IMS Industry Insider

Digital

ISSUE: 19 Nov 2024

YouTube testing AI-generated music remixes for creators' Shorts. (DJMag)
Social music platform Hangout, a “virtual listening community,” has opened its digital doors with access to over 100 million tracks, including from the majors, and licensing partner Merlin. (HR)
SoundCloud has launched a new upload experience. (RotD)

ISSUE: 12 Nov 2024

Chartmetric is launching a ‘predictive talent search tool’ for companies in the recorded and live music industries. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 05 Nov 2024

YouTube has reported its second best ever quarter in terms of sales — $8.92bn in Q3 2024 revenue, attributed to YouTube Music helping grow subscription revenue and AI doing a better job of recommending videos to users. (DMN)
TikTok is seemingly expanding its Add to Music App feature, through which users can save music to standalone services like Spotify, to include album pre-saves. (MusicAlly)
Deezer has signed the Statement on AI training. (Deezer)
Universal Music Group reveals ‘artist-centric’ changes to come at YouTube Music. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 29 Oct 2024

Josh Mateer announced a new and expanded role as Head Of A&R for SoundOn, covering the UK & Europe, leading the signing strategy and artist development across all key European markets. (LinkedIn)
Independent distribution platform Ditto Music has signed a direct deal with TikTok. (MBW)

ISSUE: 22 Oct 2024

Apple Music for Artists has a new marketing feature for artists, turning a set list from a show into a playlist to share and promote upcoming tour dates, let fans relive concerts, and connect with listeners. (Apple)
SoundCloud reveals electronic music fans are the most engaged worldwide. (SoundCloud)
TikTok expands #ElectronicMusic hub globally, celebrating the genre and its vibrant community. (RotD)

ISSUE: 15 Oct 2024

Techno artist Tescao's new single blends his music with an immersive parkour map in Fortnite. (RotD)
The .MUSIC registry announced the global launch of the community-based .MUSIC top-level domain name extension and its verified MusicID. (RotD)
TikTok’s decision to disintermediate Merlin and walk away from negotiations to renew its current license has sparked widespread concern across the global music industry. (RotD)

ISSUE: 08 Oct 2024

Music technology and services company Symphonic Distribution has offered Symphonic artists the ability to include their music in the Twitch DJ Program. (RotD)
YouTube takes on TikTok with longer Shorts up to 3 minutes, templates, trends, and more. (TechCrunch)
Warner Music Group strikes new multiyear licensing deal with Meta. (Billboard) The deal will cover WhatsApp for the first time and includes an agreement to jointly tackle issues around generative AI on Meta's platforms.

ISSUE: 01 Oct 2024

un:hurd music, an audience development platform, announced a collection of new partnerships, alongside two new membership tiers, to support independent artists at every stage of their career. (RotD)
YouTube’s SESAC contract expired without a renewal, resulting in some of the most popular music being pulled from YouTube and YouTube Music. (TechCrunch)
YouTube and SESAC have settled their rate dispute, meaning the performance rights organisation’s catalogue will soon be back up on the YouTube platform. (Billboard)
Decentralised music community and discovery platform Audius announced its monetisation feature is emerging from private beta. (RotD) Artists can set their own terms and control the pricing of their music.
ByteDance closing its music streaming service, TikTok Music, in November. The service was available in Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Mexico. TikTok said that it will continue partnering with music streaming services rather than competing with them. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 24 Sep 2024

Mixcloud has acquired Encore, one of Europe’s leading online music marketplaces for booking live musicians. (Mixcloud)

ISSUE: 17 Sep 2024

Soundiiz allows you to transfer playlists between Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud, and 20 other streaming services. (TechCrunch)
LineLeap is a new app that lets users skip the line at bars and events for a price. (TechCrunch) The Chainsmokers’ Alex Pall and others have invested. Users can also buy concert tickets.
Music streaming startup Tune.FM is hoping its differentiated approach will help it garner a loyal following of its own. (TechCrunch)
Spotify says it paid out less than 1% of the $10m or more in royalties associated with an alleged streaming fraud scheme — raising questions about which platform(s) failed to flag the billions of plays at hand. (MusicAlly)
Spotify is launching a new video interview series that dives into new albums before they are released. (HR) Clips from each Countdown To episode will be available on each featured artist’s Countdown Page, and the full interview will be available as a vodcast episode on Spotify and YouTube.

ISSUE: 10 Sep 2024

Roblox is to make new ways for players to discover music and connect with artists. Platform features What's Playing and Music Charts will be added and an integration with DistroKid will allow artists to upload their work. (IGN)
Spotify is launching daylist globally. It’s a personalised playlist that evolves throughout the day depending on your listening habits. It is also adding support for 14 additional languages. (Spotify)
SoundCloud formally introduced Ascending, its global artist development program designed to give emerging artists the momentum they need right before their big break. (SoundCloud)
YouTube announced a slate of AI detection tools that are meant to spot when a creator's voice, face and likeness have been copied and used in other videos. It doesn’t tackle the compensation component to AI music but does say it is nearing a pilot of the Content ID system’s expansion with a focus on this area. (TechCrunch)
The Beatport Group and LabelRadar announced the launch of the Artist Network, a LabelRadar feature designed to facilitate connections and collaborations among artists. (RotD)

ISSUE: 03 Sep 2024

NFT marketplace OpenSea revealed it has received a Wells notice from SEC, indicating the regulator may soon bring a lawsuit against the company. (TechCrunch)
Virgin Music Group has partnered with Splash for a Sofi Tukker Roblox experience. (RotD)
Apple Music now lets you easily transfer playlists to YouTube Music. (Verge)
Turntable Labs has closed a $8.2m seed round before launching the social listening app Hangout later this year. It allows music fans, coworkers, and other communities to gather, DJ together, and interact in a gamified virtual setting. (Hypebot)
Spotify claims Apple may again be in violation of European regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), over how Apple has discontinued the technology that allows Spotify users to control the volume on their connected devices. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 27 Aug 2024

Apple Music is to capture DJ sets in spatial audio for the Warehouse Project 2024 season. (RotD)
Amazon Music has launched an 'Amazon Music Listening Party' activity on Discord. (Discord)

ISSUE: 20 Aug 2024

Roblox has struck a new partnership with DistroKid, enabling DK’s artists to make their music available to Roblox’s 80 million daily active users. However, artists signing up for the beta program “are granting rights for Roblox developers to use [their] music on a gratis basis”. (MBW)
SoundCloud has launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store. The store will sell SoundCloud-themed items, but will also act as a service for artists to put out their own designs. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 13 Aug 2024

After signing licensing deals with all the majors, plus Merlin — Twitch is ready to give DJs a safe space to stream online. (DMN)
Spotify is full of AI music, and some say it’s ruining the platform. (FastCo)
YouTube Music is rolling out a new “personal radio” feature that lets you broadcast daily playlists based on your favorite tunes for others to play. (Verge)
Meta and Universal Music Group announced an expanded global, multi-year agreement that will further evolve the creative and commercial opportunities for UMG artists and UMPG songwriters across Meta’s global network of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Horizon, Threads and, for the first time, WhatsApp. (RotD)

ISSUE: 06 Aug 2024

Roland Corporation announced the launch of Roland Future Design Lab, an R&D group formed to help design the future of music creation. (Roland)
Suno and Udio slam label lawsuits… but the RIAA hits back. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 30 Jul 2024

Spotify expands its Countdown Pages to artists with 5,000 active listeners, more than a year after unveiling the feature. (DMN)
Apple Music for Artists can now track radio spins from more than 40,000 radio stations across the globe. (DMN)
Soundful and SoundCloud partner with artist Kaskade for an AI songwriting competition. (SoundCloud)
TikTok is looking to take on YouTube Music and Shazam with a new feature called 'Sound Search,' which lets you find a sound by singing, humming or playing it. (DMN)

ISSUE: 23 Jul 2024

Spotify’s AI DJ feature, an AI guide that introduces personalised song selections, is now available in Spanish, its first language outside of English. (TechCrunch)
Tuned Global is rolling out a new B2B offering with AutomixIQ creating 'DJ-quality seamless mix transition experiences'. (RotD)
YouTube announced its livestream of Tomorrowland's 20th anniversary. (RotD)
YouTube’s independent music incubator program Foundry is back with the first three artists of 2024. (YouTube)
Instagram announced that it will allow users to add multiple audio tracks to their Reels worldwide. (TechCrunch)
With the looming TikTok ban in the United States, YouTube Shorts growth is beginning to outpace TikTok. That’s thanks to YouTube’s huge appeal in the United States—but also because the competitor is mimicking YouTube features. (DMN)

ISSUE: 16 Jul 2024

Equipping artists with the resources to fight artificial streams proactively, data-driven artist services company Amuse has introduced Stream Check, to increase data transparency and identify fraudulent streaming. (RotD)
Beatdapp partners with Beatport to combat streaming fraud, which they report has been costing the music industry $2bn a year. (MusicAlly)
How Fortnite and Roblox are becoming marketing tools for the music industry. (DigiDay)
With a new integration, Shazam users will now be able to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster. (DMN)
Apple Music has added requirements for all new uploaded music, including that all songs uploaded must include lyrics. (Hypebot)
Resident Advisor and SoundCloud announced a strategic partnership to further connect artists and fans and improve music and event discovery by intermixing SoundCloud and RA profiles. (RotD)
YouTube Music is introducing two new ways to boost song discovery on its platform - experimenting with an AI-generated conversational radio feature, and rolling out a new Shazam-like tool to help users discover the name of a song by singing, humming or playing parts of it. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 02 Jul 2024

TuneCore has launched an AI-powered audio mastering service, TuneCore Mastering. (RotD)
Deadmau5 posts about Spotify, following Daniel Ek's controversial comments that cost of creating content were close to zero. “I’m about to pull my catalog from these f***ing vultures. Enoughs enough.” (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 18 Jun 2024

Beats marketplace BeatStars has now paid out more than $325m in royalties to the creators of the sounds available on its platform. (MusicAlly)
Superfan app Stationhead opens up new all-access tier to help artists identify and reward the biggest music fans. (RotD)
Amazon Music is to return to Wireless to exclusively livestream the festival globally. (RotD)
Spotify is venturing further into the ad space with its first in-house creative agency called Creative Lab, helping brands create custom marketing campaigns. It will also begin testing generative AI ads. (TechCrunch)
Spotify’s hard shift toward bundling and its associated loopholes have officially started hitting publisher royalty statements, according to documents shared with DMN. So far, it looks like Spotify has taken an extreme turn toward cut-rate bundling recategorisations.

ISSUE: 11 Jun 2024

Turntable app djay pro won an Apple Design Award in the Spatial Computing category. (Apple)
Udio users make an average of 864,000 new songs every day. (KilltheDJ)
Spotify has quietly launched a new music-only tier, seemingly only available in the UK only at present. Called Basic Individual, it doesn't offer access to audiobooks and costs £10.99 per month, £1 less than the standard price. (DMN)
Twitch announced a dedicated program to enable DJs to stream the “vast majority” of popular music in a new DJ category on the livestreaming platform. (Techcrunch) Deals have been struck with the majors and independent labels and rights holders represented by Merlin.

ISSUE: 04 Jun 2024

Sony Music Group Chair Rob Stringer has told a Sony Group meeting “In mature markets, we hope that our partners close that gap by asking consumers using ad-supported services to additionally pay a modest fee. This would help develop this segment of the streaming business to be more than just a marketing funnel for paid subscription and still be a tremendous value for users.” (MusicAlly)
Primavera Sound in Barcelona was livestreamed globally on the Amazon Music channel one Twitch and Prime Video, featuring select acts including Disclosure, Barry Can't Swim, Justice, Sofia Kourtesis, and Roísín Murphy. (RotD)
Apple Music announces Pride Around The World mix series with BADSISTA, Lakuti, Lady Shaka, more. (DJMag)
Shovel is a new Google Chrome extension for digging on Discogs. (RA)

ISSUE: 28 May 2024

Suno has announced it has raised $125m in its latest funding round to continue expanding its AI music generation suite of tools. (DMN)
TikTok Studio is a creation and management platform equipped with tools creators can use to create, edit, upload, manage, and analyse their TikTok account and content performance. (TikTok)

ISSUE: 21 May 2024

Spotify and fanbase platform Sesh partner to 'empower emerging artists'. (P&S)
Beatdapp and 7digital to enhance music streaming integrity by combating industry’s ‘billion dollar’ fraud problem. (P&S)

ISSUE: 14 May 2024

Udio is already 'spitting out 10 songs a second'. (MBW)
The AI music platform has just added new subscription features. (MusicAlly)
Apple Music's Partner Program offers access to more tools to "break the next talent, spot emerging trends, and uncover new insights about your content". (Apple)
Spotify has revealed that the royalties generated by artists in 2023 was in excess of £750m, more than double the amount for 2017. (Loud&Clear) Almost 1,000 artists were played often enough to generate at least £100,000 in royalties each.

ISSUE: 07 May 2024

Music sampling service Tracklib announced Sounds, enabling producers to access a range of authentically recorded, royalty-free loops and one-shots. (RotD)
Deezer Q1 revenue grew 15% to €132.5m with average revenue per user increasing thanks to a price hike. Business-to-business subscribers continued to drive growth (+1.3m, up 35.4%) outside of France. (Deezer)
Fans have paid artists and independent labels $1.3bn using Bandcamp, and $16.4m in the past 30 days alone. (Bandcamp)
SoundCloud has launched a new set of playlists under the “Buzzing Playlists” moniker to highlight up-and-coming tracks from artists. (TechCrunch)
Spotify has apparently found a new way to push its free users to a paid subscription: It’s putting lyrics behind a paywall. (TechCrunch)
TikTok and Universal Music Group have reached a deal that will allow songs and artists from its labels to return to the app. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 30 Apr 2024

Spotify CEO talks growth, bundle royalties and short-video plans. (MusicAlly)
TuneCore has rolled out a comprehensive suite of music publishing services to help independent songwriters increase their earnings in over 200 countries. (RotD)

ISSUE: 23 Apr 2024

Funding platform beatBread is now offering publishing administration via Kobalt Music Group, and has also partnered with and the Kobalt-owned AMRA for digital licensing and collections outside the US. (RotD)
Spotify is reportedly prepping a “Music Pro” subscription add-on, complete with “DJ remix features” and upgraded audio. (Verge)
Spotify’s premium plans combining music and audiobooks will mean a lower mechanical royalty rate for songwriters on those plans, the company has confirmed, although it claims that earnings for creators will continue to rise. (Variety)
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is bristling against Spotify’s new audiobooks bundling feature which means it pays a lower mechanical royalty rate to songwriters. (DMN)

ISSUE: 16 Apr 2024

DJs who stream on the video platform Twitch must now share their earnings with record labels, the Twitch CEO has confirmed. (Mixmag)
Is Spotify plotting a largescale push into short-form video? Job postings suggest possible UGC buildout. (DMN) Highlighted job listings, the first for a global senior manager of experiential and content production, are providing noteworthy information.
Spotify is developing tools to allow subscribers to speed up, mash up, and edit songs from their favourite artists, according to a WSJ report. (DMN) “Rights holders—labels, publishers, and artists—would be compensated when fans stream modified versions of their music on Spotify”.

ISSUE: 09 Apr 2024

Feed.fm partners with Cyanite, leveraging AI to improve music discoverability on its platform. (RotD)
Vocalist AI unveiled the public beta version of vocalist.ai, an AI vocal transformation platform designed specifically for professional producers, songwriters, DJs, and film & TV composers, to help music creation. (RotD)
Amazon Music For Artists Hype Deck: A guide to maximising the reach and impact of your music through this new tool. (DMN)
Spotify has introduced AI playlists into beta in the UK and Australia, a new option that allows users to generate a playlist based on written prompts. (TechCrunch)
Spotify’s changes to its royalty payouts have now taken effect. (MusicAlly)
Spotify is reportedly preparing to raise its prices once again, including in the UK. (Variety)

ISSUE: 26 Mar 2024

Mixcloud has launched Host Tagging, a feature that allows one show to be published multiple profiles. (P&S)
James Blake partners with subscription service Vault in an attempt to address streaming royalty issues for artists. (Variety)
A new music marketplace called AC55ID has launched that allows artists to sell and keep 100% of their revenue from their music, merch, physical releases and more via its subscription service. (DJMag)
Spotify adds video learning content for music performance and production. (DJMag)

ISSUE: 19 Mar 2024

A ChatGPT for music is here. Inside Suno, the start-up changing everything. (RollingStone) Suno wants everyone to be able to produce their own pro-level songs — but what does that mean for artists?
Qobuz, Marine Snow and TOKiMONSTA’s sonu.stream are the latest disruptors in the streaming game. Their goal? To pay artists their full worth and give consumers the best experience. (MusicTech)
Event booking platform AmptUp has introduced its new Payouts feature – carrying venues and talent through the entire booking process. (RotD)
TikTok’s parent Bytedance has locked down AI-music patents in the US – as its researchers develop a model trained on 257,000 hours of songs. (MBW)
Spotify and music distributors’ fraud crackdown frustrates artists. (Bloomberg) Some artists say they’re being unwittingly targeted by bots and then unfairly punished as a result. Music is being added without their consent to user-curated playlists that are then artificially pumped up by bots.

ISSUE: 12 Mar 2024

TuneCore has just unveiled its Release Tracker, a visual tool providing artists and labels with greater transparency into the digital distribution process. (RotD)
Chartmetric has introduced an 'Artist Similarity' feature, with the intention to find upcoming talent similar to well-known artists, and also to find bigger artist equivalents for smaller artists to gauge potential. (Chartmetric)
Opulous AI previewed its tool for artists, labels, and OPUL holders, to predict future royalties on platforms across all digital stores. (Opulous)
Music creation platform Splice has released a new mobile experience that combines its AI-based Create technology with a catalogue of samples. (P&S)

ISSUE: 05 Mar 2024

Spotify paid out nearly $4.5bn to independent rights holders in 2023, or roughly half of the more than $9bn it paid to all labels and publishers last year. (Spotify) It now accounts for over 20% of global recorded music revenue, up from 15% in 2017.
The European Union has fined Apple €1.84bn for breaching antitrust rules in the market for music streaming services on its mobile platform, iOS. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 27 Feb 2024

The Playlist Alert iOS app, which notifies users when songs are added to Spotify editorial playlists, is now also rolling out support for Apple Music editorial playlists. (RotD)
Creators of Roblox experiences earned $740.8m from the platform in 2023, up from $623.9m in 2023. (MusicAlly)
TikTok’s Add To Music App feature is now available in another 163 countries, effectively making it worldwide. The feature allows users to save songs they discover on the platform to the music streaming service of their choice. (TechCrunch)
SoundCloud has introduced Mood Targeting for Ads. The new ad targeting service connects advertisers with contextual audience segments, with technology analysing the audio files themselves, using SoundCloud’s unique AI. (SoundCloud)

ISSUE: 20 Feb 2024

AIM CEO Silvia Montello talks about the impact of Apple Music’s royalty-incentivised push for Dolby Atmos adoption and the impact on independent artists and labels. (MusicAlly)
YouTube now lets you integrate music videos into your Shorts. (DMN)

ISSUE: 13 Feb 2024

Roblox ended 2023 with 71.5m daily active users, up 22% year-on-year. They spent 15.5bn hours in Roblox in Q4 – an average of 18 hours a week each. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 06 Feb 2024

Apple released its Apple Music Replay for 2024, allowing listeners to start building their own version of Spotify's Wrapped without having to wait until the end of the year. (TechRadar)
Universal Music Group, says it will no longer allow its music on TikTok now that a licensing deal between the two parties has expired. (Independent)
YouTube reported it passed 100m Music and Premium subscribers, including trials. (RotD)

ISSUE: 30 Jan 2024

Can an AI be a music manager? Two ex-Midem execs are finding out with a startup called Mngrs·ai. (MusicAlly)
SoundCloud is partnering with music technology companies Fadr, Soundful, and Voice-Swap to introduce integrations that allow artists to upload songs created with assistive AI tools directly to SoundCloud. (RotD)
Warner Music Group and Polygon Labs announce recipients of the inaugural Web3 music accelerator program to power the next great evolution of the music industry through blockchain technology. (RotD)
Setmixer, a company that records concerts direct from the mixing desks at partner venues, then works with artists to release them commercially has announced a $760k seed-funding round. (MusicAlly)
Shazam now lets you identify music in apps while wearing headphones. (TechCrunch)
Amazon Music for Artists has a new tool for musicians called ‘Hype Deck’ which it hopes will help them spread the word about their music – but also the streaming service – on their socials. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 23 Jan 2024

YouTube are cutting 100 jobs as part of restructuring changes to its creator management and operations teams. (TechCrunch)
TikTok usage is starting to slow — is TikTok Shop to blame? (TechCrunch)
Triller reported that as of 30 September 2023, its outstanding music licensing-related payment obligations were $23.6m. (MBW)

ISSUE: 16 Jan 2024

ByteDance is shutting down its Resso music-streaming service in India, after the government there forced its removal from Apple and Google’s app stores. (MusicAlly)
Beatport have announced the launch of BPXX, a year-long celebration commemorating the company’s 20th anniversary. (RotD)
The Beatport Group announced the promotion of Matt Gralen to President and Helen Sartory to Chief Revenue Officer. (RotD) The company reported annual revenue for 2023 was “well over” $100m. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 09 Jan 2024

Will.i.am has a new company called Sound Drive, which made its debut at CES 2024. The new venture will launch this summer, with the idea to create and remix tracks in new ways every time you drive. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 19 Dec 2023

Glownet has announced the release of Digital Wallet 2.0. (EventIndustryNews)
TikTok In The Mix, the first-of-its-kind live global experience on TikTok, recorded 33.5m viewers over the original broadcast and subsequent rebroadcasts, including 9.6m watching live. (TikTok)
Universal Music Group and Supersocial, a pioneer in virtual world development, announced the launch of Beat Galaxy, a new music hub on Roblox. (RotD)
Beatport.io announced a collaboration with electronic music duo Disclosure and Bronze AI, which aims to pioneer personalised songs for fans. (RotD)
Pixelynx announced its newest suite of tools for Korus, an AI-powered music creation platform where users can remix content using AI and licensed stem files made by artists and music labels, then mint music and earn revenue. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 12 Dec 2023

Social platform Hangout FM by Turntable Labs has taken two major steps toward the launch of a global, in-platform music catalogue that will allow users to share their favourite tracks. (RotD) Deals with Canadian CMO SOCAN and also the Mechanical Licensing Collective have been struck.
Block — which owns Tidal — has begun planned widespread staff reduction across its subsidiary companies. Approximately 40 staff across multiple departments, or 10% of the staff, have been laid off. (DMN)
Producer and DJ TOKiMONSTA-founded Web3 protocol Sona launched its streaming platform following a $6.9m seed funding round. (TechCrunch) It uses DeFi primitives (decentralised finance basic building blocks) to put the financial power back into artists’ hands with its rewards model, auctions and ad-free streaming.
YouTube is now changing its rules surrounding copyright royalty disputes. The changes could generate a significant windfall for established music publishers. (DMN)
Spotify highlights Campaign Kit, its set of tools specifically made to "amplify your music and build lifelong fans". (Spotify)
TikTok released its 2023 Year in Music report. (RotD)

ISSUE: 05 Dec 2023

Jamahook, the AI-powered sound-recommendation tool, is launching Sound Assistant Offline Agent that helps producers rediscover sounds from their audio libraries. (RotD)
Splice launches new sample label, Aaroh, for music producers around the world. (RA)
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek shared a note about the company’s organisational changes with all employees. (Spotify)
TikTok has launched Artist Account, a toolbox of features and promotional tools developed to forge a closer relationship between artist and fan on the platform. (TikTok)
YouTube Music has started rolling out its personalised end of year Recaps. (YouTube)
Apple Music Replay 2023 allows subscribers to discover, listen to and share their top songs, artists, albums and genres of the year. Also revealed were Year-End charts, spotlighting the biggest songs of the year across Apple Music and Shazam and the songs music fans sang along to the most using Apple Music Sing. (RotD)
Spotify Wrapped 2023: The Top Songs, Artists, and Podcasts of the Year. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 28 Nov 2023

TikTok is now aggressively expanding into its competitors’ space with long-form video. (DMN)
Inside Spotify’s plans to grow its share of the multi-billion dollar music merch business. (Billboard)
Spotify officially revealed its revamped royalties system — with a minimum annual stream threshold for payments, fraud penalties, and ‘noise recording’ changes. (Spotify)
IMPALA is currently canvassing member views on the proposed changes. (RotD)

ISSUE: 21 Nov 2023

SoundCloud relaunches official charts and introduces Next Pro Chart to spotlight emerging talent. (SoundCloud)
BandLab has officially entered the crowded distribution arena as part of an expanded deal with Downtown Music’s FUGA. (DMN)
YouTube unveiled its first music charts, devoted to the daily and weekly tracks being used for YouTube Shorts. (MusicAlly)
Under Spotify’s new royalties model, the platform will financially penalise labels or distributors when it finds that more than 90% of streams on a song are fraudulent, charging €10 per offending track. (Billboard)
TikTok's new feature allows users to save a track they discover on the app to their preferred streaming service with a few clicks. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 14 Nov 2023

Superfan platform Fave will now allow artists and their teams to discover and communicate with fans directly and intuitively with its new industry-facing tool called FanFinder. (RotD)
Apple Music for Artists now displays real-time listening information. (DMN)
Generative AI music platform Loudly has introduced a feature to allow creatives to soundtrack a video from scratch with generated song recommendations that fit the vibe of what appears. (RotD)
Beatport’s digital marketplace Beatport.io has launched a documentary and digital collection celebrating five years of HE.SHE.THEY. (RotD)

ISSUE: 07 Nov 2023

Bandcamp United, the Bandcamp employees union, has accused Songtradr of unfair labour practices. (Billboard)
TikTok and DistroKid struck a deal which will see music distributed by DistroKid available across TikTok Music, CapCut, and in TikTok's Commercial Music Library. (RotD)
Kaiber’s new app helps artists create music videos using generative AI tools. (TechCrunch)
Audius adds ‘music marketplace’ where fans can pay artists. (MusicAlly)
LANDR has launched a new AI-powered mastering plugin, appropriately titled LANDR Mastering Plugin. (DJMag)
Beatport launches Studio, a new plugin and sample subscription platform for producers. (DJMag)
Most tracks on Spotify will not be eligible to receive royalties based on the company’s proposed royalty scheme that will go into effect in 2024. A track must reach a threshold of 1,000 streams within 12 months to receive royalty payouts, Billboard reported.

ISSUE: 31 Oct 2023

Deezer reported an increase of 500,000 subscribers in Q3, despite aggressive price hikes in key markets. (MusicAlly)
Boomy and Beatdapp partnership aims to tackle streaming fraud. (MusicAlly)
Kord, the subscription-based streaming service to offer music superfans access to stems, has launched its 100th track to work on, and a new sub-label, Surrender To Experiential Music, aka STEM. (Kord)
Spotify is planning to implement a new royalty model that would require songs to reach a minimum number of streams before triggering a payout. (MBW)

ISSUE: 24 Oct 2023

Dance music label Spinnin' Records is offering electronic music fans 50 mental-health boosting soundscape albums, reworking its expansive catalogue using Endel AI. (RotD)
How Spotify Island on Roblox is leveling up by gamifying sound. (Spotify)
Deezer artist-centric model to enroll ‘leading’ authors society as industry debate continues. (DMN)
Apple Music is now offering ‘a higher royalty value’ for ‘content available in spatial audio,’ a leaked email shows. (DMN)
Universal Music Group and BandLab Technologies announced plans for a relationship concentrated on AI. (RotD)

ISSUE: 17 Oct 2023

Tapaygo and Glownet.com announce strategic partnership to bring new technology to events. (EventIndustryNews)

ISSUE: 10 Oct 2023

Social music creation platform BandLab announced new integrations with beat marketplace Airbit. (RotD)
Spotify’s rumoured “Superpremium” offering could feature 24-bit lossless audio, AI playlist generation tools, advanced mixing tools, additional hours of audiobook listening and a personalised offering called 'Your Sound Capsule'. (TechCrunch)
Spotify is rolling out a big change in terms of how users connect with artists. With the newly debuted artist profile pages, content has been reorganised under three main tabs, including Music, Events and Merch. (Spotify)
Bandcamp United, the union of US-based Bandcamp employees that went public earlier this year, has released a statement after Epic Games sold Bandcamp to Songtradr last week. (Pitchfork) According to the union, staff received an internal announcement from Epic Games saying that Songtradr would offer positions to some but not all existing Bandcamp employees.
The union has launched a petition. (AN)
Songtradr has promised 'fair and equitable' outcome for Bandcamp staff. (MA)

ISSUE: 26 Sep 2023

Niura has developed a pair of earbuds that monitor brain activity and, it claims, can both watch for potential health issues and match music to a user’s mood. (TechCrunch)
Beat marketplace Airbit eliminates commissions, and introduces upgraded free plan and integration with BandLab. (RotD)
After relaunching as a studio for creators, LimeWire acquires BlueWillow, a Midjourney competitor. (TechCrunch)
Sin Titulo Inc. has introduced the [untitled] app that allows producers and musicians to share and organise their unreleased music safely has launched. (DJMag)
Spotify’s long-awaited HiFi tier could finally be getting closer to launch. Code within the Spotify app reveals new details about the “Supremium” tier, which could feature 24-bit lossless audio, the ability to create playlists with AI. (Verge)

ISSUE: 19 Sep 2023

Spotify has officially debuted Daylist, an AI-powered playlist that updates multiple times per day based upon past listening habits. (DMN)
Jkbx goes live, featuring listings to reserve shares in royalties from hits by OneRepublic, Kygo and Diplo, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and more superstars. (MusicAlly)
Deezer & Universal’s new ‘artist-centric’ royalty model is stirring debate in the music industry. (Billboard)
Deezer CEO explains how the new UMG-backed streaming royalties model works. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 12 Sep 2023

Language learning app maker Duolingo officially confirmed the coming launch of its latest product, music lessons via Duolingo Music. (TechCrunch)
SoundCloud is rolling out a TikTok-styled discovery feed with vertical scrolling and short clips from songs to everyone. The company started testing the feature in March. (TechCrunch)
Universal Music Group and Deezer announced the launch of an artist-centric streaming model, designed to better reward the artists. Deezer will launch the model in France, Q4 2023 with additional markets to follow. (RotD)

ISSUE: 29 Aug 2023

BeatStars, the marketplace for buying and selling beats, debuted new membership features including Seeds by Lemonaide, an ethical AI that helps creators generate initial ideas for their tracks. (RotD)
Amuse announced its brand-new AI mastering service, Master Your Music, is available to all Amuse artists via their app. (Medium)

ISSUE: 22 Aug 2023

Sony Music and Triller have officially agreed to conclude their copyright infringement battle concerning Triller’s use of Sony’s music on the platform. (DMN)
YouTube Music has debuted a new vertical video feed focused on music discovery, 'Samples', a 'one-tap way' to discover new music through clips. (DMN)
YouTube has published a first ever set of AI music principles and unveiled the YouTube Music AI Incubator, starting with artists, songwriters and producers from Universal Music Group. (RotD)

ISSUE: 15 Aug 2023

DJ Fresh unveiled his latest venture, Voice-Swap.ai, software which aims to "revolutionise the world of vocal AI" by prioritising artists’ rights and fair compensation for their vocal contributions. (UKF)
Bandcamp adds ‘Listening Parties’ feature for new releases. (Bandcamp)
Snapchat introduces AR lens for Kygo's Ushuaïa Ibiza residency. (EDM)
Instagram will allow users to add music to their photo carousels in order to let them show off their musical taste. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 08 Aug 2023

Twitter/X has assumed control over the @Music handle. (DMN)
Amazon Music has announced a new merch integration with global concert-discovery platform Bandsintown. (MBW)
Spotify has expanded its personalised AI guide DJ to now be available in 50 markets around the world. (Spotify)
TikTok has launched a “global music competition” for unsigned acts. (TikTok) The rules emphasise that all Submissions will “become the property of” TikTok, which is developing a music-creation AI.
Moises.ai, a music AI company with B2B and musician-facing applications, announced the launch of two new features that allow artists, labels, and entertainment professionals to create and detect end-to-end AI-generated voice synthesis. (RotD)
UK-based ticketing platform DICE laid off at least 30 members of staff across creative and marketing during a recent round of redundancies. (RA)
Electronic music-oriented online music store Beatport is raisng its prices for the first time since its launch in 2005. (Beatport) In the UK, general catalogue will be £1.14, new releases £1.30, exclusives £1.86 and lossless fees 75p.

