Using Ableton Live and Max for Live, Warynski constructed Végétophone, an instrument and sound installation in his students’ classroom, featuring a number of variable controllers to play, adjust, and interact with new sounds and musical arrangements. The Végétophone, shaped like a tree, features three sections with different sound palettes, organized into apples, bananas, and limes.

The trunk of the tree controls global parameters, including including pitch, tempo, and time signature. The branches of the tree each have knobs that control volume, delay and reverb sends, and sound/kit selection. Each parameter on the tree is given its proper musical notation symbol, save for time signature, which Warynski adjusted into a more understandable beat and bar division than in the traditional fractional notation. 

As far the circuitry and patching of Végétophone goes, the whole setup is much simpler than the back of the installed board seems.

Everything is done in Live 9 and Max for Live running on a Mac Mini and controlled in MIDI with the help of a MIDIbox 128i/o and an Arduino board.

Let’s start with the easy part:
- Sound selection is made by moving a chain selector in Racks.
- Major and minor selection applies a scale midi effect on ‘bananas’ and ‘apples’.
- Global transpose applies a pitch midi effect on ‘bananas’ and ‘apples’.
- Tempo is controlling… well, the tempo.
- Effects are just two return busses.
- Arpeggios are made with the Arpeggiator midi effect.

All the sounds are made with samples played by Racks of Simplers and Drum Racks. A few instances of Operator are used as well.

Described as “nothing more than a gigantic MIDI controller,” Végétophone is a superb example of a very simple, yet functional music education device. And it looks super fun to use.

Check out the interview with Chapelier Fou on Ableton, and listen to his releases on SoundCloud.

The post Végétophone Brings Ableton Live to a Primary School appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Beats Music, a venture by Dr. Dre and FlashFWD nominee Jimmy Iovine,  hasn’t had an entirely successful start, mainly overshadowed by a wealth of other streaming engines, including the massive (and recently redesigned) Spotify. However, iTunes has suffered the inevitable decline of music downloads, so a brandable streaming model at its fingertips could mean a new entry point into the rapidly expanding market. But Apple rarely ventures into such high-profile acquisitions of widely known brands — the company is known for its brand integrity and razor-sharp focus on details, and the Beats acquisition could undermine this diligence if mishandled.

As an aside, the rumored deal has potential for Dr. Dre to become the first billionaire in hip-hop, due to his stake in the Beats Electronics company. A video selfie from the rapper/entrepreneur earlier this morning may have confirmed the deal.

The post Beats Could Be Apple’s Biggest Acquisition Yet appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Watching music videos in science class? Sign me up!

While their teachers may not play videos from the latest hip-hop or pop star, students may start seeing educational music videos appear in their daily lessons, particularly in the realm of science. As the U.S. places a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, researchers are looking for new ways to improve the learning process for students in these subjects.As part of that effort, researchers Kate Davis and Greg Cowther from the University of Washington might be onto something. They posit that while music may be one answer to improving learning for some students, videos to accompany that music could have an even greater effect. Davis says, “It makes sense that we shouldn’t teach all kids the same way; we should individualize. We need to provide multiple entry points in all subject matters. Music is a different entry point into scientific concepts.”

The Study and Its Results

According to University Herald, “For the study, researchers set up laptop computers at five science-related outreach events in Washington State. Most targeted students in grades K-12, but adults also participated. Participants in the study ranged from 3 to 76 years old, with a median age of 12. Each person sat in front of a laptop and selected a science-based music video to watch.”

One such video, entitled “Fossil Rock Anthem,” is a parody of the hip-hop song “Party Rock Anthem,” and depicted graphics of fossils and ground striations, drifting continental plates, and even a dancing archaeologist in fun, vibrant graphics set to a catchy tune. The video combined media—music and images—that were not only fun and memorable but that had an educational backbone to them as well.

Before watching the video, study participants took a quiz with four questions related to information in the video in addition to a bonus question not covered by the video. After watching the video, they took the same quiz plus confidence questions.

University Herald reports, “In two-thirds of the music videos (10 out of 15), participants had more correct answers after watching the videos. Quiz scores rose by an average of one more correct answer after watching the videos. The lyrics-only music videos were as beneficial to improving quiz scores as the visually-rich videos.”

Davis and Cowther presented their research, “Sing About Science: Leveraging the Power of Music to Improve Science Education,” at the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference last week.

