Many radio stations actually helped to form
a sense of taste as well as clubs. Record labels are cutting their radio 📻 promotion. What's next? #MusicBusiness

Spotify wants to use podcasts to help market musicSpotify intends to explore an untapped marketing strategy that would marry podcasts and music streaming for years to come. by Rutger Rosenborg of MIDiA Research Last summer, Variety published an article. Continue reading
The post Spotify wants to use podcasts to help market music appeared first on Hypebot.

No royalties and "junk tracks"

Penteo 6 now available Penteo Audio Plugins have announced the launch of the latest version of their award-winning upmixing and downmixing plug-in

This portable keys by Roland seem really cool. New hardware tools are coming. #Education #musicproduction

Roland launch GO:KEYS portable keyboards The GO:KEYS instruments take a simple approach to production, but still boast some more advanced features that allow for more involved work as users develop their skills.

Blipblox MPC-style sampler myTRACKS aims to make music production fun for allPlaytime Engineering are continuing to shape the next generation of child prodigies with their Blipblox line.
Specialising in child-friendly instruments for kids three and above, Playtime Engineering’s latest addition to the Blipbox line encourages young people to experiment and unlock their musical potential. The Blipblox myTRACKS swaps out the lunchbox for a groovebox.

READ MORE: NAMM 2022: Playtime Engineering reveals synth and groovestation for kids, grown-up synth fans rejoice

Blipblox myTRACKS embraces a childlike, colourful aesthetic while also capturing the spirit of a hip-hop groovebox. It’s designed to be safe and accessible to anybody, just like a toy, meaning it can be enjoyed by just about any age.
The Blipblox myTRACKS is a total music production studio. There’s a built-in microphone for sampling, two FX processors and a slew of over 50 acoustic, electronic and percussion instrumental sounds to play with. With sound packs also available to download online, creators have ample to work with.
Powered by 25 glowing playpads and two bright purple levers, the myTRACKS is delightfully colourful. Navigating the tool is as intuitive as playing with a toy, the levers allowing users to adjust effects and modulation. There’s also a randomise feature to spur on creativity, allowing users to experiment with new sounds and be inspired by the unpredictable tracks myTRACKS generates.
The journey to creating myTRACKS started off as a fleeting hobby for a Silicon Valley engineer Troy Sheets. With his wife, Kate Sheets, the pair transformed the hobby into a fully fledged business. “Bootstrapping and crowdfunding our business has allowed us the freedom to design and produce our wildly creative line of instruments,” Kate Sheets explains.

“We are tremendously grateful for our supporters who helped fund both the original Blipblox and Blipblox After Dark, and we look forward to introducing more friends to the Blipblox community with the launch of myTRACKS,” she continues.
“Creating music with synthesizers and modern music tech has always felt like play to me,” Troy sheets explains. “By merging the portability, durability, and safety of toys with high-quality and advanced functionality of a legitimate instrument, we’ve created a fun and accessible music-making machine that anyone can play.”
Blipblox myTRACKS’  Kickstarter campaign to support the launch will open on 9th April. The first round of products is expected to be delivered by November 2024.
Reservations are currently open on the BlipBlox website.
The post Blipblox MPC-style sampler myTRACKS aims to make music production fun for all appeared first on MusicTech.

This Steve Jobs answer is super-true.

Pitch correction basics in Melodyne Essential. #musicproduction #Editing #vocals

Don't create music. No need. Generate! (but we will create)

This isn't new at all 🦸‍♂️

21 UK festivals called off, postponed or cancelled altogether – with over 100 in danger of disappearing without immediate actionAs the 2024 festival season approaches, the UK is witnessing a concerning trend: 21 festivals have either been cancelled, postponed, or scrapped – with many more in danger of disappearing without immediate action.
The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), which conducted the research, said that “The timing of this milestone suggests that the number of festival cancellations this year will far outstrip 2023, when a total of 36 festivals were cancelled before they were due to take place.”

