Owners of Sonos wireless speakers are typically a proud bunch who tout its excellent sound quality and app-integration.  And there’s good news for them – Google Play and Sonos are finally starting to play nice with each other.  Now you can open Google Play Music and stream it to your Sonos speaker or access the Google Play Music library in the Sonos app.  Sonos’ Android app is fine, but it’s not quite like having native support.  Plus, it seems that Google is catching up with Apple on wireless playback.  Google Play Music can now be added to Sonos’ list of streaming options, so you can access your Google cloud music or stream directly within the Google app to your WiFi enabled Sonos speakers.  And it can be done without the use of Apple’s AirPort — that’s one less layer of transmission from device to sound source.  

Hopefully this opens the door to more proprietary device pairings.  Because let’s be honest; wouldn’t the world be a better place if devices, OS’, cables, connectors, ports, patches, updates and every other piece of hardware and software under the sun just worked together seamlessly?  Well, we can wish, but as long as custom connections, subscription services and promotional pairings make companies ungodly sums of money, we’re just gonna have to get used to it.

As technology evolves, don’t we expect it to get faster, cheaper, easier and more seamless?  We do.  But the fact that this Sonos story is even news shows how backward technology can be.  As for now, Sonos hasn’t yet struck a deal with Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Beats Music or any other streaming services.  So while 360-degree seamless integration is still as much a myth as unicorns (and increasingly so the more services, software and hardware that pop up), at least the idea of it is gaining some ground, and we can be thankful for that.

The post Sonos and Google Play Nice appeared first on SoundCtrl.

German electronic composer and co-founder of Ableton Live will be performing a light, music, and art show with The Haxan Cloak on his debut U.S. tour at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple.

An evening of every heavy noise from various metal,jazz and hip hop at the Knockdown Center in Queens, artists like Tim Hecker, Gunplay, Clipping, and Wolf Eyes are scheduled to perform.

This is sold out already but if you find a way to go, do it. This is a public lecture with the one and only D’Angelo as he talks about his career at the Brooklyn Museum Cantor Auditorium.

As one of Brooklyn’s most underground and upcoming dance labels, Lit City Trax will be delivering a steamy night of grime and filth at The Westway with producers within the family.

Fifteen artists and three different stages, RBMA will be closing the festival at Abrons Arts Center with Nightwave. Robot Koch, Dj NiRe and many more artist to be announced!

You can visit the Red Bull Music Academy’s website for more details and the full calendar.  Look forward to seeing all of you out there!

(Check out the installation of the RBMA calendar mural in Greenpoint, by Sky High Murals)

The post Red Bull Music Academy Festival 2014 Preview appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

• Multi-Routing
• State-Saving
• Presets

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

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

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

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

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

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

Audiobus 2 is $4.99 in the iTunes App Store.

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

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

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

Presets

Multi-Routing

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

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

The post All Aboard Audiobus 2 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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.

The New York edition of Unsound will bring a week of experimentation, interactivity, and a good bit of dancing to the city, with several events that promise to be intriguing for musicians and music-lovers alike. The festival unofficially began last night with the premiere of Ephemera, an installation merging the scent artistry of Geza Schoen with the music of Ben Frost, Tim Hecker, and Steve Goodman (aka Kode9). Issue Project Room, the art research and performance institution, will host the official opening event tomorrow April 2nd with performances by sound art duo Evol and composer Oren Ambarchi.

On Thursday, American electronic music innovator Suzanne Ciani will perform with Neonantrik at Lincoln Center’s Rubenstein Atrium. On Friday, UK duo Demdike Stare will present their commissioned project Concealed alongside minimalism pioneer Phill Niblock and Polish artist Stara Rzeka, performing his unique sound of “magical brutalism.” On Saturday, Unsound meets the infamous Bunker of New York, bringing together Porter Ricks, Vladislav Delay, Ital & Halal, Miles (of Demdike Stare), and Leisure Muffin, whose newest EP was released on The Bunker’s own label.  Sunday’s closing events will feature Kapital, Paal Nilssen-Love, and James Rushford & Joe Talia, from Poland’s experimental Bocian label.

These are just a few highlights from the week’s performances, many of which are free of charge to attend. However, space is typically limited as several events are at intimate smaller venues (especially helpful to controlling acoustics), so arrive early and stay late. Check out the full schedule and artist listing here.

