“This was the place that kept a struggling musician like me from giving up”: Hans Zimmer becomes co-owner of BBC’s historic Maida Vale StudiosOscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer is now co-owner of the historic BBC Maida Vale studios, which has hosted sessions from the Beatles, to David Bowie and beyond.

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According to the BBC, the complex will remain a “centre for pioneering music-making” regardless of the change in ownership. Throughout the years, it has become a cornerstone of the BBC’s music output, including John Peel’s famous Radio 1 sessions, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and more.
Zimmer too has said he wants Maida Vale to continue to be “a place that inspires, teaches, technologically serves the arts and humanity, and gives the next generation the same opportunities I was given: to create and to never give up”.
As a result, the BBC Symphony Orchestra will be relocated to BBC’s new studios in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London in 2025.
“I still remember the strong pull, the desire to touch the walls, as if that would somehow allow me to connect to the artists whose extraordinary music had resonated against these walls on a daily basis,” explains Zimmer about his first visit to the studios 45 years ago.
“This was a place of revolutionary science in the service of art, this was a place that inspired you to give your best, where music was performed around the clock and art was taken seriously. For the people by the people.
“This was the place that kept a struggling musician like me from giving up.”
The other two co-owners are Love Actually and Cats producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, however it is not known how much each owner paid in the deal.
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Vote for our SXSW panel ‘Who Gives A Sh!t About Marketing Live Music’The SXSW PANELPICKER is open, and we need your vote for the “Who Gives A Sh!t About Marketing Live Music” panel. Anyone can sign up for a free SXSW account. Continue reading
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Can Taylor Swift and Beyoncé save the economy? What the data says about music tourismTatiana Cirisano of MIDiA Research looks at how concerts by big-name artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé boost tourism and stimulate local economies. Be sure to join Tatiana, her MIDIA. Continue reading
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The Weeknd will only ever do another feature if it’s with Daft Punk, he saysThe Weeknd has stated he would be keen to feature on a Daft Punk project if the iconic dance duo were to get back together.

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During a recent show in Warsaw as part of his After Hours Til Dawn tour, the Blinding Lights singer introduced a new song with Diddy called Another One of Me. “And I just wanna say, this is gonna be the last feature I ever do, ever in my career,” he told fans, “so I wanna perform it for you guys tonight.”
However, later, he took to Twitter to write, “the final feature… unless daft punk ever get back together.” The Weeknd, it seems, could be holding on for Daft Punk reunion just as much as the rest of us.

the final feature… unless daft punk ever get back together pic.twitter.com/shpRFz7nnt
— Abel Tesfaye (@theweeknd) August 11, 2023

Since the legendary dance duo’s departure in 2021, rumours have speculated as to whether Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo would ever don their robot helmets one more time.
This year, Todd Edwards stoked the flames by telling Zane Lowe, “I wouldn’t count it out”, when quizzed on a Daft Punk reunion. He went on to say that “the world needs more Daft Punks” and “there’s a lot of followers, but not a lot of… innovators”.
On their breakup, Bangalter recently told BBC Radio 6 “I’m relieved to look back and say ‘Okay, we didn’t mess up too much’”, adding that it “felt good” to bring things to an end.
Bangalter has been recalling many of Daft Punk’s key moments recently. It was also revealed that 1997’s Homework and 2001’s Discovery albums were recorded in a bedroom with an old-school JVC boombox.
The dream of a Daft Punk reunion goes on. While we longingly wait, The Weeknd plays at Wembley Stadium this Friday 19 August. Tickets can be bought at theweeknd.com.
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Internet Archive faces $412 million copyright infringement lawsuit from record labelsAn online music library including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong has become the target of a lawsuit filed by a number of major record labels.

