Why is Solana (SOL) price down today?SOL price is down today as a wider crypto market correction takes place, and investors voice their displeasure with recent airdrops in the Solana ecosystem.

Hollywood & Mind Brings Together Top Mental Health Advocates and Entertainment HeavyweightsHollywood & Mind, a venture positioned at the intersection of the entertainment industry and the mental health sector, held its second annual Summit today on the UTA Campus in Beverly Hills, with a diverse group of thought leaders, artists, creatives, executives, and advocates united in their commitment to destigmatizing mental health challenges within the entertainment industry.

Singer-songwriter Mike Posner joined the event for a performance of his 2017 Grammy-nominated song “I Took A Pill in Ibiza” and a brand new song. He joined Hollywood & Mind founder Cathy Applefeld Olson for a thought-provoking conversation during which he shared his experience with self-exploration and discovery, including his epic walk across the United States in 2019. “Not all crazy ideas are great but all great ideas are crazy. I went on this journey and it changed my life. I’m not saying everyone here should walk across America, but sometimes there’s an internal walk we need to go on,” he said. 

In a panel with Joel Goldman of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, Angel Carter Conrad, Aaron Pearce, and Soleil Moon Frye, Frye talked about her experience making her 2021 documentary. “From my experience doing ‘KID 90’ I thought I was doing something very different, and in reliving my own childhood I had a lot of ghosts that came back and I had to process that and it was one of the true healing experiences of my life.”

Kevin Hines, storyteller, author, filmmaker, investor, and one of only a small number of survivors who attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge, shared, “Suicide does not take the pain away. It transfers it to everyone left behind and makes it wholly impossible for things to ever get better.” 

Through candid panel discussions, speakers encouraged attendees to address the stigma surrounding mental health struggles and shared personal strategies for effectively navigating the formidable pressures inherent within the industry. "Couples Therapy" Star Dr. Orna Guralnik, actor and singer Chyler Leigh, Maybelline Head of Brand Engagement Sarah Shaker, comedians Kevin Fredericks and Carmen Esposito, professional basketball player Imani McGee-Stafford, Indianapolis Colts vice chair/owner Kalen Jackson, “Bel Air” creator and showrunner Morgan Stevenson Cooper, model Emma Brooks, The NAACP’s Kyle Bowser, actor/singer Kevin Quinn, The Squeeze podcast co-host Tay Lautner, advocate and model Rose Montoya, Creators Capital/Empower GenZ founder Jaxon J Huffman, multi-Grammy-winning producer Aaron Pearce, were just a few of the notable speakers who offered attendees unique perspectives for managing mental health. Additional attendees included Vanderpump Rules star Rachel Leviss and actors James Haven and Gary Dourdan. 

This year's event marked the second Hollywood & Mind Summit. The inaugural Summit in 2023 featured a fireside chat between Cathy Applefeld Olson and Demi Lovato and conversations about mental health storytelling, the power of song, and partnerships among mental health organizations and creators among topics. With each gathering, Hollywood & Mind reinforces its commitment to fostering a culture of empathy, resilience, and support within the entertainment industry. As conversations continue beyond the summit, Hollywood & Mind remains steadfast in its mission to drive lasting change and elevate mental health awareness across industries. More information is available at www.hollywood-mind.com.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Cloudsmith’s $15M Series A deckThe deck included some redacted numbers, but there was still enough data to get a good picture.
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DIY Bimetallic Strip Dings for TeatimeDo you like your cup of tea to be cooled down to exactly 54 C, have a love for machining, and possess more than a little bit of a mad inventor bent? If so, then you have a lot in common with [Chronova Engineering]. In this video, we see him making a fully mechanical chime-ringing tea-temperature indicator – something we’d be tempted to do in silicon, but that’s admittedly pedestrian in comparison.
The (long) video starts off with making a DIY bimetallic strip out of titanium and brass, which it pretty fun. After some math, it is tested in a cup of hot water to ballpark the deflection. Fast-forward through twenty minutes of machining, and you get to the reveal: a tippy cup that drops a bearing onto a bell when the deflection backs off enough to indicate that the set temperature has been reached. Rube Goldberg would have been proud.
OK, so this is bonkers enough. But would you believe a bimetallic strip can be used as a voltage regulator? How many other wacky uses for this niche tech do you know?
Thanks [Itay] for the tip!

