Can the point system help get Songwriters out of poverty?As the number of middle-class musicians decreases, a handful of pioneering record labels offer songwriters a better royalty deal in the form of points that may give them a livable. Continue reading
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12 Ways to improve your Social Media as a MusicianReady to make the most of social media as a musician for promotion and discovery? Here are 12 things you can do to start off on the right foot. by. Continue reading
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Dillon Francis: “As a music producer, you get to this level and then you’re expected to be amazing all the time and I feel like I’m not.”EDM producer Dillon Francis has opened up about the pressures of expectations in the music industry, revealing that enrolling on a music production course and attending gigs “re-inspired” him to make his latest album.

READ MORE: BandLab’s Meng Ru Kuok: “I think there will be over 1 billion music creators by 2030, potentially even sooner”

Discussed in a new interview with MusicTech, the LA-based artist remarks on a period of creative block in January 2023, when opening Ableton Live felt like “opening a newspaper”, he says.
“As a music producer,” he goes on, referring to a feeling of imposter syndrome, “you get to this level and then you’re expected to be amazing all the time and I feel like I’m not.”
According to Francis, who released his latest album This Mixtape Is Fire TOO in December, six sessions at ICON Collective, an LA-based music production school, offered him newfound inspiration.

“I didn’t know what to expect going into it,” ICON teacher Diaso tells MusicTech, “but they were really fun sessions. It felt less like a teacher-student relationship. He has such great taste for sound design. I demonstrated a few techniques and he could just take it and run with it. It was really fun to watch.”
“There’s a lot of stuff in Serum I didn’t know you could do,” Francis says. “I didn’t know you could put in a PNG and make WAV file out of it. You gotta go read the manual for that. Who has time for that? But no I should be reading the manual. It was awesome to go [to ICON] and re-inspire myself.
He goes on to say how he further found inspiration after fellow EDM producer Porter Robinson urged him to attend more music gigs.
“‘You gotta go out to shows. You gotta see people live and keep re-inspiring yourself.’” Porter told him. “So that was a big thing I started doing at that time when I was going back to school. I was trying to check out new artists and search for people that were inspiring me and that was a big part of [This Mixtape Is Fire TOO].”
Read the full interview with Dillon Francis at MusicTech.
The post Dillon Francis: “As a music producer, you get to this level and then you’re expected to be amazing all the time and I feel like I’m not.” appeared first on MusicTech.

2023 was the worst year for UK venue closures, says MVT2023 was the worst year for music venue closures in the UK, according to Music Venues Trust.

READ MORE: Floating record shop Rubber Ducky Records reopens after sinking with new stock

MVT, a charity set up in 2014 to “protect, secure and improve” grassroots music venues, revealed in a recent Instagram post that 125 venues were closed in the UK within 12 months.
As a result of this, a shocking 4,000 jobs were cut and 14,500 events were no longer able to run without venues to host them in. According to its report, 193,230 gigs for musicians were also lost as a result of the closures and 80 venues are now in crisis services.

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The figures of course reflect a bleak year for UK music venues. At the start of December, historic 220-capacity Bath-based venue Moles was forced to shut its doors after nearly 50 years of operation. This venue was an early gig location for bands such as Oasis, The Cure, Blur and Everything But The Girl.
Upon its closure, the venue wrote on social media: “We’ve weathered many things over the years, including a fire and a pandemic in the last 10 years alone, but this cost of living crisis has crippled the grassroots music sector. Although that is not the only problem, it has accentuated it. Huge rent rates, along with massively increased costs on everything from utilities to stock, are all factors.”
As part of a month-long initiative based around Music Venue Day, Ticketmaster added an option to donate to Music Venues Trust to its checkout sections throughout October last year. Upon the launch of the feature, MVT’s CEO Mark Davyd stated a need for “radical intervention”.
Davyd told IQ Mag, “This upsell provides a practical method for fans to support grassroots music venues, and we are incredibly grateful to the Ticketmaster team for putting it in place.
“Ticketmaster matching all fan donations is a powerful message for the whole industry about the support our sector needs and the will of the music community to provide it.”
“We believe that live music fans understand exactly how vital these venues are to the future of our whole music ecosystem and how much financial difficulty they are currently facing,” he adds.
“127 grassroots music venues have closed in the last 12 months – more than one is permanently closing every week. We need a radical intervention by everyone: the government, the music industry, artists and fans, to stop these closures and turn this around.”
Read more at Music Venues Trust.
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Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA to Receive 2024 NAMM Innovation Award at the TEC AwardsFamed producer and Wu-Tang Clan mastermind RZA – real name Robert Diggs – will be presented with the TEC Innovation Award at The NAMM Show’s 2024 TEC Awards on 27 January in Anaheim, California.

