Technology has been pivotal in forging relationships between many aspiring musicians; the internet acting as a meeting place for a collaborators, remixers, and DJs, and the laptop computer the obvious point of entry. But web collabs bring with them a slew of complications — limited storage space, data corruption, unorganized session files, and not to mention the risk of a record leak. To aid the process of remote collaboration while fostering a new engine for discovery, the creators of Blend.io have invented a tool that harnesses the collective powers of the internet, powerful DAWs, and the spirit of the music community.

Equally social as it is functional, Blend.io introduces new artists to a community of producers and listeners, who are in turn invited to remix, refigure, and provide feedback on songs, productions, and works in progress.

Users upload bounces of their tracks to a unique project page, which states the DAW and version used to create the record, as well as a download link to “pull” the project’s session files. Each time a new user pulls the project, the update is listed in the project’s feed with links to the other artists’ collaborations. Blend requires a Dropbox account to use, as all of the user’s files are hosted by the storage service. On the social end, users can follow each other within the Blend platform.When publishing a new project, users can save versions and upload the various stages of their work to get feedback on projects. Projects remain in a user’s profile and are viewable by the Blend community.

Besides being a tool for collaboration and connection, Blend is shedding light on a creative issue unique to this era of music production, particularly on account of our access to technology. Artists of all backgrounds are often hesitant to share new work, with the fear that is hasn’t been perfected or isn’t up to a popular standard — a bar continually raised by engineering and production prowess across the board. However, music production as a discipline often lacks the mentorship that comes along with traditional instrumental performance, and Blend is a great avenue for getting in touch with other musicians of lesser, equal, or greater experience for providing or gleaning insight. Plus, the journey of a musician supported by a community of welcoming individuals (especially those who will promote new artists through remixes) is an endearing one, and could be a great backdrop for a larger artistic story.

Blend has already featured projects and contests by musicians including Moby, Prefuse 73, Erin Barra, plus/minus, and Mad Zach, who have hosted albums, stems, and sound packs on Blend, offering other musicians an opportunity to “blend” their own ideas. Blend shows promise as new tool for record labels as well, as production skills do carry value within the framework of the platform, and A&Rs could very well use Blend to source new talent.

As an added treat, here’s a special invitation to Blend.io for the SoundCtrl readers. We hope you enjoy exploring and interacting with the steadily growing community of collaborators!

The post Blend: An Online Tool for Music Collaboration and Discovery appeared first on SoundCtrl.

In philosophy, a first principle is a basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. In mathematics, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates. In the mobile modular music processing app Audulus, first principles are the core of sound design.

Created and designed by software engineer W. Taylor Holliday, Audulus is a minimal, colorful, and downright attractive modular synthesis app for Mac, iPad, and now iPhone. 

Modularity is an age-old concept: combine two discrete elements to create a whole that is the sum of its parts. The functionality of a modular system is defined by the pieces that it comprises, and this concept need not be analog to be instilled with the same spirit that made such technologies so limitless and fun.

With Audulus on iPhone, modular audio is reinvented for musicians on the go, in an app that allows the user to create his or her sounds from the ground up. As with all technological innovations, especially those dealing with such “building block” structures, design is at the core of Audulus’s functionality. Easy to use and easier to look at, the app takes inspiration from the elements of programming applications such as Pure Data and Max, and outfits them to be quite appealing, even to an onlooker on the subway.

Audulus comes stocked with standard synth features, such as oscillators, ADSR, and filters; production tools including a 4-channel mixer, crossfade, and level meter; as well as MIDI control, preset saving, and integration with the new Audiobus 2. 

Audulus for iPhone and iPad is available on the iTunes store and an AudioUnit beta version has just been released for Mac.  

The post Audulus Brings Mobile Modular Synthesis to iPhone appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Aaron Shekey and Joseph Kuefler have created a much an easier way for songwriters to keep track of their ideas. With their new app Hum, lyrics and recorded melodies are combined in a single app,  a surprisingly simple feat that few other apps have tackled. In a minimal and navigable interface with few frills, Hum offers a unique and highly efficient option for quick songwriting, plus easy sharing opportunities to collaborate with fellow musicians. Though the app is still in its nascent stage, Hum’s flexibility and straightforwardness open possibilities for expansion and growth in the near future, possibly revolutionizing the way we write songs on our phones.

Hum sports a cool green and white screen, with a light font that’s easy to read. Opening the app will take you directly to your list of songs, and a variety of sort options from the drop-down menu will help you navigate your notebook. You can filter your songs by date, note type (lyrics or audio, or both), key, guitar tuning (of which there are many, many listed), capo position, and mood. There are also two sliders which denote mood and timbre or energy. Within each note, the filters can beadjusted to organize each song accordingly. Recording your voice is pretty straightforward — press the big record button and play back from within the note or from the quick player in list view.

We had a chance to catch up with Aaron Shekey, one of the Hum founders, to talk briefly about the app and its plans for the future.

1. Where is the Hum team from, and what are your backgrounds?

 Hum began and continues to be driven out of Minneapolis, MN, one of the country’s greatest music cities. Aaron cut his teeth designing websites for big brands. He later moved to San Francisco to work for Adobe. There he conceived of, designed and helped to build Edge Reflow, the first responsive web design application.  Joseph spent years working as Creative Lead at Zeus Jones, a modern brand agency. While there, he led creative and strategic efforts for brands like Google, Purina and General Mills. 

2. What sort of songwriting experiences informed the creation of Hum?

Hum began as way to scratch our own itches. We were sick of using the iPhone’s native VoiceMemos app to collect our ideas. We were tired of our lyrics sitting next to shopping lists and reminders.

3. You have filters for key and capo, is Hum made especially for acoustic singer-songwriters?

 No. We want Hum to appeal to as many genres and types of musical creators as possible. We’ve got metal guitarists, rappers, songwriters, jazz musicians and many other types of artists using Hum today. We’ll continue to polish Hum’s features to enable artists of all shapes create and organize more efficiently. 

4. Do you think you may integrate other sounds and/or instruments (like a mobile keyboard or drum sequencer) in the future to record melodies and rhythms on the fly?

We’re going to continue to introduce features that help artists capture ideas, but we have no plans to turn Hum into a full-featured digital audio workstation. Hum is much less about performance, and much more about capturing ideas. A melody can just as quickly be captured by singing into Hum as it could from a tiny iOS keyboard.

5. Hum’s interface is pleasantly minimal — are there limitations you’re imposing on the design and functionality to keep it simple?

 

We’re constantly challenging ourselves to maintain a simple and elegant interface. This requires us to question everything and include only what we need. 

 

Beyond that, the App Store is filled with thousands of apps packed with dozens of features each. This is especially true within the music category. There is no shortage of complex music production/editing apps out there. What musicians were missing was a simple tool focused solely on the initial spark of an idea, a tool that was tailor-made for capturing and organizing their ideas, a tool with as few steps between idea and finished recording as possible. In some ways, this makes it easy to keep Hum’s interface simple. Musicians don’t need another full-feature Garageband, so we get to forego many of the complexities there.

 

We don’t add features unless we can do it in a dead-simple manner.

6. Do you have any plans to build collaborative communities around Hum?

Absolutely. Without going into too much detail, I’ll leave it at “absolutely!”

7. What kind of syncing does Hum offer to back up songs?

 Hum doesn’t sync just yet. We had to start somewhere and wanted to get Hum in people’s hands as soon as possible. We have a working version of Dropbox syncing that we’re testing right now. It’ll be a minute before it’s released though, securing our user’s ideas and in-progress work is incredibly important—building the best damn songwriting app out there requires us to do whatever we can to ensure our users never lose an idea. 

8. Do you plan on partnering with any other platforms to expand the reach and functionality of the app (i.e. Audiobus, SoundCloud, etc.)?

 We’re always considering new and exciting ways to modernize songwriting. We haven’t established partnerships yet. As soon as a few critical feature additions are complete, we’ll more actively connect with like-minded apps and companies.

9. Any big names that have endorsed Hum?

While we haven’t yet established official endorsees, we do have a great list of influential users: members of Sugarland, Punch Brothers and OK Go; Jeremy Messersmith; Justin Lowe (After the Burial); Ben Kweller; members of Doomtree; Paul Baloche (one of Christian music’s biggest names). As important as the bigger names are, there are thousands of unknown songwriters from around the globe using Hum today.

Hum is available for download on the iTunes App store, and you can keep up with Hum’s progress on Twitter and on their blog.

The post Hum, An iPhone App for the Mobile Songwriter appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Now that Audiobus has announced its newest update, allowing inter-app presets to be saved and recalled, soft and hardware instrument maker Arturia has adopted the new technology for its iSEM mobile synth. Made specifically for iPad, iSEM is an impressive digital reconstruction of Oberheim’s 1974 SEM synthesizer.