What These Findings Mean

It is already widely known that music can help students improve memory, boost fact memorization, and aid in the assessment of complex questions as well. Since the days of early civilization and oral tradition, students from preschool to medical school have used rhymes and songs to help them remember pieces of information, sometimes even in vast amounts. This has been proven by many research studies to be an effective way to learn and retain new information of all kinds, science-related or otherwise.

Besides simply remembering facts, music can also play an important role in memory by triggering emotional responses, which music inherently does. By triggering an emotional response, it is likely that a person will have an easier time remembering what the music was talking about when he or she felt that emotion, thus improving both memorization and comprehension.

Now, with this research, it has been proven that not only can music be applied in the classroom to bolster learning, but music videos have their own value as well—and for some students, particularly those more geared toward visual learning, they could improve their memory and learning even more. Even lyric-only videos improved quiz scores in this study, so this is a viable method that teachers can apply in the classroom to enhance the educational experience for their students.

What to Expect in the Future

As these findings are shared and reproduced, it is likely that more educational music videos will be released by teachers, students and organizations the world over, creating a massive library of music videos for teachers and students to use. These videos will foster further innovation, and they will only get better and more interesting for students with time.

In addition to teachers, students and organizations releasing these videos, you can expect to see musicians themselves contributing to the cause. Many musicians are looking for ways to use their talents for the better good, and this is a perfect way to give back and improve education for others. As musicians are already adept at songwriting and possibly even music video organization, this too could improve the quality of the videos made available to others.

Another application for these music videos is to make a special project out of the creation of a music video for students themselves. This would give the student a chance to immerse him or herself in the subject matter while creating a song and possibly accompanying images that illustrate the concept to be shared with other students. Students or groups of students could present these to the class, and the whole class would be able to benefit from the presenters’ immersion in that subject matter.

Educational music videos have been around for some time, but with research like this, more videos are destined to gain momentum in the educational sphere. In or out of school, expect to see videos like these popping up on YouTube, educational sites and beyond over the next few years. Who knew science could be so fun?

The post Fossil Rock Anthem? How Music Videos Can Improve Science Education appeared first on SoundCtrl.

As part of a major restructuring of the magazine and brand, Billboard has appointed former executive editor of Hearst Magazines International, Tony Gervino, as editor-in-chief. Janice Min, the new co-president and chief creative officer of Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group which owns Billboard, has praised Gervino for his editorial vision and drive.

Billboard also recently named Mike Bruno (Entertainment Weekly) as VP of Digital Content & Programming and Shirley Halperin (Hollywood Reporter) as Music Editor. Current Billboard editor Joe Levy will become editor-at-large.

In addition to overseeing all editorial decisions for Hearst and its Home Design, Men’s Enthusiast, and Womens Network magazines, Tony Gervino has also contributed to New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and launched the award-winning Antenna Magazine. Gervino is poised to bring a bit of class to the charts.

The post Tony Gervino is Billboard’s New Editor-In-Chief appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Twitter is beginning to unveil a new redesign of user profiles. Much more similar to the profile pages of Facebook and Google+, the new design will include a large header image of the user’s choosing, as well as a left-oriented avatar image and information.

“Best Tweets,” which include your most relevant posts, will appear larger on your timeline, and you’ll have the option of pinning Tweets to the top. Users can filter others’ timelines to see Tweets with pictures, links, and replies.

Below are examples of some of the first redesigned profiles, featuring John Legend and Weezer. The redesign will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks.

The post Twitter Gets A Makeover appeared first on SoundCtrl.

If the financial and logistical cost of outfitting every audible alarm with a visual detector for the deaf (and vice versa for the blind) wasn’t somewhere beyond astronomical and impossible, the world would be doing right by our disabled brothers and sisters. But until that happens, we turn to apps that automatically lend a helping hand. The $0.99 app Deafalarm is meant to be kept active at all times, tuning in to sounds and alerting the user of alarms through vibration and an on-screen notification. The app also vibrates if it’s accidentally shut down, or if the iPhone’s battery is so low that it can’t function. According to some reviews, it also goes off all the freaking time, regardless of whether or not the sound is an alarm. Now, just for fun I’m going to list a few songs that have sirens in them, and keep in mind that none of these are even touching the genres of hip-hop or pop:

“Warning” by Green Day

“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath

“A Nightmare to Remember” by Dream Theater

“White Riot” by The Clash

Not far off from the features of Deafalarm is Shazam’s Auto-Shazam function for the iPad that’s always keeping an ear out for music, auto-grabbing music data and draining your battery like crazy in the process. Super cool, but just what are the implications of opt-in detection for personal space, environment and privacy? And would it be creepy for the guy with his windows down and the radio on if he knew your app was displaying information on his chosen track?