READ MORE: BandLab’s Meng Ru Kuok: “I think there will be over 1 billion music creators by 2030, potentially even sooner”

Formerly known as the NAMM TEC Les Paul Innovation Award, the award honours individuals who have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of recording technology.
“RZA’s formidable body of work and talent is unquestionable,” John Mlynczak, NAMM president and CEO said in a statement. “His legacy of accomplishments and lasting power on music inspires many music makers beyond hip-hop and he deserves this high recognition.”
A trailblazer in culture and in hip-hop, RZA created the group’s widely-imitated core sound consisting of stark, booming beats, and chilling samples heavily drawing from vintage soul records as well as kung fu movies.
Wu-Tang Clan entered the music scene in 1993 with Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), an album Rolling Stone dubbed one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (#27). The group’s debut album also featured C.R.E.A.M., a track the magazine ranked first in its list of The 100 Best East Coast Hip-Hop Songs of All Time.
Since then, the collective has sold more than 40 million albums globally.
Outside of his Wu-Tang Clan activities, RZA scored Jim Jarmusch’s 1999 film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and soundtracks for Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. He stars in the comedy film Problemista, which premiered at SXSW, and is also an executive producer for, and directed several episodes of Wu-Tang: An American Saga, the original Hulu series honouring his group.
Now in its 39th year and presented by NAMM, the TEC Awards recognises the best in professional audio and sound production and takes place as a part of The NAMM Show, the world’s largest music trade show. All finalists will be celebrated at a special communal reception held on the campus of the Anaheim Convention Center on the evening of Saturday, 27 January.
The NAMM Show will include live music and panels, including a performance by emerging female hip-hop artist Blimes, and sessions such as Innovate and Elevate: Exploring DJ Technology with DJ Hapa, as well as signature events such as the Parnelli Awards and She Rocks Awards.
Learn more about the TEC Awards at Tecawards. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.
The post Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA to Receive 2024 NAMM Innovation Award at the TEC Awards appeared first on MusicTech.

“Without that synth, I wouldn’t have my sound”: Demi Riquisimo shines a light on essential hardwareRaised in Detroit and now based in London, Demi Riquisimo’s playful dance tracks reflect a vintage acid, Italo, and disco-inspired house sound made with a modern sensibility, making them huge hits on dance floors. It’s seriously hard to not want to move when listening to one of his tracks, as he laces old-school drums with break samples and combines them with tasty synths.

READ MORE: Back to school with Dillon Francis: Why a maturing music career still needs class clown antics

We speak to Riquisimo about the latest compilation on his label, Semi Delicious, and how he made his standout release on DJ Tennis’ Life & Death, an EP entitled Proto Call. A big advocate for the use of hardware, we get to hear about his hard synths and drum machines and we also learn of his sampling techniques. Just don’t ask Demi Riquisimo where he gets his vocal samples.

