Robinhood in talks with Crypto.com over prediction markets: WSJWhile prediction market companies in the US continue to face legal battles between state and federal authorities, Robinhood is reportedly considering expanding its services.

Warner Bros. lawsuit accuses Amazon of illegally poaching executivesThe lawsuit will likely renew debates about whether term employment agreements are enforceable under California. law

Team Repair Breaks Things to Teach People How to Fix ThemWould you buy a broken device, fix it, then return the repaired item? [Team Repair] hopes you will.
Many people would rather repair what they have than have to get a new device and deal with all the annoyances of shopping and getting used to a new item. The problem is, most people don’t have any experience fixing their broken electronics and are intimidated by the process. [Team Repair] has found that helping people through the process the first time is a big confidence boost, especially when they have a test piece to work with.
[Team Repair] started with workshops and now has a “Fixers Club” subscription box for 8-14 year olds where they will send a broken device every three months to fix. After the device is repaired, it gets sent back into Team Repair, or iFixit in the US, to be broken again and sent to the next fixer. For grownups, there is a similar smartphone repair kit, but it’s currently waitlisted. If you’re in the UK, they even have a classroom program if you want to recruit larger groups into your fixer corps.
Curious about other ways to get into repairing your own things? We don’t recommend starting with smart rings, but learning analog repairs like zippers or turning a laptop into a desktop could be good places to start?

FX-Mechanics MangoMango is a rubber step sequencer of up to eight lanes, each driving one effect. You draw blocks on a lane's strip; while the playhead is inside a block, that lane's effect is processing; outside it, the lane is transparent. So you paint when each effect happens, in time with the host, and the lanes stack into a chain from top to bottom. The character is seeded randomness. Effects that need a rhythmic rate don't take a fixed value: you weight how likely each note length is, and the actual rate is drawn per block. Every draw is a pure function of the seed, the lane and the block, so a pattern always plays back identically (in real time and in an offline bounce alike), and changing the seed re-rolls everything at once. Getting started Insert Mango on a track that already has sound going through it (it is an effect, not an instrument). Drag across empty space on a lane's strip to draw a block, then press play (the lane's effect fires while the playhead is inside it). Click the block to select it (highlighted): the right column shows that lane's effect knobs, and the block overrides field at the bottom lets you retune this one block with a line of text (see below). Change a lane's effect with the dropdown in its header; reorder lanes with the arrows (order is the processing chain); use M/S to mute/solo. Turn the Seed knob to re-roll every random choice at once; set Steps and the step size to size the grid. Demo video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsm9x_oHtCg Read More

Dystopian Waves makes DroX II Pro FREE for a limited time
Dystopian Waves has made DroX II Pro, its glitch and stutter audio effect, free for a limited time on Gumroad. The Pro version is currently listed as $0+ and 100% off, down from its regular $35 price. I do not see an expiry date on the Gumroad page, so it is probably best to grab [...]
View post: Dystopian Waves makes DroX II Pro FREE for a limited time

TIPS FROM A NARDCORE LEGEND We asked Head Cut drummer John Crerar to share his tips for fellow musicians. Crerar is such a pillar of the Ventura/Oxnard punk scene (dubbed “Nardcore”) that reuniting just some of his previous bands to mark his recent 50th birthday required two nights of stacked bills. On June 26-27, he performed with Head Cut and nine of his prior outfits in separate Ventura venues. Around 40 musicians travelled in to participate, and both shows sold out in advance.

“To get that many people to say, ‘yes, I’ll come back and play with you,’ meant a lot,” said Crerar. “Because that just means that the friendships I’ve made over the past 30 years are pretty strong.” Indeed, Crerar ranks the “JC50” reunion shows as the greatest achievement of a 32-year music career that’s included global touring and multiple record deals. (I attended one of the JC50 shows which, as well as an incredible lineup, epitomized musical community and mutual support.)

Crerar is both a singer and a drummer. He’s a deeply passionate musician, yet devoid of ego or pretense. A devoted husband and dad, he sees music, friendship, and community as almost indivisible. “I found out a long time ago that music kind of keeps me sane,” Crerar mulled. “I’ve never really thought about [longevity]—I just kept going!” 

His bands include The Missing 23rd (on vocals), the first Nardcore band to tour Europe and Japan; hard-giggin’ punk/stoner/metal outfit The Fucking Wrath (drums); Oxnard hardcore stalwarts Stalag 13 (vocals); and, more recently, standout post-punk/deathrock bands MAäSK, Detoxi and, currently, Head Cut (all on drums).

