It’s time for streaming services to act on AI musicThe following MBW Views op/ed comes from Ed Newton-Rex, CEO of the ethical generative AI non-profit, Fairly Trained
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‘Japan’s UGC monetization is starting late but growing rapidly.’MBW’s World Leaders series meets Alan Swarts, CEO of Orfium Japan
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Novation Launchkey MK4 series looks pretty powerful — and pretty affordableIs it MIDI controller season? Following Arturia’s drop of the masterful KeyLab MK3 this week, Focusrite Novation has announced the Novation Launchkey MK4, updating the series from its powerful 2020 incarnation. What’s new? A lot, actually.
The Launchkey MK4 series comprises six MIDI keyboards, ranging from the dinky Launchkey Mini 25 up to the desk-filling Launchkey 61. Naturally, the number beside each model indicates the number of keys on each controller. The standout features include compatibility with all major DAWs, a generative arpeggiator, chord and scale modes, polyphonic aftertouch on each drum pad, high-quality keypads, and a step sequencer for Ableton Live. You’ll also get a bundle of plugins with each purchase — more on that shortly.
When looking for a new MIDI controller, you probably want one that feels authentic, not like a cheap keyboard that happens to connect to your laptop. Novation reckons it’s nailed that feeling, saying it looks, feels and plays like an instrument that you can truly get hands-on with. To keep your eyes off the laptop screen, the Launchkey MK4 comes with OLED displays to quickly reference the virtual instrument you’re using, plus endless encoders to exactly dial in your desired settings
Each keyboard boasts eight of these assignable encoders, with the 49 and 61 key models featuring an additional nine faders. This means you can tweak your DAW or plugins pretty easily; if you’re using a major DAW, you won’t need to set up your MIDI mapping either — it’s automatic. You can, of course, customise your MIDI maps to control any facet of your software with these controllers.

For more creative performances, you can use the 16 velocity-sensitive pads found on all models. These all feature polyphonic aftertouch, too, so it’s not just drums you can bang out on these — you can play rich, evolving chords from virtual instruments, or use them to trigger samples in grid-based software. Novation says that the pads are made with a “patented design that delivers increased responsiveness than standard FSR drum pads.”
You can let the Launchkey assist you in your performances, too. The generative arpeggiator is reportedly an improvement from the Launchkey MK3, and the Chord feature will help you deploy quick chords with Fixed Chord, User Chord and Chord Maps modes. There’s also a Chord Detector, which will show you the chord you’re playing on the OLED display, which seems quite useful. Scale mode, meanwhile, will lock notes on the keyboard to the selected scale so you’ll never play out of key.
OK — onto the software. You actually get a decent bundle with each purchase: Ableton Live 12 Lite, which is a stripped-back version of Ableton Live; Klevgrand plugins including LUXE R0verb and Slammer, which are all beloved for their quirkiness and creative potential; GForce Software’s Oberheim SEM, OB-EZ and AXXESS for some vintage synth flavours; Orchestral Tools’ Parallel Orchestral Bundle for those cinematic and classical sounds; and Melodics, which offers bespoke keyboard lessons for musicians of all levels to help you get to grips with the Launchkey.
One thing to note: there’s the Launchkey and the Launchkey Mini. The Mini keyboards are available in 37- and 25-key sizes, and the major differences include smaller synth-action keys, and touch strips that replace the mod and pitch wheels.
Not bad, right? Well, we’ll be publishing a review of the series in the next few days to tell you how it really performs, but if you’re convinced already, here’s the price of each model.