Semi Delicious · SEMID016 “Asylum Of Love” VA
Hey Demi, your recent VA compilation on Semi Delicious is fantastic!
Thanks. I’m happy with the SEMID016 Asylum Of Love EP. All the artists on this EP are people I’ve played with over the past few years and whose music I admire.
Demi Riquisimo in his studio
We also have to give a big shout-out to your recent Proto Call EP. It must’ve been a fun one to make.
Thank you. These were two tracks I made fairly close to each other in early 2022. They were both tracks that I made quickly which is normally a good sign. In October that year I had the opportunity to do a B2B set with DJ Tennis at ADE. I thought it would be a good opportunity to test these two tracks in front of the man himself and when I played Talk To Frank, which was labelled April 22, he asked me what it was. We pinged a few messages back and forth and then the Proto Call EP was created for a release on Life And Death, which then came out in June 2023.
Proto Call by Demi Riquisimo
Did you mostly make this using the hardware in your studio space?
This one was totally hardware for all the bass and mid-range sounds and samples as Rex files for the drums taken from jungle packs (I find slowing down the BPM for jungle loops better with Rex files as each hit isn’t being warped, although it’s old school). I used some PSP plugins for processing but that’s it. I try not to over-process sounds to keep them as raw and dynamic as possible.
Tell us a bit about the studio and how you use it.
My studio is based in Mile End, London. I’ve been there for eight years. Before that, I lived in Bristol, where I always had a home studio. I’ve always had the space in Mile End but for the first few years, I’d rent it out at the weekends as I’d normally be gigging. I currently do all my writing, producing and creating in the studio with all my gear, but I want to try and look to produce more on-the-go as I’m touring a lot more now, so to be able to do that whilst I’m away is very important to me.
Demi Riquisimo’s studio
What is your favourite piece of gear?
Novation Bass Station 2 – 100 per cent. Without that synth, I wouldn’t have my sound. It’s an affordable bit of kit which has amazing modulation features.
What synth or effect can be heard the most on Proto Call?
The Korg Prologue. It’s a fantastic poly-synth that mixes analogue and digital oscillators. It has an effects unit built in which creates a lot of original movement, especially the grain delay.
A synth rack in Demi Riquisimo’s studio
How did you create the synth line in Proto Call?
Both the synth line and bassline are from the Novation Bass Station. The synth-line is an auto-modulated high resonance SAW tooth and the bassline is a modulated sine wave.
How do you create drums?
I use a 606 drum machine for the hi-hats and I use analogue drum samples from sample packs which I put into samplers to create patterns. Processing-wise, I don’t use too much standard compression because I prefer to saturate and limit the sounds myself, which is a type of compression.
For me, it’s all about sample choice above everything. I would rather pick the right sounds than spend half a day picking the wrong one but trying to make it sound decent.
Novation Bass Station and Native Instruments Maschine in Demi Riquisimo’s studio
Where did you get your vocal samples from?
No producer is going to tell you where they get their vocal samples from! That would be telling. However, I will tell you that I processed the samples and added basic delay and reverb.
What’s been the biggest investment in your studio? Was it worth it?
The Korg Prologue. I bought it at the beginning of lockdown and it was my first modern polysynth. It was 100% worth it.
Records in Demi Riquisimo’s studio
What is next on your shopping list studio-wise?
I’ve been debating a Roland Juno X. I’ve never owned a Juno synth and the 106 has always been my dream synth. The X – although digital – has many of the sounds and features of the 106 while combining the modulation and programming of a modern synth.
How did you go about getting the acoustics right in the studio?
It took me many years. I’ve been in my studio for almost eight years now so it’s been a lot of trial and error. I’ve got bass traps in each corner of the room and panels on the side wall and hanging from the ceiling. All are made from rockwall; a highly absorbent material.
Do you have any frustrations with your current setup and why?
I’m running out of room for new gear!
What is your top piece of production advice?
Don’t be afraid to start a new idea if the current one isn’t working out. If you do have an idea that is working, try and finish a version there and then so when you go back to it you have an easier job ahead of you. I feel that if an idea is going well, the best ideas happen quickly, so I feel it’s good to make the most of this time.
Check out Demi Riquisimo on SoundCloud
The post “Without that synth, I wouldn’t have my sound”: Demi Riquisimo shines a light on essential hardware appeared first on MusicTech.