The 3D Printed Computer Space Takes ShapeA few weeks ago we brought you news of a project to recreate the flowing lines of the first computerised arcade game, Computer Space, as a full-size 3D printed replica. We left the project with all the parts put together to make a complete but unfinished shell that was very recognizable as a Computer Space cabinet but had neither finishing nor internals. Now we’re very pleased to bring you the conclusion of the project, as it moves from unfinished 3D print to playable cabinet.
The video below the break is a journey of print finishing to a very high standard with that lustrous blue glitter resin, but oddly it’s most interesting to find out about the manufacturing quirks of the original. How the rear door was imprecisely cut from plywood and fixed on with gate hinges, how the ventilation holes differ from cabinet to cabinet, and how the collection vessel for those quarters was an old tin. The monitor is a newer broadcast CRT in this version and the electronics are naturally  modern, but if you didn’t know, you’d be hard pressed to spot that you weren’t playing the real thing.
Finally we see the gameplay which is admittedly frustrating, and a little bit of punditry as to why this wasn’t the commercial success of the following Pong. It’s a fascinating look at the early computer game industry.
Have a look at our coverage of the first episode of this project.

From Downtown’s $500m credit agreement to Concord’s Hipgnosis bidding war exit… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days…
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Steve Albini: musician, producer and fierce music industry criticSteve Albini died this week at age 61. Best known as a musician and producer who made records with Nirvana, the Pixies, PJ Harvey, Robert Plant and hundreds more, he was also a biting critic of the music industry and a fierce advocate for artists.....
The post Steve Albini: musician, producer and fierce music industry critic appeared first on Hypebot.

UAD Triple Crown Compressor bundle is now available at 94% discount, saving you $1,120Universal Audio’s Triple Crown Compressor Bundle — which comprises three collections of plugins, each emulating a series of legendary compressors — is on sale with a 94 per cent discount. That’s a saving of $1,121.58. Yeah, you read that right.
The deal, available via Plugin Boutique, is running until 2 June 2024. So, if you’ve been eyeing up these plugins for a while, or just need some reliable compressors in your plugin folder, we suggest acting fast.
The UAD plugins run natively in your DAW, so you don’t need any external hardware from Universal Audio to get these up and running. Each collection is available in UAD Native formats (VST3, AU and AAX) but Apollo Realtime/UAD-2 are included in case you do want to use a UA interface for some DSP power.
So, what’s in the bundle?
In the UAD Triple Crown Compressor bundle, you’ll get the Teletronix LA-2A Leveler Collection, the 1176 Classic Limiter Collection and the Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection.
Teletronix LA-2A Leveler Collection
The Teletronix LA-2A Leveler Collection is based on three 1960s hardware compressors created by Teletronix’s Jim Lawrence. Teletronix’s original compressors have been studio staples for decades, favoured by some of the most revered producers and engineers in the scene. They’ve been used on records from Shakira to The White Stripes, and UA’s emulations are as faithful as you can get. Why? Because in 1967. the UA founder Bill Putnam bought the patent from Teletronix to continue manufacturing the LA-2A, right through into the digital age.
You’ll get the LA-2A Silver and Gray models, each with a distinct character for various cases, plus the Original LA-2A, which is ideal for vocal and legato performances.
1176 Classic Limiter Collection
Few compressors are as legendary as the 1176. The original hardware was made by Universal Audio in 1966 and was used on all the Michael Jackson vocals recorded by Bruce Swedien, among countless other hits by myriad producers. It’s beloved for the brightness and presence it imparts on any signal and ease of use.
The UAD 1176 collection on offer will give you three celebrated revisions: The Rev A, Rev E and Rev AE. Each one meticulously emulates the electronic path of the hardware — that includes the transformers and FET and transistor amplifiers. You’ll get all of the features and parameter configurations from the original hardware, plus a few more modern perks.
Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection
What do The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Motown and Pete Townshend have in common? The Fairchild 660 and 670 compressors.
Another hall-of-fame compressor, the Fairchild tube limiter is one you’ll want in your plugin folder. Originally created by Rein Narma on Les Paul’s kitchen table, it’s been available as a UA plugin since 2004 — and has been used by countless producers ever since.
In this bundle, you’ll get two variations — the 660 and 670 emulations — both primed for use on your full mixes, drum busses, and for bringing punch to pianos, bass and guitars. As Plugin Boutique says, this is perfect for injecting vibe and colour into your tracks or adding the final touch to your mixes.
Get the deal at Plugin Boutique.
Check out more music production deals. 
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Billie Eilish drops 49-second snippet of an unreleased song via FortniteBillie Eilish has dropped a 49-second snippet of Chihiro, the third track from her eagerly awaited third studio album Hit Me Hard and Soft, via a medium more and more artists are resorting to to spread the word about their releases: Fortnite.
It’s been confirmed that Chihiro will be included as a Jam Track in Fortnite Festival 3, the Fortnite spinoff that sees players play along with music from a host of different artists.

