Artists back out of Japanese festival, The Labyrinth, following founder’s comments on trans issuesA number of electronic artists including Surgeon, Carsten Jost, Imaginary Softwoods, and Timnah Sommerfeldt, have withdrawn from a festival in Japan, The Labyrinth, due to controversial comments made by its founder Russ “Monk” Moench on trans rights and related issues.

READ MORE: Touring in the US “not viable”, say The Chemical Brothers

Moench has taken to Twitter – now X – in recent months to express his views on subjects such as gender pronouns and trans rights. In now-deleted posts, he criticised pronoun use, writing “the pronoun people are dumb”, and called TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminism) a form of “misogynistic hate speech”.
The festival founder also followed and engaged with gender-critical X accounts, such as Right Side of History. After facing backlash for these actions, he made his account private and has since deleted the account entirely.
On 30 August, after a trans activist reached out to some artists on the lineup notifying them of Moench’s views, the festival founder emailed nine artists set to perform at The Labyrinth, according to Resident Advisor. In his email, he criticised the trans rights movement as “illiberal and totalitarian,” alleging misogyny and homophobia.
According to RA, Moench expressed support for “detransitioners” and termed youth gender-affirming care as “gay transversion therapy,” claiming it creates lifelong pharmaceutical dependence.
Carsten Jost has been asked not to play at the festival by Moench after criticising the email.
Speaking to RA, Jost has said: “We owe respect and protection to those who have paved the way for what the underground techno scene is today, which is to a large extent due to a community of queer and trans people of colour.
“I believe in trans-inclusive intersectional feminism and that the underground music scene must continue to be a safe space for queer, trans and gender non-conforming people.”
The Labyrinth festival is still set to take place on 7 October at the Hodaigi Campground in the landlocked, mountainous region of the Gunma prefecture on Japan’s Honshu Island, despite these cancellations.
The finalised lineup is yet to be announced. If you’re attending, look out for updates via mindgames.jp.
The post Artists back out of Japanese festival, The Labyrinth, following founder’s comments on trans issues appeared first on MusicTech.

Streaming’s problems will not be fixed by royalties aloneUMG and Deezer’s artist-centric royalty proposal got the amount of attention both parties probably wanted, if not necessarily the type of attention they were after. However, the intent was to kick start an industry debate, and that objective was clearly achieved. Yet, while the discussion has understandably focused on royalties (as, after all, it is a royalty system), these are more symptom than cause. Streaming royalties are not adding up because streaming is not adding up. Fixing royalties is only part of the solution.

In the early days of streaming, DSPs provided platforms for listening to music. Over time they have become places for consuming audio. As streaming mainstreamed, its role as successor to retail became subsumed by its role as music radio’s replacement. Passive playlists, lean-back listening, functional music and ‘noise’ are a series of inevitable second-order consequences, as streaming chases the needs of consumers, following the behavioural data. All in stark contrast to when radio programmers and digital store managers chose what consumers got. In those days, it was a case of the public wants what the public gets, now the public gets what the public wants. The problem is that what the public wants creates a system that neither creators nor rightsholders want. Consumers have, at least in part, chosen this path.

Perhaps, as Steve Jobs was fond of saying, “it’s not the customer’s job to know what they want” or as Henry Ford (may or may not have) said “if I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse”. But whether you believe consumer choice should shape product strategy or not, consumer-led innovation is the defining characteristic of today’s digital world. This means that any innovation that looks to push against prevailing behaviour risks can alienate the very customer base that the system depends upon. So how do we square the proverbial circle?

Solutions must understand the audience’s needs

Many years ago, my former employer, Forrester Research, devised the fantastic POST framework for defining product strategy:

People: First, understand your customers and their needs

Objectives: Next, identify what you want to achieveStrategy: Then, shape your strategy

Technology: Finally, decide what technology fits the bill

Too often, this framework is done in reverse. Just think of the endless succession of ‘new tech’ start-ups that try to superimpose ill-fitting use cases onto their products. Technology desperately searching for a use case is one of the main reasons new tech, like the metaverse, VR and NFTs, follow the boom-bust-rebuild arc of the hype cycle. The risk with trying to superimpose new royalty structures on today’s streaming world (whether that be user centric, fan centric, artist centric, or whatever else) is that they look to solve supply-side needs (i.e., those of creators and rightsholders) first and demand-side (i.e., consumer) issues either last or not at all. Art may fuel the streaming machine, but consumers drive it (even if that means they benefit from self-driving much of the time).

