MUSICIANS’ UNION SUES UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP AND WARNER MUSIC GROUPThe American Federation of Music (AFM), the union for session musicians, has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group (WMG). The AFM alleges that the two record labels have licensed recordings to prominent artificial intelligence (A.I.) music generator companies Suno and Udio and have failed to pay or give credit to AFM members who performed on those recordings.

On June 5, 2026, AFM filed its lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint focuses on deals the two labels made with the two A.I. companies which the union claims caused the “New Use” provision in its collective bargaining agreement to be activated. According to the union, this provision required the record labels to pay their members when their recordings are put to a new commercial use. The union further asserts the settlements made money for the labels but failed to do so for the session musicians who performed on the recordings.

The union is seeking monetary damages as well as an order that the labels disclose which recordings were used in the A.I. training sets. 

According to the complaint:“The AFM brings this lawsuit because defendants, two of the largest music companies in the world, have licensed sound recordings on which AFM represented musicians have worked, without compensation or credit, to A.I. companies. At the same time, they have refused to provide information to the AFM about which recordings and what work is being licensed.”

In 2024, UMG, WMG, and Sony Music first sued Suno and Udio claiming that the A.I. companies committed enormous copyright infringement by training their A.I. models on thousands of songs without authorization. 

The labels claim that the deals with A.I. companies that allow them to train their A.I. models on the labels’ catalogs are needed to create an A.I. system that protects and pays compensation for artists.

In October 2025, UMG settled with Udio. The settlement provided compensation and a license agreement for a new A.I. music platform to begin in 2026.

WMG also settled with Udio in November of 2025. In addition, WMG settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against Suno. These settlements will permit the A.I. companies to utilize licensed music from the record labels in their A.I. models.

Sony Music has not settled with Udio or Suno and is not a party to the lawsuit filed by AFM.

According to plaintiff’s complaint, “While the defendants protected their own interests and created a significant source of new revenue with their retrospective settlements and prospective licenses, they have refused to compensate the musicians whose work —created with their own instruments and through their creativity, and hard work- is fed into A.I. machines for profit.”

One would think this is the type of case that will settle.

GLENN T. LITWAK is a veteran entertainment attorney based in Santa Monica, CA. He has represented platinum selling recording artists, GRAMMY-winning music producers, hit songwriters, management and production companies, music publishers and independent record labels. Litwak is also a frequent speaker at music industry conferences around the country, such as South by Southwest and the Billboard Music in Film and TV Conference. Litwak has been selected as a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyer magazine for 2022-2025. Email Litwak at gtllaw59@gmail.com or visit glennlitwak.com.

This article is a very brief overview of the subject matter and does not constitute legal advice.The post MUSICIANS’ UNION SUES UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP AND WARNER MUSIC GROUP first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Strategy posts $8.2B Q2 loss as Bitcoin slump drives unrealized lossesThe Bitcoin treasury company said it has built a $3.75 billion cash reserve to support preferred stock payouts following the launch of its BTC monetization program.

Judge says Trump admin still lacks evidence for Anthropic ‘supply-chain risk’ labelA federal judge said the Trump administration has not presented enough evidence to justify labeling Anthropic a supply-chain risk, casting doubt on the government's ban on its AI technology.

Fixing a JMicron-Based M.2 USB Enclosure That Stopped WorkingAs useful as USB-to-M.2 SSD adapters are, sometimes you come across a bit of a dud. A case in point is the Orico-branded TCM2-C3 that features both an attractive clear case and in its earlier revisions a JMicron controller-based circuit that apparently degrades over time, causing erratic boot behavior. After implementing a fix a few years ago, [Mark Furneaux] can happily report that the thus fixed enclosures are still working.
These faulty board revisions feature the JMicron JMS583 controller IC, which has a 1.0V core voltage input pin. Apparently to save power, Orico designed the board to target the minimum ~-0.95V core voltage per the datasheet. Apparently due to component drift or degradation, this lower core voltage is after a while often not enough any more to start the controller, which thus translates into an unresponsive USB device and presumably some panic about lost data.
Although [Mark] doesn’t describe the fix in detail, it entails bumping up this core voltage to something closer to the nominal 1.0V, which restores functionality at the cost of presumably a measurable amount of extra heat production by said controller.
Later versions of the Orico TCM2-C3 enclosure switched from this JMicron controller to a Realtek one, which so far appears to be noticeably more reliable. Although Orico kept the same model name, the transparent enclosure makes it at least a snap to see which revision you are dealing with.