The post Unsound Festival Opens Tomorrow in New York 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.

Yes, we have yet another streaming music service infiltrating the online listening landscape. Will this one be any different, and will if offer new features that the other services haven’t already?

Samsung set out to specifically “address consumer pain points” with its new music streaming service, Milk Music: a “fresh” take on music. These pain points include a longer and more involved music setup, such as creating usernames and passwords, dealing with too many ads and interruptions, and hearing repetead songs from a a limited catalog.

To assuage these consumer frustrations, Samsung has created a sign-up-free, ad-free music streaming service that has partnered with Slacker Radio (rather than dealing with getting record labels on board) to bring Samsung consumers a viable alternative to other streaming services.

However, like iTunes Radio, Milk Music is exclusively available to Samsung customers, specifically users of Galaxy S-series and Note devices. The service is not currently available on tablets, as Samsung is working on optimizing the mobile phone experience for now. Users can download Milk Music from Google Play, but it’s unknown whether or not the service will eventually come built in to Samsung devices.

So what makes Samsung’s Milk Music comparable to, or even better than its competitors?

Milk Music’s Selection

Through a partnership with Slacker Radio, Milk Music provides access to about 13 million songs on 200 genre stations. Nine of the most popular stations will be made immediately available on the Milk Music wheel, but you can change them to any of the 15 options available. These stations include Spotlight, which appears on the dial at all times, and is curated via the Slacker partnership to bring listeners “what’s trending” and Milk-exclusive content, such as first listens of new albums. They also include My Stations, which is based on the stations you’ve created yourself. You can also tap the circle next to a station to scroll through a list of sub-stations to create a still more personalized experience.

Similar to other existing music services, you can create a customized playlist based on a genre, artist, or song, and the service will pull up similar tracks to match your taste. To customize these further, you can swipe upward from the bottom to reveal additional personalization features that determine which songs to play next based on your preferences for (or against) Popular, New, and Favorite songs. That for-or-against selection will be based on the favorites list you’ve created over time, so if you’d rather listen to songs you’ve never heard, you would position the circle on the Favorites bar. You can skip songs 6 times per hour and select “Never Play Song” from the menu, so the song will never come up again in the playlist.

To change stations, you’ll have the experience of a traditional radio tuner as you swipe the dial, or wheel, across the different station selections. One of the most interesting music features is that when you swipe through, you won’t have any lag time, and the songs will start playing right away. This is because Samsung pre-caches each first song in a station by eight seconds so that they are ready as soon as you tune in. When you rotate the dial closer to the center of the circle, the station-changing speed is slower, while rotating from the outer edge makes the stations change at “nitro speed.”

Other Features

Milk Music offers a few other nice features such as play history, which contains the last 500 songs played. As for audio settings, Milk Music offers two audio quality options: Standard (50 kbps) and High (90 kbps).

You can turn the explicit content feature on or off. Also, Milk Music has a location feature, and though the service currently doesn’t do anything specific, Samsung says that it may develop an option for integrating local content into playlists.

You can also choose to forgo the no-sign-in-required feature of Milk Music and hook up Milk Music to your Samsung account to share your Favorites, History,  and stations settings across multiple Samsung devices.

The fact that Samsung is ad-free for now doesn’t mean that it will be ad-free forever, and Samsung is indeed looking into such a business model for the future. As this is probably one of the main reasons why many users out of the 200 million Galaxy owners will download and use the service in the first place, it will be interesting to see where Milk Music ends up as it grows and adapts to the music streaming landscape in the future.

The post Samsung Milks the Streaming Market appeared first on SoundCtrl.

We like instructions like this, but little did we know the next 15 minutes would be a captivating sensory overload of sound, color, and graphics. Patatap is a visual music browser application controlled by pressing alphabetical characters on a computer keyboard, which trigger audio samples and corresponding graphics. In various combinations, the the keys trigger chopped samples of drums, vocals, synths, and glitches, while creating an array of minimal graphic lines, dots, shapes, strobing colors, and other visual effects. It’s simply fun to use, and a perfect distraction from the stresses of a tiresome workday.

