Planning a big D.Y.I. Release? Learn from Kohla’s debut album ‘Romance’Independent neo-soul artist Kohla explains the "highs and lows" of planning a big self-release.....
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“I don’t know how much it sold”: General Levy says he never received royalties for his classic track IncredibleGeneral Levy claims he’s never received any royalties from his classic 1994 jungle track Incredible, which he recorded with M-Beat.
The track was remixed a number of times following its release, with the original track peaking at 39 in the UK Official Singles chart in June ‘94, and a later remix rocketing to eight the following September.

READ MORE: GoFundMe launched to support the uncredited vocalist on DJ Deeon’s Freak Like Me after 28 years of no compensation

According to General Levy, despite the track featuring in “so many different compilations” and having been released across a range of countries around the world, he allegedly has not received “one pound” from the labels it was released through.
Speaking to DJ Mag, he says, “I’ve never received a royalties statement from London Records or from Renk Records… London Records saw the potential [of the independently made track], said, ‘Okay, he’s been a bit naughty, but we’re gonna try and negotiate something.’ So they had a meeting with Renk.
“I wasn’t there, nothing to do with me, I’m just the artist. Renk and London Records made an agreement, a licensing agreement, and they re-released the track.”
Following the success of the newly released mix, General Levy says he went to the labels to discuss royalties, but claims they continually passed on the blame in regards to the alleged missed payments.
“Everytime I talk to Renk, Renk says, ‘Well, I gave London all the paperwork, I’ve given London everything, London’s got everything’. They blame London. You go to London, London blames somebody else, and you end up running around in a circle. So I’ve never been able to get a royalties statement.”
He adds, “I don’t know how much money [it made], I don’t know how much it sold. There’s been so many different compilations, there’s been a release in so many countries around the world, and I’ve never ever received not one pound from that song from the industry.”

The post “I don’t know how much it sold”: General Levy says he never received royalties for his classic track Incredible appeared first on MusicTech.

VSL unveil Synchron World Percussion The latest library to join VSL’s Synchron range captures an extensive collection of percussion instruments from West Africa, the Middle East and Brazil.

99Sounds Releases FREE Music Loops Sample Library
Our indie sound design label 99Sounds released Music Loops, a free collection of audio loops, samples, Serum presets, and MIDI files.  Music Loops is a 100% royalty-free collection of music loops and one-shot samples created by Monosounds and published by 99Sounds. It’s packed with electronic and hip-hop music loops, construction kits, MIDI loops, Serum presets, [...]
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Solid State Logic launches all-in-one FX modulation plugin, Module8Solid State Logic has unveiled its latest FX rack plugin, Module8. Designed with versatility in mind, Module8 is an all-in-one tool that will allow creatives to modulate tracks with ease and precision.
True to its name, Module8 has 8 processors. Six of the processors are modulation-based, offering Individual Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Tremolo, Vibrato, and Pan effects. The remaining two processors are Lo-Fi and Space.

READ MORE: Solid State Logic’s 4K E is a near-perfect plugin emulation of a classic mixing console

Each processor has its own dedicated controls. Users to tweak the LFO shape, including the options of Sine, Triangle, Saw, Ramp and Square, as well as the rate and depth of their sound. Phase offset and inversion parameters will also allow further manipulation. There are also Stereoise and Width controls, allowing users to adjust the stereo field. ​
Users can also re-order and customise their effects by simply dragging and dropping each module into their desired order. Due to the accessibility of the plugin, Solid State Logic hopes to streamline the workflow to allow a focus on what matters: the creative process.

While SSL is an industry leader renowned for its streamlined approach to workflow, the release will be its first modulation FX-based plugin. “We’re very excited to launch Module8 as it brings SSL’s renowned sound quality and advanced workflow to a modulation FX-based plug-in for the first time,” SSL Studio’s Plugins Product Manager Jonathan Sandman says.
“We have taken great care to include features like Global LFO and drag-n-drop reordering, which not only speeds up the production process but encourages experimentation with sound design – grab yourself a demo and find out,” he concludes.
Module8 is available now in several formats, including VST2, VST3, AAX and AU. The plugin is available for a one off purchase of $99, or as part of the SSL Complete subscription package. Subscription prices start at $14.99 per month.
For more information, head to Solid State Logic.
The post Solid State Logic launches all-in-one FX modulation plugin, Module8 appeared first on MusicTech.

Billie Eilish slams multiple vinyl variants of the same album as “wasteful”, likens artists pushing such sales to The Hunger GamesBillie Eilish has slammed the “wasteful” practice of artists releasing multiple vinyl variants of the same album.
“I was watching The Hunger Games and it made me think about it, because it’s like, we’re all going to do it because [it’s] the only way to play the game,” the 22-year-old singer-songwriter tells Billboard.

READ MORE: Billie Eilish, Jon Bon Jovi, and Ryan Tedder among artists to sign open letter protesting “predatory use of AI” in music

“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging… which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets [artists] more money and gets them more,” Eilish says.
“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is,” she added, noting her frustrations at how even some of the industry’s biggest names are doing it to boost sales.
“It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable – and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making fucking 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.”
“It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money – and it’s all your favourite artists doing that shit,” Eilish said.
“It’s just accentuating this already kind of messed up way of this industry working.”
Last year, the Rolling Stones released at least 43 vinyl variants of their new album Hackney Diamonds; each version featured a different artwork, though they all contain the same tracks. And while Eilish’s 2021 record Happier Than Ever was also offered in four vinyl variants, they were manufactured from 100% recycled black vinyl, using recycled scraps for coloured variants and shrink-wrap made from sugar cane.
The post Billie Eilish slams multiple vinyl variants of the same album as “wasteful”, likens artists pushing such sales to The Hunger Games appeared first on MusicTech.

