AIAIAI’s new 168g TMA-2 DJ XE headphones are a DJ’s dreamHeadphone brand AIAIAI has introduced the new TMA-2 DJ XE headphones, made for DJs with a focus on flexibility, mobility, and versatility.

READ MORE: Best headphones 2023: 10 of the best all-purpose wired headphones under $500

If you’re a DJ, sound quality and noise cancellation are at the top of the list of priorities for a pair of headphones. However, you’ll know weight is also important, especially if you’re dancing your way through a marathon set. Thankfully, this new pair weighs only 168g. That’s more than 20g less than AIAIAI’s flagship TMA-2s, which come in at 190g.
AIAIAI TMA-2 DJ XE
The TMA-2 DJ XE headphones feature a balanced sound offered as a result of the brand’s 40mm signature bio-cellulose diaphragm. This also reduces distortion.
DJs can also get that all-important enhanced isolation with soft on-ear foam cushions with PU leather covering. Thanks to the thick material, leather offers better passive noise isolation and improves the bass response, which is important for feeling those kick drums in a club setting.
As with all AIAIAI headphones, the TMA-2 DJ XE are modular. You can customise your pair by mixing and matching the earpads, cables, and speaker units with different types offered on other AIAIAI headphone models. This doesn’t just mean you can build a perfect pair of headphones to cater to your needs, it also means you’re not forking out money on a whole pair each time you need an upgrade. Plus, it results in less waste for the planet.
If parts of your headphones are looking tired, but you’re still waiting on your DJ fee from that dodgy promoter, AIAIAI is looking out for you again. The brand also offers a unique lifetime trade-in service for swapping used or non-functional parts.
“The process of making music today is more dynamic than ever.” Says Frederik Jørgensen, AIAIAI Founder. “Creators demand to pursue inspiration wherever and whenever it strikes. Our XE line is designed for this – more versatile, cross-functional, and lightweight – ready for any scenario.”
AIAIAI TMA-2 DJ XE headphones are $155.90. Check them out at Thomann.
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ReverbNation Lives! Bandlab just gave the legacy platform a makeoverOnce a leading platform for D..I.Y artist services, ReverbNation has been quiet in recent years, particularly since its November 2021 acquisition by BandLab Technologies. Today BandLab unveiled fresh branding for. Continue reading
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What could Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset mean for music production?It feels far-fetched, doesn’t it – mixed-reality goggles being useful to music producers and DJs? But Apple wasted no time at WWDC23 in showing that you can slap on the Vision Pro headset and start scratching virtual vinyl with an augmented-reality version of Algoriddim’s djay app.
The dust has settled since WWDC, but with the Vision Pro’s “infinite screen real estate,” gestural input systems and “advanced audio experiences,” as Apple says, it feels like more music production opportunities in spatial computing are on the horizon.
READ MORE: What does AI mastering mean for artists, engineers, and music?
Algoriddim djay
Ready Studio One
Candidly, creating music in a lonely mixed-reality bubble initially feels like it paints a dismal, dystopian picture. Collaborating with your peers becomes a completely different experience, and wearing that headset for long production sessions with headphones seems uncomfortable. And will this thing really be able to run massive projects with chains of plugins and virtual instruments? Let’s not even think about that price tag just yet.
Let’s face it, though, many producers often do create in isolation, whether in a bedroom or a studio. And mixed-reality music-making apps aren’t new – SynthVR gives you a modular rig in a virtual space, while Tribe XR gives you access to emulations of high-end Pioneer DJ gear to hone and show off your DJ skills with other users. This month, Korg officially released Gadget VR, a virtual 360-degree studio environment complete with synths, drum machines, MIDI piano rolls, and other arrangement features.
Apple’s clearly not shying away from more hands-on experiences with Logic Pro, either. Last month, it announced Logic Pro for iPad, which is almost a complete port of the desktop DAW to iPadOS. One might wager that, if Vision Pro is a success, the brand will look to ‘spatialise’ its flagship creator apps, Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro.