Praise for the device’s accurate replication comes from even the most discerning synth players, including Depeche Mode’s Alan Wilder, who is an owner of the original Oberheim instrument.

The post Arturia Brings Audiobus 2 to iSEM Synth App appeared first on SoundCtrl.

It’s almost ironic that the touchscreen device, a modern day tool so devoid of physical direction or instruction, has become such a well of potential for changing human perception. This flat, innocent-looking machine has prompted a wave of hybrid artistic formats that combine mediums nearly as old as life itself. We have seen and explored examples of such endeavors with the likes of Roundware, Thicket, Tender Metal and others.

The effort to change our perception, interaction and definition of music and other art forms continues on, with a fascinating combo-concept presented in the form of an iOS app dubbed the “Gralbum,” which officially launched last night at Soho Arthouse.

“Can you touch music? Get lost in a world of sound and light, immersed in the artist’s creation? Feel the story the music tells, privately, only to you? Of course you can, now. This was the future of music, but we’re here now.”

–Gralbum Collective

The series of questions posed by Brooklyn-based, Gralbum Collective, the company behind the Gralbum app, (both founded by Sarth Calhoun, a soundscape producer and electronic musician who has performed alongside Lou Reed in the Metal Machine Trio,) poetically summarize what the Gralbum app is out to show and provide. Gralbum is a new outlet for creatives to generate uncommon artistic, musical and literary experiences. Still, what does it mean to “check out a Gralbum”?

Think:

Narrative with words,

Graphic novel

Music comprising a concept album

the result is a Gralbum.

The app itself is deemed a multimedia publishing platform and functions like a self-contained “shop” for Gralbums; some free and some offered as in-app purchases. The inaugural Gralbum, known as “The Book of Sarth” is both in the Gralbum store and is a separate app unto itself, packing 30 minutes of direct-able content, two music videos, an eight song album (available for isolated listening through email export) and a graphic novel component amounting to 100 pages.

Artists offer various media, from photography to sketch drawings, paintings, animations and film-esque clips; collaborating with storytellers and musicians with intriguing compositions that often stray from the mainstream path. These separate but related and imagination-fueled elements are melded together as a Gralbum and what readers/listeners/explorers are given, is an immersive work of art that is neither wholly passive, nor entirely manual from start to finish. If this explanation seems vague, it’s due to the fact that each Gralbum is vastly different from the next—how they play out is partially determined by the style of music that informs the imagery, and also by how the reader/listener traverses between the audio and the visual.

The music offered by some of the first Gralbums include works from Leah Coloff, Bora Yoon, and Adam Matta among others still to come.

When Calhoun asks, “Can you touch music?” he is not being sardonic. The touchscreen aspect comes to the forefront once a person examines the imagery presented, as music plays in the background.  Users can pinch, grab, zoom, and swipe all in typical i-device fashion and for some Gralbums, this has a direct affect on the artwork that comes in and out of view. Gralbums are far from just a story with flat pictures set to music. Conversely, simply tap an image once and the view smoothly transitions to a full screen orientation, referred to as the “director’s view,” which is all the more visually enjoyable, when viewing the mixed mediums on an iPad.

You can follow Gralbum Collective on Twitter and find them on Facebook.

Below is a video highlighting the beauty of The Book of Sarth in full audio and motion view, as no words can entirely describe: 

BOOK OF SARTH from Jacob McCoy on Vimeo.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Grab A Gralbum: A Combinative Format Of Music, Media, and Stories appeared first on SoundCtrl.

December 2012 was the last time the Audiobus app made a big splash on the iOS scene, when this amazing, connective tool first appeared in the iTunes App Store. Amateur and experienced musicians alike benefitted from the app, which changed mobile music creation on a fundamental but significant level. Audiobus was recently presented with the honor of Electronic Musician Editor’s Choice for 2014. Now with the release of its successor, Audiobus 2, praise for this Australian-based team stands to continue.

To give some context on Audiobus, let’s start with the app’s name, which illuminates a surprising amount about what Audiobus 2 primarily does for musicians:

“A mixing board has a type of component, referred to as a “bus,” which in the most minimal of terms, functions as a path for signals to move through. They can condense the number of signals to give simultaneous control while mixing or route audio to outside effects or devices, (among other functions) depending on the type of bus being utilized.”

That action of routing and directing signals is the chief function of Audiobus, allowing for signal path adjustments between audio apps and their respective audio routing. Audiobus 2 retains and improves that key functionality and is redesigned to have a more user-intuitive structure.

The primary enhancements offered by Audiobus 2 span three major feature additions:

• Multi-Routing
• State-Saving
• Presets

As the name might suggest, the Multi-Routing feature allows for users to have as many inter-app link-ups as their iOS device can physically handle running. This lack of confinement is the cornerstone building block to what is a highly customizable and efficient app experience, thanks to the other two enhancements.

The Presets and State-Saving features are very similar and build on one another, much like the Multi-Routing feature. For example, if a user has five apps to choose from when using Audiobus 2 and each of those five apps has the ability to be finely adjusted with proprietary, in-app sliders or knobs, the State-Saving feature is the champion to call upon here.

After adjusting specific parameters in an app, the need to re-configure settings in the future would be frustrating. That redundancy is eliminated with State-Saving, which restores those placements with a quick, single reload tap during the next use. Then, once those individual numbers are locked in on one app, Audiobus 2 Presets do the work of State-Saving on a larger scale, preserving entire inter-app connection chains rather than just the settings for single apps.

Audiobus 2′s SDK will eventually be available to any developer who wants to make their specific app compatible but, even on just the first day of public availability, over a dozen apps are already prepared to take advantage of the aforementioned State-Saving capability, showcasing the app’s programming potential.

Audiobus 2 itself is a sleek, high quality app but, what makes it stand out is not a fancy aesthetic or a bait-and-switch gimmick. The app simply addresses every possible angle of what it means to be a “highly effective support tool.” Michael Tyson, developer of Audiobus, explains it best:

“[Audiobus 2 is] an app that makes all your other apps better, more versatile, more creative…and [I] think it’s going to help people get even more out of their apps and their iOS devices.”

Audiobus 2 is $4.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Keep an eye out for the ongoing announcements of new Audiobus 2-compatible apps, sure to be appearing in droves once the SDK is more openly shared.

You can follow Audiobus on Twitter, as well as find them on Facebook.

Below are demonstrations of Audiobus 2′s Presets and Multi-Routing features in action:

Presets

Multi-Routing

*Note that the Multi-Routing functionality is accessed after a $4.99 USD in-app purchase.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post All Aboard Audiobus 2 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

This is no April Fool’s joke. Today marks the first full day of activity for newly launched collaborative endeavor, MusicMark. But what is MusicMark and why would someone possibly think of its existence as a prank?

It might have something to do with the idea that multiple performing rights organizations (PROs) are teaming up as one entity. While it is true that PROs have common goals and business objectives in support of the respective songwriters, artists and publishers they collectively represent, the individual working structure and overall framework for each PRO is slightly different. This is what allows for a healthy amount of variety and choice to best suit every person’s needs within the music industry.

MusicMark is nothing to be feared, nor is it something that will merge every PRO under a single umbrella of procedures and benefits. Publisher members of ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN, the three current collaborators that comprise MusicMark, will retain their identities as members of their chosen groups. The crux of benefits is in the pooling of knowledge, staff, and effective work methods, as well as the massive simplification of Common Work Registration (CWR) within the three PROs down to a single process.

As stated in the starter document uploaded to MusicMark’s website, the goal of this new project is to:

“…make the works registration process more efficient and create a unified copyright picture in North America for the works we represent.The first phase of this collaboration will enable publishers to submit/receive files to/from one FTP [file transfer protocol] site (rather than three) and to receive one common first acknowledgment (as opposed to one from each PRO).”

It is a bit surprising to see a PRO like SOCAN in this announcement, rather than SESAC, the PRO so often attached with mention of ASCAP and BMI. However, the volume of works and creators to be supported is quite notable, as the separate databases of these three will bring together a massive number of publishers and songwriters. Furthermore, there is the possibility of other organizations  integrating sometime in the future. Right now, the organizations are aiming for an overall boost in data accuracy for their copyrighted works and, for any errors that do occur, a quicker resolution thereof, through the use of a uniform data registry. The forefront of this whole collaboration will positively affect PRO members with a trimming of the complex paper trail, and can be tested out as soon as their next work is ready for registration.

As explained on MusicMark’s website,

“Publishers will be able to submit a single registration file simultaneously to all three performing rights organizations (PROs), even if the work was co-written by members of different societies. Each PRO will then integrate the registration data into its respective repertory of works.”