Get Involved

Especially in a smaller scene like Ventura/Oxnard (adjacent coastal communities some 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles), Crerar recommends that new musicians get out there, get involved, and support fellow bands. “That’s the way to get more shows,” said Crear. “People say ‘networking,’ but I just think it’s more like meeting friends.” 

When the teenage Crerar became aware of punk through skateboarding videos and then of Nardcore on his doorstep, he started not only attending shows but also working for a local promoter. “Here I am, a little kid going to the surf shop in Port Hueneme, and the singer from Ill Repute is selling me a skateboard and telling me all these cool stories about punk… and bands to check out,” he recalled. He quickly became so well known in Nardcore that he’s never had to formally audition for a band.

Practice With Others

Crerar is entirely self-taught, with much of his early learning done in rehearsals with his bands. “My friends started this band, Dick Circus. They didn’t really have a drummer, but the singer, her dad was the drummer of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and she had this little drum set,” he said. “I just figured it out from there.”

At first, Crerar learned drums by simply watching other drummers and playing along to records. His influences are mostly artists who he admires for both their music and their ethics, including The Cure’s Robert Smith, Ian MacKaye and his various bands, and Oxnard’s aforementioned hardcore veterans Ill Repute. 

Warm Up

In aggressive bands, singing and drumming are both physically demanding (which only makes Crerar’s 10 JC50 sets even more remarkable). Historically, his roles have required either relentlessly fast drumming or screamy vocals coupled with frenetic performance. “You’re yelling for a half-hour straight and running around being crazy,” Crerar explained. “It’s very tiring, just like playing drums is very tiring.”

Crerar recommends pre-performance warm-ups for both singers and drummers, as well as post-performance cool down exercises for vocalists. “Tour is the hard part, because when you try to do it every night, if you don’t do warm-ups and cool-downs, you’re gonna lose that voice quick.” Before the JC50 shows, Crerar used a saline nebulizer to coat his vocal cords before and after each singing set. 

Don’t Sweat Gear

Crerar takes a strictly pragmatic approach to equipment. He’s long accustomed to using other people’s drums and aware that shouty punk vocals don’t require pricey mics or state-of-the-art processing. “For the punk stuff that I’m doing, it doesn’t really matter… as long as it makes the sounds you need it to make,” he said. “You never know what you’re gonna get… just do the best with what you’ve got.”

Crerar usually brings his own throne, snare, and kick drum pedal to shows, as well as at least one cymbal stand (he plays a ride and two crashes and sometimes only two cymbal stands are provided). He’s had friends who’ve worked at Oxnard-based DW Drums, so has ended up playing their products, and interchangeably uses Sabian and Zildjian cymbals (“They’re all the same… as long as they’re not cracked”). When singing, he brings his own $100 Shure mic (he’s not even sure which model, probably an SM58), “because who knows who’s been spitting in [the house mic]… and I don’t want to break their mic.” 

Do It Yourself

While Crerar’s bands have collectively been on a plethora of indie labels, a throughline of his career has been a DIY approach. “I don’t want to wait for something to happen. You’ve got to make it happen yourself,” he explained. “I try to do as much on our own as we can, and if someone wants to come help, that’s awesome, as long as it feels good and the situation’s right.”

So, while you can find Fucking Wrath releases on Tee Pee Records and The Missing 23rd on at least seven different labels, Head Cut’s 2024 sophomore album Corazón Negro is on their own Head Cut Records, and The Missing 23rd’s new 10-inch EP of rediscovered 1996 recordings is also self-released.

Through all this, John Crerar has also worked at Salzer’s Records in Ventura, where he lately finds himself turning kids onto new music just as Ill Repute singer John Phaneuf did for him. “I hope I’m encouraging in that other people see what I’m doing and might want to do it,” he concluded. “Hopefully it has had some sort of impact on getting more people to play music, more people to book shows, and more people to put out records.”

instagram.com/head__cut

Photo credit: Albert MunozThe post TIPS FROM A NARDCORE LEGEND  first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Vochlea introduce DubBox Designed for producers and beatmakers who sketch ideas with ‘beatboxing’, DubBox detects a kick, snare and hi-hat sounds in a user’s voice, uses them to trigger drum samples in real time and then records, quantises and exports the result as an audio or MIDI file.

EU authorities include HTX exchange in Russian sanctionsThe exchange, already sanctioned by the UK, is now on a list of 18 entities “providing crypto-assets services or payment services“ in defiance of the EU’s measures against Russia.

