Spotify’s “Supremium” subscription tier to arrive “later this year”, according to reportsSpotify’s “Supremium” subscription plan with access to high-fidelity audio looks set to land this year, as reports claim it will also include new tools for creating playlists and managing your song library.
Mentions of the “Supremium” tier began back in 2021. In June 2023, it was again reported that it would arrive that same year along with audiobook access. This feature was rolled out to standard premium users instead.

READ MORE: Sony Music CEO wants free streaming users to start paying – would it ever work, though?

Now, sources are again claiming the subscription plan will arrive this year instead, and will be priced at “at least $5 more per month”. It is also alleged that it will be “an add-on” for existing subscribers, according to Bloomberg.
The publication also claims that “customers who choose to upgrade” to the new plan when it launches “will generate additional sales for [Spotify] and its business partners”.
In October 2023, a leak reported by The Independent originally alleged that the new tier would cost $19.99, citing its source as technology expert Chris Messina, who found mentions of the update within Spotify.
As Spotify currently charges $11.99 for a standard/individual premium subscriber, if “Supremium” was to be an add on, we’ll be looking at a slightly lower cost of $16.99 in total, providing that it is the minimum of the $5 increase.
In other Spotify-related news, the streaming platform released its first ever European Loud & Clear data earlier this week. The data captures artist royalty payments from across the European Union for the first time since its inception.
As one of its key findings, Spotify found that in 2023, more than 15,000 European artists generated over €10,000, and more than 25,000 generated over €5,000, “enabling artists to live off their art”.
MusicTech will provide more information on Spotify “Supremium” as we get it. In the meantime, you can also check out more from Spotify via its Newsroom.
The post Spotify’s “Supremium” subscription tier to arrive “later this year”, according to reports appeared first on MusicTech.

Juicy Loops 2: Max For Live sequencer Juicy Loops 2 is a Max for Live creation that brings FL Studio’s sequencer to Ableton Live users.

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
1Tape
Main artist name:
Kid Rap
Release date:
7th Jun, 2024
https://publme.lnk.to/1Tape
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #hiphop #rap

Bitcoin uses more renewable energy, but will Tesla accept it again?Tesla removed Bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns, but Elon Musk pledged to reinstate them if renewable energy use on the network increased.

New Part Day: A Hackable Smart RingWe’ve seen prolific firmware hacker [Aaron Christophel] tackle smart devices of all sorts, and he never fails to deliver. This time, he’s exploring a device that seems like it could have come from the pages of a Cyberpunk RPG manual — a shiny chrome Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) smart ring that’s packed with sensors, is reasonably hacker friendly, and is currently selling for as little as $20.
The ring’s structure is simple — the outside is polished anodized metal, with the electronics and battery carefully laid out along the inside surface, complete with a magnetic charging port. It has a BLE-enabled MCU, a heartrate sensor, and an accelerometer. It’s not much, but you can do a lot with it, from the usual exercise and sleep tracking, to a tap-sensitive interface for anything you want to control from the palm of your hand. In the video’s comments, someone noted how a custom firmware for the ring could be used to detect seizures; a perfect example of how hacking such gadgets can bring someone a brighter future.
The ring manufacturer’s website provides firmware update images, and it turns out, you can upload your own firmware onto it over-the-air through BLE. There’s no signing, no encryption — this is a dream device for your purposes. Even better, the MCU is somewhat well-known. There’s an SDK, for a start, and a datasheet which describes all you would want to know, save for perhaps the tastiest features. It’s got 200 K of RAM, 512 K of flash, BLE library already in ROM, this ring gives you a lot to wield for how little space it all takes up. You can even get access to the chip’s Serial Wire Debug (SWD) pads, though you’ve got to scrape away some epoxy first.
As we’ve seen in the past, once [Aaron] starts hacking on these sort of devices, their popularity tends to skyrocket. We’d recommend ordering a couple now before sellers get wise and start raising prices. While we’ve seen hackers build their own smart rings before, it’s tricky business, and the end results usually have very limited capability. The potential for creating our own firmware for such an affordable and capable device is very exciting — watch this space!

We thank [linalinn] for sharing this with us!