ISSUE: 01 Aug 2023

Muzos, a music application that gamifies the listening experience and encourages the discovery of new music through rewarding engagement, has launched its new music listening rewards service. (RotD)
BeatStars announced a partnership with new ethical AI music startup Lemonaide. (RotD)
Spotify has announced that it’s raising its premium plan prices. (BBC) In the UK the price rises £1pm to £10.99, while Premium Family is up £1pm to £17.99. In the US, the main premium ad-free subscription plan will be increasing from $9.99pm to $10.99. Other changes are Duo (up $2 to $14.99), Family (up $1 to $16.99), and Student (up $1 to $5.99).
Beatport to award $150,000 in grants supporting diversity and equality in dance music. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 25 Jul 2023

DJ Fresh to launch new Voice-Swap AI software ensuring the protection of artists’ voices. (MusicTech)
SoundCloud launched its all-encompassing six-month accelerator program, First on SoundCloud 2023 with selected artists wolfacejoeyy, DJ_Dave, Nitepunk, Sojabrat, and sim0ne. (SoundCloud)
Spotify's Today’s Top Hits playlist will now have a presence on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Threads. (Spotify)
Spotify is to increase the price of individual subscriptions in the US from $9.99 to $10.99. (Variety)
TikTok is launching a new program, called Elevate, that is designed to identify the next wave of rising artists. (TikTok)
Warner Music Group announced a multi-year, multi-product deal which licenses the repertoire of Warner Recorded Music and Warner Chappell Music to TikTok, TikTok Music, CapCut, and TikTok's Commercial Music Library. (RotD)

ISSUE: 18 Jul 2023

With its own catalogue of over 200,000 audio samples, AI-powered music platform Loudly allows users to generate music compositions. (RotD)
Fanhouse, "one of the most prominent startups helping musicians and influencers to make money from their superfans" has been acquired by similar company Passes. (MusicAlly)
Spotify introduces new audience segmentation on Spotify for Artists. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 11 Jul 2023

Threads: 'Almost every influencer will be hopping on it'. (BBC)
Threads, Meta’s Twitter competitor, is now live. (TechCrunch)
Apple has released a major Shazam update that detects plays on TikTok, Instagram & YouTube. (TechCrunch)
SoundCloud partners with Squarespace, Adobe, Discord, and Rap Plug to expand member benefits for Next and Next Pro Artists. (SoundCloud)
After months of speculation, TikTok Music has officially launched, becoming available to fans in Brazil and Indonesia as a replacement for ByteDance’s Resso. (MusicAlly) The majors have licensed their catalogues, as has Merlin.
TikTok has been confirmed as the Official Content Partner of the electronic music festival, Tomorrowland. (RotD)

ISSUE: 04 Jul 2023

Twitter applies reading limit after users report issues with platform. (Guardian)
AI-powered music tagging and search company Cyanite will leverage its AI technology to improve tagging of royalty-free stock video company Pond5’s growing 2m-strong catalogue, which also offers a vast collection of music tracks, sound effects, images, and more. (RotD)
Ticketing platform Dice has launched a new fan feature named Groups, to help fans connect with friends and coordinate going out. (RotD)
Soundcloud tackles what it calls the ‘zero plays problem’ with AI-powered ‘First Fans’ feature. (MBW)
ByteDance has begun testing a “music creation, composition and audio editing” app called Ripple in closed beta in the US. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 27 Jun 2023

Law firm Reed Smith launches guide to AI’s key legal issues. (MusicAlly)
80 EDC Las Vegas 2023 sets are now available on Apple Music. (EDMTunes)
Subscription-based membership platform Patreon has added a free tier and will now enable creators to sell digital products to fans on and off the platform. Patreon’s new tier is free.
A new generation of tastemakers and curators who are emerging on Spotify have the potential to change the way people discover music. (FastCo)
Pioneer DJ introduces support for Beatport Streaming on the CDJ-3000 via latest firmware update. (RotD)

ISSUE: 20 Jun 2023

Tunecore partners with Createsafe using Grimes’ Elf.Tech to facilitate collaboration between AI and self-releasing artists. (RotD)
Amazon Music announced new guests for The Dance UK Show with Girls Don't Sync, including Rudimental, Ewan McVicar, Jazzy and Bou and Charlotte Plank. The livestreamed series is available to watch on the Amazon Music UK channel on Twitch. (RotD)

ISSUE: 13 Jun 2023

Deezer says it has developed technology that allows it to identify and potentially delete songs that clone pop stars' voices. (BBC)
Spotify released its annual Songs of the Summer predictions along with a new Summer Heat Map and a list of summer musical trends. (Spotify) The list includes 'Dance The Night' by Dua Lipa, and 'Miracle' by Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding.
Universal Music Group is talking with SoundCloud about overhauling the way artists are paid, a deal that could help major performers collect more revenue from streaming services. (Bloomberg)
Spotify has sold the music creation app Soundtrap back to its founders five years after the company bought it. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 06 Jun 2023

AI music analysis and recommendation company Cyanite has acquired aptone, an AI-based service which allows music producers to classify and search samples. (RotD)

ISSUE: 30 May 2023

About ten months after axing roughly one-fifth of its global workforce – and ten weeks following Eliah Seton’s start as CEO – SoundCloud has announced plans to cut another 8% of employees. (Variety)
Meta has conducted its latest round of layoffs as part of its ‘Year of Efficiency,’ cutting approximately 6,000 jobs, including Instagram’s Head of Music Partnerships. (DMN)
AI sound wellness company Endel and Universal Music Group announced a relationship to enable artists and labels to create soundscapes for daily activities like sleep, relaxation, and focus by harnessing the power of AI. (RotD)

ISSUE: 23 May 2023

TikTok is testing a new feature that integrates its app directly with music streaming services. (MusicAlly)
OpenAI boss on music and AI-training: ‘Creators deserve control’. (MusicAlly)
YouTube Music appears to be testing cover labels for songs on the service. It’s one of many improvements over the last few months. (DMN)
Spotify has started rolling out DJ, its personalised AI guide, in beta to Premium users across the UK and Ireland. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 16 May 2023

CD Baby is to integrate Cosynd's Copyright Registration API into the CD Baby platform. (RotD)
Turntable LIVE is now bringing artist-hosted listening parties — all on the classic Turntable dancefloor. (DMN)
Google's MusicLM, an ‘experimental AI’ tool that can generate high-fidelity music from text prompts and humming is now available for the public to test out. (MusicAlly)
TikTok has launched #NewMusic Hub, a dedicated space for artists around the world to showcase their new songs in one place. (RotD)

ISSUE: 09 May 2023

Plex’s music player, Plexamp, now works with ChatGPT for playlist creation. (TechCrunch)
Audius, a decentralised music community and discovery platform for artists and their fans, announced that it will enable artists and labels on its platform to opt-in to allow interactions with AI-generated tracks uploaded by other artists and fans. (Medium)
Spotify has reportedly pulled a number of songs created through Boomy and ceased allowing new releases from the AI music platform – albeit because of alleged fake streams as opposed to the way the tracks were made. (MusicAlly)
SoundCloud and Merlin announced a global licensing deal enabling Merlin members and their artists to participate in SoundCloud's Fan-Powered Royalties (FPR) model. (RotD) Through FPR, SoundCloud's first-to-market, user-centric payout model, a share of each listener's subscription or advertising revenue is allocated to the tracks they listen to, rather than their plays being pooled and distributed through the traditional pro-rata model.
SoundCloud will allow creators to tap into data that identifies their most loyal listeners — who they can then direct message through the service. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 02 May 2023

TicketSwap has introduced the FairShare feature, which divides profits from ticket sales equally between the seller and the organiser of the event. (IQ)
YouTube has unveiled two new AI-powered music ad solutions focused on targeting Gen Z. (DMN)
Daniel Ek has indicated that he intends to raise Spotify's pricing in 2023 but the timing will depend on label negotiations and other factors. (DMN)
Dequency has partnered with AI music tagging and recommendation engine Cyanite, with a view to enhancing discovery on its own decentralized music licensing marketplace. (RotD)
TuneCore has partnered with Beatport to enable TuneCore artists to distribute their songs to the platform. (RotD)

ISSUE: 25 Apr 2023

Electronic music network The Tribes launches new content hub Tribes TV to 250 million worldwide. (RotD)
Snap is expanding its partnership with Live Nation to bring AR-focused features to 16 new music festivals, including Wireless, Creamfields North and Leeds Festivals. (DMN)
Soundcloud has partnered with Feature.FM to provide marketing tools for independent artists. (AllAccess)
Spotify's Daniel Ek is lobbying Washington against ‘Apple’s stranglehold’ on App Stores. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 18 Apr 2023

XdMind opens up catalogues to AI-powered music sync in dynamic environments, a potentially lucrative development for IP owners. Adapting to user preferences, the technology selects the best music for video, film, and gaming — auto-modifying tracks to fit into contextual sequences. (DMN)
Sound Credit releases Version 6 – ‘The new standard for transferring music’ aims to resolve the metadata crisis. (DMN)
Turntable LIVE has acquired JQBX, uniting two music-centred social platforms. (RotD)

ISSUE: 11 Apr 2023

YouTube announced that for the first time it will be livestreaming all six stages during both weekends of Coachella. (TechCrunch)
Tidal is rolling out a new feature, called Live, that lets you act as a DJ and allow your friends to listen to your choices. (TechCrunch)
Calvin Harris is TikTok UK's #ElectronicMusic featured artist for April. (RotD)

ISSUE: 04 Apr 2023

Dance UK Weekend Warm Up - a new eight episode bi-weekly livestreamed dance series on the Amazon Music UK channel on Twitch will be hosted by DJ group Girls Don’t Sync. The first guests are Piri McBurnie from Piri & Tommy and Bklava. (RotD)
YouTube announced that it is expanding its Analytics for Artists tool by adding YouTube Shorts-related data to the “Total Reach” metric, which gives artists and their teams an overview of how their music is reaching audiences across YouTube. (YouTube)

ISSUE: 28 Mar 2023

Aslice and promotion platform FATdrop have partnered to pay producers before release date. (DJMag)
Soundation has now made it possible for any company or producer selling beats or sample packs to embed a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) directly into their website. (RotD)
Spotify for Artists has added 'Active Audience', a new metric offering insights into an artist’s listeners who have streamed their music in the last 28 days. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 21 Mar 2023

Bandcamp employees form union, Bandcamp United. (RA)
Amazon Music announced Dance UK Weekend Warm Up with Girls Don't Sync - a new eight episode bi-weekly livestreamed dance series on Twitch dedicated to showcasing and celebrating UK dance music and culture. (RotD)
Universal Music and Deezer confirmed they are working “to develop new methods that holistically reward recording artists and songwriters for the value they create”. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 14 Mar 2023

15% of tracks uploaded to Spotify generate 95% of its royalties. (MusicAlly)
Reports from Spotify's Stream On event. It can be watched in full here.

Ten key takeaways - our top findings from 2022 data. (Spotify)

Five ways Spotify playlists help your songs reach fans around the world. (Spotify)
Spotify reveals more opportunities and features for creators. (Spotify)
Preview music, podcasts, and audiobooks on Spotify Home. (Spotify)
Behind the scenes of Spotify’s new AI DJ. (Spotify)
Smart Shuffle breathes new life iInto your playlists. (Spotify)
Spotify’s new experience inspires deeper discovery and connection. (Spotify)
Spotify takes to the stage: Connecting artists with concertgoers. (Spotify)
Three campaign tools from Spotify for Artists to build your fan base. (Spotify)
Countdown Pages and Spotify Clips create ways for artists to engage their fans with video. (Spotify)
TikTok is now allowing creators to offer “premium content behind a paywall” with a feature called Series. (TikTok) Each Series can feature a maximum of 80 videos, up to 20 minutes apiece. It is only available to select creators at present, and at a cost.
Social music streaming startup Stationhead announced it’s launching a new live commerce tool that allows select artists and hosts to sell digital tracks to fans during livestreaming parties on their stations. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 07 Mar 2023

Music rights and data platform Blokur partners with Reactional Music, the music delivery platform and personalisation engine to help connect the worlds of music and games. (RotD)
Digital music distributor TuneCore has launched royalty splits, with the aim to 'better serve the self-releasing artist community and facilitate seamless collaboration between music creators'. (RotD)
In April of 2021, the EU’s European Commission formally accused Apple of distorting “competition in the music streaming market. Now, amid continued pressure from Spotify and others, the Commission has further narrowed its antitrust probe to focus on App Store rules’ impact on streaming platforms. (Spotify)
Back in 2021, Tidal launched direct-to-artist payments as one component of a far-reaching update. Now, weeks after partnering with Universal Music Group to develop a “new economic model for music streaming,” the Block-owned platform has officially ended the Direct Artist Payouts (DAP) program. (TechCrunch)
B2B streaming company Tuned Global has acquired music tech company Pacemaker and its AI-driven DJ and curation applications. (RotD)

ISSUE: 28 Feb 2023

YouTube Music is introducing a new radio experience that lets users create their own custom stations. (TechCrunch)
Social music creation platform Endlesss has launched the Beat Machine, a beat-making arcade machine. (RotD)
DistroKid unveiled its ‘Mixea’ AI-powered instant mastering service. (Medium - Platform & Stream)
Spotify is debuting DJ, a personalised AI guide 'that knows you and your music taste so well that it can choose what to play for you'. It will deliver a curated lineup of music alongside commentary around the tracks and artists. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 21 Feb 2023

Spotify is said to be launching a TikTok-esque, vertically swiped feed next month. (Bloomberg)
Amazon Music is rivalling Spotify for US listeners, report suggests. (MusicAlly)
Techstars Music has revealed the class of 10 startups chosen for its 2023 accelerator program. (Billboard) Baton, BEEPR, Confetti, Five Mics, Haven, Highly Liquid, HomeRoom, OBEYme, RYLTY and Seed will receive in-person mentorship.
SoundCloud is expanding its artist services business globally by entering into a joint venture with Jax Jones’ and Dan Stacey’s UK-based, dance-focused record label, WUGD (What You Gonna Do) Ltd. (MBW)

ISSUE: 14 Feb 2023

David Guetta replicated Eminem’s voice in a song using Artificial Intelligence. (Variety)
49,000 tracks were uploaded to Spotify on an average day last year, not the 100,000 claimed. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 31 Jan 2023

SoundHound AI announced it has secured $25m in preferred equity financing to strengthen its balance sheet. The company recently laid off 40% of its workforce. (DMN)

ISSUE: 24 Jan 2023

Amazon Music Unlimited is raising its price from $9.99 to $10.99 in the US and £9.99 to £10.99 in the UK in February, with similar prices increases across all of its plans and tiers. (Hypebot)
Spotify is set to have layoffs as soon as this week as the company moves forward with plans to reduce operational expenses. (HR)

ISSUE: 17 Jan 2023

TIDAL is testing a new DJ "sessions" feature (DJMag)

ISSUE: 13 Dec 2022

TikTok UK reported its 2022 Year in Music. (RotD)

ISSUE: 15 Nov 2022

YouTube has surpassed 80 million Music and Premium subscribers globally — how did we get here? (YouTube)
TicketSwap has expanded to the UK, offering customers the opportunity to buy and resell event tickets. (Mixmag)
Amazon Music recently made some changes to how its Amazon Music Prime subscription tier works. But people aren’t happy with the changes. (DMN)
Amazon Music for Artists adds two more merchandise features. (Amazon)
The major labels are reportedly demanding a portion of TikTok’s advertising income as part of licensing talks – even though it has slashed its 2022 revenue target by more than $2bn. (DMN)
Pressure mounts on TikTok over its music royalties payments. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 08 Nov 2022

Techcrunch has discovered newly added references regarding a 'TikTok Music' service in the Resso streaming app, owned by TikTok’s parent ByteDance.
Amazon Music has expanded its offering for Prime members, bringing them a full catalogue of 100m songs and the most top podcasts available ad-free, at no additional cost to their membership. (RotD)

ISSUE: 25 Oct 2022

Mixcloud creators will now be able to upload music tracks between 30 seconds and 15 minutes long, and have them showcased in a separate tab on their profile. (Mixcloud)
Popular chat platform Discord has announced some new features which will be relevant for artists building communities there, as well as for how music is experienced more widely on it. (MusicAlly)
SoundCloud launches an official music bot on the chat community platform Discord, allowing users to discover new artists, play tracks from their library, share playlists, and much more — all without risk of takedown. (DMN)

ISSUE: 18 Oct 2022

SoundCloud has officially launched SoundCloud for Artists (formerly Repost), and it's billed as “an elevated, all-in-one platform for artists to connect with fans and accelerate their careers.” (Verge)
ByteDance is reportedly in talks with the majors about a global expansion into music streaming. (DMN)
Ole Obermann, the global head of music at TikTok and Bytedance, talks about the business and where it’s heading. (TMN) "The idea is that, in the long run, TikTok will be an amazing place to market, promote, discover, even A&R, and then we’ll also have a service where people can actually consume or listen to full length music, in another platform."

ISSUE: 11 Oct 2022

About three months after announcing a high-profile Warner Music Group licensing pact, SoundCloud has unveiled a partnership with London-headquartered collaboration and credits platform Session. (DMN)

ISSUE: 04 Oct 2022

VR concert production company AmazeVR has raised $17m in new investments. (RotD)
Spotify named experimental pop artist Shygirl as its next artist development programme RADAR artist in the UK. (RotD)

ISSUE: 27 Sep 2022

How does search work on Spotify? The answer lies in neural instant search. (Medium)

ISSUE: 20 Sep 2022

Defected has revealed plans to set a 30% minimum for digital royalty rates for any recording artist or producer within the label group. (MusicAlly) The electronic music-focused label has also written off unrecouped debts for all royalty accounts set up more than 10 years ago.
The creator subscription company Patreon is laying off 17% of its staff, and closing its Berlin and Dublin offices. (TechCrunch) The CEO wrote the changes were "to make sure that Patreon continues to be a reliable monetisation tool for creators".

ISSUE: 06 Sep 2022

Spotify is pushing dance music to reflect South Africa. (Forbes)

ISSUE: 30 Aug 2022

Raoul Chatterjee is to exit SoundCloud as VP Content Partnerships and Operations next week. (MBW)
Deezer reported revenue of €219m in the first half of 2022, up 12.1% as reported (+9.9% at constant currency) versus the prior-year period. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 16 Aug 2022

beatBread has expanded its reach by completing a series of white label agreements in North America, Europe and Africa. (RotD)
Deezer plans to expand in Germany via a partnership with broadcaster RTL. (Reuters)
Spotify is testing selling tickets directly to fans with a small number of artists via its app and tickets.spotify.com website. (MusicAlly)
Warner Music Group unveils new licensing deal with Meta — including ‘an expanded revenue sharing model’. (DMN)

ISSUE: 09 Aug 2022

The RA Podcast is now streaming on Apple Music. (RA)
Ticketmaster and TikTok have partnered to give users a new way to discover and purchase event tickets. (TechCrunch)
ByteDance may be preparing for a global launch of TikTok Music service, according to trademarks filed in several countries. All of the trademark filings include similar text about the application’s functionality of listening to music, creating playlists, commenting on songs and participating in karaoke. (TechCrunch)
Soundcloud is preparing to lay off up to 20% of its global workforce due to "the challenging economic climate and financial market headwinds". (Variety)

ISSUE: 02 Aug 2022

YouTube announced its Foundry Class of 2022, which includes TSHA. (RotD)
Snap has announced the Snapchat Sounds Creator Fund, which will provide monthly grants of up to $100,000 to artists who are distributing music on Snapchat via DistroKid. The program is currently capped at 20 songs; Snap says it will provide grants of $5,000 per song to artists, based on the level of engagement Snapchat users have with the music. (Variety)
TikTok has added a “Pre-Release” feature to its SoundOn distribution service, and the new option will enable artists to release clips of songs to the short-form app before the tracks debut on other platforms. (DMN)

ISSUE: 26 Jul 2022

About three months after celebrating the anniversary of its fan-powered royalty model, SoundCloud has officially signed a global licensing deal with Warner Music Group. Under the pact, WMG will become the first major label to support payouts based upon actual listening as opposed to a portion of total streams. (DMN)
Meta is launching 'Music Revenue Sharing' to allow video creators to include licensed music in their videos on Facebook and earn a share of in-stream ad revenue. The company says this opens up a new way for both creators and music rights holders to earn money. Although creators have been able to use licensed music in videos, they haven’t been able to monetise them until now. (Variety)

ISSUE: 19 Jul 2022

Bluetooth is getting a major technological upgrade, including sound quality. (RA)

ISSUE: 12 Jul 2022

Event ticketing company SeatlabNFT announced a £1m Event Creator Fund to help artists and event organisers with the cost of running live events. (RotD)
At the one year anniversary of the global Shorts launch, YouTube announced the short-form videos are generating 30bn views per day, up 400% from one year ago, with 1.5bn monthly logged in users consuming them. (YouTube)
Some artists are having their work taken down in bad faith by rival musicians; a problem that's particularly hard to counter on Spotify. (TorrentFreak)

ISSUE: 05 Jul 2022

Chartmetric is now expanding into an increasingly data-driven arena: artist branding. (DMN)
Mixcloud announced that users of its free tier will be able to rewind while listening to mixes and radio shows. It has also added over 200 new genres to tag music, along with the option to give and receive payments. (Mixcloud)

ISSUE: 28 Jun 2022

Band Theme aims to offer a professional and affordable website builder. (RotD)
Spotify is developing a new feature called Community that would allow mobile users to see what sort of music their friends are streaming in real time as well as what playlists they’ve recently updated in a dedicated place in the app. (TechCrunch)
Spotify has debuted its revamped Live Events Feed, an ‘in-app destination where you can discover all the live events in your local area’. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 21 Jun 2022

Over one million music streaming subscriptions have been cancelled in the UK due to the cost of living. (Mixmag)
Apple Music has added over 50-plus sets from this year's EDC Las Vegas to the service. (DA)

ISSUE: 14 Jun 2022

Independent digital music distributor TuneCore announced its biggest change since launching 16 years ago — its Unlimited Release Pricing Plans. (RotD) Self-releasing artists can choose from four plans, including unlimited song uploads and expanded pricing tiers.
TikTok has launched #ElectronicMusic, the second in a series of evergreen Genre Hashtags to be placed centre stage on TikTok UK. (TikTok)
One month ago, Spotify started allowing certain artists to plug NFTs on their profiles. Now, it is gauging fan responses to the pilot, including via paid interviews, and a wider rollout could be next. (DMN)
During last week’s Investor Day CEO Daniel Ek announced that Spotify would be aggressively expanding its selection of audiobooks as its third vertical within its main app alongside music and podcast. (TechCrunch, Spotify) Spotify today has over 4m podcasts, up from 500,000 in 2019. The company said it’s on track to top 1bn users by 2030 with the long-term forecast to achieve $100bn in revenue over the next decade, a 40% gross margin and a 20% operating margin.
Daniel Ek’s Investor Day 2022 Remarks. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 07 Jun 2022

Fanimal has announced a $4 million funding round and plans "to make ticket buying a more social and risk-averse experience". (DMN)
Dice CEO Phil Hutcheon talks live music habits, hybrid tours and Germany. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 31 May 2022

ArtistFirst Technology, the creator of FanTiger, has announced the completion of a $5.5 million seed funding round. (DMN)
Odesa-based music platform Kiiberborea has launched a streaming mix series for Ukrainian aid. (DJMag)

ISSUE: 24 May 2022

Epic Games and Google sign a temporary agreement to keep Bandcamp on the Play Store. (DMN)
TikTok has launched new tools that it says will help creators better attribute original creators, including a tool that enables users to tag creators in the video’s caption, rather than just in the comments or description. (TechCrunch)
Universal Music owned Spinnup DIY distribution service has given artists two months to move music to another distributor as it transitions to an invite only artist discovery and distribution platform. (Hypebot)
Snapchat has launched four augmented reality lenses at EDC Las Vegas. (EDM)

ISSUE: 17 May 2022

Apple has announced that it is discontinuing its original music player, the iPod Touch. The firm says it will remain available to buy "while stocks last". (BBC)
Venture Capital group Hivemind has announced the acquisition of the Napster music streaming platform, "to one again revolutionise the music industry by bringing blockchain and web3 to artists and fans”. (DMN)
Snapchat is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit from SUISA (the Cooperative Society of Music Authors and Publishers in Switzerland). “Snap’s stance is that it does not use any songs from SUISA Digital’s repertoire. This statement is false. A large number of works in SUISA Digital’s repertoire is available on the Snapchat platform and is used by users without Snap having acquired a licence from SUISA Digital.” (DMN)

ISSUE: 10 May 2022

Online beats marketplace Beatopia has launched, featuring a subscription model and a single unlimited license. (RotD)
UnitedMasters has launched Beat Exchange, a curated marketplace to buy and sell beats. (MBW)
Splice launches AI-powered music creation platform as AI music continues to find its place. (MusicAlly)
SoundCloud has acquired AI-powered music-analysis platform Musiio, to “amplify SoundCloud’s existing music intelligence capabilities”. (TechCrunch)
Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek said “I’ve always been vocal about my strong belief in Spotify and what we are building. So I am putting that belief into action this week by investing $50m in $SPOT. I believe our best days are ahead…”. (TechCrunch)
Spotify announced it will become the first music streaming brand to have an official presence within Roblox, with the launch of 'Spotify Island', a place where artists and fans will gather to play interactive quests, unlock exclusive content and buy artist merchandise. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 03 May 2022

RCRDSHP has created artist and label-centered Storefronts. (DT)
Snap is partnering with Live Nation to enhance the experience of going to concerts and festivals via its AR technology. (TechCrunch)
SoundCloud will match 100% of the streaming royalties generated on its platform for independent creators on 29 April, doubling the artist’s payout. (SoundCloud)
Despite losing 1.5m users in Russia, Spotify’s premium subscribers grew 15% year-on-year in Q1 2022 to reach 182m. Ad-supported users grew 21% to reach 252m. (TechCrunch) Total monthly active users were up 19% year-on-year to a record 422m. Revenue rose 24% to reach €2.66bn. Average revenue per user (ARPU) was €4.38, down from last quarter’s €4.40.

ISSUE: 26 Apr 2022

Beatopia offers a place for artists to find beats, claiming an affordable subscription model and a single standardised license. (RotD)
Jonathan Vlassopulos is officially leaving his role as Head of Music at Roblox. (DMN)
Apple Music is launching DJ mixes in spatial audio, giving fans a new way to experience these mixes. (DMN) The first DJ partner is Detroit techno pioneer, Jeff Mills.

ISSUE: 19 Apr 2022

Apple faces an unstated additional EU antitrust charge in an investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify. (Reuters)
TikTok has gone live with its own augmented reality (AR) development platform called Effect House, allowing creators to build AR effects for use in its app. (TechCrunch)
Spotify launches ‘Spotify Live’ with Swedish House Mafia album release party. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 12 Apr 2022

Berlin-based sound wellness company Endel has raised $15m to further develop its app which creates soundscapes that are designed to help people relax, focus and sleep better. (TechCrunch)
From 5 May, Amazon Prime subscribers will have to pay $8.99 (£8.99) a month or $89 (£89) a year for access to Music Unlimited. The price of the single-device plan — which lets you listen to the full library but only from a single Echo or Fire TV device — is also increasing to $4.99 (£4.99) a month. (Verge)
Spotify: Dispatches from our 2021 Equity & Impact Report: Equity, Impact.

ISSUE: 05 Apr 2022

Following the reemerging news around 'fake artists' on Spotify, an anonymous source detailed 'every angle of what’s currently going on'. (MBW)
A Swedish newspaper reported that Firefly Entertainment was allegedly associated with an array of “fake” artist profiles on Spotify – and that the indie label had cashed in on millions of streams, in part by placing the accounts’ tracks on first-party playlists. Now, the Swedish Musicians’ Union is calling on Spotify to launch a full-scale investigation. (DMN)
DVS1's new service Aslice asks DJs to donate a percentage of their fees to the artists whose music they play. Will it revolutionise how producers are paid in electronic music? (DJMag)

ISSUE: 29 Mar 2022

Shazam has added new concert discovery features, allowing users to see information and local tickets on sale, and an artists’ Shazam page to see more tour dates, times, and locations of upcoming events. (DMN)
Spotify refreshed its Loud & Clear website with new figures, with the continued aim of increasing transparency around its payouts to the music industry. (Variety, BBC, MusicAlly)
Spotify’s top 10 takeaways on the economics of music streaming and 2021 royalty data. (Spotify)
MBW’s Talking Trends podcast pointed out “Let that debate rage. But let it rage with the key information that the vast majority of artists on Spotify – 5.4 million, or more than two thirds of all acts on the platform – haven’t even released enough tracks to fill an album.”
Daniel Ek tweeted "Last year, if there was one big takeaway, I’d say it was this: Not only is streaming driving record revenues for the music industry, but there are also more artists sharing in that success than ever before. And this year’s numbers reveal further meaningful progress"

ISSUE: 22 Mar 2022

Spotify is drawing up plans to add blockchain technology and NFTs to its service. (FT)
Believe-owned digital distribution platform TuneCore has been picked as its distribution partner for TikTok's SoundOn. (MBW)

ISSUE: 15 Mar 2022

LimeWire, formerly known for peer-to-peer file sharing, is relaunching in May as a mainstream marketplace for digital collectibles. (RotD)
FTX Europe will help Tomorrowland explore Web3 and blockchain tech including NFTs, events in the metaverse and cryptocurrency payments. (IQ)
Insomniac and Unity reveal metaverse partnership. (IQ)
TikTok has launched SoundOn, an all-in-one platform for music marketing and distribution. (RotD) SoundOn will pay out 100% of royalties to music creators in the first year and 90% after that and provide a range of promotional tools and support. It launches for artists in the US, the UK, Brazil, and Indonesia.

ISSUE: 08 Mar 2022

Music collectibles platform RCRDSHP has paid out more than $515,000 to creators from primary sales in the six months since its launch in August 2021. (RotD)
Amazon Music adds Pandora-style Spotlight artist voice messages. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 22 Feb 2022

DIY digital music distributor TuneCore has partnered with newly launched mobile music discovery platform Fwaygo to provide artists with digital music distribution. (PRNewswire)
Universal Music Group announced NFT platform Curio will serve as a dedicated global outlet for future officially licensed NFT projects from UMG’s record labels, operating companies and recording artists worldwide. (RotD)
Ticketmaster and Snapchat partner on a new concert discovery experience within the Snapchat app, rolling out in 20-plus markets. (TechCrunch)
Peloton adds Pete Tong workouts and mulls third-party apps. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 15 Feb 2022

PinkPantheress exclusively performed a BRITs VIP party on Roblox last Friday. (Mixmag)
Linktree signs deals with Bandsintown, Audiomack, SoundCloud and Community. (MusicAlly)
To rival TikTok and Instagram, YouTube plans to double down on more creator tools, including NFTs, live shopping and more video effects. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 08 Feb 2022

David Guetta, as an avatar, performed a DJ set on the Roblox platform this past weekend. (RotD)
NFT website, Hitpiece, blasted for selling music without the artist's permission. (EDMTunes)

ISSUE: 01 Feb 2022

Spotify launched its 'Made to Be Found' within the Spotify for Artists analytics dashboard, where artists and their teams can see how three discovery methods, ‘Made by Editors’, ‘Made for You’ and ‘Made by You’, break down across their catalogue. (Spotify)
Steve Aoki has launched the A0K1VERSE, an ecosystem bridging real-world experiences with web 2.0 and web3 by rewarding NFT collectors and creating new experiences for members. (TMU)

ISSUE: 25 Jan 2022

SoundCloud and music: ‘It’s about watching artists and fans connect’. (MusicAlly)
TikTok is testing support for paid subscriptions. (TechCrunch)
Meta is working on plans to allow users to create, display and sell NFTs. (TechCrunch)
Steve Angello is placing a bet on the future of music rights and throwing his weight behind anotherblock, a Swedish startup dedicated to expanding public access to royalty investing by way of NFTs. (Magnetic)

ISSUE: 18 Jan 2022

Virtual reality concert platform AmazeVR has secured $15m funding for hiring additional headcount. (TechCrunch)
Mapping the NFT revolution: market trends, trade networks, and visual features. (Nature) A study of 6.1m NFT trades finds the top 10% of traders account for 85% of transactions and trade at least once 97% of all assets. 10% of buyer–seller pairs have the same volume as the remaining 90%.

ISSUE: 21 Dec 2021

Mixhalo, which offers wireless networking technology that delivers high-quality audio in real-time to attendees at live events, has raised $24m. (TechCrunch)
Cloud-connected music making software Endlesss is now free to use for everyone.
Music credits database Jaxsta and Repost, the distribution and creator services division of SoundCloud, have launched a commercial data access integration. (SoundCloud)
Original music sampling service Tracklib has a partnership with Repost, the distribution and creator services division of SoundCloud, to make its professional marketing and monetisation service a preferred distributor on Tracklib. (RotD)
TikTok is testing a live streaming desktop app to rival Twitch – TikTok Live Studio. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 14 Dec 2021

A review of the year on TikTok, including 'The Playlist'. (TikTok)
The team behind HE.SHE.THEY. have launched a new social networking app and podcast. (DJMag)
Richie Hawtin, deadmau5 join MODA DAO for releasing and licensing music, streaming NFTs. (RA)

ISSUE: 07 Dec 2021

VRJAM launches public token sale to revolutionize metaverse music experiences. (EDM)

ISSUE: 23 Nov 2021

The NFT Bay links to a 19.5 Terabyte collection of 'all NFTs' on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. (TorrentFreak)
Spotify has taken the shuffle button off all album pages so tracks default to play in the artist's own order. (BBC)
Lyrics are now available to all Spotify Free and Premium users globally across iOS and Android devices, desktop, some gaming consoles and TV, via a partnership with Musixmatch. (Spotify)
Deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin have joined forces with a team of game developers and technologists to create a brand new game: PIXELYNX. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 16 Nov 2021

Sven Väth releases first-ever NFT on music-focused platform Atlanticus. (GrooveCartel)
deadmau5 has thrown his weight behind MODA DAO, a decentralized network designed to democratize the music industry in the metaverse. (EDM)
Todd McFarlane and musician Steve Aoki are teaming up to launch OddKey, new NFT marketplace they say will put artists in control of their digital work and allow fans to resell NFTs for little cost. (Billboard)
Spotify has launched a new Charts destination website that includes new Genre and Local charts, in addition to a wealth of data and tools to give artists more opportunities to celebrate their milestones. (RotD)

ISSUE: 09 Nov 2021

Music creation firm BandLab has acquired ReverbNation, a company historically focused on providing services for independent artists. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 02 Nov 2021

Splice, a marketplace for music creators, and SoundCloud have partnered to launch a new program designed to promote emerging music creators. (Variety)
TikTok is testing a new in-app tipping feature on its platform that would allow creators to accept money from fans outside of TikTok LIVE streams, where gifting is already supported. (TechCrunch)
Amazon Music For Artists has launched a New Release Pitch Tool giving artists and their teams the ability to submit new releases to officially curated Amazon playlists and stations. (Amazon)
Steve Aoki joins Sensorium Galaxy for exclusive VR performances. (EDM)
Deadmau5 has developed a permanent virtual residency in Core, a new user-generated gaming platform by developer Manticore Games. (IQ)

ISSUE: 26 Oct 2021

Mixcloud Pro users can now automatically promote their live streams to Facebook and Twitch. (Magnetic)
Ticket Fairy unveils NFT functionality at Universe.xyz and Monstercat’s NFT.NYC event. (NFTEvening)
Instagram is adding ‘Collabs,’ new music features for Reels, desktop posting and more. (TechCrunch)
Spotify partners with Ali Tamposi and Tamar Kaprelian to launch Song Start, Spotify for Artists' new music education platform, featuring videos, podcasts and written content about the ins and outs of songwriting. (Billboard)
Spotify is partnering with e-commerce giant Shopify as part of a new beta integration to allow artists to sell merchandise directly through the service. (RotD) The integration will only be visible to users in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand initially.

ISSUE: 19 Oct 2021

Audioshake announced the completion of a $2m seed funding round for its on-demand AI-driven platform which deconstructs songs into their parts (stems) so that they can be monetised for new. (Hypebot)
How NFTs will revolutionise the music industry. (Soundfly)
Coinbase and music distributor UnitedMasters have partnered to pay artists in cryptocurrency for their music, allowing them to "take part in a more equitable, decentralised and transparent economic system." (BI)
RCRDSHP hires electronic music industry veteran Peter Wohelski (ex-Beatport and Symphonic Distribution). (RotD)
Apple announced the Apple Music Voice Plan, a subscription tier for Apple Music, offering the catalogue of 90m songs through Siri for £4.99pm. (RotD, Verge) It launches this autumn in 17 countries, including the UK.

ISSUE: 12 Oct 2021

A huge cache of source code repositories, creator payouts and other internal data from Twitch has been published online after a data breach. (TechCrunch)
Vertigo, the social listening app, has launched Artist Lounges, virtual rooms where artists and fans can listen, interact, and bond over streaming tracks and live audio/video. (RotD)
Opulous, the blockchain platform from the founders of Ditto Music, has teamed up with Lil Pump and DJ and producer KSHMR to unlock music royalty offerings for the masses through investment platform Republic. (RotD)
TikTok announced new partnerships that will make it easier for brands of all sizes to tap into music and sound on TikTok. The Sound Partners announced were KARM, MassiveMusic, and The Elements Music to create bespoke tracks for their campaigns, and with Epidemic Sound, Songtradr, and UnitedMasters to license music from their catalogues. (TikTok)

ISSUE: 05 Oct 2021

Coinbase to showcase iconic music festival moments at EDC via onsite NFT galleries. (EDM)
Deadmau5 has released a new music video for his new single, created entirely by fans in Core Games, the platform for user-created interactive experiences. (NME)
TikTok has lined up its own NFT drop, leveraging content from some of its top creators, including Lil Nas X, Grimes and Bella Poarch. (TechCrunch)
Spotify may withhold royalties for ‘artificial streams’. (MusicAlly)
The Amsterdam Dance Event website will host a Deezer music widget with an exclusive ‘Sounds of ADE’ playlist. (RotD)
DJs in eight markets around the world, including the UK, are sharing their own mixed-music content, in addition to compilations directly on Spotify through its idea-testing DJ Mixes. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 28 Sep 2021

Biscuits n Groovy is a new platform for superfans to stream and collect exclusive music, directly supporting their favourite artists. (P&S)
Roblox unveiled its 'Listening Party' feature, to afford artists and labels “a unique and creative way to engage and attract millions of fans and unlock new commercial opportunities in the metaverse”. (DMN)

ISSUE: 21 Sep 2021

Don Diablo next NFT drop, called Hexhibit III, is a digital collectible that will come with a large physical structure. (EDM)
Hipworth launched DJEnerate NFT, a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs from the electronic music world. (RotD)
RCRDSHP, a digital collectibles platform for electronic music, announced the close of its first investment round. (RotD)
The Chainsmokers, Disclosure, and Steve Aoki are among artists to have backed Blockchain-based streaming service Audius in a $5 million funding round. (EDM)

ISSUE: 14 Sep 2021

Apple Music has officially launched its DJ mix technology that uses technology from Shazam to ID (and pay) rights holders. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 07 Sep 2021

Artify Music set to combine streaming, NFTs and album resales. (MusicAlly)
YouTube has passed the 50m subscribers to YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, including triallists. (Variety)
Social music creation platform BandLab is rolling out a set of services for key creators: BandLab Subscriptions will allow fans to gain access to exclusive tracks, videos, and posts from their favourite music makers, and BandLab Distribution will allow creators to distribute their tracks to leading music services worldwide. (RotD)

ISSUE: 31 Aug 2021

Curated by deadmau5 himself, Oberhasli is a virtual reality game that will contain an ever-evolving world of music, environments, and other interactive content for players. (EDM)

ISSUE: 24 Aug 2021

Performance platform Serenade enters the UK market and adds NFTs to its inventory of must-have music collectibles, including new and unreleased performances, to music, documentary footage, rare visuals and more. (RotD)

ISSUE: 17 Aug 2021

Aimi recruits Black Loops, Shanti Celeste, Roska, and more for AI-powered endless listening app. (DJMag)
Soundrop, the Downtown Music Holdings-owned music distribution service made for social video creators, is making it simpler to distribute, promote, and monetise covers and song collaborations. (RotD)

ISSUE: 10 Aug 2021

Horizon partners with Timbaland's Beatclub to give fans ability to own and trade music shares and NFTs from award-winning producers and songwriters. (AccessWire)
Live streaming app, LIVIT, has announced the Live Lounge Concert Series with events from Kygo's Palm Tree Records, VASSY and more. (PRNewswire)
Spotify is testing a less restrictive ad-supported tier called Spotify Plus for $0.99 per month. (Verge)

ISSUE: 03 Aug 2021

Spotify added 7m premium subscribers and 2m ad-supported accounts during Q2 2021, making total monthly active users (MAU) 365m, beneath 'guidance range and forecast'. (Spotify)
Toshiba TV launched the Twitch app to its platform in partnership with Defected Records – giving viewers access to stream six magazine shows from its festival in Croatia, Defected Croatia. (RotD)

ISSUE: 27 Jul 2021

Fractal Fantasy has opened a virtual club within its metaverse, ready to welcome player avatars for events. (DJMag)

ISSUE: 20 Jul 2021

Triller is launching a global search for a full-time Resident DJ, with a $1m annual salary. (PRNewswire)
Charlotte de Witte has been confirmed to headline a series of performances in PRISM, a world within the Sensorium Galaxy metaverse. (EDM)
Spotify launched its third volume of Culture Next, the Annual Global Culture and Trends Report, designed to give advertisers an inside look into what inspires and motivates millennials and Gen Zs. (RotD)

ISSUE: 13 Jul 2021

Roc Nation has purchased Sensorium Corporation's SENSO tokens, the in-platform currency of Sensorium Galaxy — a digital metaverse. (RotD)
Video game platform Roblox announced it has partnered with Sony Music Entertainment on a deal that will allow the two companies to work together to create music experiences for the Roblox community. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 06 Jul 2021

Spotify is reportedly considering expanding into events, reportedly to leverage the data it has to help musicians plan successful concerts. In this way, the company is said to believe it can better show those artists it has invested in their careers. (Engadget)
Airbit, an online hub and marketplace for beatmakers, has collected and distributed more than $2.5m in YouTube-generated revenue to producers for the first half of 2021. (RotD)

ISSUE: 29 Jun 2021

TuneCore and parent company Believe revealed that the ongoing Signed By program between the two companies has benefitted over 340 artists and labels around the world. Artists who release their music through TuneCore and are identified as rising stars, are eligible to be signed by Believe. (PRWeb)
Audio streaming platform Beatstream fully launches with new partnerships and features. (RotD)
YouTube won its latest copyright-infringement challenge after Europe's top court said online platforms are not liable for users uploading unauthorised works unless the platforms failed to take quick action to remove or block access to the content. (Reuters)
YouTube is about to change its terms of service, and artists aren’t going to like it. (Music3.0) Changes include YouTube’s right to monetise and royalty payments and US tax withholding.