But whatever Vision Pro can provide, the question is, ‘Who actually cares?’ Who’s going to drop $3,499 on a headset to get a few extra screens and some quirky music apps? Not me. Maybe not you. But maybe Jesse Ray Ernster.
Mixing Reality
With production and engineering credits for the likes of Doja Cat, Kanye West, and Burna Boy, Jesse has spent endless hours mixing and recording in music studios. And you can bet that he’s found plenty of workflow papercuts that a Vision Pro, or another XR headset, may well remedy.
Image: Michelle Mosqueda
“Immediately, this can replace the need for a display monitor in the room, which has always caused significant issues for me,” he says. “I’m either experiencing a bizarre reflection from the monitor in front of me, or I have a sore neck from looking at it across the room or down on the floor; I just can’t seem to win!”
Though Jesse’s home workspace is fairly snug, he says that he’s “excited for a reality where I can sit down to mix from the comfort of my living room couch, mix in a simulation of a million-dollar space, and get great results and mix approvals while doing it.
“No more upright chair, sore back, and picky sweet spot between the speakers in my flawed room. Rather, a consistent true north reference source that is easily accessible and comfortable for creating with.”
Virtual monitoring environments are already available, too. Waves’ Abbey Road Studio 3, for example, is a plugin that puts you in – you guessed it – a virtual representation of Abbey Road’s Studio Three, where you can mix in the same ‘room’ that Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Amy Winehouse and Kanye West have been produced. Meanwhile, dearVR can put you in a variety of virtual studio spaces to test your mixes.
Image: Michelle Mosqueda
With head-tracking and a more tactile experience with these plugins, XR headsets could completely change up your mixing workflow. This will be especially true when mixing in immersive formats, such as Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio.
On this point, Jesse adds that he uses Logic Pro to produce all of his Dolby Atmos mixes.
“Between the [Vision Pro] and the forward trajectory of Logic and spatial audio, it will be incredible to have creative writing sessions in virtual studios with virtual interactive instruments, equipment, consoles, and so on.”
Still, Jesse isn’t expecting to transport his entire mixing process into VR. “[This is] not necessarily a replacement for the real experiences in real rooms, but certainly inspiring to think about.”
Meta music-making
Metaverse maestro VNCCII is already inspired by the potential of mixed-reality applications in music production. Conducted by Australia’s Sami Tauber, the VNCCII project has been a means of exploring the vast possibilities in an ever-unfolding virtual landscape – including building the ‘Holoship’ recording studio.
Naturally, VNCCII has much to gain from the launch of a mass-appeal XR headset.

“The Apple Vision Pro and Vision OS launch is super exciting for the VNCCII project and positive for the entire XR/VR/AR ecosystem,” Tauber says. “It unlocks a cornucopia of opportunities for creators and developers.
“I would love to see real-time music production sessions and mixed-reality concerts with the Apple Vision Pro headset,” continues Tauber. “Imagine stepping inside VNCCII’s Holoship music studio environment and providing real-time feedback or co-producing with VNCCII.”
Maybe mixed reality won’t be so isolated after all?

However, the real challenge, Tauber says, is ensuring that audio developers are swift to adapt to Vision Pro and tailor apps to the headset. “Developers must create augmented reality and virtual reality apps specific to the headset and they must apply for the Apple vision pro developer kit.
“I already use Apple’s ARKit for animating the face mocap of my VNCCII avatar in Unreal Engine with the Apple iPhone’s 52 blend shapes for LiveLink. Remarkably, Apple will update ARKit and RealityKit to suit the XR headset – ARkit is a renowned tool in the XR space that enables world tracking, image anchoring, scene reconstruction, plane estimation, and hand tracking to build immersive experiences.”
Tauber adds that generative AI for music and mixed-reality apps will be “super-compelling content” for the Vision Pro. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos will also play a crucial role in audiovisual experiences – Tauber stresses that the audio format will form the “nucleus” of mixed reality.
Tribal headset
VNCCII’s utopia of shared virtual experiences is already underway in one corner of the mixed-reality universe. Tribe XR is currently the leading brand in VR DJing, offering budding disc jockeys the chance to practice with the most sought-after decks and mixers in the industry. With accurate gesture tracking, users can move the faders and pots of a simulated DJ mixer and turntables to blend tracks as in real life. You can even invite friends to DJ and dance along with you.