READ MORE: “Right now, the economics of streaming are very broken”: sonu.stream co-founder Laura Jaramillo wants to re-shape streaming

The report continued: “Without intervention, it’s expected that the UK could see over 100 festivals disappear in 2024 due to rising costs. Without having had a single steady season since the pandemic in which to recover, the country’s festivals are under more financial strain than ever.”
Affected festivals include Nozstock: The Hidden Valley, which will be cancelled after 26 years this July, as well as Standon Calling, Neighbourhood Weekender, NASS, Doune The Rabbit Hole and Tokyo World.
Last month, AIF launched the 5% For Festivals campaign which sought for a VAT reduction on festival tickets that would save many event promoters from closure. Temporary support from the UK Government – lowering VAT from 20% to 5% on ticket sales for the next three years – is all that’s needed to give festival promoters the space they need to rebuild, said the AIF.
AIF CEO John Rostron states: “It’s with grave concern that we again sound the alarm to [the] Government upon passing this critical milestone. UK festivals are disappearing at a worrying rate, and we as a nation are witnessing the erosion of one of our most successful and unique cultural industry sectors.
“We have done the research: a reduction of VAT to 5% on festival tickets over the next three years is a conservative, targeted and temporary measure that would save almost all of the festival businesses that are likely to fall by the wayside this year and many more over the years to come. We need this intervention now.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AIF (@aif_uk)

Earlier this year, Music Venues Trust reported that 2023 was the worst year for music venue closures in the UK, with a whopping 125 venues closed, 4,000 jobs lost, 14,500 events cancelled and 193,230 gigs scrapped as a result.
The post 21 UK festivals called off, postponed or cancelled altogether – with over 100 in danger of disappearing without immediate action appeared first on MusicTech.

Unfortunately, this is what I've been saying...to try to use your own resources as much as possible: #MusicTechnology #musicproduction and #Tools if you can. Of course, there are many things to consider, but I've been using ToneDen for ages...I've already changed all the links even before the announcement. #decentralization

#majors trying to catch the #social #Music wave using the existing community built around the company. #Tidal #MusicBusiness

Best Spotify alternatives: Music streaming platforms to consider in 2024We’d all love to be vinyl aficionados and Walkman fanatics but, for better or for worse, the most popular way people consume music is on streaming platforms. But which ones are the best?
The leading streaming platform in 2024, with over 350 million users and 150 million subscribers and counting, is Spotify. And while Spotify does, of course, have brilliant features — a vast, evolving library of music and podcasts, accurate music suggestion tools, Spotify Wrapped and even an AI DJ — its average royalty rate of $0.004 per stream, frequent layoffs, and CEO blunders has caused people to look at what else is on offer.

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

Spotify, it’s important to remember, is just one streaming service, and there are plenty to choose from. Each major platform has differences that set them apart and might tempt you into switching. You might not align with Spotify’s ethics. You might want to connect better with your favourite artists. You might just be bored of consuming music in the same way. Whatever the reason, we’ve examined and compared the differences between alternative streaming platforms for you, and can introduce you to some lesser-known services that offer unique benefits.
The best Spotify alternatives at a glance:

Nina
Bandcamp
Apple Music
sonu.stream
Qobuz
Tidal
SoundCloud
Beatport
Marine Snow

Nina – Best platform for artist royalties
ninaprotocol.com
Nina is a refreshing open-source music streaming platform and store for devoted lovers of music, donning the bold slogan, ‘100% MUSIC’. In its own words, it’s “the only platform and toolkit for independent music designed to give artists total freedom and ownership of their work”. When artists upload their music to the site, they pay a one-time transaction fee. After this, Nina takes itself out of the picture, offering full control of their output and 100 per cent of royalties, taking no fee itself. It also hosts a ton of intriguing editorial content, if you’re looking to dig deeper into a scene you just stumbled across.
While the music on Nina was once only purchasable with a Solana wallet, after a rigorous second update in November 2023, traditional forms of payment are now accepted. The v2 update also introduced uploads of multi-track releases and a discovery feed.

Artist royalty payout rate: artists/labels receive 100% of royalties
Subscription price: None
Audio fidelity: MP3, WAV
Key features:

Open-source platform
Earn 100% of royalties
Flexible control over parameters
Discovery feed
Playlisting and editorial features

Find out more on Nina Protocol.
Bandcamp – Best for underground music discovery
Bandcamp application on a smartphone. Image: Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
It sounds obvious, and some might say old-school, but trust us: if you love music and can afford to do so, buy it. It’s singlehandedly the biggest way to support artists in 2024.
Bandcamp is an online music store and haven for independent artists, partly thanks to its Bandcamp Friday scheme, where artists, once a month, receive 100 per cent of royalties for their music. It’s not just a site for buying music, though: you can stream tracks online or from its app (by default, you can only stream a song in full up to three times unless you’ve bought it). The radio shows are also excellent — we only wish there were more of them.
Bandcamp also has a keen focus on new music discovery, with a fantastic regularly updated editorial section highlighting new, exciting music. The home page even includes a real-time carousel showing what releases are being purchased globally, potentially inspiring you to find music you would have never heard of.

