NYC mayor releases plans for responsible AI usage in local governmentThe administration for the mayor of New York City has released a plan for creating a framework for government agencies to utlitize AI, along with the pilot of the city’s first AI chatbot.

Google lobbies against legally mandated age verification for minorsGoogle is challenging proposed laws that would require online services to implement age checks in a new framework that theorizes how technology companies should approach children’s safety online. The framework, titled the “Legislative Framework for Protecting Children and Teens Online,” is the tech giant’s response to congressional child online safety proposals. In its set of principles, […]
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Pfundstein Audio Plugins Virtual BassLine Buster Std8 plus We are in love with the massive sound of octaved 8-string basses. That's why we were the first to sample such a unique instrument for MIDI. And now we've done it again with an all-new custom... Read More

JBL Pro Product Launch Announcement

Be the FIRST to experience the latest from JBL Pro. TWO SESSIONS are available, register below for links/reminders. Or join the YouTube livestream. 

SESSION 1: North America, Central America, South America & EMEAThursday, October 19, 20239:00am PDT, 12:00pm EDT, 5:00pm BST, 6:00pm CEST

REGISTER NOW

SESSION 2:  Asia-Pacific, China & India Friday, October 20, 202311:00am SGT & CST, 8:30am IST 

REGISTER NOW

AVA Music Group Releases FREE PRISM Drums Lite For Kontakt Player
AVA Music Group has just released PRISM Drums – Lite Edition, a FREE Kontakt library compatible with the free Kontakt player. It’s a collection of curated mix-ready drum samples designed for today’s modern productions. It features 5 drum kits into one instrument: Modern Pop drum kit, Retro Pop Drum kit, Trailer kit, Indie Pop kit, [...]
View post: AVA Music Group Releases FREE PRISM Drums Lite For Kontakt Player

Quiet Music Updates FREE Love-Fi Lite ROMpler Plugin
Quiet Music has just released Love-Fi 3 Lite, an updated version of their free Lo-Fi ROMpler. Fans of their old version can now enjoy a revamped interface with some extra features, like the added built-in effects. It offers a selection of 15 presets from the full version categorized into Pads, Keys, Bass, Drums, and Field [...]
View post: Quiet Music Updates FREE Love-Fi Lite ROMpler Plugin

Universal just launched a claims-free music subscription service for content creators with 50,000 tracks and 200,000 sound effectsThe Universal Music for Creators service starts at $5.99 per month
Source

The strategic reason HYBE’s Chairman wants to retire in 10 years, and 2 other things we learned from Bang Si-Hyuk’s recent interviewBang Si-hyuk explained the logic behind HYBE's US expansion, the differences between the US and Korean music industries, and his retirement, in recent chat with Bloomberg
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Zero-G Sample Libraries Ethera Gold Atlantis 3 ETHERA GOLD ATLANTIS 3 is a remarkable, innovative instrument designed for crafting soundtracks, cinematic compositions, awe-inspiring music trailers, and any musical piece demanding exceptional... Read More

Spotify adds a personalized multi-artist Merch HubSpotify has made changes in recent months designed to help artists sell more merch, including a Shopify integration and a Merch tab on Artists’ Pages. Now, the streamer has added. Continue reading
The post Spotify adds a personalized multi-artist Merch Hub appeared first on Hypebot.

Spitfire Audio announce Eric Whitacre Contrast Spitfire's latest collaboration with Eric Whitacre aims to surpass the boundaries of traditional choral performances and offer a huge range of experimental sound design possibilities.

SoundExchange royalty payments rise 8% to $257M in Q3SoundExchange announced that it paid out $257 million in royalties in the third quarter of 2023, an 8% increase from the same period in 2022. Year-to-date, SoundExchange distribution payments total. Continue reading
The post SoundExchange royalty payments rise 8% to $257M in Q3 appeared first on Hypebot.

Music has become a ‘just-in-time’ economyThe modern day economy is built upon ‘just-in-time’ supply chains. This framework has enabled the benefits of consumerism that we have come to enjoy, such as next day delivery, out of season foods on our shelves, and the digital devices we live our lives through. Each component of the just-in-time economy works in tightly coordinated partnership, from factories, through transport, to point of sale. The underlying principle is that every component is manufactured and delivered at just the right time, to ensure that there is a continual throughput of production, assembly, and consumption. Gone are the old days of large warehouses containing product, just in case it is needed. Instead, just the right amount makes its way around the world in shipping containers to meet demand. Most of us never even knew this system existed until the pandemic, when it suddenly broke down and we found ourselves short of essentials, like toilet paper. Perhaps without even realising it, the music business has become a just-in-time economy too, and that is not a good thing.

The music business used to be characterised by artists disappearing into the studio for months on end and emerging with an album for expectant fans to get their hands on at some time in the future. Bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers were able to average four years between their albums and still expect their fanbase to be there, waiting eagerly for the next release. Streaming and social media combined to turn that model on its head, heralding the era of the always-on artist. Now, artists fear the consequences of not putting out a single every month. Heck, even Daniel Ek said it is “not enough” for artists to release albums “every 3-4 years” and that they need to create “continuous engagement with their fans”.