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The Great 78 Project, a library on Internet Archive, which is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies and music, was created to preserve pre-1972 music. It consists of 2,749 tracks.
Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Capitol Records, and other labels have sued Internet Archive and its founder Brewster Kahle, alleging copyright infringement. It seeks damages of $150,000 per protected sound recording infringement, possibly exceeding a whopping $412 million, when legal costs and injunctive measures are factored in, according to Rolling Stone.
The labels have stated that the collection of songs breaches copyright by distributing protected sound recordings without permission. They argue that Internet Archive’s actions surpass preservation, offering unrestricted music access that disregards copyrights and artists’ rights.
This lawsuit is supported by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which stated to Rolling Stone: “The record company Plaintiffs bring this case to address Defendants’ industrial scale infringement of some of the most iconic recordings ever made – including classic works by Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and many more. Congress took decisive action to protect pre-1972 recordings in the Music Modernization Act.
“Defendants’ mass scale copying, streaming and distribution of the thousands of pre-1972 recordings identified in the complaint — all of which are commercially available on multiple legitimate streaming services – are blatant violations of those established rights. Just as Internet Archive’s supposed ‘emergency library’ of copyrighted books was recently ruled unlawful by a federal judge, its ‘Great 78’ project is yet another mass infringement scheme that has no basis in law.”
In June, Twitter was sued for copyright infringement by Sony Music, UMG and more after “rampant infringement” of copyrighted music. In this case, the labels are seeking damages of $250 million.
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How Travis Scott used Single + Shopify to livestream surprise concertDespite immense pressures and technical challenges, Single was able to work with Travis Scott’s team to bring an extraordinary livestream performance to the whole world, here’s how… by Single xyz. Continue reading
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Mixing Night Audio introduce LOLCOMP The eccentric-looking LOLCOMP offers a combination of compression and tone-shaping tools, and aims to provide users with a fast and intuitive way to find the sound they’re looking for.

“I’ve seen things that have extremely blown me away. I do worry about the future of art a bit”: Grimes – creator of AI music software Grimes AI – voices concerns over artificial intelligenceThere’s a good chance you’re getting bored of reading about artificial intelligence. But like it or not, the technology is here to stay.
It has shown signs of its potential to revolutionise the music world, and as a result has had prominent figures in the industry chiming in left, right and centre offering their opinions. And like any topic of such magnitude, the tech has both its supporters and opposers.

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Grimes is one artist who has fully embraced the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence, even launching her own AI software – Grimes AI – allowing users to mimic her voice in their own songs. And the software features a forward-thinking approach to royalty distribution, too, with revenue from songs generated divided 50/50 between Grimes and the creator.
Now, in a new interview with Wired, Grimes has spoken at length about AI in music, and where she thinks things are headed.
I do think AI is gonna be the next thing. I have a lot of opinions about how it should be pursued,” she says. “So another reason I’m here [in San Francisco] is that I’m trying to meet with all the people making generative AI music to try to convince them to do things in ways that are safe for the human psyche.”
When questioned on what she means by doing things that are “safe for the human psyche”, she replies: “We should go to the edge of creativity. But I think we should do it very carefully.
“The thing that freaks me out is that AI can remove incentives for learning. LLMs (large language models) are great, but I would maybe only have them in school. Is that something that I want my kids to have access to 100 percent of the time? Probably not.
“I want them to learn how to write; we are in a bit of a literacy crisis. That worries me a lot. Maybe that makes me sound old. But being able to read and write well deeply impacts the way you think.”
Then, when questioned on whether a piece of AI-generated music can have soul, she responds, cryptically: “Yes. I signed an NDA, so I’m not allowed to say, but I’ve seen things that have extremely blown me away. I do worry about the future of art a bit.”
Her comments echo those of Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am, who recently reminded people that AI is still in its relative infancy.
“You know it’s gonna make better songs than you,” he said. “It’s Pac-Man right now, we ain’t even got to Halo. We’re in freakin’ Super Mario Bros., we ain’t even got to Call of Duty yet. This thing’s gonna make better songs than you soon.”
Elsewhere in the Wired interview, on a lighter note, Grimes is asked which recording session in history she’d go back and see if she could, to which she replies: “I would go see Beethoven. But that’s not a recording session. I’d try to check if Beethoven was actually deaf. But the Ninth, that’d be sick. That’s what I like. I know it’s basic, but I love, love Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. So I’d probably go see that, I guess.”
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The new Stylophone Beat is an ultra-affordable stylus-operated drum machine small enough to fit in your pocketDubreq has launched a new affordable pocket-sized drum machine, the Stylophone Beat.

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The battery-powered drum machine is a redesign of the original Stylophone Beatbox, offering the same capabilities, but in a pocket-sized form.
The engine consists of 4 drum kits and four bass drums featuring everything from classic sounds to “real” beatbox samples, which are spread out on a silver metal plate that you can play using the accompanying stylus. This also allows users to mix all eight sounds and create unique grooves.
The key difference between the full powered Beatbox, is that there’s no drum sequencer, but there is a looper, allowing you to capture the sounds in drum loops. In addition to this is an automatic tempo lock, and the option to record multiple layers.
You can hear a demo of the drum machine below:

The Beat drum machine also features a built-in-speaker on the top side of the unit and an audio output to be plugged into external sources.
Considering the small size, the Beat drum machine is retailing for the modest price of £29.95/$39.95.
You can sign up to pre-order now at Stylophone.
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GC Audio announce Analog Riser GC Audio's latest hardware unit houses two channels of EQ, compression, saturation and limiting, and is capable of operating as a dual mono, stereo, or mid-side processor. 

