Spotify CEO Daniel Ek outlines 3 new ‘core’ opportunities for musicSpotify CEO Daniel Ek discussed three "core trends" for music during the company's Q1 2024 earnings call and said that the streamer is already working on all of them.....
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Your Livestream Strategy Sucks! K-Pop’s lessons on reaching a global audience Haven't had much success with live streaming lately or given up altogether? If you're going to learn from anyone, look at how live-streaming contributed to K-Pop artist's global success.....
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“Spent months making new versions of everything for this and you wonder why I never play EDM festivals”: Calvin Harris responds to criticism that his Ultra Music set was “underwhelming”Calvin Harris has responded to criticism of his set at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival after people online called it “underwhelming”.
Harris played a headlining set on the main stage during the festival’s final day (Sunday 24 March), where he performed hits such as This Is What You Came For and Outside, but with some added live twists.

READ MORE: Jon Bon Jovi makes unexpected appearance on stage with Armin Van Buuren at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival

Being an artist in the age of social media means you’re bound to come across negative comments on your work. Most creatives will simply ignore, but sometimes it can be hard to let things slide when a lot of time and effort has gone into your craft.
Responding in a thread of comments on Instagram, Harris argued that no matter what he does, his choice on what to perform at EDM festivals such as this one will never please everyone. He also said he spent “months” making new versions of his biggest hits to appease those who aren’t so keen on mainstream music.
“You expect me to play none of my songs? Three songs since 2014, hmm, How Deep Is Your Love – billion streams, This Is What You Came For – billion streams, My Way – billion streams, Slide – billion streams, Feels – billion streams, One Kiss – billion streams, and the other five half a bill and before 2014, another 20, and not cheesy shit, proper fucking songs with real artists and you’d rather I play Fein trap edits today.
“Spent months making new versions of everything for this and you wonder why I never play EDM festivals… At least people I saw [in real life] had a great time and I can be happy with that but fuck, at this point whatever I do is gonna piss you off,” he said.
The original comment he is responding to appears to be deleted, and the commenter has apologised in the thread.

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Calvin Harris responds to comment calling his set “underwhelming”. Says it’s part of the reason he doesn’t do EDM festivals byu/pastrknack inEDM

Harris began his music-making journey with an old Amiga 500 Plus desktop computer left behind by his older brother when he went away to university.
Last August, Harris reflected on how working with limited gear was actually beneficial to his creative process: “There were some songs that I couldn’t put a crash symbol in and a chorus vocal at the same time, it would take up too much memory. So I had to decide, would I put in this riff, or would I put in this hi-hat, you know?” he told BBC Sounds.
“You can do anything now. And all the programmes are so advanced. You can literally go from doing nothing to doing an orchestral piece with 200 tracks, but I think it’s a good idea to impose your own restrictions sometimes, and work to that.”
View all upcoming live dates for Calvin Harris.
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Why are producers sharing screen captures of their DAW on YouTube?Uploading to streaming services is a breeze in 2024. Opening the DAW to your producer buddies, though, so you can them how you layered that vocal part or created an intricate synth patch, is impossible on Spotify and Apple Music. It’s no surprise, then, that traditional producers are following the moves of their younger peers, who regularly post screen recordings on TikTok from BandLab and FL Studio to show off a new production technique. YouTube is still one place to find long-form tutorials, but it’s also one of the platforms to join in on viral trends.
READ MORE: No, Daniel Ek, the music industry isn’t like professional football
My YouTube homepage is overflowing with videos by Klaus Veen, Virtual Riot, Azali and similar producers. Their videos aren’t influencer-style. There’s no presenter, no dialogue, and no high- (or low)-production camerawork. It’s just a screen recording of a DAW playing a new track and — if you’re lucky — some text that describes what’s happening in the project. So simple, so enthralling.