Launchkey Mini 25: £110/$120/€110
Launchkey Mini 37: £140/$150/€142
Launchkey 25: £170/$180/€168
Launchkey 37: £200/$210/€193
Launchkey 49: £230/$250/€226
Launchkey 61: £280/$300/€277

You can order the keyboards from Thomann, Zzounds and Novation now.
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A timeline of Martin Shkreli and the lost Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli made headlines this week when he was ordered by a judge to return copies he’d made of Wu-Tang Clan’s ultra-rare Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album.
Shkreli has long been a controversial figure, after Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company he was CEO of at the time, bought the manufacturing licence for the antiparasitic drug Daraprim in 2015 and raised its price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

READ MORE: Behringer 2024: Every synth, drum machine and controller Behringer is currently working on

The same year, Shkreli purchased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a somewhat mythical 31-track hip-hop album of which only one copy existed at the time. 
In 2017, Shkreli was found guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018, and later forced to forfeit his assets. One of them was Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which was auctioned by the US government to NFT collective PleasrDAO for $4 million. But after he livestreamed the album on X earlier this year, Shkreli revealed himself to still be in possession of copies of the album. A breach of his forfeiture order, Shkreli has been ordered to hand over any copies of the album he owns by the end of this week.
Below, we chart the timeline of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, how it got into and out of Shkreli’s hands, and where it is now.
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin recorded – 2007 – 2013
The 7th studio album by Wu-Tang Clan, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was recorded in secret over a period of six years between 2007 and 2013. Only one 2CD copy was pressed in 2014, which was then stored in a secure vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, until its sale a year later.
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin purchased by Martin Shkreli for $2 million – 2015
After a year in storage at the Royal Mansour Hotel, the album was sold via online auction house Paddle8 in 2015 to winning bidder Martin Shkreli, who reportedly paid $2 million. The album was sold to Shkreli with a legal agreement stipulating that it couldn’t be commercially exploited – sold or distributed – until 2103.
Martin Shkreli convicted of securities fraud – 2017
Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Shkreli was originally arrested by the FBI in 2015 on securities fraud charges. They were related to his tenure at MSMB Capital Management – an asset management company he co-founded – and alleged he “ran his company like a Ponzi scheme”. He was found guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison.
Shkreli forced to forfeit assets – 2018
Following his conviction, Martin Shkreli was forced to forfeit nearly $7.4 million in assets, including the Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album, along with other high-profile art pieces, like a piece by Pablo Picasso, and Lil Wayne’s then-unreleased album Tha Carter V.
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin sold by US government to NFT collectors PleasrDAO – 2021
After Martin Shkreli was forced to forfeit Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the album was sold by the US government to NFT collectors PleasrDAO – who said they wanted to make the album more publicly accessible – for $4 million.
Martin Shkreli revealed to have made copies of the album before it was sold – 2024
On 9 June, 2024, Martin Shkreli livestreamed the album to an audience of around 5,000 on X. The album’s owners PleasrDAO then sued him for playing it publicly without permission, saying the album’s value had been diminished. A judge then issued a temporary restraining order preventing Shkreli from playing the album publicly. 
Obviously, this meant that Shkreli had to have made copies of the album before it changed from his hands to PleasrDAO’s. Now, a judge has ordered Shkreli to turn over all copies of the album he has in his possession by the end of this week.
Other Once Upon a Time in Shaolin news – 2024
The first exhibition officially offering listeners the ability to hear the album began in June at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania. Attendees were played a 30-minute mix of the album, and were made to sign a waiver promising not to record the album. The same month, PleasrDAO began selling partial ownership of the album via NFTs for $1 each. Each purchase accelerates its release date by 88 seconds.

The world's most expensive album is available for $1.
Enter the chamber and secure a copy – 2103 will come faster than you think.https://t.co/QRmGdIrwOy pic.twitter.com/rTCkuH0It3
— Pleasr (@PleasrDAO) June 13, 2024

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AllTrack challenges PROs BMI, ASCAP & SESAC, adds new cost for venuesUS performing rights organization AllTrack was launched as an alternative to BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. Now, the new PRO has obtained membership in CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.
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Music Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?Confused about the difference between marketing and advertising? Learn how each strategy can help you grow your fanbase and take your music career to the next level.
The post Music Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Hypebot.

Novation unveil Launchkey Mk4 range The latest version of Novation's popular Launchkey controllers boast the most in-depth DAW control capabilities to date, as well as an array of new creative tools and performance features. 

