Concord closes $850m Asset-Backed Securities transaction to ‘fuel strategic growth and acquisitions’Transaction was led by Apollo
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Ditto dumps Merlin as TikTok takedown of millions of indie tracks loomsDitto dumps Merlin deal and signs directly with TikTok as this week's takedown of millions of tracks by independent artists used in videos looms.
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How To Book More Gigs: Essential Tips for Indie ArtistsBooking gigs as an indie artist can be challenging, but we've got you covered. Discover proven strategies to land more shows, build your fanbase, and take your live performances to the next level.
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AllMusic's Favorite Actually Scary AlbumsHalloween novelty tunes are altogether ooky and all, but we here at AllMusic wanted to reveal the albums that actually scared us. Brooding themes and stark instrumentation. Real (perceived) devil worship and horrifying abandonment. Stabbing strings and haunting vocals. Psycho mansions and Lux Interiors. These are the themes of the recordings we've chosen to showcase: Actually Scary Albums.

New Music Critique: RGBContact: bari@pressherepublicity.com

Web: listentorgb.com

Seeking: Booking, Sync Placements, Film/TV         

Style: Pop

Not only are all tracks from RGB's latest A Place for Lovers "radio ready," it begs the question, "How are they not already huge?" The Tel Aviv-based trio (singer-songwriters Roy Bartal, Noi Agam, keyboardist/ producer Alon Kenett) are full-fledged artists, mindful of showing off their whole package--well-branded, with talent to boot.

Bartal and Agam trade off as lead vocalists, often dueting and evoking the push and pull of love, heartbreak, pain and rejoice. "Parties," "Pain Killer," "Meeting at Dawn," "Pizza" and "Green" are standouts. When Bartal sings falsetto, Agam is crooning from the soul and the bass is bumping, RGB is a RBD (real big deal).    The post New Music Critique: RGB first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Album Review of "Original 8" by Original 8 (8/10)Beat Farm Music

Producers: Troy Williver, Jaime Lynch and Drew Canulette

“Sail away on the sea of change,” (from “Change”), the whole of “Better Days,” “W.O.M.A.N.” and lead single “Dreamer” make for quite an emotionally raw and inspiring debut from Jaime Lynch-led Original 8. Lynch has a powerful voice, rich and soulful, and begs to be heard live on a stage.

OG8 ain’t your typical bar band, as its additional members include Phil Baker, George Mitchell, and Michael Underwood who have recorded and toured with Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Linda Ronstadt. The post Album Review of "Original 8" by Original 8 (8/10) first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Getting It Done: Last Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers covered troubles with TikTok, how to succeed in sync, boost tour dates, and more...
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REWIND: The new music industry’s last week in reviewLast week in the music industry, TikTok's growing battle with indie musicians and labels, the state of A&R, and more...
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Product Profile: Sony MDR-M1 Headphones Sony Pro Audio’s new MDR-M1 reference closed back monitor headphones feature an ultra-wideband playback dispersion curve that is designed to support many different usage applications that an artist or producer may encounter on a daily basis including tracking, mixing, and singing in front of a studio microphone where open back headphones, because of their sound leakage, are not necessarily the best choice for a lot of situations. The MDR-M1’s have a frequency response from 5kHz to 80kHz, which is the same as Sony’s open MDR-MV-1 open back headphones. 

Finding the correct balance of a high degree of isolation is important when you are recording, and the Sony MDR-M1 headphones are designed to eliminate a large percentage of ambient noise and sound leakage in the recording process. When tracking vocals, the music, or whatever the artist is playing or singing along with, the source material needs to be at the correct volume. If it is too quiet, the singer might not project enough and if it is too loud, then sound can leak out of the headphones and make its way into the microphone, causing a hollowing out of the intended vocal capture, and in some cases, can even result in feedback. 

The MDR-M1 headphones are designed to allow singers and vocalists to be able to sing out naturally and give all that a song or the performance deserves. The Sony MDR-M1’s are closed back headphones that have a high degree of sound isolation which make them a perfect choice for singing into a microphone when you want the microphone only to pick up the sound coming out of your voice.

Sony has a long legacy of headphone design and making headphones extremely comfortable. When you put the MDR-M1’s on they are like wearing a well-worn pair of jeans. They are so comfortable that it is easy to forget the fact that you are wearing them. Another great feature is that the MVR-M1’s can lie flat making them easier to transport. This is a useful feature if you are, for example, just packing them into the sleeve of your backpack and you’re traveling with them. 

Since Sony has a long history of developing headphones, they have amassed a huge database of head shapes and sizes as well as need ear shapes and sizes which allowed Sony to determine the best shape and material for ear pads, headphones, headbands, and the appropriate amount of grab on your head. Sony also extensively used beta testers to give real world feedback in designing the MDR-M1 headphones. The end result is a pair of headphones that are exceptionally comfortable to wear for long recording sessions.