EastWest’s New Year’s deals EastWest are celebrating New Year with a selection of special offers on their award-winning sample libraries and virtual instruments.

Tech for Palestine launches to provide tools to help support PalestiniansThe Israel-Hamas war has proved divisive to the tech industry. This is one of the first public stances in support for Palestine.
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Spotify wants an Associate Director, Music Publishing LicensingAre you the next business lead in the Music Publishing team? At Spotify, we're passionate about providing the right music for every moment. We've connected millions of people to their favorite songs and built a service that people use to discover and share music they love. We're currently in 170 markets worldwide and growing fast. We are seeking to recruit an outstanding professional to be a deal owner and business lead in their Music Publishing Licensing team, at the Associate Director level.

Apply at Geebo.

Kiive Audio Releases FREE XTMax Distressor Plugin
Kiive Audio released XTMax, a freeware drum compressor plugin based on the Distressor hardware compressor. XTMax is a drum compression tool inspired by the Empirical Labs Distressor and similar hardware units. However, it’s not a direct emulation of any particular hardware. Kiive Audio states that it analyzed various compressors and used those findings to create [...]
View post: Kiive Audio Releases FREE XTMax Distressor Plugin

BandLab’s Meng Ru Kuok: “I think there will be over 1 billion music creators by 2030, potentially even sooner”Editor’s note: MusicTech and BandLab are both part of the Caldecott Music Group.
Caldecott Music Group and BandLab Technologies founder and CEO Meng Ru Kuok reveals he believes over one billion people will be creating music in 2030.

READ MORE: LG’s forthcoming ‘smart home AI agent’ plays music based on your mood when you come home

In an interview with Music Business Worldwide, the CEO and founder explains why he thinks an eighth of the global population will be making music in just six years.
“This is with the caveat that I also believe the definition of a ‘music creator’ or ‘musician’ will change, just as the definition of a ‘photographer’ has changed with the advent of smartphones. That is to say hopefully we can and will both be right.”
The rise of music creation apps such as BandLab, GarageBand and others, means it has become easier than ever for anyone to create music, regardless of their experience and expertise. Perhaps the figure of one billion people creating music isn’t as wild as we think.
Kuok also explains how the new generation of music makers have a “desire for immediacy and social connectivity within the creative process”.
“Our insights show that these young creators are not looking for isolated software solutions, but a dynamic community that supports their growth and exposure.”
The interview comes after Music Business Worldwide awarded Kuok with the title of Entrepreneur of The Year, praising him for steering BandLab into “several moves” that strengthen its position in the music industry.
This includes the acquisition of beat marketplace Airbit, and the development of a suite of generative AI technologies, including SongStarter – an AI-powered tool that presents users with musical ideas to inspire creations.
The post BandLab’s Meng Ru Kuok: “I think there will be over 1 billion music creators by 2030, potentially even sooner” appeared first on MusicTech.

SPL launch Vitalizer Mk3-T & MixDream XP Mk2 The latest additions to the SPL product range offer upgraded versions of two of their popular analogue...

These Songs and Recordings are now Free to use: Public Domain Day 2024Every year, the copyright for thousands of songs, recordings, films, books, and more expire and enter the public domain. That makes them free to record, sample, use in videos, and. Continue reading
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LyricFind acquires Rotor, partners with CD Baby for easy video creationLyricFind has acquired Rotor Videos and partnered with CD Baby to launch integrations of Rotor’s video tools and LyricFind’s Lyric Video Enterprise solution. Rotor Videos‘ AI-powered tools allow artists with. Continue reading
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How to set New Year’s resolutions for your music that actually stick
Learn how to approach your New Year's resolutions from a habit-building perspective that allows you to maintain focus and motivation well beyond January.