 Given the number of artists who are also songwriters, and the number of artists who collaborate with other artists who are also songwriters, the appropriate naming and featuring jargon for writing credit can be severely confusing — to say nothing of the legal navigations when starting the registration for a co-write involving two, three or even more people. Collaboration has been the “it” strategy for some time now in songs and business models and, that spirit has translated over to a sector of the music business that could seriously benefit from a de-tangling of red tape. What impact and influence it may or may not have on other PROs and related services (song tracking, audio fingerprinting) will be a question worth following closely in the next few months as MusicMark makes its mark on the business.

You can read more about MusicMark’s initial process for CWR registration here.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN Unify Publisher Registration as MusicMark appeared first on SoundCtrl.

BandPage, the online presence management platform for musicians, has announced another successful investment series. Now up to $28 million in funding, BandPage will use the capital to continue fostering relationships with the foremost music services, while creating and solidifying new revenue streams for musicians.

BandPage is used by more than 500,000 musicians to reach billions of fans worldwide, and is popular with managers for its social media and brand partnership integration. Though the landing page of the site displays links to the profiles of major pop acts, the platform is praised by many of the most innovative, independent artists as well.  Brian Message, manager of PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, and co-manager of Radiohead” says BandPage is playing a critical role in empowering musicians to further their careers in the digital age.”

Check out BandPage’s site to learn more about the company and its services.

The post BandPage Is on Its Way to Being the Largest Musician’s Platform appeared first on SoundCtrl.

For those that don’t know, convolution reverb simulates the characteristics of a real space by sampling the acoustic response of a room. By popping these impulse responses into a convolution plugin in a DAW, like Ableton Live’s Convolution Reverb, Logic Pro’s Space Designer, or Pro Tools’ Space, the output of a mix can be tested as if were being played through Funktion-One speakers. With this particular set of IR’s, you can get a better sense of how your records will sound when played on a standard nightclub system.

Of course, IR’s aren’t completely accurate, since it’s impossible to replicate the various physical inconsistencies of speakers and spaces, but the Balance team is very confident in the result. “We spent a large amount of time tweaking and shaping these impulse responses in the time and frequency domain whilst on site by ear, so they sound as close as possible to the real thing.” When tested on open-back headphones, you can remove your mix from your own room acoustics and get a fairly accurate sense of your mix on the Funktion-One system.

Download the impulse responses here, and check out Balance Mastering’s professional engineering services as well.

The post Balance Mastering Shares Funktion-One Impulse Responses from The Hive Project appeared first on SoundCtrl.

A new music technology hackathon is headed to Stockholm, Sweden in May. MIDI HACK, a day-long, 24 hour hackathon, will bring together a community of industry leaders, start-ups, software developers, hardware fanatics and musicians to celebrate the protocols and technologies at the foundation of analog and digital music creation.

The event will focus primarily on the essential frameworks of  of midi, osc, and cv, and how they can be implemented in creation, control, and performance. The event will include lectures and performances, though will mainly provide insight, guidance, and support to the 150 participants selected to attend.

“We want MIDI HACK to be a diverse event, therefore you’ll have to apply with your idea/vision/dream,” say event organizers Rikard Jönsson and Sebastian Höglund. Jönsson, who works at Spotify, runs an electronic record label called Jammerdosa, and Höglund is a filmmaker, developer, and student at the innovative Hyper Island school.  Sponsored by Ableton, Native Instruments, and Soundtrack Your Brand, the event will be held in the Stockholm Spotify HQ, with food, beverages, and hacker space provided.

Applications are open until April 13, 2014, and both individuals and teams can apply.

The post Apply Now: MIDI HACK at Spotify Stockholm appeared first on SoundCtrl.

With a plethora of digital devices and music players perforating modern life, you’d think that the relationship between music and technology would be a more widely discussed topic. Despite the many startups that merge tech and music, a dedicated platform that brings together the growing, lucrative music technology sector is still quite rare.

This is where London’s Music Tech Fest swoops in and fills an oddly under-attended void, at least as far as an indsutry-specialized crowd is concerned. Founded in April 2012 by Michela Magas, co-founder of design research lab Stromatolite,  Music Tech Fest is just that: a gathering devoted to the convergence of music and tech, regardless of the industry sector. Researchers, performers, hackers, business innovators, and technology aficionados — any angle of industry profession steeped in music tech can be found at this event. During the nascent two years of the event, Music Tech Fest has already garnered the time and attention of many companies and influencers alike. (We’ve previously featured Synesthesia, an app which was developed by Stromatolite and is a sort of signature to Music Tech Fest.)

Coming into its third year, Music Tech Fest is going strong,  expanding the event to new locations outside of London and even outside of the EU. In late February, a branch of Music Tech Fest was hosted in Wellington, New Zealand at the local Microsoft Research Labs, and its next stop will be hosted this weekend at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Labs (referred to as the NERD labs!) in Boston, MA. Following Boston, the flagship festival will be held in London in May, with other “tour stops” scheduled for Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris and Brazil.

Thus far, Music Tech Fest: Boston is already shaping up to host an impressive lineup. Some confirmed attendees include:

Dave Haynes (fmr. SoundCloud)

Paul Lamere (Echo Nest)

Berklee’s Rethink Music Initiative

Paris’s IRCAM-Centre Pompidou

The Music Technology Group of UPF Barcelona

…with many more companies, as well as newly developed instruments and digital projects set for presenting demonstrations. A live link-up with the British Library is also on the agenda, along with the expectedly exciting hackathon, hosted by Jonathan Marmor (also of The Echo Nest).

You can follow along with all the Music Tech Fest activities on Twitter and get involved with the conversation with the hastag, #mtfboston.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post London’s Music Tech Fest Comes to Boston appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Native Instruments has released the newest, smallest device in its line of digital DJ hardware, the Traktor Audio 2. As “the world’s smallest audio interface,” the Audio 2 is an ultra-compact, high-quality sound card, processing audio at 24-bit/48 kHz.

Made for use with Traktor’s iOS app Traktor DJ, as well as the Traktor Pro software, the Audio 2 makes mobile DJing a breeze, with little setup and breakdown between DJs and sets. Furthermore, the size of the audio 2 makes it a viable option for audiophiles who want to listen to music in high quality from their iPhones. The device comes with connection cables for iPhone and laptop, and the 30 pin to USB cable for iPad is optional.

Native Instruments has been steadily developing iOS compatibility for its line of DJ devices, including the Kontrol S4, S2, and Z1 controllers. This expansion speaks to the growing number of mobile DJs and fans of electronic music, especially those who use laptop, iPads, and now iPhones for their sets. 

The Traktor Audio 2 works in a number of configurations integrating the mobile and desktop versions of its software.  Below, the setups for iPhone, iPad, external miser and MIDI controller MIDI are shown. With Audio 2′s dual-channel output, switching between these setups is quite simple.

Traktor Audio 2 comes with Traktor LE 2, the standard version of the desktop software, and comes at an affordable price of $99. Check out the Traktor section of the NI website for more information.

The post Traktor Audio 2: Tiny, Loud, and Portable appeared first on SoundCtrl.

“Notice the sea of screens at concerts? Live music events are the number one usage occasion of smartphones, and yet there is no go-to concert app,” said Encore CEO Nicholas Klimchuk in a recent press release. “We’re trying to change that with Encore.”

You probably noticed it at the last live show you went to—smartphones have replaced lighters in the concert space, and whether you use them or hate them, the trend is here to stay. But the concert-centered app Encore, backed by Next 36, aims to revolutionize the live concert experience for those both able and unable to attend. And what’s the best way to encapsulate memories and share the experience with those who couldn’t be there? Photos, videos, set lists—you name it, Encore has it.

Simple and fun to use, Encore connects users with not only the concerts they’re waiting to see, like most other concert apps, but it also puts an emphasis on shows of the past—shows, in fact, that date as far back as the 1960s. The app takes an innovative approach to tapping into the passions of a concertgoer by integrating photos and videos from social media and concert and set list information from other dedicated services and more.

To share more about the app, its capabilities, and its bright future, Klimchuk took the time to talk to SoundCtrl about all that Encore has to offer.

SoundCtrl: How did you come up with the idea for Encore? Was there a specific moment in time where the concept just clicked?

Nicholas Klimchuk:  Our cofounder [Michael Warshafsky] goes to lots of concerts, and he realized that almost everyone was on their phones taking photos and videos, and he also was unsatisfied with some of the other concert apps that were out there. He thought that he could design something better, and what better way of building a successful concert app than around consumer behavior that everyone’s exhibiting, which is on their phone? So we leverage that and give them a better experience to help them find upcoming events.

How does Encore create these concert time capsules?