In terms of wearing headphones all day long, the parts and pieces of a headphone to be sufficiently strong to stand up to the abuses of real world use, balancing it with the weight of the headphone when you wear them on your head. In designing the MDR-M1 headphones, Sony was able to reduce the weight of the headphones down to 216 grams while making them strong enough to stand up to real world situations. 

If you have the luxury of working in a high-end recording studio control room, you can crank up monitors as loud as you want. Obviously, the application is for headphones engineers to check whatever musicians or singers are actually listening to, checking their own mixes, things like that, however a huge part of the population do not have that luxury. If you live in an apartment, perhaps you can’t track or mix at loud volumes, or maybe you have a spouse that is going to be upset when you are recording too loud at whatever time of the day or night it is. In those cases, you have to do your work with headphones. The MDR-M1’s are comfortable to wear for hours and hours at a time, which is particularly important in a lot of home recording situations. 

The MDR-M1s come with two different cables. One is a longer cable, about two and a half meters, and stretches from the left ear cup down to the ground and is perfect for connecting to a headphone distribution amplifier. The headphones also come with a little quarter-inch adapter, like what comes with the MDR7506 headphones. The headphones also come with a short cable, 1.2 meters, for when you are just listening to music on your phone, and you do not want to carry a long cable with you. 

A lot of a headphones’ capability is in the design of the diaphragm. The diaphragm must be able to go from extremely low all the way out to 80 kHz and do so with a smooth transition between the frequency ranges in between. When designing the MDR-M1, Sony took into account that the center dome of the diaphragm had to be stiff enough to cover the top end of the frequency curve from 5Hz all the way out to 80 Hz, however it needs be pliable enough to be able to reproduce extremely low frequencies. The challenge with low frequencies, especially in headphones and in designing the diaphragm, is as you increase the volume, your low frequency distortion goes up, which can be a problem. The Sony M1’s are designed to minimize low frequency distortion, which is an important consideration if you are going to have headphones that can manage extremely low frequencies.

Sony’s MDR M1’s, because of their extremely high resolution and high wide frequency response, are capable of capturing and expressing the full details of your sound sources. Sony designed the MDR M1’s to be a reference standard for non-pro studio users and Sony went to great lengths to make and voice the MDR-M1 headphones to be as close as possible to a pair of high-end studio monitors in an acoustically designed control room. They are designed to be a reference standard against which to make your critical EQ choices as well. Having accurate sound localization is important to determine the distance of the sound recorded by the microphone. Sony’s MDR-V1 open-back headphones are designed for immersive mixing, where you do not have resonances inside of the earphone inside of the earcup, that can hurt the localization cues. But the MDR-M1’s are also fully accurate in terms of this localization. 

The MDR-M1’s has a feature which Sony calls Beat Response Control. This is actually a tuned port built into the headphones which acts as an air resistor. Having headphones that can go all the way down to 5 Hz is great but if that bass is not well defined it won’t give you an accurate picture of the low end of your recordings. Having this acoustic port allows for the low frequency to stay very tight with sharp transients and the Beat Response Control helps make that possible. This can be important for example when you have two players, a bass player who is trying to tightly match his rhythms with the kick drum or some other bass groove. 

Designing a pair of headphones that can reproduce a wide frequency response that are strong, lightweight and are extremely comfortable to wear for hours at a time is quite a challenge, but Sony with the MDR-M1’s succeeded in doing just that. 

Sony’s MDR-M1 reference closed back monitor headphones are available now for MAP $249.99.

Find out more at pro.sony/ue_US/products/audio/pro-audio The post Product Profile: Sony MDR-M1 Headphones  first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Another large indie distributor inks direct agreement with TikTok, as Ditto leaves behind expiring Merlin deal with platformEstablished acts currently distributing their music through Ditto include Chance The Rapper, Russ Millions, and Darkoo
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Quite unique discovery thing by a former Warner A&R and Meddling CEO @tkrosenblatt

From Timbaland’s Suno partnership to UnitedMasters’ direct TikTok deal… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest stories from the past week – all in one place…
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Are TikTok Song IDs accurate? Pex found 20 for every songAre TikTik Song IDs accurate? Pex examined 141,000 songs on TikTok and found 2.8 million unique Song IDs and over 830 million videos containing these songs.
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How much will TikTok cost Musicians with its indie track takedown?How much will TikTok cost musicians with the looming take down of millions of tracks on independent labels?
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Join The Discussion On Hypebot: We want to hear from you!Join the discussion on Hypebot. The Comments section is open, and we want to hear from you!
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