Adema Signs with Cleopatra RecordsDate Signed: Winter 2026Label: Cleopatra RecordsBand Members: Tim Fluckey, lead vocals, guitar; Mike Ransom, lead guitar, backing vocals; Dave DeRoo, bass, backing vocalsType of Music: RockManagement: Worldwide Entertainment GroupPublicity: Caroline Galloway, M2M PR & Partnerships - caroline@m2mpr.comA&R: Worldwide Entertainment GroupWeb: ademaband.com

Adema has been entertaining audiences for more than a quarter century. In the band’s early days, it was the late Terry Lippman managing them, whose enviable résumé also boasts Matchbox Twenty, George Michael, and Melissa Manchester. Wanting someone to help shoulder the burden of elevating the young act, he hired Sandy Rizzo.

Everyone eventually went their separate ways, and the band experienced major changes. Conflicts and other projects led to numerous members coming and going, but not Tim Fluckey, who weathered all the drama. Throughout the years, he stayed in touch with Rizzo, even lending a hand during her 2016 induction into the RockGodz Hall of Fame. 

Signing with Cleopatra Records in 2024 heralded a new chapter for the band. Adema had gone without management for 16 years, but now they needed help. They subsequently reached out to Rizzo, now the Executive Vice President of WEG Talent Management Group. 

The decision for Rizzo to once more work with the nu metal act was an easy one, as she harbored little doubt the boys would put their noses to the grindstone. “She knows it’s going to be a good working relationship,” attests Fluckey. Likewise, the band never worried that going with WEG wouldn’t be the best decision. 

Adema’s members are jubilant knowing WEG will take over much of the grunt work. “They have a department for every little thing,” marvels Fluckey. “And they have the connections and time to do all that, which makes it easier for us to concentrate on why we’re in a band, which is to play and record music.” The guitarist’s advice for others seeking management is that they pick the team that feels like the best fit, even if doing so doesn’t make the most sense on paper. Expect Adema’s next album to arrive by the end of the year. 

“We’re excited to be with this company and working with Sandy again,” finishes Fluckey. “We’re feeling really lucky and blessed that people still care.” The post Adema Signs with Cleopatra Records first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Vietnam is looking to restrict social media for kids; here are the growing number of other countries doing the sameAustralia was the first country to issue a ban in late 2025, aiming to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, including cyberbullying, social media addiction, and exposure to predators.

Codeberg Bans Cryptocurrency and LLM-Generated Code ProjectsCommunity-led open source project hosting site Codeberg has formally announced that projects whose code is largely or fully machine-generated through LLMs and other ‘AI’ tools will no longer be welcome. This follows on the heels of a similar ban on cryptocurrency-related projects.
The community vote was on two issues, the first being the notion that scraping of project code for the use in LLMs should be forbidden, which was a motion that easily passed. The second motion was on disallowing projects whose code was substantially generated by LLMs like Claude, OpenAI Codex, and similar. This motion passed with 358 in favor versus 144 against.
In the earlier linked blog post the reasoning behind especially this second issue is expanded upon, covering not only ‘license whitewashing’, but also the direct and indirect hardware costs, with the expanding ‘AI’ datacenter hyperscaling having massively increased hardware costs for Codeberg over the past years, as the costs have been largely externalized.
Also covered is also the aspect of these LLM-based tools destroying the OSS community, which is something that is backed up by recent studies. Even if we ignore that such LLM-tools are destroying the cognitive abilities of its users, there’s an argument to be made that if LLM-scraping is disallowed, then it’s consistent to also not allow LLM-generated code.
In the Terms of Use you can see these changes, both for LLMs and for cryptocurrency projects.
Thanks to [mk-fg] for the tip.