READ MORE: “If I record everything dry and put a bunch of plugins on it, I’ve made no decisions”: St. Vincent on the importance of “committing” to sonic ideas

The new 49-second snippet follows a shorter clip that was revealed recently on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show, and features the pop star’s unmistakable vocals atop a mid-tempo synthwave line; evidence perhaps that the rest of Hit Me Hard and Soft will follow the same musical trajectory?
And for fans of both Billie Eilish and Fortnite, Eilish will be a playable skin via the Fortnite Festival shop. The skin sees Eilish in a basketball jersey adorned with the word “Billie”, and players can also use Flaming Hi-Hats Drums and a Red Guitar.
And if the 49-second snippet has you all excited, there’s not much longer to wait; Hit Me Hard and Soft arrives everywhere on 17 May.

Billie Eilish joins a host of other music stars who have become affiliated with Fortnite Festival in some way. Lady Gaga, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, and even Queens of the Stone Age and Weezer have all featured.
Elsewhere, Fortnite’s community experience continues to cross over into the music world. Back in March, heavy metal giants Avenged Sevenfold announced Season Pass, a Fortnite-style system that rewards fans for interacting with the band: streaming music, buying merch, attending shows, for example.
And speaking to MusicTech shortly after it was announced, lead singer M. Shadows discussed the band’s motives to create the new fan experience, employing the blockchain to do so. “We’re taking power away from corporate networks, and saying, ‘No, we’re gonna reward our fans, not you,’” he said.
The post Billie Eilish drops 49-second snippet of an unreleased song via Fortnite appeared first on MusicTech.

LPB-3 boost & EQ from Electro Harmonix Guitar pedal gurus Electro Harmonix have announced the reintroduction and enhancement of an old classic, the LPB-3 Linear Power Booster & EQ. 

Is Groover actually a good marketing tool for musicians?Groover strives to raise up independent musicians and give them more exposure to industry professionals. But is it too good to be true? Randi Zimmerman of Symphonic digs in to find out.....
The post Is Groover actually a good marketing tool for musicians? appeared first on Hypebot.

A chat with LyricFind CEO Darryl BallantyneLyricFind CEO Darryl Ballantyne discusses his beginnings in the industry, his biggest milestones, and some wise words to pass on to other aspiring entrepreneurs.....
The post A chat with LyricFind CEO Darryl Ballantyne appeared first on Hypebot.

Meet Porij, the Coldplay-supporting new-rave band who are all about “dance music live”Dance music live: that’s the ethos of Manchester-formed, London-based electronic quartet Porij. Having attended the Royal Northern College of Music together, they formed a band with this goal in mind. “The idea was to get the energy of a club night, but at a gig,” begins vocalist Egg Moore.
After some jam sessions in 2019, a friend offered them a gig following a last-minute drop-out. Despite the gig being booked with just one week’s notice and not having a live show plan, they said yes and wrote a set in a week.

READ MORE: How Jeekie and Raphaella produced and recorded Change

The ‘fake it ’til you make it’ approach worked, but they also needed a band name. Having never expected to make a career out of music, they landed on the moniker Porij. “I don’t think I considered that we would be doing this seriously,” Egg laughs, recalling Lauren Laverne saying ‘Porij – how you’d spell it if you’re a five-year-old’ when she gave the band their first play on national radio by spinning 2019 track I Like That on her BBC 6 Music show.
Despite a line-up change a few years ago, Egg suggests that the band — also comprising bassist James Middleton, guitarist Jacob Maguire and drummer Nathan Carroll — “haven’t really stopped since”.
Egg isn’t wrong. While they scored a breakout hit with 2021’s Nobody Scared (taken from their second EP, Baby Face), last year these Power Rangers of music opened for Coldplay for a week of “fever dream” gigs at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
“It was a totally wild experience,” Egg reflects, adding that watching Chris Martin and co-perform live was an inspiration. “I had never seen a show on that level, so to get to experience that and be a part of that was crazy”.

