Spotify CFO cashed out $9 million in shares 24 hours after layoffs were announcedSpotify’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Paul Vogel, cashed out 47,859 shares earning him $9.377 million, just 24 hours after the company announced that 17 percent of its workforce would be laid off in a “hard but crucial step.”
The streaming service’s CEO, Daniel Ek, has since released a statement revealing that Vogel is due to depart from the company at the end of Q1 in 2024 (31 March) as part of a new phase for the streaming giant.

READ MORE: Hainbach says his 1 million annual Spotify streams earned him $2,160 before tax

The findings regarding the shares were uncovered in an SEC filing, as spotted by Music Business Worldwide. The outlet found that the shares were cashed in on Tuesday this week (5 December), with the layoffs announced in a statement from Spotify’s newsroom the day prior on 4 December 2023.
Vogel’s annual base salary at Spotify was $600,000 in 2022, according to SEC documents, but he also pulled in option awards worth $6.187 million in the year.
In a press release from the platform shared online (7 December), Ek explains why Vogel’s time at Spotify is due to come to an end: “Spotify has embarked on an evolution over the last two years to bring our spending more in line with market expectations while also funding the significant growth opportunities we continue to identify.
“I’ve talked a lot with Paul about the need to balance these two objectives carefully. Over time, we’ve come to the conclusion that Spotify is entering a new phase and needs a CFO with a different mix of experiences,” says Ek.
“As a result, we’ve decided to part ways, but I am very appreciative of the steady hand Paul has provided in supporting the expansion of our business through a global pandemic and unprecedented economic uncertainty.
“As we initiate the search for a new leader, we do so from a position of strength. I am enormously proud of the strides we’ve made as a company. We are on track to deliver against the goals we outlined at our Investor Day and our recent actions will help us accelerate these efforts. We look forward to tapping a strong financial leader as our next CFO and I will share more details soon.”
Employees affected by the lay offs at Spotify will receive five months of redundancy pay. The company also promises to cover their healthcare over the five month span.
The post Spotify CFO cashed out $9 million in shares 24 hours after layoffs were announced appeared first on MusicTech.

Erica Synths launch EDU DIY Hi-Hat module Erica Synths and Mortiz Klein’s mki x es.EDU series has gained an analogue hi-hat Eurorack module inspired by the Roland TR-808.

Musicians & Songwriters: What happens when your post goes ‘mini-viral’Learn what happens when a piece of a musician or songwriter’s content goes viral – or in this case, mini-viral – and how to make the most of it now. Continue reading
The post Musicians & Songwriters: What happens when your post goes ‘mini-viral’ appeared first on Hypebot.

Brand Building for MusiciansAll of the recent press about the juggernauts Taylor Swift and Beyonce reminded me of two popular posts on building brands for musicians that should resurface for this week’s Hypebot. Continue reading
The post Brand Building for Musicians appeared first on Hypebot.

HeadRush launches fifth edition of its free ReValver software with new cloning toolsMusic technology brand HeadRush has launched the latest iteration of its ReValver series, ReValver 5 – now offering the ability to shape the sound of the guitar itself by cloning the tone and characteristics of other instruments.
ReValver 5 is free for life and “infinitely expandable.” Users can now recreate the sounds of acoustics, folk instruments, and even other electric guitar and pickup combinations with its Audio Cloning Technology (ACT).

READ MORE: We’re giving away a Roland AIRA Compact S-1 worth $150

In an “industry first,” ReValver and HeadRush pedalboards have combined their amp and effects models together for this new edition of the software. Musicians can now recreate HeadRush presets in ReValver and utilise them in their DAWs via ReValver’s VST and AU plugins.
Additionally, ReValver’s RIR2 cabinet module also allows for control over the cab model’s microphone type, placement, and environment. You can now load any go-to 3rd party cab impulse responses in the RIR impulse response player module for custom tone shaping.
​​According to a press release from the brand, ReValver 5 is also the only software that offers official Peavey and Budda amp and effects models, which have been developed in collaboration with the original engineers. These models – which include the ReValver Peavey 6505 – are a “faithful” digital representation of the iconic amps they emulate.
All parameters inside ReValver 5 can be MIDI controlled, facilitating real-time adjustments and providing ease when preset switching via its GIG Mode feature.

“With over two decades of setting industry standards in realistic amp and effects modelling, this fifth generation release elevates the music creation experience, whether in a commercial studio, a home-based production hub, or live on stage,” says HeadRush.
ReValver 5 will always remain free, but a collection of four paid-for expansion packs are currently available at promotional prices until 31 December. Find out more via then official HeadRush website.
The post HeadRush launches fifth edition of its free ReValver software with new cloning tools appeared first on MusicTech.