Turntable returns as Hangout a decade after flameout with $8.2M fundingTurntable Labs has closed a $8.2M seed round before launching the social listening app Hangout later this year. After a promising start, the original Turntable.fm app failed, becoming a poster child for "How Not To Launch A Music Tech Startup."
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Jean-Michel Jarre to headline Paris 2024 Paralympics Closing Ceremony with “pivotal” celebration of electronic music history in FranceJean-Michel Jarre will headline the Closing Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris this September.
The recent closing ceremony for the Summer Olympics also saw electronic music celebrated in all its glory, with Kavinsky’s performance of Nightcall leading to him break the record for the most Shazam’d song in a single day. The Paralympics Closing Ceremony will take place on Sunday 8 September.

READ MORE: Jean-Michel Jarre’s favourite synths include the Teenage Engineering OP-1: “Like a toy, but built like a NASA project!”

Jarre’s set will take place at the Stade de France, where he will also pass on the baton to other top French electronic music artists and young DJs. As explained in a press release, this pivotal ceremony pays tribute to the history of electronic music in France, symbolised by the invention of the Ondes Martenot a century ago. Used by artists from Ravel to Coldplay, it has helped shape a plethora of today’s music.
Jarre will be collaborating with artistic director, Romain Pissenem, whom “he considers one of the world’s greatest show creators today”. The concert is set to be a visually and musically festive spectacle, with other artists billed for the event including:

Agoria
Alan Braxe
Anetha
Boston Bun
Breakbot & Irfane
Busy P
Cassis
Chloe
Chloé Caillet
DJ Falcon
Étienne de Crecy
GЯEG
Irène Drésel
Kavinsky
Kiddy Smile
Kittin Kungs
Martin Solveig
Nathalie Duchene
Ofenbach
Polo & Pan
Tatyana Jane
The Avener

At the Olympics Closing Ceremony earlier this August, there was one French electronic duo people were hoping would come out of retirement – Daft Punk. It was rather Phoenix who put on a mighty show, joined by a number of artists including Air, Ezra Koenig, and of course, Kavinsky.

“Air was the first band we thought of,” Phoenix’s Thomas Mars told Vulture of their performance. “When we started playing music outside of France, like at Top of the Pops, we were their backing band. We wanted to share that with them and perform our song Playground Love.
“Kavinsky has a song called Nightcall, which was produced by Daft Punk, and he asked me to sing it at the time. I never do things outside of Phoenix, so I said no and didn’t regret it. I thought the song was perfect and didn’t need my voice.”
Of the reunion hopefuls, Mars added, “Daft Punk doesn’t exist anymore. That was never an option. People expect them to come back to life, but they’re gone.”
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Sample Logic introduce Arpology X Described as the ultimate evolution of the arpeggiator, Sample Logic’s latest release promises to provide users with unparalleled flexibility and control possibilities.

Arturia’s KeyLab MK3 is a seriously impressive MIDI keyboard controller61 keys: €549 / $599
49 keys: €449 / $499
arturia.com
Arturia is really at the top of its game right now. Following the success of its PolyBrute 12 synth and surprise AstroLab launch earlier this year, the French brand turned its attention to its popular KeyLab series.

READ MORE: Arturia’s AstroLab: The story of an instrument ten years in the making

