By Carolyn Heneghan

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.

The post The Co-Evolution of Music and 3D appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Five questions for the CEO of Syncofy: A new, independent marketplace for music discovery and licensing

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.

The post [Interview] Emanuel Heinstein, CEO/Founder of Syncofy appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Carolyn Heneghan

Have you ever heard the saying, “Listen to the rhythm of your heart”? Well, now with certain technological advances in heartbeat monitoring, that proverb is beginning to ring true.

Both devices and apps have been developed in recent years that effectively monitor your heartbeat and turn those impulses into music. And not only can music be created by your heartbeat, but your heartbeat itself can also be affected by the music you’re listening to. Check out these heartbeat-music creations that demonstrate the intricate relationship between music and the human heart.

Sound on Intuition

Sound on Intuition is a creation from Belgian designer Pieter-Jan Pieters of the Design Academy Eindhoven. After being denied by music schools due to his inability to read music, Pieters instead pursued an education in design to  invent a method of  creating music by translating their body movements into sounds without needing sheet music or traditional instruments at all.

Pieters designed a few different instruments to accomplish this task, one being a heart monitor. This device can create sounds by using a sensor to pick up the rhythm of your heartbeat. The sounds that could be created include a steady beat or rhythm for a backing beat, but as your heart rate also quickens as you move around and exert energy, your heartbeats could create a modulating rhythm that could offer a unique sound to the body movement-inspired song.

Guess he proved the music schools wrong.

BioBeats’ Pulse App

Another such device takes pulse monitoring one step further and creates entire songs around the changing rhythms of your heartbeat: BioBeats’ Pulse. Pulse generates electronic music based on your heart rate and the genre of electronic music that you select. As your heart rate changes, the music will change to mimic it. To do this, all you have to do is hold your finger over your iPhone camera, and the camera’s optical sensor will monitor changes in your finger’s color as blood flows to determine the rhythm of your heartbeat.

BioBeats co-founder Nadeem Kassam believes that this app might go further than simply being a means for entertainment and could eventually affect the healthcare industry. Pulse is a fun way to monitor your heart rate, which is an important aspect of healthcare for many people, and this device could raise awareness of the importance of monitoring your heart rate while working toward prevention of certain illnesses or health situations.

In addition to being a tool to create music, Pulse joins the proliferation of healthcare devices, such as wearables, being created today.

Spotify

Spotify is one more company who is looking into this concept, but for Spotify, it’s about tailoring music playlists to fit your mood and movement—all based around your heartbeat. For example, if you’re heartbeat is accelerated for an extended length of time, Spotify can deduce that you might be exercising, so it can play faster, more upbeat music to suit that activity. If your heartbeat is slower, such as while you are relaxing by the pool, Spotify may play music that is more laidback to suit your mood.

Spotify has been making strides to collect as much data about its users as possible to continue bettering its ability to guesstimate and provide the appropriate music at the appropriate time. Just another avenue for collecting this data, heartbeat monitoring is perhaps the next step in bringing tailored playlists to the next level.

How Your Heartbeat Responds To Music

Besides all these companies that monitor your heartbeat to create and tailor music, did you also know that, conversely, music also affects your heartbeat? Music is a powerful instrument that can affect anything from your mood and muscle tension to your heartbeat, pulse and brainwaves, and your mind and body can experience significant reactions based solely on what you are listening to in the moment.

For example, if you are listening to rock or electronic music with a harder, faster beat, your heartbeat will involuntarily speed up to match the intensity of the music. If you are listening to classical, ambient, or calm, relaxing music, your heartbeat will slow down. That’s part of the reason why if you’re looking to get pumped up, you might put on more upbeat music because not only will it improve your mood, but it will accelerate your heart rate as well. This means that not only does your mind get pumped up, but your entire body does as well.

The post New Apps Let Your Heart Create and Curate Your Music appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By SoundCtrl

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.

The post The Rise of the Streaming DJ appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Ruben Lone

I am an avid Spotify user with plenty of esoteric playlists, starred tracks, and an ongoing music sharing conversation with many of my friends. And Spotify is great for digging into classic artists whose entire discographies have been made available by their record labels. Though I haven’t given it a second thought due to multiple crashes on launch day, I’m sure Beats Music does its job just as well, with 20 million songs and an allegedly personalized discovery experience. But amidst these and other competing music streaming platforms, it seems the focus is to generate money via an appealing and hefty library of music at a low cost. Spotify constantly features pop stars on the front page, makes pretty uniformed music recommendations based on what I’ve been listening to, and its radio is a predictable application which fails to launch stations based on deeper artists’ cuts. And while Beats Music is powered by a hand-picked database of endless music, the featured artists on its promotional campaigns show off some respectable, yet very obvious choices like Kendrick Lamar, Green Day, Miles Davis, and Fleetwood Mac. Let me clarify again that all of these artists are great! They’re just not new.

It’s surprisingly how frequently I’m asked about music discovery methods, and as any music obsessive knows, it’s not as simple as logging into one site and being fed from a pre-selected list. On any given day, I’ve probably bounced around 10-15 SoundCloud profiles, sifted through the stark text and catalog numbers on Discogs, roamed the recent posts, podcasts, and mixes on a number of blogs and music journalisms sites,  navigated to several artists’, labels’, and booking agencies’ websites and Twitter accounts, and received files and links from friends all over the industry. But one website and distribution platform that truly values function, fairness, and artistry over popularity and mass appeal, and quality over quantity, is Bandcamp.

Bandcamp was founded in 2008 by Ethan Diamond and Shawn Grunberger, less as means of streaming music and more as an outlet for musicians to share and distribute their work as they saw fit. Using the DIY-model, artists could creating revenue whilst avoiding the major label industry, which at the time was looking dire. The company has since grown to be a vehicle for artists to freely share their music and merchandise and reap the benefits of a close fan relationships. The perfect site for limited editions of tangible goods and unlimited editions of digital music, Bandcamp’s model doesn’t rely on hefty promotion campaigns to spread its brand and gain more customers. Rather, the details and functionality of site make it a transparent, stable option for any musician or label to distribute music directly to fans.

Bandcamp’s landing page features a player for Bandcamp Weekly, a weekly radio show hosted by chief curator Andew Jervis, featuring new artists across the site. Every week, the playlist is curated according to a specific theme, and features a variety of new and exciting artists–the majority of whom I’ve never heard.  There has yet to be an engine of hand-selected music sourced from its own platform, curated by music professionals, with as much functionality and care of selection as this one. To top it off, the player sports wishlist buttons and buy links for all of the artists included.

The Fan Spotlight places special interest on fans who have curated interesting collections of music purchased from Bandcamp. Fan pages, much like artist pages, include album art and personal descriptions of the record, as well as an option to select a favorite track from the release. As a fan, you can follow artists and other fans, and compile albums into wish lists for later purchases. The newly released Bandcamp app consolidates your entire music library on your phone, and allows you stream tracks and albums you’ve purchased. The UI is modeled after the website, with clean formatting and friendly graphics.

The discover section on Bandcamp surprises with its thoroughness and copious genre options. These selections are easily filtered by best-selling, staff picks, new arrivals, and artist-recommended, meaning that discovery is generated by the tastes of the various user bases of the Bandcamp engine, not just the hired staff. Album art is displayed prominently but minimally, without favoring one musician’s work over another.

