thanks, I guess!’ I had to do a lot of work on that. I feel like that might have cleared the energy for this to happen, for sure.”
Mason DJing. Credit: Mason
While Princess Superstar was labelled as ahead of the curve, Mason strayed away from the curve entirely. As a producer who produces across various genres, he recognises it’s important to put out music that feeds the soul, not the system. “It’s not always been the easy route, it means people can’t pigeonhole you. It’s easier if you know your subgenre and its promoters, gatekeepers, labels and festivals you need to focus on. For me, that’s sometimes a bit more difficult. I’m generally a bit on the side of house music, but that’s about it. I like to keep my freedom there.
“As long as I can live from it and do that, I’m happy. I don’t need the biggest jet-set lifestyle, it’s cool what it is now,” he says. “I also realise track 10 or 11 on my album is not going to [reach] the biggest streaming [figures] ever. But for me, it’s important to release it and I know my fans appreciate it. Luckily there have been records, Exceeder and a few others, that make it all possible.”
A testament to Mason’s curve-straying tactics is his latest album, Chroma Panorama, released last November. He spent around two years on it in total, and it hosts a plethora of collaborations. “I’ve been songwriting much more on this album than previously… I’ve been much more involved myself now in that process. I’ve worked with maybe 12 or 15 instrumentalists on the album as well,” he says. “It’s mixed on a Rupert Neve on 32 channels. I enjoyed mixing it analogue much more, and I do realise people might not hear a difference, but for me it’s about the process.”
Princess Superstar at URB Magazine’s 15-year anniversary party. Image: Jemal Countess/WireImage via Getty Images
Princess Superstar also has a new project in the pipeline. “I was planning a new release and a music video even before Saltburn,” she says. Her upcoming project – titled New Renegades – lands at the end of February and, though she can’t give too much away, she hints that it touches on the blessing and curse of being ahead of your time.
“There’s remixes coming now from all these big names for Excedeer [one is namely David Guetta], so that’s all coming in the next couple of months,” reveals Mason. “Every few weeks, [there will be] a different remix coming, and I’m working on new singles and I’ll be touring a lot more.”
It’s easy to overlook the impact of TikTok or the importance of licensing your track as an artist, but you never know what can lie around the corner. “It came super unexpectedly and maybe that’s a message of hope for people,” he says. “You never know what will happen with your catalogue. Your catalogue is your pension. It has value.”
You can stream or buy Chroma Panorama now. Princess Superstar’s New Renegades will land this February. Saltburn is streaming on Amazon Prime.
The post The Saltburn Effect: Princess Superstar and Mason on the conception and rebirth of Perfect (Exceeder) appeared first on MusicTech.

Erica Synths unveil Hexinverter Mutant Machine Erica Synths' latest release began as a quest to create a rich-sounding snare drum module to complement the Mutant Drums series originally made by Hexinverter Électronique.

Warner Music Group to cut a further 10% of workforce, 600 jobs to go, in move to ‘free up more funds to invest in music’Robert Kyncl confirms WMG is exiting its owned and operated media businesses, including Uproxx and IMGN
Source

WMG has strongest quarter ever, tips 10% layoffs, Uproxx & HipHopDX sale to invest $200M in core music businessWarner Music Group just announced its strongest quarter ever, with revenue rising 17% for the period ending Dec. 31, 2023, to $1.75 billion...
The post WMG has strongest quarter ever, tips 10% layoffs, Uproxx & HipHopDX sale to invest $200M in core music business appeared first on Hypebot.