In the words of co-founder Tom Impallomeni, Tribe XR is “on a mission to turn aspiring DJs and performers into professionals – essentially, give beginners all the tools, the virtual studio access and community access to teachers, workshops and so on.
“Then, we get them to the point where they can actually perform in the real world.”
Currently, Tribe XR is available on Meta Quest, Oculus Rift, Pico, Viveport and Steam VR platforms. That means it’s available right now – you certainly don’t have to wait for the Vision Pro to drop to start mixing tracks. Better yet, you can pick up headsets like the Meta Quest 2 for a tenth of the price of the Vision Pro’s projected price.
So why is Apple’s mixed-reality venture important for companies like Tribe XR?
“It’s a great signal that Apple is seeing the broader spatial computing market as not just games, but music technology, and learning and so on,” says Impallomeni.
Image: Apple
“People who want to use CDJs, and use them in Tribe XR and learn on them…part of the reason they want [use Tribe XR] that is because they don’t have, you know, £6,000 to £10,000 to spend on two decks and mixer or four decks and mixer. And so [Tribe XR] is an entry point for them to learn on this equipment.”
Even still, at $3,499, the Vision Pro combined with Tribe XR is still more affordable than a venue-standard DJing setup. Two Pioneer DJ CDJ-3000 players and a DJM-A9 mixer will set you back around $7,800. And in the virtual space of Tribe XR, you don’t have to rent out a studio or worry about upsetting the neighbours with blistering jump-up drum ‘n’ bass at 1 am.
With a Pioneer DJ partnership, Tribe XR’s arsenal of mixers and players is abundant, too. Want to swap from a DJM-A9 to a V10 six-channel mixer? Easy. Want another two CDJ-3000s in the cockpit? Done.
Image: Tribe XR
“It’s not a toy,” continues Impallomeni. “This is something that’s going to teach you [DJing]… We didn’t build Tribe, as a replacement for the CDJ. We built Tribe as a way to democratise access to this equipment.”
Tribe XR might sound like it’s serving a small, niche market, but Impallomeni cites rumours of Meta selling over 20 million Quest headsets. With Quest 3 arriving later this year, Impallomeni expects this audience to grow – and the Tribe platform to grow alongside it.
“[The market] will grow fairly quickly. At WWDC, Apple presented a very clear vision of why spatial computing is important. And, you know, we think that spatial computing is going to enable Tribe XR and other learning platforms… Apple is now a legit contender and it’s going to put a lot of pressure on Meta. So now we’re looking at Meta and thinking, ‘Okay, guys, now it’s time to step up with your products.’ And that’s exactly what the market needs. We need the big players investing heavily in the space because that’s what’s gonna help us get to real mass-market scale.”
Image: Tribe XR
Tribe XR’s potential audience and demographic may grow, but will die-hard DJs be willing to adapt to new technologies?
“The DJ market doesn’t move that quickly,” says the Tribe XR co-founder. “So if you look at the time it took to go from vinyl to digital DJing, and for CDJs to no longer need CDs, these things have taken time. Often there’s been scepticism, but what we’re finding is that once people see the value in new technologies, they can get really creative with them.
“With the current mixers and CDJs, you can do incredible things; you can pretty much produce music on the fly. There’s all this new technology, like stem separation and all that sort of stuff, that’s really adding to the creative armoury of a DJ. So. So, we’re bullish about the future of technology. But we do see that once DJs see value, they really embrace it.”
The Vision
Apple’s headset isn’t going to immediately change how we listen to or create music. It’s unlikely that producers will scramble to get their hands on the first version when it drops. The price alone is alienating for most of us – VNCCII agrees that the “monstrous” price tag will “automatically price out mass accessibility to the broader population.” She hopes, however, that the price will become more accessible over time; “like any new fancy toy, it charges a premium for accessibility.”
Image: Apple
Still, the potential of the Vision Pro is palpable, with tech that has surpassed many enthusiasts’ expectations. “I’m impressed with the high-performance Apple M2/R1 chips and the precise head and hand tracking, which powers real-time 3D generated avatars for immersive presence and connection,” continues VNCCII.
Impallomeni adds that Vision Pro’s hand tracking is an intriguing feature: “It’s basically eye tracking, which enables [developers] to sort of simplify the UX. So you can see where you’re looking, and you can pinch and grab audio… DJing is a good showcase for hand tracking within these headsets.”
Even with its impressive feature set, the Vision Pro will be a tough sell. Will Rick Rubin and Mark Ronson really be donning mixed-reality headsets in two years? Sceptics are already bemused by spatial audio mixes, so spatial computing is unlikely to take off so quickly. But, as Impallomeni said, it may well be worth embracing mixed reality, rather than shrugging it off – perhaps we’ll find these invaluable means of expanding our creativity aren’t so far-fetched after all.
Learn more about music technology trends. Find out more about the Vision Pro at apple.com. 
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Roland announce Zenology Pro Collection The Zenology Pro Collection bundles Roland's flagship soft synth with recreations of their Juno-106, Jupiter-8, SH-201, JD-800 and JX-8P instruments.