DT 275 Pro from beyerdynamic The latest headphones to join the beyerdynamic range have been designed to tackle everything from location video shoots and field recording to high-SPL live-sound duties.

Release Title:
Ссора с головой
Main Artist:
Pchelsh
Feature Artist:
Velidl
Release Date:
21/07/2026
Primary Genre:
Dance / Electro Pop
Secondary Genre:
Pop
https://publme.lnk.to/459579-
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #pop #dance #electronic

ZL Audio ZL Spectrum EqualizerZL Spectrum Equalizer is a dynamic spectrum equalizer plugin with the following key features: Unmatched Versatility: Sculpt sound with 9 filter types, 5 stereo modes, 7 variable slopes, and up to 24 linear-phase frequency bands. Spectrum Dynamics: Experience precise frequency-domain dynamic processing that tracks and controls resonances across the spectrum, with adjustable threshold, attack, release, and knee width. Powerful Engine: Tailor behavior and latency with different spectrum resolution settings, side-chain smoothing, and frequency-dependent attack/release skewing, all powered by a high-performance FFT engine. Intuitive Workflow: Achieve fast, fluid equalization with a carefully designed interface featuring an interactive spectrum graph, smart collision detection, and smooth animations. Please visit the website for more information. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries. Read More

Universal Music Group generated $3.83bn in Q2, up 13.3% YoY – driven by Noah Kahan, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, and Olivia DeanUniversal Music Group generated revenues of EUR €3.294 billion (USD $3.83bn) across all of its divisions (including recorded music, publishing, and more) in Q2 (the three months ending June 30, 2026). That’s according to UMG‘s fresh set of quarterly results, published today (July 30). They reveal that UMG’s overall Q2 revenue grew 13.3% YoY at … Continued
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Manu Riga releases Drift Ritual, a FREE cinematic synth for macOS and Windows
Drift Ritual is a new synth plugin from Manu Riga, and you can download it for free now. The plugin is available in AU and VST formats for macOS and Windows. The developer calls this plugin an organic drift synthesizer, and that about sums up the core character of Drift Ritual. It’s about sounds that [...]
View post: Manu Riga releases Drift Ritual, a FREE cinematic synth for macOS and Windows

SSL unveil the Odyssey console A year on from the launch of the Oracle, SSL have revealed a new flagship console which they say redefines what is possible in analogue production.

Danalogue uses vintage synths to create alien ensemblesWith a stage name like Danalogue, you’d hope that London-based producer Dan Leavers conjures rich synth sounds with a host of prized analogue studio gear. Thankfully, he does. His new album, Teleportations, is a prime showcase of Leavers’ talent for building luscious synthscapes, infusing elements of jazz and space disco — a characteristic found in his work as one-half of Soccer96 and as a member of The Comet Is Coming. The 10-track LP is bubbling with sci-fi themes, even arriving with its own mythology. It’s also positioned as a response to the “digital overload” of current times, inviting listeners to think of “imagination as a radical act.”
In this outing of Studio Files, Danalogue explains how he finds inspiration from synthesizer giants such as Wendy Carlos, why he’s so obsessed with vintage gear, and why you should try more “no-strings-attached unrecorded jams”.
Teleportations comes with its own sci-fi mythology and short story about astral travel and consciousness. Can you talk us through how that world took shape and how it steered the music you made?
Danalogue: It all started in a little synth studio in Paris. I took a walk and discovered the French illustrator Moebius through the window of a comic book shop. The shop was closed, so I could only have a tantalising glimpse of this psychedelic otherworldly planet, but it set my mind racing, unlocking the inspiration for building a sonic world of an imagined exoplanet, which then led to travelling between different meta spaces as a means of exploring my psyche and processing emotions through the sounds and structures.
Teleportations by Danalogue
Teleportations was built around a largely vintage analogue setup — the Juno-60, SH-09, Jupiter-4, Oberheim and old samplers. Walk us through how that rig shaped the record, and which machine ended up doing the most work.
D: I love the tactile feel of synths, and moving faders around to craft your own sounds, trying to make the sound in your imagination or sometimes get a surprise. The Roland Juno and SH-09 are my main axes. I’ve travelled the world with them and have a deep relationship with them both. I was keen to try out other studio spaces and try different synths. The Jupiter 4 and Oberheim OB-X8 were in Paris and blew my mind a little bit with the mysterious qualities each one had. It’s hard to remember, but in the end, possibly the SH-101 I used the most, as it sits right next to me in my studio going through the space echo, so it’s easy to reach for. I feel like I can make so many different sounds on it too.