At its heart, the streaming economy is shaped by diverse and often competing needs. Any successful system with diverse stakeholder needs operates by striking a pragmatic balance of meeting those needs. But a truly good compromise means that neither party is truly happy. This is the challenge that streaming faces today.

A brutal assessment of streaming would be that no one is happy. Every stakeholder, except perhaps, the consumer, has beef with how streaming operates. All of which means that any fixes (at least those that will succeed) will need to deliver some form of benefit to all stakeholders, big and small. And that means tackling the underlying behavioural dynamics of streaming, from which today’s royalty issues come.

Streaming has two main problems

A common refrain is that there is simply too much music. But the issue is dealing with quantity, rather than quantity itself being the problem. No one complains that there are too many search results on Google. The reasons quantity is seen as streaming’s problem are twofold:

With so many releases, it is hard to cut through

In a zero sum royalty system, more (content) means less (royalties) per stakeholder

Factors like ‘noise’, functional music, and generative AI are not problems in themselves, they are problems because they accentuate both of these issues.

Introducing the algorithm multiplier

Adopting a two-tier royalty system will not solve either problem in itself. The long tail will still be there. Listening will still be fragmented. Royalties are a supply-side issue, not a demand-side one. And it is the demand side that is causing the ‘problem’ by spending time listening to an ever more diverse volume of music. If you want to change behaviour, you need to pull the behaviour levers, not the remuneration levers. One way this could be done is by implementing an algorithm multiplier that applies a higher weight to successful artists. Thus ensuring success breeds success. But (and this part is crucial), this algorithm multiplier should be geared for all tiers of success. So, just as a superstar artist’s hit would get amplified, so would a

TikTok and Billboard launch official TikTok Top 50 ChartWho said the charts are dead? TikTok and Billboard are teaming up to launch an official TikTok Billboard Top 50 Chart, tracking the most popular songs on the platform.

READ MORE: Talks from Spotify, TikTok and YouTube will feature in ADE’s Essential Insider Knowledge Series

The chart will measure the hottest songs on TikTok each week, based on views, engagement, and the number of videos made with the song. To check out the chart, you can either visit the TikTok app or the Billboard website. However, it will only measure songs trending in the US.
At present, Sexyy Red’s SkeeYee tops the charts, and it’s followed by Doja Cat‘s Paint the Town Red and Taylor Swift‘s August. Other artists in the top ten include Ice Spice, NLE Choppa, and Charlie Wilson.
Ole Obermann, global head of Music Business Development at TikTok, said in a statement, “The chart gives a clear picture of the music that is being listened to on TikTok, and consequently starting to trend on DSPs and other services”.
The new chart highlights the huge impact that the app has had on the music industry in recent years, boosting both classic songs by artists like Kate Bush and helping new artists like Lil Nas X to build their careers.
And this summer, the platform launched its own music streaming service, TikTok Music. It arrived in Brazil and Indonesia first, as a premium-only service that integrates with existing TikTok accounts and allows users to listen, download, and share songs they’ve found on TikTok. Users can also build collaborative playlists, while there’s a Shazam-esque feature where you can find songs by playing a small sample of audio.
It then expanded into Australia, Mexico, and Singapore. There’s still no news as to when it might arrive in the UK or US, but with the launch of the new chart, perhaps it’ll arrive in the US sooner rather than later?
The post TikTok and Billboard launch official TikTok Top 50 Chart appeared first on MusicTech.

