Alternative Social Media apps for Marketing MusicWith every musician using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to market music, it can be smart to add some alternative platforms. Don't miss these alternative social media apps for marketing music to tens of millions of fans.
The post Alternative Social Media apps for Marketing Music appeared first on Hypebot.

DJ Fresh: “We don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music”While there’s never been a better time to be a music consumer – basically all the music you could ever want to listen to is available at, at most, a couple of clicks – this is not without its drawbacks. 
Perhaps the most glaring is that artists are struggling to be fairly compensated for their music by the tech giants who have ushered in this golden age of music consumption. For example, it was recently revealed that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek earned more in the past 12 months alone than any artist ever has on the platform.

READ MORE: Daniel Ek confirms “deluxe version” of Spotify is coming soon with high-resolution audio

And while tech giants tend to be consumer-problem solvers by nature, they aren’t always sympathetic to the fields they so often disrupt.
As producer and AI startup founder DJ Fresh explains in a new interview with MusicTech, there is a real danger of the music industry ending up “in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music”.
It’s why he chose to create Voice-Swap, an AI voice modelling service aimed squarely at music producers.
He explains: “There is a feeling, within the company, that we are fighting for the cause of artists,” says DJ Fresh, real name Daniel Edward Stein. “And not just artists; we respect the importance of labels, rights holders, distribution companies. Basically, we don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music.”
Stein says that in the midst of the global AI boom – which is affecting the music industry in so many ways – Voice-Swap aims to keep things ethical, and ensure fairness between artists and labels.
“Some of the less ethical people just view this as a gold rush,” he says. “They don’t really care if they mess things up because they’ll just jump on the next tech fad in a few years time.”
He goes on: “However, a lot of the people involved in Voice-Swap have had long careers in the music industry and we care a lot about our reputations.” Such professionals at Voice-Swap include Benn Jordan, Declan McGlynn, Michael Pelczynski, Ausrine Skarnulyte and Nico Pellerin, among others.”
For more information, head to Voice-Swap.
The post DJ Fresh: “We don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music” appeared first on MusicTech.

Why Musicians Need a Team to Succeed: Avoid Career SabotageMusicians need a team to succeed, but too often, the artists themselves or their immediate team sabotage their careers.
The post Why Musicians Need a Team to Succeed: Avoid Career Sabotage appeared first on Hypebot.

Twitch launches 808 Live, an eight-hour programming track featuring “all-star” DJ lineupTwitch has partnered with Roland for the creation of 808 Live, an exclusive eight-hour programming track with an all-star lineup of DJs.
As we reported back in June, Twitch has become the first major service to provide a home for DJs to legally livestream using a vast library of popular music due to partnerships with major labels like Universal, Warner, Sony, and plenty of indies too.

READ MORE: “Human-created works must be respected”: 50 major music tech brands sign Principles for Music Creation with AI

Before this, DJs on Twitch were facing takedowns due to copyright issues. Now, streamers will pay a percentage of their earnings from a stream to rights holders. The amount will vary slightly depending on which monetisation methods streamers use. Twitch will split the cost with them 50/50 but to start with, the platform will cover “more of the cost”.
The 808 event will be showcased across Twitch, reaching a global audience of music enthusiasts, coinciding with Twitch’s launch of its DJs Category. 808 Live is part of a 24-hour programming block to launch the category on 808 Day, 8 August.
808 Live features appearances by legendary artists such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ Roueche (Official DJ of the Los Angeles Lakers), Skratch Bastid, DJ Melo-D, DJ Bella Hue, and more. Roland Lifestyle will also host a special launch event at The Spotlight LA on 808 Day with Roland DJs starting at 10pm PDT.

Among other 808 festivities, Roland has also joined forces with footwear brand New Balance for a snazzy pair of 808-themed sneakers. The shoes come in a sleek black colour, with accents of orange, yellow and white reflecting the aesthetic of the famed drum machine.
The shoes are also launched in partnership with skateboarder Tiago Lemos, who says that hip-hop and the sound of the 808 has been the “soundtrack” of his skating journey.
Find out more about 808 Live and other 808 Day news over at Roland.
The post Twitch launches 808 Live, an eight-hour programming track featuring “all-star” DJ lineup appeared first on MusicTech.