You gravitate towards these older instruments because of their limitations, right? Can you talk more about that, and give us an example from the album where a constraint forced a better production decision?
D: It’s hard to say what a better production decision is! I tend to make fairly rogue or intuitive decisions based upon what gets me amped up, which isn’t necessarily a case of better, more a frequency of resonance that I want to emit for some reason. I love old synths because often they have a simplicity to them, and every knob does something fairly immediate and fun, rather than multi-edit screens and assignable knobs — I don’t really have the patience or personality for that. The old visual aesthetic also looks really cool, which inspires me to want to play, and they sound kind of gooey and colourful…a bit dank and filthy sometimes as well.
Tell us a bit more about your studio.
D: My spot is in East London. So for years I had bits and pieces everywhere, at friends’ houses, in my bedroom and at this place called the Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston. I always dreamed of putting it all together in one room, so I’m super grateful to have this place. I have made it so it’s almost all ready to go at the drop of a hat, including recording drums, and I mainly use it for recording my own bits and mixing and producing for others too. I also sometimes have friends over to jam real loud late at night, trying to remember that ‘playing’ music is playing, you know? Sometimes a no-strings-attached unrecorded jam is a sacrifice to the music gods, and you learn something along the way or rekindle a love with something.

What’s your latest gear purchase?
D: I just got this piece called Chaos Engine, which is awesome! It’s got 5 oscillators triggered by these sort of old school computer keys, and they all combine with a chaos knob to create unpredictable resonances; it sounds a bit like Silver Apple, pure direct oscillators. It was recommended to me by Malcolm Catto when I was at his studio, and it’s really good fun, and curiously cheap as well. It’s great to have a synth that’s removed from associating with piano keys.
What’s the most underrated piece of gear in your studio and why?
D: I have this cool old synth by Jen called the Piano73; it was left to me by the previous producer from the studio called Simbad, who kindly hooked me up with the space and the synth. It’s a humble keyboard, but it has an inbuilt phaser and a piercing attack, a bit like a cosmic harpsichord; playing it is always a good idea.
I love the eerie and charming sounds in Mother of Mars. How much of your music is just experimenting with synth patches until something sounds right, versus dialling in exactly what feels right for a concept?
D: So Mother of Mars is a little clue to the synth I used for every sound on that track. I basically wanted to make a love letter to that keyboard and combine different arpeggios that weren’t synced in time but had an organic connection, sort of building the sounds visually, sort of like a painting of a landscape of a liminal space. I do sometimes have a sound in mind, but so often if you just freak the sliders around you can find something better than you could if you were too controlling; the synths always reward playfulness.