ISSUE: 22 Jun 2021

Deezer has launched 'Deezer for Creators', a smart analytics tool to monitor streaming data and performance on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, along with charts broken down by categories including platform, countries, gender and top playlists. (RotD)
Apple Music has revamped its Apple Music for Artists site to include information on its spatial audio format, plus Shazam charts and a 30-second clip-tweeting tool. (Apple)
Shazam has hit two new milestones, as users fire off one billion Shazams each month and all-time 'tags' pass 50 billion. (IO)
Amazon Music is getting a new DJ mode to bring the feel of live radio to music streaming. (P&S)
Spotify has launched Greenroom, a mobile app that allows users worldwide to join or host live audio rooms, and optionally turn those conversations into podcasts. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 11 Jun 2021

Apple Music's spatial audio is "sometimes amazing but mostly inconsistent". (Verge)
Apple Music subscribers can now search for record labels using the top search bar of the application and explore their biggest historical releases, as well as new releases, signings and a biography on their history or influences. (TMN)
Turntable returns as an all-new platform designed for social networking with music fans. (RotD)
Carl Craig, Steffi, Surgeon, Matthew Dear and more will broadcast live via a new audio platform called Blast Radio. (RA)
Music research and analytics platform Viberate has published an open call to all musicians who might be interested in what they call “new music economy”. They plan to test whether the NFT craze is more than just a fad, and whether the music community is indeed ready to start managing bookings and fan engagements with the help of big data insights and tokenized contracts. (FinanceMagnetes)
NFTs shift power to artists as the music business evolves. (Bloomberg)

ISSUE: 04 Jun 2021

Discotech app aims to provide partygoers with real-time resources in a post-pandemic world. (DA)
Monad: a better deal for artists? (iDJ) New artist-oriented streaming service launches
Amnesia Ibiza in collaboration with Hipworth, the digital artist behind the famous Carl Cox portrait, and Heart of Bone, a boutique jewellery workshop, will be the First Ibiza brand to launch a collection of NFT digital artworks. (RotD)
Music NFT and DeFi platform Opulous has announced plans to create and release NFT collectibles on the Binance NFT Marketplace. (RotD)
Blond:ish is releasing a series of eco-friendly 'Chakratastic' NFTs on new marketplace called Metaplex, which is built on Solana's Proof of Stake blockchain. The blockchain is seen as far more sustainable than popular blockchains solutions used for NFTs. (Yahoo)
Throughout Pride Month, Spotify is encouraging the queer community to "make noise, make their presence known, and make their own rules with a single rallying cry: Claim Your Space". (Spotify) Apple Music has unveiled a Pride page to shine a light on the LGBTQ+ community. (RotD) Amazon Music will debut new Amazon Original songs, playlists, charitable contributions, live streams, Alexa features, music videos, and more from LGBTQIA+ artists. (RotD) YouTube is hosting a month-long series of celebrations. (YouTube) Deezer has launched its 'Queer Culture' channel, featuring music, podcasts and audiobooks from the queer community and to bring attention to queer artists and creators. (RotD)
In a blog post from Lyor Cohen, YouTube announced it has generated $4bn for artists, songwriters and rights-holders on YouTube in the last 12 months. Over 30% of came from user generated content. It noted more paid members were added in Q1 of 2021 than in any other quarter in YouTube's history, and 2+bn users watched music videos monthly. The post also highlighted features including direct-to-fan products such as ticketing, merch, memberships, paid digital goods and virtual ticketed events. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 28 May 2021

Spotify launched its Fresh Finds family of playlists in 2016, using data from music blogs and tastemakers’ listening. The service is now expanding into a 'partnership program' for independent artists, offering them mentorship, marketing and training in how to use various artist tools. (MusicAlly, Spotify)
Turntable.fm, the social platform that let people collaboratively build and perform DJ sets shut down in 2013, but has now raised $7.5m for its return. (TechCrunch)
BT unveils 24-hour crypto artwork. (Coindesk)
Mathame announce debut NFT collection, Angel Alphabet, The First Metamyth. On the day of the NFT release fans will be invited to experience Mathame's OVR live performance where they will be presenting the full collection and playing a set in a unique virtual world. (RotD)
Richie Hawtin and Matthew Hawtin release a collaborative NFT with programmable art platform Async Art. (RotD)

ISSUE: 21 May 2021

Paul Oakenfold and Runway unleash a world’s first in 3D NFT. (PRNewswire)
Monstercat returns for its second-ever NFT drop this week, featuring work from comic artist José Delbo and Grammy-nominated producer RAC. The collections of NFTs, called Ikon and Odyssey, will be sold via marketplace Nifty Gateway. (Variety)
Apple Music has added lossless mode to its streaming catalogue at no extra cost. (DJMag)
Amazon Music announced its high-quality streaming tier, Amazon Music HD, will be available to all eligible Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost. (TechCrunch)
‘Livestreaming has not been a growth category: it’s been an exploitation category’. (MusicAlly)
Ticketed events, label partnerships and beat battles: How Discord wants to conquer music. (Protocol)
A new online DJ academy app, SeeDJ, has launched. It is a subscription-based "digital acceleration" app that promises to put emerging DJ talent in "direct contact with the leading labels and management agencies, offers downloadable resources, tools for production, feedback from established DJs and many more essentials tips that will help you elevate your game." (DJMag)

ISSUE: 14 May 2021

Russ Tannen has been promoted to President at ticketing platform Dice, as the company expands its presence in New York. (CA)
CEO Michael Rapino says Live Nation is “deep in exploration” of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. (DMN) He also said “You can mint a ticket and mint an NFT right on top of a Ticketmaster platform and deliver it how you want.”

ISSUE: 07 May 2021

Previously known as Black Bandcamp, Black Artist Database (B.A.D.) has relaunched as a significantly expanded platform, with a number of new initiatives to help people search for, contact and directly support Black artists and Black-owned businesses in the music sector such as record labels. (DJMag)
Warner Music Group announced a partnership with and investment in virtual entertainment company Wave. (RotD) Wave will develop virtual performances, experiences, and monetisation opportunities for WMG’s global roster.

ISSUE: 23 Apr 2021

Spotify has released 'Trouble' by Aluna ft. Michael Brun & Alicai Harley as its third mint Singles release. (Cultr)
The audiovisual "Hypnocurrency" NFT drop contains snippets of deadmau5 and REZZ's upcoming song of the same name. (EDM)
Apple Music’s payment rate for artists and labels is a penny per stream on average, at least double what Spotify pays artists, according to a letter from the company. (9to5Mac, DMN, TechCrunch)
Why it’s misleading to say ‘Apple Music pays twice as much per stream as Spotify’. (Variety)
Richie Hawtin teams up with Endel to create AI-powered soundscape, Deeper Focus. (MusicTech)

ISSUE: 16 Apr 2021

Tribe XR partners with AlphaTheta Corporation to bring Pioneer DJ to Virtual Reality. (RotD)
Inflyte has added Spotify and Apple Music Pre-Saves to their promo platform. (DT)
Since the start of 2021 alone, Spotify has seen almost 80,000 new playlists created with ‘Dance’ in the title, and in turn, over 143m hours of dance music have been streamed already in 2021. (RotD) Bicep launched a guest takeover on the alternative electronic music playlist Altar.
Bitcoin activist artist Cryptograffiti has launched a new micropayment plugin designed to generate new cryptocurrency revenue streams for DJs and music producers. (EDM)
Endel, creator of personalized sound environments with over two million users, has partnered with electronic producer and DJ Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) to release their AI-powered soundscape “Deeper Focus". (Flaunt)
Don Diablo sold the first-ever hour-long concert NFT for 600 Ethereum or the equivalent of around $1.2 million. (DJMag)
Decentralised music streaming service Audius has launched a ‘collectibles’ feature for musicians and fans alike to show the NFTs that they have created or bought elsewhere. (MusicAlly)
Pixelynx launches with the line "creating a portal into the metaverse by helping brands and creators launch digital collectibles, gaming partnerships and virtual worlds." Co-founders include Joel Zimmerman (deadmau5) and Richie Hawtin (Plastikman). (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 09 Apr 2021

French livestream platform Cercle, known for promoting live performances featuring world-famous DJs, now has DJ mixes and live-sets available exclusively on Apple Music. (RotD)
Don Diablo has announced the first-ever full-concert NFT. The one-hour DJ set combines sci-fi style visuals with 3D rendered sets and will be available to bid on via NFT auction site SuperRare from 9 April. (DJMag)
NFT price crash stirs debate on whether stimulus-led fad is over. (Bloomberg)
‘Silent crash’ as price floors collapse across NFT space. (CoinTelegraph)

ISSUE: 01 Apr 2021

Pre-release promo service Inflyte announced the addition of pre-saves for Spotify and Apple Music for its promo platform, with the addition of Inflyte Tastemaker Pre-saves, combining promo and pre-save into an all-in-one solution for labels. (MusicIs4Lovers)
Spotify is rolling out a new look on the desktop, with the launch of a redesigned app for both Mac and Windows, as well as an updated web app. The changes, which will be made available to all global users, focus on improving the navigation and providing users with access to new controls and features across playlists, search, radio, their queue, library and more. (TechCrunch, Spotify)
Spotify is to acquire Betty Labs, the company behind the Locker Room, which focuses on live audio. (TechCrunch, Variety, Spotify) Spotify said it would “evolve and expand Locker Room into an enhanced live audio experience for a wider range of creators and fans,” with forthcoming content including “a range of sports, music, and cultural programming, as well as a host of interactive features that enable creators to connect with audiences in real time.”
Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt has produced a series of digital artworks that will be issued as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on cryptocurrency-based art marketplace Foundation. (RA)
The audio engineering forum Gearslutz is changing its name to Gearspace in April. (RA)

ISSUE: 26 Mar 2021

Wave, the virtual events company where artists perform as avatars, has announced its next event: "Total Fiasco" on 1 April, where electronic DJ and producer Dillon Francis will play hits from across his catalogue and fans can 'Gift' dancing avocados and more. (Billboard)
VRJAM is launching 5th Dimension, a virtual reality music venue and Twitch channel that offers artists and fans new possibilities for the creation of virtual live events. (RotD)
Spotify’s new website Loud & Clear promises ‘more clarity’ on streaming economy. (MusicAlly) Among many headlines, the top 500 artists last year generated around $1.85bn in royalties – 37% of its overall payouts.
Daniel Ek discusses the economics of music streaming. (Spotify)
XLR8R announces xDai as its NFT Blockchain. (XLR8R)
HNTR to release HNTR x No Neon Genesis NFT collection later this month. (DA)
Calvin Harris is to drop his 'TECHNOFISH' NFT, a collaboration with longtime creative partner Emil Nava, on 29 March on Nifty Gateway. (EDM.com)

ISSUE: 19 Mar 2021

A new exhibit from Google and YouTube titled "Music, Makers & Machines," takes viewers on a walk through the history of electronic music from genesis to present day. (EDM.com)
A new enhanced Spotify playlist celebrating the 20th anniversary of Daft Punk's 'Discovery' features unseen footage and interview snippets. (DJMag)
Musicians and music workers have taken part in protests at Spotify’s offices around the globe, calling for increased streaming payouts and more transparent business practices. (Pitchfork) The events were initiated by the Union of Musicians.
Social media platform OnlyFans announced its Creative Fund, which will offer a grant to four musicians to kick start their careers. (RotD)
Aphex Twin has sold his afx\/weirdcore\blockscanner NFT collaboration with Weirdcore for 72 ETH (approx £93,000) on Foundation. (Cyptobriefing)
Madeon is selling Good Faith Live tour visuals by artists OSEANWORLD, ShinOSM, Mollie Tarlow, and Mike Kluge as NFTs via Nifty Gateway. (EDMTunes)
Ditto Music have launched an NFT exchange on its Bluebox platform. (RotD)

ISSUE: 12 Mar 2021

Mobile ticketing app Dice is launching ‘Merch On Dice‘, which will enable artists to create limited-edition ‘product drops’ that fans will be able to order for pickup at venues or have delivered to their homes. (Musically)
TikTok has launched a new 'Music Hub' in the UK to "supercharge music discovery and showcase the top trending music content" on the platform. It will include the latest music trends, videos, viral tracks, playlists and artists and be updated weekly with artist campaigns, new joiners, hashtag challenges and TikTok LIVEs - spanning both emerging and established musical talent. (RotD)
Turntable.fm, a site that let users create their own radio stations and DJ sets with music they curated before it closed in 2013, appears to be relaunching as two versions. (Verge)
Google launches a free online electronic music exhibition, featuring playable AR vintage synths. (MusicRadar)
XLR8R is launching an NFT marketplace for electronic music. (XLR8R)
ODESZA to release debut collection of NFT art on 20 March. (EDM.com)
Global party brand Space Yacht sold its third NFT (non-fungible token) collection. 579 units raised $482,000 in sales. (SpaceYacht)

ISSUE: 05 Mar 2021

Clubbing TV and FG Radio are teaming up for a weekly Happy Hour DJ session. (RotD)
DistroKid now supports Twitch’s new music licensing platform called Soundtrack – with artist attribution. (DMN)
Ryddm claims to be the first streaming platform for IOS that allows musical artists to drastically increase their earnings through direct payments from fans. (PRNewswire)
Los Angeles-headquartered livestream-monetisation platform Maestro has secured $15m in financing from investors including Sony Music. (DMN)
Beatport has launched Beatport DJ, a browser-based, MIDI compatible, DJ application. (RotD)
Streams of officially licensed music videos on Facebook will soon be factored into the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200, Artist 100 and Billboard Global 200 charts. (Billboard)
Starting 1 April,SoundCloud is to pay independent artists a share of their listeners’ subscription fees, along with advertising revenue, divvied up among the artists they actually listen to. (SoundCloud)
RAC has launched a new creative agency, 6 Digital, specialising in NFTs. (EDM.com)
Steve Aoki has teamed up with visual artist Antoni Tudisco for his debut NFT release on Nifty Gateway. (CryptoBriefing)
Richie Hawtin has released a limited Plastikman NFT collection called Acid Drop - Sheet One on OpenSea to celebrate 303 Day. (OpenSea)
Disclosure tweeted that their first NFT song, created live on Twitch earlier this week, has sold for 43 ETH (approx £45,900) on Zora. Guy Lawrence also announced Disclosure are officially unsigned after finishing a three-album contract. (EDM.com)
Grimes is the latest artist to get in on the NFT gold rush, selling around $6m worth of digital artworks. (Verge)
US DJ/producer and crypto-artist 3LAU has auctioned 33 unique NFTs as part of his Ultraviolet Collection for a record amount of $11.7m. (Trends&Chaos) The winner of the Platinum Tier also won a custom song created by 3LAU with the winner’s creative direction, tokenized as a 1 of 1 NFT.

ISSUE: 26 Feb 2021

Bandcamp has been blocked in China. (DA)
Pefoma, a free to join social media app created exclusively for up-and-coming musicians to connect with new fans and monetise audio-visual content, will launch on 1 March. (RotD)
Jacques Greene has sold the rights to his new single, 'Promise', on cryptocurrency marketplace Foundation for 13 $ETH (~$23,000). (MW)

ISSUE: 12 Feb 2021

Virtual reality entertainment company MelodyVR is set to change its name to Napster and will ask shareholders for permission at the end of this month. (PI) Melody acquired Napster last year, with the plan to launch a subscription service.
Youth-focused music streaming service Audiomack has reached licensing agreements with both Universal and Sony, having previously struck a licensing agreement with Warner. (Billboard)
Apple Music rolls out new Isgubhu platform, spotlight electronic music in Africa. (EDM.com)
Beatsource, the joint venture between Beatport and DJ City that services open-format DJs, has signed deals with independent distributors Empire and Create Music Group to create fully licensed DJ edits of some of the most popular tracks in their respective catalogues. (Billboard)
Ticketmaster has launched a new Livestream ticketing service. The company says that its expanded platform will build on previous livestreaming successes by providing a “global and cohesive offering to artists for their virtual events, maximising Ticketmaster’s expertise, marketing and reach on a worldwide scale”. (MBW)
SoundCloud is said to be preparing to introduce a new payment system that would allow fans to pay artists directly. (Billboard)
SoundCloud has appointed Troy Carter to its Board of Directors and he will serve as a strategic advisor as it "accelerates its transformation to a music entertainment business that is focused on building deeper, more direct relationships with artists, labels, and music fans". (SoundCloud)
Spotify has confirmed it is testing a new, synced lyrics feature in the US market. (TechCrunch)
Spotify has now paid out more than €21bn to rightsholders, and other stats from its annual report. (MusicAlly)
Spotify Noteable offers a new global home for songwriters, producers and publishers - one central space for the community to learn about everything Spotify has to offer, find new opportunities, and to collaborate with each other. (RotD)
Universal Music Group and TikTok have entered a new global agreement to compensate artists and songwriters when their music is used in clips on the app, as well as to collaborate on new initiatives involving digital marketing, A&R, user data and more. (Variety)

ISSUE: 05 Feb 2021

SoundCloud is to host its first livestreamed gaming tournament, that will stream via its Twitch channel and Facebook page. (Billboard) It will pit eight artists-turned-gamers against one another in a game of Fortnite.
Music distribution and record label services company Ditto has announced Opulous: a peer-to-peer platform to help increase artists’ access to capital without the need for traditional institutions such as banks. (RotD)
Digital distributor DistroKid is launching a new service called Upstream that will allow independent artists using the platform to share data with record labels in hopes of getting signed. (DistroKid)
Defected is launching six months of specially developed programmes for Twitch. (RotD)
Beatport announced Detroit DJ and artist Seth Troxler will be its February Artist in Residency on Twitch in honour of Black History Month. (beatportal)

ISSUE: 29 Jan 2021

Eluize explains Beatport LINK’s streaming royalties. [Video] (beatportal)
Electronic music promoter LWE has teamed up with virtual live events platform Sansar to launch Tobacco Dock Virtual for hybrid clubbing and gaming events. (MW)

ISSUE: 22 Jan 2021

SoundCloud signs agreement with AdsWizz for exclusive ad sales representation in 14 European markets. (SoundCloud)
Bandcamp has expanded its vinyl pressing service for artists. (Bandcamp)
deadmau5 has partnered with meditation and mindfulness app Calm to bring an exclusive playlist of mau5trap gems to the platform. (DA)
Tomorrowland has shared a selection of sets from 2020's New Year's Eve festival on Apple Music. (DJMag)
Beatport has launched a new emerging artist program named Beatport Next, featuring six DJ/producers. (beatportal)

ISSUE: 15 Jan 2021

Bandsintown has launched a subscription-based service where fans pay up $9.99pm to access more than 25 exclusive livestreamed shows, interviews and original series monthly. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 18 Dec 2020

Sensorium Galaxy, a virtual platform built for concert experiences, has teamed up with tech company Mubert in order to manufacture an algorithmically-driven AI performing DJ named JAI:N. (EDM.com)
BPM Supreme partners with Cyanite to introduce moods and AI-enabled track analyzation. (RotD)
The Pacemaker DJ app now has direct licensing deals with Sony and Warner Music and states "our main focus during the coming months is to add more content from interesting labels". Earlier in the year, Spotify ended its support for third-party DJ apps.
Bandcamp Fridays, which sees the site waives its fees, will continue until at least May 2021. (Bandcamp)
DJ and producer Black Coffee is set to host a series of exclusive performances in PRISM — the soon-to-launch destination for virtual music events inside social VR platform Sensorium Galaxy. (RotD)
Beatport has acquired UK based Loopmasters, which includes its consumer brands, Loopcloud and Plugin Boutique. (RotD)

ISSUE: 11 Dec 2020

Trqk launches analytics tools for performance royalties. (MusicAlly)
TikTok is experimenting with videos up to three minutes long. (DMN) The current limit is one minute.
Kygo has partnered with e-learning start-up Monthly for an electronic dance music production course. (EDM.com)

ISSUE: 04 Dec 2020

Facebook has launched a new music initiative called #DiscoverOnFBUK, which aims to introduce fans to emerging acts who are connecting to their audiences from home. (MusicWeek)
vivenu, a ticketing platform that offers an API for venues and promoters to customise to their needs, has closed €12.6m in Series A funding. (TechCrunch)
Spotify is stealing the Snapchat Stories feature for its app — but why? (DMN)

ISSUE: 27 Nov 2020

Tracklib, a service for finding and legally clearing samples, announced a collaboration with the Dutch dance label Spinnin’ Records to provide producers with creative tools. (RotD)
AI driven talent discovery business Instrumental has launched a £10m fund to invest directly into independent artists. (RotD)
Clubbing TV has created its own legal and licensed live streaming platform: Clubbing.live. (RotD)
Beatport and Tribe XR have announced the full integration of Beatport LINK, the streaming service for DJs, directly into Tribe XR's virtual reality software. (RotD)

ISSUE: 20 Nov 2020

deadmau5 has joined livestreaming platform StreamVoodoo as an equity partner. (EDM.com)
Triller has rolled out Triller 2.0, claiming it's "the most sophisticated social app available on the market". Features include artist-designed augmented reality experiences to dynamic music editing. (PRNewswire)
Music video creation app Rotor Videos has announced a deal with SoundCloud, adding the platform to its roster of industry partnerships. (RotD) It has also launched new subscription models.
YouTube’s Head of Music Lyor Cohen has made a broader case to advertisers about why they should see YouTube as an essential music streaming platform, saying more than 2bn logged-in viewers are watching at least one music video each month. (Google)
Bandcamp has launched a ticketed live streaming service. Bandcamp Live also allows artists to showcase music and merchandise alongside the stream in a virtual merch table and features an optional chat where fans can discuss the show. (Bandcamp)
DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike are to perform a series of shows on the virtual stages of PRISM World, the music hub for virtual reality events located within Sensorium Galaxy. (RotD)

ISSUE: 13 Nov 2020

Cosynd and Repost By SoundCloud announce partnership to streamline copyright registrations for distribution clients. (RepostNetwork)

ISSUE: 06 Nov 2020

Spotify announced it will begin to test a new service that gives artists more of a say in how their music is discovered on the platform. At launch, the service will allow artists and labels to identify music that’s a priority to them, and Spotify will then add a signal to help the music get surfaced by its personalisation algorithms. It essentially means that specific record is amplified in exchange for a lower royalty rate, for that record only. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 30 Oct 2020

Twitch has secured an exclusive livestream deal with Bob Moses. (RollingStone)
Apple has rolled out an update to its video creation app, Clips, which brings support for vertical videos, allowing for sharing to TikTok and the 'Stories' feature in other social apps. (TechCrunch)
Twitch and its owner Amazon received a blistering letter signed by multiple major US music organisations over its licensing situation with many major music rights-holders. (Variety)
Instagram is increasing its live stream duration to four hours – up from just one hour. (DMN)
TikTok has struck a deal with commerce platform Shopify. (TechCrunch)
Sentric Music Group and Beatport announced a deal that will see the independent publisher collect royalties directly from the electronic music download store, making payments faster and more accurate. (RotD)

ISSUE: 23 Oct 2020

DJ Carl Cox will host a series of exclusive performances in Sensorium Galaxy — a social VR platform. (RotD)
In the US, Apple has launched Apple Music TV. It offers a free, 24-hour live stream of popular music videos and other music content, including exclusive video premieres, live shows, fan events, chart countdowns and guest appearances. (TechCrunch)
SoundCloud says its new DJ plan features the largest catalogue of any offline plan, at a lower price. The biggest feature is the ability to save unlimited tracks locally in select DJ apps for use any time. (DMN)
Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), held this week, has a partnership channel on Deezer. (RotD)

ISSUE: 16 Oct 2020

Spotify reports that listening time for its collection of mental health playlists and associated content has surged in 2020. (DMN)
Spotify is launching a new feature that combines spoken word audio commentary with music tracks. The new format will allow Spotify to reproduce the radio-like experience of listening to a DJ or a music journalist offering their perspective on the music. But Spotify is also making it possible for anyone to use the format to create a music-filled podcast through an integration with Spotify’s own DIY podcasting app, Anchor. (TechCrunch, Spotify)

ISSUE: 09 Oct 2020

How online music company Bandcamp became the toast of the Covid age. (LATimes)
Shazam, acquired by Apple in 2018, is now starting to let users listen to songs with YouTube Music. (AndroidPolice)
IsItAGoodPlaylist is a free tool designed to analyse if a Spotify playlist has real listeners and how much it is contributing to an artist’s discovery on the platform. (MusicAlly)
Spotify has announced the debut of The Weekly Top 50, consisting of a US Weekly Album Chart, Global Weekly Album Chart, US Weekly Song Chart and Global Weekly Song Chart.
The US Top 10 Debuts and Global Top 10 Debuts lists incorporate data from the first 72 hours a song or album is live, giving an early take on new music. (Variety)
Spotify has introduced Promo Cards, customisable graphics that users can create to share with listeners to promote music or podcasts.

ISSUE: 02 Oct 2020

Livestreaming platform Twitch is introducing a new tool, Soundtrack by Twitch, which will allow creators to add licensed music within their streams. (TechCrunch) At launch, Soundtrack by Twitch is working with a variety of label and distribution partners, but doesn’t have agreements with the majors themselves.
YouTube Music begins testing Spotify-style daily ‘My Mix’ playlists. (9to5Google)
Sensorium Corporation, in partnership with The Night League & High Scream announced David Guetta as the first DJ to officially join Sensorium Galaxy — a social VR platform. (PRNewswire)

ISSUE: 25 Sep 2020

London-based techno mainstay The Advent and Portland's Dave Bate have launched a new streaming platform, techno-club.net. (RA)
Apple is integrating Shazam in its iOS 14 with a new Music Recognition feature that can identify songs playing around you, in apps on your phone and music on your headphones. (Verge)

ISSUE: 18 Sep 2020

Is It A Good Playlist? Is a new music tool designed to analyse Spotify playlists. (P&S)
Apple launches Apple One subscription bundle. (TechCrunch)
Spotify has launched a virtual event listings function on its artist profile pages. (RotD, Spotify, TechCrunch)
Mixcloud has added a feature letting users archive their streams on their Live feature. (DJMag)
Paxahau, the producers of Detroit's longstanding underground electronic music festival Movement, have announced a partnership with streaming platform Twitch. (Billboard)
Facebook has clarified its rules around DJ sets on their platforms – including Instagram. They stated in an email that their terms of service will not be changing from October 1st and re-issued some guidelines they initially released in May 2020, specifically for DJs and music makers streaming on their platforms. (DJMag)
Beatport and Twitch plan a program of weekly exclusive content for the Beatport Official Twitch Channel, showcasing a diverse selection of artists, labels and collectives from the global DJ and producer community. (RotD)

ISSUE: 11 Sep 2020

Just weeks after Facebook added fee-free ticketed live streams, it has issued new ‘Music Guidelines’ that will make it much riskier for musicians to use the platform, along with Instagram and other Facebook platforms. (Hypebot)
Rhythm-action game AVICII Invector is available worldwide on Nintendo Switch for the first time, celebrating the late performer, producer, and songwriter Tim Bergling (Avicii). (RotD)
Richie Hawtin is to talk with Interdependence hosts Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst about AI for Humans and the new club economy at Sónar+D and Sónar+D CCCB livestream events.
Event Details: AI for Humans. Sónar+D & Ars Electronica livestream – 12 September, 1pm CET / What would a new club economy look like? Sónar+D CCCB livestream - 18 September, 6.45pm CET

ISSUE: 04 Sep 2020

TikTok creators will soon be able to sell merchandise they design and create directly to fans via the app itself. (Verge)
Amazon Music will now allow artists to livestream directly within its platform through a partnership with Amazon-owned Twitch. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 28 Aug 2020

An upcoming feature in development at Spotify will alert fans to an artist’s upcoming 'virtual events'. (TechCrunch)
eMusic and 7digital partner to launch eMusicLive, a virtual concert and monetisation platform. (BusinessWire)

ISSUE: 21 Aug 2020

Five years after Apple Music launched its global radio station Beats 1, the company has renamed it Apple Music 1 and launched new Country and Hit stations, under the overall name of Apple Music Radio. (Variety)
Over 200 of the most influential recordings from Boiler Room's ten-year history are now available on Apple Music. (BoilerRoom)

ISSUE: 14 Aug 2020

Triller has signed a deal with 7digital for access to a global catalogue of 80 million tracks for its users to soundtrack clips. In addition, 7digital will provide Triller with back-end support for tracking usage and reporting to labels including Sony, Universal Music Group, Merlin and Warner Music Group. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 07 Aug 2020

Snapchat users will soon be able to add music to their posts both pre- and post-capture, from a catalogue including music licensed from Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell; Universal Music Publishing Group, members of the NMPA and Merlin. (TechCrunch)
Instagram Reels, the company’s significant effort in challenging TikTok on short-form creative content, is launching globally across 50 countries, including the UK and US. (TechCrunch)
Google will shut down its Play Music service in the UK in October, to focus on its newer YouTube Music app. (BBC)
Apple Music is featuring some of the DJ mixes from the 'Tomorrowland: Around The World' virtual event. (RotD)
Spotify has launched 'track IDs,' a new suite of playlists within the platform's Dance/Electronic hub designed to help users discover new EDM tracks. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 31 Jul 2020

Atari has released an Avicii themed mobile video game, Beat Legend: Avicii, which features 15 of the late producer's biggest hits. (Billboard)
Bandcamp Fridays, the monthly event in which the music distribution service waives its cut of revenue sales for one day, will continue for the rest of the year. (NME)
Triller is raising between $200m and $300m to fuel its expansion, just as it starts locking in deals to transfer over major TikTok influencers to its platform. (MBW)
Spotify's financial results for Q2 showed 138m subscribers and 299m monthly active users, up 8m and 13m respectively. Revenues of €1.89bn were up 13% year-on-year, although an operating loss of €167m and a net loss of €356m were recorded. Advertising revenues, impacted by Covid-19, dropped 21% to €131m. (Spotify, Spotify)

ISSUE: 24 Jul 2020

TikTok and Believe have struck a global distribution & marketing deal. (RotD)
AI artist discovery platform Andrson has launched a web version of its app. (RotD)

ISSUE: 17 Jul 2020

Spotify has launched in Russia. (Spotify) It has also launched in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
Facebook is preparing to launch officially licensed music videos on its social network in the US next month. (TechCrunch) By enabling a new setting, artists are giving Facebook permission to add music videos to their Page, where they can be discovered by fans on the Page’s Videos tab.
Shazam published its mid-year insights for the UK. (RotD) SAINt JHN’s 'Roses (Imanbek Remix)' is the most-Shazamed song and longest-running Shazam No.1.
SoundCloud is teaming up with Dolby for a new feature that allows creators to master their songs without leaving their accounts on the streaming platform. (Soundcloud)
Beatport celebrates the launch of it's new Organic House category with a 12-hour stream ReConnect Livestream today (17 July). (Beatport)

ISSUE: 10 Jul 2020

Facebook is expanding its fan subscriptions to more countries – edging further into Twitch’s territory. (DMN)
Facebook is introducing a variety of new tools and features aimed at helping artists grow their business. (Symphonic)
Spotify is to launch in Russia on 15 July and is expected to partner with Russian telco MTS. (Variety)
YouTube is rolling out a new analytics hub for creators on its platform, which will provide expanded real-time statistics for videos and allow artists the ability to see details on a song’s combined performance across all the videos in which it appears on the platform. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 03 Jul 2020

Trailblazers, the podcast featuring music legends that helped shape electronic music, is back for its third series, exclusively on Deezer. (RotD)
Music platform Delic launches, allowing musicians and those involved in the creation of music to collaborate and build a network. (RotD)
Independent Label Market (ILM) is teaming up with Bandcamp to host a global online label market on 3 July. Bandcamp will waive its revenue share on all sales, with 100% of sales going direct to the independent labels. (RotD)
Anjunadeep has cleared 500+ tracks on Twitch. (DJTechTools)

ISSUE: 26 Jun 2020

Mixcloud cofounder Nikhil Shah has announced he is stepping down from the CEO role but will continue as a board advisor, as he seeks new challenges. (Medium)
Beatport launches new Organic House/Downtempo genre. (beatportal)
SyncFloor, a search and discovery site for sync, has partnered with independent distributor TuneCore to build TuneCore Sync on the SyncFloor SyncSite platform. (RotD)
Spotify has shared its predictions for songs that are likely to soundtrack summer 2020. (RotD)
The company behind the Pacemaker DJ app, due to have its support from Spotify cut off, has secured an extension as it seeks to strike its own direct licensing deals. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 19 Jun 2020

Lickd, a company that aims to make it easier for creators on platforms like YouTube to use commercially released music in their videos, has formally announced its partnership with Universal Music Group and Universal Music Publishing Group. (uDiscover)
SoundCloud is partnering with Snapchat to make it easier to share tracks, albums, playlists, and profiles to Snaps. (DMN)

ISSUE: 12 Jun 2020

The team behind Glastonbury Festival’s famous after-hours mini-city, Shangri-La, has announced virtual-reality (VR) festival Lost Horizon. (IQ, Guardian p3)

At Apple Music UK & Ireland, Ryan Newman has been promoted to the role of Head of Editorial. (Billboard)

This is how much more money artists earn from Bandcamp compared to streaming services. (Pitchfork)

On Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 July, Tomorrowland will host the first 3D digital edition of their world-famous festival, featuring 8 interactive stages. (Ibiza Spotlight)

DJ Snake has hit the billion streams mark on Spotify, again, with his smash "Taki Taki." (Billboard)

Twitch has sent out an influx of DMCA takedown notices in an apparent move to tackle unauthorised copyrighted material being used on its platform. (DJMag)

Black artists are demanding more representation on Spotify's electronic playlists. (YourEDM)

After years of battling accusations of manipulating stream counts and royalty payments, Jay-Z’s Tidal is now officially under investigation by Norwegian authorities. (DMN)

Electric Blockaloo, the virtual music festival of Minecraft, unveiled the full lineup for its digital event taking place June 25-28. (HR) Steve Aoki with DIM MAK's Dojo, Rudimental, Seth Troxler, Kevin Saunderson and Carl Craig are among the lineup, which includes over eight hundred other artists.

ISSUE: 05 Jun 2020

Gismart, the mobile game and app developer, has launched a partnership program Games for Artists where partner musicians can promote their brand and music via Gismart’s new hyper-casual games. (RotD)
Streaming service Clubify has launched with a purpose built multi channel platform that operates on a subscription or VOD basis and transparent payment policy for electronic music. (RotD)
Endlesss, the iOS music-making app from Tim Exile, takes to Kickstarter for desktop version. (TechCrunch)
Bandcamp is to donate 100% of its sale proceeds on 19 June to NAACP legal defense fund. (Magnetic)
Beatport has donated all proceeds taken on Tuesday 2 June to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). (DJ Mag)
TikTok donated $3m from its Community Relief Fund to non-profits that help the Black community and committing another $1m toward fighting the racial injustice and inequality.