Primavera Sound will not return to Madrid in 2024, organisers confirmPrimavera Sound will not return to Madrid in 2024, organisers have confirmed.

READ MORE: 165% increase in average number of songwriters on hits since 1970s, study shows

While the festival will continue to take place in it’s founding home, Barcelona, the festival will not take place in Madrid next year.
“Although both the city of Madrid and the whole region welcomed us with open arms, with a warmth that was mirrored in the institutions, the cultural agents and of course the audience,” says the festival’s director Almudena Heredero, “the external difficulties that the festival had to face in the final stretch of the pre-production gave rise to one of the most complicated events that Primavera Sound has ever had to face.”
Last year marked the first time the festival took place in two locations, with the same line-up performing in both Spanish cities – similar to Leeds and Reading festival in the UK.
Rumours have circulated about the future of the festival in Madrid after complications last year. Now festival organisers have confirmed its fate.
The first day of the Madrid site was cancelled due to adverse weather, and there were also issues at the Barcelona site including overcrowding, access to water, Covid “casualties”, and other logistical problems.
“As a consequence, although the evaluation of the festival was more than satisfactory on a musical level,” he continued. “The expectations we had were not fulfilled and the experience of the festivalgoers due to several logistical aspects was not the desired one.”
“And that leads us to understand that, now, the conditions are not right for Madrid to have a Primavera Sound as it deserves in 2024”.
According to Alfonso Lanza, director of Primavera Sound, the team will continue to explore Madrid as a possible Primavera location.
Primavera Sound will return to Barcelona from 30 May to 2 June 2024. Tickets are on sale now. 
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Making sense of MIDiA’s global music forecastsTop MIDiA analyst Mark Mulligan looks at global music market forecasting and explains the methodology and most importantly, how to interpret them. by Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Music Industry Blog. Continue reading
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Todd Edwards unpacks the floppy disk containing all 70 samples for Daft Punk’s Face To FaceDaft Punk fans have been searching for the source of the samples used in the duo’s 2001 track, Face To Face for many years. Now, Todd Edwards has thrown the actual floppy disk containing the samples onto the table – boy, is it a winning hand.