Patatap is a collaboration between designer and programmer Jono Brandel and musician duo Lullatone. The project is an innovative take on visual music applications, and is functional on computers, tablets, and mobile devices. Patatap evokes the sensations of synesthesia, a condition in which the brain interprets one sensory input as another, like “hearing” colors. There are several sound and color palettes that comprise Patatap, which can be toggled by pressing the space bar.

Give Patatap a try with the embed above, you’ll certainly want to blow this up to full screen. Disclaimer: your boss and coworkers may be leery of your digital respite; be sure to send them the link as well.

The post Patatap Brings Joyous Visual Music to Your Browser appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This past weekend, on a single floor of the Microsoft New England Research and Development Labs, the Music Tech Fest, Boston edition, crammed in three full and continuous days of presentations, demos, questions and answers. One of many laudable presentations from the festival was Roundware, presented by sound artist and musician Halsey Burgund.

An idea conceived back in 2009, Halsey Burgund told stories; not only of Roundware’s origins but of many different geographic places that were also being used as locations for things like sound installations, art exhibitions or just for everyday exploration. Burgund described Roundware as “a flexible, geographically sensitive, distributed framework, which collects, stores, organizes and re-presents audio content.”This open source platform lets its users collect audio from anyone with an iOS or Android smartphone or web access, upload the audio to a central repository along with chosen metadata, and then filter it and play it back collectively, in continuous audio streams within a designated space. Imagine a large, open park full of temporary sculptures highlighting a local artist.

Users are given headsets and walk around the area looking at the various pieces. Music plays back while you’re walking through the space and at any moment, spoken word from previous viewers comes in through the headset, layered over the musical components. The audio often describes what the speaker is seeing, what they are reminded of when viewing the sculpture, and their general sentiments about the art. The commentary and musical elements play back simultaneously, helping the current explorers experience someone else’s perspective and frame of mind from a past moment.

This “past moment” can denote another user’s descriptions from a few minutes prior, should multiple people be wandering in close proximity and observing the same set of objects, or, it can span longer periods of time, depending on how long the collective repository of audio data is kept active. One poignant example shown during Burgund’s presentation was audio of a heavy rainstorm that someone recorded and uploaded, that was then heard in the headset while wandering in that same area -on a beautiful, non-rainy day.

One of the first applications of Roundware, called the “Scapes” installation, created by Burgund for the Massachusetts deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, is outlined the video below, from Burgund’s point of view. Playing the video will reveal what he’s hearing through Roundware, from the first-person perspective. Burgund also highlights some of the supplemental intrigue of hearing about past observations. For example, he hears about a chipmunk someone saw and mentions that it’s interesting to think where that chipmunk might be now. Keeping track of from who, what, and where audio is derived in the video can be mildly confusing but, is undoubtedly fascinating.

As mentioned before, Roundware has more than sound art applications, and has been eyed by museums and schools for unconventional learning experiences. The Smithsonian is even interested in how Roundware might be used to benefit visually impaired attendees, who could glean descriptions of exhibitions through the eyes of patrons who have visited prior, giving thorough and widely imaginative ideas beyond a single, limited explanation. In addition to this application, during Q&A, it was proposed that Roundware could have great potential for something mimicking geocaching but in an audio-centric format. Plans are in the works for Roundware to eventually support other forms of media, including text, photos and video, which will be part of a Version 2.0 release coming soon.

If you are interested in including Roundware in a work or project of your own, a first version of the platform’s code can be downloaded 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 Roundware: Connecting Spaces, People, and Sensory Experiences 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.

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

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

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

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

Dave Haynes (fmr. SoundCloud)

Paul Lamere (Echo Nest)

Berklee’s Rethink Music Initiative

Paris’s IRCAM-Centre Pompidou

The Music Technology Group of UPF Barcelona

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The exhibition encourages musicians and non-musicians alike to explore the hands-on possibilities of modular synthesis, opening up a world of production and engineering that seems very complex from afar. Fortunately, the reps from Moog and Main Drag music are always on hand to provide instruction and insight on how the machines work for any eager enthusiasts. The sounds generated by these modules are other-wordly, ethereal, and often spooky, but the real weight is in how tactile the controls are. For example, slowly turning the dial of a filter’s cutoff frequency opens up a waveform’s character and grit, and when implemented on an electronic drum kit (connected via MIDI hub) the possibilities for adding expression to rhythmic compositions is infinite. The same goes for guitars, keyboards, and the standalone mounted modules.