We go through a database of Last.fm. We know when and where shows were, so we bring in geo-tagged photos, any Flickr photos that have a number of tags related to the event, and YouTube videos, which are typically well-documented. In the future, we’re going to be bringing in photos and videos from Instagram video, Vine, and Twitter.

How does the app determine which are the best photos and videos to include in a time capsule?

As of now, we don’t do any filtering, but in an upcoming version of Encore, we’re going to let users favorite photos kind of like they do on Instagram. Right now, users just have a profile where they can see the shows they’ve been to, but in a future version, they’ll be able to see which of their friends are on Encore, what shows they’ve been to, their favorited photos as well as favorite artists.

Right now, the app just brings in a lot of data, and it can be overwhelming — there are a lot of selfies that people might not care for. But in the future, you’ll be able to see just your friends’ photos, your photos from the event, and the top-rated photos and videos will be at the top of the time capsule. And in the future we’ve also thought about letting people customize their time capsule so they can easily remove things that they don’t want—it can just be their experience.

Where do you source information for the hundreds of thousands of shows in the future included on the app?

We partner with Last.fm. They have quite an extensive concert database, so the images, the lineup, the location of the show, the start time, everything comes from that database, and then users add on things like news, or you can invite your friends, grab tickets and have the ability to type in your friends to see who’s coming.

How do you think Encore will change the concert experience?

There’s a lot of debate about phones at concerts. On one hand, Encore reduces the need for you to be taking all those photos and videos. Lots of times people take photos and videos at concerts to prove that they were there, for the vanity of sharing on social media to make their friends jealous, or because of nostalgia and wanting to be able to hold on to this lifetime experience.

So what Encore will let people do is, say you’re at the back of the concert, and you take a really dark, blurry photo, you’d prefer to just trade up to the photo that someone took in front of the stage, and that has equal impact. It’s interesting because I can show you photos from Lady Gaga’s concerts from her last tour, and trying to tell you which concert it’s from, you’d think it was your concert because they all look the same. But people subscribe a much higher value knowing that that photo was taken at the concert they went to two years ago, even though the photos can look almost alike.

So in the short term, we’re just trying to make a better concert app so that people can experience live music more and hold on to their memories. But in the long term, whoever wins this race to build the leading concert event app will be able to do a lot more for before, during and after shows. We’re just going to be starting early with the data that people provide on the shows they went to and the people they went with, which is very valuable to promoters, and then slowly move from there adding more functionality.

What kind of feedback have you gotten so far from Encore users?

So over time, people who have used the beta version, the original version of Encore just did photos and videos so there was a lot of demand for, “I want to be able to do something with these upcoming listings,” which we’ve added in the form of buying tickets and sharing with friends. People still want to do more with the photos and videos, which we recognize, so we’re going to be adding the ability to upload your own photos.

Generally the feedback has been that people really like the feel of the app design, they like how we focus on the past as much as on the future. Most concert apps don’t do anything with past shows other than maybe if you bought tickets, they’ll keep them somewhere on the app. We want people to find every single show they went to, even if it’s 1960s Woodstock, which Encore has on the platform.

The way we like to think about this is in the past, people kept ticket stubs as mementos of shows, while people of our generation walk out of concerts and just throw away their ticket stubs, and our promoter partners and board of directors still have their tickets saved from the Beatles concert and the first concerts they went to. So Encore’s trying to create the digital equivalent of that, like the digital ticket stub of these concerts.

What kind of upgrades or evolution do you see for Encore in the future?

The past is a huge differentiator for the Encore app. It’s a way that we expect to keep people engaged. So for example, even if you don’t go to the Arcade Fire show that’s happening in Toronto tonight, you can turn on Encore, and you can see the photos and videos coming in live. Right now, we don’t provide that functionality, but the next day you can see the photos and videos. But it’s a very simple thing where on the Today page, we’re just going to have an indicator blinking, so whether it’s a concert going on locally or a festival that your friends are at, it’s kind of cool to just be able to open the app and see what’s happening with your friends and what’s going on at the concerts on the app.

So that’s one area. And then another thing we’ll be implementing is we’re going to be integrating setlist.fm into all the past shows. It’s owned by LiveNation, and that way, and again with shows going back to the 60s, people can, when they add their shows, see their friends that attended, they’ll see the set list, they’ll see the photos and videos, and again, it’s a nostalgic feel that people have from seeing that information. And also, as soon as the show’s over, we’ll be pushing notifications of what the set list was. So there’s an opener, and you really liked that one song, you’ll have it with you when you leave. So there’s some small adjustments on the past.

As I also mentioned, the profile will be bolstered where we’ll do what most concert apps do right now. We’ll scan your library, we’ll find your favorite artists and then we’ll send you notifications when people go on tour, and then you’ll be able to see which of your friends—it’ll be like a social network for concertgoers—you’ll get to see your friends on Facebook who are also using Encore and see the concerts they’re going to and have been to.

We’re trying to start small and prove that an anchor of past shows is something that can get people onto a platform and then considering upcoming events and then go from there and listen to our users’ feedback.

Check out Encore, recently released from beta onto iTunes, and get started enjoying an encore of all the shows of the past while preparing for shows in the future.

The post [Interview] Nick Klimchuk, CEO of Encore appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Total bummer you couldn’t make it to SXSW this year, right? All of the amazing concerts with tons of big-name and up-and-coming artists to discover, just out of your reach this time around. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall and catch all the action from afar?

Now, with “The Heart of Austin” showcase from Sony Entertainment Network, you can, all from the comfort of your own home. And all you need is your PlayStation 3 (where admittedly you were spending that missed concert time anyway, yes?) Using the Live Events Viewer app on your PS3, you’ll be able to enjoy The Heart of Austin showcase’s broadcasts for three days of the expansive SXSW lineup, from March 12^th through 14^th, for free through the app or an online stream.

Through a partnership with ‘stache media, Entercom Communications, Lively, and King’s Hawaiian, Sony has taken over two downtown, next-door-neighbor venues, The Market and Hangar Lounge. From Wednesday through Friday of this week, Sony will bring you a heavy helping of some of the excellent live performances you thought you’d miss out on. Plus, according to Sony, “Music Unlimited & Video Unlimited will also have a setup within Hangar Lounge to experience the service between sets.” Sets begin around 4 to 5 p.m. and end around 12 to 2 a.m. each evening.

Lineup

The lineup includes a total of 54 bands and musicians from across the country. On Wednesday, you can catch The Revivalists, UME, The Grahams, and Oh No Fiasco at The Market and Rev Gusto, The Architects, Nightmare The Cat, and Nothing More at Hangar Lounge. Thursday features Nicole Atkins, KKDO Local, Black Cadillacs, and Lucius at The Market and Crobot, Wild Party, Johnnyswim and Samsaya at Hangar Lounge. And on Friday you can catch Los Lonely Boys, Ingrid Michaelson, The Orwells and Magic Man at The Market and Travis Scott, The Bots, Kreesha Turner and Wonder Broz at Hangar Lounge.

Any of these sound familiar? This is just a sampling of the wide range of talent performing at this one-of-a-kind showcase. You can view the full line-up on Sony’s blog or below. You can also check out a playlist for The Heart of Austin showcase on Sony’s website.

The Potential of Live Concert Showcases

Live concert streams are nothing new, but the fact that a company as large as Sony has jumped on the bandwagon is a great sign for music lovers who are often distraught over missing their favorite bands and artists perform around the world. Being able to stream the shows to your television via PS3, rather than your computer or mobile device, is a bonus as well.

As the market for live streaming concerts grows, a unique opportunity extends far beyond venue walls. Global music sharing will no longer be limited to streaming music and videos, which are typically seen post-event, even when recorded live.

Now, all of the excitement of a live shows will be universally available from the comfort of home. Granted, streaming live shows can never replace actually being present in a venue or at the foot of a festival stage, but it’s the next best thing for live music lovers.

Bands unable to tour and travel will be able to share their performances with fans and potential fans around the world, earning more of a following without ever having to leave their hometown — which is a limitation many bands and musicians throughout the world face. Live performance streaming is yet another unique outlet offered by the Internet that can increase band exposure on a wider scale, with relatively minimal effort for the band itself, aside from the videography setup.

SXSW is an exciting showcase for the music industry, and you can still get a taste of what the festival has to offer thanks to Sony and its partnerships. Tune in this evening with the Live Events Viewer app on your PS3!

The post Stream The Heart of Austin SXSW Showcase This Week on Your PS3 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Moogfest, the electronic music festival honoring the legacy of music technology pioneer Bob Moog, is just over a month away. This year’s exciting, innovative festival is centered around both day and night programming, featuring panels, workshops, sound installations, and conversations during the first part of the day, and live performances, DJ sets, and impromptu musical experimentations slated for the night.