ISSUE: 29 May 2020

Festival Republic, promoters of Wireless have teamed up with virtual reality firm MelodyVR to develop a three-day virtual festival set in July. (TTB)
Pioneer DJ has added a new feature that analyses tracks and detects where vocals are on the waveform. (DJ Mag)
Beatsource, the music streaming service for open format DJs created by Beatport, and promotional record pool DJcity, are bringing streaming integration to Pioneer DJ's rekordbox. The latest rekordbox update will allow DJs access to millions of songs. (PRNewswire)
Spinnin’ Records shared a playlist of over 50 songs in 360° Reality Audio, a groundbreaking, immersive music experience that uses Sony’s spatial audio technology. (EDM.com)
Instagram is reportedly warning users who play more than 90 seconds of copyrighted songs to stop or risk having their livestream shut down. (DJ Mag)
Spotify has removed the Appears On section from artists’ profiles. The feature directs users to other artists and collaborations an artist has appeared on, many of which don’t come up on their own main profile, especially true for frequent remixers and vocalists. (YourEDM)
New app AiMi is using AI technology to turn existing tracks from artists into adaptive experiences for electronic music listeners. (MusicAlly)
Facebook’s experimental app division has a new product named Collab that promises to deliver a new approach to collaborative music making. (Verge)
Amazon Music has announced deadmau5 as the next featured artist in its weekly performance series taking place tonight (Friday 29 May). (RotD) Fans can also ask questions.

ISSUE: 22 May 2020

Sony is intensifying efforts to perfect its virtual reality headset as it bets that the demand for online-only concerts and other entertainment will finally push the technology into the home entertainment mainstream. (FT)
Beatport and Beatsource Link announce integration with Algoriddim Djay for the first time. (RotD)
Spinnin Records is releasing 52 tracks in 360 Reality Audio, all showcased in an exclusive playlist on Deezer. (RotD)
Spotify announced that it will be combining its separate data and analytics dashboards, one of which was for artists and managers, the other of which was for labels and distributors, into one place: a revamped Spotify For Artists. (Spotify)

ISSUE: 15 May 2020

Spotify has launched Group Sessions in beta, allowing a host to share a scannable Spotify code from their app with whomever they want to share playback control, meaning that the host and guests can pause, play, skip, and select tracks in the queue, and add their own picks to the list. (Verge)

ISSUE: 08 May 2020

Yoop aims to elevate the livestream experience, with features including high-quality production, live interaction and enhanced monetisation opportunities for artists. (Billboard)
Splice, the popular online music production marketplace that offers royalty-free samples and presets, has seen record-breaking activity since the start of Covid-19 lockdown. (Variety)
SoundCloud is launching its own channel on livestreaming platform Twitch, with a slate of original programming that includes panel conversations, music sets and more. (Billboard)
Bandcamp sales topped $7 million during last Friday's day of waived fees. (RA)
Tech brand HONOR is partnering with Beatport for six hours of live music from the likes of Deborah De Luca, Clyde P, PIV, Barely Legal and Vonda 7 on 12 May via Beatport’s Twitch, Facebook and YouTube , as well as HONOR UK’s Facebook and YouTube channels.(RotD)
Fortnite has announced another live concert, this time featuring Dillon Francis, Steve Aoki and deadmau5. (BBC)
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said he expects longtime rival Apple will “open up” iOS and its platforms more in the future as a result of contention with developers and growing antitrust concern from regulators. (Bloomberg, Verge)
"Ek’s interest in ads underpins his company’s two biggest new initiatives: an aggressive push into podcasts, and efforts to get music artists to buy ads on Spotify". (BloombergQuint)

ISSUE: 01 May 2020

Facebook’s hiring spree points to bigger plans in music, as it explores ways for artists to monetise their lockdown live streams. (IO)
Facebook: "we plan to add the ability for Pages to charge for access to events with Live videos on Facebook – anything from online performances to classes to professional conferences”. (MusicAlly)
Instagram is opening up its Live feature to allow users to create a fundraiser initiative where 100% of the money raised will go to a nominated cause. (MusicAlly)
Fortnite ‘Party Royale’ social mode includes ‘main stage’ concert venue. (MusicAlly)
TikTok has launched Donation Stickers, a new in-app donation feature that creators can include in their videos and livestreams to raise funds for the charities and causes they care most about. (RotD)
TikTok has been downloaded more than two billion times globally. (Verge) India accounts for 611m of the total, followed by China (197m) and the US (165m).
Bandcamp is once again offering to waive its share of revenue generated for music sales on its site on the first Friday of May, June and July. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 24 Apr 2020

Sensorium Corporation has partnered with leading nightlife promoter Yann Pissenem to drive the development of a virtual 'nightclub' realm dedicated exclusively to electronic dance music within the Sensorium Galaxy, the global social virtual reality and media platform. (PRNewswire)
Newly released figures reveal just how many plays your tracks would need to have on streaming platforms in order to make the equivalent of the UK minimum wage. For instance, it would take 357 streams on Spotify for an artist to earn £1, while it would take 3,114 streams to earn an hour’s minimum wage pay. (DJ Mag)
The Spotify Covid-19 Music Relief project has added eight new partners around the world since launch, with more to come.
Beatstream Box Office has adapted its technology to enable musicians and DJs to sell tickets to live high quality audio streams using software that allows remote technical set-up and doesn’t require an onsite engineer. (RotD)
Real-time airplay, playlists, charts and social media monitoring company Soundcharts is making the "10 Artists" Plan free for the next eight weeks. (LinkedIn)
Bandcamp has announced it will waive its fees again on May 1 to help artists who are dealing with the financial repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic. (Mixmag)
Beatport has launched Producer Challenge with the aim to find "50 producers on the cusp of greatness". (RotD) Loopcloud, Plugin Boutique, LANDR, iZotope, and Roland Cloud are partners are partners for the initiative
Mixcloud has announced a new live streaming platform called Mixcloud Live to enable audio creators to live stream, immediately archive the audio, and generate income - all via a legal and licensed platform. (RotD)
Apple Music will now be available in 52 additional countries, bringing it to 167 total. 25 of those are in Africa. (Billboard)
Artists on Spotify can now use their profiles on the platform via Artist Fundraising Pick to raise money from fans - whether to support themselves, their bands and their crews amid the coronavirus pandemic or for a charity of their choice. (Verge)

ISSUE: 17 Apr 2020

Art+Logic has launched Vibrary, an open-source AI tool made to analyse short samples and loops. (RotD)
Spotify’s self-serve ad platform Ad Studio is expanding and now available in 22 markets globally. (MusicAlly)
Instagram has plans to help artists monetise livestreams. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 10 Apr 2020

SiriusXM has teamed up with Beatport for the new satellite radio show Pitch Control: Powered by Beatport. (Billboard)
Analytics platform Songstats tracks data from streaming services but also Beatport, Traxsource and 1001Tracklists. (MusicAlly)
Chartmetric is offering free premium access for unsigned and self-releasing artists during the pandemic.
SoundCloud has announced a plan worth $15m to support creators during the shutdown, as well as initiatives designed to bolster their careers long-term. (Billboard) It has introduced a new donation button artists can add to their profile to help offset the financial repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Verge)

ISSUE: 03 Apr 2020

LiveFrom Events, a new ‘streaming-as-a-service’ platform, has launched to help make it simple for artists, DJs, venues, clubs, producers and festivals to capitalise on the livestreaming boom. (IQ)
TikTok has struck short-term licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group, multiple sources tell Billboard.
SoundCloud has launched SoundCloud Go+, its premium listener subscription plan, in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
Endless app, designed by artist, producer and software developer Tim Exile, lets you start a jam using the built-in instruments or an audio input for any real-world sources, and invite others to take part. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 27 Mar 2020

SoundCloud announced plans to make new resources and programmes available to SoundCloud Creators in order to "support them in creating, engaging, and growing their careers" during the coronavirus outbreak. (Engadget)
Musicians are asking Spotify to triple their royalty payments following the loss of earnings that has arisen through the coronavirus pandemic. (Guardian)
Bandcamp reports on a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items, but this past Friday, when the company waived its fees, fans bought nearly 800,000, or $4.3m worth of music and merch. (Bandcamp)
SoundCloud has partnered with Twitch to launch a new service that will help artists monetize their content amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (DJ Mag)
Spotify is pulling support for all third-party DJ apps like djay from 1 July. It's not yet clear why the company will no longer allow access to its library of music. (Engadget)
YouTube Music users can now read lyrics while listening to a song on the service’s iOS and Android apps. (Verge)
Bandsintown is offering artists free, accelerated, and much-needed access to Twitch Affiliate status and its live streaming monetisation tools. (RotD)

ISSUE: 20 Mar 2020

Amazon Music has launched an analytics platform for musicians called Amazon Music for Artists. (Verge)
Bandcamp has announced it will waive its revenue share for all sales made on the platform today, Friday 20 March, to help musicians who are struggling through the coronavirus outbreak. (Mixmag)
A new social music app, SoundStorming, aims to change how artists are discovered by making music's process of creation social. (RotD)

ISSUE: 13 Mar 2020

The 10 most innovative media companies of 2020. Spotify tops the list "For tapping into the power of podcasts to create a more engaged audience—and sell more ads". (FastCo)

ISSUE: 06 Mar 2020

Streaming now accounts for 55% of total revenue in Germany, where the CD format saw its market share erode from 36.4% to 29% in one year. (Billboard)
Musiio has launched a self-service dashboard that lets anyone use AI to Tag and Search their own catalogue of music. (RotD)
Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s new Co-Head of Music Strategy in the US explains how to get on playlists. (Forbes) "Editorial decisions are based purely on the quality of the song and its fit in the playlist. I was just telling a label that everyone emailing me doesn't increase your chances of getting on a playlist at all". "There's absolutely no promo in the streaming world. We don't talk to any of these people (third-party promotional companies) at all. They're scams".
Spotify is asking record labels and artists for money to advertise their songs within its app, arguing that they’ll reach new fans and increase their popularity. The effort is controversial because it’s complicating wider talks over long-term music rights between Spotify and the record companies. The service has already introduced one tool, called Marquee, and is pitching a second. (Bloomberg)

ISSUE: 28 Feb 2020

Elektron have introduced Model:Cycles, a new six-track groovebox based around FM synthesis. (DJ Mag)
Spotify is testing playlist recommendations based on the time of day along with a new more compact homepage design. (AndroidPolice)
Oliver Heldens, Danny Howard, Above & Beyond and Fred V have each released an hour-long DJ set on Deezer. (RotD) Featured artists will receive royalties.

ISSUE: 21 Feb 2020

5 of the best machines to lift your live set. (Mixmag)
Mixcloud has marked its 10th anniversary with an all-new brand identity and mission statement. (RotD)
Resident Advisor has partnered with Spotify to launch RA Tickets integration. (RA)
Swedish duo Galantis have partnered with entertainment technology company Wave to create a live virtual concert. (RotD)

ISSUE: 14 Feb 2020

Ninja Tune and electronic music pioneers Coldcut have unveiled their sequel to Ninja Jamm — Jamm Pro, a production and live performance app for iPad. (RotD)
Spotify have announced the beta of a new Songwriter Pages concept that allows songwriters to showcase a list of the songs they’ve written, alongside their most frequent artist collaborations. (Spotify)
Splice, the platform for rights-cleared sounds and beats, has paid out more than $25m to musicians in its artist-to-artist marketplace. (Variety)
SiriusXM has invested $75m in audio platform SoundCloud, which will use the infusion to enhance its existing services and accelerate product development. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 07 Feb 2020

Moog Music have announced the return of their hardware vocoder. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 31 Jan 2020

Amazon is patenting technology that predicts future hits and popular artists. (DMN)
7digital has won a contract to provide its music-as-a-service platform to power Single Music, a Shopify-integrated platform that enables artists and labels to sell their music and merchandise directly to fans. (Sharecast)
Global music distribution and record label services provider Ditto Music has announced the launch of Bluebox, a blockchain-backed suite of tools and applications for musicians. (RotD)

ISSUE: 24 Jan 2020

Reports from MusicAlly's NY:Lon conference:
Tech, innovation and music: ‘Pick one little thing and go deep!’. (MusicAlly)
Troy Carter talks music disruption: ‘I’d still be in a panic if I were a major label…’. (MusicAlly)
Global music streaming: ‘We are just on the tip of the iceberg of what this will become’. (MusicAlly)
Publishing and rights: ‘Everybody needs to play ball in order for this tech to work’. (MusicAlly)
The evolution of labels: ‘What’s your value proposition?’. (MusicAlly)
The best new gear for DJs and producers from NAMM 2020. (DJ Mag)
Los Angeles music delivery service, BPM Supreme, has announced a new online sample and sound library, BPM Sounds. (Mixmag)
Spotify is testing a new Stories feature that will allow select influencers to incorporate video elements into their public playlists. (TechCrunch)
Amazon Music revealed it has reached more than 55 million customers globally, with subscriptions to Amazon Music Unlimited growing by more than 50% last year alone. (RotD)

ISSUE: 17 Jan 2020

Sequential announces new Pro 3 synthesiser. (RA)
Mixing console giant SSL has announced an affordable soundcard range. (RA)
Prime Go is the innovative, battery-powered controller from Denon DJ. (Mixmag)
Pioneer DJ have announced a new flagship mixer – the DJM-V10. (DJ Mag)
Spotify’s Global Head of Music Nick Holmstén is leaving the company in March. (Hits)
Spotify is making its first move into podcast advertising with ‘Streaming Ad Insertion’ technology. It will give advertisers and podcast makers data including ad impressions, frequency and reach, as well as (anonymised) info on the age, gender and devices of listeners. (Spotify)
TikTok was the world's second-most downloaded app in 2019, and generates $40M per month. (MBW)

ISSUE: 10 Jan 2020

The 10 best music machines released in 2019. (Mixmag)
Korg have announced a new synth called Wavestate. The new synth is based on vector synthesis and comes in the same format as the minilogue. (DJ Mag)
Pioneer DJ has changed its corporate name to AlphaTheta. (DJTechTools)
Soundcloud has launched track and Spotlight editing features on iOS devices with Android to follow soon. (Soundcloud)

ISSUE: 20 Dec 2019

Behringer unveils Eurorack Go case and new Moog modules. (Mixmag)
Denon DJ has added wifi and streaming to their Prime range in the latest firmware update. (DJ Mag)
Deezer is to feature unheard mixes from DJs exclusively on the service. (RotD) Each mix is around an hour long and is followed by the original tracks. Michael Mayer, Modeselektor, Mark Knight, Will Saul, Sultan + Shepard and Makoto start the series, with more to come.
FL Studio and SoundCloud have linked up to give users of both services the ability to upload their productions directly to SoundCloud from within the programme. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 13 Dec 2019

Customisable digital audio workstation Reaper has rolled out a new update. (DJ Mag)
SoundCloud users revolt after company announces plan to limit free uploads. (RollingStone)

ISSUE: 06 Dec 2019

Spotify's Wrapped, which shows subscribers their most played artists and songs for the first ten months of the year, along with other insights.
New app, Playlistify, turns DJ mixes into Spotify and Apple Music playlists. (DJ Mag)
Amazon announces AI music-making tool, AWS DeepComposer. (RA)
Hyperdub has teamed up with gaming company Analogue to launch a special edition Sega Megadrive with a compilation of fresh tracks stored on a game cartridge. Burial, Scratcha DVA, Ikonika and more have contributed tracks. (DJ Mag)
A data breach at audio streaming platform Mixcloud has left more than 20 million user accounts exposed after the data was put on sale on the dark web. (TechCrunch)
Marquee, a new tool from Spotify walks the line between advertising and pay-for-play. (RollingStone) The tool promises extra listeners to the artists (or labels) that can afford it.
Beatport launched Beatportal, an electronic music-focused editorial website from the DJ download store. (RotD)

ISSUE: 22 Nov 2019

Youth Control Games has launched MIXMSTR, the first-ever DJ culture game for mobile. Players earn virtual money to build their record collection and improve their DJ skills. (Mixmag)
Behringer has announced WING, a futuristic new mixing console. The new device features eight MIDAS preamps, 24 motorised 100mm faders, 11 colour TFT screens to display parameters, a 48-ins/48-outs USB audio interface with HUI control for your favourite DAW and the option of another 64 I/O via Ethernet, supporting WAVES Soundgrid. (DJ Mag)
ByteDance is in talks with the majors to launch its own global streaming service. (Reuters)
Amazon Music has launched a free, ad-supported version of its streaming service. (Billboard)
Spotify’s free music service will now stream on Alexa devices, plus Bose and Sonos smart speakers. (TechCrunch)
Apple Music has partnered with PlayNetwork to launch Apple Music for Business, a service geared towards providing a fully licensed — and customisable — soundtrack to retail stores, restaurants and other commercial outlets. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 15 Nov 2019

Spotify has released a version of its streaming app on augmented reality company Magic Leap’s headset. (Verge)
Jean-Michel Jarre is launching an “infinite music app” called Eon, which uses an algorithm to turn beats, melodies and chords he recorded into an endless stream of music. (BBC)
Tencent Music Entertainment is converting its massive 'free' user base to paid subscriptions at a blistering rate, and it’s doing so with dropping some of its best content only to be unlocked by a paid-up subscription. (IO)
SoundCloud is introducing Promote on SoundCloud, a new self-service promotional tool for SoundCloud Premier creators to boost their original tracks to the top of listeners’ feeds and mobile homepages. (Soundcloud)

ISSUE: 08 Nov 2019

Reports from panels at MusicAlly's Sandbox digital marketing conference:
What ‘trigger cities’ really mean for music marketing. (MusicAlly)
Linkfire boss talks smarter attribution and the death of cookies. (MusicAlly)
Music marketing on TikTok: ‘Give the audience the opportunity to be their own influencer’. (MusicAlly)
Privacy and music marketing: ‘Common sense should prevail’. (MusicAlly)
Pioneer is releasing a new controller, The XDJ-XZ. (EDMTunes)
Serato have added support for the Denon DJ PRIME 4 to their DJ Pro software. (DJ Mag)
Rights’Up has launched Eddy.App, software that allows independent labels the possibility to save time by managing artists’ royalties seamlessly and transparently. (RotD)

ISSUE: 01 Nov 2019

Studio hardware company Novation have opened a pop-up store and masterclass hub in London's Bethnal Green. The pop-up store is open until 22 December. (DJ Mag)
Audoo, a new startup based in London, hopes to revolutionise music royalty distribution by taking the guesswork out of this process. (Forbes)

ISSUE: 25 Oct 2019

Universal Audio have announced two new portable audio interfaces, the Apollo Twin X and the x4. (DJ Mag)
The Analogue Pocket, a new handheld video game system with a built-in sequencer and synthesiser, has been launched. (DJ Mag)
Serato’s new versions of its DJ software are compatible with macOS Catalina. (Verge)

ISSUE: 18 Oct 2019

The Phonocut is to become the first at-home vinyl lathe, allowing anyone to cut 10-inch vinyl records at home in a matter of 30 minutes. (Mixmag)
Native Instruments is launching a new four-deck DJ controller, called Traktor Kontrol S3. (DJ Mag)
Independent distributors TuneCore and CD Baby have each entered partnerships with Chinese music streaming giant Tencent, bringing their artists' recordings to a massive new listener base. (Billboard)
The top 10 most-Shazamed dance tracks in Ibiza this summer have been revealed, with Joys from Italian DJ Roberto Surace at the summit. (RotD)

ISSUE: 11 Oct 2019

With a software update called Catalina, iTunes is retired from Apple computers. (Billboard) Apple Music subscribers will no longer see the iTunes music store, unless they restore it in settings.

ISSUE: 04 Oct 2019

Dreadbox launches a line of affordable, colourful Eurorack modules. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ have launched a new pad-based controller for use with both rekordbox DJ and Serato DJ. The new unit will cost £299. (DJ Mag)
YouTube Music is preparing to launch three new personalised playlists — Discover Mix, New Release Mix and Your Mix - later this month. (Techcrunch)
Beatsource, a digital download store built to service open-format DJs, has launched in beta. (Billboard) The CEO said "Beatport has long been the home for the global DJ community, but now we have created a single destination for all the great open-format DJs around the world''.
Deezer has partnered with Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) to bring exclusive curated content from the festival’s official line-up. The ADE channel gives fans access to over 70 crafted playlists from the likes of Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Tiësto, Floating Points, Modeselektor, and Joris Voorn. (RotD)

ISSUE: 27 Sep 2019

Ninja Tune's long-awaited Zen Delay hardware unit is finally available to order. (DJ Mag)
VirtualDJ 2020 has added Beatport LINK capability, allowing users to stream the whole of Beatport's catalogue directly into VirtualDJ. (DJ Mag)
Spotify has refreshed its Spotify for Artists app with real-time stats for new releases. (Spotify)
Audius has launched its music streaming and free hosting service backed by DJs like deadmau5 and Zed’s Dead, plus $5.5m in A-list venture capital. (TechCrunch) In early 2020, the startup plans to let artists opt into requiring users to occasionally listen to ads or pay a few dollars per month for an Audius subscription.

ISSUE: 20 Sep 2019

Native Instruments rejuvenates a soft synth titan with Massive X. (Mixmag)
YouTube is revising its chart criteria and will no longer count paid advertising views on YouTube in the YouTube Music Charts calculation. The shift aligns YouTube with the policies of Billboard and Nielsen. (TechCrunch)
Amazon has launched a premium high-definition music streaming service, priced at $13 a month for members of Amazon Prime, and $15 a month for others. (Verge) It is initially available in the US, UK, Japan and Germany.
Spotify has acquired SoundBetter, a global audio production and collaboration marketplace helping creators worldwide connect and hire top audio professionals. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 13 Sep 2019

Pioneer DJ’s rekordbox software has introduced an updated version of the software that allows it to seamlessly integrate with the streaming services Beatport LINK and SoundCloud Go+. (Mixmag)
Deezer is hoping to launch a pilot of a user-centric payment system (UCPS) by early 2020 in France, if it can persuade labels to back the idea. (MusicAlly)

Apple Music has launched a web app accessible using any desktop computer browser. (Billboard, Apple) Beats 1 is not yet available on the web player but will be added in the near future.

ISSUE: 06 Sep 2019

Technics have launched their new range of DJ headphones, EAH-DJ1200. (DJ Mag)
The latest beta version of Apple OS 10.15 Catalina shows no communication between the new Music app and DJ software. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 30 Aug 2019

Behringer's clone of the Korg MS-20 synth is now available to buy. (DJ Mag)
Spotify has extended its free trial period to three months. (Spotify)
Apple Music has extended its trial period to four months after Spotify recently expanded its free offering to three months. (DMN)
Melody VR has partnered with Good Morning America on a live broadcast of Marshmello and Kane Brown Summer Concert Series in virtual reality. (RotD)
Major Lazer has announced a partnership with Fortnite and released two official remixes of the game's music. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 23 Aug 2019

MasterSounds have announced a new two-channel rotary mixer called Radius TWO VALVE. (DJ Mag)
Native Instruments (NI) is to host two free production workshop days for 13-25 year olds in London later this month. (DJ Mag)
Apple Music has launched Shazam Discovery Top 50, a weekly global ranking of 50 artists on the move and their trending track. (RotD)
Apple Music, Pandora, and Google/Alphabet are being targeted in a series of major patent infringement lawsuits related to music streaming functionality. (DMN)
Spotify will test raising subscription prices in Scandinavia with an eye towards taking the increases worldwide. (Bloomberg) It will raise the price of its family plan by about 13%.
In the US, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play and Pandora have filed their appeal of the Copyright Royalty Board's mechanical rate determination, which will see music publishers and writers enjoy a 44% rate increase by 2023. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 16 Aug 2019

Review: Pioneer DJ Toriaz Squid Sequencer (Magnetic)
Roland launches DJ-707M, a $999 hybrid controller and live sound audio console. (DJ Techtools)
Loopmasters have announced Loopcloud 5, the next version of their cloud-based sample service. (DJ Mag)
Beatport has announced it will remove all tracks released before 2019 that have never sold. (DJ Mag)
Soundcloud has launched a nine-part video series called SC101 for artists and creators. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 09 Aug 2019

Yamaha CS-80 synth voice comes to Eurorack. (RA)
Teaching AI to DJ: How algorithms can help beginning DJs and add unexpected creativity to their sets. (RotD)
Apple has launched Apple Music For Artists - a new analytics tool for every artist on the music streaming platform. Available on iOS as a desktop interface and standalone mobile app, Apple Music For Artists gives anyone who has music posted on Apple Music the ability to pinpoint how their various releases perform in specific markets and cities around the world. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 02 Aug 2019

Learn how to mix harmonically with Native Instruments and Chris Liebing. (Native)
Tech Talk: Kenny Larkin shares the secrets of his studio. (ElectronicBeats)
The $60 gadget that’s changing electronic music. (NYTimes)
Audio-streaming platform Mixcloud is introducing a new service-wide ‘Premium’ subscription, which will cost $7.99 a month and enable listeners to “access all public shows across the platform without limits”. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 26 Jul 2019

Gibson has returned the rights to the Oberheim Electronics brand name back to synth pioneer Tom Oberheim. (RA)
A new app called PLSY is being developed that allows club-goers to vote on which song the DJ should play next during their set. Users can search and select a song from their music libraries for their suggestion, and whichever track receives the majority vote from the crowd will be played next. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 19 Jul 2019

Ableton has launched a free plugin suite for modular users. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 12 Jul 2019

Spotify’s Lite app has been released in 36 countries. (Spotify) The app is designed to work on patchy or weak internet connections and, at just 10MB, it is small enough to cater to older phones and lower-end devices that have limited storage.
YouTube has revamped its manual copyright claim system, which now requires copyright owners to provide time-stamps indicating where their content appears in videos without the proper license. (YouTube)

ISSUE: 05 Jul 2019

Native Instruments' long-awaited Massive X synth is out now. (RA)
YouTube Music is expanding upon its Offline Mixtape feature with a more thorough version it’s now calling “smart downloads.” When you enable smart downloads, the app will automatically download up to 500 songs. (Verge)
Beatport LINK, the streaming subscription service for DJs, is now available in the public beta of Pioneer DJ’s rekordbox software. (RotD)
Jeff Ponchick, VP of SoundCloud-owned distribution service Repost has posted "we’re calling all independent creators who have been impacted by recent changes on Spotify and Stem to come to SoundCloud to learn more about what the world’s largest audio platform can do for them".
Almost a year since its launch, Spotify is shutting down its upload beta programme, which allows independent artists to load their music directly onto the platform for free. (Spotify) Artists are being given until the end of the month to transition to another distributor, and will only be paid for streams on their uploaded content through July 2019.
Users who “pre-save” an upcoming release to their Spotify accounts may be sharing more personal data with the act’s label than they realise. (Billboard)
Apple Music has now surpassed 60m total subscribers worldwide. That figure includes paid and trial users, according to Apple. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 28 Jun 2019

Learn about synthesizers via Ableton’s interactive website. (Ableton)
Daedelus and Bleep Labs make new modular-friendly sampler delay module, Delaydelus 2. (Fact)
Pro-ject have launched a new range of home turntables called the T1, starting at £239. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 21 Jun 2019

Novation have shared the first look at their eagerly anticipated Summit synthesiser, through a Beats & Bites livestream. (Novation)
Output releases accessible granular synthesis effects plugin, Portal. (Fact)
Apple Music has launched a series of brand new exclusive Ibiza playlists, curated by Ministry Of Sound, Defected, Glitterbox, Ushuaïa, Hï Ibiza and Mixmag. (Mixmag)
Facebook has announced a digital currency called Libra that will allow its billions of users to make financial transactions across the globe. (Guardian)
Mixstep, a site created to allow DJs and producers to upload their work has shut itself down after being targeted by the RIAA. (TorrentFreak)
Spotify is now offering the ability for advertisers to target listeners based on which types of podcasts they’re streaming. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 14 Jun 2019

Shazam can now recognise songs you’re listening to through your headphones when using an Android phone or tablet. (TechCrunch)
Qobuz launches its hi-res music streaming service in the US. (Forbes)

ISSUE: 07 Jun 2019

A new synth, MOTOR, from Gamechanger Audio uses real electric motors to generate and manipulate sounds. (DJ Mag)
AEG-backed ticketing agency AXS has partnered with YouTube to allow fans to purchase tickets to live events through it. (IQ)
Universal Music Group is working with Super Hi-Fi to offer artists new AI tools for creating engagement on streaming platforms. (DMN)
SoundCloud is launching its ad-free subscription tier, SoundCloud Go+, in Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. (Billboard)
Remix and DJ set clearance company Dubset is launching a new partnership with Beatport that will allow select remixes cleared through its MixBANK platform to be available for download on Beatport. (RotD)
Apple is breaking up its iTunes software into separate apps for music, podcasts and video. (Apple)
Spotify’s experimental lean-back listening app Stations is now available for both iOS and Android devices in the US. Stations is a minimalist spin-off of the standard Spotify app that effectively mimics the experience of listening to the radio by requiring less manual input from users. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 31 May 2019

Pioneer is partnering with Dubset Media to upload, clear, and distribute mixes right from their iOS DJ-mix recording app, DJM-REC. (Pioneer DJ)
Ableton release Live 10.1 as a free download. (DJ Mag)
SoundCloud is to acquire rights management and distribution company Repost Network. (Billboard) With the acquisition, SoundCloud can offer "high-performing, emerging creators" distribution, analytics and content protection.
SoundCloud previously launched a DJ performance software integration with Native Instruments' Traktor DJ 2, a program that selectors use to pick, play and mix songs live. Now, users can access the entire catalogue of 200m tracks by 20m creators. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 24 May 2019

YouTube has launched a couple of new ways to advertise on its platform, which may be of use for artists or smaller labels who are lacking the time and resources for creating and editing video ads. (Google, MusicAlly)
Niche streaming services try to break music fans' 'one subscription' habit. (Forbes)
Multi-faceted artist Virgil Abloh has designed his own CDJ and mixer in collaboration with Pioneer DJ that will be displayed at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. (Mixmag)
Denon DJ announce it will be updating their PRIME series DJ hardware to include streaming capabilities. The new update, which will be rolled out throughout the summer, will include streaming directly from Beatport, SoundCloud, TiDAL and Beatsource without a computer. (DJ Mag)
Beatport integrates LINK subscription service with Denon DJ hardware. (MBW)
The Night League and Apple Music are teaming up to bring you a series of playlists called the Sounds of Ibiza 2019, showcasing the finest music played on the White Isle this summer. (Mixmag)
ByteDance, owner of the popular video app TikTok, is developing a paid music service for emerging markets. (Bloomberg) The company has already secured rights from T-Series and Times Music, two of India’s largest labels. An ad-supported free tier is also mooted.

ISSUE: 17 May 2019

5 of the best foolproof synths (Mixmag)
Elektron introduce Digitone Keys (Mixmag)
Pioneer DJ’s new beginner controller is built for streaming music and smartphone DJing. (Verge)
Dubset adds ‘MixCrate’ feature to help DJs find tracks. (RotD)
SoundCloud has launched its latest DJ software integration with Pioneer DJ. Through its We DJ app, SoundCloud users can instantly stream and mix SoundCloud’s catalogue of 200m tracks from 20m creators. (Verge)
Beatport has launched a DJ subscription streaming service called Beatport LINK. It's available now via Pioneer DJ's WeDJ app, with further integrations and an offline performance mode coming soon. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 10 May 2019

Review: Pioneer DJ SQUID (DJ Techtools)
CV Tools for Live is coming soon. (Ableton)
Control your modular with Ableton's new CV Tools plug-ins. (RA)
Behringer plans to clone the Yamaha CS-80 (RA)
Pioneer Corporation is considering selling off its stake in Pioneer DJ. The Japanese electronics giant currently holds a 15% stake in the separate DJ equipment company. (RA)
Ilan Bluestone to headline live stream in celebration of Anjunabeats and Twitch partnership. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 03 May 2019

Spotify is testing a new subscription called Premium Duo that offers you two Premium subscriptions for the discounted price of €12.49 a month. (Verge)
SoundCloud is "adding even more handcrafted playlists, curated by some of the leading names in music" for Premier members.
Deezer appoints ex-BBC and Nothing Else Matters exec Nigel Harding as VP of Artist Marketing. (RotD)

ISSUE: 03 May 2019

Microphones 101: A practical guide for electronic musicians. (IDJ)
Yamaha might be bringing back its classic CS-80 synthesizer. (Fact)
Moog designs ultra-limited Spectravox vocoder and spectral modulator for Moogfest. (Fact)
A Bob Moog documentary, Electronic Voyager, is in the works. (RA)
Soundcloud have announced DEX 3 DJ software integration. (Magnetic)
Anjunabeats and Twitch have announced a partnership which will allow streamers to incorporate over 350 Anjunabeats releases into their content. To celebrate the partnership they have announced a special live stream event with some of their artists. (EDM)
In its first-quarter earnings report, Spotify said it had 217m worldwide users, up from 207m at the end of last year. Of those, 100m are paying subscribers, compared with 96m at the end of 2018. It had revenue of €1.5bn, a 33% increase from the same period a year earlier and a net loss of €142m. The catalogue continues to grow by close to 40,000 tracks every day. (Guardian)

ISSUE: 26 Apr 2019

Moog has launched its new semi-modular analog synth, Matriarch. (DJ Mag)
Pioneer DJ has announced a16-track hardware sequencer for $599. The SQUID offers extensive CV and MIDI control at a lower price than many competitors. (RA)
Tips on how to appear in Spotify playlists. (DMN)
YouTube Music is now offering a free, ad-supported experience on Google Home speakers. (RotD)
Following the success of the 'First On SoundCloud' campaigns in the US, UK and Germany, SoundCloud has announced phase two of its developing artists programme. Electronic dance artists featured: DNMO, GRiZ, & Mark Knight (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 19 Apr 2019

5 of the best modular gateways. (Mixmag)
Loopmasters have updated Loopcloud to version 4.0, adding a new comprehensive Loop Editor. (DJ Mag)
MWM offers an alternative to turntable needles with new wireless DJ control technology, Phase. (RA)
Pioneer DJ has launched its latest controller designed for its Rekordbox DJ software, the two-channel DDJ-800. (Fact)
Mother Tongue, a new pressing plant, label, distributor and online shop, has launched in Italy. (RA)
The music-sharing service Resonate has been relaunched and is now operating on a "stream to own" model. (DJ Mag)
Spotify has opened a Research and Development hub in London. (RotD)
Artist service provider CD Baby is partnering with digital content identification, licensing, and monetisation company Audible Magic to increase content protection for artists and labels. (RotD, Billboard)
Bandcamp has announced a new service that allows artists to launch crowdfunding campaigns for vinyl releases. (Pitchfork)
Amazon is said to be launching a free, ad-supported music service as soon as next week, sources tell Billboard. It would market the free music service through its voice-activated Echo speakers, sources say, and would offer a limited catalogue.

ISSUE: 12 Apr 2019

MFB reboots the 301, a German analogue drum computer from 1979. (RA)
Review: Serato Studio (Magnetic)
350+ influencers with a collective audience of 3.5bn people are flocking to a platform called Escapex, which gives them their own apps. It’s part of the next wave of social media focused on smaller, more private groups. (FastCo)
Thanks to the Internet Archive, there is access to lost digital songs that were held on MySpace. (Outline)
Spotify has rolled out a new set of streaming conversion metrics on Ad Studio, allowing artist teams to further measure the impact ad campaigns have on streaming. (Spotify)
Spotify will potentially shift focus away from editorial playlists, in favour of providing more multi-faceted, democratic tools for record companies and artists to promote their music. (Billboard)
The majors are demanding more money for songs played on TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin. (Bloomberg)
SoundCloud has launched new DJ software integration with Virtual DJ. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 29 Mar 2019

Serato has launched a beta version of their new beatmaking software called Serato Studio. (Mixmag)
SSL have announced SiX, a desktop mixer that brings all the classic sound from SSL consoles to your home studio. (DJ Mag)
Mr. G distances himself from Roland TR-8S drum kit that uses his name. (Fact)
Beatport has added Bass House as a new genre category. It is the first digital music store to add the genre category. (Mixmag)
Spotify will now use algorithms to partially 'personalise' some of its editorial playlists based on listeners' tastes, marking a major shift in the way users discover music. (Spotify)
Apple and Spotify are dueling over how much to pay songwriters. (RollingStone)
Apple Music rebrands The A-List: Dance playlist as danceXL. (Billboard)
Mixcloud has announced another wave of features and creators for its fan-to-creator channel subscription service, Mixcloud Select. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 22 Mar 2019

Native Instruments details Massive X, the sequel to one of the world's most popular soft synths. (RA)
Myspace has lost all music uploaded to the site between 2003 and 2015 - around 50 million songs by 14 million artists, as well as all users’ media from the first 12 years of the site's existence. (TechCrunch)
Music fans have been warned not to buy gig tickets on Facebook because fraudsters are using profiles on the site to steal thousands of pounds. (Times)
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has spoken about Apple, and the charge for a subscription via the Spotify app: “You can see us having no other choice than to accept the 30 per cent fee put in place, which essentially would mean we would have to raise our prices for consumers all over the world”. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 15 Mar 2019

How to Ableton (like a pro) (Dylan Tallchief)
Inside: Novation's Innovative Instrument Laboratory. (Electronic Beats)
New granular Eurorack module expands Mutable Instruments Clouds. (RA)
Spotify has defended its recent decision to appeal royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board, calling into question "significant flaws" in how they were determined. (Billboard)
Spotify talks pitching, artists and podcasts in the Nordics. (Musically)

ISSUE: 08 Mar 2019

ISLA Instruments is making a 'spiritual successor' to E-Mu's SP-1200 sampler. (RA)
Roland debuts extensive techno pack for producers. (DJ Mag)
SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor on putting the artist first. (Forbes)
Dubset's CEO Stephen White talks about the new partnership with Soundcloud. (OneEDM)
Amazon is launching a new feature called Song ID that will announce the title and the artist name before playing each song over Alexa. (TechCrunch)
Warner Music has signed a licensing deal with Dubset. (DMN) The licensing startup’s online mixed-audio distribution platform analyses content from music creators to identify the use of original recordings within remixes, samples and mixes.