Finally, the “Selling Right Now” portion of the homepage shows a live feed of music sales, most of which are singles for around $2 and albums for around $14. The stream updates constantly to showcase Bandcamp’s quick turnaround for record sales and unwavering efficacy.

Bandcamp’s artist pages are  microsites that are customizable, yet simple. Electronic musician Four Tet outfitted his page in a humorous Sendspace backdrop and sardonic Spotify header for a digital re-release of his 1999 album Glasshead. Sampha, on the other hand, chose a retro album art image on a plain white background and a wordmark of his name for his Sundanza EP. The brand, or lack thereof, shines on the Bandcamp pages, with the artist having full creative control over how they represent themselves and their music.

Sure, Bandcamp doesn’t offer discographies by Led Zeppelin or the latest Avicii remix, but if you take the time to scour the site and engage with fans and artists, you’re much more likely to discover new music on a more regular basis than by using large, search engine-type music libraries and streaming services. More importantly, the musicians get paid. And while many artists on Bandcamp have their music on Spotify, Beats, Rhapsody, and the like, why not spend a few extra bucks to help support an artist whose music you’re constantly playing? Bandcamp has some stubbornness in its design–you have to work with the structure you’re given in order to host your music on their site, but it does keep everyone’s page consistent.

Labels (and more prolific artists) can find the site useful for cataloging all of their work in a highly functional way with discographies and series. Newer artists can use the site as a landing page for all of their music streams and downloads, track insights, and integrate with Facebook pages.

I’ve found Bandcamp to be far less humble than its purported to be, especially with bigger artists using it as a tool for releases independent of their labels and one-off projects. The site and app supplement the mainstream methods of distribution, especially for niche artists who can leverage their support and sell physical merchandise.  The pay-as-you wish model liberates both sides of the transaction, and actually gives listeners an opportunity to tell artists what their work is actually worth to an audience. And as far as pricing goes, I’m still willing to pay $1 per track even when the album is offered for free–it’s the least  I can do as a fan.

The post Bandcamp is Still the Best Music Streaming and Discovery Platform appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Kira Grunenberg

Remember when telephones had one standard ringing bell to let you know someone was calling? Fast-forward to cell phones: first they had a standard set of 8-bit ringtone, then added more complex, layered, and melodious tones, and now they’ve become anything but standard. We can now use songs as the sounds we hear anytime someone wants to talk, text or video chat. Granted, phones are not the only scope of sound and music utilized as a signaling device in modern society–home doorbells, public transportation, and elevators come to mind as well. What though, would the world be like if sound stepped up to more a idiosyncratic role in identifying the “who’s who” among many of the interfaces incorporated into our everyday routines, like email and social media notifications?

The scenario described above might not stay hypothetical for much longer, should any of the projects happening around the world catch the wave of massively appealing trends and become a point of desire for everyday use. Organizations like Parametric Sound in San Diego, CA, who are developing a technology called HyperSound, and Jörg Müller and his research team at the Technical University of Berlin, who are working on a concept called “BoomRoom,” want to make it possible for sound to not only alert you when something needs your attention but to make each notice unique and with a sound isolated to just those who need or want to hear it–without wires or headphones of any kind.

The two projects, which were recently highlighted in New Scientist, have already put test runs in place for specific uses. HyperSound has been implemented by some US McDonalds locations for their in-restaurant TV monitors to project sound to specific tables. New Scientist describes the BoomRoom’s initial test method as an, “audio-based lightsaber game in which a blindfolded person had to react to the “zummm, zummm” of a digital adversary’s lightsaber, their voice or their breath on the back of their neck.”

The mechanics of how these two technologies function can get quite complicated (just take a look at the abstract in Müller’s paper linked above,) but the bottom line objectives promote envisioning rather futuristic capabilities inside homes and commonplace businesses. Right now, the idea of moving, activating, and manipulating sounds that are projected in the space around us, as if they were tangible objects, as the BoomRoom aspires, relies primarily on gesture and “flat panel actuators that act as loudspeakers by making glass and other flat surfaces vibrate.” These bases for operation seem to combine the best aspects of existing sound technology advancements that we have reported before, like the V-Motion Project, the Kinectar and Feonic Technology’s “Whispering Windows.” (Plus, it’s clear wireless gesture is indeed the next big sound trend, given some of the emerging companies featured in this year’s midemlab competition, like Sound Wand and Nagual Sounds competing under “Recommendation and Discovery” –the latter of whom turned out to be this year’s category winner.)

The one downside that does stand out amidst the potential for benefit beyond convenience, (e.g. better human sensory awareness) is that the idea of everyone having their own invisible ‘sound bubble’ comes across like a departure from trying to avoid perpetual electronically-driven distraction. Google Glass has already breached the psychological controversies of what it could be like if people are silently scanning information about each other from the web, while simultaneously appearing to maintain a face-to-face conversation with the person in question. Nevertheless, for however much paranoia or personal discomfort that proposal might inflict on one’s mind, at least Google Glass is visible.

You could theoretically assume someone is multi-tasking while talking with you, and possibly about you if you engage someone wearing the glasses. What if though, there comes a day when individual seats on NYC buses or the London Tube allow passengers to hear only what they want to hear, within the “space” of their seat? The end result wouldn’t be much different than the present scene of a NYC subway car full of passengers engrossed in music with earbuds or studio sized headphones but, at least then it is obvious who is not “available” to give their attention to another. Absent a tangible or visible cue, there might come a day where we (at least temporarily during various lapses of time) don’t notice others whatsoever, even if we are packed tightly among many other bodies in a single place. Visualizing a world where the boundaries of who is preoccupied becomes hidden, feels mildly disturbing for all the ensuing psychological isolation and external confusion it would foster–a literal manifestation of being “zoned out.”

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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By Ruben Lone

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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by Jason Epstein

51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads were sold in the fourth quarter of 2013.  The iPod, however, moved just 6 million units.  And one can only assume that the vast majority of those sold were of the ‘Touch’ persuasion.  But despite those fast waning sales figures, I’m here to tell you that the iPod is alive and well.  No, not the Touch – the Classic.

I love my iPod.  LOVE IT. That’s right – it’s not an iPad, iPhone or even iPod Touch – it’s an iPod Classic 6th generation from the dawn of technology back in 2008.  First fire was invented, then the wheel and then the iPod.  So why do I love an outdated, obsolete piece of technology?  Well, first of all, I’m not your average music consumer.  I was a late adopter of the iPod having listened to CDs until 2006 – and yes, I’m gasping and shuddering at that thought along with you.  I don’t listen to the radio and I don’t use music streaming services.  Instead, I’m all about ownership of actual music files and listening to them as I please – and I own and listen to a LOT of music.  I love my iPod because it stores a hell of a lot more content than any ‘Touch’ device or phone does.  It doesn’t get bogged down by concurrently running programs or advertisements or incoming phone calls or texts.  So I can keep my 11,000+ song music library on it plus multiple seasons of my favorite TV shows.  Most consumers aren’t happy unless their music device is connected to the Internet.  But to me, that’s what a smart phone is for.  