Creating Next-Gen Music Festivals using AI and StreamingFind out how cutting-edge promoters are creating next-gen music festivals using AI and streaming to create hybrid events that combine in-person and online experiences.
The post Creating Next-Gen Music Festivals using AI and Streaming appeared first on Hypebot.

DJ Fresh doesn’t want AI to fall in the wrong hands — so he started Voice-SwapDaniel Stein, better known to the world as DJ Fresh, has a unique vantage point from which to see the future of music. After rising to fame in the early 2010s with a string of dance hits, including the ultra-catchy Hot Right Now, Stein has spent the last few years not on the decks but digging deep into machine learning algorithms.
The fruits of that effort is Voice-Swap, an AI voice modelling service aimed squarely at music producers. However, Stein is not simply jumping on the ‘vocal deepfake’ bandwagon – he’s laying out a framework for how AI technology can be used ethically in the music industry.

READ MORE: How will young people learn music and production in a post-AI music industry?

“There is a feeling, within the company, that we are fighting for the cause of artists,” Stein says. “And not just artists; we respect the importance of labels, rights holders, distribution companies. Basically, we don’t want the music industry to end up in the hands of technologists who don’t care about music.”
Unbound creativity is exactly where AI will have an exciting impact on music creation
The platform partners with singers to create artist-authorised voice models that can be used for demos or legally licensed music releases. Users can choose from three monthly subscription tiers, depending on how many minutes of audio they need to generate. Moreover, 50 per cent of the platform’s gross subscription income goes directly to the artists making their voices available on the platform.
Credit: Voice-Swap
Since launching in mid-2023, Voice-Swap has racked up a host of high-profile users like Diplo, Skream, and Pendulum’s Rob Swire. “It was a surreal moment showing Farley “Jackmaster” Funk a video of Skream blowing up a club with Farley’s voice-swap model,” Stein enthuses. “Farley, one of the fathers, if not the father of Chicago House, and Skream, the father of dubstep — these guys are both pioneers. Seeing Skream embracing the weird artefacts that the models sometimes create — we think that kind of unbound creativity is exactly where AI will have an exciting impact on music creation.”
Voice-Swap has also steadily expanded its roster of artists, which now includes vocalists like Ruth Royall, Robert Owens, and legendary house vocalist, Angie Brown. Recently, the team began working with electro-pop’s premiere innovator, Imogen Heap, on a voice model, and, while there’s no word yet on whether Heap’s voice will become available for the Voice-Swap platform, Stein says the company will be announcing “new projects in collaboration with Imogen and other well-known artists in the near future.”

The service was initially positioned as a tool for creating high-quality demo tracks, with users free to share their creations with collaborators, management teams, record labels, or post on social media. However, Stein says the use cases have expanded to include translating songs into other languages, communication assistance for those with speech difficulties, and even as a gimmick for influencers and podcasters looking to make interesting content.
Then there are users who want to take their demo and turn it into an official release. Voice-Swap offers three AI ‘session singers’ whose voices can be commercially released at no extra charge – however, if a producer wants to release a track using a model from one of Voice-Swap’s featured artists, then Stein says they need to first attain the artist’s “blessing” in the form of a commercial licence.
Luckily, the platform offers a straightforward system to facilitate this process, and artists retain an 80 per cent cut of any licence fee. Crucially, vocalists signed up to the platform have the final say over these licence requests and, if they have any artistic or moral objections, are free to deny permission for the song’s release.
Stein says users who monetise a track without attaining a proper licence can expect takedown requests to be issued, along with a promise of potential legal action: “We’re making sure that people are aware of the consequences of doing things illegally, and trying to make sure users value the artists who we’re working with.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Voice-Swap.ai (@voiceswapai)