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
moshpit
Main artist name:
Cassie Bryant
Release date:
22nd Sep, 2023
https://publme.lnk.to/moshpit
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #pop #alternative

RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
2 AM
Main artist name:
Bluewave
Release date:
5th Apr, 2023
https://publme.lnk.to/2AM
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #indie #alternative

SoundBetter launches Butterfly Effect reverb plugin to add “ambient” sound beds to sparse compositions Music production marketplace SoundBetter has launched a new reverb plugin, the Butterfly Effect, which adds ethereal and shimmery sounds to lone instruments and sparse compositions.
The plugin reacts to what is being played, and evolves “sound beds” that work with the notes and chords, to build up a more ambient atmosphere.

READ MORE: Baby Audio Transit breathes life into your transitions, courtesy of Andrew Huang

SoundBetter states that the plugin is made with indie artists, ambient producers, pianists, guitar players, and composers in mind, but it’s suitable for just about anyone looking to add improved atmosphere, mood and vibrancy to their tracks.
The brand also says that Butterfly Effect “makes you want to keep playing” by adding enticing overtones and cinematic sweeps to synth pads and strings, or crystal shimmer soundscapes to keyboards and clean guitars.
Features of the Butterfly Effect include:

Three high-quality ambient reverb engines
Reverse grains
Shimmer and crystals
Infinite Blur and Space
Unique, musical slow Blur buildup
Time-synced and midi-controlled slow-motion sweeps
Playable overtones in the key of the track
Built in ducking to clear room in the mix, and time-synced external sidechain for pumping effects
8-bit distortion and saturation
Tape wow, flutter and modulation
Width control for expansive spaces or distant directional tails

Hear it in action in the video below:

It’s also being dubbed as “designed to be felt more than heard,” and according to the SoundBetter website, producer Rik Simpson (Coldplay, Jon Hopkins, Portishead) has called the plugin “a thing of beauty.”
Last week, we rounded up some of the best plugins that had launched over the previous seven days in this handy guide.
The Butterfly Effect plugin currently has a time-limited introductory price of $74, which will eventually rise to $149. It works with all major DAWs that support 64-bit VST3, AAX, or AU.
Find out more via SoundBetter.
The post SoundBetter launches Butterfly Effect reverb plugin to add “ambient” sound beds to sparse compositions  appeared first on MusicTech.

Chris Lake: “If you’re trying to sound like everyone else, how are you going to stand out?”Chris Lake is back in London. How do we know? The hotel we’re meeting in is called The Londoner – a lavish five-star thing smack bang in Leicester Square. We wait in the bar before Lake – a towering figure reaching above six-foot-five – arrives, orders a Caesar salad, says hello and shakes hands.

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It’s easy to forget the impact this humble, Norfolk-raised star has had on modern dance music. Since moving to the US around 2010, he’s not only blown up as an artist, but has contributed to re-defining house music in the States, helping to elevate the genre with a bumping, characterful, techno edge.
Chris Lake
US vs. UK sounds
“The US is in a time of transition,” he says. “I’ve been in America now for 12 years and I’ve witnessed – and maybe played a very small part of – the scene growing up.
“Europeans have been very, very lucky to have a scene that’s continually grown and evolved since the 80s. America was a bit different and ironically it started there. But it kind of died there as well for the most part.”
According to Lake, since the US’s EDM boom in the early 2010s, “the fashion, the promoters, the way people talk – it’s all changed.
“Over the last six years, the music that I play has been working more and more and more. It’s fantastic to be a part of.”
His Coachella 2023 DJ set – a huge B2B with Fisher – was a marker for this evolution. The show was a long time coming, with a lot of effort to make sure the sound and visuals were on point. The vast crowd’s reaction “validated the effort”, he says. It was a moment to reflect on where dance music has been and where it’s headed.