Does the iPod bear updating beyond its latest “Classic” iteration?  I don’t think so.  Sure, it’s possible the iPod Touch could catch up eventually in terms of storage space, but the increased popularity of streaming media also means that the average consumer may not have a need for that space.  Also, the iPod Touch is way too close to the iPhone in its build and features to make it worthwhile to buy one without strongly considering an iPhone purchase – or for Apple to even invest in an ylonger.

I feel good about my iPod Classic, but if Apple were ever to revisit this dying breed, upgrades to all the normal accouterments such as battery power, storage space, weight, screen size, etc. would certainly be well-received.  But they won’t.  As time goes on the increasing cannibalization of Internet-incapable storage-based products is impossible to deny; the Xbox One and PS4 are based on hardware, software and subscription revenue streams, while the Apple iPhone ensures continual revenue streams through high-priced data plans.  It’s a trend that won’t stop as companies continually find more (and increasingly creative) methods of getting money from their customers.

Apple hasn’t introduced any new iPods in years which can certainly explain in part its decline in sales, but that’s all part of their well-publicized plan to make the iPhone into the new iPod – and then some. And they’ve achieved that.  What they haven’t achieved is satisfying a niche music and music technology consumer like myself that values uninterrupted music play, large quantities of storage space, and owning at least one portable electronic device that has absolutely no Internet connection whatsoever.  So while sales figures may continue to decline and future innovation may look bleak, the iPod Classic still has a warm, loving home to come to for the few of us that still appreciate its simple, limited and no-nonsense capabilities as a dedicated music player.

The post The iPod is Alive and Well…For Some of Us appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Ruben Lone

Facebook has announced a new platform for its own creative ambitions, and the first app to go along with it. Facebook’s Creative Labs hopes to be a launchpad for new technologies that could potentially be disruptive to the billion-user base if implemented into the existing framework of the website and app. However, Facebook doesn’t want its foresight to be hampered by its own size, so it plans on using Creative Labs to push the boundaries of the social media network’s current scope.

For the first of Creative Labs’ creations, Facebook has announced a new app called Paper, which is a dedicated news reader for mobile devices. Unlike Facebook’s website, the timeline, photo streams, and updates will be custom-tailored by the user, with varied options for reading, sharing, and photos viewing. In the introductory video, Paper exudes a certain natural simplicity, bringing the social network back to its community roots.

With well-designed and curated interface, white backgrounds, and thin, modern lines, Paper looks incredibly attractive and easy to use. As a stubborn Facebook user who has systematically hidden about 90% of my “friends” from my news feed, Paper appears to be a “reverse Facebook” that lets the user can choose who they want to see, and how they want information to appear. Thematic exploration and category options make Paper much less obtrusive than browser Facebook, and sharing options are easily sorted to limit or allow particular posts to be seen by others.

Rather than status updates, Paper is built on “stories” which include users’ and their friends’ own updates as well as stories from whichever news and blogs you choose to follow. When preparing a post, you can see an exact preview prior to sending it off into the digital world, and full screen photos are fulling viewable using the iPhone’s tilt technology.

Facebook’s user interface has become ubiquitous, but is often unpredictable. The recent addition of trending topics makes the network look like it’s throwing effort into far more functionality than it affords, and the methods of posting, editing, tagging, and uploading photos that complement each story are somewhat tedious. However, Paper is an appealing option for a new wave of Facebook, and its single functionality (sans messaging and little red bubbles popping up every time a comment is commented-on) will hopefully replace the clutter on the screen. If the design aesthetic of Paper then translates to a new browser view, Facebook users may be in for a much more personal experience.

The post Paper: Facebook’s Refreshed App of the Near Future appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Carolyn Heneghan

Every winter, the National Association of Music Merchants hosts its annual NAMM show, a 113-year-old showcase of established and up-and-coming creators of musical instruments, hardware, software, accessories and more, all on display for the association members media to see.

Running from Thurs., Jan. 23^rd through Sun., Jan. 26^th, 2014, the NAMM show occupied all 1.2 million square feet of the Anaheim Convention Center, in addition to space nearby hotels. This year, NAMM hosted more than 1,500 companies from around the world who exhibited more than 5,000 brands for over 100,000 peopl, the largest show of the past five years, and one of the largest in NAMM’s history.

Here are a few music-tech standouts of the show, that caught our attention and intrigue.

Moog Sub37

Based on Moog’s Sub Phatty synth circuits, the Sub37 is upgraded with a larger 37-note velocity-sensitive keyboard with aftertouch. It also boasts a paraphonic synth architecture (not fully polyphonic, but able to play two notes simultaneously through a single filter), which is a step in a different direction from all of the other post-2002 monophonic Moog synths, besides the Animoog app. It also has two modulation busses with assignable source and destinations and DAHDSR (Delay, Attach, Hold, Decay, Sustain, Release) looping envelopes with sync.

Retail price is $1,579.

Moog Theremini

Moog calls its new Theremini, “a re-imagination of one of the oldest electronic musical instruments in history, and Bob Moog’s first love.” The device fuses together the basic component of the theremin—an instrument you don’t actually touch—with the high-quality sound engine from Moog’s award-winning Animoog synthesizer. This means that any user with any amount of musical ability can pick up a Theremini and make music with ease. It comes with a built-in tuner, and it has assistive pitch correction for adjusting the level of playing difficulty (the highest level makes it so that all notes played are perfect scale pitches).

Retail price is $319.

Korg MS-20 Kit

A follow-up to its MS-20 Mini from last year’s NAMM, Korg restores its limited-edition MS-20 to the classic’s original full size but adds another layer of interaction with the kit: Users must also put it together piece by piece. There’s no soldering involved, and the entire assembly can be done with two hands and a screwdriver. But in terms of parts and features, it has the same circuitry and was overseen by the engineers who produced the original, but the MS-20 also features two switchable filter modes based on variations of the original MS filter.

The MS-20 kit will be released in March 2014 at a retail price of $1,399.99.

Bitwig Studio

There was plenty more than just instruments and hardware at NAMM. Created by some of the original developers of Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio aims to speed up and enhance production workflow to the max by making all interactions with the software involve as few mouse clicks as possible. This intuitive piece of software has found ways to both combine and improve upon many different aspects of other popular DAWs that have come before it.

Like other DAWs, the full reach of its features is too long to be explained, but a few different exciting features include a non-linear environment for arranging and triggering clips in real-time (for a more spontaneous composing session) and hybrid tracks, which go beyond basic audio and instrument tracks to work with any kind of material. It also has 32/64 bit VST support, which keeps the application from crashing even if your plug-in crashes, and it’s compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux.

Bitwig Studio will be released March 26^th with a retail price of $399.

Avid Sibelius 7.5

At this year’s NAMM, Avid launched its latest version of its best-selling music composition and notation software, Sibelius 7.5. With version 7.5, you get all of Sibelius’ foundational tools in addition to some noteworthy new features—all with the aim of enabling you to “write and arrange music easier and faster than ever before.”