ISSUE: 01 Mar 2019

The Orchard and Audible Magic partner to address the industry-wide problem of verifying music rights ownership. (Platform&Stream)

ISSUE: 22 Feb 2019

New Rekordbox beta offers cloud analysis, hints at upcoming subscription model. (DJ Mag)
SoundCloud have partnered with distributor FUGA and unveiled a tool to allow artists to distribute directly to streaming services. (Billboard) The tool will pass through 100% of earnings from those platforms back to the creator, meaning SoundCloud takes no additional cut, nor will they be charging additional distribution fees.
Esports economy tipped to pass $1bn for first time in 2019. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 15 Feb 2019

High-resolution music service Qobuz has made its much-anticipated American debut. (Rolling Stone)
Beatport and subscription-based digital DJ record pool DJcity announced they would be combining their resources to launch Beatsource, a new digital music retail experience for open-format DJs. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 08 Feb 2019

The synths, controllers and gear from NAMM 2019 offer us a look into the future. (Fact)
Roland files for trademarks on its TB-303 and TR-808 designs. (RA)
Ableton announces Live 10.1. (RA)
App Disco FM is the must-have app for all the crate diggers and vinyl record collectors. (DJ Mag)
Swedish music company Amuse, part distributor, part record label, is launching a way for artists to get paid up to six months’ royalties in advance. (MusicAlly)
An audience of millions has been claimed for a 10 minute concert by Marshmello in the wildly popular online game Fortnite. (Guardian) "A bizarre and exciting glimpse of the future". (Verge) Watch it here. (YouTube) The virtual Fortnite concert has helped the artist drive major streaming, sales gains. (Billboard)
SoundCloud thinks streaming is the future of DJing. (5Mag)

ISSUE: 01 Feb 2019

Behringer announces Crave, a $199 semi-modular synthesiser. (RA)
Arturia’s new MicroFreak synth features 11 digital oscillator modes. (Fact)
TV, games, esports… lessons from outside the music-industry bubble. (MusicAlly)
Marshmello is rumoured to be playing a concert in the Fortnite game this weekend. (Billboard)
The four types of music subscription models in 2019. (MBW)
Los Angeles-based indie startup Create Music Group unveiled a new function for its distribution platform that allows clients to access streaming revenue figures from YouTube, Apple Music/iTunes and Spotify on a daily basis. (Billboard)
Pandora stockholders have approved the company’s $3.5bn acquisition by SiriusXM, which was first reported in September. (Billboard)
SoundCloud's global revenue rose by 80% to €90.7m in 2017, up from €50.3m in 2016. Operating losses shrunk 27% to €51.4m. (RollingStone)
Apple Music reports it now has over 50 million paid subscribers. (SeekingAlpha) During a three-month period where Apple saw a 15% decline in revenue from iPhones, the services business, which includes subscriptions to Apple Music and iTunes downloads, grew 19%. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 25 Jan 2019

Producing music On $1,700 headphones: Crazy or Ideal? (DJ Tech Tools)
Roland TR drum machines now sync automatically with Serato DJ software. (RA)
Denon DJ have announced the Prime 4, an all-in-one DJ unit for their Prime range. (DJ Mag)
Teenage Engineering introduces modular synthesis to the portable Pocket Operator range. (RA)
Songtrust is further extending its global reach - and helping entrepreneurial songwriters and producers get paid - in a new partnership with artist-first music streaming platform Audiomack. (Billboard)
Streaming in Germany grew by over 40% in 2018 with a record 79.5bn streams, according to year-end figures from the German Music Association (BVMI). (Billboard) CD sales dropped 23% on 2017 figures, while vinyl fell 7%.
Global music-streaming: ‘For growth you have to look outside of the Western markets’. (MusicAlly)
Why high-fidelity streaming is the audio revolution your ears have been waiting for. (Forbes)
SoundCloud co-founder Eric Wahlforss announced he will be stepping down from his day-to-day role as chief product officer and transition into an advisory role. (Billboard)
Virtual reality music platform MelodyVR has announced a VR content creation and distribution agreement with AWAL. (RotD) The agreement with AWAL means MelodyVR will have the right to distribute both live and pre-recorded VR content created with AWAL artists.
Spotify is said to be planning to roll out a voice-controlled in-car music player later this year. (FT) The device is said sync to car stereos via Bluetooth connection, as well as preset buttons that correspond to Spotify playlists.
Spotify is launching a feature that makes it easy to block a particular artist from automatically playing in personal and curated playlists as well as charts, radio or a user's personal library. (Billboard)
Dubset launches new API that allows remixers and DJs to clear and distribute their mixes to music streaming services instantly from their software and hardware. (MBW)

ISSUE: 18 Jan 2019

The cult of rotary mixers. (RA)
Korg’s new Minilogue XD is a customizable four-voice polysynth. (Fact)
Korg expands affordable Volca range with new Buchla-inspired Modular and experimental drum synthesiser. (RA)
The Bitfury Group has launched Bitfury Surround, a music entertainment division which aims to create an open-source blockchain platform for the music industry. (Digital Music News)
Beatport has brought back former co-founder/CEO Jonas Tempel to be creative advisor. (MW)
Deezer has launched a free radio app called Radio by Deezer that gives users access to 30,000 radio stations around the world. Listeners can 'like' any song being played on air to add it to their favourite tracks list. (TMN)
Google may be looking to replace Google Play with YouTube Music as the default app for music on Android devices. (Digital Music News)
Pandora has added Voice Mode, a native smart assistant that allows listeners to control its mobile streaming apps using voice commands. (Verge)
As investors have predicted, Spotify is betting on becoming the Netflix of audio - for better or for worse. (Medium - Cherie Hu)
Spotify says it’s getting serious about podcasts and there are lots of questions. (Nieman)
Spotify hits 200m active users, having added 9m people since its 1 November financial disclosure. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 21 Dec 2018

Six of the best freeware dance music plug-ins. (MusicTech)
Top 10 music gear of 2018 (Mixmag)
Roland, the manufacturer and distributor of electronic musical instruments, has announced a partnership to bring masterclasses, production and music making expertise and more to FAC members. (RotD)
Apple Music has quietly axed 'Connect', a rarely-used feature that allowed musicians and fans to “like” and comment on content. (IO)
SoundCloud is now integrated with the newest versions of Serato DJ, allowing DJs to search, play, and mix any song uploaded to SoundCloud natively within Serato. (Verge)

ISSUE: 14 Dec 2018

5 of the best voice machines. (Mixmag)
Arturia's new soft synth Pigments sounds like nothing else. (DJ Mag)
Das Kapital, a high-profile South African DJ and producer, talks about earnings from streaming services. (BI)
Tencent is looking to follow the “Spotify model” and convince music fans in China to pay. It is experimenting by putting some new releases behind a paywall which it plans to gradually increase. Tencent's CEO said: “Spotify’s pay ratio is 45%... we believe we will catch up”. (FT)
Soundation, which allows users to produce, remix and record songs directly in a web browser, has launched a new browser-based studio and visual identity. (RotD)
Spotify for Artists has launched its annual Artist Wrapped, offering users analysis of how their music was discovered and engaged with over the year.

ISSUE: 07 Dec 2018

IK Multimedia Uno review. (Magnetic)
DJ and producer Xmas Gift Guide 2018. (DJ Mag)
Modal's new CRAFTsynth is a mini wavetable synth for £79. (DJ Mag)
Plex, a global streaming media company that compiles many media types together in one app, is partnering with Tidal. (Billboard)
Spotify appears to be testing a new feature on Android devices to allow users to import songs. (DMN)
Spotify has revealed the most streamed artists, tracks and albums for the first 11 months of 2018. Calvin Harris' One Kiss (with Dua Lipa) was the highest featuring dance related act at No.2 in the most streamed tracks in the UK across their charts. (RotD)
Mixcloud now lets DJs, labels, podcasters and other creators charge subscriptions for their channels. Named Mixcloud Select, fans are able to pay a monthly fee – set by the channel and starting at $2.99 – to support a channel and the music it plays. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 30 Nov 2018

Free modular software VCV Rack now hosts VST plugins. (Fact)
How to start making electronic music using Native Instruments Maschine Mk3 and Komplete Kontrol. (Metro)
10 digital audio workstations for the beginner producer. (RB)
MusicAlly’s guide to AI music: startups, artists and big questions.
Audio streaming platform Mixcloud and the Merlin Network have signed a multi-year direct licensing agreement for the independent sector. (Billboard)
SoundCloud and Dubset announced a partnership to test and develop next-generation approaches to clearing remixes on SoundCloud. (GrooveCartel)
Better data than never: Publishers finally get under the Spotify bonnet. (Synchblog)
Three years after YouTube launched a subscription streaming service aimed at making it a destination for premium programming, it is shifting its strategy. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 23 Nov 2018

Bristol synth store Elevator Sound launches Machina Bristronica modular expo. (RA)
Ableton has released a set of new videos in its Learn Live series. (XLR8R)
Spotify and Pandora Media see new audiences and possible profits with an expansion into podcasts — if they can figure out a solid business model. (WSJ)

ISSUE: 16 Nov 2018

The online record store, Bleep.com has opened a physical pop-up store in Dalston, London. (Fact)
Reverb.com have launched a new app for buying and selling records. (DJ Mag)
Steinberg have announced Cubase 10, the newest version of the long-running music making software. (DJ Mag)
'Major update' to MIDI on the way as Ableton, Native Instruments join MMA. (RA)
Review: VirtualDJ 2018 outmatches Serato DJ Pro, Traktor Pro 3 in innovation. (DJ TechTools)
Deezer have confirmed the release of the season 2 of Trailblazers, the podcast series honouring famous artists, DJs and creators who have inspired and transformed the electronic music. Season 2 features Paul Oakenfold, David Rodigan, Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire), Paul Van Dyk and Tom Middleton. (Music Week)
SoundCloud is doubling down on pre-release collaboration with expanded private sharing. (DMN)
Beatport has announced they will soon let you play its entire catalogue directly from your DJ software. (DT)
Beatport has launched a contest that grants producers the chance to be mentored by top record labels like mau5trap, Hospital Records, Dirtybird and Second State. (Mixmag)
Spotify has launched its Publishing Analytics in beta to give publishers daily streaming statistics for the works and recordings they have identified, including playlist performance, as well as the ability to view data for each of the songwriters on their roster. (Billboard)
Spotify and SoundGirls launch ‘EQL Directory', a global database for women in audio and music production. (Spotify)
Spotify has launched in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories and Egypt. (Billboard) The service will cost about half of the $9.99 subscription rate it charges in the US.

ISSUE: 09 Nov 2018

5 of the best new hardware effects. (Mixmag)
UK synth stores Elevator Sound and Cymru Beats are joining forces, resulting in one of Britain's largest stockists of modular gear. (RA)
Maschine Mikro MK3 review: The best intro to Native Instrument’s beat-making system. (Fact)
Top blockchain-based projects that support DJs and producers. (DJ TechTools)
Universal Music Group has licensed its catalogue to African music streaming service Boomplay, and will also try to build a stronger global audience for African acts. (FT)
YouTube claims to have paid out over $1.8bn in ad revenue to the music industry over the past year from October 2017 to September 2018. (Billboard)
Spotify will charge for some Spotify For Artists products and services, CEO Daniel Ek stated during last week's earnings call. (Hypebot)
Apple is reportedly in talks to partner with iHeartMedia, which could see the tech giant's Beats 1 radio station make its way to broadcast radio. iHeartMedia is reportedly hoping the tie-up might include an investment having filed for bankruptcy protection in March. (Verge)
Apple has launched a "Apple-Preferred Distribution Program”, naming The Orchard, CD Baby and EU based aggregator Kontor New Media as "Preferred Plus" partners, and rewarding them with advanced customer features and analytics not available to their competitors. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 02 Nov 2018

IK Multimedia UNO synth review: A contender for the budget synth crown. (Fact)
The winners of DJ Tech Awards have been announced with Pioneer winning five awards for their equipment. (DJ Mag)
Facebook is building Lasso, a standalone product where users can record and share videos of themselves lip syncing or dancing to popular songs. (TechCrunch)
Following SoundCloud's announcement earlier this month it was expanding its Premier direct-monetisation programme to a broader swath of users, it has now updated contract terms that outraged some creators. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 26 Oct 2018

AKG introduces 3 new headphones with pure studio sound. (Mixmag)
Behringer Pro-1 synth clone to sell for $299. (RA)
Discogs has launched its new online marketplace for hard-to-find releases. (DJ Mag)
Ticketmaster has acquired live events blockchain platform Upgraded, which makes tickets easy to transfer and impossible to duplicate. (Billboard)
Spotify’s Playlist Submission feature is out of beta. Since the feature became available, more than 67,000 artists and labels have submitted music. (Spotify)
SoundCloud and Dubset Media Holdings announced a partnership to help solve the clearance of remixes, mixes and more. (Billboard)
A new integration deal between SoundCloud and Facebook-owned Instagram now allows creators and users to share songs from its app directly to Instagram Stories. (TMN)

ISSUE: 19 Oct 2018

Novation's latest midi keyboard comes with built-in sequencer and CV out. (DJ Mag)
Pioneer DJ launches HDJ-X5BT Bluetooth DJ headphones. (Magnetic)
DJ gear prices going up as Trump’s trade war hits the dance industry. (DJ Tech Tools)
Diplo, Richie Hawtin, and Junkie XL to release sound packs for Sounds.com series. (EDM)
Marshmello's Alone video passes one billion YouTube views. (Billboard)
Mixcloud and Universal Music Group have announced a direct licensing deal. (RotD)
SoundCloud is adding lossless streaming to its SoundCloud Go+ streaming service. It already enabled artists to make songs available to download in lossless quality. (VentureBeat)
Soundcloud has announced partnerships with Native Instruments, Serato, Virtual DJ, DEX3, Mixvibes and DJuced/Hercules allowing DJs to stream and mix SoundCloud’s massive music catalogue in real time via their DJ performance software of choice, with most integrations rolling out in 2019. (Variety)
Spotify has taken a minority stake in music distribution service, DistroKid. The company didn’t confirm the size of its stake, only saying that it made a “passive minority investment”. Spotify will also upgrade its Spotify for Artists service to include an integration with DistroKid that allows artists to simultaneously upload content to other platforms. (TechCrunch, Billboard) Spotify will not have rights to see data from other DSPs.

ISSUE: 12 Oct 2018

5 of the best 808-style beatmakers. (Mixmag)
Moog shares first footage of flagship Moog One polysynth. (Fact)
DJ Snake has become the fifth artist in Spotify history to rack up more than one billion streams on two original songs - Lean On with Major Lazer & MØ and Let Me Love You with Justin Bieber. (Billboard)
SoundCloud is opening up its direct monetisation programme to the public, finally giving most artists the ability to make money off of the platform. The programme, called SoundCloud Premier, was created four years ago but has been limited to an invite-only beta until now. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 05 Oct 2018

The Natus One makes any DJ headphones wireless and claims to offer near zero latency. (DJ Mag)
Akai has announced the first dedicated hardware controller for FL Studio. (RA)
Moog reveals new flagship polysynth, the Moog One. It's the company's most powerful synth since the beloved Voyager. (RA)
Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) has filed to IPO in the US. It is the largest music streaming company in China and owns QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo and WeSing. (Billboard)
Apple Music and the Ministry of Sound label have struck an exclusive playlist deal that will effectively shut out Spotify. (Variety) A source said that those playlists will be removed from Spotify and other non-Apple streaming services in the coming days.

ISSUE: 28 Sep 2018

Yamaha’s new MODX brings the FM synthesizer into the modern era. (Fact)
Spotify has begun testing adding personalised song selections to its editor-curated playlists. (Billboard)
Apple has completed the acquisition of Shazam and will soon be making the service ad free to use for everyone, removing the app’s ad-supported free tier. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 21 Sep 2018

Eurorack company Make Noise is releasing a new version of the René sequencer. (Mixmag)
Why Ableton is the go-to for an electronic artists live show. (Stoney Roads)
Yamaha has announced the release of a new mid-priced hybrid synth, the MODX. (Fact)
Since last Friday, SoundCloud on-demand plays in the UK and Ireland will now be included in the Official Charts in the UK and Ireland. (RouteNote)

ISSUE: 14 Sep 2018

Tinami launches Kickstarter for customizable MIDI controllers. (Fact)
Native Instruments reveals new Traktor Kontrol S4 with motorized wheels. (RA)
Behringer has unveiled a clone of the legendary 909 drum machine. (DJ Mag)
SoundCloud has announced a new personalised playlist called SoundCloud Weekly. Updated every Monday, it will serve up 30 tracks and DJ mixes. (Verge)

ISSUE: 07 Sep 2018

Five new gear releases that cost under £300. (Mixmag)
MasterSounds and TPI have released a new isolator, TRBxM, to stop turntable feedback. (RA)
Pioneer DJ launches XDJ-RR all-in-one system for aspiring DJs. (FACT)
Dave Smith Instruments rebrands as Sequential after Yamaha returns rights. (RA)
The Swiss Museum & Center for Electronic Music Instruments (SMEM), which holds the largest collection of synths has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help build a public studio. (RA)
Sentric Music has launched RightsApp - a software and service platform that enables rightsholders to register works, track royalties, manage their catalogue, boost revenue and collect earnings worldwide from one centralised hub. (RotD)

ISSUE: 31 Aug 2018

Mastering studio Curve Pusher is opening a new facility in Hastings. (RA)
Moog discontinues Moogerfooger effect pedal line after 20 years. (Fact)
Korg's Electribe Wave app turns an iPad into an EDM beat machine. (Engadget)
11 shades of dance music: How Spotify breaks down Melodic Bass, Afro House and more. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 24 Aug 2018

Discogs now lets you buy records using iOS app. (RA)
High-end turntable manufacturers Mofi Electroinic have introduced a new entry-level model called StudioDeck. (DJ Mag)

ISSUE: 17 Aug 2018

Roli teams up with FXpansion to create Cypher2 virtual synth. (MagneticMag)
Apogee joins Moog in criticising US trade tariffs with China. (DJ Mag)
Spotify celebrates Mint dance playlist's 5m followers with merch Collection promoting mental health. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 10 Aug 2018

Boiler Room expands beyond music streaming to culture and politics with new video push. (DigiDay)
SoundCloud users can now leave comments and interact with tracks directly from the mobile app. (NoisePrn)

ISSUE: 03 Aug 2018

The ten best MIDI keyboards. (AttackMagazine)

ISSUE: 27 Jul 2018

A UK start-up has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a drum machine inside a bouncing ball that can be thrown at any surface to make beats. (Fact)
Arturia have announced a new analogue drum machine called DrumBrute Impact designed to be more affordable and transportable. (DJMag)

ISSUE: 20 Jul 2018

Native Instruments expands Sounds.com to UK and Europe, adds free trial mode. (Fact)
Ableton Loop announces first names for 2018 edition. (Fact)
Viryl Technologies launches online “global pressing plant”. (Fact)
MasterSounds is releasing a second-generation product suite, in association with technology partner Union Audio. (Pulse)
Evermix - the DJ mix recording and sharing company - have announced a new Android-compatible app and hardware component is currently in development, due to be released in August this year. (DJMag)

ISSUE: 13 Jul 2018

Eurorack prices fall as demand for modules continues to surge. (RA)
Modal Electronics announces SKULPT, a portable polyphonic synthesiser. (RA)
Elektron begins beta-testing Overbridge 2.0 software. (RA)

ISSUE: 06 Jul 2018

Trump’s import tariffs on Chinese goods will heavily impact Moog. (Mixmag)
WhoSampled has announced an updated version of its mobile app featuring Shazam-like music recognition technology to identify samples in surrounding audio. (Billboard, RotD)
Tom Connaughton has been promoted to UK Managing Director at Spotify. (Variety) Connaughton joined Spotify in April as UK Head of Artist and Label Marketing, following seven years with Vevo.
SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor has said he is “very pleased” with the service’s growth after implementing a turnaround plan. (MusicWeek)
Gareth Emery's blockchain music streaming service Choon has started the public sale of its NOTES tokens, having raised $2m during the pre-sale. (TheBlockchain)

ISSUE: 29 Jun 2018

Arturia’s KeyLab MKII controllers work with your laptop and modular synth. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ's new controller is "the ideal piece of kit for first-time DJs”. (Mixmag)
Video consumption will be included in the UK Official Singles Chart from this Friday (29 June) with the first Chart published on 6 July. (RotD, OCC) Also, the sales:streams ratio for subscription and ad-funded streams, including video streams, will change to 1:100 and 1:600 respectively. The changes will not affect the Albums Chart.
YouTube creators are gaining a number of new tools to generate revenue from their videos outside of traditional advertising, as well as those that will help them better engage their fans. This includes the rollout of channel memberships, merchandising, marketing partnerships via FameBit and the launch of “Premieres,” which offers a middle ground between pre-recorded, edited video and live streaming. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 22 Jun 2018

3LAU, Prime Social Group, and SingularDTV are throwing the first ever blockchain-powered festival, OUR Music Festival. (DA)
Red Bull is launching a new show on its Twitch called Remix Lab where artists will come on and remix a song in real time. (MagneticMag)
Billboard Radio China airs new EDM Show, Unite With Tomorrowland On Air. (Billboard)
Behringer threatens Chinese tech blog with legal action for calling it "shameless”. (Mixmag)
German online dance music retailer DJshop/Djtunes announced that it will be ceasing its digital download service for both of its websites. (CelebrityAccess)
SoundCloud and Noisey are partnering on a new digital singles series intended to promote independent artists. (Billboard)
SoundCloud has announced the launch of its First On SoundCloud campaign in the UK, giving artists Claptone, Jan Blomqvist, Jay Prince, Little Simz, Lotic and Peggy Gou features throughout the SoundCloud app, social, newsletters and London advertising. (RotD, Billboard)
Beatport has introduced Hype Charts to its website in order to “strengthen its commitment to developing independent music and labels”, give smaller labels “greater visibility” and make it easier to identify unique and upcoming music from all over the world. (Mixmag)
A free ad-supported version of YouTube Music has launched in the UK along with YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership that gives you background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience for £9.99 a month. (RotD, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, BBC, MusicAlly) The service is now available in 17 countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Ireland.
YouTube will have to significantly increase the amount it pays to record labels for their music, under a new European copyright regime set to come into force next year. The European parliament will this week vote on an updated copyright directive designed to boost licensing fees for musicians, songwriters and other content creators. (Times)

ISSUE: 15 Jun 2018

Allen & Heath's Xone 96 mixer delivers "space-shaking analogue sound”. (Mixmag)
Ableton releases eight free creative tools for Live 10 Suite owners. (Fact)
MTV UK launches new Club MTV channel. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 08 Jun 2018

SoundCloud announces global programmatic partnership with AppNexus. (PRNewswire)
Ableton launches Creative Extensions Pack for Live Suite 10. (RA)

ISSUE: 01 Jun 2018

Vevo announced it will "phase out" elements of its owned and operated platforms - meaning its mobile apps and consumer website - and move forward as a pure distributor of music videos (and related content) and advertising seller for that material. (RotD, Billboard)
Peex, aims to “improve the connection between fans and artists” by enabling audiences to create their own five-channel mix of live shows. (RotD, IQ)
Black Coffee’s mixes from his Hï Ibiza residency will air exclusively on Beats 1 bi-weekly alongside sets from special guest DJs. (DJMag)
Splice releases VocalSynth 2, helping producers create amazing-sounding vocals. (DA)
Pioneer DJ's DDJ-SX3 controller is prime for back-to-back sets. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 25 May 2018

Melody VR showcases its extensive library of concert footage at NYC launch event, including The Chainsmokers, Kygo, and Kaskade. (DA)
In-venue music recognition technology is changing artist payouts — one country at a time. (DMN)
Music broadcasting platform Boiler Room has announced the launch of 4.3, a streaming platform with curated content supported by multi-faceted events that combine screenings, live music, installations and DJ sets. (RotD, Campaign)
ICE has announced a new multi-territory licensing deal with Mixcloud, which covers PRS, STIM and GEMA repertoire for their combined 290,000 members and repertoire for some of the leading independent music publishers. (RotD, Billboard)

ISSUE: 18 May 2018

Moog reveals new limited edition semi-modular analogue synthesiser, Grandmother. (RA)

ISSUE: 11 May 2018

Erica Synths reveals modular drum system designed for industrial techno. (RA)
Bastl Instruments launches two new Eurorack modules. (RA)
New online station Skylab Radio to launch in Melbourne. (RA)
YouTube has a new deal with Vevo that lets it sell Vevo’s clips directly to advertisers. Previously, Vevo’s own sales force had first dibs on the videos, relegating Google to automated, remnant ad sales. (Recode)
Eventbrite has partnered with Instagram to allow fans to buy tickets directly from events and businesses' profiles. (IQ)
Instagram soon to add "music stickers" and song auto-detection for Stories. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 04 May 2018

Dave Smith Instruments launches Prophet X synthesiser. (RA)
Ikea and Teenage Engineering tease new low-cost impromptu DJ setup. (DA)
Shure to discontinue record cartridges and needles. (RA)
Native Instruments is rebuilding Traktor "from ground-up”. (Mixmag)
A trick of YouTube’s algorithms has led to the blossoming of hundreds of unlicensed, independent radio stations on the site, reminiscent of an age of underground broadcasts in the previous century. (NYT)
ForTunes co-founder, CEO Florian Richling on aggregating & using artist data smarter. (MagneticMag)
Gareth Emery’s Choon platform has launched. (Medium) The UK-based music-streaming service uses blockchain technology and its own ‘Notes’ tokens to pay artists and reward fans.
Spotify and Instagram will allow users to share what their listening to via their Instagram Stories or Instagram Direct and encourage their followers to tune in as well. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 27 Apr 2018

Native Instruments promises new Traktor DJ hardware and software this year. (Fact)
Behringer shares plans to clone Roland’s System-100m modular synth. (Fact)
Guestsnow is the go-to platform for managing events. (Mixmag)
Deezer launches Trailblazers podcast celebrating dance music legends. (CelebrityAccess)

ISSUE: 20 Apr 2018

Moog previews exclusive Moogfest synth, the Subharmonicon. (Fact)
Behringer to develop range of 'affordable' Eurorack modules. (RA)
Mutable Instruments announces Stages, a flexible modulation module. (RA)
Following the recent allegations made against London station Radar Radio, claiming the platform fostered an abusive working environment and exploited women, people of colour, queer and trans people, it has now suspended its broadcast. (Mixmag)
Instead of stealing instruments, musicians turn to Splice. (TechCrunch)
As LANDR begins to offer music distribution to Beatport, Senior Vice President of Music, Marketing and Analytics Terry Weerasinghe discusses the importance of labels in electronic music, how Beatport fits in the current music distribution landscape and dance music in the age of streaming. (Landr)

ISSUE: 13 Apr 2018

Sapphire Slows, Wata Igarashi, Gonno, Sauce81 and Taiji Okuda test some of the best monitors for electronic music production under €800. (RA)
Ninja Tune-branded hardware filter-delay effect spotted in Berlin. (RA)
High definition vinyl could be in stores by next year. (Fact)
ForTunes is an app which helps artists, producers and their representatives get a handle on the data their music generates when it’s played online. (Pulse)

ISSUE: 06 Apr 2018

Mutable Instruments release Marbles, a new random sampler module. (RA)
Black Corporation unveil new analogue synthesiser, KIJIMI. (RA)
Spinnin’ Records has revealed a full rebranding of its top playlists, launching with a new succinct name, making them more compatible for voice-activated technology. (Spinnin)

ISSUE: 29 Mar 2018

The Chainsmokers have become the third act on Spotify to reach 1bn streams on more than one song. (YourEDM)
Armin van Buuren has launched a digital training program for producers and DJs, available online via course provider Masterclass. (DJMag)
Faction, an LA-based technology-enabled talent management company, has announced the launch of its proprietary IOS app, Faction X, which is now live in the Apple App Store. (XLR8R)
Moog releases Minimoog Model D app for iPhone and iPad. (RA)
SoundCloud has added the ability to set a specific date and time in advance to publicly release a track. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 23 Mar 2018

Internet radio service 8tracks has teamed up with Spotify to deliver music based on users' specific taste, in a more organised manner. (Billboard)
SoundCloud has launched a creator-led advertising campaign titled First on SoundCloud. It will promote emerging talent on the platform through new music, video and photography. (SoundCloud, Billboard)
Beatport creates a new Melodic House & Techno genre. (Decoded)
New social music platform, Check My Track, launches to share music ideas. (Decoded)
Armada Music has teamed up with FaderPro to launch Armada University, a platform that offers various masterclasses designed to push the sound of today’s talents to the next level. (Pulse)

ISSUE: 16 Mar 2018

Behringer shares prototype of Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth clone. (Fact)
Google develops touchscreen synthesiser based on artificial intelligence. (RA)
Clickamix, a pre-cleared licensing platform for sports that allow music mixes in competitions, claims an untapped $670m revenue stream for rightsholders by licensing music that is currently mixed and used illegally. (RotD)
Spotify launches in Romania, South Africa, Israel and Vietnam. (IO, Spotify) In South Africa and Israel, a monthly subscription will cost about US$5, roughly twice the fee for users in Vietnam. The service is now across 65 markets worldwide.
Apple has launched Apple Music for Artists “Everything you need to understand your music's impact across Apple Music and iTunes”.
Pioneer DJ’s community-based social network KUVO has received a substantial update full of new features in the hope of “energising the local club communities by matching clubbers and DJs through the power of music.” (MagneticMag, Decoded)
The online music store Traxsource has announced a complete overhaul of its pricing structure. (DT)

ISSUE: 09 Mar 2018

Roland unveils new TR-8S drum machine. (Mixmag)
Resonate, a Berlin-based, community-owned streaming service has announced it has raised $1 million investment from Reflective Ventures. (DJMag)
Start-up Pacemaker has been putting its artificial-intelligence DJ technology through its paces, in what it’s describing as a ‘DJ Turing Test’ against dance star Steve Aoki. (MusicAlly)
Spotify is testing playlists that are auto-mixed – even when on shuffle. (MusicAlly)
SoundCloud announced an expansion of its invite-only Premier monetisation and development platform for creators that includes expanded editorial, marketing and promotional opportunities. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 02 Mar 2018

Oculus Rift reveals a new VR DJ app, Reality Decks. (Mixmag)
Pioneer collaborates with DJ Jazzy Jeff on new Serato controller, DDJ-SB3. (RA)
Serato delivers essential upgrades to bring its software into the future. (Mixmag)
The much loved, alternative Ibiza-based radio station, Open Lab, founded by the late Robert Miles, is currently off the air with no updates or news on any of its digital media channels. (DannyKayak)
BandLab acquires software company Cakewalk from Gibson. (MagneticMag)
YouTube has announced several new features designed to improve the live streaming experience for both creators and viewers, including the ability to play back a live chat after the live stream ends, and the launch of live automatic captions on videos. (TechCrunch)
According to its its 2017 Annual Report, Twitter has had to write off almost all of the $70m it invested into SoundCloud in mid-2016. (Recode) The money is “not expected to be recoverable within a reasonable period of time”.

ISSUE: 23 Feb 2018

Behringer ramps up the controversy by rolling out its Model D. (Mixmag)
Moog releases 25 limited edition $35,000 synthesizers. (Mixmag)
Dubset has been listed at No.2 in the music subsection of FastCompany's Most Innovative Companies 2018.

ISSUE: 16 Feb 2018

Online independent music marketplace Bandcamp paid out more than $270m to artists in 2017. Sales were up for digital albums (16%), digital tracks (33%), merchandise (36%), vinyl (54%), cassettes (41%) and CD (18%). Revenue from the 3,500 independent labels on Bandcamp grew 73%. "The majority of music consumption will eventually take place within the subscription rental services of two or three enormous corporations, who can afford to lose money on music because it attracts customers to the parts of their businesses that are profitable".
At a conference, SoundCloud’s CEO explained how he convinced the board not to sell, saying it was a “one-of-a-kind asset”. (Recode) He said the company would now focus more on its products offered to audio creators — SoundCloud Pro and SoundCloud Pro unlimited. Its invite-only Premier program, which gives artists a share of ad revenue, will include hundreds of thousands of artists in two years. (CNet)
YouTube Red will expand its subscription service to as many as 100 countries, according to YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki. (TechCrunch, Recode)
aiaiai has launched a special edition headphone with Brain Dead. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 09 Feb 2018

Ableton Live 10 is officially out. (DA)
Behringer’s semi-modular Neutron synth due in April for $299. (Fact)
Native Instruments introduce new FX plugin series. (DJMag)
Output’s latest plugin lets you make unusual brass and wind hybrids. (Fact)
Spinnin’ celebrates 20m YouTube subscribers with a look back at their best videos. (YourEDM)
YouTube Go, a mobile version of YouTube built for emerging markets with features like offline viewing and nearby sharing, has expanded to over 130 countries worldwide. (TechCrunch)
Spotify is adding credits for songwriters and producers to songs on its service. (Spotify, Billboard, TechCrunch) For now, they'll only appear within its desktop app.
Gareth Emery launches Choon, a disruptive blockchain-based music streaming service that directs 80% of revenue to artists ‘We’re committed to radical transparency’. (RotD)

ISSUE: 02 Feb 2018

Pittsburgh Modular announces new Microvolt 3900 synthesiser. (RA)
Roland announces software versions of the TR-808 and TR-909. (Mixmag)
Behringer teases original semi-modular analog synth, Neutron. (Fact)
Radikal Technologies announces new semi-modular synthesiser. (RA)
Synths, drum machines, modules and more: Music gear we’re excited for in 2018. (Fact)
The most streamed remixes of 2017. (Spotify)
Spotify is testing ‘Stations’, an Android-only app, in Australia. (TechCrunch) Moving into Pandora’s space, it plays music instantly when opened with stations easily changed by scrolling inside the app.
On Spotify, streams of remixes will now count toward the remixer's monthly listeners. The update applies to all songs with a remix credit dating back to the beginning of 2015. Remixes are also now eligible to appear in the Popular and Latest Releases sections of the remixer's artist profile. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 26 Jan 2018

High-end speaker company ADAM Audio introduces new line of affordable monitors. (RA)
Doepfer introduces new compact analogue synth, Dark Energy III. (RA)
Pioneer DJ releases app for recording DJ mixes to iOS devices. (RA)
Buying headphones in 2018 is going to be a fragmented mess. (Verge)
Premium pedal manufacturer Strymon enters Eurorack market with Magneto delay module. (RA)
Apple has launched Apple Music for Artists, a dashboard designed to provide acts with hundreds of data points giving deep analytical insight into their fans’ listening and buying habits. (Billboard)
YouTube is “simplifying things even more” by bringing together an artist’s subscribers under their Official Artist Channel. Subscribers to an unofficial artist channel will soon be subscribed to their Official Artist Channel and the subscription to any unofficial artist channels will become inactive. (Billboard) Vevo channels, among others, will still be accessible via advanced channel filter in YouTube's search and if a user is specifically searching for the Vevo channel.

ISSUE: 19 Jan 2018

Pioneer unveils new DDJ-1000 controller costing €1,199. (Mixmag)
Arturia reveals new MiniBrute 2S synthesiser. (RA)
The 30 YouTube channels that have surpassed 10 billion lifetime views, including: Spinnin’ Records. (TubeFilter)
Facebook is testing a Watch Party feature, allowing Group admins to pick any public video on Facebook and show it to their members at the same time with a dedicated comment reel to create a “shared viewing experience”. (TechCrunch)
YouTube has changed its eligibility requirement for monetisation on videos: from 10,000 lifetime views to a threshold of 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months, and 1,000 subscribers. (YouTube, NextWeb, Hypebot) It is also introducing a new vetting process for the top-shelf videos it offers advertisers. (Independent)
SoundCloud has added a new feature which presents stats such as plays, likes, reposts, comments and downloads updated in real-time. (YourEDM)
Native Instruments is launching a samples subscription service for musicians. (Fact) Sounds.com offers a $9.99 a month paid tier and a free tier.

ISSUE: 12 Jan 2018

Behringer unveils Oberheim OB-Xa and Roland VP-330 synth clones. (Fact)
Bastl’s Kastle mini modular synth gets new look and sound engine. (Fact)
Sony is unveiling three new high-power home audio systems. (Mixmag)
A new pressing plant, which expects to reach a capacity of 100,000 records per month, has opened in Dublin, Ireland. (Mixmag)
Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Facebook have signed a licensing agreement, meaning songwriters can earn royalties from the use of their music on both Facebook and Instagram. (RotD, TechCrunch, FT)
YouTube is partnering with Ticketmaster to show tour dates. (Hypebot)
SoundCloud is calling claims "inaccurate" that it has changed its streaming audio format and decreased its quality. (Billboard)
TIDAL partners with Dubset for legal DJ sets and remixes. (Hypebot, Verge) Spotify and Apple Music are already partners who expanded their catalogues to include remixes and bootlegs that were previously excluded.