READ MORE: Thomas Bangalter on Daft Punk split: “The last thing I would want to be, in 2023, is a robot”

For those that have been following this lengthy Daft Punk sampling quest, it’s a huge revelation. That’s because the track Face To Face features a whopping 70 samples, as Edwards once confirmed in an interview, which many die-hard Daft Punk fans have been searching for many years.
Here’s the track in all its glory for those who don’t know:

Now, in an Instagram post, the regular Daft Punk collaborator has put the pursuit to bed by presenting the actual floppy disk which houses the samples. He also refers to a recent TikTok Live session in which he played through some of the samples.
“Did you ever wonder why on Daft Punk’s Discovery album most of the samples they used for their songs were from disco and R&B, except for one song in particular, Face To Face, where they used folk music and soft rock?” Says Edwards in the Instagram post.
“That’s because most of the samples came from my sample library. The thing is, for years before, I did sample disco and R&B but I got kind of tired of it…
“The day Thomas [Bangalter] and I worked on the track, the night before I sampled up 70 samples, they came in the next day and they sampled up 70 samples. And all those samples were recorded on this zip disk.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Todd Edwards (@toddedwards3000)

One comment reads: “YouTubers who have [been] breaking down the samples for a decade and a half are about to lose their minds right now”. They’re not wrong.
Now, if you’re intrigued as to how these samples were re-contextualised by Edwards and the iconic dance duo, a YouTuber by the name of undrtune recently claimed to have dug out all the samples used in the track. Check out undrtune’s impressive Daft Punk Face To Face sample breakdown video below:

Edwards, who later provided vocals for Daft Punk’s 2013 track Fragments of Time, has been discussing the French duo, who broke up in 2021, a lot recently. In a podcast, he called his collaboration with them “life-changing”, later saying he “wouldn’t count out” a potential Daft Punk reunion. The sample hunt is over, but the dream of a reunion is not.
Daft Punk have been recently celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Random Access Memories album in a series of interviews with collaborators and fans. Check them out via their YouTube channel.
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6 Gen-Z Rappers leading Cutecore RapA new generation of young female rappers is leaning into the pink and sparkly cutecore aesthetic popularized on TikTok. by Jaelani Turner-Williams from the Chartmetric Blog The world is gearing. Continue reading
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Minimal Audio release Fuse Compressor Fuse Compressor has been designed to provide a quick and simple way of setting up multi-band compressor, but still offers plenty of in-depth control for those who wish to fine-tune the results. 

A major record deal after three years: How did MARGE do it?With just three years of experience, no label releases, less than 1,000 SoundCloud followers and no gigs, how did Believe In Me, a piano-centric house track, land MARGE a major record deal with Sony?

READ MORE: Plug-ins I Actually Use: TIBASKO

The 20-year-old producer, hailing from Hull, UK, picked up music production in 2020 when DJing was put on hold. MARGE wasted no time in conjuring a modest setup, staying up late watching YouTube tutorials, and uploading tracks to SoundCloud. It was this passion and an understanding of “the way you’re feeling” while making a song that made MARGE’s music sound so sweet.
He’s clearly doing something right. Believe In Me has pricked the ears of Roger Sanchez, Chris Lake, TSHA, Oliver Heldens, Martin Garrix, Claptone, and Calvin Harris, who have all been playing the track in their sets.
So, what is it exactly?

