UnitedMasters & Musixmatch launch Lyric Competition, showcase AI video creationIndie music marketing and distribution platform UnitedMasters and lyrics aggregator Musixmatch have partnered for a lyric contest that showcases the latter’s new AI-powered lyric video creation tools. UnitedMasters artists will. Continue reading
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Why independent musicians need a music publisherAs an independent artist, having a music publisher can make a major difference to your music career. If you are looking to increase your music revenue or want to have. Continue reading
The post Why independent musicians need a music publisher appeared first on Hypebot.

Mainstream is the new nicheFive years ago, we made the call that ‘niche is the new mainstream’. Today, this dynamic is so fundamental to music and culture that we are firmly in the stage of second order consequences. Superstars are getting smaller, the long tail is getting longer, and rightsholders are bringing in earnings thresholds to keep that growing long tail at bay. But it was a blog post by my colleague Tatiana – “Did Charli XCX go mainstream, or did the mainstream just go niche?” – that got me thinking whether, now five years in, the mainstreaming of niche has reached a tipping point.

The dynamics of Charli XCX’s career (e.g., 25,000 RSVPs in one hour for a 1,000-cap Boiler Room gig) feel very much like those of Taylor Swift. Of course, the sheer scale of the Swift fandom machine is the big difference – or is it? Is mainstream about actual numbers or reach, or perhaps both? In fact, it is best measured in three key ways:

Absolute scale: how big are the numbers?

Relative scale: how big are the numbers compared to others?

Active reach: what share of the total audience does an artist have?

Let’s use Taylor Swift, as today’s biggest mainstream music artist, to test each.

Absolute scale

There is no getting away from the fact that everything “big” has got smaller. Michael Jackson, arguably the equivalent of Taylor Swift for the peak-CD era, shifted half a billion units worldwide, when units actually meant units. By comparison, Taylor Swift has fewer than 200 million ‘album equivalent sales’ – which of course means this figure is increasingly made up of streams being converted into ‘sales’. Given that so much of streaming behaviour today is radio-like, we would really need to add an estimate of total individual radio listens to Jackson, which would result in a figure that would comfortably end up in the tens of billions in ‘equivalent sales’.Yes, Jackson’s career happened in a different era, when fewer artists were competing and linear broadcast platforms dominated. But that is the entire point of fragmenting fandom.

Relative scale

It is abundantly clear that Taylor Swift has more streams and ticket sales than pretty much everyone else. She is the biggest artist on the planet right now. She has mainstream awareness, but does that make her actual listenership mainstream? 

She certainly has more mainstream cultural clout than her peers, managing to become part of the mainstream media narrative – look no further than the Financial Times running pieces on ‘Swiftonomics’. This is thanks, in large part, to the fact she first built her fandom pre-fragmentation, when music was still much more a part of mainstream culture. It is an advantage enjoyed by other artists, such as Beyoncé, that came up pre-streaming’s peak, and therefore pre-fragmentation. But an FT subscriber reading a Swiftonomics story does not necessarily make them a listener (I’ll hazard a guess that particular conversion rate is not one to sing about). Having mainstream media reach is not the same as being a mainstream artist in terms of listenership, even though the two things did largely go hand-in-hand once upon a time.So, simply being bigger than the rest does not inherently equate to being mainstream. In the same way that the fastest kid at school could leave her classmates for dust but not even qualify for national heats, let alone compete with the fastest runners in the world.

Reach

Active reach is where the picture really comes into focus. The best-selling albums in US history (when sales were sales) were the Eagles ‘Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975’, with 38 million sales, and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, with 34 million. Based on the respective populations of the year of release of those albums, the Eagles was bought by 17.4% of the US population, while Michael Jackson was bought by 15.9%. 

Taylor Swift’s best-selling US album was ‘1989’ (6.5 million) while ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ sold 2.9 million. As a share of the total US population, they represent 2.0% and 0.7%. 

Taylor Swift’s biggest selling release has 12 times less reach than the Eagles, while her latest release had less than 1% reach.NOTE: with modern ‘sales’ figures including streams, Swift’s total audience may have been bigger (as many different people’s streams could add up to one sale). But equally, it could be lower, as one person’s streams could add up to multiple units.