ISSUE: 22 Dec 2017

XLR8R's best of 2017: Gear
Behringer leaks new ‘conceptual’ series of affordable synth and drum machine recreations. (DA)
Discogs marketplace surpasses 37m total releases. (RA)
YouTube record label NoCopyrightSounds celebrates 1m paid downloads, despite giving music away for free. (Billboard)
Universal Music Group has reached a global, multi-year agreement with YouTube. (Billboard) Sony Music is said to have completed an arrangement too.
Tracklib, a global marketplace for music creators to discover, sample and license original recordings, has launched a service for artists and producers to clear samples legally. (PRNewswire) "Tracklib will change the music industry in more ways than anyone could ever imagine," said Tom Silverman, Founder of Tommy Boy Records.
Mixcloud has partnered with Nielsen's Gracenote for advanced music recognition using Gracenote MusicID to more accurately identify copyrighted audio content and ensure proper royalty payments to rights holders. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 15 Dec 2017

djay Pro 2 for Mac uses machine learning to automate your mixes. (Fact)
Behringer have ‘leaked’ what looks like a wide selection of new synths. (DJMag)
Mixcloud has shared its 2017 year-end listening data statistics, including Defected Records as Most Listened-To Label Profile and John Digweed as Most Listened-To Dance Profile. (YourEDM)
SoundCloud's new leader is focused on the fundamentals. (NPR)
SoundCloud is redesigning its app home screen with more focus on playlists and recommendations, including two new own-brand playlists showcasing trending hip-hop and dance tracks. (MusicAlly, TechCrunch)
Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment confirm they will exchange equity stakes of just under 10% of each other by buying new shares in cash. (FTWeekend) Separately, parent group Tencent Holdings will make secondary purchases in Spotify to make up for the difference in valuations between the two music services.
Apple has confirmed the acquisition of Shazam, in a deal thought to be worth $400m. (Billboard, FT, Guardian) Shazam’s revenues last year grew 14% to £40.3m, with a pre-tax losses of £4m.

ISSUE: 08 Dec 2017

Waldorf's new Quantum hybrid synth is available to pre-order. (RA)
Elektron’s Overbridge software goes free, next major update in February 2018. (Fact)
Analogue Solutions reveals new desktop synth. (RA)
Make Noise release new all-in-one modular system. (RA)
MasterClass, the online tutorial service that specialises in bringing iconic creatives to teach speciality skills, has introduced Armin Van Buuren has its newest instructor for 2018. (Mixmag)
Beatport expands platform by adding the Afro House category. (Mixmag)
Music Tech Future has assembled a growing spreadsheet listing female music tech start-up founders.
SoundCloud named the top tracks, genres, musicians, artists to watch and more. (Hypebot)
Spotify is testing a like/dislike button as a possible new feature for Discover Weekly, as it already has for Daily Mix. (Mashable)

ISSUE: 01 Dec 2017

Intellijel introduces multi-dimensional touch controller for modular synths. (RA)
Cakewalk closes and development ends on Sonar software. (Fact)
Elektron’s Overbridge software goes free, next major update in February 2018. (Fact)
Erica Synths releases Acidbox III analogue filter. (RA)
So Far Away by Martin Garrix tops the Supr chart for appearing on the most New Music Friday playlists.
WARM Music puts heat on broken radio royalty business model. (Forbes)
At Slush Music conference, the startup-pitching contest was won by WARM (World Airplay Radio Monitor) overall - previously featured in RotD. Other category winners were ebooks-with-music app Bubo, musician-booking service Encore and playlists platform Soundsgood. (Slush)
Gareth Emery is launching a new music startup called Choon next year, built on the Ethereum blockchain. (MagneticMag)
Armada Music has announced the launch of its own video platform called YourArmada, coming Dec. 1. (DA)

ISSUE: 24 Nov 2017

What to buy bedroom producers for Christmas 2017: Gift ideas from $6 to $749. (Fact)
Novation unveils online edition of Launchpad. (DA)
Gibson Brands is ceasing development of Cakewalk branded products and with it, the popular DAW SONAR. (DJMag)
Vinyl Reality is a new virtual reality vinyl mixing app. (Mixmag)
Jeff Mills reveals limited-edition vinyl stabilizer made from high-density metals. (Mixmag)
SoundCloud shows how its algorithms influence music streams. (Engadget)
Google’s parent company Alphabet has invested in a new startup called UnitedMasters which aims to replace major record labels by supporting artists in a multitude of ways. (Mixmag)
Spotify has acquired online recording and production studio platform Soundtrap for an undisclosed sum. (Billboard, FT, TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 17 Nov 2017

Steinberg announces Cubase 9.5. (RA)

ISSUE: 10 Nov 2017

Berlin's modular synth expo Superbooth expands in 2018. (RA)
Twisted Electrons is releasing a new hardware sequencer. (RA)
Cakewalk’s Momentum is an app for syncing song ideas across mobile and desktop. (Fact)

ISSUE: 03 Nov 2017

Pioneer DJ’s new studio monitors also connect via Bluetooth. (Fact)
Pro-Ject releasing new line of affordable turntables. (RA)
In an update to GarageBand for iOS, Apple is introducing a “Sound Library” that lets users download and install new virtual instruments as well as sound and loop packs. (Verge)
Ableton announces Live 10. (RA)
Music tech company Roli reveal Pharrell as Chief Creative Officer. (Mixmag)
The second edition of 10 Companies to Watch (10C2W) was won by Shawn Wilson of Muzooka, the platform which allows artists and their teams to instantly update the content on any festival, venue, ticketing, or radio website from one central dashboard. (ADE)
British startup offering a ‘pre-cleared, commercial music licensing solution for online video creators’, Hookd, has rebranded as Lickd and added the Hospital Records catalogue. (MusicAlly)
Mixcloud’s plans for premium subscriptions will include the ability for individual DJs, curators and podcasters on its platform to launch subscriptions for their mixes and shows. (Mixcloud)

ISSUE: 27 Oct 2017

Pro-Ject releasing new line of affordable turntables. (RA)
Stem seeks to simplify the payment process for musicians and content creators by ensuring that themselves and their collaborators get paid their fair share in a streamlined, timely manner. (DA)
As previously reported, KUVO, a club culture entertainment service managed by Pioneer DJ, has partnered with Canadian PRO SOCAN to support the fair distribution of royalties to copyright holders of music played at nightclubs in Canada. (Mixmag)
Lean On by DJ Snake, Major Lazer, and MØ is the most-watched dance music video ever (2.2bn+), pushing The Chainsmokers’ Closer to the No.2 position. (DA)

ISSUE: 20 Oct 2017

Tim Exile’s SLOR plug-in uses “infinite resonators” to turn a beat into a chord. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ’s latest piece of gear is a CDJ-sized standalone sampler. (Fact)
Spotify has moved to formalise the process by which major and independent labels pitch for slots in the Browse section of its service, with a quota-based system applying to global and local playlists. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 13 Oct 2017

KOMA Elektronik reveal experimental Field Kit FX modular processor. (RA)
Dreadbox releases €140 DIY version of Hades analogue synth. (RA)
Mutable Instruments discontinues popular Clouds module. (Fact)
SOCAN and Muzooka collaborate to streamline live show reporting for artists. (Socan)
WARM – The World Airplay Radio Monitor – offers a tool for providing an overview of an artist’s airplays worldwide. (Mixmag)
Affordable radio airplay monitoring platform WARM has the potential to boost DIY artists, indie labels, promoters, marketers and more using the power knowledge. Jesper Skibsby, CEO & Founder, explains more about the opportunities it presents. (RotD)

ISSUE: 06 Oct 2017

Sample Magic release new sequencer instrument, Klip. (DJMag)
Mutable Instruments modules turned into free Max For Live devices. (Fact)
Bowers & Wilkins release wireless, noise-cancelling headphones. (RA)
Discogs, the crowdsourced online music marketplace popular among vinyl collectors, has surpassed nine million releases on the site. (Billboard)
SoundCloud has added a new stat tracker for creators which allows users to see who's posting their tracks in playlists and the plays they're generating. (SoundCloud)

ISSUE: 29 Sep 2017

Nashville-based music tech company Remix Hits has announced the creation of a hit song ‘stem marketplace’ so DJs can create new mixes. Sony Music has signed a deal to offer stems. (DMN)
Ibiza White FM - a radio station located in the heart of Ibiza - has just brand-new apps for Android and iOS. (DJMag)
Eight of the most important modular synthesizers in music history. (Fact)
Are modular synths worth the hype? Four artists share their Eurorack secrets. (Fact)
A list of the 50 most followed Spotify curators along with how many playlists they curate and the total number of followers for all of their playlists combined. (EDMSauce)

ISSUE: 22 Sep 2017

YouTube have recently announced a whole batch of updates and upgrades, including a touched-up user interface, but one of their newest features is still being rolled-out, with the video sharing service doing what they can to become more like Facebook. (IO)
Spotify's new iMessage app lets you send and receive songs from friends without closing out of the conversation. (Billboard)
In an important copyright lawsuit from a music publisher that Spotify faces over mechanical rights, a judge denied a motion from it that suggested it doesn’t need to license those rights in the first place. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 15 Sep 2017

Apple is expected to make significant changes to its iTunes store from September 15. Among changes, on the Main Page, Hot Tracks will be replaced by the Best of the Week slider. Hot Tracks will remain on the Apple Music main page, however Hot Albums will no longer be displayed in US and UK markets. (TMN)
Pioneer DJ launches Rekordbox 5, DDJ-XP1, Teases XDJ-RX2. (DJTechTools)
Pioneer DJ's new controller opens up "creative possibilities to DJ performances". (Mixmag)
Spotify no longer supports Apple’s Safari browser. (TNW)
Spotify is said to have crossed 150 million active users worldwide, and is rapidly approaching 65m paying subscribers. (DMN)
From Brazilian gospel to Puerto Rican reggaeton and Dutch hip-hop, Deezer is scouring the globe for gaps in the market where it can survive and thrive against Spotify and Apple. (Reuters)
According to a financial projection from 2016, SoundCloud’s then-CEO Alexander Ljung offered a rather sober forecast for profitability, with much of it revolved around Soundcloud Go, a premium product that remains to prove itself. (DMN)

ISSUE: 08 Sep 2017

Beats launches new Studio 3 Wireless headphones with improved battery life and noise canceling. (Fact)
Technics announces new version of legendary SP-10 turntable. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ launches new range of “robust” DJ headphones. (Fact)
Native Instruments announce new Maschine Mk3. (RA)
Pioneer DJ launch new Serato-ready mixer. (RA)
Live gaming platform Twitch has updated its features to offer, among other things, the ability for users to take requests to play music. (VentureBeat)
YouTube-MP3, the world's leading YouTube ripping site, has agreed to shut down indefinitely and hand over its domain to the RIAA. A private settlement agreement, including an undisclosed payment, will end the copyright infringement lawsuit which was filed by several major record labels last year. (TorrentFreak)
WARM – The World Airplay Radio Monitor – offers a tool for providing an overview of an artist’s airplays worldwide. (Mixmag)
BandLab Technologies acquires Chew.tv, a video streaming service for DJs. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 01 Sep 2017

Technics reissues its 'most premium' turntable, the SP-10R. (RA)
Iota lets you create a collage of micro-loops from one sample in Ableton Live. (Fact)
Tasty Chips Electronics announces Kickstarter campaign to build hardware granular synthesiser. (RA)
Moog's new Subsequent 37 analogue synth is a beauty. (Mixmag)
Online mastering service LANDR now gives you the option to distribute your tracks to streaming services for as little as $1 a month. (Fact)
Merlin, the global digital rights agency for the independent label sector, has announced its billionth dollar in distributions. (RotD)
YouTube has updated a host of features and design, including a new logo, more suggestions, easier navigation and the ability to speed up and slow down videos. (YouTube, TubeFilter)
Tomorrowland 2017 claims title of biggest social media music event ever with over 1bn Views. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 25 Aug 2017

Native Instruments adds new bass synth to Maschine. (Fact)
Korg brings classic Mono/Poly analogue synthesiser to iOS. (RA)
Technics SL-1200GR turntable is out now. (RA)
Numark have added the NXT1000 turntable to their product line. (DJMag)
SoundCloud has aded more stats, with Top Listeners - which gives creators more information on their most engaged fans - Top Countries and Top Cities which offer insights into the most engaged geographical locations, on SoundCloud Pulse. (SoundCloud)

ISSUE: 18 Aug 2017

Percussa’s SSP synth has the power of 10 digital Eurorack modules. (Fact)
Roland 808 and 909 drum machines fused with new Serato DJ controllers. (RA)
Producers can now use Ableton Live to make music in virtual reality. (DA)
SnapChat has introduced a feature called Crowd Surf which uses AI to stitch together a variety of users’ footage, sensing when a number of people are recording the same musical experience. (DA)
Beatport has updated its platform by adding three new genre categories: trap/future bass, garage/bassline/grime and leftfield bass. (Mixmag)
Online music marketplace Discogs is cracking down on unofficial remixes, edits and bootlegs by restricting the sale of such releases. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 11 Aug 2017

Rane have announced a brand new mixer called the Rane DJ Seventy Two via a surprise Facebook post. (DJMag)
FL Studio 12.5 adds virtual MIDI controllers, new delay plug-in and more. (Fact)
Roland release boutique versions of TR-808, SH-101. (RA)
YouTube has launched a new sharing feature in its mobile app, previously in testing with users in select markets. It allows users to send their friends videos and chat from within a new tab in the mobile app – effectively turning YouTube into a mobile messenger of sorts. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 04 Aug 2017

Five DJ mixers that won't break the bank. (Mixmag)
PPG Wave creator Wolfgang Palm teases PPG Infinite synth for iPad. (Fact)
PBMIX-3 review: The pocket mixer Korg should have made years ago. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ unveils new four-channel mixer, DJM-750MK2. (RA)
Rane to unveil new DJ gear "the likes of which have never been seen”. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 28 Jul 2017

Moog updates Minitaur analogue bass synthesizer.
Roland’s next Boutique synth could be an SH-101 reissue. (Fact)
Native Instruments releases chiptune expansion for Maschine. (Fact)
The 12 best affordable, pocket-sized, hackable synthesizers. (Fact)
Facebook has acquired a content rights startup called Source3 to help fight video pirates. (Recode)
Spotify has launched a self-serve ad platform. (Hypebot)
Vice Media’s round of layoffs means its electronic music offering, Thump, will move to the main Vice.com site. (RA, Variety)
WeTransfer is offering ex-SoundCloud employees $10,000 each to stop looking for jobs. (Fader) WeTransfer President Damian Bradfield details his idea on Medium.

ISSUE: 21 Jul 2017

Loops and vocals from Strictly Rhythm back catalogue licensed for new Pro Tools sample pack. (RA)
Someone has claimed they have downloaded every song on SoundCloud’s public archive. (IO)
SoundCloud co-founder Alexander Ljung has responded to bankruptcy rumours in a blog, claiming that the platform is “here to stay."
Rinse FM has taken to Twitter to note that their SoundCloud profile archiving a legion of broadcasts over the years has been disabled. (Fact) It has now been reinstated. (MagneticMag)
Porter Robinson and Madeon hit Shelter reaches 100m streams. (YourEDM)
Proximity has evolved from YouTube channel to label partner with Geffen Records. (DA, Billboard)
Australia is getting its first modern vinyl pressing plant in 30 years. (Mixmag)
UK collection societies PPL and PRS for Music have launched a pilot designed to evaluate the use of Music Recognition Technology (MRT) in identifying music publicly performed by DJs in clubs, bars, pubs and hotels licensed by PPL and PRS. (RotD) The Deltic Group, Britain’s largest operator of late-night bars and clubs, is taking part in the MRT project. (MMagazine)

ISSUE: 14 Jul 2017

Dolby hopes to 'make live music more engaging and immersive' by installing its immersive audio tech, already popular in cinemas, in more clubs and venues. (IQ)
Dance artist RAC is to release the first album that can be bought on the ethereum blockchain. (Motherboard)
New vinyl pressing plant opens in Seoul. (RA)
Eventide to release hybrid analogue-digital delay module. (RA)
SynthScaper is an iOS app for making ambient soundscapes. (Fact)
Peek inside Deadmau5's hi-tech studio in revealing new video tour. (Billboard)
Watch a sound design tutorial by Point Blank's Chris Carter on processing external audio in Absynth. (XLR8R)
Dreadbox announces new Medusa analogue synthesiser for under $500. (RA)
YouTube's Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen has detailed the priorities and product plans for 2017. Many are designed to help musicians market and monetise views. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 07 Jul 2017

Watch Pioneer DJ’s new Toraiz AS-1 put through its paces by synth guru Dave Smith. (DJMag)
Loopmasters releases Ableton Chord Rack – Deep House & Jazz Chords. (DT)
Cloudbounce teams up with Hydraulic Press Channel and Darude to end loudness wars. (DT)
UK electronic instrument company Digitana Electronics has rediscovered the E.M.S. Synthi KB1 keyboard, one of the rarest synths in electronic music. (Thump)
Bastl's experimental, portable softPop analogue synth is available to preorder. (RA)
Daft Punk's TR-909 drum machine is up for sale. (RA)
New Pioneer soundcard brings rekordbox and DVS to any DJ setup. (RA)
WARM (World Airplay Radio Monitor) has the purpose of giving true transparency to bands and artists played on the radio, by monitoring an impressive collection of 21.000+ radio stations in more than 100 countries and therefore make sure artists get paid for being played. (DT)
Playlist provider 22tracks has announced that it has closed.
DJ livestreaming community Chew.tv has announced it’s been saved, following costs incurred after their server was hacked. (Chew)

ISSUE: 30 Jun 2017

Elektron releases new advanced Octatrack MKII sampler. (RA)
Roland has added its iconic 1980’s synth, the D-50, to its digital subscription service. Access to the RolandCloud is only $19.95 ($US) per month. (DJMag)
Arturia adds new polyrhythm and scene modes to BeatStep Pro sequencer. (Fact)
Behringer’s Minimoog clone now available to pre-order for $299. (Fact)
Pallas is a new patchable semi-modular synth for Ableton Live. (Fact)
SoundCloud has added Next Up, a feature for desktop and mobile devices that allows users to see what’s playing next with a visible queue. (Hypebot)
Beatport gets producers mentored by record labels with Beats In School. (Mixmag)
What to Watch Next: YouTube's unofficial dance music curators take their brands offline. (Billboard)
Through the first six months of 2017, Spotify and Apple Music have grown their combined total US streams by 60%. (Hits)
Over 65% of channels that use YouTube’s Super Chat, where fans purchase highlighted chat messages, have more than doubled their income during live streams. (YouTube)
YouTube’s CEO says there’s 1.5bn logged in viewers visiting every single month, spending over an hour a day watching YouTube on mobile devices alone. (YouTube) A new 180-degree VR video format was announced during the keynote speech.

ISSUE: 23 Jun 2017

Ampify Groovebox review: An impressive beat-making app whose hidden depths come at a price. (Fact)
The last ever Emerson Moog Modular System is being built and will sell for $150,000. (Mixmag)
Roland releases Boutique SE-02 analogue synthesiser. (RA)
Deezer is set to feature curated playlists from Pete Tong, Fatboy Slim, Ninja Tune and a host of other labels and DJs, in the hopes of becoming the top streaming service for dance music fans. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 16 Jun 2017

ROLI releases portable, touch-responsive Seaboard Block. (RA)
Sample Magic look at how to get a lo-fi drum sound with their latest custom Ableton Rack. (DT)
Ampify releases Groovebox, a free all-in-one music studio for iOS. (Fact)
Spotify is launching Secret Genius, a global initiative that will highlight the contribution songwriters and producers make to the music industry and artists’ careers. (RotD)
Mixmag will host four weeks of its live streamed Lab sessions in Ibiza this June and July featuring: Hot Since 82, Guy Gerber, Nightmares on Wax, Nastia, Carl Craig and Karizma b2b DJ Spen (Defected takeover). (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 09 Jun 2017

Ableton acquires Cycling '74, maker of music software Max. (RA)
NI adds five new synth modules to Reaktor Blocks. (Fact)
Eurorack favourite 4ms joins Softube’s virtual modular system. (Fact)
Elektron Digitakt review: A classic drum machine in the making. (Fact)
Have Denon DJ ushered in a new era for DJs with their four new products? (DJMag)
Apple Music hits 27m subscribers, up from 20m last December. (Billboard)
Hacking SoundCloud: creating an interactive track. (HayWirez)
Wired meets the tech team behind Eric Prydz's latest show to find out how they put on such a visually striking performance.

ISSUE: 02 Jun 2017

SoundCloud is now available on Xbox One. (Verge)
A peek inside Soundcloud’s Berlin office – where employees of Sweden’s coolest tech company enjoy gourmet lunches and wind down with DJ-sessions. (BI)
Korg has released a free version of Gadget studio for Mac. (DJMag)

ISSUE: 26 May 2017

Roland to launch 14 new instruments via live streams. (RA)
Erica Synths introduces vacuum tube analogue effects unit. (RA)
Korg celebrates microKORG’s 15th anniversary with special edition synth. (Fact)
Epidemic Sound talks YouTube: ‘We’re a music company that really understands the platform’. (MusicAlly)
How data is transforming the music industry. (TheConversation)

ISSUE: 19 May 2017

Timestep, the Devon based company that custom fits Technics decks and other hi-fi gear, have modified Technics’ SL 1210GR turntable. (DJMag)
Moog unveils SUBSEQUENT 37 CV limited edition analogue synth. (Mixmag)
Traxsource launches rebranded new site with upgraded functionality and brand new features.
Hype Machine, the influential music-discovery site, has launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of keeping it running and to help develop new features.

ISSUE: 12 May 2017

MasterSounds to release four-channel analogue rotary DJ mixer. (RA)
Ableton continue to aid new music producers with the launch of their latest website, which is a free online resource that teaches the basics of music production. (DJmag)

ISSUE: 05 May 2017

Ableton launches a new video series highlighting creative approaches across art. (DHA)
Serato launches new plug-in for working with samples. (Fact)
Moog is reissuing one of its earliest synths, the Synthesizer IIIc. (Fact)
Reason 9.5 adds VST support. (RA)
SiriusXM & YouTube team up on new 'chill trending tracks’. (Billboard)
Major Lazer, DJ Snake's Lean On passes 2bn YouTube views. (Billboard)
Audiomack: has a SoundCloud alternative finally arrived? (EDMSauce)
The Upload is SoundCloud’s answer to Spotify’s Discover Weekly. (9to5Mac)
SoundCloud is travelling across six locations, inviting DJs to perform on a branded stage at UK student events. (Event)
SoundCloud is offering three months of its top tier Soundcloud Go+ subscription for just $1 for a limited time. (DJMag)
Twitter is partnering with Live Nation to exclusively livestream video of concerts. (TechCrunch, WSJ)

ISSUE: 28 Apr 2017

Bluetooth speakers: the weird, the wonderful and the wireless. (Mixmag)
Blocs Wave, easy music-making app for iOS, is now free. (Fact)
Jomox unveils new analogue drum machine. (RA)
MFB Dominion Club compact analogue synth to retail for under €550. (RA)
Reactable Steps is an innovative iOS sequencer for all your synth gear. (Fact)
Vinyl pressing plant opening in a former prison in the city Dutch of Leeuwarden. (RA)
Apple Music is launching Up Next, an initiative to promote an emerging artist over a month with videos, playlists and new music to a global audience. (Bloomberg, Billboard, Apple)
Facebook is launching a tie-up with Eventbrite to let users in the UK purchase tickets within the Facebook website and app itself. (Telegraph) Facebook will not be taking a cut of any ticket sales.
Spotify has acquired the Brooklyn-based blockchain startup Mediachain Labs, whose team will join the company’s office in New York where they will work on developing better technology for connecting artists and other rights holders with the tracks hosted on Spotify’s service. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 21 Apr 2017

Audio giant Bose has been spying on customers who use its wireless headphones by using an app that tracks the music, podcasts and other audio they listen to and selling that info without permission, a lawsuit has charged. (NYPost)
Novation announces Peak, a powerful eight-voice polysynth. (Fact)
Novation’s Circuit Mono Station is an affordable analog synth and sequencer in one. (Fact)
Critter & Guitari’s latest gadget turns music into live visuals. (Fact)
The public beta for Gearogs is now open for business. (MagenticMag)

ISSUE: 14 Apr 2017

StubHub is now showing you which one of your friends would want to go with you to a concert and will help you make your ticket selection on friends' interests. (Mashable) The app will now scan your Facebook friends and your Spotify music library, incorporating that data into what it suggests to you.
Leading sample and loop creator Loopmasters has announced a new way to organise all your samples via cloud-based storage, using a tool called Loopcloud. (Magnetic)
Tech Review: MODEL 1: How to PLAY differently. (DJTimes)
People now spend over one billion hours daily on YouTube. (DA)

ISSUE: 07 Apr 2017

Urbanears have unveiled two new models of connected speakers. (Mixmag)
Spitfire Audio launch world's first polyconvolution synthesiser. (RA)
Patchblocks developing suite of affordable, portable synths and drum machines. (RA)
Behringer’s Minimoog clone has a fully working prototype. (Fact)
BT Phobos is an advanced plug-in synth with a cinematic sound. (Fact)
CloudBounce launches new online mastering engine. (RA)

ISSUE: 31 Mar 2017

The EMI TG12345 MK IV recording console used at Abbey Road Studios from 1971 to 1983 has been sold at auction for $1,807,500. (Mixmag)
Moog modular drum machine being built at Moogfest. (RA)
Fabric's Room Two soundsystem has sold for £11,700. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 24 Mar 2017

Solid brass custom DJ mixer installed at Spiritland in London. (RA)
Numark unveils new DJ turntable,the NTX1000, priced at $399. (Mixmag)
Users of Native Instruments’ Reaktor 6 software can now get an ensemble based on Don Buchla’s 200 Series synthesizers from the ‘70s. (Fact)
MelodyVR and Universal are to co-produce and distribute virtual reality music experiences, including concerts, immersive music videos and intimate behind-the-scenes content. (RotD)
New website MusicCloud is being hailed as Nigeria’s answer to SoundCloud. (Pulse)
Singapore online community #vinyloftheday has launched an app which allows collectors to buy, sell and trade vinyl with other aficionados around the globe. (Pulse)

ISSUE: 17 Mar 2017

Behringer plans to clone the ARP 2600 analogue synthesiser. (RA)
Roland releases software versions of classic Jupiter-8 and Juno-106 synths. (RA)
Tim Exile launches new voice swarming synth for Reaktor. (RA)
Music promo platform Inflyte has announced its latest innovation in promo solutions for the music industry, with the arrival of its integration with Amazon’s Echo range of voice-activated devices. (Decoded)
DJs and producers who create sets, remixes and other forms of creative works will now be invited to join the SoundCloud Premier program, and earn revenue for the tracks they share on SoundCloud. (SoundCloud)

ISSUE: 10 Mar 2017

Landscape launch experimental touch-sensitive instrument Stereo Field which creates unstable electrical sounds through touch. (RA)
Behringer is planning a budget Minimoog clone. (Fact)
A clone of the vintage Yamaha CS-80 synth is in the works. (RA)
The new Technics SP10MK3 turntable will cost $40,000. (Mixmag)
Tim Exile’s SLOO synth creates sound with a giant swarm of oscillators. (Fact)
Following the news that Chew.tv had been hacked and left with high bandwidth usage charges, a financial appeal has been launched. (GoFundMe)
Former Beatport CEO Matthew Adell's new company MetaPop has converted more than 20,000 illegal remixes into legit revenue streams for 8,000 clients. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 03 Mar 2017

Behringer intend to create an entire line of synthesisers starting from $49. (RA)
Eventide launches Fission plug-in with presets by Suzanne Ciani, Chris Carter. (RA)
Pioneer’s new €400 DJM-250MK2 mixer is both portable and affordable. (Pulse)
LA online broadcaster Dublab launches new Spanish station. (RA)
Chew.tv, the DJs’ livestreaming platform, report “our streaming infrastructure was heavily misused in December. The abuse cost is more than we can afford, and the combined total of that and our regular running costs is enough to put us out of business”.

ISSUE: 24 Feb 2017

Synthesis Technologies has a new Eurorack module. (RA)
Tiptop Audio introduces compact modular sample player for Eurorack. (RA)
Ableton’s new Beat Tools pack includes all you need to make hip-hop beats. (Fact)
Music technology company MQA and Universal are to encode UMG’s catalogue of master recordings in MQA’s technology, available for the first time in Hi-Res Audio streaming. (RotD, Billboard)
Tatsuya Takahashi, the creator of popular synths like the Minilogue, MS-20 Mini and Volca range, leaves role as Korg Chief Engineer. (RA)

ISSUE: 17 Feb 2017

Spotify is looking for original podcasts. (DigiDay)
The Delia Derbyshire Papers and Sound Archive will be available digitally as of May 5. (RA)
Home audio kit maker Sonos is raising its prices in the UK by up to 25% following the drop in the value of the pound sterling. (TechCrunch)
Louie Vega named PLAYdifferently MODEL 1 ambassador. (DJTimes)

ISSUE: 10 Feb 2017

Technics has unveiled its latest turntable system: the SL-1210GR in black. (Mixmag)
Beatdropbox is the app every aspiring producer needs. (MagenticMag)
SoundCloud is facing a patent infringement lawsuit after Blackbird Technologies claimed that its Go premium tier took their IP for temporary downloads. (DMN)

ISSUE: 03 Feb 2017

This interactive, animated graphic tells you everything you need to know about how the influential Roland TR-808 drum machine works. (RBMA)
SoundCloud update adds Charts, showing what music is popular right now. (AndroidPolice)
Future Sound Of London are working with Digitana Electronics to develop a standalone version of the EMS Synthi Expander. (RA)
Using BitTorrent under the hood to avoid expensive bandwidth bills, could the recently launched BitChute become a viable alternative to YouTube? (TorrentFreak)
Live DJ recording system, Evermix to launch publicly on Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. (Decoded)

ISSUE: 27 Jan 2017

The Love is the latest weird turntable that wants to bring vinyl into the digital age. (Verge)
Dave Smith Instruments announces new analogue synth, Rev 2. (Fact)
Seven exciting synths, drum machines and modules to look forward to in 2017. (Fact)
Loopmasters have announced a new innovative cloud plugin for music producers called Loopcloud - an application for browsing and managing all your samples, MIDI files and presets. (DT)
SoundCloud and Triton Digital, a technology provider for the audio industry, have announced an expanded partnership to monetise SoundCloud’s digital audio advertising inventory in the US via Triton’s programmatic audio advertising exchange, a2x. (BusinessWire)

ISSUE: 20 Jan 2017

Pioneer DJ teams up with Dave Smith for first analog monosynth. (Fact)
Korg are bringing its popular Gadget App to MAC OS. (DJMag)
Reloop have released a new mixer — the RMX–90 DVS. (DJMag)
YouTube has replaced its “tip jar” feature with a new live streaming function called Super Chat which allows fans to pay to highlight their messages within the live chat stream. (Mashable)
Orfium, one of the leading independent streaming services hoping to break into the mainstream consciousness, talks SoundCloud, monetisation and the future of streaming. (YourEDM)
Sony has hosted an immersive VR event series called Lost in Music, the first of which debuted with DJ performances from The Chainsmokers, Lost Kings and Vanic. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 13 Jan 2017

Website Ibiza Voice has closed after 13 years.
Akai announce next generation of MPCs. (RA)
Audio-Technica unveiled a new turntable and cartridges at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. (RA)
Troublemaker is a modern update of the TB-303 for iPad and iPhone. (Fact)
Denon takes on Pioneer with Prime DJ range and Rekordbox rival. (Fact)
Korg is bringing the famed Arp Odyssey synth back to life. (Mixmag)
A South Korean company has launched a new physical format. (YouTube) MQS (Mastering Quality Sound) is a high definition sound, generated during the mastering stage. The 24 bit FLAC files provide 6.5 times the amount of data a CD has.
Mixcloud has relaunched its website with a design refresh that includes a revamped feed, updated profile pages and more. (Variety)
Entire Underground Resistance back catalogue is now available digitally. (Pulse)

ISSUE: 06 Jan 2017

Although the Technics SL-1200 turntable is the industry standard for vinyl DJs, the company recently announced it will not be targeting the DJ market moving forward. (Mixmag)
Behringer’s analogue drum machine will take inspiration from Roland’s 808 and 909. (Fact)
Technics has unveiled a new edition of the SL-1200 turntable. A press release from Panasonic describes the forthcoming SL-1200GR as “a standard model inheriting the technology of the SL-1200G.” (Mixmag)
Under The Radar Part 4: An in-depth look at E-MU 4XT / Ensoniq EPS. (DT)
Roland has released new products, including soundcards and a compact mixer for smartphones. (RA)
New hi-fi turntable integrates analogue and digital media – available via Kickstarter and Gearbox records. (RA)
The economists who are helping to make your life easier without you even noticing it: Will Page at Spotify discusses the platform’s Fan Insights dashboard and how the company is working towards profitability. (Telegraph)

ISSUE: 16 Dec 2016

Native Instruments has updated Maschine. (xlr8r)
KOMA Elektronik has a new instrument. (RA)
Serato DJ is now compatible with the Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS2 media player and DJM-900NXS2 mixer. (RA)
SweetVinyl, the company behind two audiophile products that feature real-time, non-destructive, click & pop removal on any vinyl LP record, have surpassed a crowdfunding goal. (PRNewswire)
Two major Swedish ISPs are warning that a possible court-ordered Pirate Bay blockade will introduce a dangerous and unwarranted form of censorship. (TorrentFreak)
SoundCloud has said that while negotiating terms for SoundCloud Go, the company reached deals with licensing groups like GEMA to allow for DJ mixes to stay on the site. (ResidentAdvisor) One comment writer says “The only DJ mixes that ever got removed where ones with ‘commercial’ songs in them”.

ISSUE: 09 Dec 2016

This tiny portable vinyl player works by riding in circles on your records. (Fact)
Learn how to use a rotary DJ mixer: Varia Instruments demonstrates its awesome RDM20. (Fact)
Discogs have revamped and updated their iOS App. (DT)
Ableton Live Tutorial: Creative rhythm programming. (DT)
A new report by the Audio Engineering Library (AEL) has revealed that MP3s and similar formats impact the ‘emotional characteristics’ of musical instruments. (M)
Apple Music has crossed the 20m paid subscribers mark, up 15% in the last three months. (Billboard)
The IFPI has responded to YouTube's announcement of its $1bn music industry ad revenue payout by saying: “The announcement gives little reason to celebrate, however. With 800m music users worldwide, YouTube is generating revenues of just over $1 per user for the entire year.” (BBC, Pitchfork, TorrentFreak)
Licensing and distribution technology company Dubset has worked with Bad Royale and Major Lazer to use its extensive network to turn a Toots & the Maytals bootleg into a money-making endeavour for all parties involved. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 02 Dec 2016

Hear Aphex Twin’s presets for Korg’s Monologue synth. (Fact)
This tiny synth is the size of a credit card. (Fact)
Sylo launches an app that plays music from various streaming services in one library. (ProductHunt)
Cyclone Analogic release the TT-606 Drum Drone. (DT)
This modular system lets you snap together your own custom MIDI controller. (Fact)
Toolroom HQ is starting up a DJ and production school. (Mixmag)
Smirnoff and Radar Radio are teaming up to provide a day of free DJ workshops. (Mixmag)
Stones Throw announces new vinyl subscription service. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ launches its popular WeDJ app for iPhone. (MagneticMag)
Beatstream, a digital streaming service which allows music venues and artists to audio stream their gigs live, is seeking to raise £100,000 via crowdfunding. (MEN)
French police have shut down the country's largest pirate site, Zone-Telechargement. (TorrentFreak)
Copyright holders asked Google to remove more than 1bn allegedly infringing links from its search engine over the past 12 months. A new record, in line with the continued rise of takedown requests and the increase in pressure on Google to do more to tackle piracy. (TorrentFreak)

ISSUE: 25 Nov 2016

This DIY synth can be built in 10 minutes and costs just £79. (Fact)
Pioneer DJ's WeDJ app is now available on iPhone. (RA)
Acer's line-up of music laptops: Meeting the need for high quality audio. (Magnetic Mag)
The Viberate platform team talk about their DJ analytics service in depth. (Magnetic Mag)
Arturia announces portable MIDI keyboard called the MiniLab MkII. (Magnetic Mag)
Kemper have unveiled a range of breathtaking new delay effects for the Kemper Profiler. (Data Transmission)
Invite-only torrent site What.CD, a favourite destination for audiophiles for its vast trove of hard-to-find releases and high-quality files, has terminated operations immediately. (Billboard)
UK internet providers have added close to 500 URLs to the national pirate site blocklist. (TorrentFreak) The new targets include a wide variety of proxies for popular pirate sites such as The Pirate Bay and Putlocker.