A new timeline window allows easy access for a quick but entire overview of a score with all the important landmarks to allow faster editing and playback, no matter how large or complex the piece of music might be. The software’s fully redesigned Espressivo 2.0 feature means that the feedback you hear is a better quality interpretation with more expressive and realistic feel, and you’ll also get better interpretation of your musical notation, such as tempo markings, grace notes, breath marks and so on. You can now also export your composition to Avid Scorch, which is fully optimized for iPad display and fully interactive playback, practice, performance and publishing. And finally, sharing your music through Sibelius has never been easier: You can share and distribute your compositions via email and social media, upload and publish them as sheet music on ScoreExchange.com or share them as video or audio files on YouTube, Facebook or Soundcloud.

Sibelius 7.5 will be available worldwide in February 2014.

SuperMegaUltraGroovy Capo 3

SuperMegaUltraGroovy used its opportunity at NAMM to showcase its Apple Design Award-winning Capo 3 application, which gave attendees a new way to look at learning music. With automatic chord detection, the Capo 3 app can access your iTunes music library and transcribe any recorded audio file, from MP3 and M4A to AIFF and WAV, into legible tablature that appears onscreen while you’re playing the song.

While it displays the chords you need to play, it also tells you how to play the chords by presenting various guitar chord shapes in several different tunings. You can transcribe solos, block out vocals to concentrate on instrumental parts and create a loop that allows you to play around with a song’s tempo without distorting the sound of the song itself. With a Capo 3 audio file called Spectogram, you can even see vibrato and note bends. Always wanted to learn to play your favorite band’s music yourself? Now you can, in a simple and streamlined learning format that SuperMegaUltraGroovy calls “the future of learning to play music.”

Retail price is $29.99 at the Apple Mac Store, and you can also download a free trial on the Capo 3 website.

NAMM returns in summer 2014. Learn more at NAMM.org.

The post Our Innovative Gear Picks From NAMM 2014 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

by Ruben Lone

The recent debacle with Google SEO spamming gave Rap Genius a run for its money, but as we reported, the founders ‘fessed up and cleaned up their ill-advised internet scheme. Rap Genius has since bounced back with the launch of a new iPhone app,  hopefully steering the app away from the browser window and into an independent cloud.

To be honest, I’m not much a fan of the mainstream rap music of our current age, save for a few choice innovators. However, Rap Genius is well-aware that its site could offer interpretations for text beyond the scope of hip-hop, and it’s News Genius and Rock Genius subsidiaries are indicative of a market gap. By calling the iPhone app “Genius for iPhone,” Rap Genius avoids the “rap” association (save for the diamond logo that conjures flamboyant displays of wealth) and offers wiki-like annotations on rap, rock, poetry, and news.

Cleanly constructed on their signature black background with white text and golden highlighting, the app offers all the same features as the browser version, but without the excess clutter of stats, features, and social media links–unfortunate and hopefully soon-to-be antiquated elements of an unconsolidated internet era.  The search bar is often a little sticky when returning from selected texts, and you may have to re-enter your search query to jumpstart the app. But this seems like a bug to be fixed in a normal update, and the general functionality is stable.

The array of easily accessible annotations on Genius is impressive. Just this morning, President Obama’s State of the Union address had been uploaded and was trending on the app. Also impressively, the fully annotated copy of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” arguably one of the most important and challenging pieces of 20th century literature, has over 150k views. Not exactly the 3 million for Beyonce’s “Drunk In Love,” but promising nonetheless.  You can also search lyrics based on your local music library, and the app will source the lyrics and descriptions for any songs in its database. The mobile app is far speedier than the website, and it’s nice to navigate around a huge library of texts with your thumb. Since Rap Genius functions like a dictionary in many ways, the interface afforded integration into a more reference-based and user-friendly version.

Genius seems like the next big step for Rap Genius, and the company may predictably allow this platform to influence a restructuring in the future that makes the site and app less niche-driven. However, Rap Genius is a viable and reliable source for both lyrics and lyrical annotations, as well as transcriptions of popular text. The company should certainly look to expand this brand into an increasingly universal system whilst leveraging its current user base as a new, quietly connected community of contributors and curious fans music and literature alike. Highly recommended, so download the Genius for iPhone app at the iTunes store.

The post Rap Genius App Is Delightfully Relevant appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Brian Parker

A while back, we covered TicketMob‘s triply segmented ticketing and event management platform for live music, electronic music, and comedy events. TicketMob allowed artists, labels, brands, and festivals to manage their interactions with fans independently of large middleman ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and LiveNation. As of today, under the acquisition of cloud-based event management platform Cvent and subsequent merger with mobile Seed Labs, TicketMob will be known as CrowdTorch, a highly specialized and improved event and audience management solution.

Scot Richardson, CrowdTorch General Manager and founder of TicketMob, explained that CrowdTorch is focused on brands’ individual intentions for event management, with “white labelling being front and center.”  ”We want to give clients an entire toolset to engage with fans’ lifestyles,” says Richardson, regarding CrowdTorch’s goal to keep ticketing internal whilst maintaining a level of trust, transparency, and reliability between event organizers and their fans. A huge focus of CrowdTorch’s efforts will go into developing mobile apps for events that consolidate complete fan experience, from sharing functionality on social networks, to adding VIP packages upon entering an event, and quite feasibly reselling unused tickets for customers who are unable to attend.

With analytics that can track the correlations between promotions and ticket sales, event creators can keep tabs on what marketing methods are efficient to their particular fan bases.  One such application of the social media toolset proved to be instantly successful–an artist offered a $1 discount to anyone who bought tickets through their event app, and gained a 380% ROI. Though Richardson says CrowdTorch is “still scratching the surface of the mobile app developments,” a dedicated platform that offers both solutions and analysis for events seems to be ushering in a new, independent method of interacting with fans.

CrowdTorch is certainly competing with major ticketing hubs on the level of direct ticket sales, but the company isn’t interested in a direct challenge against the current industry standard. Rather, by creating a new method of audience and event management, the new model may emerge naturally over time as a more lucrative option for artists and events. “We’re trying to be a replacement for multiple providers of ticketing, branding, and event management…we’re trying to do all of that for you and to integrate all of the relevant touch points,” Richardson explains of CrowdTorch’s 360-degree approach. And by maintaing the former structure that TicketMob called “verticals,” artists and organizers can customize a total fan experience without worrying about scalpers, disorganization, or a lack of information about programming, lineups, and the like.

With TicketMob’s former LaughStub (comedy), TuneStub (live music), and ElectroStub (electronic music/nightlife) still in place, events can be customized based on category, marketplace, and audience demographics. For example, creating an event with the ElectroStub platform can offer options for table service at a nightclub, with a group of friends splitting the costs via an app. In the same vein, promoters for these events are given a unique set of tools that cater to their job functions. Furthermore, having distinct channels allows event organizers to cater to communities of fans that respond to different types of marketing and promotions, a feat that is much more difficult under an umbrella platform with unlimited options.

Finally, Richardson made clear that CrowdTorch is a highly viable option for working with individual, independent artists. The same solutions are offered at this level with pre-sales, VIP packages, and special opportunities for superfans willing pay for an additional, meaningful experience. By integrating ticketing and audience management tools, points of purchase need not be disparately associated, and artists and fans can expect a more personal relationship without the hassle of hopping around various websites and social media networks to redeem special offers and features.