Moogfest recently announced its full daytime programming, featuring a variety of speculative, insightful, and educational events that will stimulate the mind of any musician or engineer with an eye on the future.  In anticipation of our trip down to Asheville, N.C., we’ve picked a few highlights from the festival’s day schedule, and look forward to reporting back on the prospects of technology, music, and creativity to come.

The Future of Creativity

One of Moogfest’s biggest objectives is bringing together forward-thinking creators to discuss the future of music. Unlike other festivals and meet-ups, Moogfest is less concerned with the often stale topics of music business and consumption (streaming, licensing, bluetooth speakers), and more concerned with actual modes of creation and artistic progression.

World-renowned futurists, philosophers and artists tackle the big questions: What will art look like and sound like 20, 50, 100 years from now? How will it be made and how will it be consumed? What will be the tools of creative expression in the future? Three keynote addresses by Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom; Jerome C. Glenn, CEO of the Millennium Project; and bioethicist, transhumanist, and futurist George Dvorsky.

Google and the Future of Audio

With the exciting Glass, Chrome Experiments, Labs, and mobile applications, Google seems to be holding back its big break into the music industry while bubbling underneath, developing proprietary technologies that will eventually (and likely understatedly) dominate the scene.

Come hear firsthand accounts of Google’s foray into the intersection of music and technology from members of the Android, Creative Lab, Data Arts, and Doodle teams. Witness and engage in a dialogue about the challenges, triumphs, adventures, and aspirations of mixing sounds and code. With Ryan Germick, Leon Hong, Joey Hurst, Aaron Koblin, Raph Levien, and Alexander Chen.

Sonification and Cybernetics

At the risk of belittling this event, we’ll keep it simple — the first human cyborg is going to perform.

Can you visualize music as data?  Professor Bruce Walker of Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sonification Lab discusses new technologies that illustrate information with sound.  Can you see colors as sounds?   Contemporary artist Neil Harbisson was born with the inability to see color.  With a prosthetic device called an “eyeborg,” he can now hear the spectrum and create symphonies out of everything he sees, and has become the planet’s first human cyborg.  Harbisson will perform live and talk about the launch of the Cyborg Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to help people become cyborgs and promote cybernetics in the arts.  

Immersive, Improvisatory, Durational Performances

The best rockstars are the ones that can keep up with the times, optimistically taking advantage of new technologies and appropriating the old. This experimentation, all on Moog equipment, will not be one to miss.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox on Moog pedals. LCD Soundsystem’s Gavin Russom on Moog synths. Dan Deacon on Moogs across all platforms, from hardware to software, pedals to apps. Each performance lasting up to four hours. Anything can happen. Plus an immersive visual installation with films, projections and art by Hisham Bharoocha.

How to Hear

From the most pretentious cynics to the most casual background listeners, everyone could take a lesson on how to hear better. This workshop will guide listeners to actively engage with music, while opening the mind to a more well-rounded listening and comprehension experience.

Immersive, participatory exercises with Lucky Dragons focused on “engaged” or “active” listening. Building on techniques used by environmentalists, artists and composers, takeaways include new strategies for music making, a better understanding of our sonic environment, and an open perspective on the feedback loop between listening, attention, and action.

I Dream of Wires (U.S. Premiere)

Since SoundCtrl is all about modular and analog synthesis, we’re excited to catch the US premiere of this interesting flick.

The ultimate documentary exploring the history of modular synthesizers and modern day communities of analog explorers. U.S. premiere screening with director Robert Fantinatto and producer Jason Amm.

These are just a handful of many events going on at Moogfest, and you can check out the rest of the day and night programming HERE.

The post Moogfest 2014: Daytime Event Highlights appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Each year, SXSW contributes to music and tech innovation, particularly through its Accelerator Competition. This year, more than 500 startups applied to participate in the competition, and these were then whittled down to 48 finalists. A panel of experts will then choose the 18 best startups to present their product or service to another panel of judges in addition to a live SXSW audience.

While SXSW is known by most as a music festival, this year’s finalists in the competitions are surprisingly non-music related. There are a few that can be applied to various aspects of music technology, and we’ve included those in our list of five SXSW music tech finalists, curated with the help of Hypebot.

Artiphon

If you’re looking for next-gen musical instruments, Artiphon is one of the latest to hit the music tech scene. The latest tech-savvy musical instruments are often made to be played by anyone of any level of skill, and Artiphon combines this ease  with appeal to the professional musician.

Armed with its “Touch Sound” philosophy, Artiphon is a multi-instrument that can be held in a variety of ergonomic positions and can produce a versatile wealth of sounds by being strummed, bowed, picked or plucked. It has a patent-pending fretboard interface with six virtual strings, six virtual frets and full fretless playability. It provides the subtle nuances of traditional stringed instruments while going beyond the capabilities of analog strings. Artiphon has multi-track recording capabilities with apps such as Garageband and Auria and direct control of computer software like Ableton, Traktor and Pro Tools. It is a high-tech answer to the modern string instrument, and it allows the player to create truly unique sounds.

Bionym

In our previous article about heartbeat music capabilities, we touched on various devices and programs that could eventually be used to create or curate music based on the human heartbeat. Bionym’s Nymi is a device with similar capabilities, though it was not specifically created with music in mind. Nymi is a form of wearable authentication technology which can allow you to wirelessly control your computer, smartphone, car and more.

This device interaction could easily include your music library and music preferences, which the device can learn from your very own heartbeat. Imagine being able to simply put on the wristband and access the appropriate playlist for your mood immediately based on your heartbeat at that time. This is yet another device that enables the power of the heartbeat outside of your body.

Kiwi Wearable Technologies

Small, easily clipped to your wardrobe and deemed fashionable, the multi-functional Kiwi Move allows wearers to “seamlessly interact with their environments, elegantly simplifying and optimizing their daily lives.” This one device has a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, thermometer and microphone, but its music capabilities come in with gesture control.

The device can read your motions to draw musical notes in the air and can identify the songs playing around you. It can change the way you interact with music by analyzing your entire environment and all of the music that is around you. From there, the Move’s potential will be determined when the device hits the market.

OP3Nvoice

Using API, SDKs, and plugins, OP3Nvoice users can “extract more knowledge from video and voice recordings.” It allows users to search recorded data, which can mean accomplishing anything from searching phone calls to find and verify data to helping users seek out specific moments in lectures, notes, and interviews.

In terms of music, this application could enable users to make music requests to their devices using their voices rather than their hands. This can be most helpfully applied to mobile devices and devices in a car, but it can also be integral to wearable music technology, allowing users to locate a particular lyric in a song or request their next song hands-free.

sonarDesign

In short, sonarDesign allows you to create micro-apps (mApps) on smartphones, tablets, and desktops that can suit a variety of purposes. You can either use one of the startup’s preconfigured templates or build your own from scratch. Once you create the mApp, sonarDesign will provide services for hosting, e-commerce, customer service, and analytics.

On its website, sonarDesign is advertised as a product for presentations, photo scrapbooks and instructional materials, but it has musical applications as well. Musicians and music industry professionals could create these mApps for purposes of promotion and distribution storefronts, such as for selling CDs, downloads, or other merchandise. Bands could also create mApps to find new and unique ways to connect with their fans on the mobile devices they are accustomed to using.

These are just a few of the many finalists from the 2014 SXSW Accelerator competition, but we are excited to see these music-enabled technologies rise to the top of the competition when the next round of 18 finalists is announced on March 8^th.

The post 5 Finalists From SXSW’s Accelerator Competition With Musical Potential appeared first on SoundCtrl.

On Tuesday, Georgia Congressman Doug Collins introduced new legislation that could potentially correct the disparity in songwriters’ and composers’ performance and mechanical royalties. Aptly titled the Songwriters Equity Act, the bill would be an amendment to Sections 114 and 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Section 114 currently forbids evidential data to be used in courts when establishing royalty rates for songwriter and composers, thus omitting satellite radio plays, restaurant plays, television, and streams from royalty rate consideration. Section 115, written in 1909, states that a compulsory license can be granted for use of a recording for a statutory rate. The original 1909 rate was 2 cents per piano roll (when music publishing involved only reproducing sheet music), and has climbed to a mere 9.1 cents per song play in the last 105 years.

The SEA would:

1. Allow rate courts to consider other royalty rates as evidence when establishing digital performance rates (such evidence is currently forbidden from the courts) and,

2. Adopt a fair rate standard for mechanical licenses. This means replacing the rate of 9.1 cents with a rate that matches free market conditions. Some of have suggested this may be a rate of up to 52 cents.

Many songwriters and composers are unaware of just how antiquated the current royalty rate system actually is. In fact, the rates of mechanical royalties were developed even before recorded music existed, and have been augmented laughably and offensively over the last century. The new bill has garnered support from ASCAP, BMI, and NMPA, SESAC, and The Recording Academy, particularly as it will stimulate writers to continue creating new material when the appeal of being a songwriter is thwarted by the nominal return on creativity, dedication, and skill.

