From Spotify changing its royalty model to Universal’s $3bn in Q3… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days
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Hendyamps Michelangelo EQ from Tone Projects Tone Projects' new EQ plug-in painstakingly replicates the sound of Hendyamps' coveted hardware equaliser unit. 

Hipgnosis Songs Fund has been left concussed by ‘discontinuation’. But with a seemingly rock solid ‘call option’, Merck Mercuriadis still holds all the cards.On: Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the all important 'call option', Blackstone, and the most likely outcome of this week's mess
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“I’ve never been a fan of making 60 beats in one night”: DJ Shadow prefers quality over quantityHip-hop producer DJ Shadow has revealed he prefers to “exhaust every avenue” when making a beat, as opposed to “making 60 beats in one night”.

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He made the statement during a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. In the chat, DJ Shadow – real name Joshua Davis – talks about his work ethic, self-acceptance, influences for his new album, Action Adventure, past releases the importance of failing before you can succeed.
DJ Shadow, born in 1972, is an influential American DJ and music producer. Renowned for his groundbreaking instrumental hip-hop and electronic music, he gained fame with his 1996 debut album, Endtroducing……
Davis says its quality, not quantity, that gets the best results: “I’ve never been a fan of like, ‘oh, I did 60 beats last night’. It’s just… I respect it, but I don’t even know what that’s like. I can’t even fathom what that might be like.
“For me, it’s always had to be very deliberate and I’ve only ever been comfortable putting music out that I feel like, okay, I exhausted every avenue I went down, every failed closed road or whatever, and to get where I’m at, and that’s when I feel like, okay, if I’m asking people to spend their time to invest themselves in this music I have to know that I’ve done everything I can. That’s just the only way I feel comfortable doing it.

“There are some days,” he continues, “that I have a sign to work, and I mean, that’s sacred time and you want to honor it, but there’s sometimes you get down there. I mean, I always say down there because my studio’s underneath our house and for whatever reason, it’s just not coming. I’m not connecting to that frequency that I’m searching for. And so in those times, what I try to do is stay busy doing the type of thing like cleaning up all the pops and clicks out of a sample just by ear, doing it the hard way second by second by second. Just getting it as clean as I can because then at least I feel like, ‘okay, if I’m not able to do the higher work today, at least I can set the stage and get everything situated so that, when I am ready to go in, it’s there for me and I can do it.’”
Also in the interview, Shadow discusses the importance of constantly evolving and learning in his music career. He talks about trusting his own learning and the value of drawing inspiration from outside influences rather than following current trends. He also reflects on accepting himself and being a hip-hop fan without seeking validation from others.
Dacis goes on to share insights into the state of music criticism and how critiques of his music have affected him. He emphasizes the need to protect the fan inside him while contributing genuinely to the industry. Additionally, he delves into his songwriting process and the challenges he faces in creating music.
DJ Shadow also highlights the significance of learning from failure and his reflections on past releases. He concludes by discussing the freedom he finds in no longer needing external validation for his music, emphasizing the importance of his relationship with music itself.
You can watch Zane Lowe’s interview with DJ Shadow via Apple Music.
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Did UMG’s CEO just call DistroKid, CD Baby & TuneCore Garbage Merchants?While not calling anyone out by name, UMG CEO Lucien Grainge said anyone involved in music who is struggling to find an audience is a “merchant of garbage” during this. Continue reading
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A2IM demands 75% adoption before Luminate shifts Billboard indie chart data collectionsEchoing the concerns of indie music stores and labels over plans by Luminate to change how it calculates physical sales reported to Billboard, A2iM (American Association of Independent Music) calling for. Continue reading
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EricaSynths Zen Delay Virtual After the phenomena of the hardware FX unit Zen Delay, its virtual successor, Zen Delay Virtual, is now available. While the engineers have achieved a remarkable implementation... Read More

MF DOOM estate sues ex-Stones Throw label manager for alleged theft of 31 notebooksThe estate of the late iconic hip-hop producer and MC MF DOOM has reportedly filed a lawsuit against an ex-label manager at Stones Throw Records, claiming he stole songwriting notebooks.