Know what’s even creepier? A San Francisco-based startup called Expect Labs is creating an app called MindMeld that listens to a phone conversation and interprets what is being said in real-time, coming up with what it believes is relevant information. It’s like asking Siri a question, except in this case Siri butts in before you even address her. Could be useful. Could be hilarious. Could become completely self-aware and destroy all of humanity. They call it ‘anticipatory computing.’ We call it T2: Judgment Day.

The post Automatic Apps Could Save Lives, But Are Still Kind of Creepy appeared first on SoundCtrl.

A coast-to-coast duet using the latest in holographic technology? Surely it must be the 21^st century.

In celebration of the launch of the Audi A3, M.I.A. and Janelle Monae teamed up to bring audiences in both Los Angeles and New York City just that. While M.I.A. performed for a private event in New York City, she was joined at the end of the performance for a high-tech duet with a live-action hologram of Monae, who collaborated with her to sing a verse of M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls.” Vice versa, an M.I.A. hologram joined Monae in Los Angeles with an original addition to her song “Q.U.E.E.N.”

Holographic Projections vs. Holographic Illusions

These holographic projections hark back to one of the most famous projections in recent years, that of Tupac onstage with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at Coachella in 2012. This time around though, the duet used more advanced 3D projection and video mapping technology. According to a press release from Audi, “The set utilizes 3D projection mapping to add layered depth of field perception with animated graphic content, the result of which will be an electric never-before-seen 3D bicoastal performance.”

Holographic projections in the realm of music have become more common in recent years. Since Tupac’s Coachella “appearance,” Wu Tang Clan also resurrected Ol’ Dirty Bastard as a hologram on the Rock the Bells tour last summer, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony “brought out” Eazy-E. Plus, in 2013, R&B group TLC were rumored to be bringing back Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes as a virtual performer as well, though those rumors have since fizzled.

In addition, holographic projections—more accurately called holographic illusions—had been used even before Tupac, using a method called Pepper’s Ghost illusion, which has actually been around and used in theatre since the middle of the 19^th century. Al Gore used the technology in 2007, Madonna and the Gorillaz in 2006 and Richard Branson in 2005. The Pepper’s Ghost illusion is what brought Tupac’s performance to life in 2012.

What? Not a true hologram? It’s a fact—while widely considered to be a hologram, Tupac’s performance was technically a holographic illusion. The way it works is that on the main stage is usually a piece of glass that the projection is bounced off of while the projector itself is off to the side and behind the glass. But instead of glass, the traditional method, they actually used a proprietary Mylar foil called Musion Eyeliner to deliver “uncompressed media for three stacked 1920 x 1080 images, delivering 54,000 lumens of incredibly clear projected imagery.”

While the technology used for M.I.A. and Monae’s holograms was different, it’s important to make this distinction between holographic projections and holographic illusions when considering future uses of this ground-breaking technology.

What Holograms Mean for the Music Industry

Musical endeavors like those of M.I.A., Monae and resurrected Tupac performances demonstrate just how powerful holograms can be in revolutionizing the capabilities of live performances. Not only can previously recorded presentations, like that of Tupac, be displayed at concerts and festivals, but live holograms can be produced and collaborated on as well, like that of M.I.A. and Janelle Monae.

Imagine what this could do for a live concert or festival. Any one artist could potentially be joined onstage by several musicians, creating an enriched performance for the audience regardless of where those musicians are actually located. Because musicians are often on tour and recording all over the world, the collaborations this could offer are astounding and could bring together artists of all types, including those who may have never previously been able to work together due to distance and time constraints.

If more projections could be created like Tupac, imagine the possibilities of all of the deceased artists that could be resurrected for performances with both their former bands and collaborations that never had a chance to happen. What if you could combine the talents of John Lennon with those of some of the bigger singer-songwriters or rock bands today? Musicians would have the invaluable experience of showing how their music could fit in with those of musicians past, and concert and festival-goers would have the one-of-a-kind chance to experience it live.