You’ve cited Joe Meek, Wendy Carlos, Tomita, Laurie Spiegel, Mort Garson among your influences. What did you actually take from them into Teleportations?
D: I pull different inspiration from different characters. With Wendy Carlos (plus Tomita and Mort Garson, to be fair), it was the idea of building a whole track from layers of synthesizers, and almost making a little orchestra of different sounds, and expressing yourself entirely from synths. So a track like Arrival at Rho Ophiuchi isn’t a million miles away from Switched on Bach, but rather than it being a classical piece, I’m trying to create a kind of alien ensemble.
Is there any particular moment in the album that stands out to you, from a sound design and production perspective?
D: The middle of Moebius Triptych stands out; it has this melody line that I double-tracked on the SH-09, and it’s so melted and warm and gooey. I also ran the Juno through a Red Panda Particle pedal on that to create pitched delays, which were great to automate in and out. The connection to the emotional aspect of being alive was pretty close on that section. I used this Roland flanger on the hats and ride of the drums and made a sort of synth cowbell through a spring reverb, which I was quite happy with. I then tried to make a guitar solo sound similar to Robert Fripp on the Prophet 10, which I was quite chuffed with.

What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?
D: That there’s “a way to do it”. Somebody is always telling you how to create, like there are rules. Like, “You have to write every day” or “You have to use hardware”, or “You have to use software”, or “You can’t run a tape machine channel insanely into the reds until it distorts making a bass note”. I especially found this when I was younger and older studio engineers would just be saying what you couldn’t or shouldn’t do the whole time.
I reckon everyone has their sound to make and their soul to express and their version of creativity, so whenever anyone says something absolute, I just switch off. Do it your own way! And also, the people you want to collaborate with will gravitate towards you when you do your own style, like when Snapped Ankles ask me to mix their album, they referenced some very saturated filthy lo-fi tracks I’d done with my band Soccer96 — I was like, “Really?!  You want it like this?!”

Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career?
D: Too many to count. I’ve been blessed with different mentors growing up who saw how insanely obsessed I was with music and have helped me out. The producer Capitol K took me under his wing when I was first in London, and we shared a studio for many years. He showed me some wicked things with EQ and compression, the more detailed subtractive parametric EQing and more pragmatic compressing, to complement the colourful, exciting additive stuff that I was doing at the time; a way to find a real balanced mix. He also introduced me to the Eventide Harmonizer H3000 and Lexicon reverb unit that I bought doubles of when I got my own studio — almost every preset is a winner. He showed me so many things, also how to carefully and methodically comp vocals, lots of engineering chops, and the general mentality of keeping a studio in good order.
 
The post Danalogue uses vintage synths to create alien ensembles appeared first on MusicTech.

Jean-Michel Jarre has written his first book – and its a love letter to rare synths and the history of electronic musicJean-Michel Jarre – the Legendary French composer and producer who played electronic music for an estimated 3.5 million people in Moscow one night in 1997 – is releasing his first book.
It’s called Machines: A History of Electronic Music, and it’s written through the lens of his vast, unmatched collection of music-making apparatuses.

READ MORE: “On a personal creative level, it’s how we got to Random Access Memories”: Thomas Bangalter on Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy score

The volume contains images of over 130 electronic and electro-acoustic instruments, from classic modular synthesizers to machines that were only manufactured one time. In the book, Jarre will use each one to represent the techniques that led to electronic music becoming the powerhouse it is today, as well as the cultural movements that supported its rise.
The story begins all the way back in 1913 with The Art of Noises, Luigi Russolo’s Futurist manifesto that argued for a bold new approach to music-making. Moving on, other historical benchmarks covered include the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with the book ending on modern advancements such as AI.
As Jarre has been a pioneer of the genre for over 50 years (he is now a UNESCO Ambassador for Education, Science, and Culture), the book also goes deep into his own storied career from his fascination with reel-to-reel tape machines as a child, to his earliest official teachings under Pierre Schaeffer at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris, to performing live stream events during the pandemic.
But many of his peers contribute as well. Trance legend Armin van Buuren, Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode, Gillian Gilbert of New Order, Nicolas Godin of Air, techno icon Richie Hawtin, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran all share their thoughts on electronic music throughout the book.
‘Machines: A History of Electronic Music’ will be available 24 November via Thames & Hudson. Head to Thames & Hudson USA to preorder for $65.
The post Jean-Michel Jarre has written his first book – and its a love letter to rare synths and the history of electronic music appeared first on MusicTech.