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Eothen “Egon” Alapatt, MF DOOM’s former label collaborator and general manager of Stones Throw Records, is the man in question. According to reports by Billboard, he’s being sued by MF DOOM’s widow Jasmine Dumile Thompson for allegedly stealing 31 notebooks.
These notebooks, according to Thompson, included lyrics and creative material from his 1999 album, Operation Doomsday, 2004’s Madvillainy and MM…FOOD alongside ideas for unreleased tracks, musings and “other creative ideations.”
This dispute is not entirely new. It traces back to 2010 when MF DOOM, who sadly died almost exactly three years ago today, was unable to return to the U.S. due to immigration issues. He left the notebooks in his Los Angeles studio. Six years later, Alapatt allegedly took them without consulting the British-American producer.
Initially, he denied having the notebooks, but later stated he took them to cover $12,500 in rent. Thompson suspects MF DOOM owed no rent, and Alapatt simply paid the money to acquire the notebooks.
In 2020, Alapatt offered photocopies but kept the originals. Shortly before MF DOOM’s death, he sent digital scans, dated 2018-2020, suggesting copyright infringement. The lawsuit seeks the return of the notebooks, the destruction of the photocopies, and compensation for damage. Alapatt plans to donate them to cultural institutions such as archives or museums.
In March, Thompson shared emails on the ‘@MFDOOM’ Instagram account, urging Egon Alapatt to return the stolen notebooks belonging to her late husband. This prompted MF DOOM’s fans to support the estate’s efforts to reclaim his creative work.
Find more industry news via MusicTech.
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Bands who split royalties equally are more successful, says studyThis week’s Hypebot Flashback Friday post revisits a Stanford study that every musician should read, which found that bands that split their royalty income evenly were more successful in the. Continue reading
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Positive Grid BIAS Amp 2 BIAS Amp 2 gives you the power to create your dream tone by giving you the tools you need to build your own custom amplifier. Whether you're a classic rocker, metalhead, or jazz player... Read More

Dear Reality introduces dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT to Cubase 12 for extended Dolby Atmos capabilitiesDear Reality has introduced its dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT mixing controller to Steinberg’s Cubase 12 for improved Dolby Atmos capabilities.
The virtual reality-lead music brand says it “streamlines spatial audio productions” and “enables extensive in-headset control of the most-used DAW functions and the dearVR PRO spatializer plugin.”

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In case you aren’t already familiar, the dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT utilises gesture control in a virtual 360 degrees environment for music production. In combination with Dear Reality’s dearVR MONITOR headphone monitoring plugin for multi-channel speaker setups, Cubase users can now bring their spatial productions up a notch.
Users can simply link a VR headset like the Meta Quest or HTC Vive with their DAW, to position and automate audio tracks in the virtual space by pointing at them with two handheld controllers. Users have direct VR access to the position, channel volume, solo and mute, and the automation status.
Additionally, dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT provides overlay modules for extended navigation and control in the VR headset. There’s a main control module for direct control of Cubase 12’s transport functions, a metre bridge module which brings the traditional mixing console to the VR world, and a  “minimap” module to provide a comprehensive overview of all audio sources in the scene.

“With the latest dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT update, we make our VR mixing solution available to a wide range of music producers mixing Dolby Atmos in Cubase 12,” says Dear Reality co-founder, Christian Sander.
“This combination enables them to experience a revolutionary way of working with spatial audio. By optionally adding our dearVR PRO spatializer and the dearVR MONITOR virtual headphone mix room, engineers benefit from a complete spatial audio ecosystem where they can spatialize, control, and monitor spatial audio sessions.”
The dearVR SPATIAL CONNECT is on sale now for a lower price of £219 (as opposed to £409).
Find out more via Dear Reality.
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Cacophony Is An Open-Source MIDI Sequencer By Subaltern Games
Subaltern Games has released an open-source MIDI sequencer called Cacophony, and it’s free if you want to compile the program for yourself. The developer wanted its strength to be its minimalist and ergonomic design, which is why the software looks like an old video game and has a strong tracker influence. It’s minimalist because it [...]
View post: Cacophony Is An Open-Source MIDI Sequencer By Subaltern Games

Zoom’s new R4 MultiTrak recorder Zoom’s latest handheld recorder has been designed specifically for musicians on the move, and boasts a versatile selection of I/O, a range of built-in effects, and an onboard rhythm section with over 80 drum patterns.

ADE 2023: “Dance artists shouldn’t make albums” in this day and age, says ClaptoneDance producer and DJ Claptone has strongly advised dance artists not to release their music as albums as they don’t perform as well.