Of course, judging Swift’s reach only by album sales – an aging format, and an essentially extinct one for much of her listener base – is unfair. Yet interestingly, the c1% figure doesn’t just apply to Swift’s album sales. The record-breaking ‘Eras’ tour sold 4.5 million US tickets, which is just over 1% of the US population (and Swifties being Swifties, there was probably a decent number who saw the show more than once, meaning that percentage is likely a bit smaller). Meanwhile, Swift’s 26.1 billion Spotify streams in 2023 made her the most streamed artist of the year, yet that was just 1.4% of all global Spotify streams. Now, 1.4% of global streams for one artist is a massive achievement But in the analogue era so many more people would have listened to the biggest artist of the day because radio was the main consumption format, and on radio everyone listens to the same song, whether they like it or not.

None of this is a critique of Taylor Swift, but instead a reflection of the modern music world which she is part of. She is clearly a hugely successful artist at the top of her game. But the game is not the same as it once was. It is not that Taylor Swift is not huge — she is. But she is not mainstream, because mainstream itself is now niche. Charli XCX shows how successful you can be when you understand the power of niche. Niche does not inherently mean small, and its potential is huge. The simple, hard truth is that now everything is niche, even mainstream.

Z&H Designs: New pro-audio brand Z&H are a new pro-audio brand who have launched with a collection of four analogue EQ and compressor designs. 

Redline rave train event in Chicago has been cancelled last minute, organisers announceThe Redline Express event in Chicago set for tomorrow (15 June) has been cancelled, Redline has announced.
In a statement on Instagram, the events company explains that the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) cancelled the ‘rave train’ event, “despite months of planning and coordination.”

READ MORE: Take a look inside Peggy Gou’s secret gig in London

It continues, “Since November 2023, we have worked closely with CTA management to bring this unique experience to Chicago. The CTA was fully briefed on our plans, including ticket sales, sound logistics, and security (January 2024), event sponsorships, dates, and security deposits (March 2024), final details, sponsorships, and logistics (April 2024).
“In May 2024, CTA personnel invited us to conduct a venue walkthrough, negotiated and drafted a written contract and all final payment info was submitted. At no point did the CTA express any actual concerns with our event.”

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A post shared by REDLINE (@redlinechicago)

Redline makes the point that the CTA has hosted similar events previously, including one a “multi-train charter event” in 2001, and describes the cancellation as both shocking and disappointing.
“To our ticket holders and supporters,” it adds, “We hear you and we share your frustration. We are exploring all options to address this situation. We are committed to bringing you the innovative experiences we promised, and are working to secure an alternate venue for June 15th.
“Chicago is a city that embraces creativity and community. While the CTA may have tried to ‘put the brakes’ on the Redline Express, they will never stop our determination to bring unforgettable experiences to our city. We’re shifting gears and charting a new course.”
It finishes, “Our message remains the same: All aboard – the Redline spirit will keep moving forward, with or without the CTA. We appreciate your support and will share more updates soon. Stay tuned – because we’re full steam ahead.”
The event was set to take over a six-car Brown Line train from 7pm to 11pm. DJ duo Sock & Buskin were going to play a set in collaboration with battery-powered sound system company SOUNBOKS.
The post Redline rave train event in Chicago has been cancelled last minute, organisers announce appeared first on MusicTech.

“A little bit of clipping is where people hear drums and go, ‘Wow, this really hits’”: Kenny Beats on why clipping can be useful when producingProducer and DJ Kenny Beats has opened up about his go-to studio gear and the importance of “a little bit of clipping” in creating his signature drum sounds.
Appearing on a recent episode of the Tape Notes Podcast along with IDLES’ Mark Bowen, Beats dives into his creative process and the secret to getting snares that are “bright” yet have “so much weight”.

READ MORE: Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album released as $1 NFTs – here’s how you can buy one

“I’m always fighting against people in hip hop who are clipping their drums, whether they know it or not sometimes,” the producer says. “Now, obviously, people are doing it on purpose. But the way FL [Studio] sounded for years, it has a certain ceiling to it. So drums in FL have this kind of clipped thing to it.”
“It became a really big sound in hip hop because of Metro Boomin and other huge producers. And for me, even when I go to a kit recorded with 10 mics or whatever, a bit of clipping or a bit of stock Ableton saturation and things like that, give it a different… snappiness and the punch that you feel like you don’t get sometimes from when you listen to a close mic on a drum kit and you’re like, this sounds nothing like a sick trap snare or whatever.”
He continues: “A little bit of clipping for me really is the thing where I think people hear drums that I do that are live instruments or live recorded drums, and they go ‘wow this really hits’ like on a rap song – it’s clipping.”
Beats adds that he really likes Venn Audio’s V-Clip plugin and that “I’m an Ableton guy so I really like the Ableton stock saturator and just engage soft clip.”
“Put that on your drums right now and tell me it doesn’t make a difference — it’s unreal.”
Elsewhere, the producer also shares his love for using vintage Altec EQs in his music, saying: “My drums are punching way better in this one song than anywhere else and it was this EQ”.