These videos are racking up hundreds of thousands of plays, some even more, and the comment sections are nothing short of inspiring. People are actually having interesting discussions about the project in the video. Producers are cracking nerdy jokes about the techniques. Others stumbling upon the video are begging for the work to be put onto streaming services (for better or worse).
And it gets better. When one user, ixer, released their video ‘I think I broke the amen’ — a tracker-style chop of the amen break — other producers tried it out for themselves. Virtual Riot got involved, which inspired hundreds more beatmakers to slice up the break, kickstarting a fun trend that brand community managers could only dream of starting.

Another mesmerising Virtual Riot video, ‘I heard you like polyrhythms’, has over one million views and is almost eight minutes of intrigue. The creation is so masterful that it’s encouraged other producers to try and break down how Virtual Riot did it so that you can do it too. It also started another trend, obviously.

Then there’s the Daft Punk Face to Face breakdowns. For several years, producers have been hunting down samples and, every time a new one is discovered, they’ll place it into an Ableton Live session and record the results. Last year, the community of Daft Punk fans finally cracked it.

Education lies at the heart of this movement. Everyone loves a YouTube tutorial. Hell, we’ve made hundreds. TikTok has them aplenty, too, with creators showing viewers how they make tracks in Ableton in just a couple of minutes. Or, in the case of the Soulja Boy Crank Dat speedrunning trend, in 17 seconds.

@prodrobtmb
First ever sub 17 Soulja Boy Crank Dat #producer #producertok #beats #beatmaking #flstudio #rap
♬ original sound – robtmb

But these long-for screen captures are different to your average presenter-style tutorial — they cut the long-winded intro speech and just get into it. They open up their effects chains, show their synth patches, reveal their piano rolls and don’t mess around. You can divulge tons of information from those small acts alone. You might even find yourself asking more questions than you had before, leading you to learn new music production secrets.

Browser-based DAWs and music creation platforms are already fulfilling this demand. BandLab and Soundtrap, for example, let you create and collaborate on projects in real time, giving your friends a free look into your production and recording choices. You can learn from one another, online, as you create a track together. You can share your project with your network of followers, letting them Fork the track (on BandLab) and make edits on their own copy of your project.
Github does this for the coding community, too. You can share your code, take suggestions on edits, and collaborate with peers on improving it.
YouTube has long been the place for people to share their music. Uploading screen caps of a DAW isn’t new either; but it’s encouraging to see producers comfortable using these platforms to collaborate and mainstream the idea that music is better together.

[Editor’s note: BandLab Technologies and MusicTech are both a part of Caldecott Music Group] 
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This ‘secret’ composer is behind 650 fake artists on Spotify. His music has been streamed 15bn times on the platform (report)Revealed in a Dagens Nyheter expose: the musician 'behind the world's most listened to network of fake artists on Spotify'
Source

Hey @YeyoxIsaac @Usman306 welcome to Space 💫🌌

Tidal introduces Circles, a social network for musicians to discuss their experiences in the industryStreaming platform Tidal is slowly introducing Circles – an artist-to-artist forum – to a small number of creators.
Currently, Circles is in early access and is only open to artists in the Tidal Rising programme and general rising artists using Tidal Artist Home. No further details on when it will become more widely available have yet been shared.

READ MORE: The music streaming revolution is here, thanks to these new streaming platforms