In addition to the open installation, the Moog Room will host a live performance tomorrow, March 20th, on the analog systems featuring Kiran Gandhi, Suzi Analogue, Léah Lazonick, FonLin Nyeu, and more.  Hosted in collaboration with Tom Tom Magazine, the event will go from 8-11PM.

RSVP to attend at [email protected] to attend, and enter a chance to win tickets to Moogfest 2014 in Asheville, NC, home of the Moog Factory.

The post Inside The Moog Room at Rough Trade NYC appeared first on SoundCtrl.

You might wonder why a widely successful mobile-only app would expand to the stationary side of the technologic border. That’s what Soundwave has done with their most recent update, now available in the iTunes App and Google Play stores. However, the tagline for the update, “Soundwave moves to capture desktop music,” is assuredly exciting because of what it means for the reach of the app’s ever-growing community.

The global music tracker and more recently, buzzing social platform (thanks to their last update bringing in comments and hashtags), decided to develop and release this evolution as a means of directly responding to ground level input from users worldwide, as well as inferences drawn from user analytics and behavior. It is worth noting that while Soundwave continues to grow, their discernment of that growth has never involved letting go of contact and cohesion with their user base, despite its widely cast net and server-stretching volume. While capturing plays from outside mobile devices is not completely new to Soundwave (YouTube integration bestowed Soundwave’s app with the ability to track plays), maximizing inclusion of desktop plays to better match the adopted music players linkable through mobile gives Soundwave a bigger, more natural picture of what, where, and when their users are listening to songs.  Now there will be even fewer “steps” necessary to ensure song plays accumulate in your Soundwave activity feed.

Although expansion from mobile to desktop might seem strange, Soundwave’s team is trying to assemble a full and organic impression of one’s listening habits/preferences, and have found that many people still turn to their desktops often. University students are a global, perpetual, and active portion of the music-curating population who stand to provide Soundwave with much of its behavioral data, and Soundwave’s Chrome extension provides them a less awkward way to frequent the app. After all, would a student immersed in their studies reach for their phone to play music, or just pull up Spotify/SoundCloud/YouTube/Songza/etc. in their browser?

In addition to desktop inclusion, a fresh round of standalone players are now part of Soundwave’s world as well. The mobile side now takes plays from Pandora and SoundCloud, while the desktop-oriented full list now includes Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, 8tracks, Google Play Music, Gaana, VK, Songza, MySpace, Deezer, and Grooveshark. The only, very minor downside is that this upgrade will take just a bit more work on top of tapping the update button on the mobile app. Just follow these directions and accruing and sharing plays with people all over the world will be much easier!

1. Enter the settings menu in the Soundwave app and select “Connect music players”

2. Retrieve and record your unique seven digit pin from the app on your Android or iOS device

3. Click on the link on the Soundwave website to begin installation

4. Insert your unique seven digit pin and the install will start

5. Installation finished!

Soundwave is based in Dublin, Ireland and is backed by venture capitalist, Mark Cuban, as well as Apple Founder, Steve Wozniak. You can keep up with future developments and extra community chatter by following them on Twitter @Soundwave.

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 Soundwave Doubles Down with Desktop Music Capture Update appeared first on SoundCtrl.

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

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

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

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

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

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

How does Encore create these concert time capsules?

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do you think Encore will change the concert experience?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lineup

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

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

The Potential of Live Concert Showcases

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Former Nokia and Skype product designer, Duncan Lamb, has launched fledgling San Francisco startup Aether with the goal of integrating hardware and software to deliver a simple music listening experience.  Branded as a ‘thinking player’, Cone is a new audio device that learns your likes and dislikes to a scary degree (though the company promises never to use data to serve anyone else but the customer’s benefit).  It then plays back audio from streaming music services, Internet radio stations and podcasts based on its knowledge of your tastes.

The lack of a screen can be seen either as a big plus (simplification to the nth degree) or a big drawback (as users tend to be comforted by visual controls).  Instead, Cone has voice recognition and a simple click wheel control scheme: Turn and it’ll automatically play what you enjoy; tap the center and it’ll pause; press the center button, then tell Cone what genre, artists or song you want to hear and it’ll obey; turn the dial again and it’ll play something random.