You can keep up with @CrowdTorch on Twitter, and learn more about the company’s outlook and functionality in the video below:

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By Ruben Lone

The latest in their line of analog modeling synths, the Lead A1 is Nord‘s newest performance synthesizer. With a quick user interface and simplified front panel, the A1 recreates analog sounds to a tee, and packs features including 8 oscillator configurations, filters, LFOs, onboard effects including chorus and ensemble, and master clock control for onboard syncing.

The power in this synth comes in the oscillator functionality with a new Wave engine, which allows for shortcuts to Pitch, Detune, Shape, Sync, FM (frequency modulation), AM (amplitude modulation), Dual Oscillators or Noise, without requiring the patching usually found on all-analog synths.

Nord’s products are often build around ease of use for live applications, especially in their Nord Stage and Lead series. However, the Lead A1 breaks down some of the more tedious walls of analog synthesis for speedier response and improvisation. This technology mirrors the functionality of modern DAWs which presently center on working on the fly in the studio and on the road (i.e. Ableton and Logic), keeping creativity flowing without technical hangups. While Nords aren’t exactly beginner instruments and an understanding analog synthesis makes using their gear all the more useful, it seems like the A1 would be nice for entry-level players and pros alike.

The Nord A1 Lead will be showcased at the upcoming NAMM Show which begins today in Las Vegas.

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By Keith Nelson Jr.

With the advent of new technologies designed to mimic motherly qualities, human-to-human interaction is becoming increasingly foreign to a populace of tech-savvy consumers. Beats by Dre co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, along with musical innovator Trent Reznor, are banking on the future of music consumption as a byproduct of human personalization and computer algorithms–streaming human curation. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of playlists created by interns and Beats Music staff employees, Beats Music also has playlists curated by radio personalities, broadcasters and experts from the music industry such as former Pitchfork Media editor-in-chief Scott Plagenhoef, former digital content director at XXL Carl Chery, and others. These playlists will appear in the ‘Highlights’ section in Beats Music, though there are currently  no official plans for fans to contact the Highlights curators.

A vast majority of the playlists curated by the Beats Music staff, interns, and music experts are represented in their ‘Right Now’ section. The section provides a continuous stream from over 1.5 million customized playlists, based on users’ completion of a short survey which will be based on four variables: place, activity, person, and genre of music. Beats Music’s sustainability will be predicated on the speed of their playlist proliferation, which according to early reports has the Beats Music’ staff of 30 curators creating between 90 and 150 playlists a week in total.

As of now, Beats Music will cost $10 a month (or $100 for a year) and will not have an ad-supported free version similar to that of competitors Spotify and Pandora. While Beats will be the newcomer competing with Spotify’s 18 million active users and Pandora’s 70 million active users, the gap may shorten quickly following their partnership with AT&T. From the day of launch, AT&T customers will be able to bundle their Beats Music subscription with their monthly phone bill as a $10 add-on. The partnership saves customers money with the service provider’s Family plan, giving up to five members unlimited streaming and song downloading for $15 a month.

Three months prior to Beats Music launch, Spotify launched their new Browse feature, a collection of “over a billion” user-created playlists curated for certain moods, events, and the like. Perhaps Beats Music’s AT&T bundle will inspire Spotify to bring its own partnership with T-Mobile from Germany into the United States (T-Mobile began bundling Spotify Premium service to its customers in Germany for an additional 10 Euros ($13.70 USD) in August of 2012). With T-Mobile and AT&T recently launching promotional campaigns explicitly aimed at luring the other’s customers, this move seems to be inevitable.

Beats Music will be available on Windows Mobile, Google Android, Apple’s iOS, Sonos and web browsers.

The post Man Beats Machine: How Beats Music Employs The Power of Human Taste appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Jason Epstein

Every January, CES graces both the techie blogosphere and the early adopters with promises of incredible gear and gadgets. While curvy televisions, 4K HD, and wearable tech were trending at this past CES, we want to take a look at a handful of sweet new music tech gear.  Are you willing to shell out of any of these?

My Rocki

This WiFi music system more than quadrupled its Kickstarter goal.  It’s a colorful, palm-sized, multi-room, multi-user device that plays through any speaker from your phone.  On-the-go flexibility like that is exactly the type of thing music lovers want at their fingertips.

Fugoo

Have you ever been on a hike, at the beach, or manning the grill and wanted to listen to your tunes without worrying about heat, moisture, or debris messing up your groove?  Check out Fugoo.  This waterproof, shock-proof, snow-proof, dust-proof speaker comes in three flavors: Tough Jacket, Sport Jacket and Style Jacket (though to be honest, Tough Jacket looks the coolest.)

 Astell & Kern AK240 Portable Audio Player

The newest iPod Touch models have effectively stripped away the iPod Classic’s max storage capacity of 160GB, leaving serious audiophiles and music lovers behind in favor of touch screens and apps.  But this new high-res audio player has a whopping 256GB of internal memory (plus space for more) with a dual core processor, the ability to connect to download sites right from the player, and a gorgeous screen.  Lossless audio: here we come!

Yurbuds

There aren’t many good sport headphones out there that actually deliver high quality audio, a comfortable fit and durability for high activity.  So it is with open arms that we welcome the Yurbud’s ability to lock into place firmly, comfortably and wirelessly with top-notch audio clarity.

Gibson Min-E Tune

The only thing worse than taking the time to tune a guitar is the sound that tuning makes.  The Gibson Min-E Tune is a low profile, lightweight tuning system that sticks on the back of a guitar’s headstock and tunes your guitar strings in just seconds.  Now if they could just come out with a device that kept guitars from playing the opening of “Stairway to Heaven.”

The post 5 Sweet New Pieces of Audio Gear from CES 2014 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Brandon Cook is a contributor to SoundCtrl, an electronic music aficionado, and cofounder of Topple Track. When he is not removing piracy and tracking content across the web, he is immersed in the music that he loves. 

1. Hot Since 82 “Little Black Book”

Release Date: October 21, 2013

Hot Since 82 seemingly appeared from nowhere back in 2012 with his first hit single “Knee Deep in Louise.” Since then, the artist has made strides including the release of his first full length album in 2013. The album is a journey through Hot Since 82′s current and re-released productions and is just as good in a club or on a long road trip. I love the deep, dark energy of this album.

2. Pezzner “Last Night In Utopia

Release Date: November 8, 2013

This is Pezzner’s sophomore album and a tremendous listening experience. This album is a soothing narrative written mostly on the road during Pezzner’s travels though airports, bus stations and coffee shops. Ranging from techno to ambient, the album is a warm and moody sonic trip.

3. Stimming “Stimming”

Release Date: June 6, 2013

Stimming’s eponymous third album offers a tranquil break from reality every time you press play. The album was written on the beaches of the Baltic Sea in the winter of 2012, and that tranquil energy seeps through every track. For me this album is like a warm blanket on a cold rainy day.

4. Claude Vonstroke “Urban Animal”

Release Date: September 9, 2013

I love the energy and experimentation of this album. This is something that Claude Vonstroke is known for, and I think that’s what keeps me so interested in his music. Vonstroke doesn’t take himself too seriously and I find reprieve in his funky, bassy, urban explorations.