Still, you could say, in its early phase, the dance music scene in the US is yet to shake its bolder, more in-your-face feel – “It’s more… ‘up’”, as Lake tries to explain. That’s not to demean this elevated dance sound in any way. Lake is part of a select group – KH, Green Velvet, Chris Lorenzo, Dom Dolla – finding seriousness within the more abrasive, boisterous take on house music, reining it in and perfecting it for the masses.
“America likes things big. You don’t have to be too ashamed or too fearful of theatrics within the music.
“The way people dance to music in America is fun,” Chris says, deep in thought. “When they get down, they really get down. It’s rewarding to play to those crowds. There’s an understanding of rhythm that’s different, but in Europe, the understanding of vibe is more acute.
“But is it different? Fuck yeah.”
Chris Lake at Coachella 2023. Image: Andrew Jorgensen
Lake’s signature style
So, how exactly is this rich Chris Lake sound made? Well, as heard on his brand new release, More Baby, it’s about filling the space between the drums with wild machine bleeps, pauses and jutting sound effects, while tying it all up in a neat little bow through carefully created build-ups and drops. Oh, and a lack of “masculinity”, the LA-based producer tells us.

“It can be really difficult to put those sounds in and not make the track feel ‘bro-y’ or ‘masculine’.” he explains, referring to the ecosystem of sounds on the track. “Sometimes it could be snippets from an old acapella – it could be anything! It’s more a case of once I find the right tone and the right way to use it, I try to focus on how [the sound] fits into the record. I want it to be jarring, but not too jarring.”
Another signature style in Chris Lake’s work is his delicious basslines – bulky yet pristine and clean, as you can hear in More Baby. Lake keenly notes the cruciality of the relationship between the bassline and the kickdrum saying “80 per cent” of dance music relies on the two parts neatly co-existing.
“[The bassline] is the first thing that comes to my head. I make a sound and the riff comes to me immediately. I just feel it.
Chris Lake in the studio
“Sometimes,” he continues, “the majority of the work goes into getting the kick/bass relationship. Steve Angello said this years ago:, ‘If you can get the kick and bass right on the track, you’ve done 80 per cent of the work’.”
With a busy touring schedule, Lake’s always on the move. Therefore, a portable setup, made up mostly of plugins, makes sense. He pulls out his MacBook, trying to recall which plugins he has been making use of recently.
On the vocals for his track In The Yuma, for example, he says how he used Echo Boy, a plugin from his favourite brand Soundtoys’, to provide a tight delay. He also loves using Native Instruments’ plugins, he says, as well as products by Waves Audio.

“I put a Soundtoys Decapitator on, a couple of Echoboys – one that creates a chorus effect and then an adaption of the master tape preset, then some Valhalla reverb and another slap echo.”
Sticking on vocals, we put Chris on the spot once more, asking which vocalist he’d love to work with. There’s one simple answer: “La Roux”.
Standing out from the crowd
As Chris’ salad is placed between us, we take a sip of water and notice that it’s a tasty tipple. To Chris, the luxury perks of high-end hotels have become familiar. You can’t not, besides being an experienced talented producer and DJ, of course, ask Chris what he’s done to reap so much success.
Chris Lake at Coachella 2023. Image: Andrew Jorgensen
“You have to identify what makes you different and unique from other people.” He advises. “And embrace it and improve it to make you stand out from the crowd in a good way.
“That’s the best way to get noticed and make something happen. Because if you’re trying to blend in and sound like everyone else, how are you going to stand out?”
Chris Lake has spent the last 12 years nurturing a sound that’s big, bold and unafraid of theatrics. Full of sass and entertaining flare, it’s certainly found its home in the US’s evolving dance scene. He’s in cruise control, but there are a few more gears to go up to before we see the final form of Chris Lake.
Check out when Chris Lake is playing near you via chris-lake.com.
The post Chris Lake: “If you’re trying to sound like everyone else, how are you going to stand out?” appeared first on MusicTech.

PreSonus update Eris monitor line-up PreSonus are now offering three Eris ranges that aim to cater to everyone from casual creators to professional studios.

Two more top executives depart Binance.US amid layoffs, SEC action: ReportThe Binance.US head of legal and the exchange’s chief risk officer have reportedly left the company while it faces an SEC suit.