As hologram technology progresses, it will be exciting to see what the music industry continues to do with it. M.I.A. and Monae’s live duet was just the beginning in what is likely to be a new trend among some of the bigger, established musicians (as the technology is not financially accessible to most). That could eventually trickle down to the hands of indie musicians the world over, and we could see a resurgence in worldwide collaborations—the next evolution in live performance.

The post Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Holograms in the Music Industry, Feat. M.I.A. and Janelle Monae appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Sometimes a whole record label isn’t quite as great as the sum of its parts. Case in point for Island Def Jam, the Universal Music Group subsidiary comprising the Island, Def Jam, and Motown record labels. The layers of sublabels belonging to the various companies are deep, but Island Def Jam’s daughter labels are known as home to Kanye West, Drake, Erykah Badu, Bon Jovi, and other huge pop acts.  The move comes after Barry Weiss, CEO of Island Def Jam and Universal Motown Republic Group resigned from his position, spurring a drastic adjustment that allows Island, Def Jam, and Motown to handle their own publicity and A&R.

Though the label claims to be giving each subsidiary its own independence, the move seems to reflect a shift back from labels being corporate giants to being brands that carry their own aesthetics and artistic values. As independent labels and artists become more successful from visible online presences and organic outreach (and making better music on smaller budgets), major labels are less attractive to artists who can maintain their artistic integrity without the looming dollar signs of the corporate music machines.

What’s more, it seems the industry is retracting from its decade of compression, when the “Big Six” turned into the “Big Three,” made of Universal, Sony, and Warner.  From a business perspective, majors are better off breaking large struggling assets such as Island Def Jam into parts that are more easily managed without an extra line of command. Yes, letting the individual labels function on their own will hopefully ensure focused creative direction for their respective artists, but it also helps Universal address each label’s interests appropriately. The industry is long overdue for a corporate restructuring effort, but that effort is merely speculative without a philosophic overhaul that values music over money —and it’s unlikely that it will come from the top down.

The post Universal Music Group Dissolves Island Def Jam appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

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

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

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

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

As explained on MusicMark’s website,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billboard and Twitter have joined forces to create “Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts.”  The ranking system will join Billboard’s 200+ Official Billboard Charts to track the top Tweeted songs and artists.  Though there’s no solid release date, the charts are due to launch within the coming weeks on Billboard.com.

Twitter’s blog announcement provides some insight on their aim: “Our goal with these efforts is to give artists who share songs and engage with their audience on Twitter a way to get noticed by even more fans, other musicians, and industry decision-makers in real time.”  But will trending data really support the discovery of up-and-coming artists in a meaningful way, or will it just bolster already successful artists?  Is the data really for music fans, or is it consolidated into neatly packaged charts for record executives to peruse as they search for the next artist who proves to be a lucrative investment?

Lyor Cohen’s new “300” label will be using similar algorithms to find new artists on Twitter as well, supplanting talent scouting at clubs, hearing the music live, and seeing the fan base first-hand.  The music industry may have chosen to learn from its mistakes and embrace new technologies, but possibly at the cost of a more organic method of finding talent and doing business.

Data mining seems to be the preferred method of gauging, conglomerating, and analyzing the technological and musical ephemera of the age.  So, one last question: is there any use resisting it?

The post Billboard and Twitter Join Forces appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

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

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

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

“WE’RE NOT CHANGING MUSIC. WE’RE LETTING MUSIC CHANGE YOU”, is the message emblazoned across Pono’s landing page. PonoMusic promises to take artist-approved master recordings and put them in the listener’s hands, with fidelity anywhere from 6 to 30 times that of a regular MP3 file. This is Neil Young’s (a man who is worth $65M according to celebritynetworth.com) Kickstarter baby, and every rocker from Flea to Sting has endorsed it.

The Player will cost $399 and comes with 128GB of storage, which can house 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums, according to Pono. Won’t music-lovers likely have a collection larger than that? It may not be an issue now (the service only has about 8,000 artists on their roster) could become important as the service expands and owners find an increasingly large percentage of their music collection ballooning to Pono-grade HD-sizes.

The PonoPlayer uses zero-feedback circuitry, a digital filter, and a high-quality digital-to-analog converter to create a warm sound reminiscent of a brand new vinyl record. They promise no distortion or distance, and no lack of subtlety – just rich audio as it was meant to be played.