“At the moment,” he continues. “There’s a number of platforms out there selling models of people’s voices without any permission — that is wrong on so many levels. We’re competing against those platforms and, in some sense, we’re competing at a disadvantage because we’re trying to do things the right way.”
Putting artists at the centre of Voice-Swap’s founding ethos is not just the right thing to do, says Stein, it’s also a practical consideration for the businesses’ long-term success: for artists to have their voices modelled and released on Voice-Swap, there needs to be a sense of trust in the platform.
“Some of the less ethical people just view this as a gold rush,” he says. “They don’t really care if they mess things up because they’ll just jump on the next tech fad in a few years time. However, a lot of the people involved in Voice-Swap have had long careers in the music industry and we care a lot about our reputations.” Such professionals at Voice-Swap include Benn Jordan, Declan McGlynn, Ausrine Skarnulyte and Nico Pellerin, among others.
Much of the discussion around AI voice models has centred on the potential negatives for singers, and for good reason. Stein himself says that, over the past couple of years, “artists and creators have been abused by the AI industry”. However, he makes clear that Voice-Swap is more than an attempt to redress the balance and claw back some remuneration – he believes the technology opens up whole new ways of working and even new career paths for singers.
DJ Fresh. Image: Press
“Big artists don’t have time to go into the studio and demo every song idea being sent to them by producers,” Stein says. “There is this whole layer of the industry that determines which songs actually get made into demos and played to labels, but the question is – why do these artists have to demo anything? In theory, they don’t have to. Producers can use a model of their voice to create demos and the artist only goes into the studio when they’re sure the song is going to be released.”
Such a system would be a massive shift in how the music industry works at a functional level, but productivity is just one area where Stein sees positive outcomes. The technology could also offer new revenue streams for artists who find themselves unable to tour or record in-studio.
He points to Mylène Schuler, one of the artists whose vocal model is available on the platform. “She was an up-and-coming singer in Switzerland, part of an electro-pop group that was doing really well,” Stein says. “She had to bow out because she had a kid and she needed to focus on her family, but she still wanted to keep a foot in the music industry.”
After uploading her vocal model to the platform, Stein says that within two weeks he got an excited call from Pendulum’s Rob Swire, who had written a song using Schuler’s model.
“It’s such a great example of this technology having benefits for people that, for one reason or another, can’t sing anymore,” Stein exclaims. “Maybe it’s a physical reason, maybe their lives have changed, but they can still be involved in the industry and know that a producer might find their voice and make a massive hit record with it.”

In an industry whose ‘move fast and break things’ maxim has left many creatives disillusioned, Voice-Swap aims to show that tech start-ups can put fair remuneration and artist rights at the centre of the business and still succeed. Part of that is creating a culture of transparency around the datasets being used, and ensuring that the correct people are credited. Recently, the company partnered with one of the world’s largest music rights attribution services, BMAT, to certify their voice models.
If we don’t get the policy around this under control soon, there could be a few companies that make a fortune and a lot of people that lose out.
“Our partnership with BMAT helps us make sure that models are not trained with copyright data,” Stein points out. “We very much believe that AI is to benefit humans, not the other way around, and the roots that we put down at the beginning of 2023 are now sprouting into partnerships that cement our ethos.”
What makes that stance even more notable is that, right now, platforms like Voice-Swap are operating in a profound legal and political vacuum. “When it comes to policy and high-level governance, there’s no clarity,” Stein says frankly. “We’re talking to lots of people in the music industry, to lawyers and government bodies, but it feels like nobody wants to set the agenda. Instead, everybody’s waiting to see what happens. We’re trying to get it right, and to set a precedent that artists and labels can look to – but we’re certainly not getting any guidance.”
The need to set the right precedent is a topic that comes up repeatedly in conversation with Stein. Over the coming years, he sees personalised audio content for games, media, and marketing kicking off an explosion of demand for AI voice models. If artists, platforms, and governments can coalesce around a shared set of standards for this new economy rather than engaging in a cut-throat race to the bottom, then generative AI could ultimately be a net positive for music creators.
“The market is growing at this enormous rate,” Stein says. “There’s a lot more money to be made. As long as artists are being paid fairly it’’ a bright future – but, if we don’t get the policy around this under control soon, then, just like so many other things that have happened over the past 20 years, there could be a few companies that make a fortune and a lot of people that lose out.”
Learn more about Voice-Swap. 
The post DJ Fresh doesn’t want AI to fall in the wrong hands — so he started Voice-Swap appeared first on MusicTech.