Producer slams “hypocrisy” of artists who release physical records while championing “save the planet”Robin Millar, producer and co-founder of artist label Blue Raincoat Music, has argued that the vinyl revival is exposing the “hypocrisy” of artists who champion environmental causes.

READ MORE: Michael Jackson’s first-ever studio recording released digitally

In a new interview with Guardian, Millar says he’s “baffled that no large record company has had the backing of a big-selling artist to stop making physical records.”
The producer notes how CD and vinyl records are packaged with “chopped-down trees and plastic” and shipped to customers worldwide, saying “How can anybody stand up and say ‘save the planet’? Artists are awful for hypocritical bandwagonery.”
According to Millar – who claims he’s no “militant climate warrior”, the quality of digital songs are now comparable to vinyl. He also slams the pollution caused by the global touring of artists, saying shows can be screened online instead.
Earlier this year, it was reported that sales of vinyl records in the US have surged by over 20 per cent in the first half of 2023.
The report, generated by the Californian data analytics service, revealed that 23.6 million LPs were sold from January 2023 to June 2023, up from 2022’s 19.4 million sales.
Physical album sales overall also saw a notable rise of 13.3 per cent in 2023, with 41.5 million physical copies sold compared to 2022’s 36.7 million.
Demand aside, it’s unlikely that we’re seeing the end of physical record production and tours anytime soon as they’re often cited as the main source of income for musicians, who have long lamented the struggles of making a living from music streaming alone.
Berlin-based electronic composer Hainbach, for one, revealed last week that his 1 million Spotify streams have earned him a total of “$2160 a year or $180 per month”, a sum he reckons is enough to cover his utilities bill.
The artist also says going to a live show is “still the best way to support me and other artists”.
The post Producer slams “hypocrisy” of artists who release physical records while championing “save the planet” appeared first on MusicTech.

Rast Sound Lunar Element Delve into the soothing essence of 'Lunar Element', a sound library exquisitely designed for the creators of chillout, ambient, lofi and downtempo music. This sound suite invites you into... Read More

TOKiMONSTA’s new music streaming platform, Sona, has no ads and no subscriptionDJ and producer Jennifer Lee – aka TOKiMONSTA – has launched Sona, a Web3-based music platform where listeners can invest in “digital twins” of tracks.

READ MORE: Michael Jackson’s first-ever studio recording released digitally

According to Techcrunch, Sona uses the basics of decentralised finance to “put the financial power back into artists’ hands” with its rewards model, auctions and ad-free streaming.
The company, which recently received $6.9 million in seed funding, unveils its first product in the form of Sona Stream, a free music streaming service with zero subscriptions or ads. Instead, artists share music and auction off ‘SONAs’, which are “digital twins” or digital assets of songs that can “only be owned by one person at a time”.
The platform allows artists to auction their SONAs to fans for 24 hours, with a set minimum price and sales to the highest bidder, providing immediate liquidity. Collectors will earn a spot on that artist’s profile – and a 70 percent split of Sona streaming rewards (based on their proportional share of total platform streams) for that song.
Artists, meanwhile, receive 30 percent and the company charges a 7 percent fee. The rewards pool is funded from a percentage of SONA sales, benefiting all artists on Sona Stream with each purchase.
Additional features such as tipping, merchandise sales, ticket purchases, stem downloads, and fixed-price audio downloads for DJs, will also be incorporated in the future.
“It’s pooled every two weeks and then redistributed to every artist and collector, proportional to how much [the specific song] is streamed,” co-founder Laura Jaramillo told Techcrunch. “So, you’re paying artists for their work quickly, incentivising the creation of that work, and then also rewarding the people that are actually supporting those artists.”
At present, Sona Streaming is home to five million tracks by artists like Rochelle Jordan, CRi, Adam Oh and Sara Hartman. The startup says that there will be 16 million songs on the platform by next year.
In an Instagram post announcing the project, TOKiMONSTA – who called herself a “not-so-subtle advocate for musician’s rights” – states: “Streaming has been a beautiful tool for music discovery & has truly given anyone a chance to make music their life, but not really a fighting chance. We live in a world where your top streamed artist may not be able to pay rent or buy groceries bc streaming isn’t paying enough and there is a huge payment lag that exists in the music industry.”
“They feel pressured to be multi-hyphenated TikT0k memecore influencers, even if they hate it. Possibly bc they make modular exotica ambient waltz and they can’t really tour the project. They prob don’t have the capital to make merch or the bandwidth to do all the extra things musicians have to make money. These musicians you cherish should be able to make music at a value that’s true to their artistry. We want them to continue being an artist so they can make the music you love.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by TOKiMONSTA (@tokimonsta)

Sign up today at Sona.stream.
The post TOKiMONSTA’s new music streaming platform, Sona, has no ads and no subscription appeared first on MusicTech.