The question is, will you notice? Made by a musician and endorsed by musicians, this seems like a dream come true. And yet, to the average music listener who is perfectly at ease with 192 kbps Spotify streams, static-ey radio, variable YouTube audio quality, robotic digital recordings, and low-end Apple ear buds, the increase in audio fidelity may not be discernable past the general placebo effect of believing it is. That brings us to another point: just like an HDTV only works well with HD channels and a good HDMI cable, the PonoPlayer is likely limited by the headphones or speakers in use.

Yet, there likely is a sustainable market, if limited in size, willing to shell out for lossless digital audio. Musicians and true music lovers know well the full-body and mind sensation that can be achieved while awash in a pure ‘wall of music’ from a device that captures everything from the most subtle accent to the most powerful center-speaker drive.

Though the PonoPlayer works with any MP3, it works best with PonoMusic. Unfortunately, Pono files won’t play on your iPhone or Android device. Why go proprietary? The price of PonoPlayer is unclear, but the fact that it will have its own branded (though not compulsory-use) music library smacks of a meeting where terms like “subscription service revenue stream” were probably thrown around to get investors excited. Case-in-point, the PonoMusic online store will also sell headphones and other products suitable for use with the PonoPlayer. A PonoMusic App will accompany a desktop computer media-management system, allowing customers to download and sync music to their player. According to Digital Music News’ Why Pono Is the Worst Audio Player I Have EVER Seen, albums will be available between $14.99 and $24.99 at PonoMusic.com.

The Pono Kickstarter seems more like a free publicity campaign than a measure of financial risk-mitigation. After all, would 800K really get an expensive piece of audio equipment made over the course of 2 years with a prominent musician, the renowned Ayre Acoustics labs, and a supply chain that spans San Francisco, Ireland and China?

An iPod and iTunes enemy, this is not. But a revolution in bringing high-fidelity audio to the mainstream…it could be.

Check out Pono’s Kickstarter here, where at the time of writing they’ve raised almost 4.5M of their $800,000 goal.

The post Can Pono Change the Face of Mainstream Audio Quality? appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Fortunately, protected Tweets aren’t included in the birthday gag, so your discretion is honored.

The post Happy Birthday, Twitter! Oops. appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Eventbrite’s findings aren’t wildly surprising, but a few points do prove a distinction between fans of EDM and fans of…well, everything else. First, EDM fans are typically social media addicts, Tweeting 6 times more than average Twitter users, with 72% more frequency than general music fans. Described as “social media exhibitionists,” EDM fans demonstrate a higher instance of indiscretion online, sharing highly personal information about their lives on social media channels.

Second, EDM fans are overall less concerned with actual artists than they are with events in general. Dedicated music fans were shown to be twice as likely to show support for their favorite artists, though EDM fans drive conversations about music and concerts — though typically limited to EDM.

The post [Infographic] Eventbrite Releases New Report on the Anomalous Fan Base of EDM appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The newly launched Bop.fm isn’t the next new music streaming service — it’s every streaming service in one place.  In an age when every new startup seems to have the final answer in the business of something as abstract as music, Bop is leveraging the larger interests of the fan-pleasing platforms to streamline and personalize the music discovery and listening experience. Bop aggregates the most popular music streaming services — Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, Rdio, Deezer, Beats — under a single roof. With no need for an account, Bop.fm functions like an internet radio, curating playlists based on songs of your choosing. Unlike other internet radio applications that limit your choices or number of skips, users can pick songs or let Bop curate for them, sourcing the highest quality tracks from all of the major streaming services for free.

Bop’s platform also offers an interesting content management solution for artists and managers driving traffic to new music: with a single bop.fm link, users are directed toward all instances of a song, no matter where they exist on the internet, creating a consolidated source for a track. With the ability to aggregate all of the media sources and direct traffic, Bop may very well be the preferred platform for labels looking to keep fans engaged and in one place.

We caught up with Bop CEO Shehzad Daredia to talk about how Bop’s forward-thinking functionality creates a new model for music listening and discovery.

SoundCtrl: Is Bop.fm account based? How do you sign in?

Shehzad Daredia: You don’t need an account at all — we don’t like imposing these walls on you that everyone else does. So if I were to send you a Bop link to a song, you could play it right away. Now, if you wanted to create a playlist and save it, you’d have to create an account. We’ll probably have additional features like favoriting that will require an account, but to use the basic core functionality, we don’t impose registration.