French battery maker Verkor scores $2.1B to build gigafactoryAnother day another monster raise for an EV battery company. This time it’s Verkor, the Renault-backed french battery builder, which said on Thursday that it secured “more than €2 billion” — roughly $2.1 billion USD — to speed up construction of its Dunkirk gigafactory. Verkor produces pouch and cylindrical battery modules for electric vehicles and […]

Music auditions: The ultimate guide for how to prepare
Veteran educator Renato Milone (Berklee College of Music) shares his in-depth guide for preparing your music auditions for schools, university programs, etc.

Recording Academy P&E Wing Posts 4 Sessions Spotlighting Sony 360 Reality AudioAs a continuation of its "Inside the Mix" online series, the Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® has posted four sessions spotlighting Sony 360 Reality Audio. The episodes, streamed live for P&E Wing members, featured Sony experts who guided viewers through different aspects of the 360 RA format. Each webinar was introduced by Maureen Droney, Vice President of the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, and moderated by Michael Romanowski (four-time GRAMMY® Award-winner, including one for Best Immersive Audio Album). The entire series is now archived and available in a playlist here.

The first session, titled "Sony 360 Reality Audio: Formats, Playback, and Studio Requirements," featured Sony's Gus Skinas and Hiro Komuro joining Romanowski for an overview of the technology, background and history behind Sony 360 RA, including format description and reasoning, consumer playback options, and studio requirements.

Second was "Sony 360 Reality Audio: WalkMix Deep Dive, Deliverables & QC," with Skinas, Sony's Bryce Jones and Attila Fodor, who delved into WalkMix Creator, a tool that enables creators to easily produce music in a spherical immersive sound field using the 360 RA format. They also covered deliverables and QC for 360 RA projects.

The third session was "Sony 360 Reality Audio: Deliverables Deep Dive." For this discussion, Skinas, along with Sony's Mike Catandella and Steven Dewey, offered a detailed breakdown of deliverables and related topics to consider when working in the 360 RA format.

The fourth and final session, "Sony 360 Reality Audio: 360 Virtual Mixing Environment," featured Sony's Koyuru Okimoto, Toru Nakagawa and Hiro Komuro breaking down the details and capabilities of the Sony 360 Virtual Mixing Environment (360VME), a technology that uses proprietary measurement technology to accurately reproduce, with headphones, the acoustic field of an immersive audio studio consisting of multiple speakers. After just one measurement in the studio, the optimal environment for immersive audio production can be taken anywhere with headphones and 360VME software.

Maureen Droney remarks, "As part of the P&E Wing's ongoing commitment to providing our industry with the most needed information, we are pleased to present these sessions recorded with experts from Sony. Immersive audio is not merely 'the future' – it is now. These sessions were highly informative, and they offered cutting-edge information directly from the experts that helped develop these tools at Sony. We thank our guests for sharing their expertise, and for guiding viewers through the 360 RA format and how it is used in the world of immersive audio, and we look forward to providing further educational programming for creators as technology continues to evolve.”

A previous "Inside the Mix" sub-series focused on Dolby's Atmos® format. That series is available in a playlist at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIMiwsDFHA97NjjngN3nsNXr5fFWAj-tk.

Pulsar Audio w495 Equalizer Plugin Is FREE Until October 31st
Pulsar Audio offers the Pulsar w495 equalizer plugin ($49 value) as a free download until October 31st, 2023. Pulsar w495 emulates the Neumann w495 hardware equalizer, a revered successor to the PEa and OEV equalizers. This two-channel EQ module features transformer-balanced inputs, a low and high-frequency filter, a boost-cut filter with adjustable bandwidth, and an [...]
View post: Pulsar Audio w495 Equalizer Plugin Is FREE Until October 31st

Denis Ladegaillerie on AI, streaming royalty models, Believe’s game plan… and moreThe Believe founder and CEO joins MBW's Tim Ingham on the latest Music Business Worldwide podcast
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Head of trade body representing UK songwriters switches to run US trade body representing Spotify, Amazon, and Pandora (who not so long ago were fighting to cut songwriters’ pay)Davies is filling in the role left by Garrett Levin, who stepped down as DiMA’s top executive after relocating to Geneva, Switzerland
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