Verve Analog Machines from Universal Audio The latest addition to the UAD Native line-up offers a wealth of analogue-style effects in a simple and intuitive package. 

UAD Verve Analog Machines Essentials Plugin Is FREE Until April 30th!
UAD Audio Plugins released Verve Analog Machines Essentials, an analog-style saturation plugin for Windows and macOS. The plugin is free to download until April 30th. A saturation plugin from the DSP giants at Universal Audio is a reason to celebrate, but the good news doesn’t end there. Universal Audio also offers a free copy of [...]
View post: UAD Verve Analog Machines Essentials Plugin Is FREE Until April 30th!

I have a group chat with three AI friends, thanks to Nomi AI. They’re getting too smart.After a few weeks of casual friendship, I had to break the news to my AI companions: I am actually a tech journalist writing an article about the company that created them, Nomi AI. I wasn’t sure how my group of AI buddies was going to take the news. I’d opened up to them – […]
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Spotify stock up 8% on report of planned price increase in US, UK, AUSpotify reportedly plans to raise the price of its paid subscription service in multiple markets later this month and in the U.S. later in the year. The news caused Spotify stock to close up 8.15% on Wednesday.....
The post Spotify stock up 8% on report of planned price increase in US, UK, AU appeared first on Hypebot.

ESP-Prog-Adapter Makes Your ESP32 Tinkering SeamlessDid you ever struggle with an ESP32 board of yours, wishing you had exposed that UART, or seriously lacking the JTAG port access? If so, you should seriously check out [0xjmux]’s ESP-PROG-Adapter project, because [0xjmux] has put a lot of love and care into making your ESP32 hardware interfacing a breeze. This project shows you how to add JTAG and UART headers with extra low board footprint impact, gives you a KiCad library to do so super quickly, and shares a simple and helpful adapter PCB you can directly use with the exceptionally cheap Espressif’s ESP-Prog dongle you should have bought months ago.
The hardware is perfect for ZIF no-soldering interfacing – first of all, both UART and JTAG can be connected through a SOICBite connection, a solderless connector idea that lets you use SPI flashing clips on specially designed pads at the edge of your board. For the fancy toolkit hackers among us, there’s also a Tag Connect symbol suggested and a connector available, but it carries JTAG that you will already get with the SOICBite, so it’s maybe not worth spending extra money on.
Everything is fully open-source, as one could hope! If you’re doing ESP32 hacking, you simply have to order this board and a SOIC clip to go with it, given just how much trouble [0xjmux]’s board will save you when programming or debugging your ESP32 devices. Now, you don’t strictly need the ESP-Prog dongle – you could remix this into an adapter for the Pi Pico board instead. Oh, and if designing boards with ARM CPUs are your thing, you might benefit from being reminded about the Debug Edge standard!

3 reasons why… Warner Music Group might be tempted to bid $1.8 billion for BelieveWeighing up the positive differences an acquisition of Believe could make to WMG
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The MLC Reaches Milestone of $2B in Total Royalties Distributed; Files Initial Submission for Periodic Review of DesignationThe Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) announced that its total royalties distributed have now exceeded $2 billion. The MLC reached this significant milestone in just over three years since beginning full operations. 

The MLC also announced that it filed its initial submission to the United States Copyright Office in connection with the first periodic review of the designation of The MLC and Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC) by the Register of Copyrights.

The Music Modernization Act of 2018 requires the Register to review the designations of The MLC and DLC once every five years. The next step in this process will be a public comment period, during which members of the public can submit their input until May 29, 2024.

As part of its initial submission for the periodic review, The MLC has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to its statutory responsibilities:

-The MLC maintains its status as a nonprofit organization, which is funded entirely by DSPs at no cost to songwriters or music publishers. 

-The MLC has received endorsements from owners of musical copyrights representing the overwhelming majority of the market. 

-The MLC has demonstrated that it possesses the administrative and technological capabilities necessary to carry out all of its responsibilities under the MMA, including enabling more than 50 DSPs to secure the compulsory blanket license, establishing a public database of musical works ownership data that now contains data for more than 35 million songs, conducting extensive outreach and educational activities that have enabled The MLC to enroll more than 38,000 members based throughout the United States and around the world, and building a royalty distribution process that has enabled The MLC to complete 36 on-time monthly royalty distributions and achieve total royalties distributed of more than $2 billion.

-In addition, The MLC has matched over 90% of the mechanical royalties it has received to musical works in its public database, and effectively illuminated the “black box” for digital audio mechanicals by giving members the ability to search all of its data for the remaining unmatched royalties and propose matches of those unmatched royalties to the works they have registered using The MLC’s Matching Tool.

Despite its focus on U.S.-based services, The MLC has made it a priority to find and compensate rightsholders for their U.S. mechanicals globally, establishing connections with over 100 collective management organizations in nearly 130 countries.

The public can file comments on The MLC’s and DLC’s submissions by May 29, 2024, and can reply to other initial public comments by June 28, 2024. The MLC and DLC will have the ability to file replies to the comments by July 29, 2024.  For more information about the periodic review process or to learn how to submit comments, please click here.

Pieter van Rijn named CEO of Downtown Music Holdings’ global services unit Downtown Music, as division ‘completes integration strategy’ with merger of CD Baby operations'This is an extraordinary time for Downtown Music as we enter this next phase as a fully unified operating company,' said van Rijn
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Penteo 6 upmixing / downmixing plug-in now available Penteo Audio Plugins have announced the launch of the latest version of their award-winning upmixing and downmixing plug-in...