The post “A little bit of clipping is where people hear drums and go, ‘Wow, this really hits’”: Kenny Beats on why clipping can be useful when producing appeared first on MusicTech.

Win a Neve 1073SPX-D channel strip! This month we're giving away Neve's latest all-in-one channel strip and USB audio interface.

Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album released as $1 NFTs – here’s how you can buy oneWant to own a piece of rap history for just $1? Digital art collective PleasrDAO have announced they are selling Wu-Tang Clan‘s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album as $1 NFTs.

READ MORE: Deadmau5 says he “doesn’t enjoy” dance music, but loves “the process of making it”

The album, which has been “digitised and encrypted” can be purchased at www.thealbum.com, and features new artwork designed by artist Hassan Rahim.
Buyers who purchase the NFT will gain access to a five-minute album sampler created by the record’s co-producer, Cilvaringz. Each sale will also bump up the album’s original 2103 release date by 88 seconds — from its original decryption date of 8 October 2103.
Users will not need cryptocurrency to purchase the NFTs. According to PleasrDAO, proceeds from the sale “will go in part to the original Wu-Tang Clan, the album producer, and performing artists.”

The world's most expensive album is available for $1.
Enter the chamber and secure a copy – 2103 will come faster than you think.https://t.co/QRmGdIrwOy pic.twitter.com/rTCkuH0It3
— Pleasr (@PleasrDAO) June 13, 2024

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin producers RZA and Cilvaringz said of the project [via Pitchfork]. “Mass replication has fundamentally changed the way we view a piece of recorded music, while digital universality and vanishing physicality have broken our emotional bond with a piece of music as an artwork and a deeply personal treasure.”
“This album sale is more than just about the music,” PleasrDAO representative Matt Matkov added. “It’s about redefining how we think about ownership of music and fan collaboration in the digital age.”

pic.twitter.com/N9SAggIA8Q
— Pleasr (@PleasrDAO) June 12, 2024

Once Upon a Time In Shaolin was recorded in secret over six years before it was completed in 2015. Only one copy of the album was made, and it was sold at auction for $2 million to pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli. After Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in 2018, the US government seized the album as part of a £5.3 million forfeiture order.
In 2021, PleasrDAO bought the album for $4 million and has been working to find ways to share it with the public. To complicate matters, the company recently filed a lawsuit against Shkreli for allegedly copying and distributing the album online without the group’s permission. Pleasr argued that Shkreli had live streamed parts of Once Upon a Time In Shaolin multiple times in violation of the initial sale contract, which stipulated that the album could not be commercially exploited until 2103.
Responding to the news on X, Shkreli blasted: “PleasrFed releasing the album tomorrow supposedly, but I think they’re going to make you pay? Even though I paid them once, they paid them twice, and the album sucks.”
He also urged the public to “wait for the pirated version”, claiming that he’s played Once Upon a Time In Shaolin “500 times publicly” since he got it prior to Pleasr’s purchase.

PleasrFed releasing the album tomorrow supposedly, but I think they’re going to make you pay? Even though I paid them once, they paid them twice, and album sucks. I’ve played it 500 times publicly since I got it (before they bought it) & sent a million copies to friends (again…
— Martin Shkreli (e/acc) (@MartinShkreli) June 13, 2024

The post Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album released as $1 NFTs – here’s how you can buy one appeared first on MusicTech.

Massenburg Design Works unveil immersive MDWDRC3 MDWDRC3 brings Massenburg Design Works' unique dynamics processor to those working with multi-channel immersive audio formats.  