Artist royalty payout rate: On average, 82% of each purchase goes to the artist/label
Subscription price: None
Audio fidelity: MP3, WAV, AIFF
Key features:

Artist-focussed, DIY user experience
100% of revenue goes to artist/label on Bandcamp Fridays
New music discovery features
Quality editorial section

Find out more at Bandcamp.
Apple Music – Best for spatial audio and radio shows

Right up there as one of the most-used music streaming services in 2024, Apple Music, though not perfect, is a strong alternative to Spotify, thanks to its royalty rate – $0.01 compared to Spotify’s $0.003 – $0.005 – and better audio quality. It prides itself on lossless audio and spatial audio, supported by Dolby Atmos, even teaming up with Boiler Room to offer exclusive immersive live DJ sets. Many users also praise Apple Music for its intuitive playlisting and library-organising features.
At $11 per month, you get a vast catalogue of music that rivals all other major platforms. You also get access to all of Apple Music’s exclusive — and often excellent — podcasts and radio shows, such as The Zane Lowe Show and Tim Sweeney’s Beats In Space.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.01 per stream
Subscription price: None
Audio fidelity: AAC (256 kbps), ALAC up to 24-bit/192 kHz, Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos
Key features:

Exclusive Apple content
Better royalty rate than Spotify
Lossless and immersive audio
100m+ songs
Ad-free

Find out more on Apple Music.
sonu.stream – Best for Web3 users
sonu.stream. Image: sonu.stream
Co-founded by Laura Jaramillo and producer TOKiMONSTA, sonu.stream uses Web3 technology, utilising blockchain to ensure fair compensation for its artists. Like Marine Snow, sonu.stream‘s not fully released to the world, but we recently spoke to its founders, who gave us a bit more information about the upcoming streaming service.
In our chat, Jaramillo emphasised the platform’s unique Web3 model, saying, “It allows you to create a strong foundation that decentralizes the permission for AI-generated music…People are disappointed in these giants and they see sonu.stream as an opportunity for change.”
Features:

Artist royalty payout rate: N/A
Subscription prices: N/A
Audio fidelity: N/A
Standout features:

Web3-powered streaming
sonu auctions
Protocol-generated rewards
No ownership transfer of music rights; artists retain full control
Biweekly streaming royalties payout

Find out more on sonu.stream.
Qobuz – Best for community
A user using Qobuz on a desktop
Qobuz is a serious contender to Spotify if you’re a passionate music fan seeking the feel of a record store when finding new music. It’s a premium music streaming service – leaning more into jazz and classical territories – that prides itself on high-fidelity audio listening, exclusive editorial content, and Qobuz Club. The latter is a social media-style platform where users can discuss and share music.
It’s not just a music streaming website – Qobuz is also a store with purchasable or downloadable high-res digital files available alongside online listening.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.04 per stream
Subscription prices:

Studio plan: £10.83/month
Sublime plan: £14.99/month

Audio fidelity: Lossless, FLAC (24-Bit up to 192 kHz)
Key features:

High-quality audio
100m tracks available
Exclusive editorial content
Passionate community on Qobuz Club

Learn more on Qobuz.
Tidal – Best for exclusive music

In 2015, Jay-Z splashed $56m on a Norwegian streaming service, rebranded it, and launched it as an “artist-owned” streaming service called Tidal. Nine years later, Tidal has had an interesting journey but has managed to establish a core user fanbase and attract artists with its satisfyingly high royalty payout rate.
Some of the biggest rap and R&B artists today, such as Ye, for example, choose to release their music exclusively on this streaming service. Beyoncé released her phenomenal LEMONADE album on Tidal and Rihanna, Jay-Z and Drake have also released albums exclusively onto the platform.
The exclusivity of Tidal is not just what attracts both artists and listeners to the streaming service. Tidal’s royalty rate is $0.0125 to $0.015 per stream which, compared to Spotify’s average of $0.004, is a steep improvement. Plus, Tidal builds a tight-knit community through engaging editorial content, from conversations with new artists about upcoming releases to reviews of gigs or look-backs on important music that has shaped music and its culture.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.0125 to $0.015 per stream
Subscription price:

HiFi: £10.99/month
HiFi Plus: £19.99/month

Audio fidelity: Up to 24-bit, 192 kHz
Key features:

Exclusive music
High-quality audio
Curated editorial content
Artist-centric approach

Find out more on Tidal.
SoundCloud – Best for up-and-coming artists and sharing your music

SoundCloud, which launched in 2007, started out as a music-sharing platform, later developing into its own streaming service. The platform lets you easily upload, promote, and share your music and DJ mixes, so you can reach global audiences directly and engage with them through comments and a message inbox. Because of this, SoundCloud has built up a dedicated community of listeners, producers, and – most notably – rappers, having birthed a sub-genre of rap called SoundCloud rap in and around 2016.
Compared to Spotify, SoundCloud offers more flexibility for independent artists to showcase their work and engage with fans without the need for label support. Since 2021, SoundCloud has featured a fan-powered royalty system, where artists are paid based on the actual listening habits of their fans, rather than overall listens being pooled up with major artists.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.0025 to $0.004 per stream (if artists sign up to SoundCloud For Artists)
Subscription price:

Free (with ads)
SoundCloud Go: £5.99/month (no ads)
SoundCloud Go+: £9.99/month (no ads)

Audio fidelity:

SoundCloud Go: 128kpbs MP3
SoundCloud Go+: 256kbps AAC

Key features:

Fan-powered royalties
Upload DJ mixes (3 hours max.)
Engagement with fans
Direct artist-to-listener model

Find out more on SoundCloud.
Beatport – Best for DJs

Beatport, founded in 2004, is a digital music store focused solely on electronic music. Beatport’s EDM-centred library is vast and varied, home to everything from drum ‘n’ bass to house, garage, techno, right through to trap, amapiano and more, offering niche sub-genes from each.
In 2019, Beatport expanded into streaming with the launch of Beatport LINK. It provides subscribers access to all of Beatport’s catalogue tracks and DJ mixes for streaming through web browsers or on your phone. Beatport LINK is integrated into modern DJ decks, such as the Pioneer CDJ-3000, giving you access to Beatport’s library directly from the decks without the need for a USB stick or, thanks to its offline streaming capabilities, Wi-Fi.
In 2021, Beatport launched its own iOS app, later expanding into Android. This condenses all of Beatport’s catalogue into a mobile-friendly format, letting you stream music, browse artist-curated playlists, and create unlimited playlists. The app is a handy solution for DJs who want to discover and be inspired by new music on the move, instead of sitting at a desk.

Artist royalty payout rate: $0.10 per stream
Subscription price:

Essential: $9.99/month
Advanced: $15.99/month

Audio fidelity: MP3, WAV, AIFF
Standout features:

Extensive dance music catalogue
DJ-friendly features (key, tempo, advanced filters etc.)
Stream via desktop or on smart phones
Stream tracks directly to DJ decks via Beatport LINK
No need for Wi-Fi when DJing with offline streaming

Find out more on Beatport.
One to watch: Marine Snow

Marine Snow is a streaming service that has been in the works for over three years and is set to officially launch very soon. We’ve been speaking to its lead creator, ex-Spotify employee Tony Lashley, about what the upcoming streaming platform will provide for artists. It certainly sounds like, if it takes off, it could change the streaming landscape.
One of the main exciting features of Marine Snow is its unique artist-focused take on usual streaming models. Marine Snow offers artists an upfront payment equal to 500,000 Spotify streams, and gives subscribers the option of a subscription-as-investment – if you choose to pay more than the minimum subscription rate, you’ll gain a stake in the platform. Marine Snow also rotates tracks exclusively for 90 days, guaranteeing each contributing artist a fixed share of revenue regardless of stream numbers.
In a recent interview with MusicTech, Lashley explained the platform’s shift towards artist empowerment: “You can only help artists as much as you can capture money or attention from consumers…you have to create new forms of value if you want to succeed.
“An artist can think they’ve written a really good song, and it can get 10,000 plays and it’s still a really good song, no matter how many plays it gets.”
Features:

Artist royalty payout rate: N/A
Subscription prices: N/A
Audio fidelity: N/A
Key features:

Upfront payment to artists
Gamified music discovery
90-day track rotation
Subscription-as-investment model

Read more on Marine Snow.
The post Best Spotify alternatives: Music streaming platforms to consider in 2024 appeared first on MusicTech.