 
When it comes to Porij, Egg says they have “eclectic tastes and, when we combine them all, what comes out is pretty exciting”. This melting pot analogy extends to their EPs to date, which have been hailed by critics as genreless. Porij doesn’t necessarily think about crafting songs with that intention. “We just write the music we want to write.”
At the core of their sound is dance music and a desire to perform live. As a result, Porij’s songs end up having subgenres of dance music embedded within them. “It might not be a straight-ahead garage tune, but so much of the influence of the drums and bass parts will be from a little two-step moment,” Egg says as an example.
Their debut album, Teething, is a natural extension of their infatuation with club sounds and live performances, having started recording after a summer of festivals and a headline tour in 2022. However, because the band members were all living separately they’d send ideas to each other via SoundCloud and suggest edits.

Image: Zak WatsonThis isn’t worlds away from their creative process as a band. Rather than the four of them sitting in the studio, it has “always been very back and forth”. The band enjoy this way of writing because, as Egg suggests, “it’s really collaborative but, also, you have complete space to do what you want to do. There’s no pressure, time-wise, in the sense of, ‘Oh, there’s three other people in the room, let’s make music’.”
Drummer Nathan agrees: “You can fully flesh out all of the ideas and experiment with different sounds and take the time, which is nice to be able to do – to have the space to be able to make 50 terrible ideas before you make one good one and then take it to the band.”
Egg adds, “We’ve taken the essence of our sound and had the freedom and luxury of doing a longer body of work to… crank up the gas.” Compared to the constraints of a short EP, Egg adds that “it’s been really fun to be able to present a fully three-dimensional vision of our sound”.
Key to achieving this sonic evolution was getting in the studio with David Wrench, who co-produced the entire record. After they had crafted the bones of all the tracks that would go on to form Teething, the band took the demos to the Grammy-nominated Welsh musician. However, because they had done everything in-house for so long, they were initially cautious. But any concerns were soon put to rest.
Porij’s Jacob Maguire in the studio. Image: Zak Watson
“What was so brilliant about David was that he came in and just enhanced what was already there,” Egg says. “It was a case of fully realising the songs with him,” Egg says, adding that, on and off, the band spent the best part of 10 months with Wrench. “With his brain and his actual gear, that allowed us the tools to express what we wanted to express, which was really exciting.”
As well as “making the tracks shiny and letting us use his sexy gear in his sexy studio”, Egg enthuses that “we learnt so much from him”, with the remaining band members nodding in agreement. Wrench always seemed to have the answers when they were struggling with something, Egg adds: “it would be really small things that we’d be stuck on and he’d be like, ‘guys, have you considered EQing it this way?’”
Nathan adds that being in the room with Wrench for almost a year and “experiencing his knowledge and demeanour around producing was infectious; when you self-produce and self-mix, you spend a lot of time on YouTube searching various Mix with the Masters videos… I’ve watched his quite a few times”.
Porij’s Nathan Carroll in the studio. Image: Zak Watson
Egg reflects on the whole process as “a gift – to spend that amount of time working on something and really living the album, it meant that we could explore all the weird avenues we wanted to go down. And he was totally on board with everything. I think what made us all get along so well was that we were just like kids having fun in a room with a lot of toys for nine months. It was amazing.”
Among those toys was a bread knife and Egg’s necklace: “My favourite credit on the album is ‘kitchen percussion’. David had set up a microphone in the kitchen, and I literally threw everything at the kitchen sink and we recorded it, which made some delightful percussion on Gutter Punch.”
Another was the R2-D2 synth, the ARP 2600, which, bassist James Middleton gushes, has “filthy subs and monstrous low-end”, adding that it was used for much of the bass synth on the record. “That thing hits you straight in the chest,” Nathan adds; “you would feel yourself viscerally moving… and he’s got a very good subwoofer”.
Now that the album is out, Porij are equally excited to get back out on the road and spread their ‘dance music live’ message far and wide. “Because we all studied music to a certain level, you then want to be able to make the music that you produce translate live,” Nathan says, describing it as an “exhilarating chase”.
Image: Zak Watson
The fact that performing live enables an audience to connect to the emotions of the songs is also important for Egg. “Songwriting is free therapy, but there’s also the human element of dance music – connecting on an emotional level as well.”
When asked what people can expect from a Porij gig, Egg is surprised by the abstract answers that each bandmate gives, with the words scintillating and visceral cropping up. Instead, Egg settles on “beautiful chaos”, while Nathan gives a very literal answer: “You can watch four people trying to juggle instruments while figuring out how to play dance music live. I think that’s quite a lot of it.”

