Recent Classical Highlights for May 2023As usual, the highlights of this month's classical music span a wide range of genres. There is Baroque opera: Porpora's Carlo il Calvo; two solo guitar albums, one with Raphaël Feuillâtre (pictured) and one from Zsofia Boros; a second volume of piano encores by Piers Lane; and an impressive reading of Stanford's Requiem.

Live Review: "Euphoria" By Keiko Matsui (9/10)Shanachie

Producers: Keiko Matsui & Bud Harner

An influential, globally acclaimed contemporary jazz artist, keyboardist-composer Keiko Matsui titled her exotic and eclectic Euphoria after the uplift she feels when seeing her classical and new age influenced smooth jazz connecting people around the world. Driven by vibrant melodies and multi-cultural percussive energy, her adventure includes jazz fusion, a prayerful meditation, an R&B anthem with Lalah Hathaway, a spirited tango, a jaunt to Paraguay and a piece she calls her “jazz symphony.” – Jonathan Widran

EU calls on tech giants to label AI-generated contentThe EU is asking tech giants like Google, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft to start labeling AI-generated content on its services
Source

Universal’s merch company Bravado makes series of leadership appointmentsAlyssa Tobias named Vice President, Head of Creative Services, amongst other appointments
Source

Gen Z is drinking less alcohol. That’s bad news for live musicSmall to medium-sized venues across the U.S. are noticing a trend that’s hurting their bottom line: patrons 28 years old and younger are drinking much less alcohol than previous generations.. Continue reading
The post Gen Z is drinking less alcohol. That’s bad news for live music appeared first on Hypebot.

CD Baby has stopped selling CDs. What options are left for indie artists?CD Baby recently announced that they are exiting the CD sales business. What options are still available for indie musicians who still want to sell CDs online? Michael Brandvold and. Continue reading
The post CD Baby has stopped selling CDs. What options are left for indie artists? appeared first on Hypebot.

Exploring the Evolution of Music Promotion in the Digital AgeDive into how digital technology has revolutionized music promotion for artists everywhere. by OrSn Hosho of SoundBoxTool.com 1. Introduction In today’s digital age, music promotion has undergone a transformative evolution. Continue reading
The post Exploring the Evolution of Music Promotion in the Digital Age appeared first on Hypebot.

Apple’s Vision Pro is about a better today rather than a shinier tomorrowApple’s long anticipated VR move finally saw daylight in the shape of Vision Pro. What is particularly interesting about the launch and its subsequent coverage is that the conversation is more about what Vision Pro enables rather than what it actually is. Apple has successfully engineered a hardware launch into a services and experiences narrative. All this, without too much at all in the way of actual new services. No mean feat. A sharp contrast with product launches for iPhone and Apple Watch, despite both devices operating within the same services ecosystem. Apple has been able to achieve this because it at least appears to have used Vision Pro to take today’s suite of services and experiences to a new level, much like iPod transformed music consumption and iPhone reinvented our wider digital lives. Claiming the legacy of those previous innovations, Vision Pro is staking its claim as a new way to experience today’s world, with the promise of facilitating an entirely new paradigm thereafter – again, just like those previous devices. 

On the surface, the Vision Pro narrative might feel simply like a riff on Meta’s VR strategy, but the differences are foundational. Meta’s VR move is bold and uncompromising. It is founded on the metaverse: a promise of an entirely new world, so transformational that the company even renamed itself after it. It is an exciting, North Star vision, but it is also a future that is distant and far from front-of-mind for mainstream consumers. Apple ensured it dropped plenty of hints that it too wants in on that brave new world (as illustrated by the VR experience in Disney’s sizzle reel), but the metaverse was limited to a supporting role in the Vision Pro show. The star was today, not tomorrow.

Apple presented how Vision Pro enables consumers to experience today’s digital world in a new environment, whether that be apps, browsing the web, watching movies or playing games. Of course, Apple emphasised how all of those are enhanced by being experienced in an immersive virtual environment, but it was crucially a representation of the familiar in new surroundings. Why? Because Apple has its eyes on the mainstream adoption of a new(ish) product category. Apple’s M.O. is that of an early follower, innovating rather than inventing. Its history is defined by making moves only when a new product category is deemed ready for primetime, letting others bleed out on the bleeding edge of new tech. 

XR (i.e., VR and AR) may not yet be at that primetime point. Currently only 4% of consumers own a VR headset, up just one percentage point from 3% in Q3 2021. But Apple has priced version one of Vision Pro so high ($3,449 – which reflects high component costs and no doubt will help recoup some of those vast R+D costs) that it will effectively constrain uptake to its early adopter elite. So, by the time the more affordable versions two and three come to market, primetime will have arrived. At least that is what Apple is likely planning on.