Tesla shareholders vote yes again to approve Elon Musk’s $56B pay plan Tesla CEO Elon Musk has secured enough shareholder votes to have his 2018 stock option compensation package approved. Shareholders also approved the company’s decision to re-incorporate of Tesla in Texas, moving it away from the state where Musk’s pay package was struck down: Delaware.  Shareholders present at the company’s annual meeting Thursday, held at Tesla’s […]
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MiCA regulation takes shape under EBA’s newest guidelinesThe European Banking Authority has introduced a series of technical standards and guidelines for token issuers as MiCA implementation moves forward.

Robert Kyncl turns up heat on PRO metadata matching, and other things we learned from his NMPA keynote in New YorkWarner boss was grilled by NMPA chief, David Israelite, at New York event this week
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Marimbatron: A Digital Marimba Prototyping ProjectThe Marimbatron is [Leo Kuipers] ‘s final project as part of the MIT “Fabacademy program” supervised by [Prof. Neil Gershenfeld] of the Center for Bits and Atoms. The course aims to learn how to leverage all the fab lab skills to create unique prototypes using the materials at hand.
The final polyurethane/PET/Flex PCB stack-up for the sensor pad
Fortunately, one of the main topics covered in the course is documentation, and [Leo] has provided ample material for review. The marimba consists of a horizontal series of wooden bars, each mounted over a metal resonator tube. It is played similarly to the xylophone, with a piano-type note arrangement, covering about five octaves but with a lower range than the xylophone. [Leo] converted this piano-type layout into a more logical grid arrangement. The individual pads are 3D printed in PETG and attached to a DIY piezoresistive pressure sensor made from a graphite-sprayed PET sheet laid upon a DIY flexible PCB. A central addressable LED was also included for indication purposes. The base layer is made of cast polyurethane, formed inside a 3D-printed rigid mould. This absorbs impact and prevents crosstalk to nearby sensors. The sensor PCB was initially prototyped by adhering a layer of copper tape to a layer of Kapton tape and cutting it out using a desktop vinyl cutter. While this method worked for the proof of concept, [Leo] ultimately outsourced the final version to a PCB manufacturer. The description of prototyping the sensor and dealing with over-moulding was particularly fascinating.

For the electronics, a modular approach was needed. Each row of ten sensors was daisy-chained to connect the LEDs, with an individual sense line passed down for each sensor to a common sensor PCB. This uses a SAMD21-series microcontroller with enough ADC channels to handle the task. This was initially prototyped using a micro-milled PCB and a laser-cut PET solder stencil. Once that was proven to work well, the sensible thing was done, and the final PCBs were ordered from a proper fab. Additionally, a user interface PCB was created to host a few pushbuttons and a Waveshare round LCD display. Finally, a main control PCB routes I2C to the sensor boards and interfaces to the SPI LCD. It also handles sending MIDI data over USB for playback on an external MIDI device.
Documentation and design data can both be found on the project fabcloud page. To dig into the Fab Academy courses, wander over to the course archive and get cracking.
This is the first marimba we’ve covered, so here’s a mechanical xylophone instead. Whilst we’re on the subject of mechanical music, here’s a fun one to go back over.

US music publishing revenue jumped 10.7% to $6.2bn in 2023… outstripping recorded music’s growth in percentage termsThe NMPA is focusing its energy on a battle against Spotify over royalty payments
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A 1940s Car Radio Receives Some LoveThe entertainment systems in modern vehicles is akin to a small in-dash computer, and handles all manner of digital content. It probably also incorporates a radio, but increasingly that’s treated as something of an afterthought. There was a time though when any radio in a car was a big deal, and if you own a car from that era it’s possible that you’ve had to coax an aged radio into life. [The Radio Mechanic] is working on a radio from a 1946 Packard, which provides a feast for anyone with a penchant for 1940s electronics.
The unit, manufactured by Philco, is an all-in-one, with a bulky speaker in the chassis alongside the tubes and other components. It would have sat behind the dash in the original car, so some external cosmetic damage is not critical. Less easy to pass off is the cone rubbing on the magnet, probably due to water damage over the last eight decades. Particularly interesting are the controls, as we’re rather enamored with the multicolored filter attached to the tone control. A laser cutter makes short work of recreating the original felt gasket here.
The video below is the first of a series on this radio, so we don’t see it working. Ahead will be a lot more cleaning up and testing of components, and we’d expect a lot of those paper capacitors to need replacement. We can almost smell that warm phenolic smell.
If tube radio work is your thing, we’ve been there before.