5. Disclosure “Settle”

Release Date: June 6, 2013

If you haven’t heard this album yet I don’t know where you’ve been hiding. The brotherly young duo has made their mark this year with this catchy, feel-good album. Its nearly impossible not to tap your feet and want to sing along with this upbeat vocal house treasure. A great album to take to the gym with you!

The post Brandon Cook’s Top 5 Albums of 2013 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Keith Nelson Jr.

Happy New Year! Eight days late, but with every new year comes another twelve months to see the technology and music industry complete change. To keep you ahead of the curve here are our top 5 technology trends that will change music In 2014.

Video on Demand

CBS, along with parent company NBC Universal, are testing out the profitability of advertisements for video on demand content. Since 2007, advertisers pay for the first three days a show is released, but a recent Nielsen study stated 60% of U.S. TV households had video on demand. In addition, CBS stated 50% of all their digital customers who use video on demand used it for TV viewing. In today’s market where relatively new streaming services such as Netflix are set to surpass the number of paid U.S. subscribers for cable mainstays like HBO, television networks and cable providers are as desperate for new revenue streams as record labels.

Enter Bruce Springsteen. The Boss and CBS agreed to debut songs from Springsteen’s 18^th studio album High Hopes after a January 5^th and 12^th episode of CBS’ “The Good Wife” with the album streaming on CBS.com for free before its January 14^th release. No word yet on the details of the monetary compensation with this deal, but with the upcoming surge in video on-demand advertising and other video streaming services such as YouTube implementing ads in offline videos, television’s music distribution potential will grow exponentially. Robert King, co-creator of The Good Wife even painted a picture for The New York Daily News of what the future of music integration into television shows:

“What we hope to do in the future is bring [songs by various artists] into the plot itself. We’re looking at one plot where the case revolves around the song itself and the lyrics inform the plot.”

Wearable Technology

In the last decade, mp3 players and smartphones transformed the mobile music listening experience into one of immense convenience. In the next decade, the listener will become the mobile music listening experience with the surge of wearable technology. Wearable technology is relatively new and yet more than half of consumers are aware of the new form portable technology according to research firm NPD Group’s Wearable Technology Study.

Fully funded Kickstarter wearable technology project Woojer is a silent device that reproduces low frequency sounds to create full body sensations during music listening with any quality pair of headphones. When placed on certain predetermined points on one’s body the same chest rattling feeling the bass of speakers at a live show delivers can be controlled by the user. With wearable technology creating added layer of fan engagement, artists could start creating music to create a desired emotional reaction and finally have a tangible vehicle to channel those ambitions.

Cars = Mobile Devices

Earlier this year, Google formed the Open Automotive Alliance with its members, GM, Hyundai, Audi and chipmaker Nvidia “committed to bringing the Android platform to cars” according a recent press release on the group’s official website. Google’s Siri rival, the digital personal assistant Google Now recommends, updates on quickest routes unprompted and keeps tabs of personal habits. This same service, when integrated with YouTube’s upcoming music streaming service and cloud based Google Play Music, your car could curate a music playlist for the driver based on weather data, prior listening habits and even destination. Add in the fact that one of the Open Automotive Alliance members, Audi, announced a self-driving car for under 40 mph driving and the car is set to be the next evolutionary step in mobile music listening.

The burgeoning popularity of automotive mobile operating systems could have immense monetary opportunities for artists as it opens a previously untapped revenue stream. In the (very recent) past, artists would release music at retailers, on their website, This past July, Jay Z and Samsung noticed that nearly twice as many Americans listened to music on their mobile phones in 2012 as they did in 2011 and struck a deal wherein Samsung would pay Jay Z ($5 million) to release his Magna Carta Holy Grail album directly to a million Samsung Galaxy owners through its own app. With Pandora planning to begin placing ads in cars this month and partnerships like Jay Z and Samsung’s, the cars may become market to distribute music for independent and major label artists of unprecedented levels.

Social Music

From November 2012 to November 2013, four artists (Eminem, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz) each charted 10 songs concurrently on Billboard, a first in the history of Billboard. Why? This happened because In October of 2012, Billboard changed their Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Rap Songs, Hot Latin Songs and Hot Rock Songs charts to include began tallying data from streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora and iHeartRadio. Three months later, The Streaming Chart was born and YouTube views were added to the streaming data to chart music.

French music curation start up Wyd has a similar attitude towards music curation as it introduced its recommendation engine in March of last year connecting users with each other, bloggers, musicians and others with like interests. The advantage Whyd posseses is that it pulls content from a wide range of sources such as YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud and others. One of the cornerstones that new music streaming service from Trent Reznor, Dr. Dre, and Jimmy Iovine, Beats Music will be based on is expert playlist curation as opposed to computer generated suggestions (a la Pandora). Human music writers and musicians will compile playlists based on their likes with freelancers compiling thousands of music playlists for certain types of people such as a teenage country music listener or a 50 year-old hip-hop lover.

Reimagining Physical Media

It’s 2014: cloud services allow near unlimited streams of music, you can wear your mp3 player on your face and vinyl sales experienced its greatest growth since 1991 last year, for the sixth straight year. However, physical media is proving slow to eradicate even with CD sales dropping by 12.8%, over 113 million units were still purchased. With millions of users losing terabytes of personal data after federal prosecutors seized all of Megaupload’s assets in 2012, the added level of control over your data that physical media affords explains its staying power.

Flash Crystal transfer media to a smartphone with a simple tap on the phone with the Flash Crystal. Flash Crystal can also transfer a smartphone to a desired website, such as an artist’s Bandcamp, where the music can be streamed and downloaded directly from the user’s smartphone. Innovations such as Flash Crystal could marry the nostalgia and reliability of physical media with ease of use, as it uses Near Field Communication to transfer media, a technology that is increasingly becoming more common. In 2013, 285 million NFC-capable phones were shipped and more than 500 million NFC-enabled devices will be in use by consumers worldwide by the end of 2014 according to ABI Research. The resurgence of physical media and hand-to-hand distribution for independent as profitable resources could be products of this growing trend.

The post 5 Tech Trends That Will Change Music in 2014 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Brian Parker

On February 18th, Red Bull Music will release a free feature-length movie about the work, dedication, spirituality, and struggles that lace the experience of making and performing music. Featuring a cast of some of the most accomplished and innovative musicians of our time, including Erykah Badu, James Murphy, Flying Lotus, Brian Eno, and more, “What Difference Does It Make? A Film About Making Music,”  directed by Ralf Schmerberg will highlight the grittier and darker aspects of being an active musician in today’s world and music industry. This morning, Red Bull Music Academy, the global masterclass and event series that has been running for over  fifteen years, posted an intriguing trailer for the film on its Twitter page.

We’re looking forward to digging into this film once it’s released, but for now, check out the trailer below:

Visit redbullmusicacademy.com for details about this year’s upcoming event.

The post Watch the Trailer for a New Film by Red Bull Music appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Ruben Lone

Following the Christmas exile of Rap Genius from Google on account of an ill-advised SEO-spamming operation, the popular lyric site and the internet industry site have reached an agreement. Rap Genius will now be included naturally on Google’s search engine, after a “manual action” pushed the site to the sixth page of its search results.