Soundtoys Back to School Sale Soundtoys have announced that their Soundtoys 5 Academic Bundle is being offered at a reduced price until 20 August 2024.

Twitch to launch official DJ categoryAfter earlier this year announcing that DJs would soon have to share streaming revenue with record labels, Twitch is launching an official DJ category to further facilitate DJs who wish to stream and perform on the platform.
Arriving tomorrow (Thursday, 8 August), the new DJ category will sit beside Twitch’s existing categories including Just Chatting, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, League of Legends and more, per Mashable. The platform already has a Music category, but DJ will sit as a category on its own.

READ MORE: Universal Music deepens its partnership with Twitch for exclusive artist experiences

Twitch DJs are able to use a catalogue of approved music in their livestreams, and also have access to promo and sponsorship opportunities via the Twitch homepage.
In celebration of its landmark DJ category, Twitch is hosting a 24-hour livestream on 8 August from 8AM BST/3AM ET, featuring sets from Zedd, Sofi Tukker, BAYNK, Sam Feldt, Aluna and more.
“Today’s DJ category launch is a major moment for Twitch, the music industry, and our creators,” says Twitch CEO Dan Clancy. “There is something special in the way DJs on Twitch introduce music to their listeners. It’s personal and it’s community-oriented, so we’ve built a stable, long-term home where they can invest in building their brand and community.”
In a blog post announcing its new DJ programme in June, Twitch said the number of DJs streaming on its platform “has more than quadrupled” since 2020 and the pandemic lockdowns.
But until now, DJs have often seen their sets tampered with in some way, with muted sections and takedowns for using copyrighted music. With its DJ programme designed in partnership with major labels UMG, Warner and Sony, Twitch is aiming to ensure both fair compensation for DJs and copyright holders alike, and that streams stay unmuted on the platform.
To learn more about its new DJ category, head to Twitch.
The post Twitch to launch official DJ category appeared first on MusicTech.

Get Audio Boutique’s Techno Elements 3.0 FREE With Any Purchase At Audio Plugin Deals
Audio Plugin Deals offers Techno Elements 3.0 sample pack by Audio Boutique as a free bonus with any purchase this month. We’re fully into a new month, so the monthly freebies meant to entice you into a purchase have also rolled over. Audio Plugin Deals is joining in the fun with Audio Boutique’s Techno Elements [...]
View post: Get Audio Boutique’s Techno Elements 3.0 FREE With Any Purchase At Audio Plugin Deals

Electro-Harmonix unveil POG3 The latest version of the POG boasts an additional voice, 100 user presets, enhanced effects and routing, a wealth of expressive control capabilities and more. 

R&B Artist Jaylon Ashaun on World Building and the HustleAri sits down with LA-based artist, Jaylon Ashaun, to discuss building a superfan community online, and how to capitalize on viral success.

Nasdaq asks to list options on spot Ethereum ETFs — FilingExchanges are still waiting on permission to list options on spot Bitcoin ETFs, too.

ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award Recipient to Perform at DC Jazz FestThe ASCAP Foundation, under the leadership of President Paul Williams and Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton, continues its partnership in support of emerging jazz artists for a second year with the DC Jazz Festival, headed by President & CEO Sunny Sumter.