You could sign up with Facebook or email, though we don’t currently have the ability to let you connect your individual accounts for say, Spotify or SoundCloud. That’s because we don’t really need you to do that. You can play through your existing Spotify account without you having to login, same for Rdio and Deezer. We do allow you to connect your Beats account, but you don’t have to connect all of your accounts to play through them. We can automatically detect if you’re a Spotify user, Rdio user, etc.

So if you’re a premium user of a streaming service, it wouldn’t change your access to Bop. 

Right, it doesn’t matter if you’re a premium user or not, Bop can stream through your Spotify account and you won’t have to do anything in advance to make that work.

Does playback come from online or an app? 

Bop right now is web and mobile web, we don’t have a native app yet.

What’s the prioritization of playback services used by Bop? 

The vast majority of users out there don’t subscribe to more than one of these services, so they’ve never heard of Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, or Beats. Most people will be playing on SoundCloud or YouTube, depending on a number of factors, including availability of that song on those services, as well as availability of that service in that country. So if you’re in Germany, maybe the Vevo video wouldn’t available on YouTube, in which case we’d fall back to SoundCloud. Usually we’ll prefer YouTube, since YouTube monetizes for the industry, whereas SoundCloud will not. That’s the case for the majority of users, since most of them haven’t heard of the other services, much less have accounts.

Now for the ones that do, the next most common is that users have an account with one of these services. We automatically detect if they have a Spotify account, if that song is available on their device in their country, and then we would play back through that account. It’s very, very rare that the user has access to more than one of these services, like Spotify and Deezer, or Spotify and Rdio, so we don’t put a lot of thought or effort into which one we prioritize first. It’s somewhat arbitrary to focus on it, as .1% of the population has more than one music subscription account.

YouTube and SoundCloud stream at pretty low quality — is that cause for concern? 

Quality is a factor we consider. It’s the reason why we’ll play from YouTube over SoundCloud, with others being equal if a song is available in both of those services. But we consider quality when we do our matching. If the only thing available on YouTube is a low quality UGC video, we’ll give preference to the higher quality file uploaded by the creator on SoundCloud. But generally speaking, we give preference to the official music video through Vevo or the creator’s channel on YouTube over UGC uploads.

Are you working only with files and content that have been appropriately licensed? 

We give preference to music that’s been officially licensed.  That said, YouTube is trying to change the model now. So it used to be a place where people would upload a bunch of UGC stuff and YouTube would tell the creators, “Tell us where people are infringing, and we’ll take it down.”  And so license holders had to play “whack-a-mole.” But now, not only are they playing “whack-a-mole,” they’re playing “monetize-a-mole,” if you will. So now YouTube will monetize your content that is uploaded by other users, they’ll claim that content and share the revenue. They’ll also flag it as premium content with premium ads and rates. We can effectively infer, by looking at YouTube videos, which ones are being monetized for that artist, even if the artist or the rights holders were not the ones that uploaded it. So we give preference to the official channels, but we include the ones from other channels if we need to play through them.

So it’s opening Bop to as much music as possible while not infringing on any rights itself. 

We’re basically linking to a song that’s on YouTube. We’re a DMCA-registered agent, so if  we get a complaint that we’re pointing to a song that’s infringing content, then we’ll gladly take it down promptly. To this date, we haven’t received a single complaint. Part of that is because we don’t actually host the content ourselves; so if there was a problem, it would go to YouTube or SoundCloud directly.

Part of it is that even if it was infringing content, rights holders understand what we’re doing. We’re doing something that YouTube and SoundCloud don’t do in a scalable way, which is putting a giant buy button next to that content and pass ads through that content. And we’re pushing people towards the paid streams for that content, whether it be Spotify, Deezer, etc.

Do you have any recommendation engines that you’re running on Bop through the hosted services? 

So we have recommendation in the app, you’ll see it in a few different ways. First, whenever you play a song on Bop through clicking a Facebook link or Twitter, when the song ends, recommended songs will start playing automatically. You’re effectively creating a radio station by playing any song on Bop. Secondly, on any song page, we’ll show you recommended songs, so you can navigate and see what else you might like. Finally, on our homepage, we have new songs and popular songs, and we’ll be expanding upon that to provide something tailored to your listening history.

How are you planning to grow your company and monetize your methodology for aggregating music? 