He relates this to the band’s recent shows for Independent Venues Week, which included an intimate first performance of Teething, from start to finish, at Cambridge pub The Portland Arms. “All of our brains were working at a million miles an hour, trying to figure out how to do it,” Nathan says, detailing that their live set up includes Egg on vocals and synths including a Prophet-12 keyboard and a Roland JV-1080 for piano sounds.
While it was initially a challenge, Egg chimes in to say that their live show is more crafted now several months down the line. “What you can expect is high-octane moments and… pure unadulterated joy. You’ll be crying, dancing and sweating.”
While it’s arguably more fun to see a band perform live rather than just a DJ set, Egg recognises that – with the rise of Boiler Room – the performative aspect of DJ’ing is growing. “People want to see the music happen, visually.”
Image: Zak Watson
Seeing Bonobo at Glastonbury in 2022 was a particularly formative experience for the band. “That was one of the most incredible dance music live sets I’ve ever seen”, Nathan recalls, also citing Little Dragon as inspirational: “those sort of names set the pace”, he adds.
More recently, Egg has noticed that more dance acts are “definitely stepping up”, citing producers-turned-live acts such as Barry Can’t Swim. “It’s great to see.” Generally, Egg suggests this rise of big dance acts playing live is because “there’s part of you that craves that human element of dance music. I think that’s what you really get when you play live. It’s those moments of being on edge and not everything is perfect. That’s what really makes me attach to the music and draws me into the gig; those human imperfections in dance music make it so exhilarating.”
In terms of the wider dance scene, Egg thinks it’s in an exciting place. “Obviously, it’s been having a huge resurgence amongst the mainstream media over the past few years, but I think it’s going to new levels and you have loads of artists blurring those sub-genres and getting a bit crazy with it. I’m just having the time of my life because I think going clubbing right now is so exciting.”
While Egg points out the decline of small clubs – “it’s a big shame because we really need grassroots venues – in terms of the music that’s coming out, I think we’re in a really exciting spot”.
Nathan echoes this sentiment: “when you see acts like Overmono and Joy Orbison doing a track with a grime artist – all of these genre-crossover collaborations – I think that is super exciting, because everyone’s inspired by those sub-genres that came up when dance music first started happening”. Consequently, he says “all the blurring of the lines is making for some really exciting music”.
“People are always going to want to move,” Egg enthuses. “It’s something we need!”
‘Teething’ is out now on Play It Again Sam
The post Meet Porij, the Coldplay-supporting new-rave band who are all about “dance music live” appeared first on MusicTech.

Confirmed: Better Noise Music sold 50% of its catalog for ‘around $100 million’ in 2022, is now reinvesting into expansionDan Waite and Steve Kline confirm deal was reached two years ago, as hard rock label eyes bigger ambitions
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Apple says sorry for not crushing it with their controversial iPad Pro adApple‘s latest iPad Pro advertisement most certainly did not crush it. Not in the way the Cupertino giant would’ve preferred, anyway.
The company issued an apology Thursday (9 May) after its commercial for the new iPad Pro model – its “thinnest ever” by the way – sparked criticism for depicting a hydraulic press crushing and destroying thousands of pounds worth of music and studio equipment (and our hopes and dreams).

READ MORE: “I don’t value creativity for the sake of creativity” Creators debate the value of AI-produced music

“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Apple’s Vice President of Marketing Communications Tor Myhren tells Ad Age.
“Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
Commenters were quick to condemn the ad after Apple CEO Tim Cook posted the video on X earlier this week, with many outraged by the seemingly dystopian and cruel depiction of gear destruction by a brand that has long prided itself on being creative, friendly, and user-centric.
“Crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements to appeal to pro creators, nice,” wrote Sterling Crispin, a software developer and former Neurotechnology Prototyping Researcher at Apple.
“Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then turn to the camera and say, ‘God is dead and we have killed him.’”
Posting on X, Actor Hugh Grant said that the ad showed “the destruction of the human experience courtesy of Silicon Valley.”

The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley. https://t.co/273XB3CfnF
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) May 8, 2024

That said, while the ad didn’t win many hearts, Apple’s newly released iPad Pro just might. Users get “the world’s most advanced display” (yes, it’s OLED) and an all new M4 chip, all within a thinner and lighter outer shell. Now available for orders, the device arrives in stores 15 May.
Learn more at Apple.
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