“On a personal creative level, it’s how we got to Random Access Memories”: Thomas Bangalter on Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy scoreBefore their official retirement in 2021, Daft Punk were known for their mysterious presentation as much as they were for their unmatched electronic hooks. The two members, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, practically never showed their faces in public. When they accepted their Album of the Year Grammy in 2014 for Random Access Memories, they donned their iconic robot helmets.

Well, during a new interview on the A24 podcast, Bangalter admits that until that album, their creative process was just as shrouded. It took them engaging with the vast collaborative process of writing for an 85-piece orchestra on Tron: Legacy to open things up.
“Before Tron, all the music we had made was just the two of us in my bedroom, and on a very super intimate level, not letting anyone in the process, even until it’s mastered,” Bangalter says. “The benefit of the Tron score, on a very personal creative level, was how we got from Tron to Random Access Memories.”

READ MORE: Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter admits that scoring Tron: Legacy was at times “depressing” and “limiting”

The proof is in the pudding in terms of how collaboration influenced Random Access Memories. While all three previous Daft Punk albums were completely without features, the final album had a star-studded cast including Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas, Panda Bear, and even fellow pioneer of electronic music Giorgio Moroder.
Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were actually working on Random Access Memories before Tron: Legacy, but they were initially unhappy with the demos. Scoring a movie and seeing how numerous musicians could contribute to a larger whole expanded their vision for the album.
“Tron was this kind of collaborative process… film work,” says Bangalter. “That’s what Random Access Memories was – I really consider that Random Access Memories was like a film without cameras, basically the entire process of it. And somehow, at the same time, Tron happened in the middle of this process.”
“After the Tron thing, there were all these demos, and we were like ‘OK – maybe we can go to LA and have these amazing session musicians turn it into something.”
Thomas Bangalter’s new ballet soundtrack, Mirage – Ballet for 16 Dancers, is out now.

The post “On a personal creative level, it’s how we got to Random Access Memories”: Thomas Bangalter on Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy score appeared first on MusicTech.

Flame Sound Analogue Drums ($39 value) is FREE for BPB readers until Sunday
Flame Sound is offering Analogue Drums, a $39 collection of analog drum machine samples, as a free download for BPB readers until Sunday, August 2nd (23:59 CEST). Yesterday, I released VATRA, the first Flame Sound plugin, and it’s been a huge deal for me after almost two years of development. To celebrate VATRA finally being [...]
View post: Flame Sound Analogue Drums ($39 value) is FREE for BPB readers until Sunday

UVI Rumble complements your most trusted synths, but should it do more?Rumble is a bold new member of the prestigious UVI family of software synthesizers. The French developer is known for its flagship synth plugin Falcon and an impressive range of sample-based instruments, analogue-modelling synths, and effects. Rumble is a brave new venture into a multiband synthesis concept inspired by modern production workflows.

READ MORE: Arturia Pigments 7 review: “Almost a no-brainer at $199”

The design cleverly uses Rumble’s three sound layers across the frequency spectrum with two adjustable band splits dividing the lows, mids, and highs. This allows you to build complex, composite sounds, with the flexibility to reshape the individual layers and expand each one across the entire spectrum, depending on what suits your production.
Created with ex-Native Instruments designer Efflam Le Bivic, Rumble looks both intriguing and somehow familiar at the same time, with intelligent use of symbols and superb attention to detail. Once you move on past its dashing good looks, Rumble is a creative instrument that is refreshing to use, and although it can sound like it in a few moves, it’s not trying to be vintage in any way.