Today, monetization isn’t the core focus. Today the focus is the growth of the product, focusing on the best user experience possible, and exposing Bop to an ever-growing number of people. That said, we have a short-term business model in place, and a path toward a long-term one. So the short-term model is an affiliate model where we  drive subscriptions and upgrades to the music services and attract album sales to download stores, and getting a cut of the revenue that’s generated. So Rdio will payout about $5-$10 per user, per year for any newly referred subscriber. And then iTunes would give a standard 5-10% commission for a download.

In the long-term we’re a data play. We’ve already done 35 million song plays cumulatively since inception, and we’re doing over 100,000 song plays per day.  So that’s 35 million play points growing at 100,000 data points per day. We’re releasing data not only on what’s popular and trending, but what people like at the individual level. We’ll be able to utilize that data to market to them accordingly, make ads, or sell that data back to the labels to help them understand who their customers are.

Lately, because of the fact that we provide the ability to share simple, universal links, regardless of country device and music service, we’re getting a lot of artists and managers utilizing us for their social media efforts. For example when Maroon 5 drops a new track and wants to promote it to their fan base, what link do they use? Do they use iTunes? That won’t work for Android users, and iTunes isn’t always where a song is first available, plus it’s 2014 and people don’t download at the same rate with streaming picking up.

So by using a single Bop link, a song only available on SoundCloud will play through SoundCloud. If a YouTube link is available tomorrow, it’ll play from that, and start monetizing for the artist. And next when it’s on iTunes, the buy button lights up, and when it’s available on Spotify and Rdio, we’ll start defaulting to those services. All the while, the artist and manager don’t have to touch that link, while Bop picks the best monetizing source for the user to play from. Then we consolidate the analytics for streaming, watching, and buying into one place broken down by things like country, device, browser, and time of day. So we’ve already gotten Jason Mraz, Hot Chelle Ray, Switchfoot, The GRAMMYS, using this with test campaigns, and we’re seeing momentum from this feature.

Be sure to check out the beta version Bop.fm online, and sign up for free for tailored playlists and recommendations.

The post [Interview] Shehzad Daredia, CEO of Bop.fm appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

The Future of Creativity

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

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

Google and the Future of Audio

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

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

Sonification and Cybernetics

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

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

Immersive, Improvisatory, Durational Performances

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

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

How to Hear

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

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

I Dream of Wires (U.S. Premiere)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Artiphon

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

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

Bionym

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

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

Kiwi Wearable Technologies

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

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

OP3Nvoice

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

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

sonarDesign

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

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

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

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

Customers can request money directly from the Square Cash app or by simply composing an e-mail:

1) To: [one or more email addresses]

2) Cc: [email protected]

3) Subject: $ [amount]

Send!

The highlight of Square Cash’s functionality is that by using email, multiple payers can be contacted at once, especially helpful for organizing group activities and outings without the hassle of speaking to each member. Square Cash also enables customers to check in on the status of a requested payment at anytime, to keep track of outgoing and incoming payments for groups or individuals.  Funds are directly deposited into the recipient’s bank account, rather than held in a stored balance account — Venmo uses this balance system, unless paying “trusted” accounts.

Square Cash is available for Android and iOS and also works from any e-mail client. Square Cash is currently only available in the U.S. Visit www.square.com/cash for more information.

The post Square Cash Introduces Instant Money Requests and Transfers appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

The SEA would:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 7 Hottest Topics in Web Music Tech in 2014

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

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

Can Digital Game Publishing Show Us The Way?

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

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

Has Metal Lost Its Edge?

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

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

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

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

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

Print or Digital?  It’s the Package that Counts

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

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

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

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

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

Last night on February 25th, more than a handful of incredible musicians and music-lovers alike gathered at the basement venue of Le Poisson Rouge for the Artists’ Pay For Radio Play Concert. The event was sponsored by Content Creator’s Coalition (CCC) in New York City, an organization that addresses and protects artists from unjust practices and unethical business in the digital age. Below are CCC’s statement of principles via the CCC-NYC.org.

1) We believe in an Artist’s Control Of Their Work; the right of any creator of cultural content to choose when, how, and whether their work is distributed for commercial gain, monetized with advertising, or otherwise exploited.

2) We believe in the Ability to Opt-Out of services; the right of artists, writers, and other creators of cultural content to refuse, individually and collectively, to participate in business models that threaten our livelihoods.

3) We believe in Fair Pay; the right of content creators to a fair share of the wealth our work generates.

4) We believe in Collective Representation; the right of all creators of cultural content to aggregate our power to protect our livelihoods and our art forms.