We’re looking forward to Congressman Collins’s efforts and hopefully eventual successes. For the full rundown on the bill, you can visit the Congressman’s website. 

The post Songwriters Equity Act Aims For Fair Compensation for Songwriters appeared first on SoundCtrl.

This year’s South by Southwest festival is set to be unleashed on Austin in just a few weeks, featuring thousands of performances, screenings and awards in music, film, and interactive arts.  Numerous panels will be held for industry giants and the SXSW community to discuss significant industry topics.  We’ve put together a list of some of the most compelling speaker sessions to look out for at SXSW 2014:

The 7 Hottest Topics in Web Music Tech in 2014

Music tech companies are always trying to figure out new ways to connect musicians and fans, offering new avenues of engagement and opportunities that never would have been possible before.  This talk covers the hottest topics in web, social and mobile music technology.

Presented by: Members of BandPage, Live Nation and more.
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon A
Date: Tuesday, March 11 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Can Digital Game Publishing Show Us The Way?

Indie video games are continually gaining influence, ground and market share among gamers and industry executives alike.  Indie advocates from Valve and Humble Bundle will speak on DIY ethics, developer support, marketing strategy and digital game distribution.

Presented by: Members of Valve Software, Humble Bundle, etc.
Location: Austin Convention Center, Room 15
Date: Tuesday, March 11 12:30PM – 1:30PM

Has Metal Lost Its Edge?

The history of metal is one rife with controversy – Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a dove, Dee Snider defending metal in the Senate against anti-metal politicians, Iron Maiden being renounced as satanic, etc.  But now metal bands of all genres sell out venues, are played on the radio, hell – they even win Grammys.  Where’s the controversy?  This panel explores the current state of metal and asks, “What’s coming next?”

Presented by: Journalists from Pitchfork Media and more.
Location: Austin Convention Center, Room 15
Date: Thursday, March 13 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Modern Seinfeld & Our Social Society: More Than Just Yada Yada Yada

This comedic presentation will use some of Seinfeld’s best storylines to explore modern technology and ask if it has improved our lives or just given us more ‘nothing’ to talk about.

Presented by: The co-founder of Modern Seinfeld and more.
Location: Austin Convention Center, Next Stage EH 3/4
Date: Tuesday, March 11 4:45PM – 5:45PM

Print or Digital?  It’s the Package that Counts

This panel asks if consumers really want the print experience – full magazines, newspapers, albums and other forms of news, records and media – or if they just want bits and pieces of content, a.k.a., the digital experience.

Presented by: The editors-in-chief of Texas Monthly and wired.com.
Location: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom F
Date: Tuesday, March 11 11:00AM – 12:00PM

SXSW 2014 will be held March 7-16 at The Austin Convention Center and The Hilton Austin Downtown in Austin, TX.

You can check out the full schedule here - http://schedule.sxsw.com/.

The post 5 Speaker Sessions to Check Out at SXSW 2014 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Independent artists now have an opportunity to direct their music to the ears of 70 million potential listeners worldwide, thanks to Pandora‘s new open submission process. Furthermore, the company has transformed the possibilities for seemingly endless new music discoveries for its users.

Internet radio has been boosted significantly by a process designed to cater to indie musicians and labels who are looking for new ways to get their music out into the world. Harnessing its global popularity, Pandora presents an exciting opportunity for both sides of the randomized radio player, musicians and listeners alike.

Pandora’s music catalog already abounds with music from independent artists and labels—in fact, they comprise nearly two-thirds of Pandora’s entire catalog and approximately 44 percent of the player’s total spins. Artists of all stripes and all levels of musical abilities, whether or not they have a physical album officially released or not, can submit their music for all of Pandora’s users to hear.

According to Pandora’s press release, Pandora founder Tim Westergren said, “Discovery is at the core of Pandora’s mission. Our goal is to give every talented artist a chance to reach their audience, whatever the genre and without regard to popularity. Anything we can do to encourage submissions from talented new and emerging artists is a top priority.”

What Is the Open Submission Process?

Pandora’s new system can be accessed at submit.pandora.com, and only requires three steps. Musicians provide contact information and links to the songs to be considered. From there, Pandora’s music curators listen to each and every song, EP, and album and determine if it will be included and categorized. Artists can check in on the status of their submissions online as well.

In Pandora’s press release, Westergren said, “The recording industry needs indie labels and self-releasing artists to thrive. Our new submissions process is intended to attract these artists, no matter the genre, no matter the stage of their career, making it easier than ever for them to participate in this exciting and rapidly growing form of radio.”

By opening the doors to a coterie of new artists and labels, Pandora is enabling its Internet radio to become the ultimate hub for music discovery—and now music promotion as well. One of a growing number of music streaming services, Pandora is further separating itself from the competition by expanding its catalog to include more of the underground and up-and-coming artists and labels the music world has to offer.

What Does This Process Do for Artists?

Most importantly, this open submission process levels the playing field for the appearance and accessibility of independent artists’ music on the biggest music streaming platform in the world. Their music will now appear alongside more mainstream artists in playlists geared toward a user’s tastes, which can just as easily include music from these lesser known artists as the big names.

By putting music in front of more listeners, the potential for garnering new fans is limitless as artists’ music is heard, liked and even shared by those who enjoy and want to engage with the music and the creators. With such a huge Internet-based platform for global promotion, these artists are able to take their music where they never previously thought possible—much further than they might have ever hoped with traditional terrestrial radio.

Pandora’s new openness is a huge opportunity for independent artists and labels. It will be exciting to see the revamped Pandora music catalog and playlists as more of this music starts to trickle and eventually deluge into the Internet radio lineup.

The post With Open Submissions, Pandora Paves New Path for Indie Artists appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The music discovery experience often involves hopping around the multitude of outlets for new music—social media sites, music streaming engines, blogs, and websites. For an artist, the challenge is threading their brand and identity between these bases, and providing ample links between them to give fans easy access to pertinent information and music.  The newly launched ToneDen.io hopes to clean up this process by consolidating artists music, social media, and PR into a single browser page.  While helpful for current and potential fans, the site will also make it easier for bloggers, A&Rs, agents, and other industry professionals to glean artist information quickly and efficiently.

ToneDen offers a few simple customization options for skins, backgrounds, site layout, and general accessibility, which standardizes the functionality for each artist who uses the ToneDen platform. Since the site links to Soundcloud, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, it also aggregates analytics from each site and displays them in a simplified, proprietary format.  ToneDen also offers an upgraded version for $5 that includes a generated one-sheet for press releases and blog pitches, advanced analytics and stats, as well as custom domain routing to make Toneden the artist landing page.

A highly usable platform, ToneDen aims to keep personal artist management compiled under one roof, and from the looks of it, will be an attractive option to emerging musicians who want to organize their online presence. Check out ToneDen’s introductory video below and sign up for free with your SoundCloud account at ToneDen.io.

The post ToneDen Is A Clean Content Hub For Artists appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Imagine your favorite musician reaching out to you as they perform a live concert on a movie screen. How about playing an inexpensive keyboard made completely with 3D materials?  Believe it or not, that future is a reality.

With the rise of 3D visuals and 3D printing technology, musicians are finding new ways to integrate their music in expanded dimensions to create a new experience for their listeners. Several musicians and music professionals have already accomplished this feat using 3D in a variety of ways, with many more in development.

(Space Blanket)

Simulcasting Live 3D Concerts

While album sales have fallen drastically over the past two decades, live music remains stronger than ever, and 3D technology offers a new way to tap into fans’ love of live performances.

Some artists can sell out a concert in a matter of hours, no matter how big the venue. That means that potentially thousands of fans are either disappointed about missing the opportunity or couldn’t afford it to begin with. Instead of shutting out these fans from the experience, the concert could be simulcast in movie theaters, which can accept the overflow and still give these adoring fans a chance to see the action for themselves.

Where 3D comes in is that it takes this idea one step further. Two things make a live performance unique: seeing the band in person and the atmosphere. While the exact atmosphere may not be recreated, instead of a flat, 2D image onscreen, a 3D image would make an audience feel like they are actually part of the action, right there in the venue.

(Nathan Taylor)

Another great aspect of 3D simulcasts is that when fans are at a concert, only the front few rows really get the full experience of the band onstage. Others higher up in the stands only get to see very small versions of the show from far away. But with 3D simulcasts, those 3D cameras can get a variety of angles much closer up than that of a seat in the back row.  Although fans aren’t at the performance, they still get a unique perspective of the concert from right in the theatre.