The Rumble in the…
Because Rumble’s workflow revolves around switching between its three layers, it makes sense that all controls are accessible in a single-screen interface. This is achieved in fine style, and as you move from one band to the next, the respective Oscillator, Shaper, and FX sections change to reflect the settings of the body, character, or air band you’ve selected.
As you work your way through the patch library’s 10 distinctive categories, a simple workflow becomes apparent that allows you to mute the bands you don’t require as you populate your track with sounds. Automation is made easy, with the patch-specific macro controls that range from basic filtering and effects sends to complete timbre transformation.
Before you dive into more advanced editing of the individual layers, you can set the two crossover points, choose between eight different multiband compression modes, and adjust a four-band EQ. The EQ follows the same production-friendly workflow, letting you treat and shape the entire sound with the purpose of fitting it into your mix. Each band can also be soloed, so you can focus on the finer details of the layer before hearing it in context.
There is a wide range of sound generation and shaping tools, including nine different oscillator modes ranging from virtual analogue and samples to kick drum membrane modeling, wavetable, and FM engines. Then, there are 10 shaping modes, with various clipping, wavefolding, and ring modulation algorithms, as well as a global dual-filter section with six filter types.
Meanwhile, a choice of ten different effects can be applied on a global or per-layer basis, which means you can use one effect for each band or a chain of three effects over the entire sound. Each of these macro effects processors is also linked to a separate feedback loop, which gives it the ability to self-resonate, which is ideal for creating tonally rich distortion effects.
Presets. Image: Press
UVI Rumble’s deep, dark underbelly
When you peruse Rumble’s modulation controls for the first time, the interface actually resembles a household synth plugin like Pigments and presents a vast array of ways to manipulate the various parameters. To design the way your MIDI keyboard interacts with Rumble, the velocity and keyboard tracking features can be mapped with nodes on a graph. This allows you to orchestrate the sound around your performance approach, which appears useful for commercial music or motion picture scoring.
For detailed shaping, three envelopes have curve controls for the attack, decay, and release parameters, and there is a one-shot mode for drum synthesis applications. In addition, there are four basic LFOs with individual routing and a quad LFO mod source that uses the sum of all four LFOs. Then, there are two multi-segment envelopes with a range of preset shapes and patterns, and the ability to save and recall your own custom settings. There are also three random generators with three operating modes, an analogue drift module, and an extensive mod matrix that gives you a complete overview of all your modulation routings.
While Rumble’s modulation section sounds intimidating, it’s actually really easy to find your way around. As you click and hold on a mod source, the interface lights up with all the potential destinations, which is both a practical and aesthetically pleasing touch. Also, if you don’t want to move past basic envelope shaping, more complex modulation sections are conveniently hidden from view, which avoids confusion, and the modulation panel can be collapsed for a streamlined look.
Rumble’s powerful sound creation platform is not particularly resource-economical, however, and I struggle to run it smoothly on an M2 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM. Regardless of what spec UVI states as the minimum, I recommend running an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro with at least 16GB RAM, or you simply won’t enjoy the experience, as there will be latency at every turn, and loading patches will become laggy.
Modulation. Image: Press
Can UVI Rumble replace your favourite synth?
Releasing a synth plugin that is intended to be used monophonically for the most part is an incredibly brave move, but the UVI sound design team has really done itself proud, with a phenomenal sound library that can inspire you in so many creative directions. However, Rumble’s adaptability and polyphonic mode allow you to use it for so much more than just leads and bass.
Rumble has an incredibly producer-centric workflow, but it also offers far more sound design potential than most plugins marketed as bass synths. The multiband approach has been executed to perfection, with just the right parameters available on a per-layer and global basis, providing an impressive balance of micro and broad spectrum sound manipulation.
Rumble has been created for the workflows of producers in modern EDM and commercial music genres, but the flexibility of the multiband platform allows you to turn a lead into a pad in a few clicks. One could argue that it lacks extensive effects racks and sequencers like Pigments or Serum, but this would alter the cohesive single-screen interface, turning Rumble into something else.
As amazing as Rumble is as an instrument, its $199 price tag does let it down, because it simply isn’t in the same league as Arturia Pigments, which is already a well-established part of our musical landscape.
If UVI had made Rumble just $50 cheaper, it would have made it an exciting new prospect. However, as things stand, it remains a complement to the mainstay synth plugins like Omnisphere, Serum, and Pigments, rather than a complete replacement.

Key features

AU, AAX, VST3, standalone. NKS compatible.
3-band synthesis engine
9 different Oscillator Modes
Dual filter section with 6 filter types
Preset library with 500 patches
Per-band waveshaping with 10 shaping modes and 10 effect types
Deep modulation
Multiband compression and EQ

The post UVI Rumble complements your most trusted synths, but should it do more? appeared first on MusicTech.