One element that may represent the linking piece between today and tomorrow was FaceTime. Although there was not a huge amount in terms new features (the slightly unsettling avatars aside), FaceTime has the potential to develop a new purpose and relevance in an XR environment, making the connections with other people more vital, more meaningful. This is, of course, the overlapping segment part of the Ven diagram of Apple’s and Meta’s VR strategies – and it is no coincidence that it is such a big bet for both companies. Communication and connection underpinned many of the modern world’s biggest technology shifts (the internet, smartphones, social media, video calls) and it will likely be the use case that ushers XR into the mainstream. If Apple manages to be at the centre of this, it may end up transforming FaceTime from a useful smartphone app into the foundational architecture of a metaverse-era social network. But it will get there by starting off with a newer version of today.

Legal Beat: Katy Perry Loses Trademark Infringement CaseCan’t someone use their own name to sell merchandise? The answer is: not always.

Pop star Katy Perry has lost a trademark infringement case to an Australian fashion designer with the same name, but spelled “Katie Perry.” Katie Perry sells clothes under her birth name, but uses her married name, Katie Taylor. Taylor sued Katy Perry claiming the pop star sold merchandise which infringed Taylor’s trademark. 

In April of 2023, Australian Justice Brigitte Markovic agreed with Katie Taylor, ruling that clothing sold on Katy Perry’s 2014 Australian tour violated Taylor’s trademark.

The judge ruled that Katy Perry (born Katheryn Hudson) used the Katie Perry name in “good faith,” so she did not owe any money to the designer. However, the pop star’s company will have to pay monetary damages, which will be determined in the near future.

The fashion designer began to sell clothes using her brand name Katie Perry in 2007, and registered an Australian trademark in 2009.  The singer had her first hit record in 2008. The magistrate held that she infringed the fashion designer’s trademark by selling a jacket promoting her album Roar, as well as “Cozy Little Christmas” hoodies, scarves, sweatpants and T-shirts on her Australian tour and on social media.

In 2008, Katy Perry was signed to the EMI record label. They sent Katie Taylor a cease-and-desist letter in 2009 demanding that she stop use of the “similar name” in association with her clothing label. “Imagine my surprise when one of the reactions I received was a letter from lawyers representing the U.S. singer, Katy Perry,” Taylor said on her website after the judge ruled on the case. “They stated that I should immediately stop trading under this name, withdraw all my clothes and sign a document drafted by them to say that from then on I will never trade under that name ever again.”

The cease-and-desist letter did not work. “While the singer eventually gave up trying to prevent my Australian trademark from being registered, once registered, she chose to simply disregard it,” Taylor remarked. “Singer Katy Perry clothing was sold to Australian customers during Katy Perry performance tours over here, and through retail channels, including via websites. The singer has continued to ignore my trademark and one of her companies continues to sell infringing goods unlawfully in Australia.”

Katy Perry’s attempt to cancel the Australian’s trademark was rejected by the Magistrate.

The designer compared the litigation to a “David and Goliath” confrontation.

“Over the past few years, including whilst battling it out in court, I have been bullied and trolled. My friends and family have been trolled,” Taylor stated on her website. “Not only have I fought for myself, but I fought for small businesses in this country, many of them started by women, who can find themselves up against overseas entities who have much more financial power than we do.” 

Spotify cuts 200 jobs as it restructures its podcast divisionLayoffs represent about 2% of the company’s total workforce
Source

Nnamdi Okirike appointed to lead operations in Ghana for ONErpmExec joins ONErpm from Boomplay
Source

Bandsintown launches Ad Manager for low-cost audience-expanding marketing campaignsBandsintown has added a tool to help the 570,000 registered Artists that use the popular music discovery platform to create and manage low-cost audience-expanding email marketing campaigns. Staying connected with. Continue reading
The post Bandsintown launches Ad Manager for low-cost audience-expanding marketing campaigns appeared first on Hypebot.

Chartmetrics relaunches free OneSheet artist EPKsMusic data and analytics firm Chartmetric debuted it’s recently relaunched OneSheet program at the Music Biz in Nashville, after acquiring the startup last year. By David Benjamin De Cristofaro To create. Continue reading
The post Chartmetrics relaunches free OneSheet artist EPKs appeared first on Hypebot.

#Musicians: How to get the most out of your failuresSome failures may feel like setbacks when they can actually be the opposite. Here’s how to learn better from your mistakes for a more successful future. By Noa Kageyama, Ph.D. Continue reading
The post #Musicians: How to get the most out of your failures appeared first on Hypebot.