Several major artists have already invested in this technology. U2 had the Latin American leg of their 2006 Vertigo tour filmed in 3D and premiered it at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it went on to be shown in 600 American movie theaters to earn $20 million in its first year. While not live, this effort showed exactly how popular this technology could be when integrated with the live music experience.

Other artists have already taken advantage of this technology as well. In 2010, the Black Eyed Peas teamed up with director James Cameron to film a 3D concert documentary. Also in 2010, Justin Bieber filmed his performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 3D for a biopic. In addition, Hot Ticket from Sony Pictures produces live shows and has released a 3D film for country singer Kenny Chesney.

3D Movies and Music Videos

Similar to live 3D concerts in theatres, musicians are also creating 3D performances that take on a more cinematic feel in the form of 3D movies and music videos. This allows their fans to watch and listen to their performances, documentaries, music videos, etc., from the comfort of their own homes on their own 3D-enabled TVs.

This both generates another revenue stream for the artists and gives them a new artistic medium to play around with to better get their music and message across to their fans. A wide range of artists have already produced 3D music videos, from indie artists like Young Rival, who recently created a unique 3D video using depth perception and an autostereogram, to major names like Shakira.

will.i.am’s 3D Merch Table

will.i.am has recently announced an interest in using 3D technology to enhance and even revolutionize the possibilities for band and artist merchandise. The concept involves using a 3D printer to bring a shot from a live performance alive, so to speak, and to sell it immediately after the concert is over.

For example, if Lady Gaga were to strike a certain pose during her concert, 3D printers could be working backstage to create a 3D model of that image for attendees to take home with them—a unique captured moment that they can have to commemorate the show.

Printing 3D Instruments

3D printing has another use for the music industry: the printing of musical instruments. Musical instruments can be expensive, and being able to 3D print them would make them more affordable and accessible for novice and professional musicians alike.

Already this technology has been made available. ODD Guitars has developed a process of using a layer of nylon powder and fusing it in certain locations to fit the components of an actual, usable guitar. Most of the 3D-printed parts are decorative and come in eight eye-catching designs, while the external hardware, such as the bridge, neck, pickups and tuning heads, are store-bought but also customizable. In addition to a guitar, they’ve built a 3D-printed keyboard and drum kit using the same process.

The Future of Music and 3D Technology

This is only the beginning for music and 3D technology. For example, as 3D extends beyond just the movie theatre and becomes more prevalent in the home through 3D enabled TVs, computers and mobile devices, music lovers will have a chance to enjoy live concerts and music videos in a new, exciting way on-the-go, from wherever they are, whenever they want. 3D technology will even become more common at live shows themselves, as it already finds itself enhancing the backgrounds and visualizers at performances around the world.

Also, 3D printing has only just hit its stride. will.i.am’s idea for 3D merchandise and 3D printed instruments are only the beginning for the effect this technology can have on a plethora of industries, including music. Imagine stereos, headphones, amplifiers and mp3 players all created by technologically advanced 3D printers. Just as with the instruments, these musical products could become cheaper and more accessible for more musicians and music lovers alike, which could expand the possibilities for new music created, performed and shared online.

3D technology will continue to evolve alongside music and offer new opportunities as both industries grow and change. Be prepared for what’s next, and enjoy the new and improved music experience that is to come.

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By Kira Grunenberg

As the sub-title above suggests, it is not too difficult to figure out what indie music licensing marketplace, Syncofy, wants to help people do: get music heard and in the hands of those who wish to enhance non-musical media, such as commercials or movie trailers. This week, the proactive startup launched an alpha version of its service (currently on private request) and has made applications available for music creators or people seeking music for licensing. The core of this platform is all about cutting out the middleman. A non-exclusive service, Syncofy is both flexible and supportive of music makers. “Creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work,” is emphasized more than once in the introductory information on Syncofy’s website. Regardless of the user’s role, Syncofy is dedicated to having few barriers between partnering parties. Communications deal solely with music makers and licensees, and no one else.

Discovery is the other half of Syncofy’s services, as media producers are often unsure of what they’re looking for. A search engine targets specific music with various qualifiers including genre, tonality, social media appeal, rhythm, and correlation. The music retrieved is discerned using multiple elements as well, including “acoustic analysis, editorial data, (artist, album and track info, period, etc.), user generated data (search data, downloads, likes, etc.), and other social specific data such as geo and demographics,” as described on the site.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Syncofy can and looks forward to doing for music creators and media licensees going forward. I spoke with CEO/Founder Emanuel Heinstein and got his perspective on where Syncofy will fit in the current music industry, the future of syncing placement in general, and even a few details on their aspirations for mobile capability.

Emanuel Heinstein: Everyone at Syncofy literally breathes music and music brought us all together. I’ve been a DJ and producer for all my life and since I first picked up a book in a small NY bookstore in 1999 that explained the principals of MP3 encoding and the boundless opportunities which it unleashes, I was hooked to the idea, that one day, technology will be able to dis-intermediate the artist business, putting creators back in control. The team evolved through miraculous ways. I can’t tell you exactly how, but coincidence brought us all together and the idea behind Syncofy was so appealing , that it was simply a no-brainer and a logical next step for everyone to join the project.

Right from the start, Syncofy makes it clear that streamlining is its operative mentality. Everything, from your SoundCloud marker-style media player, to self-checkout with licensing, to the very meticulous options for finding and curating different songs for what ever specific needs a non-musical content producer might have, is very fast and straightforward. How do you see this DIY-tinged approach coexisting with traditional structures like the world’s big PROs that already do so much for so many of the world’s artists? Do you believe Syncofy’s mediation between artists and companies is the future of licensing and royalties?

As content spreads beyond traditional media and into the digital world, there is a tremendous need for high-performance monitoring services to catch up with new standards. Syncofy is not in the business of secondary market royalty collections though, and we are certainly not trying to replace PRO services. On the contrary, we would like to see these services evolve into a more reliable tool for artists to be able to collect their hard-earned performance royalties.

Having said this, we are approaching a much more serious problem for the independent artist community and therefore a massive risk of suffocating cultural diversity. As the music models are shifting and are transitioning from purchase to access models, future musicians will know little else than streaming royalties which pay little to no money. For instance, your track needs to be played over 4,500,000 times a month on Spotify to make the US minimum wage of $1,160. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Spotify and use it on a daily basis but we simply have to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Music streaming platforms are the new way to consume music. Musicians will have to rethink their whole business approach.

We see music licensing in its various ways as the one revenue stream that has been continuously growing. So far though, the whole licensing business has been a total chaos, not only for artists and labels but also for those looking for music to license, and no one has emerged as a successful player to solve this problem. Either music licensing companies are trying to monopolize the industry, double dipping on the independent artist’s and label’s hard earned cash, or artists and labels are simply not able to cut through the noise in the thick of things.

Even though this industry is all about discovering and finding the next big act, no one has taken advantage of today’s technology that enables the aggregation and curation of music on a large scale, making it accessible to the industry. As a result, most amazing music and artists are falling through the cracks and are lost. I believe there is a great opportunity for us to create something better than that.

This is where Syncofy comes in. We believe in the disintermediation of the artist’s business. New disruptive technology lets us build an independent marketplace for music where creators keep total ownership and control over their music without having to share their profits. Music providers state their terms under which they are willing to accept a license. Licensees on the other hand will have the option to negotiate licensing terms and conditions directly. We challenge you to find anyone else who offers that.

At Syncofy’s core is its cutting edge music search and recommendation and discovery engine. In order to produce the most relevant search results, the engine combines acoustic analysis, editorial data, user generated date and other social specific data such as geo, demographics as well as frequency of use of search phrases which correlate with social trends. That’s about all the secret sauce we are able to share this far.

It is refreshing that Syncofy doesn’t abandon the color of human preference in its music discovery feature. That said, how do you balance the “human factor” involved with Syncofy’s music curation, with the highly adjustable song filtering systems available to those looking for just the right track to use in syncing? 50/50? More or less?

I recently came across a quote by E.E. Dijkstra, “The question of whether Machines Can Think, is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.” I think all this disembodied data floating around needs to be put in some kind of context to make sense of it, and technology certainly does its job offering you a bird’s eye view over all of it. However, music is speaking to everyone in a different way. Ultimately, it is up to the music professional working with the site, applications, and service to identify the next big act. We simply acknowledged the necessity for music content to be filtered and curated to actually become valuable to a user. Our music department will of course also be part of this process but to what degree will depend on the task to be accomplished.

Syncofy was clearly keeping a close eye on the various talks and activities happening during this year’s midem conference via Twitter. Since a major part of your company’s objective is to, “steer the music industry into a more sustainable [entity] for music creators…” What are your thoughts on some of the principles outlined in Midem’s circulating infographic that asks, “[Music Industry:] Back to Growth?,” as well as their panel that discussed sync placement, brand integration and pitching to media?