suzumushi SpakerObjects SpakerObjects, a customized version of SoundObject, specializes in binaural reproduction of stereo speaker-based sound fields. www.youtube.com Headphone monitoring... Read More

Dawsons launches brick-and-mortar Denmark Street store following acquisition by Vista Musical InstrumentsRenowned music retailer Dawsons has launched an online store and a brand-new physical store on Denmark Street, London.
The news comes just a year after Dawsons was officially dissolved last December, and subsequently acquired by Caldecott Music Group’s Vista Musical Instruments in June 2023.
The store will offer a diverse, intricately curated array of musical instruments, gear and lifestyle products tailored to musicians and music-lovers old and new. Fender, Martin, PRS, Marshall, Orange, Korg, MONO, Gadhouse will be amongst the many major brands available at launch, and there will be more big names offered down the line.
Credit: Dawsons
“We are extremely proud to share another exciting chapter of the revitalised Dawsons brand with the world,” Meng Kuok, Group CEO and Founder of Caldecott Music Group, says. “The heart of everything we do centres around supporting and being a partner to artists on their journey, [whether their first or fifth guitar], with a promise of much more to unfold in the future.”
The new Dawsons store is located on the iconic Tin Pan Alley of Denmark Street. A melting pot of musical history, the street has hosted a plethora of iconic music publishers, music retail stores, even serving as the home of NME, with its first office opening on the street in 1952.
With Dawsons opening a brick and mortar store and NME relaunching its physical magazine, both are waving the flag for a renaissance of the modern music experience; the pair are striving to bring music back to its tangible, physical roots, a sharp contrast to how the music world is becoming increasingly digitised. Dawsons has already hosted a slew of exclusive online drops for NME’s relaunched print magazine, with the first three editions selling out in minutes.
Credit: Dawsons
“NME’s roots on Denmark Street make Dawsons’ arrival an incredibly exciting development, especially given the success of the partnership with Dawsons on the sold-out online drops of NME’s resurgent print edition” says Holly Bishop, Chief Operating & Commercial Officer at NME Networks.
“Evolving this collaboration will introduce new initiatives designed to connect emerging artists with communities and cultivate artist and fan-driven moments that elevate the music experience,” she continues. “NME has never been more committed to championing new music, with the flagship weekly franchise, The Cover, reserved exclusively for new talent, so we are thrilled to partner with Dawsons to unlock exclusive new opportunities that deliver for emerging artists, consumers, and fans.”
The brick-and-mortar Dawsons store is now open on 23 Denmark Street. For more information, head to Dawsons.
The post Dawsons launches brick-and-mortar Denmark Street store following acquisition by Vista Musical Instruments appeared first on MusicTech.

Universal Audio’s SC-1 and Hemisphere eight-mics-in-one are tempting additions to any studio’s mic collection£475 / $499 (street price), uaudio.com
A couple of years back, Universal Audio and Townsend Labs released the Sphere microphone modelling system. The Sphere mics feature a pair of coincident capsules and an accompanying plugin analyses and manipulates the phase and tone differences between the capsules to create convincing emulations of various sought-after mics. A mic with two capsules is obviously going to be more expensive than a conventional mic, so UA has come up with a way of pulling off a similar trick using a more affordable single capsule mic.

READ MORE: Steinberg’s Cubase Pro 13: The old master shows how it’s done

The result is the new Hemisphere plugin (geddit? A hemisphere is half a sphere) and a series of three microphones that the system is calibrated to work with. Those microphones are the SD-1 Dynamic which can emulate dynamic mics, the SP-1 Pencil Pair, a small diaphragm condenser pair for stereo recording, and the SC-1 Condenser, which is the large diaphragm condenser mic that we’re reviewing here.