Hey, MARGE. Congrats on your first official release, Believe In Me. How do you feel about the support it’s garnered already?
Thank you! The support has been unreal. It feels surreal seeing support from huge names I look up to like Danny Howard, Calvin Harris, MK, Don Diablo, Martin Garrix, Oliver Heldens and so many more. These are names I’ve grown up listening to through the years and I still can’t believe they’re fans of my work!
In addition, hearing my song being played on stations like Kiss FM, TROS FM, Fun Radio and RTE 2FM over the past few weeks has ramped up my motivation and love for producing even more.
This success hasn’t been luck. Why do you think the track has done so well?
Believe in Me was the first track I made not trying to fit in with trends. I let my gut take me through producing the entire song, not second-guessing myself too much, which I think translated perfectly into the final product.
Where was Believe In Me made?
I currently only have a small setup in my room, where Believe in Me and every other track of mine was produced. I love the look of studios on @studiotime and I think the quality of my tracks would definitely benefit from it, but while I’m still capable of performing as I am being a bedroom producer is good enough for me.
MARGE. Image: Joe Magowan
What’s in this small setup?
I’ve upgraded through the years with helpful bits of hardware (Alesis V Mini MIDI Keyboard, Akai Fire Workpad, Sony monitors and Technics headphones) but nothing overly fancy just yet.
The MIDI keyboard was my first purchase and makes riffing ideas much easier like a mini piano you can have sat on your desk at arms reach. Workflow is super important to me, as I’m often flooded with ideas for a full track at once and it’s a pain forgetting one of those ideas while I’m sketching out another.
The Akai Fire is like a physical workstation that can make producing and mixing a lot easier. I will admit though, it just sits looking pretty on my desk for the most part, as I’ve not put much time into using it to its full capability.
The monitors and headphones are the only actual necessity really. Being able to hear your song at proper quality is super important.
The stock FL processing plugins have been a blessing to have with a beginner budget – as part of the Image-Line FL Studio package, they allow me to customise, clean and tighten my sounds to my liking.

And what about plugins? Any that you’ve really enjoyed using recently?
Xfer‘s Serum can be found in every one of my projects. I can create almost any sound I want or any sound the track needs and I think that plays a huge part in Serum’s quality. The ability to replicate an old-school synthesizer within my DAW is helpful. And it’s fun to play around with the two oscillators, seeing what sound comes out the other end.
Korg M1 is a classic VST that I use for one of my piano layers and can be found in tons of classic dance tracks, perfect for the vibe I was going for with Believe in Me. This VST also has the organ bass preset featured in Robin S – Show Me Love, which I’ve used countless times as a layer or main feature in my other tracks like Falling and Chemistry. It would be wrong not to shout out Korg for the number of times I’ve used it.
I love adding an atmosphere and spacey soundscape to my tracks, and Endless Smile by Dada Life allows me to create these atmospheres with just a single knob. Although it’s not 100 per cent necessary, it’s definitely an effect plugin I’d recommend if you’re trying to achieve a huge washout effect in your track.
The way you’re feeling while producing the track will carry through to the end product, and the listeners will feel it.
Where’s the vocal sample from? How do you source your samples and does it take a lot of digging to find the right one?
I picked this vocal sample up from a royalty-free Splice pack – definitely struck gold with it! After some post-processing to tidy it up, I added strong reverb to enhance the power of the vocal, which I think helped push the emotion through the track.
Vocal samples can be a pain to find. At the moment, this is the issue I’m finding with my tracks. I’m sure this is the same for many new producers – if the sample is good, chances are it’s been used tons already. There are things you can do to make your sample more unique, but nothing will ever beat original vocals – I hope, with time, vocalists will be happy to reach out and work with me, to help me achieve my vision for future tracks.

What piece of advice would you give to anyone hoping to achieve the same sudden success that you have?
Don’t force your music, work off your passion – producing should be fun. The way you’re feeling while producing the track will carry through to the end product, and the listeners will feel it. If you’re truly passionate about producing, you’ll spend every spare second learning and/or creating, while loving every second of it.
What’s the most useful piece of advice you’ve been given, production-wise?
One piece of advice I was given that really stuck with me was: ‘Don’t polish a turd’. This is funny but was super helpful for me – focus on the songwriting and the flow of the track before trying to mix it all in. Trying to mix a badly written track is demotivating and you’ll likely fall out of love with it before you finish it.
Check out MARGE’s tracks and give him a follow on his Soundcloud
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Beatport Group announces $150,000 Annual Diversity + Parity FundThe Beatport Group has announced that it is opening applications for grants to its annual Diversity + Parity Fund. First launched in 2022, the initiative is designed to support organisations that focus on underrepresented groups and promote diversity within the music industry.