I think music reaches more people than ever before. So in that sense, I think we do okay for now. However we must accept that the days of record sales are finally over. We’ve all seen it coming. For some reason though, most of the industry is still in some kind of “Wile E. Coyote state of mind,” who has just gone over the cliff but has not realized it yet. As said earlier, there is this big elephant in the room and only few people seem to acknowledge it. So unless we break down old structures so that something new can emerge, cultural diversity, which is channeled through independent music, is in peril.

I believe with the right tools and services though we can steer the ship around and I think the right answer is the disintermediation of the artists business. There still will be enough room for labels to get on board and help artist reach their fans.

In the coming months, as you gather data from alpha testers and refine things on the development side, is there anything preliminary you can tell prospective members about the imminent addition of a Syncofy mobile application and/or your ideals for its future capabilities? 

I love my mobile and I love my tablet. I love their touch screens and ease of use and we’re trying to incorporate this look and feel as much as we can within Syncofy’s UX. However, the processing power for those devices is just not there yet and as we improve and incorporate new technologies we want to make sure that they are performing flawlessly. Undeniably, tablets and mobile devices are the future (at least for now) but today still more than 80 percent of all users browse the web using desktop computers or laptops. This number is even higher when it comes to users that are working professionally with computers. And even though native apps currently run faster and are more likely to have access to new mobile device capabilities before web apps do, we believe in a “best of breed” hybrid approach using the right tools for the right job, focusing on both scenarios in which web and native components work together. Choosing the right approach will then better enable us to swiftly adapt to whatever the next hot technology is going to be.

Syncofy is active now via desktop computer. You can request an alpha application today as a “Content Provider” or “Licensee.” Read more at Syncofy.com and follow Syncofy on Twitter @syncofy.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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With a global musical sprawl, it is often hard for emerging artists to procure production that matches their style. This is especially true in hip-hop and R&B, where beat selection is just as important, if not more, than the flow of the lyricist him or herself. BeatStars looks to bridge that gap with a platform that facilitates sales of beats by established producers to artists in search of production for their records.

Founded by Abe Bashton in 2011, BeatStars has already helped its beta users earn over $500K in its first few years. Now the service has 100,000 active users, including esteemed producers such as !llmind, Focus, Havoc, and EASKI.  Producers looking for a more tailored experience can upgrade to Pro Pages, which are customizable profiles that allow producers to sell directly to artists, and more importantly, retain 100% of licensing fees.

Though the shopping and automated licensing will certainly only grow in the next several years, the question at hand is whether this sort of hands-off production will result in less personal music. The best relationships between artists and producers, even with the segmented rapper/producer workflow, have resulted from two artists working together on one music idea. The pop industry as a whole will definitely begin to take platforms like BeatStars into account to cut production costs, but hopefully not at the cost of sacrificed quality. However, BeatStars seams like a successful, niche service that values producers and showcasing their talents.

Check out the introductory video for BeatStars below, and visit www.beatstars.com to check out producers, beats, and top charts.

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During this year’s annual four-day MIDEM festival in Cannes, Music Hack Day featured an innovative engineer named Yuli Levtov, who discovered a way to DJ with Spotify streams. The Spotify-enabled app has been a fantasized technology for the last few years, mainly as a result of diffiicult licensing structures and logistics for app developers.

On the blog for Reactify Music, a music app development company, Levtov spilled about the process, introducing his revelation as ”by far the most involved, impractical and ‘hackiest’ hack” he’s ever done. Calling it DJ Spotify, its structure is two-fold.  DJ Spotify enables simultaneous playback of two Spotify streams, with DJ controls including pitch/tempo adjust, as well as the integration of EchoNest, which gathers key and BPM information from streaming tracks. DJ Spotify is a rather complicated hack, with connections between Ableton, Max for Live, a Wi-Fi iPad connection, Pure Data patches, Python coding and more.  You can check out the hack and the key/BPM app here.

But on the heels of Levtov’s impressive hack, a new app released a few days later consolidated his ideas into a slightly more appealing interface for the massive new wave of portable DJs. Pacemaker is a new iPad app with the first, official licensing from Spotify for integration in a DJing platform. The interface of Pacemaker is quite design-oriented, with simple electric blue and red waveform bars and cue points split down the two touch screen “decks.” Tempo and nudge functions are dedicated to beatmatching two tracks, and beat skip functions allow you to chop the record up in creative ways.

Tracks can be loaded from Spotify or local files, and mixes are recordable and savable within the app. Pacemaker’s sync function works relatively well, but you may have to jog the nudge wheel if it syncs on the off-beat transient.  EQ controls are reconfigured in the app’s signature wheel pattern, but aren’t quite intuitive if you have never DJ’ed before. Unfortunately, there are no volume faders that allow you to EQ and volume adjust simultaneously, but there is a crossfader for blending. Additional effects are available as in-app purchases, allowing the user to customize their iPad DJ “rig” but the lack of standardization here doesn’t show an incredible promise for getting this app into clubs. Since Traktor has integration for its own computer software with CDJ functionality, and a number of other apps offer effects controls independent of the software, Pacemaker certainly has competition in the pro market. But this app focuses on a home user experience, and it’s not a bad way to preview a mix on the fly or curate your own parties, listening sessions, and podcasts.

While many traditional DJs are contemptuous and apathetic toward this new type of technology due to a lack of mixing skills and faulty execution, the real problem with new streaming DJ tools is that the sound quality is sacrificed for efficiency and portability. Spotify’s highest streaming rate is 320 kbps, and as any trained listener knows, the highest quality mp3 still sounds much weaker on a club-quality sound system compared to WAV files and vinyl records. Unfortunately, this means a rise in DJs ignoring poor sound quality in exchange for track availability and cutting costs in preparation for sets. Since electronic music is often showcasing a producer’s ability to create highly specific and idealized sound environments and experiences, a poor mix with poor sound quality is essentially the antithesis of the art at hand.

However, streaming has made its way to the pro decks, especially since the newer Pioneer CDJs can play source files over Wi-Fi. As streaming quality improves and wireless connections can handle more bandwidth, cloud-based DJing will definitely take off on the professional level. But at the end of the day (or early in the morning) if your offline playlists aren’t synced and you’ve got no internet connection at a peak-time basement party, you may be relinquishing your DJ duties at the next party if you make it out of the club alive.

At any rate, the Pacemaker app is highly recommended for those with Spotify premium accounts, and you can grab it on the iTunes app store.

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During this weekend’s MIDEM music festival in Cannes, France, 6400 participants from 74 countries converge to discuss the state of the music industry and its forthcoming trends and technologies. Lyor Cohen, MIDEM speaker and former Warner Music Group CEO, announced his newest entrepreneurial venture that will function as a toolset for A&Rs scouting new artists and bands on Twitter. Called 300, Cohen’s new label and “content company” will be distributed by Atlantic Records, reuniting the CEO with his former Warner peers. Also involved in the venture are Todd Moscowitz and Kevin Liles, successful industry pros who’ve both worked with Cohen at Warner and Def Jam in its heyday.

300 marks an interesting transition in the music industry’s integration with social media. Most reports of how these A&R “tools” will actually function are vague, but Cohen has enlisted the help of both music business veterans as well as data mining and analytic experts, alluding to a machine-driven scouring for new artists on Twitter’s platform. While it doesn’t seem like Cohen’s technologies are intended to replace the role of the traditional A&R (which to be honest, is a sadly neglected and underpaid role at major record labels), 300 has implications of a future where machines are analyzing data and picking series of artists based on metadata, tags, and social media relevance.

Twitter’s ubiquity and purposeful design limitations make it easy to dissect, and the number ratios between followers and tweets are generally good indicators of rising popularity and virality. Hopefully, the 300′s algorithms will differentiate between artists whose social media presence is organic and/or viral and the hype hordes who trade follow-for-follow on Twitter in an attempt to gain more visibility–a case where having more followers is a clear misrepresentation of purported popularity. Human fact-checking will ideally keep mediocrity from slipping through the digital cracks, but well-informed discovery still requires a degree of keen research. Skepticism aside, Lyor Cohen does seem to be focused on putting the artist before the label and the business, and his past in artist development and management speaks to a industry where attention was paid to new music and to the world in which it existed.

With backing from several investors including Google, a music industry veteran like Cohen is hardly taking an entrepreneurial risk, especially with partnerships fully designed to support a new A&R toolset in the digital age. Let’s just hope new artists don’t overload their Twitter presences with fluff and vapid popularity schemes in attempts to get signed. If 300 leverages the dedication of diligent, innovative artists, it could very well be a tool that streamlines an oft-complicated and esoteric element of the scouting process.

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