How does the UA SC-1 sound on its own?
The SC-1 mic is of a similar size and construction to many mid-priced condensers, with a cardioid pattern, 30mm diaphragm and chunky body. Unlike the Sphere mics, which require a special stereo splitter lead, the SC-1 (and the other Hemisphere mics) use standard three-pin XLR connectors and require only one input channel each.
Universal Audio SC-1 with mount
The mic comes with a case, which also has room for the supplied hard-bracket mount. Sadly, this style of mount isn’t ideal for a mic like the SC-1 because it transfers too much rumble and noise through the stand and into the sensitive capsule. A shock mount would have been preferable, and would surely have had only a negligible impact on the asking price. By excluding one, all UA has done is force customers to hunt out and buy a separate compatible shock mount.
Used as a standard mic, without the Hemisphere plugin’s modelling, the SC-1 is a solid all-round performer. The sound is rich and full-bodied, and works well with everything we point it at. Thanks to its surprising tolerance for high signal levels, it can even turn its hand to a bit of drum mic’ing, although the absence of on-body pad and rolloff switches mean we wouldn’t recommend putting it inside a kick drum.
Like most large diaphragm condensers, though, the SC-1 is at its best when recording vocals, which it captures with a crisp and airy sound that has just the right amount of presence and clarity.
Universal Audio SC-1 in use
How to use the UA Hemisphere plugin
The Hemisphere plugin is a UAD2 plugin for use with UA’s Apollo and Satellite hardware, and as a native plugin that runs in your DAW. No need for any additional processing hardware here.
Universal Audio Hemisphere plugin. Image: MusicTech
The plugin is free but you can only be download and activate it once you’ve registered the mic to your UA account. To do this, you need the mic’s serial number… but where is it? Not on the mic itself, nor on a card or label within the mic case; we only discovered it by typing in every number shown on the outer packaging until we eventually hit on the right one. We’e come to expect more attention to detail than this from UA!
Hemisphere can only do its thing if it knows the technical characteristics of the mic you’re using. So the first step when loading the plugin is to specify which of the three Hemisphere-compatible mics is connected. You can then select and configure a mic model. Unlike Sphere, which can model mics of different types (i.e. dynamic, ribbon and condenser), Hemisphere is restricted by the type of source mic. So the SC-1 can only model other large diaphragm condensers.
There are eight mic models to choose from but, thanks to good-old IP laws, none are given their real names, although their identity is strongly hinted at in the included descriptions.
What are the SC-1’s mic models like?
The expected brace of Neumann classics are here in the form of a U 47, U 67 and U 87, along with its modern-classic, the TLM 103. Telefunken’s vintage ELA M 251 makes an appearance, and from just over the border in Austria, there’s AKG’s classic C-12 as well as its coveted C-414. Finally, from Japan, there’s a model of the modern Sony C-800G, a particularly popular choice for hip-hop vocals.
Universal Audio Hemisphere mic models. Image: MusicTech
All of these mics are revered vocal mics but many are also known for being promising matches for other instruments. For example, the Telefunken 251 is great for drum overheads, the U 87 sounds stunning with guitar amps, and the AKG C-414 is reliable with pretty much anything you wish to throw at it.
That said, we don’t find the models quite as convincing as those delivered by UA’s Sphere system, although all are effective and give the SC-1 a huge amount of versatility.
Along with the choice of different mics, Hemisphere also allows adjustment of the apparent position of the mic relative to the sound source via proximity and axis controls. Mic positioning is an art, and even the pros don’t always get it right, so being able to modify that positioning after the performance is committed to digital bits is a massive help.
You can also change any pad or filter switches the modelled mic may have – again, a really useful thing to be able to do to an already-recorded mic signal.
Should you buy the UA SC-1 and Hemisphere?
Back of Universal Audio SC-1
Just like the Sphere system, Hemisphere multiplies the value of your investment by giving you a whole collection of microphones for the price of one. Unlike Sphere, though, you are limited to models of the same type of mic as the actual physical one, so to get a similar range of flexibility you’d need to buy all three Hemisphere mics. The cost of this is not dissimilar to the cost of the top-end Sphere mic, although you would of course have the benefit of having more actual microphones.
The Hemisphere modelling works well, but isn’t quite on the same level as Sphere. The physical mic itself is easily worth the asking price, though, so even if the modelling were only half as good as it is, the SC-1 would still make for an attractive and tempting addition to any studio’s mic collection.
Key features

Large diaphragm condenser microphone
Cardioid
Works with Hemisphere mic modelling plugin
Hemisphere plugin for UAD2 and native VST/AU/AAX
Frequency range: 20Hz – 20kHz
Self noise: 12dB
Maximum SPL: 145dB
Impedance: 200 Ohms
Comes with carry case and mount

The post Universal Audio’s SC-1 and Hemisphere eight-mics-in-one are tempting additions to any studio’s mic collection appeared first on MusicTech.

Fuse Audio Labs VPRE-72 VPRE-72 is a free emulation of the vintage V72 preamp design originally developed by North West German Radio and the Institute of Broadcast Technology.

Bitcoin options data shows whales betting big — Will $50K BTC come in January?Institutional investor interest soars as Bitcoin options open interest hits record high.

Google’s best Gemini demo was fakedGoogle’s new Gemini AI model is getting a mixed reception after its big debut yesterday, but users may have less confidence in the company’s tech or integrity after finding out that the most impressive demo of Gemini was pretty much faked. A video called “Hands-on with Gemini: Interacting with multimodal AI” hit a million views […]
© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

NTERTAIN launches ‘The Art Of Being Latin’ Miami Art Week ExperienceEvent to feature exclusive presentations by Lex Borrero, Tainy, director Angel Manuel Soto, Storm Pablo, Sofia Reyes, Ahol Sniffs Glue, Vic Garcia & more
Source