When designing the latest generation of KeyLab keyboards, Arturia’s aim was to produce a robust and reliable controller loaded with the tools demanded by modern producers, whilst increasing the focus on expressiveness and creativity. Does the Arturia KeyLab MK3 deliver? You bet.
What does the Arturia KeyLab MK3 hardware include?
The controller comes in two sizes – 49 and 61 keys – with a choice of dark or light colours. Both finishes look slick and stylish, an impression that’s helped nicely by the real wood end-pieces and streamlined design.
KeyLab MK3 features an all-new Arturia keybed. This gives smooth key movement with a relatively firm action and a welcome sense of weight while retaining a synth-like feel. Colour-backlit pads are new, too. There are only 12 of these, as opposed to the usual layout of 16 on MPCs, Maschine and other pad-base controllers, but it’s compensated for by the pads being large in size and by there being four pad banks. There’s also a fifth bank named DAW, dedicated to controlling DAW functions.
The keys and pads are sensitive to both velocity and aftertouch, with a choice of linear, logarithmic, exponential and custom response curves. The custom curve is particularly flexible, being defined by five adjustable nodes, but unfortunately, there’s only one custom curve that is shared wherever the custom option is selected.
The MK3 in black and white. Image: Amanda Giloux
Build quality is exceptional, with a uniform feel and response across all keys and pads. There’s perfect throw, resistance and spring-back of pitch and modulation wheels. The nine continuous rotary encoders offer a nicely balanced twisting resistance, and both they and the accompanying bank of nine faders are buttery smooth in motion and rock-solid in their mountings. Buttons sit snug and firm in their cutouts and give an affirmative and satisfying clunk when pressed.
KeyLab connects to a computer via USB, from where it can also power itself. It’s also happy running as a standalone controller keyboard, connecting to other hardware via MIDI in and out ports while taking power from a suitable external power supply. A power supply isn’t included in the box, but a suitable wall wart is a relatively inexpensive add-on.
Also on the rear panel are three jacks for connecting to foot switches and controllers. Although these are labelled Sustain, Expression and Aux their functionality is fully flexible, whether connected to on/off switches or variable controllers.
The MK3 in use
What are the onboard features of the KeyLab MK3?
Configuring and customising KeyLab hardware used to be the sole domain of Arturia’s MIDI Control Centre software, but MK3 can also be configured entirely within the hardware. This would have been a nightmare task using the previous generation’s two-line screen, but MK3 features a mid-sized, high-resolution colour display. A logical navigation and control system makes light work of such tasks.
The display also aids when configuring and working with the various on-board modifiers that can be enabled. Chord mode captures a chord that you play, allowing that chord to be triggered and transposed by each key press. The chord’s spread and voicing can be selected, and there’s a Strum option to apply a guitar-like note staggering.
Of course, a basic chord shape may be out-of-key when transposed, and this can be remedied by the Scale mode. This forces all played notes and generated chords to match a selected root key and scale. There’s a wide range of scales to choose from, including modes, various non-western scales, and even a user-defined scale.
Chord and Scale modes can also interact with an Arpeggio mode, which offers the classic up and down patterns etc. as well as a programmable random mode where both the order and timing/syncopation of notes can be randomised. Arpeggio timing and gate length are adjustable, a swing can be dialled in, and the tempo can be set within KeyLab itself or be synced to your DAW.
The MK3 in black. Image: Amanda Giloux
How deeply does the Arturia KeyLab MK3 integrate with software?
KeyLab MK3 comes with two built-in operating modes or templates: Plugin and DAW. Custom templates can be created as needed too, and these can be defined directly within the hardware or with the assistance of the MIDI Control Centre software.
Plugin mode is slightly misnamed, as it is intended for interacting with Arturia instruments that are running as standalone apps. Nevertheless, the tightness of integration here is impressive, making an in-the-box soft synth such as Pigments play and feel just like a real-world synth or instrument. Presets can be browsed and loaded directly via the KeyLab display and, thanks to all knobs and faders being touch-sensitive, the assigned parameter name and current value is displayed whenever you touch one of these controls.
Achieving a similarly tight integration with a DAW demands the installation of a control script designed for that DAW, but all of the most popular choices are already supported. Additional scripts will become available over time for others, whether developed by Arturia or by users.
In DAW mode, KeyLab can direct its knobs and faders to the DAW’s mixer or to plugins (a single button press switches the focus), and so can lend a hand at all stages of production. There are dedicated buttons for controlling the DAW’s transport, tempo, quantising, undo/redo, and saving. Meanwhile, context-sensitive buttons below the display provide access to various other common functions including channel mute, solo, monitor enable and record enable. All this means you can do a lot of production work without ever once touching your computer’s mouse.
The MK3 in use
Is the Arturia KeyLab MK3 for me?
There’s an awful lot to love and little to dislike with Arturia’s KeyLab MK3. Whether working in the studio or on stage, whether playing individual instruments or producing your magnum opus within a DAW, KeyLab MK3’s impressive feature set and tight integration are perfectly balanced to help you maintain focus on the task at hand. Everything works out of the box, and there’s little-to-no configuration needed unless you require a custom template.
The MK3 hardware quality is faultless, and the included bundle of effects, instruments and software adds even more value to what is an unchanged and incredibly reasonable asking price. Controller keyboards don’t come much more in control than this.
Key features