READ MORE: 165% increase in average number of songwriters on hits since 1970s, study shows

The fund will offer financial support, editorial exposure, and marketing across Beatport’s social media platforms to help organisations increase their impact and reach a wider audience. Organisations that share a similar dedication to amplifying underrepresented voices in the music industry are encouraged to submit an application through the Diversity + Parity Fund.
This is the second year Beatport has funded organisations whose mission is to increase diversity within the electronic music community. Last year the company distributed $100,000 to three organisations – Lady Of The House, Future Female Sounds and #FORTHEMUSIC.
Notably, this year sees Beatport increase the Diversity + Parity Fund by 50% to $150,000. To encourage participation from a wider pool of organisations (including emerging or grassroots initiatives), Beatport has introduced two separate kinds of grants this year — one for smaller organisations ($3,000 to $15,000) and one for larger organisations ($15,001 to $30,000).
Beatport will also be working with like-minded partner companies to increase the amount of opportunities and capital invested in these opportunities.
“We believe in the power of music to unite people from all backgrounds, and it is our responsibility to ensure that the music industry reflects the diversity of the world we live in,” says Sofia Ilyas, Chief Community Officer of The Beatport Group.
“Through the Diversity + Parity Fund, we are committed to accelerating change and creating a more inclusive and equitable music industry for everyone. We invite other companies in our community to join us in our mission to increase parity and diversity in music.”
Applications open on Tuesday, 25 July at 12pm GMT and closes on 22 August at 12pm GMT.
For more details and submission guidelines, head to Beatport’s official website.
The post Beatport Group announces $150,000 Annual Diversity + Parity Fund appeared first on MusicTech.

Wolfgang Van Halen Discusses Mammoth, Stadium Tours, Songwriting Over ShreddingWolfgang Van Halen spoke with AllMusic shortly before the release of Mammoth II, discussing the new album, touring with some of the biggest bands, and if there are any plans to unlock the vault of unreleased music by his father, the legendary Eddie Van Halen.

Snap’s revenue woes continue but earnings yield a few bright spotsSnap just reported its quarterly earnings and it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Snapchat’s parent company brought in $1.07 billion during Q2 — up from last quarter but a year-over-year dip. Snap saw its first revenue decline as a public company in Q1, marking a 7% drop in sales from the previous year. At the time, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said that the shift did not reflect the company’s ambitions.
While revenue is trending down, Snapchat’s daily active users perked up in Q2, up 14% year-over-year to 397 million.
Like its peers, Snap is still contending with a decline in advertising revenue stemming from intense competition from rivals like TikTok and Instagram and changes to Apple’s app privacy policies that threw social media companies for a loop when first introduced.
To keep its platform fresh and its users engaged, Snapchat introduced buzzy new AI features in recent months, with some cordoned off specifically for its paid subscribers. Snap’s AI chatbot My AI is now woven into the app’s group chats, place recommendations and Lens suggestions.
A year ago, Snapchat introduced paid subscriptions, charging users $3.99 a month for a collection of premium perks. Snap’s premium service Snapchat+ — a hub for “exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features” — has now collected more than 4 million paid subscribers.
Paid memberships and premium tiers were once anathema to social media companies hellbent on squeezing every ad dollar out of their users, but that sentiment has shifted in recent years — particularly after Apple’s policy changes limited how closely platforms could track user behavior.

While parents worry, teens are bullying Snapchat AI

Trademark attorney predicts legal fights ahead with Twitter's rebrand to XAccording to Josh Gerben, the social media platform could be embroiled in lawsuits over its 'X' branding for years, costing upwards of millions of dollars.

PLATOON & THE GRAMMY MUSEUM INVITE YOU TO: "Family Time - Arrullos Mexicanos"PLATOON presents ARRULLOS MEXICANOS:

An afternoon of fun with live music from the collection of modern lullabies. The event will feature fun activities like family yoga, face painting for kids, a DJ set by the Mexican Institute of Sound, and an interactive performance by Tia Leah's Neighborhood.

WHEN:

Saturday, July 29, 2023

12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

WHERE:

GRAMMY MUSEUM® L.A. Live

800 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA

For tickets and more info click here.