Whilst admitting to their mistakes, founders Tom Lehman, Ilan Zechory, Mahbod Moghadam, detailed the highly technological process of scraping, examining, and removing bad URLs from a list of 177,000+ links to the Rap Genius website in a blog post on News Genius. Using a combination of  Google’s Webmaster Tools, Nokogiri, Ruby, Typhoeus, and Heroku (all of which are described in detail in the blog post), they were able to effectively scrape, remove, and disavow the spammy links, many of which were moderated by non-human Webmasters.

With a Rap Genius iOS app headed next week, it was in the guys’ best interest to step down nobly and correct their scheming to preserve the success and reliability of the site. “We’re focused on building the best site in the world for understanding lyrics, poetry, and prose and watching it naturally rise to the top of the search results,” say the founders, and hope that their process provides insight to any others whose websites are similarly exiled by Google.

Read the full blog post here, with detailed information about how Rap Genius scraped hundreds of thousands of URLs to undo their SEO spam. And a pretty sincere apology.

The post How Rap Genius Saved Face and Returned to Google appeared first on SoundCtrl.

By Brandon Cook

Securing a spot as a top DJ in the world means a whole lot more than just having your name on a numbered list. For many years the DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJ poll has been the holy grail for DJ careers. An artist’s fan count, media coverage, music sales, and bookings are all influenced by where their name sits on the list. So much so that campaigning for this is quite normal and previous attempts at stuffing the ballots have been made. After all, it is well worth the incremental monetary value that DJs stand to gain from gaming the system.

This is in no way a slight to DJ Mag’s list, their poll is by far the most widely accepted, far reaching and scalable ranking of DJs and is completely fan driven. However, we thought it may be interesting to look at the popularity of DJs based on metrics that indicate fans behavior outside of polling. We worked with the team at Just Go to pull together the number of fans from Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Soundcloud and determine the fan base of the world’s leading DJs. Using these metrics, along with mentions in from Google with DMCA piracy notices, we determined the top DJs of the world by data.

(Click to expand chart)

Since we were looking specifically at the top DJs of 2013, we created a scale that also factored fan growth in the last calendar year. We used total fans and new fans added last year at a ratio of 2:1 respectively. Although we know that social metrics can sometimes be manipulated, we feel strongly that these metrics are highly illustrative of the overall popularity of these artists in 2013.

One of the most intriguing parts of this study is the amount of overall fan growth in the last year for these leading artists. Watching the rise of EDM has been fascinating and the staggering growth in fan count this year is very descriptive of the rise in interest. With a 34% growth in fans across the all platforms and nearly double that in YouTube and Soundcloud, it is clear that beyond social mentions these fans are thirsty for more.

Brandon Cook is the cofounder of ToppleTrack.com, one of the web’s leading anti-piracy companies. Topple Track works with artists, labels and distributors to protect and monetize digital content.

The post Top 100 DJs of 2013 by Data [Infographic] appeared first on SoundCtrl.

SoundCtrl contributor Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She has shared with us her top albums of 2013, and gives her prediction for 2014′s noteworthy upcoming releases. Feel free to drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

Chris Thile - Bach Sonatas and Partitas Volume 1, Nonesuch Records

Release Date: August 6, 2013

Not everyone fancies classical repertoire or is even necessarily familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach. If you fall into one or both of those categories, that’s cool. You can still get amazing enjoyment out of this record. You know why? Downright performance ability on the part of Chris Thile that leaves people pretty much speechless. Thile is a mandolinist (think violin tuning but played like a guitar) and his mastery of this instrument makes him able to go toe-to-toe with these sonatas and partitas and, well, play the pants off of them at speeds much faster, and with an accuracy more precise, than I have ever heard, even though they aren’t intended for the mandolin. (Full disclosure: I’m a violinist, have played some of these tracks myself.) Listen with you ear pressed to the speaker and you won’t hear a single misstep of a note. It’s a mesmerizing collection. Just cue up “Partita #1 in B Minor, Movement 4, Double 2” (track 8) and you will know instantly what I mean.

Anberlin - Devotion: Vital Special Edition, Universal Republic Records

Release Date: October 15, 2013

I’m cheating a little with this, since technically it’s a re-release of a 2012 record. That being said, the alt. rockers of Anberlin didn’t just slap on a new cover and call it a day. The reason this makes the cut as another pick is Devotion‘s ridiculous package: two full albums, one the re-release of 2012′s Vital with 3 new tracks and 4 B-sides, an album of purely remixes,and a live DVD of their acoustic show in Williamsburg from last year. Secondly, if you are in one of those moods where you just need solid rock with a kick that you can sink you teeth into, Anberlin is a band that can deliver. Lastly, the inclusion of the live DVD makes the icing on the cake. All to often, one’s exposure to a new band is either through a live show or studio record and listeners are left wondering how a band sounds on the flip side before they can get a full impression. Anberlin as a whole, and particularly lead singer, Stephen Christian, will impress new fans with Devotion’s strong studio recordings and then keep a matching performance quality when you hear the live tracks, surprising with their ability to balance a rock edge with acoustic restraint.

Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose, Warner Brothers Nashville

Release Date: March 5, 2013

Ashley Monroe is steadily working to gain traction among her longer established country peers. Like a Rose is her solo debut, which came out prior to the sophomore release for her other endeavor, country trio, Pistol Annies, comprised of Monroe, Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley. It is worth immediate praise to note that Monroe managed to juggle equivalent energy for the Pistol Annies’s second record and the launch of her first, something some artists struggle to accomplish. Monroe’s vocals have the character of a more traditional country sound, Southern twang and all–but she doesn’t pour it on senselessly. The abundance of expected instrumentation is another breath of fresh air and whether a person finds Like a Rose from a Pistol Annies fixation or by finding Monroe by chance, the woman shows she is capable of standing out with enough of her own identity to be a solo artist. She displays enough vocal star quality that Like a Rose won’t be limited to a forgettable playlist. 

This Old Ghost - Family Room, Unsigned

Release Date: January 22, 2013

This Old Ghost is a young group out of Peekskill, NY and after I gave this debut record a playthrough, it stayed on frequent repeat from January onward. A group self-described as “Folk & Roll,” TOG are just a well put-together group and Family Room is just a well put-together album. The band knows exactly who they are and their audio impression marks them as one-of-a-kind; from the incredibly distinctive vocal of Ian McGuinness to the occasional frontline inclusion of Karri Diomede’s flute. Still, it’s not hard to hear from where they draw their influences (spot-on with what they include in their Twitter mini-bio, I instantly thought of Band of Horses and Death Cab for Cutie) and this makes becoming a fan of their music effortless. Family Room hits a variety of song tempos and arrangement combinations, never to the listener’s boredom. Last, and perhaps one of the best aspects of Family Room is the crystalline production quality. Everything sounds clear on a professional level and compositional elements likes non-parallel harmony lines aren’t turned down or lost. If it’s in the band lineup, you hear it on the record–and for an independent group, that just goes to show the power of a well-done DIY effort.