Add this to the very real fear that the algorithm will ‘forget’ artists if they do not keep up a steady flow of social posts and releases, and you have the foundation stones for music’s just-in-time economy. The implication, no, the reality, is that if artists do not conform to the always-on model then they will be lost by (not in) the system. Artists (and their rightsholders) have become just-in-time suppliers, with the subtle, yet seismic, shift from delivering art to their fans when they have finished their creative process, at their pace, to filling a slot in the never ceasing supply chain. It is an environment that, unsurprisingly, has created the hit today, gone tomorrow world that today’s music business operates within.

The model works well for platforms, and consumers, but less so for artists, due to misaligned incentives across the industry. The underlying problem with the system is that the content platforms that shape today’s entertainment business (TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, Spotify, etc.) value creation more than they do creators. The more creation that there is, the more that the platforms’ algorithms are able to target users with ever more specific and personalised content. The platforms all, of course, talk a good talk about creators, but what matters most to them is that their users get the right content. It does not matter whether that means a thousand creators delivering one piece of content to a thousand users, or one creator to one thousand users. With the pervasive obsession with ‘new’, as soon as one piece of content has been served, another is needed.

This is how we described this dynamic back in early 2021:

“In the attention economy’s volume and velocity game, the streaming platform is a hungry beast that is perpetually hungry. Each new song is just another bit of calorific input to sate its appetite.”

And it is not just the consumer platforms that fuel this fire. Artist distribution platforms play a role too. The unspoken promise of the platforms is that artists have a chance to compete with the likes of Taylor Swift. Of course, 99.99% of the nearly six and a half million self-releasing artists will never get into the same race, let alone win it. 

We are at the point where there needs to be a duty of care to creators, from both distributors and platforms. This starts with selling the right dream. Some artists may only ever have a thousand fans (or fewer) who want to listen to their music. That should be embraced as an aspirational goal, not failure. Service offerings should be geared around helping creators understand what their realistic (but aspirational) goals should be, and helping them achieve them. Not a nudge and a wink implication that they can all become superstars.

If this does not happen, we are heading towards a massive creator backlash, driven by a generation of creators wondering why they are not superstars yet. And that is not in the interest of any of the industry’s stakeholders, except perhaps the homes of superstars.

The just-in-time model in the wider economy has underpinned an unprecedented amount of consumption, and that comes with its own set of challenges, especially with regards to sustainability. It has also contributed to, as the Guardian put it, “the growth of low-wage, often more precarious jobs, with workers recruited only when they would beneeded. This constant squeezing of workers has fuelled our 24/7 work culture and the mental health problems that go with it, while attempts to cut the price of labour have added tothe growth of economic inequality, regardless of who sits in government”. All of which sounds remarkably similar to the plight of many of today’s artists.

4 Steps to a Successful DIY Regional TourRegional touring is definitely a smaller beast than performing nationally, but it is still a beast of a project. These 4 tips will help even the smallest artists make the. Continue reading
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Bob Moog Foundation raffles Memorymoog Plus signed by owner’s manual authorThe Bob Moog Foundation has launched a raffle featuring a fully restored Memorymoog Plus synthesizer, autographed by Dominic Milano, who authored the original Memorymoog manual.

READ MORE: Moog CEO “reached out to Uli Behringer” to try and sell company, Behringer claims

The synth was originally received by Milano in the mid-1980s as part payment for writing the manual. Milano apparently recognised its potential after a recent restoration by renowned synthesizer technician, Wes Taggart saying, “After hearing Wes gush about what a great synth it was… I figured it would be perfect for the [Bob Moog] Foundation.”
The Memorymoog Plus, Moog Music’s successor to the original Memorymoog, boasts six-voice polyphony and three voltage-controlled oscillators, delivering a massive sound. Milano particularly appreciates the 100-patch memory bank, stating, “Being able to use a foot switch to advance through patches was a godsend for live gigs.”
Moog Memorymoog synth signed by Dominic Milano | Credit: Bob Moog Foundation
“The Bob Moog Foundation is proud to be sharing this iconic Memorymoog Plus while also bringing to light Dominic Milano’s unique history as it relates to this synthesizer and the synthesizer community,” says Michelle Moog-Koussa, Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation.
“Keyboard magazine was an essential source of information for a burgeoning synthesizer community when the technology was quickly evolving. Thousands of synthesists have Dominic and the Keyboard team of editors and writers to thank for what quickly became an indispensable resource for a worldwide community.”
The raffle begins today on Monday 16 October 2023 at 7 am EDT, and will conclude on Monday, November 6, 2023, at 11:59 pm EDT or when all 5,000 tickets have been sold. Ticket prices are $25 each, 5 for $100, 12 for $200, and 35 for $500.
Buy tickets at Moog Foundation.
The post Bob Moog Foundation raffles Memorymoog Plus signed by owner’s manual author appeared first on MusicTech.