As reported by Digital Trends, Tidal describes Circles as an “artist-to-artist forum for artists to discuss their career experiences and connect with their peers on how to navigate the music industry”. The artist umbrella includes musicians, DJs, and anyone else who creates content on the platform who have claimed their artist page on Tidal.
Once you’ve registered for the new social network, you can then browse four main forum topics. These are: Touring & Booking, Fans & Social, Merchandise, and Music Creation. Users are also able to contribute to discussions under their own name or anonymously, but interactions are moderated.
Last summer, Tidal rolled out hi-res FLAC (free lossless audio codec) streaming on its platform. Playback in up to 24-bit/192kHz quality was made available to Tidal’s Early Access Programme (EAP) users on iOS.
The following winter, Tidal’s parent company, Block, Inc., announced it would lay off 10 percent of  the Tidal workforce, with the company founder Jack Dorsey stating, “The growth of our company has far outpaced the growth of our business,” in November.
Currently, Spotify is the most popular music streaming platform in the world, with over 350 million users globally. The platform pays artists at an average royalty rate of $0.003 per stream.
In the US, a Living Wage for Musicians Act has been put to US Congress with the aim of ensuring that artists are compensated at a minimum rate of a penny per stream. At MusicTech, we’ve created a new guide listing the best streaming platform alternatives to Spotify.
Find out more about Tidal. Circles is free to use and can be accessed directly from the Tidal Artist Home area.
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BEWARE: OpenAI Sora text-to-video AI may be the most dangerous threat yet!Attorney Wallace Collins looks at OpenAI's new text-to-video tool and its implications for creators and rightsholders.....
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Joe Biden suggests he wants to “ban AI voice impersonation” – a win or loss for musicians?Joe Biden has hinted at the possibility of making AI voice impersonation illegal, which could lead to both positive and negative consequences for music artists as a byproduct.
Per The Verge, the US President briefly brought up the topic during the State of the Union address last week (March 7) but didn’t expand much further on any potential proposals.

READ MORE: Smart Songs: how AI is changing the way we listen

The idea is likely to have a mostly political purpose given that there was recently a spate of robocalls using an AI voice clone of the President attempting to dissuade people in New Hampshire from voting. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) subsequently issued a ban on such calls.
However, a total ban on AI voice impersonation would hold important ramifications for the arts and entertainment world. On one hand, artists could rest easy knowing the likeness of their voice isn’t being used for nefarious purposes, or as a way to earn money without fair compensation, but on the other, it could stifle creativity, and penalise those who use the technology fairly and give credit where it’s due.
Many musicians have been critical of the concept of AI impersonating their voices – Ariana Grande, for example, recently hit out at people attempting to recreate her voice using the technology, branding it “terrifying”.

In contrast, other artists have been more positive about the possibilities AI could bring to music, such as Damon Albarn, who said he was curious about the concept of posthumous AI releases following the success of The Beatles’ final song Now And Then, whose release was only made possible by the technology.
“It’s a question of scale: if enough people are interested, there could be hundreds of my songs released after my death, including songs that I would never have wanted to release,” he told Les Inrockuptibles. 
Grimes is another artist who has expressed particular openness towards the use of AI, saying last year that she thought it was “cool to be fused with a machine” and later launched AI software allowing users to mimic her voice in songs. Despite that, she recently performed a DJ set at an event calling for looser regulations of artificial intelligence, before telling the crowd that she is against “the sentiment of this party”.
Despite this, AI recreations of vocals have been continually doing the rounds on social media in recent years. One notable example was a song created by an artist named Ghostwriter977 called Heart On My Sleeve, featuring vocals which sounded like they were recorded by The Weeknd and Drake.
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Well... as I said just try to exclude Apple and maybe some others, maybe it will work 😉
You want to be in those major stores but trying to be 'special', why they need to think that you're so special?
You want to sell your music in the huge shopping mall, on shelves in a store? What is the difference? Does it make sense to you?
They are the owners of their stores "unfortunately" and WE ALL have to follow the rules, not only you...🤷‍♂️

Loving mini-games

Play “hyperrealistic” turntables in the rebuilt Algoriddim djay app for Apple Vision ProAlgoriddim’s newly reimagined version of its djay application has arrived for Apple Vision Pro, and the brand says it has been “rebuilt from the ground up”, placing users in front of “hyperrealistic” decks and immersive environments.
Alongside the launch, Apple Music integration in djay is now available in 167 countries, across all platforms. Users can connect their Apple Music account directly within djay for immediate access to over 100 million songs, including their personal library.