Product Profile: Mackie DLZ CreatorMackie’s new DLZ Creator is an adaptive digital mixer for podcasting and livestreaming designed around a 10.1-inch high-resolution touch screen. The colors and screen resolution on the DLZ Creator’s touch screen are exceptionally clear and vibrant. The Touchscreen is designed to be glare resistant, so that it can be clearly seen from any angle. The CPU processor on the DLZ Creator is fast and responsive and helps to make using the DLZ Creator a transparent and enjoyable experience. Three large buttons on the top right of the DLZ Creator are: Home, which gets you back to the top-level screen; Record and Automix (more on the DLZ Creator’s Automix function below). 

Mackie’s DLZ Creator features four professional-quality microphone preamps borrowed from Mackie’s Onyx series of professional mixers. Each channel has mute and solo functions. Each of the four available channels has a combo jack capable of accepting microphone or line input. The fact that the Onyx preamps have enough headroom (up to 80 dB) to be capable of effectively capturing content at a high sound pressure level opens the possibility to livestream or capture just about any kind of live content you can think of and opens up some serous creative possibilities. The back of the DLZ Creator has also two additional quarter-inch inputs (channels 5 and 6) designed for plugging in keyboards, turntables or even the outputs of another mixer. 

You can with the DLZ Creator stream directly to your DAW or OBS via the available USB C port. While there is no internal memory on the DLZ Creator, you can record to an SD Card. To increase your available recording time, you can also plug a USB flash drive into the DLZ Creator’s USB-A port. The DLZ Creator also has an Ethernet network port that will be supported in a future firmware update. 

Mackie’s DLZ Creator features an automated set-up process that walks you through the entire process of configuring and setting up your input and gain levels. The Mackie DLZ Creator has three selectable user modes: Easy, Enhanced and Pro, which unlock progressively more sophisticated audio and routing features depending on the end user’s level of experience. 

When you first turn it on, The DLZ Creators Mix Agent walks you through a comprehensive setup process that assists you in setting up the Creator DLZ based on whatever user mode you select. It is important to point out that the DLZ Creator’s full suite of features is available in all three user modes, albeit with progressively more user configurable options depending on the user mode selected during the setup process. (You can go back and change the user level experience setting at any time.) 

The DLZ Creator features a full suite of reverb and delay effects available in Expert or Pro modes. The front of the Mackie DLZ Creator has four rotary encoders that adapt to control whatever function that is on screen at a given time. 

Once you select your input sources, DLZ Creator’s on-board Mix Agent technology lets you automatically set your levels for instruments or microphones. In Automix mode (selectable from the top left panel), the built-in software algorithm will automatically keep your levels correctly set during your livestream or podcast so that your content is correctly captured. For the novice user or a user who doesn’t know anything about recording technology, the DLZ Creator has been designed to be dead simple to operate. When I mean simple to operate, its icon-driven interface displays icons of different microphone types, and the comprehensive setup script and Automix technology works incredibly well so that virtually anyone can operate it and the chances of user error is extremely low. The Automix function, when selected, will also automatically mute unused channels and adjust the ones that are in use to unity gain to automatically keep all of your mix set at the correct input level throughout the recording process.

While not an industry first, the DLZ Creator’s ability to automatically set your input levels, not to mention keep track of your mix levels while capturing live content, is a huge time saver for experienced users and a big help for anyone who may not necessarily know anything about correctly setting input and gain levels. 

For podcasters, the Mackie DLZ Creator has a number of professional features to help in your podcast productions. The mix-minus feature lets you use your Bluetooth-enabled smartphone to patch live into your podcast. There are six sample triggers that are fully assignable to playback whatever stored samples are selected (up to four banks of six effects). The DLZ Creator has four headphone outputs, each one capable of its own custom headphone mix and an eighth inch stereo input for plugging in your phone. On the back of the DLZ Creator are two quarter-inch TRS balanced outputs that can be used to connect studio monitors, connect to a PA or even to another mixer, if required. 

The Mackie DLZ Creator is a purpose-built podcasting solution. That said, Mackie has incorporated into the DLZ Creator enough technology from their extensive experience designing pro audio mixers to make it attractive to self-producing artists and musicians looking to capture and stream live or studio content. 

The flexibility and ease of use of the DLZ Creator is impressive. As with all Mackie products, Mackie’s DLZ Creator offers a strong value proposition relative to competing products. The fact that the DLZ Creator has three user experience modes makes the DLZ Creator a great fit for a wide range of end users both inside and outside traditional MI channels. The touchscreen on the DLZ Creator is fast, responsive, and provides for a genuinely immersive user experience. After using the DLZ Creator for only a short time, the touch screen interface, ease of use and advanced feature set on the Mackie DLZ Creator made me a believer. 

The Mackie DLZ Creator is available now for MAP $799.99 

       Find out more at mackie.com/dlz