Celebrating 20 years, the 2024 DC JazzFest takes place August 28-September 1. The festival opens its stage to dozens of exceptional jazz artists and will feature a performance by Joe Block’s Open Heart Trio on August 31 at 2:30 PM on its Transit Stage at The Wharf, 1001 7th Street SW in Washington DC. Block is among the recipients of the 2024 ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards.

"Jazz is a vital force in American music and one of our most treasured art forms," said ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams. "We congratulate DC Jazz Festival on their 20th anniversary and are excited to partner with them for a second year."

“The DC JazzFest is an incredible showcase for jazz, and we love working with them to provide this opportunity for one of our Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients,” said ASCAP Foundation Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton.

Joe Block

Joe Block is a pianist, composer, arranger, and educator hailing from Philadelphia, PA. As a child prodigy who began his piano career at age 2, Block soon turned his interest towards jazz. He has since found success in New York City following his dual degree from Columbia-Juilliard where he studied among the likes of Geoffrey Keezer, Marc Cary, Ted Rosenthal, and Frank Kimbrough. Regarded as one of "jazz's most promising young composers" by Jazz at Lincoln Center, Block is in high demand as a regular arranger for the Lincoln Center Orchestra and serves as the musical director for the Future of Jazz Orchestra, while finding time to play with musicians across generations including Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Leslie Odom Jr. 

Block leads his own trio, quintet, and large ensembles. He has been recognized as a YoungArts Foundation Finalist, a Jazz at Lincoln Center J. Douglas White Award winner, and most recently, as a finalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. 

All About Jazz, the longest-running platform covering jazz music commented “Block generates excitement that emanates from something hidden within him that is ready to come into being. He could be compared with the young Herbie Hancock whose early risk taking and imagination would keep expanding throughout his legendary career.”

The Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards were established by The ASCAP Foundation in 2002 to encourage gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30. The program carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Foundation's multi-year financial commitment to support this unique program. The recipients, who receive cash awards, are selected through a juried national competition.

More information on this year’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards recipients can be found at https://www.ascap.com/press/2024/03/03-11-herb-alpert-recipients. The post ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award Recipient to Perform at DC Jazz Fest first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Rivian lost $1.46B in Q2 as it drives toward a VW-linked futureRivian’s financial losses have crept up as it pushed out the last of its first-generation R1 trucks and SUVs in favor of newer, more cost-efficient versions — a sign of just how much the company could use the $5 billion it could get as part of a recently announced deal with Volkswagen Group. The company […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

RC Car Gets Force Feedback SteeringRemote-controlled cars can get incredibly fast and complex (and expensive) the farther into the hobby you get. So much so that a lot of things that are missing from the experience of driving a real car start to make a meaningful impact. [Indeterminate Design] has a few cars like this which are so fast that it becomes difficult to react to their behavior fast enough through sight alone. To help solve this problem and bridge the gap between the experience of driving a real car and an RC one, he’s added force feedback steering to the car’s remote control.
The first thing to tackle is the data throughput required to get a system like this working wirelessly. Relying heavily on the two cores in each of a pair of ESP32s, along with a long-range, high-speed wireless communications protocol called ESP-NOW, enough data from the car can be sent to make this possible but it does rely on precise timing to avoid jitter in the steering wheel. Some filtering is required as well, but with the small size of everything in this build it’s also a challenge not to filter out all of the important high-frequency forces. With the code written, [Indeterminate Design] turned to the 3D printer to build the prototype controller with built-in motors to provide the haptic feedback.
The other half of the project involves sensing the forces in the RC car which will then get sent back to the remote. After experimenting with a mathematical model to avoid having to source expensive parts and finding himself at a deadend with that method, eventually a bi-directional load cell was placed inside the steering mechanism which solved this problem. With all of these pieces working together, [Indeterminate Design] has a working force feedback steering mechanism which allows him to feel bumps, understeer, and other sensations, especially while doing things like drifting or driving through grass, that would be otherwise unavailable to drivers of RC cars. The only thing we could think of to bring this even more into realistic simulation territory would be to add something like a first-person view like high-speed drones often have.