ISSUE: 18 Nov 2016

This tiny modular system is inspired by Korg’s Volca synths. (FACT)
'Floating' turntable is coming out after raising nearly $500,000 on Kickstarter. (Mixmag)
Waves has a new plug-in, Abbey Road Vinyl, that aims to recreate the sound of vinyl in digital audio production environments. (RA)
AIAIAI is raising money to produce a wireless headband for its modular TMA-2 headphones. (RA)
The MAG-LEV Audio turntable will be released next year after its Kickstarter campaign raised nearly $450,000. (RA)
KRK has released a new set of monitors called V-Series 4. The new speakers feature 49 EQ curves to match the acoustics of your room. (RA)
Reviewed: The new Beats By Dre Solo 3. (Data Transmission)
The K-Board Pro 4 can register different dimensions of touch and pressure, producing sounds like a stringed instrument. (FACT)
Resident Advisor has launched New Tracks, a channel for new electronic music selected by their editors and writers. (RA)
Invite-only torrent site What.CD, a favourite destination for audiophiles for its vast trove of hard-to-find releases and high-quality files, has terminated operations immediately. (Billboard)
SoundCloud is hoping to make itself more appealing to creators with the announcement that it is opening up more applications for its invite-only Premier program and launching new track editing capabilities within SoundCloud Pulse. (VentureBeat)
SoundCloud vows to begin paying more artists. (DA)

ISSUE: 11 Nov 2016

Top 5 samples and plugins of the week. (DT)
Novation Launchpad IOS v4.0 – an update. (DT)
Headphone review: Phonon 4000. (XLR8R)
Adobe’s ‘Photoshop for audio’ mimics human voices, meaning you can now add words someone never said. (FACT)
Ableton Live Tutorial: Using convolution reverb in max for live. (Magnetic Mag)
In the US, Napster has announced new partnerships with mobile carrier Sprint, Lufthansa and Aldi to offer direct access to Napster’s Listener Network and its library of more than 40m songs. (Billboard) Napster has also partnered with a number of labels including Warner Nashville, Naxos and Sub Pop which have the opportunity to create their own user profiles and playlists.
Mixed, but favourable reviews, for Google’s new Home smart speaker device, a rival to Amazon’s Echo. (Wired, Verge, ARS)
Streemr.fm, currently in private beta, bills itself as “your online cassette recorder”, allowing users to record radio shows from all over the world. Their FAQ page claims it is a legal service.
Metadata management platform Beatroot Music is preparing for its official launch after securing £125,000 in equity funding from Creative England. (RotD)
Shazam has announced it is to add tour date information via a new partnership with Songkick. (PRNewswire, Hypebot)
YouTube debuts new tools to clean up its comments section. (MusicAlly)
YouTube Red is said to have 1.5m paying subscribers as of late summer, with another 1m users signed up on a trial basis (and not paying the monthly fee). (Verge, Hypebot)

ISSUE: 04 Nov 2016

Aldi reveals even cheaper turntable than competitor supermarket Lidl. (DJMag)
The new Korg Monologue lets users produce with Aphex Twin presets. (Mixmag)
MasterSounds releases two-channel rotary mixer, Radius 2, at a cost of £1200. (RA)
Korg's ARP Odyssey now available as iOS app. (RA)
ROLI has launched a new music making system called Blocks, described as a ‘modular music studio’. (RA)
The LinnStrument 128 controller is now available for $999. (RA)
Novation has updated the firmware for Circuit. Version 1.4 introduces user-requested features to the groovebox device, which features a grid sequencer for controlling inbuilt synth and drum voices. (RA)
Everything you need to know about the brand new MacBook Pro. (Dancing Astronaut)
Spinlist, a new playlist app that lets users discover, create and share playlists that can be heard across any streaming service, challenges music streaming silos. (TechCrunch)
Amazon’s moves could start a price war among music streaming services. (Recode)
Using Spotify Connect, beta testers can now play music through their Sonos systems, including multi-speaker and multi-room configurations, directly through the streaming service’s familiar app. (TechCrunch)
Spotify has purchased Preact, a four-year-old startup that utilises machine learnings and audience behaviour metrics via social media to draw and retain subscribers. (Billboard)
Spotify offer an update on their Artists website, launched three years ago. (Spotify)
Spotify could improve profits and shore up its power by mimicking Netflix and becoming a producer as well as a distributor - and take other steps to bring more music on board that doesn't cost so much. (Bloomberg)
What if Spotify turned Daily Mix into a standalone product? (Medium - Bas Grasmayer) Implementing the obvious missing feature could point to a new product direction for Spotify.
A legal campaign that promised to hit file-sharers with demands for cash has been abandoned in Sweden. (TorrentFreak)
SoundCloud has hidden the repost button; here’s why it’s an issue. (Dancing Astronaut)

ISSUE: 28 Oct 2016

Eventbrite and Facebook have announced the integration of native ticket buying in the new Events From Facebook app. (Amp)
Instagram is testing live video. (Hypebot)
Bruce Pavitt, who founded indie rock label Sub Pop, has launched 8Stem, a mobile app for iOS that turns remixing into a simple drag and drop process. (TechCrunch)
Gjests is a must-have app for guestlist management. (Mixmag)
The Technics SL-1200G is available to buy now. (Mixmag)
These interactive 3D animations show how the inside of a turntable works. (Mixmag)
Ableton makes it easier to export music from iOS apps to Live sets. (FACT)
Deluge is an all-in-one synth, sampler and sequencer for under £650. (FACT)
Jakarta is paving the way for a vinyl renaissance. (Pulse)
The Berlin-based hardware manufacturer MFB is releasing new Eurorack modules. (RA)
The French Parliament has ruled against a so-called “YouTube tax,” which would have required online video platforms to pay 2% of their ad revenue within France to the country’s National Film Board. (TubeFilter)
A new analysis platform called Viberate has just launched as the most powerful and comprehensive statistical tool for the electronic music market. (Mixmag)
Boiler Room has announced plans for a virtual reality music venue which promises to take fans to "raves halfway across the world". (BBC)
SoundCloud is growing revenue, expanding and focused on building a sustainable business so it can remain independent, co-founder Eric Wahlforss said, without explicitly denying reports that the company is up for sale. (Bloomberg) Spotify had been looking to buy SoundCloud recently.

ISSUE: 21 Oct 2016

Traktor Pro software is now Pioneer DJ certified. (Magnetic Mag)
New Zealand boutique company Synthstrom Audible has announced the launch of Deluge, a giant hybrid synth, sequencer and sampler. (FACT)
Barney Wragg has launched Bandnamevault.com, which uses blockchain technology to help musicians protect their band, DJ, or stage name without spending thousands of dollars to register a trademark. (RotD)
TuneCore has launched its digital music distribution and publishing administration service in France. (Hypebot)
Shazam is rolling out music video channels to all of its 120m monthly active users in a partnership with Vadio. (TechCrunch)
A decent selection of music-related iMessage apps, including Pandora, Mixmsg and Shazam, have emerged with Apple’s launch of iOS 10. (Billboard, MusicAlly)
Ben Bowler is stepping down from Chew.tv, the DJ-centric live-streaming platform he co-founded five years ago. He will be working on a new company, MusicUp, aimed at providing music licensing solutions for early-stage startups, but also remain on in a consultancy basis with Chew.
Richie Hawtin has teamed up with Pioneer DJ for the Get Played Get Paid campaign, which aims to improve how royalties reach producers for music played during DJ sets. (Pulse)
Google and Amazon leverage copyright loophole to use songs without paying songwriters, claiming they can’t find contact information for song owners in a Google search. (MTP)
Spotify’s total UK revenues climbed 18% to £187.2m last year, fuelled by a 44% surge in subscription revenues from £119m to £171m. (Guardian, Billboard) The UK company made a small pre-tax profit of £2m, while globally the business made a loss of £156m. There was a slight fall in advertising sales, which dropped from £11.1m to £10.8m, and a decrease in "intercompany services" within the Spotify group, which tumbled from £28m to £4m.

ISSUE: 14 Oct 2016

Ableton Live 9.7 launches with new features for Push. (Fact)
Arturia introduces DrumBrute, Analog Drum Synthesizer. (Data Transmission)
Enter Stashimi, a formidable contender in the battle of social music apps. (Magnetic Mag)
BitTorrent has reportedly fired its co-CEOs, and shut its short-lived streaming service BitTorrent Now. (Variety)
Resident Advisor playlists now added to Spotify. (RA)
Playlisting service 8Tracks has raised almost $2m of a hoped for $5m from 3,700 small investors. The startup's crowdfunding campaign has two weeks remaining. (Rain)
Digital music distribution service Fresh Tunes allows independent artists to distribute their music to all the major music platforms for free. The company is headquartered in Dubai but has also offices in Brazil and the UK.
Online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap has raised $6m in funding to accelerate product development and to bring its cloud-based platform to new markets. (Hypebot, TechCrunch)
Watch Richie Hawtin deconstruct his hybrid live DJ setup. (RA)
The first unofficial single-track remixes have appeared on Spotify and Apple Music thanks to their partnerships with music rights management service Dubset. (TechCrunch, Mixmag) Multi-song mixes are forthcoming.

ISSUE: 07 Oct 2016

Behringer adds augmented reality interface to DeepMind 12 synthesizer. (FACT)
Create a Bluetooth speaker, theremin, drum machine or anything else you can code, thanks to London-based DIY computing company Kano. (FACT)
Maschine Jam – Point Blank take a first look at the new updates. (Data Transmission)
MelodyVR has partnered with Germany's Telefónica to showcase virtual reality from artists such as Kygo, The Who and the London Symphony Orchestra. (RotD)
Musicians, including Steve Aoki, T-Pain and Darude have discovered is that devotees of video platform and community for gamers Twitch also make great music fans, particularly for EDM. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 30 Sep 2016

Twitter Ventures invested in SoundCloud at a reduced share price and at a lower valuation than has previously been reported. (Di.Digital)
Online broadcasters Dash Radio have unveiled a patent-pending filter that will let listeners toggle between clean and explicit lyrics. (Fact)
Organisations representing record companies in the US and UK have taken legal action against Youtube-mp3.org, the world’s largest site dedicated to offering illegally 'stream ripped' music. (RotD, Billboard, TorrentFreak)

ISSUE: 23 Sep 2016

Zaytoven releases drumkit sample pack featuring sounds used for Migos, Future and more. (Fact)
SubPac, the wearable, tactile technology system, has announced a partnership with a large cinema brand – potentially meaning that filmgoers will be able to feel audio throughout the body. (Mixmag)
Elektron has a new product on the way, Analog Heat, for processing sound sources with different flavours of distortion, filtering and equalisation. (RA)
Tiptop Audio has a new modular case called Mantis. (RA)
The Reloop Mixtour is a portable cross-platform DJ controller designed for use with the award winning DJAY2 app which includes Spotify access for that complete home DJ and house party needs. (Data Transmission)
BBC Radio 1 plans to be “the Netflix of music radio” with new strategy. (Fact)

ISSUE: 16 Sep 2016

Native Instruments is bringing the spontaneity back to music production with its new Maschine Jam. (Magnetic Mag)
The prospect of getting a gig or booking a DJ are now at your fingertips with new app AGNT. (Mixmag)
Roland is releasing three new products in its Boutique line: the TB-03, TR-09 and VP-03. (RA)
New proposals around copyright and user-generated services have been unveiled by the European Commission, in which the governing body set out its plans and goals for the year ahead. (FT, Guardian, BBC, Billboard, EU pdf) Services like YouTube will be forced to pay more to rights holders and take tougher measures to prevent the illegal distribution of music and video content on their platforms under new plans.
Stream ripping, which involves turning a song or music video played on a streaming service into a permanent download, is growing fast among young music fans, even as other forms of music piracy wane. (WSJ)
SoundCloud has launched its subscription service in Australia and New Zealand. (TMN)

ISSUE: 09 Sep 2016

Watch Technics explain the technology behind the SL-1200G. (RA)
A coding error at SoundCloud resulted in a number of private tracks being available for all to hear for over four hours yesterday. (Exclaim)
Beatport has announced the inclusion of ‘big room’ and ‘future house’ to its discovery tools. (RA)

ISSUE: 02 Sep 2016

Roland and Serato tease new DJ tool. (RA)
Korg has revealed the Volca Kick and ARP Odyssey Module. (RA)
Wireless speaker system maker Sonos has announced two software partnerships with Spotify and Amazon. (TechCrunch, MusicAlly)
Japanese company Qrates, who offer vinyl on demand, launch in the US. (TechCrunch) They also have Vinylize.it, which lets users make a vinyl record from any Soundcloud track.
Accusations that Spotify has been punishing artists for signing exclusives with other streaming services have been derided by a Spotify spokesperson as “unequivocally false.” (Bloomberg)

ISSUE: 26 Aug 2016

Beatport has just announced it will be implementing more specific, finely tuned sub-genres in the electronic sector. (Mixmag)
33 years after the TR-909 Rhythm Composer was released by Roland, a celebration of the techno favourite will be held on September 9 – with the promise of new gear to be unveiled. (Mixmag)
Production tutorial: Making a House track in Ableton Live. (Magnetic Mag)
Mixcloud, the online radio company that specialises in long-form mixes, now boasts more than 1m uploaders. (Billboard)
SoundCloud removes groups feature, developers bring it back. (RA)
SoundCloud has announced that it has more than 135m tracks and one million albums available on the platform. (Hypebot) It now reaches 175m listeners monthly, who listen to music from 2m artists.

ISSUE: 19 Aug 2016

German company Zynaptiq has released a new reverb plug-in, Adaptiverb. (RA)
A recent update to Circuit Fimrware brings Sample Flip, new functionality that’s creating excitement. (Novation music / RA)
Numark has released details of the PT01 Scratch, a portable turntable that's built for scratch DJs. (RA)
New app Resonance turns your favourite Facebook music groups into playlists. (Stamp The Wax)
Did Daniel Ek just say that Spotify is buying SoundCloud? (BusinessInsider)

ISSUE: 12 Aug 2016

Play the most accurate version yet of an in-browser TR-808 drum machine. (Mixmag)
Roland and V-Moda have announced plans for their partnership. (Magnetic Mag)
A new tool to come out of The Science of Music Hackathon at Spotify's New York offices helps users organise all of their saved music on the platform by genre. (HypeBot, Spotify)
Spotify has announced Release Radar - a weekly personalised new releases playlist individual to each user. (RotD, Verge, Billboard)
TheWaveVR, a music-focused virtual reality platform, has secured $2.5m in seed funding before its launch later this year. (IQ)
NextVR, a developer of live virtual reality broadcast technology, has raised $80m in Series B funding. (Variety) Earlier this year the company announced a pact with Live Nation to deliver hundreds of live performances in virtual reality worldwide.
Sonos has added SoundCloud Go to its list of supported apps. (CNet)

ISSUE: 05 Aug 2016

Behringer's forthcoming synthesiser is the DeepMind12 - a 12-voice, analogue polyphonic design available with a four-octave keyboard. (RA)
Pioneer DJ have announced their latest direct drive turntable, the PLX-500, priced at just under £300. (Mixmag)
Streaming became Sony Music’s No.1 source of recorded music revenue in its last financial quarter, generating around $3.3m a day for the company, according to (MBW).
Lost, the music-discovery app, streaming service, publisher aggregator, concert tracker and ticket vendor, is a one-stop shop for music obsessives. (BusinessInsider)
Live DJ streaming platform Chew TV is integrating Mixify’s community, its closest and largest competitor, into its own. (Medium - Wil Benton, Chew co-founder)

ISSUE: 29 Jul 2016

Retronyms release a new hardware and app combination for creative DJing and mixing. (DJ Mag)
Levels is a brand new metering plug-in, aimed at helping you improve your mixes. (DJ Mag)
Soundswitch aim to make professional lighting available to everyone through providing the ability to add lighting effects to audio cues. (Deep House Amsterdam)
Warner Music Group is in advanced talks with Vevo about a deal that would allow WMG artists' music videos to appear on Vevo.com and the Vevo app. (Billboard)
SoundCloud has added the option to display groups of tracks as an album rather than just as a playlist. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 22 Jul 2016

The Minimoog Model D synth is back on sale, for $3749. (Mixmag)
Moog have announced the reissue of the much loved Mini Moog, complete with intricate details in the accompanying inserts, and plenty of people to spot. (Deep House Amsterdam)
The idea of two former Ableton producers, Lofelt have created an app that lets you turn your wrist into a sub-woofer. (Fact Mag)
New app AGNT offers a desktop platform and mobile app that connects DJs with event organisers across the U.S. and Canada. (Mashable)

ISSUE: 15 Jul 2016

Allen & Heath are set to release a new four-channel DJ mixer soon after images appear online. (Mixmag)
The Discogs app is now available on Android. (RA)
Red Bull Music Academy's RBMA Radio has re-launched as a 24-hour service, featuring over 40 new shows, programming from six continents, and updated apps for Android and iOS. (Thump)
New music app, LOST, announces its official curators’ section, in partnership with 21 of the UK’s most influential music blogs, websites and magazines including Data Transmission, FACT, Noisey, Thump and UKF. (DataTransmission)
The vinyl resurgence: The Trntbl turntable will stream the audio to your Sonos, AirPlay or Bluetooth wireless speakers. A built-in Shazam-like feature identifies the track — before announcing to your friends and followers via their streaming service what you are listening to. Rebeat Digital applied for a European patent for high-definition vinyl which will have more playing time than conventional LPs, and greater volume and audio fidelity. (FT)

ISSUE: 08 Jul 2016

A look back at some of Pioneer’s best machines. (Mixmag)
Experience Ableton Live in 360 degrees. (Fact Mag)
The DDJ-RZX is the new all-in-one controller from Pioneer DJ, which includes a video mixing function via an add-on. (Mixmag)
Apple Music reported to be interested in buying Tidal (Mixmag)
SoundCloud has expanded its radio-like Stations service. It now gives users the ability to launch the feature from the profile pages of artists as well as tracks. (SoundCloud)

ISSUE: 01 Jul 2016

Vickie Nauman outlines the five elements of the music/tech industry which are need to bring about a sustainable future in music. (Hypebot)
Listeners are able to distinguish the difference between standard audio and hi-res audio quality, according to a university study. (DMN)
New patent could allow Apple to block the camera functionality of iPhones at gigs and events. (Mixmag)
Questions linger on Twitter's plans to incorporate SoundCloud after $70m investment. (IPWatchdog)
SoundCloud has announced that video adverts will soon be arriving on the US mobile app. (Forbes)

ISSUE: 24 Jun 2016

A desktop version of Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim’s OB-6 has been spotted in an Instagram post on the DSI account. (Instagram)
Berlin-based company Lofelt is behind new bass enhancing technology Basslet, a wearable device that recreates the physical sensation of bass. (Resident Advisor)
Any song on SoundCloud could be pressed to vinyl thanks to forthcoming service Vinylize.it. (Fact)
SoundCloud has announced a new ‘Suggested Tracks’ algorithm – essentially ending the random next track issue faced by users. (Fact Mag)

ISSUE: 17 Jun 2016

Abbey Road Red, the incubation programme supporting music tech start ups, entrepreneurs and innovative research, has a deadline of 17 June for submissions. (RotD)
Martin Garrix teams up with YouTube to create a video game inspired track for their programme at L.A’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. (Billboard)
Designed for producers constantly on the move, KORG have released plugKEY, a portable miniature widget plug, designed for iPads and iPhones. (DeepHouseAmsterdam)
The IOS version of Novation’s Launchpad app has been given an upgrade, with brand new features including a real-time stretch audio engine. (DJMag)
Swedish synth company Elektron has announced it’s discontinuing two of the most iconic electronic devices, the Machinedrum and the Monomachine. (FACT)
Audio creation app Auxy and the DJ toolkit djay Pro were among the winners at this year’s Apple Design Awards. (Billboard)
Twitter has invested around $70m in SoundCloud, as part of a round that should end up in the $100m-range, according to sources. (Recode, NYTimes) The round is expected to value SoundCloud at about $700m.

ISSUE: 10 Jun 2016

In the process of sharing a new remix, Kieran Hebden ran into technical difficulties with SoundCloud and tweeted angrily. (Pitchfork)

ISSUE: 03 Jun 2016

US music software company Cakewalk have announced a MAC version of its production software Sonar. (FactMag)
TorrentFreak publishes a letter sent by YouTube’s legal team to stream-ripping website TubeNinja. (MusicAlly
The music industry has asked the government to modify the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying it is outdated and makes removing unauthorised content too difficult. (NYTimes)

ISSUE: 27 May 2016

MQA has the potential to bring far higher quality sound without sacrificing the portability and ease of streaming - if labels and streaming services decide to use it. (Billboard)
Pioneer DJ announces details of ‘festival ready’ Tour range. (Fact)
Landr, the instant online mastering service, now links directly to SoundCloud. (CDM)
Spotify’s personalised Discover Weekly playlists generated 1.7bn streams between its launch in July 2015 and Christmas, but the company now says that the total is nearing 5bn. The feature has been used by 40m users. (MusicAlly, Verge)
Dubset Media Holdings announced exclusively on the stage at IMS Ibiza that it has reached an agreement with Spotify that will dramatically expand the global footprint of its MixBANK distribution platform. The deal makes it possible for DJs all over the world to upload and legally stream their original long-form mixes and single track remixes. (PRNewswire, Thump, DancingAstronaut)

ISSUE: 20 May 2016

BitTorrent unveils Clubbing TV – a multi-channel video streaming app, via BitTorrent Live. (MixMag)
YouTube is testing a new “native sharing” feature - a messaging service that lives within YouTube’s mobile apps and allows you to share embedded YouTube videos natively in the chat window. (Wired)
Facebook is said to be searching for fresh ways to work with the music industry. (NYPost) It has “quietly initiated talks with music labels about licensing a limited amount of songs that users can upload to, say, summer vacation videos or birthday parties”. Facebook confirmed it was testing a new product, called Slideshow, that includes music from Warner Music Group to help users create “soundtrack options”.
Kobalt’s new app for its clients has been released allowing artists and songwriters to see real-time data on the income being generated by individual songs. (MusicAlly)
Music tech platform Revelator has announced its new Playlist Analytics offering. (RotD)
Apple acknowledged iTunes users who claim the software deleted their music files, saying it will issue an update to iTunes next week that includes additional safeguards. (Verge)
According to John MacFarlane, CEO of Sonos, the music industry will hit a billion paying music streaming users and it will only ”take around 5 years” (so by 2021). (DMN)
SoundCloud has denied a report by DMN which alleges that it is preparing to impose serious restrictions on the upload of all DJ mixes. (NME)

ISSUE: 13 May 2016

Amazon.com is to let people post videos to its website and earn money from advertising, royalties and other sources, putting the company in more-direct competition with YouTube. (Bloomberg, Fortune)
Spotify’s business has grown faster since the launch of Apple Music in June than in the period that preceded it, one of the company’s executives has said. (Fact)
Spotify-backed and co-founded Soundtrack Your Brand, which streams music in business locations, is launching in the US. (TechCrunch)
The UK government has unveiled its plans to combat the growing problem of copyright infringement, pledging to reduce the level of illegal content available online and push for "clarification" from European regulators on safe harbour legislation. (Billboard, TorrentFreak)
Beatport is shutting down the streaming service and mobile app, Beatport News, the video livestreaming platform, and the events section, saying it “lost focus” on the core business. The download store also stated: “While we plan to continue considering offers for Beatport, the previously detailed auction process will be suspended for now”. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 06 May 2016

The CEO of tech start-up ReplyYes, which has sold over $1m worth of vinyl records in eight months through a text message-based ‘conversational commerce’ channel says the technology could soon also be applied to concert tickets. (IQ)
Spotify is attempting to improve its mobile interface with a redesign, arriving first on iOS, that puts its key sections in a bottom navigation bar instead of a sidebar menu. (TechCrunch)
Crowdmix’s social music app launches for Android and iOS. (MusicAlly)
The YouTube Music Awards 2015, Shazam, Spotify Found Them First and The Weeknd In The Night were among the Webby Award winners.
SoundCloud has launched its SoundCloud Go subscription tier in the UK and Ireland, with a catalogue of 125m tracks. (VentureBeat, Billboard, TechCrunch) Priced at £9.99/€9.99pm after a 30-day trial, artists can decide whether to make content available on the free tier or to limit it to paid subscribers.

ISSUE: 29 Apr 2016

Link To MP3 launches a website that “helps people source and download mp3s”. There is no mention of deals with rightsholders. (PRNewswire)
The latest startup launching an app to help dance-music fans decide where to go out is Dance Tonight, which has just launched for iOS and Android. (MusicAlly)
A list containing hundreds of Spotify account credentials has appeared on the website Pastebin, in what appears to be a possible security breach. Spotify says that it “has not been hacked” and its “user records are secure”. (TechCrunch)
After a six-month beta period in the US, Sonos has integrated Amazon's Prime Music service into its Sonos Controller app in Europe. (Engadget)
YouTube has launched a six-second ad unit the user can't skip. (BusinessInsider) Atlantic Records also trialled the format to promote Rudimental's new album.
Apple Music has surpassed 13 million subscribers, a growth of two million subscribers since February. (Billboard, Verge)
This is the contract songwriters are signing with Spotify. (DMN)
Spotify’s CMO on how the streaming service uses data, what that data says about millennials and how music is shaping advertising. (AdWeek)
Spotify has acquired CrowdAlbum, a service that creates albums of events based on the location and time of photos and videos people share on social media sites. (Billboard)
A comment by Apple’s CFO almost certainly suggests Apple Music decline in download revenue is being overcome by subscriptions. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 22 Apr 2016

808, the film about the Roland TR-808, will see release later this year through iTunes and Apple Music alongside a US theater release. (Fact)
Technics’ first run of limited edition SL-1200GAE turntables, comprising 300 units, sold out in Japan within 30 minutes last week. (Mixmag)
A Japanese company called Ulvac has unveiled a patented nanotechnology it claims could solve the problem of scratched vinyl and offer better sound quality. (Fact)
Shazam has launched a new technology Shazam for Brands, which Coca-Cola used for its “Share a Coke and a Song” campaign. Using Shazam-enabled bottles, consumers scanned lyrics on specially marked bottles and signage, and then recorded a digital lip-sync video to share their creations on social media. (NextWeb, BusinessWire)
The Pirate Bay has been down due to a technical issue. (TorrentFreak)
YouTube has informally launched an initiative to develop music talent under the name YouTube Music Foundry, which gives artists new tools and guidance on how to successfully grow their presence on the video platform, according to YouTube. (Billboard, Bloomberg)
SoundCloud has struck a European licensing deal with Sony/ATV, which represents 3m songs. (RotD, FT)

ISSUE: 15 Apr 2016

Recently rebooted turntable brand Vestax has revealed the first product to be released under the new STP/Vestax name: a four-channel analog mixer called the Phoenix. (Fact)
Tweet: Charles Arthur ‏@charlesarthur Apple Music has just passed 5m downloads on Google Play. Took 17 weeks to add 4m (from 1m downloads): about 250k/wk.
Analysts found that 45% of US Tidal app users identified as black, compared to 16% on Spotify, and 20% on Pandora. (BusinessInsider)
How music streaming service exclusives make pirating tempting again. (Verge) "The dream of streaming all the music in world won’t last if it becomes just another expensive patchwork of barriers."
Not only do YouTube have a month-to-month rolling contract with Universal, Spotify is in a similar contract with at least two of the major labels, and if not already, soon with all three. (MusicAlly)
Artist-rights organisation the Future of Music Coalition has claimed independent artists uploading music directly to SoundCloud (rather than through a label or distributor) can only start to earn royalties from those recordings if they are a ‘Premier Partner’. (FoMC)
SoundCloud has announced an integration with Twitter Moments via audio cards. Now users can listen to a SoundCloud track directly in the Moments tab. (SoundCloud)

ISSUE: 08 Apr 2016

Samsung has announced it will retire Milk Music in Australia just over a year after its launch. (Billboard)
How Spotify plans to use data to unlock the power of 'superfan'. (Business Insider)
Apple has been granted a patent for a technology that can automatically scan streamed songs and edit out offending lyrics. (Business Insider)
Bkstg, a new app aiming to connect artists with their fans, has launched with artists such as Aerosmith, Justin Bieber and Maroon 5 onboard. (TechCrunch)
New app Brapp aims to help rappers, DJs and producers by allowing producers to upload songs so that vocalists on the network can record over their tracks. (Telegraph)
Pioneer DJ has announced the result of a collaboration with synth pioneer Dave Smith: the Toraiz SP-16,a hardware sampler that also syncs with DJ hardware.(Mixmag)

ISSUE: 01 Apr 2016

Spotify may be planning to give playlist creators on its platform more feedback on how their collections are being listened to and enjoyed. (Musically)
In its first year, Tidal claims to have passed 3m paid subscribers globally, adding about 2.5m subs to the approximately 540,000 it had when it launched in the US. (Billboard) Around 45% have signed up for its hi-fidelity, lossless audio/video tier, which costs $19.99pm as opposed to its regular $9.99 tier. According to Tidal, Kanye West’s Life of Pablo album surpassed 250m streams in its first 10 days of release.
Vevo’s recommendations get more personalised, thanks to integrations with Spotify, Twitter and YouTube. (TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 24 Mar 2016

How virtual reality will reshape the music experience. (Fader)
The Bob Moog Foundation, dedicated to its namesake's legacy of synthesizer engineering and inventing, has announced its annual raffle prize for 2016: the Minimoog Model D synthesizer for just $20. (Thump)
Daniel Ek tweeted that Spotify has 30m paid subscribers. (Billboard)
Spotify has confirmed plans to go live in Indonesia at the end of March. (TechCrunch) A launch in Japan is expected and the company is said to be looking at India.
Spotify is already the go-to solution if you need a soundtrack to a house party, but it could soon be powering an app that wants to replace the old-fashioned jukebox in public venues. (Fact)
An app called CD Scanner for Spotify lets you import your CD collection to your Spotify account. (NextWeb)
Spotify is planning more hyper-personalisation in the wake of its success, according to product manager Matt Ogle. (MusicAlly)

ISSUE: 18 Mar 2016

Japanese musician Yotaro Shuto has launched a Kickstarter campaign for 2020, a “semi-modular beat machine” packed with drums, samplers, synths, effects and mixers. (Fact)
Sony has revealed a new prototype that may indicate the future of headphones is ear-free. Called the Concept N, the headphones lay around the user’s neck and project sound upwards towards the ear. (DancingAstronaut)
Liine says that its Skram iPad app enables anyone to make music. (Music Radar)
Three large file-hosting services, among the most popular file-sharing sites in Spain, Brazil/Portugal and France, have announced that they will shut down at the end of the month, citing reasons beyond their control. (TorrentFreak)
Flipagram CEO admits music was used without permission on the photo app saying “It took a good year and a quarter or so from the first outreach and the first set of deals coming in.” (Recode, DMN)
SXSW Music: Richie Hawtin explains and demonstrates his forthcoming mixer, Play Differently. (Austin Chronicle)
Inside SoundCloud, the move to revenue begins. (CDM)

ISSUE: 11 Mar 2016

Pandora should revive Rdio as pay-for-what-you-want streaming. (TechCrunch)
A SMS-based CRM and direct sales tool called Superphone allows artists to own their relationship with their fans. (TechCrunch)
Pandora is launching a service called AMPcast — a service to let musicians “speak to their fans” by way of audio messages that they can record quickly on their mobile phones and post to run in conjunction with their music streams. (TechCrunch)
Ten days after a judge orders MP3skull to immediately shut down, surrender its URLs, and pay $22m in damages, the site remains totally live and untouched. (DMN)
Samsung is likely going to shutter its Milk Music streaming service in the near future as part of a bigger revamp of its music strategy, but denies it will buy Tidal. (Variety)
Marketing firm Muzit aims to treat those pirating music as fans, by using geo-location to find them, then sell them tickets, contests and merchandise. (NYPost)
Rhapsody is served a class action lawsuit over non-payment on mechanical royalties for unlicensed works in their catalogue. (DMN)
Spotify and a number of major US-based music publishers are now preparing an out-of-court settlement over unpaid publishing royalties, according to confidential details shared with DMN.
Data gathered by TorrentFreak from Google’s Transparency Report shows that the number of links reported in DMCA notices has more than doubled compared to last year, and quadrupled in comparison to the year before.
Sony Music Sweden has developed an app which shows acts their daily royalty earnings – including information pertaining to their label advance. (MBW)
SoundCloud is about to become a totally different musical destination, with a subscription service happening by October of this year, according to sources to DMN.

ISSUE: 04 Mar 2016

The turntable revolution is upon us. (Reviewed)
TPG Capital, one of the world's biggest investment firms, is in talks to back a fundraising being prepared by Spotify. (Sky) If TPG goes ahead with the deal, its money would be invested in convertible loan notes, an instrument which eventually converts from debt to equity.
Promo delivery app Inflyte has launched its 2.0 upgrade, which features a host of brand new features. (Decoded)
Play, a torrent site, has launched and “has the honour of being almost shutdown-proof”. (TorrentFreak)
Spotify is quietly funding Soundtrack Your Brand, a startup that could break open a whole new market for streaming music. (BusinessInsider)
BBC Music just got personal: get to know the new BBC Music app. (BBC)
YouTube has apologised to creators and promised to “strive to do better” with its system for complaints, including those concerning copyright. (MusicAlly)
Popular music database and market website Discogs is now an app too. (Billboard)
Tidal has been hit with a $5m class action lawsuit over delayed, deliberate or non-existent royalty payments to an artist in the US. (Billboard, NextWeb)
Following Friday’s rumours that Samsung was looking to acquire Tidal, Billboard writes “Samsung is indeed working on ‘something’ big, and that the technology giant has been indicating such behind the scenes for some time. Tidal, though, has not been brought up specifically in connection with those conversations.”

ISSUE: 26 Feb 2016

Audio sharing tool Byta launches Team Accounts, aiming to make collaboration and tracking of music shared via the platform easier. (RotD)
Study suggests ‘streamripping’ is music’s new piracy problem. (MusicAlly)
Intentionally or not, Twitter has given artists a new way to crowdsource their creative decisions through polls. (FastCo)
Drip, the music subscription platform, has shared an open letter from its founders announcing its closure. (Mixmag)
Fast Company’s list of the most innovative companies of 2016 includes Spotify at 19. The music category Top 10 features Spotify, OVO Sound, Big Machine, Sonos, SubPac, Doppler Labs, Pandora, Shazam, Pacemaker and SoundCloud. (FastCo, FastCo)
SoundCloud has released Pulse, the straightforward app released last November that lets creators on the platform quickly manage and monitor activity around their music uploads, on iOS. (Billboard, TechCrunch)

ISSUE: 19 Feb 2016

BandPage, who describe themselves as “dedicated to helping musicians build their careers by growing their fan bases and increasing their revenue on the largest digital music services”, has been acquired by YouTube. (Billboard, BandPage, TechCrunch) The acquisition price was said to be around $8m, much less than the $27.6m in funding BandPage has raised over time.
Novation have announced the new in-app purchase for its Launchpad for iOS app, MIDI Sync. (XLR8R)
According to Tunecore, member artists enjoyed a 370% increase in royalties on the platform in 2015. (DMN)
BitTorrent launches $4.95 annual subscription to remove ads from uTorrent. (VentureBeat)
Last December, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowry filed a $150m class action lawsuit over copyright infringement against Spotify in the Central District Court of California. Now, the music streaming giant has fought back on multiple fronts arguing against both the class action quality of the case and the court’s jurisdiction. (Fact)
After scoring exclusive streaming rights to Kanye West’s new album, Tidal has taken over the number one spot on the US App Store. (TechCrunch)
Apple Music now counts over 11m subscribers, up from 10m a month ago. (DMN, TechCrunch) Apple’s iCloud service now reaches 782m users.
Spotify is closing in on 30m paying subscribers, having hit 28m at the end of 2015, say people familiar with the matter. (FT, Billboard) While a hard number is still unknown, this new information suggests Spotify's growth has accelerated since the beginning of 2016.