Paramore - Paramore (Self-Titled), Fueled By Ramen

Release Date: April 5, 2013

Ah, the mainstream, radio-comfortable pick…of the many popular records that I came to own in 2013, this is one that would leave a plain void in parts of my year if I didn’t include it. Paramore, being the internationally recognized group they are, need no introduction. Even though the band doesn’t turn themselves completely inside out and keeps some level of familiarity in their stylings and in Hayley Williams’s signature vocal vibrancy, the album was just too diverse not to dive into and pick apart with enthusiasm.  The spectrum of instrumentation, tempos, influence nods, (No Doubt circa, “Push and Shove”) and track assembly showcase Paramore’s versatility. Some records stand out for quirk, some for production methods, some for theme. Paramore stands out for the exact quality I started with: it’s comfortable and fun. An album that came into a real and undeniable stride during the spring with the ubiquitous second single, “Still Into You,” much of Paramore’s extensive 17 track collective is straightforwardly upbeat and punchy. Toss together with Williams recognizable lead and playing it isn’t hard to do when you just want familiar, jammable, pop-rock.

Now that we’re officially into 2014, there are over 50 fresh weeks of “New Music Tuesdays” to get psyched about future releases and for the moment, I have my ears to the ground listening for further info on a new Adele record rumored to be completed this year, as well as the collaborative album, “Cheek to Cheek,” between Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett that was slated for release last year, but, had been pushed back.

The post Guest Post: Kira Grunenberg’s Top 5 Albums of 2013 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

In an article of 2014 technology predictions, Evercore Partners analyst Patrick Wang foresees the iPad Pro, an iPad/MacBook Air hybrid slated to release in autumn 2014. The pro computing sector, specifically in enterprise business operations, is shifting toward tablets in the workplace due to processing power and portability. The purported iPad Pro would have 2K and 4K resolution displays and would run on a new A8 chip, helping boost the scope of chip manufacturer ARM. This, in conjunction with ARM’s influence in cloud computing will give Intel a run for its money, although Windows tablets and portable devices like the Surface do rely on Intel processing. Tablet News provides a mockup of the online announcement with possible pricing models.

Hopefully, by October, we will see DAW developments thats are tablet and touch-screen friendly, making the portable recording process even more tactile.

The post iPad Pro Rumored for Fall 2014 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The folks at Rap Genius shouldn’t have been surprised when their SEO-fixing scheme was swiftly debunked and punished by Google last week.  The case, which was blown out of proportion in the media on account of the lyric site’s recent funding by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and various public relations controversies, was used less as a penalization to the company (Google actually moved Rap Genius to page six of their own web search) and more as a demonstration of Google’s unregulated might. The Quantcast stats on Rap Genius’ clicks should be a clear warning against internet greed, especially amongst startups looking to boost their already apparent success. But beyond Google’s control of a huge segment of the searchable internet, the brand is and will be responsible for pushing ahead the age of information.

The Moto X is the first American-assembled smartphone, and is offering heavy competition to the iPhone with remarkable battery efficiency and forward-thinking design. Paired with Glass, the next wave of the Google-owned Motorola phones may very well climb to combinative successes in mobile and wearable technology in the coming years.  With rising concerns of national debt, reliance on foreign labor, and the environmental impact of technology,  the Moto X may become a mark of sustainability and reliability.

With prescription lenses on pre-order, Google Glass, despite its currently “nerdy” aesthetic, will eventually bypass the stigma of invasiveness once integrated into eyewear that is familiar to the general public. As Google integrates its technology seamlessly into consumer products, the ubiquity of the brand will, and likely has already started to, become invisible commodity.

As the world adjusts its own perception of privacy and accessibility, Google will certainly be at the forefront of the debate regarding the capturing, analysis, and ownership of data. Seeing the world through the lens of Google is only one perspective, but it’s likely that consumers will start to become indifferent about the existence of a brand allowing them access to a universe of information.

The post Prescription Lenses, Lawsuits, and Smartphones As Google Enters 2014 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Due to an inability “to deliver a differentiated customer experience or a business model which was attractive to shareholders,” music streaming service Rdio has officially ended its video site Vdio. Vdio was released in April 2013 to buy, rent, and share movies, as well as create on-demand “sets” of popular videos and TV shows. While the current Rdio user base was initially offered a beta preview of Vdio in tandem with their music accounts, the service didn’t take off in competition against Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, and iTunes.

Rdio will be refunding Vdio users with Amazon gift cards equal to the amounts of their unredeemed transactions, while user account information including sets and playlists will be deleted.

However, Rdio is still up and running and has recently published an interactive chart of 2013′s top tracks, staff picks, recommendations, and artists to watch in 2014.

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by Brian Parker

Berlin’s nightlife scene is notoriously one of the best, grittiest, and most highly regarded in the world. Clubs like Watergate, KaterHolzig, and the “techno mecca” Berghain are only a few of the venues that house the German capital’s legendary, day long, free-for-all parties. With a sharp rise in the popularity of electronic music (and rent prices in major global cities) in the last few years, Berlin is now a major tourist attraction and migrant artist destination, contributing to increased gentrification, development, and cost of living. Though the social issues are to be dealt with by Germany’s stricter immigration and renting laws, music royalty collection agency GEMA seems to be focused on turning Berlin’s international appeal into euros generated for the artists they represent. However, GEMA holds a monopoly on the music licensing market in Germany, and the government passed legislation that allows GEMA to collection royalties on any artist’s music unless they are specifically registered at “GEMA-free” works.

GEMA has had a relatively unpopular reputation over the last two years, beginning with 2012′s threat to increase performance royalty fees to up to ten percent of ticket revenues, with some major clubs paying up to €140,000 a year. The prospect outraged club owners, promoters, and music-loving Berliners alike, as the expenses are too steep maintain the underground’s integrity and commitment to quality and aesthetic. The fee structure sparked protests in Berlin, especially by those who frequented clubs that would be potentially closing. Furthermore, many of the clubs in danger of closure could be quickly replaced by new residential developments, which was the case for Klub der Republik in Prenzlauer Berg.

GEMA reached a deal last week that would increase fees slowly over the coming years, capping out at a 64% increase for larger clubs and posing no threat of closure. However, GEMA’s strict laws on YouTube streams, which keeps many popular songs from playing the Google-owned service, is another side of the organization’s poor reputation. Contested by the new Cultural Commons Collection Society (C3S), many artists plan to sign up for the service which gives options for multiple licensing structures, depending on where and how their music is being played. Registered with GEMA, artists aren’t always able to give music away for free, much less have it played promotionally without a venue being charged fees by the collection agency. C3S is still looking for funding and may not be functional until as far as 2015, but the society may bring new hope to German artists struggling to promote themselves on various media channels.

However, the current fee moderation by GEMA will likely help quell internal concerns about Berlin’s nightlife becoming too mainstream. Recently, Lady Gaga performed at Berghain, which was an antithetical booking to the club known for eight-hour long DJ sets and a notoriously selective door policy. Some cynics are losing faith in the structures that support the fringes of the music industry, but opening additional revenue streams could also be seen as beneficial to keeping the scene alive. Most Berlin nightclubs worth their salt aren’t particularly worried about attracting traveling fraternity bros on spring break and tactless partiers out for early nights–Berlin’s clubbing diehards maintain the community so long as the quality of the music doesn’t wane.

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