READ MORE: The Apple Vision Pro could be game-changing for music makers – with a host of futuristic DJ and production apps already available

Those who’ve got their hands on an Apple Vision Pro can now mix their tracks on two 3D turntables within djay, and apply effects through tactile hand gestures. You can physically drag the needle or scratch a record, and even drag a song out of its sleeve from a floating vinyl library to place it on a turntable.
You can also preview the next track by imitating how you would hold headphones to your ear, and utilise features such as automatic beat and tempo detection, filters, looping, time-stretching, advanced audio effects, and transitions. You can of course play right from your own space – such as your living room or studio – or place yourself in an immersive virtual environment.
Take a closer look below:

“We’re thrilled to introduce djay for Apple Vision Pro. Its innovative spatial interface offers a completely new way to experience music and marks a new chapter in the  evolution of DJing,” says Karim Morsy, CEO of Algoriddim. “Integrating Apple Music across the entire djay product line represents a significant milestone in Algoriddim’s mission to make DJing accessible to everyone.”
Existing Apple Music subscribers can access an exclusive two-month free trial of the full djay Pro subscription. Those without Apple Music can get djay for £6.99 ($6.99/€6.99) a month or £48.99 ($49.99/€49.99) a year. A free version is also available, but with limited features.
Find out more at Algoriddim.
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NAMM 2024: SoundCloud announces partnership with DJ Fresh-founded Voice-Swap AINAMM 2024: It seems SoundCloud is embracing a fresh wave of artificial intelligence tools designed with musicians in mind.

READ MORE: NAMM 2024 Live updates: All the biggest synth, studio, DJ and software releases

Yesterday, Voice-Swap – an AI platform which allows users to make their vocals sound like other artists – took to Instagram to announce its new partnership with the music platform, proclaiming that “soon Voice-Swap users will be able to upload their songs and demos directly to SoundCloud with a new integration”.

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But what exactly is Voice-Swap? Founded by multi-platinum producer DJ Fresh and developer Nico Pellerin, Voice-Swap allows vocalists to emulate the voice of someone else.
While voice changers have been around for quite some time – we’ve all witnessed Kevin McCallister using his Talkboy to sound like an ‘adult’ in Home Alone 2 – Voice-Swap takes it to the next level. The software is quick and easy to use, allowing even the most tech-averse to quickly produce their own audio deepfakes.
Users are required to upload clips of them singing, then Voice-Swap does the magic. You just select a voice to emulate – there’s a wide selection on offer, from house artist Farley “Jackmaster” Funk to Swiss electro-popstar Mylène Schuler. There’s even a few text-to-speech options, if you’re too embarrassed to upload a clip of yourself attempting to hit the right notes.

Considering the negative press surrounding deepfake audio, Soundcloud are assuring its users are made aware of a track utilising Voice-Swap’s AI technology. Each track will be tagged, making it clear that Voice-Swap has been involved in the making of a track.
Soundcloud has also partnered up with Fadr, which allows users to create mash-ups and remixes, and Soundful AI, a software that generates studio-quality tracks for creators.
Last May, SoundCloud announced it had acquired Musiio, another music company at the forefront of AI technology.
Speaking to Music Week, the Soundcloud CEO Eliah Seton expressed his joy over partnering with even more AI-centric companies. “At SoundCloud, we take pride in being ground zero for musical experimentation,” he explained. “That’s why we’re home to what’s next in music. AI is top of mind for us in this context, and we’re excited about how this technology can be applied to serve and empower artists.
“These partners, which we’ve selected intentionally, reflect the very best of what the industry has to offer in this arena: tools that open up new creative avenues and make artists’ lives a little bit easier,” he concluded.
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AI-made music can now be easily uploaded to SoundCloud, thanks to a trio of new dealsCompany inks deals with Fadr, Soundful, and Voice-Swap
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Is analog music making a comeback? [Hanna Kahlert of MIDiA]In this complex, uncertain, and always-on world, many people are craving the nostalgia of a simpler time. Just as vinyl made a major comeback, will artists and fans return to. Continue reading
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