ISSUE: 12 Feb 2016

Both legitimate artists gaming the system in hopes of a more fair payout, and bots created to harvest artificial listens, are costing Spotify enough money it’s starting to get aggressive about combating click fraud and spam. (Motherboard)
Inside Spotify's plans for video and podcasts. (TechInsider)
WhoSampled has announced a new integration with Spotify that will allow listeners to discover the inspirations and origins of songs through the service. (RotD, Billboard)
Apple Music comes to Sonos. (Recode)
The Pirate Bay now embeds links next to all video torrents using streaming tool Torrents Time - enabling them to be played in a window without users ever having to leave the site. Music could well be offered next. (DMN, TorrentFreak, Verge)

ISSUE: 05 Feb 2016

Spotify/YouTube mash-up Wefre has been ’paused' as the founders seek clarity over the legality of the service. (MusicAlly)
Crowdmix social-music network to launch in May says founder. (MusicAlly)
As announced two months ago, Google yesterday shut down Songza, the music service it acquired in July 2014. (VentureBeat)
The best gadgets from the 2016 Consumers Electronic Show. (EDM.com)
Facebook will start broadcasting live video in a dedicated space on its iPhone app. (Guardian)
Following its announcement earlier this month, Apple’s iTunes Radio has officially gone from an ad-supported, free platform to a paid service requiring all users to have a subscription to Apple Music. (NextWeb)
Ableton has released version 9.6 of its Live software, which comes with a number of bugfixes, changes for the Push controller and more. (Fact)
SoundCloud has launched a new stations function, similar to that which exists on other streaming services, as a way to encourage users to hear new music (Billboard), in addition to now having a Top 50 chart for over 30 different genres. (EDM.com)
A new app from Playlists.net, the Spotify community and playlist sharing site acquired by Warner Music, has launched ‘Playlist a Day’ sending users a different human-curated Spotify playlist each day. (TechCrunch)
Beatport has launched a completely localised version of its music service in the Netherlands. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 29 Jan 2016

Massive Attack have released an iPhone app called Fantom, a "sensory music player" that actively remixes pieces of music based on the user's heartbeat, location, local time, and movement. (Verge)
Cür Media has launched its Cür Music streaming service in the US, breaking the mould of the familiar $9.99-a-month music subscription. (MusicAlly) Its two-tier structure offers a $2.99 (Octo) and $6.99 (Inked) a month package, with Inked allowing for offline-listening. On-demand streaming is limited to a selected eight tracks a day as the model focuses on playlists and radio.
Amazon's Prime Music streaming service is adding Prime Stations, online radio which will offer themed playlists around genre or artists, and lyrics functionality. (MusicWeek)
Amazon is estimated to have spent more than $3bn last year on content for its streaming music and video services, to encourage renewals for Amazon Prime memberships. (BusinessInsider)
Spotify is going to start rolling out videos, although as yet it's not been clear on what kinds would be pushed. (BusinessInsider, WSJ, Billboard) The US, UK, Germany and Sweden will be the first to be given the video content, initially in Spotify’s Android app, with iOS following next week.
SoundCloud has launched a charts section on its website covering all music and audio on the service.

ISSUE: 22 Jan 2016

Richie Hawtin has announced a new technology venture with Allen & Heath and parent company Audiotonix, called Play Differently. (Mixmag) Hawtin and team's new technology promises "to take the artistry of DJing and performance to the next level"
Roland has released a complete set of its recently revived System-500 Eurorack modules. (Fact)
Austrian audiophile company Horch House is trying to help resurrect the last frontier in obsolete audio players: the reel-to-reel tape deck. (Fact)
OurMix is a praised music discovery service for Spotify users that helps you find what friends are discovering, then matches that up with your own interests to offer better recommendations. (TechCrunch)
A composer, audio innovator and founder of the website HDtracks believes binaural audio will elevate virtual reality to the next level. (FT)
iTunes Radio will no longer be free, as of January 28. In an email to customers, Apple said that the Pandora-like service will only be available for Apple Music subscribers, which costs $9.99 per month. (TechCrunch) Apple is shutting down its mobile advertising network ‘iAd App Network’ on 30 June.
The number of Apple Music subscribers has reportedly reached 300,000 in Russia, making it the fifth largest market for the service. (Billboard)
PRS for Music and YouTube have confirmed a new extension to their current multi-territory licensing deal and ongoing music partnership. (RotD, M)

ISSUE: 15 Jan 2016

The Kickstarter-funded Bragi Dash earphones have officially been released, and initial reviews are promising. (EDM.com)
Faithless fans have personal data stolen after the band's website hacked. Other music websites may be targeted. (Independent)
Pioneer is set to release an upgraded Nexus CDJ and mixer, due out this February. (Mixmag)
LCD Soundsystem maestro James Murphy has designed a custom sound system for Despacio, set to be used at this year’s Coachella festival. (EDM.com)
The Electric Jukebox, the £179 plug-and-play music streaming platform for TVs which had been due to launch before Christmas, is now expected 'in time for Easter'. (MBW)
The launch of the YouTube Music app in November is one of the key reasons digital video will “win the decade,” Robert Kyncl, YouTube's Chief Business Officer, said at CES. “Video is more important to music than ever. More than half of teenagers use us as the main way to find and listen to music.” (Billboard) Manager Scooter Braun appeared on stage to show his support for YouTube.
Spotify has linked up with Genius, the startup that annotates music lyrics and other online content, to provide backstory and commentary that pop up as you stream tracks. The annotations are available on Spotify’s iPhone app only at first. (Billboard, TechCrunch)
Apple Music has surpassed 10m paying subscribers. (FT, NextWeb)

ISSUE: 08 Jan 2016

Panasonic will release two versions of the new Technics 1200 turntable - a 50th anniversary limited edition in summer, followed by a non-limited edition before the end of 2016. (Wired)
Apple, Samsung and others have agreed to pay €5-7 for each smartphone or tablet imported to Germany, with the money distributed among creative professionals, including musicians. (BusinessInsider)
Twitter's Venture arm is now part of a $10m investment round for Muzik, a ‘connected headphone’ company developing wireless, touch-sensitive listening and fast-tweeting experiences. (Recode, DMN)
Apple is said to be replacing the 3.5mm headphone jack on the forthcoming iPhone 7. But this may also coincide with a push towards wireless, Bluetooth-connected headphones. (DMN)
The BoomStick allows users to improve the dynamic quality of all of their headphones with the addition of a single, portable device that plugs into a device’s headphone jack. (TechCrunch)
Universal's previously unreleased dance catalogue hits Apple Music, Spotify And Beatport. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 18 Dec 2015

Results from a new survey hint that streaming services slightly encourage record sales. (Thump)
Brussels bans Netflix, Sky & Spotify from ‘geo-blocking’ international travellers. (The Drum)
Pandora users who have liked music across multiple genres will find their unique mix on a new custom “Thumbprint Radio” station. The “hyper-personalised” station suggests other music that should also be of interest. (TechCrunch)
Following Pandora’s acquisition of Rdio last month, the service has now confirmed it will go offline on December 22. (VentureBeat)
Spotify has launched a new tool that claims to offer seamless party playlists. (Fact)

ISSUE: 11 Dec 2015

Amazon is giving away a free vinyl every 30 minutes on December 15 from 9am to 10pm PST. (Fact)
Google Play Music launches in South Africa for a subscription fee of R59,99/month, matching the price of rival services. (TechCentral, VentureBeat)
Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s Lean On has become Spotify’s most streamed song of all time. (Billboard)

ISSUE: 04 Dec 2015

Korg has introduced iDS-10, a portable synth for the iPhone. (Mixmag)
Archive.org has unearthed a gigantic collection of cassettes from the mid-80s into the mid-90s. (Fact)
As previously reported, online file transfer service WeTransfer has unveiled a new platform for streaming music. (Billboard) It will feature targeted, curated campaigns, working closely with artists and labels themselves rather than maintaining an open, user-generated streaming service.
Majestic Casual's YouTube channel has been reinstated after being terminated over "multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement" last week. (Fact)
Beatport is rallying its global base of DJs and electronic music artists to provide a custom soundtrack for the #ListenParis2015 climate change awareness initiative. (RotD)
Mark Knight has launched The Toolroom Academy, a new suite of online production courses launched in conjunction with Faderpro. (FaderPro)
YouTube’s iOS application is now ranked as one of the App Store’s Top 10 Grossing apps on iPhone, following the launch of YouTube Red in late October. (TechCrunch)
Spotify is now the world's most popular streaming music service, beating Pandora, according to a new report from app analytics firm App Annie. (Billboard)
Major Lazer’s Lean On is now the most streamed song of all time. (Billboard, OCC)

ISSUE: 27 Nov 2015

Generate puts the power to make music videos in your hands. (EDM.com)
AIAIAI and electronic music duo Modeselektor join forces for a special edition headphone. (XLR8R)
Songkick co-founder and CEO Ian Hogarth explains the company’s new feature which helps artists sell concerts directly to fans. (TechCrunch video)
Shazam announces faster recognition time, in-app search, and over 2bn followers. (Businesswire)
Online mastering service LANDR, a tool which enables producers to polish up their tracks in the blink of an eye, has announced the launch of its desktop app. (XLR8R)
YouTube is offering up to $1m to fight takedowns. (EDM.com)
Google currently processes a record breaking 1,500 takedown requests of links to "pirate" pages from its search results every minute, a 100% increase compared to last year. (TorrentFreak)
Three streaming platforms, Beats Music, Rdio and Zune, all shut down in the matter of a few days. (EDM.com)
WeTransfer has issued an official statement about its new streaming service. (Data Transmission)
Visitors to YouTube music channel Majestic Casual now see a notice saying the page “has been terminated because we've received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement regarding material that the user posted”. (Mixmag) The channel is yet to publicly address the issue other than a Facebook post to say "I'll be back".

ISSUE: 20 Nov 2015

Berlin's Native Instruments has released a new version of iOS-based production tool iMaschine. (Data Transmission) It has also introduced its latest performance synthesizer for Reaktor, FLESH. (XLR8R)
Following user requests and lack of information, Sonos have now tweeted “We're working with Apple to bring Apple Music to Sonos by the end of the year”.
WeTransfer, which serves 85m users each month, has announced its own music player for partners. (Twitter) Bloomberg speculates that the company has no plans to make money from music, but aims to compete with major streaming services, social networks and video sites for potential hits.
Spotify gives artists on the platform access to the data they generate with Fan Insights dashboard. (Billboard, TechCrunch)
Pandora is acquiring assets of music streaming service Rdio for $75m in cash. (Variety, BusinessWire, Billboard, TechCrunch, FT) The acquisition includes “technology and intellectual property from Rdio,” though Rdio’s existing licences with rightsholders are not part of the acquisition. As part of the acquisition process, Rdio is filing for bankruptcy, likely to rid itself of accumulated debt. Rdio will also shut down its existing service in all markets.

ISSUE: 13 Nov 2015

California-based music and technology company Output has just announced the release of EXHALE; the first modern vocal engine for producers. (XLR8R)
Facebook has begun rolling out a new music discovery feature to share song clips from Spotify and Apple Music. (Fact)
The RIAA’s lawsuit against music application Aurous could be resolved within ten days, according to lawyers for both parties. (TorrentFreak)
Apple Music has arrived for Android. (Resident Advisor)
A new study has revealed the real impact of streaming on music revenue. (EDM.com) economists Luis Aguiar and Joel Waldfogel state: "Interactive streaming appears to be revenue-neutral for the recorded music industry."
Major Lazer's Lean On becomes Spotify's most-streamed song of all time, with 526m plays worldwide. (Billboard)
Mixcloud is talking to venture capitalists about raising “meaningful” funds for the next stage of its growth. (FT) Mixcloud is claiming 14m users a month — up by 30% over the past year.

ISSUE: 06 Nov 2015

Following the announcement of Ableton's new Push 2 controller and a Live 9.5 update, Point Blank's resident Ableton and Push expert Ski Oakenfull has taken the new devices for a test drive, sampling straight from vinyl using Push 2 and the updated Simpler device. (XLR8R)
Ableton has unveiled updated versions of its Push and Live technologies following its first Loop music summit in Berlin. (XLR8R)
After a decade of development, Sennheiser have revived their Orpheus line of headphones, with the new model retailing for $55,000. (Fact)
Global Sound Movement has launched an online sample library, giving access to rare instrumentals and recordings from around the world. (Mixmag)
Streaming service Tidal has announced it will add original programming to its current mix of music, videos, short films and live streams. (Fact)
Mixcloud launches on Apple TV. (RotD)
Ministry of Sound has announced its new music streaming app, LIVE, featuring a six music channels, on-demand mixes and ‘Live From The Club’ every Friday and Saturday night. (RotD)
SoundCloud has launched Pulse, an Android app that helps users manage their accounts on the go. (Fact)

ISSUE: 30 Oct 2015

PAN artist and Holly Herndon collaborator Mat Dryhurst has launched v.1.0 of Saga, a self-hosting and publishing framework that gives you full control over how your videos behave in each different place they’re embedded online. (Fact)
YouTube’s Music Key shuts on November 30, leaving users outside the US without ad-free music streaming from YouTube as YouTube Red won’t yet have launched. (NextWeb)
In this new video from Roland, Daedelus examines the legendary TR-808 and its “remade” version, the AIRA TR-8. (Fact)
Music production education platform, FaderPro, has announced new courses and content following the involvement of new investors, team members and artists. (Data Transmission)
Earlier this year, Dave Smith Instruments introduced a “tribute” to their legendary Prophet-5 called the Prophet-6. Now, the company will release a desktop module version with all the same features of the Prophet-6 except for the keyboard. (Fact)
Amazon Prime Music has ‘several million people using it’, says Amazon’s digital music boss Steve Boom. (MusicAlly)
Deezer has put off plans for an imminent IPO "due to market conditions", saying: "The company will review its fundraising options in the future. Deezer is well funded and well positioned as it continues to pursue its growth strategy". (FT, Hypebot)
Following an attempt by its developer to completely open-source Aurous last weekend, the RIAA says a court order which bans distribution of the controversial software has been violated. Aurous has since offered to throw in the towel completely but the RIAA wants the defendants to be held in contempt of court. (TorrentFreak)
Twitch, the world’s biggest live-streaming platform for video games, launches a new hub where users can watch artists as they work. (Verge)
With Beats 1 proving something of a success for Apple Music, Spotify has decided to launch its own slate of original radio programming, In Residence. (Mixmag)
Non-subscribers to Apple Music have recently found that some vocal searches with Siri are impossible without a paid subscription to the streaming service. (Dancing Astronaut)
SoundCloud has hit out at supposed “repost networks”, and have begun to ban accounts that abuse the feature. (Dancing Astronaut)
Dutch imprint Spinnin’ Records has announced their new sublabel, Spinnin' Premium, a service that will offer members "an exclusive two week period of free downloading our latest Spinnin' Premium releases." (Billboard)

ISSUE: 23 Oct 2015

Starting next week, Phonica Records in London's Soho will be hosting a vintage Aberlour Voice-O-Graph recording booth. (Fact)
Brooklyn-based synth company Critter & Guitari have unveiled the Organelle, a tiny computer that can sound like any instrument. (Fact)
A meeting between Jay Z and Samsung triggers speculation that Tidal could be acquired. (TechCrunch)
Google Play’s global streaming lead Peter Asbill talks curation, Apple Music and why wannabe playlisters must ‘check their ego at the door’. (Guardian - Stuart Dredge)
Spotify has moved into the No 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s 'Top Grossing' charts for the first time in the US. (TechCrunch)
In an effort to stay ahead of Apple Music’s potential global reach, Japan and Indonesia are on the verge of receiving Spotify. (Dancing Astronaut)
Apple Music has achieved 6.5m paid subscribers three weeks after the first users reached the end of their three-month trial period, chief executive Tim Cook has said. (Fact)
YouTube reveals new premium paid service, YouTube Red. (EDM.com)

ISSUE: 16 Oct 2015

Native Instruments’ Kontrol keyboards are getting a major software update later this month, which will open the devices up to third-party plug-ins. (Fact)
Watch the Moog Mother-32 synth put through its paces in an Arizonan desert. (Mixmag)
Pioneer has announced the XDJ-700, an affordable media player that looks like a CDJ but only plays digital files via USB, smartphone or computer. (YourEDM)
Online sample source Irrupt is still operating in beta, but after a wider launch later this year the service promises to offer a huge range of sounds exclusively created by “renowned sound designers and producers”. (Fact)
You can now share music on Instagram thanks to new app Sounds. (YourEDM)
Free streaming app Aurous has launched its first version. (MusicAlly) The developer of the app - which enables free streaming of content from across the internet, including torrents, has claimed it is “creating a content-id system and DMCA portal so we can ensure Aurous does not infringe on anyone’s copyright”.
SoundCloud continues to see a healthy growth in user numbers. (DMN)

ISSUE: 09 Oct 2015

Eight new tech products you should check out this autumn. (Mixmag)
Bitwig Studio – the DAW developed by a studio featuring former Ableton employees – has released version 1.3, which turns it into an audio workstation with full multi-touch capabilities. (Fact)
Moog to end production of Minimoog Voyager Synth. (Mixmag)
Moog has revealed Mother-32, its new semi-modular synthesizer. (Resident Advisor)
Version 1.8 of DJ software Serato includes a new feature which detects the musical key of your tracks. (Fact)
Roland officially unveils boutique range. (Mixmag)
Spotify’s newly created sub-genres are causing all sorts of furore. (Deep House Amsterdam)
The boss of Instagram has said "it's just a matter of time before music becomes even more dominant" on the app. (BBC) 25% of the most followed accounts are music related.
Landr has turned mastering into a one-click process – and a new feature could see it take work from human engineers. (NextWeb)
Eventbrite updates its live music discovery study with EDM fan snapshots, insights, and more. (Dancing Astronaut)
Pre-release music promotion service FATdrop is launching a premium tier called Pro DJ, costing £3.99pm via their app. It will enable DJs to download the songs sent to their inbox for offline listening. (RotD)

ISSUE: 02 Oct 2015

Seven old school production software interfaces that have stood the test of time. (Thump)
Aldi have officially launched their own streaming service Aldi Life Musik, powered by Napster, and it’s cheaper than Spotify and Tidal. (Fact)
Aurous, the music equivalent of Popcorn Time, is just two weeks away from alpha release. (TorrentFreak, MusicAlly) They claim they will be “creating a content-id system and DMCA portal so we can ensure Aurous does not infringe on anyone’s copyrights."
This cutting edge stereo system lets you experience sound in four dimensions, and you can try it for yourself this weekend at The Hague. (Thump)
Native Instruments have released the full version of their Stems Creator app. (XLR8R)
Music makers worldwide have been warned not to upgrade to the new OS X El Capitan due to compatibility issues with Native Instruments software. (Fact)

ISSUE: 25 Sep 2015

Online retailer Boomkat has relaunched after giving its site a digital overhaul. (Resident Advisor)
An in-depth look at the inner-workings of music streaming app Aurous which utilises a decentralised BitTorrent search engine. (Deep House Amsterdam) The team behind the app have cancelled their crowdfunding campaign. (Fact)
Sensel have unveiled their new Morph multi-touch controller, which promises to provide countless possibilities for creation. (Fact)
Details of Roland’s super mysterious Boutique series have leaked online. (Fact)
In America, a new TV network called UphoricTV focussing on "festival culture" is to launch on Verizon's new mobile video service, Go90. (Billboard)
Website Song BPM finds the bpm of a track with just the title and artist name. (LifeHacker)
Discogs, the online marketplace for vinyl collectors, is set to launch a mobile app for analog lovers. (Billboard, Mixmag)

ISSUE: 18 Sep 2015

Pioneer has introduced the DDJ-RZ and DDJ-RX controllers – the first hardware to deliver native control of Rekordbox DJ performance software. (XLR8R)
Roland has announced two new DS synths in its Juno line, positioned as gig-ready instruments for live performance. (Fact) They’ve also teased a new line of Juno synths with this video, simply titled Roland Boutique #1. (Mixmag)
Native Instruments have announced the latest edition to the Traktor DJ system family, the Traktor Kontrol S5. (Data Transmission)
StudioBananaThings has unveiled the Batband, a set of headphones that allow you to listen to music through bone conduction, a similar technology to hearing aids that transfer sound through the skull. (Fact)
Sharebeast, the US’s largest file-sharing site, has been shut down by the US Department of Justice, along with sister sites albumjams.com and mp3pet.com. (Fact)
YouTube has begun calling time on free trial access to its Music Key subscription service. (MusicAlly) Some trial subscribers have been informed via email that their trial period has ended and that they are now being charged for access to the service. YouTube has yet to make an official announcement about Music Key moving out of its beta phase.
Spotify's growth rate has actually increased since the release of Apple Music, CEO Daniel Ek said. (BusinessInsider)

ISSUE: 11 Sep 2015

New dating app Mix’d chooses your matches through your shared favourite DJs. (Deep House Amsterdam)
New programming language Alda lets you compose music in a text editor. (Fact)
Some new images have emerged of the inside of the new Technics turntable. (Fact)
Vine has officially launched Music On Vine, which incorporates functions for music and artists within the video sharing app. (Dancing Astronaut)
YouTube is apparently preparing to launch two separate subscription-based services before the end of 2015. (Dancing Astronaut)
Amsterdam record store Vinylify will print personalised vinyl records for you. (Deep House Amsterdam)
The BBC has announced plans for its own streaming service. (Fact)
A global snapshot of Android's top music apps, and a glimpse into digital listening's future. (Billboard)
Evermix has created an app which allows DJs to record sets to their smartphone, edit and post to their own Evermix DJ page. (RotD)
Google Play Music has unveiled the results of its Ultimate Festival playlist, with dance music dominating the Most Played Artists and Most Played Tracks charts. (Mixmag)

ISSUE: 04 Sep 2015

Panasonic (parent company of Technics) has unveiled a prototype turntable built of aluminium, an allusion to the still-in-demand 1200 series. (Billboard)
There’s now a car that is specifically designed to “provide a club-like experience whilst driving”. Meet The Fractal. (Fact)
Roland’s classic synth SYSTEM-100 is now available in VST, AU and plug-out formats. (Mixmag)
Vine has announced a new music-based initiative with a number of new music functions, allowing users an improved interface posting and experiencing music content. (Billboard, VentureBeat)
A survey of US Apple Music users from Slice Intelligence has found 70.2% of them are men, though only 39% had bought an Apple product online in the past two years. (Slice) The survey's wider finding also suggest that Apple Music has appeal outside of core urban, tech-focused markets.
According to sources, YouTube is preparing to launch its two separate subscription services before the end of 2015 — Music Key and another unnamed service targeting YouTube’s premium content creators, which will come with a paywall. Taken together, YouTube will be a mix of free, ad-supported content and premium videos that sit behind a paywall. (Verge) One music industry source questioned the "strategic priority" of the music subscription service for YouTube and Google

ISSUE: 28 Aug 2015

Ninja Tune have teamed up with Novation on the Launchpad app for iOS, which will now offer remix packs from Machinedrum and Lapalux. (XLR8R)
Apple has revived its Alchemy synth with a Logic Pro X 10.2 update. (Fact)
Native Instruments' Stem Creator Tool is now available in public beta. (Fact)
Pumping nightclubs with vapourised alcohol could become a thing thanks to a new company called Alcoholic Architecture. (Your EDM)
DMN claims Universal's deal with SoundCloud is now 'days away'.

ISSUE: 21 Aug 2015

After being in an open beta for over two months, Last.fm is finally rolling out its new features to all. (NextWeb)
Canadian app developers Noodlecake Studios have unveiled a new 8-bit game that helps fight piracy. (Thump)
Ultra Records has resolved its legal dispute with YouTube star Michelle Phan, however, details of the settlement have not been disclosed and neither side has offered any comment on the matter as of yet. (Tubefilter)
SoundCloud has stopped sharing data with Next Big Sound, citing the latter company’s recent acquisition by streaming radio service Pandora as the cause. (Musically)
Legal threats against SoundCloud from major content owners are now intensifying, according to sources, with filings likely to happen within a few months if negotiations don’t progress. (DMN)
It’s been another contentious week of mysterious SoundCloud account takedowns and suspensions. (Fact)

ISSUE: 14 Aug 2015

Numark are set to release a Technics-inspired turntable. (Fact)
Spotify’s freemium tier might be on the way out in favour of a “gated access” model, sources claim. (Fact)
This Is My Jam is shuttering its service next month, as the developers are looking to move on to other projects. (NextWeb) The site will turn into a read-only time capsule that will allow visitors to listen to all the tracks shared by its 200,000+ users.
SoundCloud plays have nearly doubled in the past year, according to mid-year data shared by Next Big Sound. (DMN)
Mixcloud is considering adding live broadcasts and round-the-clock radio stations to its streaming offering. (Fact)
Several SoundCloud users have complained following their accounts being suspended over copyright issues despite them producing, releasing and owning the publishing rights to all of the music uploaded. (Fact, Complex)

ISSUE: 07 Aug 2015

You can now listen to all Beats 1 radio shows through Apple Music’s Connect service. (Fact)
…and lots of folks are getting quite excited about it. (Thump)
Pioneer DJ’s have launched a teaser trailer for their new Battle mixer and Rekordbox update. (XLR8R)
YouTube is forgoing the 301+ freeze for a system that only counts views that they're "confident only come from real people". (Engadget)
Facebook debuts new live event stream at Lollapalooza. (WSJ)
Mixcloud have announced updates to their iOS and Android apps. (Data Transmission)
Stems, a multi-track digital audio format that lets DJs and remixers control individual parts of a track, has gone on sale on popular dance music stores. (Engadget)
Beatport will now allow anyone to create an account, upload and monetise their original tracks and mixes on the streaming music service, but they'll earn just 5-10% of revenue. (Hypebot)

ISSUE: 31 Jul 2015

Review – Pioneer DJ: XDJ-RX (Dancing Astronaut)
This CD/record hybrid from guitarist Yonatan Gat can be played on a turntable and a CD player. (Fact)
Alpha Recording System have unveiled plans for a new table top DJ mixer. (XLR8R)
Native Instruments have offered a first look at how their new multi-track audio format Stems will work. (Fact)
Big name DJs such as Tiesto, David Guetta, Richie Hawtin and Steve Angello have started helping music technology companies get off the ground with funding help. (Billboard)
YouTube's CEO says mobile revenue is growing 100% year-on-year, as a new app is launched. (Billboard)
Spinnin' Records has been honoured for reaching 10m subscribers on its Youtube channel. (RotD) The Dutch label received the 'Diamon Playbutton' from YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcicki.
Leaked documents show a subscription tier for SoundCloud later this year, although there's no details of what the pricing would be or the split between rightsholders. A free version may give users access to a capped number of streams and downloads each month. (TechTimes, MusicAlly)Separately, SoundCloud is "now close to exhausting its available financing, according to three individuals close to the organisation". (DMN)
Amazon has launched its Prime Music streaming service in the UK. (Fact)
SFX Entertainment and Spotify have announced a content distribution deal involving music and video content from Beatport. (Data Transmission)

ISSUE: 24 Jul 2015

Google's Q2 2015 financial report shows a $17.7bn revenue for YouTube - an 11% increase over Q2 of 2014. Advertising revenue, much of it from mobile search, was also up 11% year-over-year at $16bn, and mobile viewers averaged more than 40 minutes on the site. (Billboard, TubeFilter) Paid clicks were up 18% while cost-per-clicks, the average price of its ads, fell 11% from the same period last year.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission is said to have launched a formal investigation into Apple’s dealings with competing music streaming services in its App Store, targeting Apple’s 30% fee charged to subscription services who sign up new users through the App Store. (Verge)
A poll of 17,500 Apple users found that only 17% planned to stop using the Apple Music service when their free trial was over. (Hypebot, 9to5Mac)
Guitar amp manufacturer Marshall has unveiled a new Android-based smartphone called London, specifically aimed at music lovers. (Deep House Amsterdam)
Spotify have launched their new Discover Weekly feature, which builds playlists based on your listening habits. (Fact)
A new artist to fan app, Bkstg, will be launched later this year following investment from the likes of Live Nation, Modest! Management, Three Six Zero Group and Scooter Braun Projects. (Billboard)
New iOS app Songtree allows you to make music collaboratively through a branching tree interface. (Fact)
Collaborative music listening app weeSPIN is set to join forces with Downtown Project. (Data Transmission)

ISSUE: 16 Jul 2015

StreamSquid allows users to stream music for free, using legal services such as YouTube and SoundCloud as a backbone. (TorrentFreak)
YouTube CEO confirms their music subscription service is relaunching 'later this year'. (BusinessInsider) “YouTube has an impressive collection of music. It’s a little bit different than Apple/Spotify. The music is different and the purpose is different. We have music videos… being able to see your favourite artist play a song… it’s magical.”
Spotify have unveiled a new musical map feature which allows users to see what songs people are streaming most across the world. (Fact)
U.S. government regulators are looking into whether the 30% cut Apple takes from subscriptions on rival streaming services purchased in-app is illegal under antitrust law. (Fact)
A new iOS app called RapMic lets you record rhymes over pre-made instrumentals and share them via iMessage. (Fact)
Apple is set to include a high-quality audio option in its new iOS 9 update. (Fact)
New service Super Specific Vinyl allows you to press anything you want onto vinyl. (Fact)

ISSUE: 10 Jul 2015

In the week since Apple Music launched, Spotify has spent five consecutive days in the top 10 most downloaded apps list. (Bloomberg)
In wake of Apple Music, SoundCloud update focuses on music discovery, better user experience. (TechCrunch)
Rebel Sound, Shy FX, Chase & Status with MC Rage and David Rodigan, will be presenting a fortnightly two hour show for Beats 1 Radio on Apple Music. (RotD)
Automated mastering service LANDR has just upgraded its mastering tool. (Resident Advisor)
Yamaha has officially launched its new Reface line of synths. (Fact)
Akai has announced three new, feature-packed drum pad controllers to be available this summer. (XLR8R)
DJs and music collectors have been warned not to download iTunes 12.2 due to several glitches in its tags, artwork and more. (Deep House Amsterdam)
Spotify streaming is set to be affected by Chicago’s new 9% “cloud tax” on digital services. (Fact)
Rdio has responded to Beats 1 with its own stations curated by the likes of DFA, XL Recordings, Blue Note, and more. (Fact)
Microsoft’s Xbox Music service is re-branding as Groove, set to launch alongside Windows 10 later this month. (Fact)
SoundCloud have rolled out further customisation improvements to profiles. (Fact)

ISSUE: 03 Jul 2015

MBW understands that Ministry of Sound has not licensed AppleMusic – although negotiations are ongoing.
Kygo and Apple Music have entered into a partnership to help launch their new streaming service. (Dancing Astronaut)
Apple is adopting a sponsorship-only model in seeking advertisers for Beats 1, according to people briefed on Apple's plans. (AdAge)
Facebook is looking to get involved in music, but what that means is still undetermined. (Verge) MusicAlly reports rumours that Facebook is in talks with major labels about possible services, expected to centre on uploading ad-supported music videos to its service.
Britain is the music download capital of Europe with the average household now spending more than £100 a year on downloads, a Samsung survey has found. (Telegraph)
Rebel Sound announced for Beats 1 Radio. (Industry Insider)
Shazam will start making “Shazam Counts” public for songs. It's also rolling out a new feature in partnership with over two dozen artists that will allow users to see which songs their favourite musicians are listening to on the service. (Billboard, TechCrunch)
Shazam has unveiled a new feature that shows fans which songs their favourite musicians are looking up. (Fact)
Cloud-based music production platform Splice have launched their newest add-on, Splice Sounds, a subscription based sample pack service. (Dancing Astronaut)
Google has announced its version of ad-supported, free music streaming called Google Play Music. (Dancing Astronaut)
Daedelus has created his own delay and sample instrumental called the Delaydelus, manufactured by Austin, TX technology group Bleep Labs. (XLR8R)
Dani Sanz’s Draw It Yourself MIDI allows you to actually draw your own MIDI controller. (Thump)
Elixir Specialty Coffee have unveiled a drink made using sound waves. (Fact)

ISSUE: 26 Jun 2015

Resident Advisor have launched their first app, RA Guide, featuring club and DJ recommendations. (RotD, Guardian)
Beatport have unveiled their own embedded music player that will pay artists when their track is streamed. (Data Transmission)
This new remote-controlled vinyl player lets you play records vertically, if you’re into that sort of thing. (FACT)
For some users on Apple iOS 8.4 and 9, a ‘Radio’ tab has gone live within the Music app. It features the new Beats One radio station, which launches on June 30. (NextWeb)
Apple's Mastered for iTunes engineering guidelines may become the industry standard, but not everyone wants to follow the rules. (Fader)

ISSUE: 19 Jun 2015

Who are dance's tech titans? The five execs leading the charge. (Billboard)
Why Snapchat is the app of choice for DJs. (Guardian2)
A year’s support and investment of up to £30,000 is earmarked for DooWapp - an app that lets users attach music clips to messages. Recipients can share the music or buy the song via the app. (Sunday Times)
Rdio Select, a bargain-priced music subscription that offers ad-free radio and a limited number of new song downloads per day for about $4 per month, is preparing to launch in Europe. (Billboard)
Tidal ‘opened many doors’ for famed music producer Jonathan Hay and Partner Mike Smith. (IB TImes)
There’s another new dating app gaining in popularity, and this time it’s specifically targeted at the festival/club crowd. (Deep House Amsterdam)
This surround sound bed is getting rave reviews, but there are still no plans for commercial release. (Your EDM)
SoundCloud announced it will start implementing streaming limits on outside websites and third-party applications, capping 15,000 plays per 24-hour period. (SoundCloud, Billboard)
Disciple Media launches 'bespoke one stop talent-to-fan mobile channels'. (RotD)
A new app plans to make playlists platform agnostic. Soundsgood allows you to list and play playlists no matter what service you are using. (Next Web)

ISSUE: 12 Jun 2015

Spotify paid out $300 million to rightsholders in the first quarter of the year. (Billboard)
Jukely, an app which allows music fans to attend an unlimited number of gigs a month for a flat fee has launched in London. (Standard) It gave subscribers access to Field Day festival as part of its opening fortnight promotion. (Times)
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek responded to the Apple launch with a nonchalant Twitter post. (Fact)
The new Apple Music service will incorporate a live internet radio station called Beats 1, available in 100 countries. The station will broadcast from three cities around the world, Los Angeles, New York and London, with Zane Lowe, Hot 97's Ebro Darden and former Rinse DJ Julie Adenuga broadcasting from the cities respectively. (Wired, Engadet)
Apple has announced its streaming service, Apple Music, as well as several other new music features. Launching June 30 priced $9.99, or $14.99 for a family of up to six, with a three-month free trial, it will provide paid on-demand streaming and free live radio via Beats 1 with limited skipping. It has placed high focus on intelligent algorithms and human curation. (Billboard, Register, Recode, Forbes, Mashable, Fact) Also announced is the Connect feature which will let artists upload music, photos, and messages which are shared with their fans, who can then comment and like individual posts.
Merlin has struck a deal with SoundCloud that enables more than 20,000 labels and distributors worldwide to monetise the revenue from uploads through advertisements and provide access to a richer set of data analytics, as well as the ability to remove infringing content. (RotD, Billboard, Guardian, FT)
Daniel Ek said he would only consider selling Spotify if it meant a bigger platform for its music. (Reuters)
“We’re going to disrupt the music labels,” YouTube executives apparently say, ahead of YouTube for Artists being unveiled at Midem. (NYPost)
Living Indie, a concert-streaming startup, successfully completed its crowdfunding round, having hit more than 130% of its initial target. (RotD)

ISSUE: 05 Jun 2015

Shazam has announced the introduction of visual recognition, a new functionality that extends the company’s mobile engagement platform to create a world where everything from posters, to packaged goods, to print media are transformed from static images into dynamic pieces of content. (RotD, Billboard)
David Guetta, Drake and Pharrell are all reportedly set to feature as guest DJs on Apple’s forthcoming streaming service. (FACT)
Are Apple’s latest investments in music ahead of the curve or out of touch? (Forbes)
Beatport has revealed details of new its forthcoming free Upload service, which will connect unsigned music directly with the A&R departments of Beatport's tens of thousands of independent record labels. (InFlyte)

ISSUE: 28 May 2015

SoundCloud faces a delicate balancing act to keep creators, labels, users and investors happy. (NextWeb) “Thinking that if we didn’t have ad-supported, everything would be subscription is not a useful way of thinking, because it is not true. Just because you can get one price from somebody doesn’t mean you could get it from everybody”, said CEO Alexander Ljung at the IMS conference.
Qbert and his Thud Rumble team are teaming up with Intel to try and make laptops in DJ booths a thing of the past. (DancingAstronaut)
Music-making on a budget? Check out this roundup of the best free music production software. (Fact)
The co-creator of the technology that became Google Maps has unveiled Weav Music, a new music engine that lets artists create different versions of the same song that can adjust to the tempo of what listeners are doing. (Billboard)
Tinder is selling the latest album by dance musician Zedd, in what looks like an experiment for an expansion of advertising (and shopping) within the dating app. (Guardian)
Online music broadcaster Boiler Room has joined with social video platform Twitch and launched a channel which will host live and archival music performances featuring underground music. (RotD)

ISSUE: 22 May 2015

Instagram is taking its first steps into the world of music with @music. (DancingAstronaut)
Six alternatives to SoundCloud for hosting DJ mixes. (Fact)
Why is SoundCloud focusing on Brazil? (Billboard - Andrew Flanagan)
MixRadio, the radio music service that was transferred from Nokia to Microsoft and then bought by messaging app company Line last year, is finally available for iOS and Android. (TechCrunch, Billboard)
Some labels and PR firms have been trying to game the rankings on Hype Machine, with the site now saying "While blogs are an integral part of music marketing in 2015, we want to support bloggers, labels, and PR agencies that operate with integrity”. (HypeM)

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