Black founders are creating tailored ChatGPTs for a more personalized experienceChatGPT, one of the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence tools, struggles with cultural nuance.
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RC Batwing Actually FliesBatman is a compelling superhero for enough reasons that he’s been a cultural force for the better part of a century. His story has complex characters, interesting explorations of morality, iconic villains, and of course a human superhero who gets his powers from ingenuity instead of a fantastical magical force. There are a number features of the Batman universe that don’t translate well to the real world, though, such as a costume that would likely be a hindrance in fights, technology that violates the laws of physics, and a billionaire that cares about regular people, but surprisingly enough his legendary Batwing jet airplane actually seems like it might be able to fly.
While this is admittedly a model plane, it flies surprisingly well for its nontraditional shape. [hotlapkyle] crafted it using mostly 3D printed parts, and although it took a few tries to get it working to his standards, now shoots through the air quite well. It uses an internal electric ducted fan (EDF) to get a high amount of thrust, and has elevons for control. There are two small vertical stabilizer fins which not only complete the look, but allow the Batwing to take to the skies without the need for a flight controller.
Not only is the build process documented in the video linked below with some interesting tips about building RC aircraft in general, but the STL files for this specific build are available for anyone wanting to duplicate the build or expand on it. There are plenty of other interesting 3D-printed models on [hotlapkyle]’s page as well that push the envelope of model aircraft. For some other niche RC aircraft designs we’ve seen in the past be sure to check out this F-35 model that can hover or this tilt-rotor Osprey proof-of-concept.

Thanks to [Keith] for the tip!

Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos and esteemed lawyer Priyanka Khimani join Songtradr boardSongtradr says duo will help company in its next phase of global growth
Source

Centre for Computing History: Synthesized 2024 The Centre for Computing History have announced the return of their Synthesized event, which will be taking place on 29 and 30 June 2024 at their premises in Cambridge, UK. 

Subscription vitamin company Care/of is shutting downCare/of, a company offering personalized subscription vitamin packs, says it will be canceling all subscriptions as of Monday, June 17 and will no longer be accepting new orders. The news doesn’t come completely out of the blue, as Care/of had previously disclosed in a New York Department of Labor filing that it planned to lay […]
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Binance co-founder beseeches Elon Musk to address cryptocurrency scams on XAccording to Yi He, “a significant amount of money” was lost when X.com users were tricked by an impersonation scam.

An Enigma Machine Built in MeccanoAs far as model construction sets go, LEGO is by far the most popular brand for building not only pre-planned models but whatever the builder can imagine. There are a few others out there though, some with some interesting features. Meccano (or Erector in North America) is a construction set based around parts that are largely metal including its fasteners, which allows for a different approach to building models than other systems including the easy addition of electricity. [Craig], a member of the London Meccano Club, is demonstrating his model Enigma machine using this system for all of its parts and adding some electricity to make the circuitry work as well.
The original Enigma machine was an electronic cypher used by the German military in World War 2 to send coded messages. For the time, its code was extremely hard to break, and led to the British development of the first programmable electronic digital computer to help decipher its coded messages. This model uses Meccano parts instead to recreate the function of the original machine, with a set of keys similar to a typewriter which, when pressed, advance a set of three wheels. The wheels all have wiring in them, and depending on their initial settings will light up a different character on a display.
There are a few modifications made to the design (besides the use of a completely different set of materials) but one of the main ones was eliminating the heavy leaf springs of the original for smaller and easier-to-manage coil springs, which are also part of the electrical system that creates the code. The final product recreates the original exceptionally faithfully, with plans to create a plugboard up next, and you can take a look at the inner workings of a complete original here.

Thanks to [Tim] for the tip!

Reverse-Engineering Makita Batteries To Revive ThemModern lithium-ion battery packs for cordless power tools contain an incredible amount of energy, which necessitates that they come with a range of safeties. Although it’s good when the battery management system (BMS) detects a fault and cuts power to prevent issues, there exist the possibility of false positives. Having an expensive battery pack brick itself for no good reason is rather annoying, as is being unable to reuse a BMS in for example a re-manufactured battery. This was the reasoning that led [Martin Jansson] down the path of reverse-engineering Makita batteries for starters.
After that initial reverse-engineering attempt involving a firmware dump of the NEC (Renesas) F0513 MCU, [Martin] didn’t get back to the project until recently, when he was contacted by [Romain] who donated a few BMS boards to the cause. One of these features an STM32 MCU, which made the task much easier. Ultimately [Martin] was able to determine the command set for the Maxim OneWire-based communication protocol, as was a hidden UART mode.
Due to the critical timing required, off-the-shelf programmers didn’t work, so an Arduino Uno-based programmer (ArduinoOBI) was created instead, which can be found on GitHub along with the Open Battery Information desktop application which provides access to these BMS features after connecting to the battery pack. Although only Makita is supported right now, [Martin] would like to see support for other brands being added as well.

Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicThis week, our tips and advice for independent, do-it-yourselfers covered Spotify’s New Release Guide, improving your website, a guide to algorithm-free platforms for musicians, and more.
The post Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: New Music Industry’s Week in ReviewIt was a busy week by any definition, and the music industry was no exception. There were big accusations regarding Merchbar, music publishers’ fight with Spotify escalates, action on group. Continue reading
The post REWIND: New Music Industry’s Week in Review appeared first on Hypebot.