Artists’ Pay For Play was an evening for active members of the CCC to focus their attention on artists and their unfair compensation from airplay.  To get more people interested, they hosted a rally, concert, and happy hour.  There was a short performance of a classic hit song that followed each speaker’s presentation. Chris Ruen, the author of “Freeloading: How Our Insatiable Hunger for Free Content Starve Creativity” started the night’s festivities as Wendy Oxenhorn, Marc Ribot, Tift Merritt, Joan McCrea, Marilyn Carino, Mike Mills, David Byrne and others made appearances throughout the evening.  A petition was passed around the audience—the night felt very much like a fundraising event. Artists’ Pay For Radio Play was an intimate and special night for passionate music and industry fans, regardless of each attendee’s reason for coming; the event was also free entry if you RSVPed ahead of time. A personal highlight was when Jennifer Charles from Elysian Fields performed “Wild Thing”— she seems to have aged well.

The post Artists’ Pay for Radio Play Concert at Le Poisson Rouge appeared first on SoundCtrl.

A few months back, we expressed our excitement about the upcoming movie by Red Bull Music Academy, anticipating the Ralf Schmerberg-directed documentary What Difference Does It Make?,  featuring an impressive cast of musicians, producers, and thinkers. As with any project curated by Red Bull and/or RBMA, the fusing of styles and philosophies into a single entity remains the focus of the film—icons from Rakim to Lee “Scratch” Perry to Brian Eno to Thomas Moulton all provide personal insight into artistic endeavors and struggles. Despite their individual theories, the idea that rings true amongst them all is that music is their lifeblood, the core of their being, their deepest, most passionate, most dangerous obsession.

What Difference Does It Make? also serves as promotional showcase of the most recent Red Bull Music Academy sessions and events last spring in New York. Inspiring for any artist interesting in applying to the Academy, the film highlights the diversity of the attendees, some being profoundly talented instrumentalists, others engineers, lyricists, rappers, singers, and producers. Behind-the-scenes looks at the studio environment, workflow, and general enjoyment of all of the applicants is indeed intriguing. As for the narrative side of the movie, jump cuts, gritty city scenes, and close-up interviews are raw and musically-composed details in their own rights. The darker contexts of survival as an artist, touching on points such as addiction, stymied creativity, and financial distress, are portrayed quite naturally. The directly intimate conversations humanize the often inflated depiction of frenzied, impractical creators.

RBMA composes a narrative of the various elements of the artist lifestyle—composition, production, performance.  Through a lens that could so easily become disjointed, the poetic editing paints a visual picture of the current landscape of the world of music from an artist’s perspective in a time when we’re often bombarded with talks about business, technology, and industry. In short, this is a highly recommended watch, even if just to see the bit of Egyptian Lover sweatily performing on a tiny venue stage.

Check out the film below:

The post What Difference Does It Make?: A Feature Length Film By RBMA appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

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

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

What Is the Open Submission Process?

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

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

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

What Does This Process Do for Artists?

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

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

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

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

Social Media Week started yesterday, and in preparation of the week’s exciting media announcements, we caught up with the industry’s favorite entrepreneur, Sean Glass. Glass will be hosting the official closing party for Social Media Week with White Panda as the special performance on February 21st. You can visit the event page here and check out our brief Q&A with Glass about advances in music technology and Social Media Week below:

SoundCtrl: How often do you use social media (number of tweets per day, number of likes on Instagram, etc.)? 

Sean Glass: I’ll generally tweet a few times a day, maybe once regarding something I’m working on like a release or an event, and then I’ll talk about Ryan Gosling or something like that here and there. Instagram once or twice a week, generally peruse my friends once a day on average, like a few. Facebook I mainly use as a messaging service, I don’t read other feeds much at all. But I make sure to post events and releases on there, as besides email it is the most important marketing tool.

What are your plans/what are you most excited about during Social Media Week?

I cannot wait to DJ this party!

How has social media changed your life?

It’s not even worth noting specific instances at this point, it’s just a part of life. It’s like asking someone how the telephone changed their life. Everyone is connected—information travels instantly and disappears in seconds or minutes if you’re really engaging. We can be working and programmed nonstop. There is no off switch, no office hours, no vacations or days off. I’m less interested in how it’s changed those of us who grew up without it than I am interested in what the work force will be like when kids who were raised on it grow up.

The post [Interview] Sean Glass Talks Social Media as SMW 2014 Kicks Off appeared first on SoundCtrl.