Comes in 49-key and 61-key variants
Choice of light or dark colour scheme
12 velocity- and aftertouch-sensitive pads
4 pad banks plus additional DAW control pad bank
9 touch-sensitive continuous rotary controllers
9 touch-sensitive faders
Full sized pitch-bend and modulation wheels
High resolution colour display
DAW transport buttons and additional DAW function buttons
Built-in Chord, Scale and Arpeggio modes
USB-2 connectivity via USB-C (cable included)
Bus-powered or external PSU (not included)
MIDI in/out ports
3 flexible foot pedal / external controller jacks
DAW script compatibility (at the time of writing): Logic Pro; Cubase (should also work with Nuendo); FL Studio; Ableton Live; Bitwig Studio

Included software

Arturia Analog Lab Pro
Arturia Mini V
Arturia Piano V
Arturia Augmented Strings
Arturia Rev PLATE-140 reverb
Ableton Live Lite
Native Instruments The Gentleman piano
Melodics subscription and bonus lessons
Loopcloud subscription and sounds

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OpenAI reportedly in talks to close a new funding round at $100B+ valuationWhatever size the tranche ends up being it'll be OpenAI's biggest outside infusion of capital since January 2023.
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Nvidia Q2 revenue beats expectations in record-setting boost to AI sector The company expects next quarter to be even better with improvement projected across nearly every vertical. 

Bill Ackman unworried by Universal Music Group subscription revenue blipWall Street analysts were disappointed that UMG's subscription streaming revenues 'only' grew 6.9% YoY in the quarter
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Hardware Bug in Raspberry Pi’s RP2350 Causes Faulty Pull-Down BehaviorErratum RP2350-E9 in the RP2350 datasheet, detailing the issue.
The newly released RP2350 microcontroller has a confirmed new bug in the current A2 stepping, affecting GPIO pull-down behavior. Listed in the Raspberry Pi RP2350 datasheet as errata RP2350-E9, it involves a situation where a GPIO pin is configured as a pull-down with input buffer enabled. After this pin is then driven to Vdd (e.g. 3.3V) and then disconnected, it will stay at around 2.1 – 2.2 V for a Vdd of 3.3V. This issue was discovered by [Ian Lesnet]  of [Dangerous Prototypes] while working on an early hardware design using this MCU.
The suggested workaround by Raspberry Pi is to enable the input buffer before a read, and disable it again immediately afterwards. Naturally, this is far from ideal workaround, and the solution that [Ian] picked was to add external pull-down resistors. Although this negates the benefits of internal pull-down resistors, it does fix the issue, albeit with a slightly increased board size and BOM part count.
As for the cause of the issue, Raspberry Pi engineer [Luke Wren] puts the blame on an external IP block vendor. With hindsight perhaps running some GPIO validation tests involving pull-up and pull-down configurations with and without input buffer set could have been useful, but we’re guessing they may be performed on future Pi chips. Maybe treating the RP2350 A0 stepping as an ‘engineering sample’ is a good idea for the time being, with A3 (or B0) being the one you may want to use in actual production.
In some ways this feels like déjà vu, as the Raspberry Pi 4 and previous SBCs had their own share of issues that perhaps might have been caught before production.
(Note: original text listed A0 as current stepping, which is incorrect. Text has been updated correspondingly)