Amazon’s devices chief is stepping down this yearDavid Limp is set to step down from his role as head of Amazon’s consumer devices division later this year. Amazon has confirmed the news with TechCrunch, following a Wall Street Journal report.
Limp has been the company’s Senior Vice President of devices and services for more than 13 years. In the role he has headed up the division that includes the Echo/Alexa, along with products like Amazon’s line of Fire tablets.
The move follows widespread reports that its massive bets on the smart home haven’t paid off the way it was clearly hoping. In November, the division was reported to be operating at a staggering $5 billion a year revenue loss. It was among those departments heavily hit by widespread layoffs. All told, Amazon has slashed around 27,000 roles, all told, as CEO Andy Jassy has implemented cost cutting measures amid economic headwinds.
“Dave will remain in his role for the next few months, and we’ll announce his successor in the coming weeks,” Jassy notes. “I remain excited and quite optimistic about the products and services we’re building in Devices and Services—we’re at the relative beginning of what’s possible and what I believe these businesses will add for customers and the company.
Nevertheless, Jassy and co. have insisted that company is committed long term to consumer hardware generally and the Echo line specifically. Last week, Amazon revealed that Alexa head Rohit Prasad would be heading up expanded efforts to remain competitive in white hot generative AI and large language model efforts.
Limp addressed the news in a blog post today, stating that, “It’s time.”
He adds,
I have been doing a version of this job (building and shipping consumer electronics) on and off for 30+ years. I love it, but I also want look into the future through a different lens. I am not sure what that future is right now, with the notable exception that it won’t be in the consumer electronics space. I will be around for a few more months and we have a lot to deliver on with our fall products. Given that, you should expect the same bug reports from me for a little while more.
The company is set to reveal a news lineup of devices on September 20, at an event in Arlington, Virginia – the site of its secondary HQ2 offices.
Prior to his nearly 14 years at Amazon, Limp worked at Apple and Palm.
“Under Dave’s leadership, Amazon has become one of the world’s leading innovators in building devices and underlying services that customers love,” says Jassy. “From Kindle readers to Fire TV to Alexa and Echo, over the past decade and a half we’ve been able to invent and keep improving experiences that help make our customers’ lives better every day.”

Blessthefall Hollow Bodies 10th Year Anniversary Repress ReviewPhoenix, Arizona’s Blessthefall are releasing 10-year anniversary repressings of their fourth release, Hollow Bodies. I was shipped the “Wide Black” variant (pictured above), and it’s no frills. No thrills. Just a quality anniversary press with O.G. liner notes! The wax grooves are cut well (what else is new from Craft re-presses?) and the album came flat as my abs before becoming a father. 

While listening to the record, I was reading the liner notes and learned that Pierce The Veil’s Vic Fuentes helped write “See You On The Outside!” I knew August Burn Red’s Jake Luhrs was featured on “Carry On” as well as Stick To Your Guns’ Jesse Barnett on “Youngbloods,” but I wasn’t aware Fuentes played a role. Would have been fun to be a fly on that wall!

Speaking of liner notes, did I ever tell you about the time I was tasked with solving the “liner notes crisis of 2009?” Yup. For my final presentation to earn a useless music business degree, that was my prompt. You see, young bucks, 2009 was at the height of digital music. CDs were still selling, but iTunes was at its peak–this was before you could pay for streaming the music you want (I know, I’ll let that sink in). So what was my solution, you ask? Bring vinyl back to the masses and develop supported digital art! NO! NOT LIKE NFTs! EVERYONE HATES NFTs …. Different… but yeah, ew. Needless to say, the class grilled me hard about physical media being dead, though the professor, a wax collector himself, thought I was onto something. If only I invested in all these Fearless first pressings back then. Well not this one. Apparently this one goes for like $30 on Discogs, but you get the idea. 

Anyway, if you’re seeking a review of the songwriting, you’ll need to travel back to 2013 and snag an Alternative Press… or check out the album’s wiki). I’m only here to play gatekeeper of poor-quality pressings, and my black variant spins pretty damn smoothly! So I say buy away!

The band is also releasing additional variants through their own website, on tour, and via Revolver, Craft and Urban Outfitters which are set to ship August 18th.

Kraken Ventures to raise $100M in second fund, with focus on ‘early stage founders’The organization will also reserve a “significant portion” of the fund for follow-on investments and long-term entrepreneurial support.

Tributes pour in for entertainment industry legend Clarence Avant, the ‘Godfather Of Black Music’Avant passed away, aged 92, at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday, August 13
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How acts can fully monetise their setlistThe following op-ed comes from long-time music industry journalist Eamonn Forde
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