Cone will be available in two color schemes.  The black and copper version looks like a conical Duracell battery, while the classic white and gray looks like it was torn straight from the Apple assembly line.  Its minimalistic front-side center button and dial system design is rounded out with top-mounted + and – volume buttons, and a rear-mounted on/off switch and 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Designed to fit just about anywhere, the 6.3 H x 6.3 W x 6 L, 2.9 lb. Cone will sell for $399.  The first batch will be ready for shipment in early Summer 2014.  To use it you’ll need a device running iOS 7+ or Mac OSX 10.9+ “Mavericks.”  It’s not yet clear which specific music services will be compatible with Cone, but you will have the ability to play music from your iPhone or Mac.

Let’s get spec-tacular for a moment:  Cone features a fully digital I2S 2.1 channel 20w audio amplifier, 3” woofer plus dual tweeter design, a built-in rechargeable Li-on battery and dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n capability with up to 8 hours of continuous playback.

It’s an innovative design and even more inventive idea for hands-off music lovers, but we’ve gotta ask: Does it work with the iPad as well?  How’s the sound quality?  WHERE IS THE REMOTE CONTROL?  It seems like the perfect device to bring to a secluded outdoor spot, oh, except it only operates in a Wifi environment.  Would it be too difficult to include a port for iPod or iPhone insertion, so Cone could be used as a regular speaker in case there are no nearby hot-spots?  And one last question…what if you can’t think of the name of a song and you want to hear it.  Can Cone read your mind too?

Time will tell if users desire chic, high-end, hands-off, Internet- and Wifi-dependent devices like these to sate their appetites for current and immediate mood-serving music.  If not, maybe cassettes will make a comeback.

Reserve your Cone here.

The post Turn, Tap, Touch and Talk Your Way Through Internet Radio 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.

Life is full of bombarding sounds, and we tend to brush over the lot of them in the hustle of a busy day. What would it be like if such a common sound were presented in an unexpected way?  Enter: Mew, a sound piece recently developed by a team of students at the Royal College of Art in London, UK.

This piece of hardware was part of SoundObject, a collaborative effort in which Emily Groves, Paula Arntzen, Jacqueline Ford, and Jakub Pollág, students in the Information Experience Design and Visual Communication, and Design Products departments of RCA, worked together to “create a digital and physical object that responds sonically to people and its surroundings.”

Asking, “What is Mew, exactly?” is a perfect segue for an infomercial style motto:

All the character of a cat, without the messy litter box cleanup!

This may be a slightly juvenile and crude description, but even with a cute name and tagline to match, this university endeavor is actually quite complex — it is loaded with technology and is hardly a child’s toy. It may look innocent on the outside but this “kitty” is packing the support of tech familiar to SoundCtrl, such as Max MSP, lots of Arduino circuitry, several pressure sensors and even a Mac mini. (If you are interested in this kind of work, see also this piece highlighting the Skube, another project that utilizes MSP and Arduino.)

The team started out with an objective in the form of a question:

“How can we manipulate people’s expectations of sound through a responsive digital physical object?”

The answer came in the form of an object that presents onlookers and those who actively approach the device with distorted sound clips that emulate a cat, but are distorted enough not to be perceived as an animal likeness of any kind. Responsive actions include: walking toward Mew, petting/stroking the fur covered interface, and pushing down on the surface. Each of these will trigger sounds. The particular cat audio that is emitted when interacting with Mew is affected by variables like amount of pressure and directionality of touch and petting movement.

Mew invites a more intimate level of interaction once someone comes with a certain distance because motion sensors signal it to start purring. Touching the fur, covered in conductive thread, tells the Arduino platforms to playback the distorted meows and any amount of pressure that exceeds the predetermined amount of force programmed into the sensors put on Mew’s foam ”body,” will prompt a stern hiss. All of these sonic reactions are controlled, shaped and changed with the Max MSP software that runs off the built-in Mac mini previously mentioned.

The contradictory nature of a non-cat like object, being built to encourage the kind of behavior one would share with a cat, fits the purposes of this academic project well enough. Still, it does posit other questions and beneficial possibilities, should the project be modeled to more naturally and closely emulate an animal. If enough sonic variety and behavioral nuances were accounted for, and worked with, for example, perhaps something like Mew be of good use as a substitute for therapy animals.

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 Mew: The Purring, Hissing Sound Art Piece appeared first on SoundCtrl.