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Speaking live for the first time ever at an exclusive event, Claptone’s First Ever Live Interview and Experience, at Amsterdam Dance Event 2023 on Thursday 19 October, the mysterious, mask-clad musician called the album format “unnecessary” for dance musicians and producers. He also talked about his identity and artistry, remixing the likes of Elton John, label ownership and DJing.
“No, completely unnecessary,” responded Claptone when host Danny Howard asked if he thinks the album format is still a fruitful format for dance artists to release their music.
“If you are getting into this as a dance artist, you shouldn’t make albums. If you get into this from the heart because you see yourself as an artist that also wants to write a ballad, a downtempo tune or an instrumental, make an album,” he says through voice changer.
Claptone speaking at ADE 2023 | Credit: StephenVBFotografie
“But even then, you have to release half of the album beforehand with singles and tracks and it’s not the same as when I was younger and I went to the store and bought an album and it was listening to the whole thing through maybe turned it around to listen to the B-side… those days are gone.”
“How does that make you feel?” Howard asked.
“Terrible,” he responded. “Well, I’m a vinyl collector so it just breaks my heart, you know? No B-sides, no albums anymore. Not even real 45s (45” records) anymore, you know. You’re forced to just produce one mix for Beatport that then makes the charts because if you do three different mixes they’ll cannibalise sales and you need to push that one into the charts.”
Also in the interview, the German artist is asked by an audience member about the difficulties of clearing samples. Getting samples cleared by record labels and artists can often be a burden to artists, who might end up simply removing samples form their tracks completely or respectfully recreating them. As an artist who has revamped lots of dance classics, such as //Calabria// by Enur, Claptone has had much experience in this.

He told the fan, first of all, that he doesn’t like to “get around” using samples by recreating them, but always contacts the artist or label directly to get permission to use it. He goes on to say that it doesn’t help when artists, deceased artist’s estates or labels don’t help with the process by asking for vast amounts of money or flip-flopping on decisions.
“The ways that people give you a hard time about nothing is so weird,” he says. “So much ego plays into it, or if an artist’s died and it’s just their estate giving you the sample, how much they can ask for a sample or how difficult they can make it for you…. it’s a very difficult, delicate process. It can vary from being super easy to being complicated and delaying your release for over two years. It’s crazy.”
We recently spoke to Claptone – albeit briefly – about how he uses his studio. In the interview, he talked about his Masquerade events in Ibiza, the label Golden Recordings which he owns, and the importance of maintaining a passion for making music.
Keep an eye on Amsterdam Dance Event for more content from this year’s edition.
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“Life was one way before Random Access Memories, and completely different after”: Nile Rodgers reflects on the impact of collaborating with Daft PunkNile Rodgers has reflected on how collaborating with Daft Punk on their 2013 album Random Access Memories impacted his career and influenced him to work with younger artists.
Rodgers, best known as a producer, guitarist and co-founder of funk band Chic, played the iconic pulsing guitar riff on Get Lucky. The song earned him his first ever Grammy Award.

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In the latest episode of Memory Tapes on the Daft Punk YouTube channel, Rodgers explains how he met the duo and how the collaboration came to be. The video series features a range of guests who have worked on the influential record as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Rodgers shares how he first came to like their music after hearing Da Funk from their 1997 album, Homework. He went to a listening party for the new album, and the duo had said they were “quietly dedicating” it to Chic bassist Bernard Edwards, who had just passed away.
Years later, Rodgers says they came to his house in New York, where they told him about the concept for Random Access Memories: “They said something to me that blew me away, they said that they wanted to do an album as if the internet never existed. I thought, Oh, old school! Go in and play like the way we used to do it, which is what I love doing.”
They recorded the album at Electric Lady Studios, in the same place where Chic cut their debut album. Thomas Bangalter insisted Rodgers brought his plexiglass guitar: “It’s the only other guitar that actually sounds like my Hitmaker,” he states in the video.

After the release of Get Lucky, Rodgers had no idea just how big the track was becoming. Yet at his 2013 Glastonbury Festival set, the crowd began singing the song back at him as an encore, which he recalls as being incredibly emotional.
“After Daft Punk I started playing with much younger artists. No one is my age, I’m 70. Charli XCX, Burna Boy, I just recorded my first K-pop record and now I’ve got like five under my belt and they’re like, huge,” he says. “Life was one way before Random Access Memories and completely different after.”
View the full video below:

Get your hands on anniversary pressings of Random Access Memories via the official website for Daft Punk.
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