Air-G Audio Air-G Dist PedalAir-G Dist Pedal is part of Air-G Audio's Guitar Collection: a growing set of individual pedals built on the open source work of Airwindows, Chris Johnson's long-running project known for some of the most distinctive free DSP code in the audio world. Each pedal is a focused, single-purpose effect aimed at guitar players, and further down the road they're meant to come together into a single unified pedalboard. The Dist Pedal is a distortion based on Density3 by Airwindows. Rather than hard clipping, Density3 saturates with a sine-based curve, so it stays round and musical, from a light crunch to dense, compact saturation. DRIVE sets the amount and character of the dirt, while PUSH (added by Air-G) drives the signal into the saturator: since Density3 reacts to how hot the incoming level is, this is what makes the pedal kick, and it also lets you clean up straight from your guitar's volume knob. HPF is a high-pass placed before the saturation, so it sets from which frequency up the sound breaks up, and DRY/WET blends the clean, full-range signal back underneath (kept genuinely clean, independent of PUSH): raise HPF and pull DRY/WET back, and the lows stay clean and tight while the mids and highs growl, which is especially handy on bass and for coloring the guitar tone. DRIVE VOL sets how loud the distorted signal sits, and an OUT knob (also added by Air-G) sets the final level to match bypass or push an amp harder. The footswitch is true bypass, tied to the host's own bypass. Although its interface is styled as a guitar pedal, the Dist Pedal works just as well on any source: individual instruments like pads, keys or bass, or full mix buses. --- Air-G Audio is a collection of plugins built on the open source code of Airwindows. The project is built around adding a graphical interface that makes the experience more comfortable and visual, along with a few features that expand the possible uses without straying from the original sound. The simplicity and lightness of Chris's code are the starting point and the guide. Thanks to Chris Johnson for making his work public and accessible. Air-G Audio exists because Airwindows exists. The Airwindows code used in this plugin is published under the MIT License. *Air-G Dist Pedal is free, no strings attached, same open spirit as Chris's own work. It also took real hours to build: designing, coding, testing, writing the manual. If it earns a spot on your board, a donation of any size makes a real difference in keeping this collection going. And if you want to support where it all comes from, Chris Johnson's Patreon is the most direct way to back Airwindows itself: patreon.com/airwindows. Available for Windows and Linux. System Requirements: - Windows 10 or higher (64-bit). - Linux with GLIBC 2.35 or higher (Ubuntu 22.04 / Linux Mint 21 or equivalent). *There's no macOS version yet (sorry! I don't have access to a Mac at the moment), but I hope to make one someday! All formats are VST3 64-bit. ***Windows note: the installer is not signed with a paid certificate, so SmartScreen may show a "Windows protected your PC" warning. Click "More info", then "Run anyway" to continue. This is expected and not a problem with the plugin. Read More

As GEMA awaits its Suno copyright verdict, the German collecting society launches ‘PLAI’ – a fully licensed dataset for training AI music toolsAI music transcription company Klangio is the dataset's first customer.
Source

Gliff is a FREE MIDI guitar translator for macOS and Windows
Gliff is a free guitar-based plugin for macOS and Windows that’s aimed at guitarists and keyboardists alike. So, there are two ways to approach this plugin: one is as a guitarist looking to create clean, polyphonic MIDI chord patterns that you can drag and drop into your project. The appeal might be that you’re a [...]
View post: Gliff is a FREE MIDI guitar translator for macOS and Windows

Why did inMusic lay off 100 employees from Native Instruments?Music technology conglomerate inMusic has allegedly laid off approximately 100 Native Instruments (NI) employees, according to inside reports. This massive job cut follows inMusic’s acquisition of Native Instruments in May.
Along with the job cuts, the companies under the NI umbrella now have new owners. iZotope belongs to Boris FX while Plugin Alliance and Brainworx have been reclaimed by original founder Dirk Ulrich.

READ MORE: Splice confirms staff layoffs and “strategic restructuring”: “These changes will help us move with greater focus and agility”

Per an anonymous Reddit post first reported by Synth Anatomy and shared in the NI subreddit, layoffs affected every department at NI. The author said the entire customer support team was let go, as inMusic’s support department covers all of its brands.
“The organisation is a mess, and I have little faith it will get better considering the individuals they’ve chosen to lead,” the post reads in part. “Customers don’t matter right now despite what you hear or read about the company or inMusic.”
Native Instruments declined to respond to MusicTech‘s request for comment.
At the time of the inMusic purchase, Native Instruments CEO Nick Williams said: “We have found a partner whose beliefs and ambitions align with ours.”
Back in 2019 and 2020, NI underwent another round of mass layoffs and restructuring before being acquired by the private equity firm Francisco Partners.
The latest round of alleged layoffs is a confusing move, given the positive interview recently given by inMusic’s Jack O’Donnell. “The future for NI, I can assure you, is very exciting, very bright, and very secure,” he said in the first few seconds of the video.

It’s currently unclear whether any Native Instruments employees from departments such as Maschine, Traktor and Kontrol have been laid of as part of this process. The music production community has speculated whether these NI categories will be among the first to be dissolved, since they have fierce competition within inMusic already – Akai‘s MPC, Denon DJ, Numark and M-Audio are all major rivals to these NI sub-brands.
NI had been struggling financially for years before inMusic moved to acquire the company. At the beginning of this year, NI entered preliminary insolvency proceedings. The inMusic purchase came less than four months later, so it’s likely the acquisition was laid out as part of a potential plan within the proceedings.
MusicTech will continue to report on this story as we learn more.
The post Why did inMusic lay off 100 employees from Native Instruments? appeared first on MusicTech.