Music

I enjoyed this write-up of the Afroman defamation trial, which, by the way, he won. Mike Masnick cuts to the core: the police think they should be able to do whatever they want, including screwing up, without fear of embarrassment.

Experimental musician and YouTuber Hainbach posted a clip on social media using a humble kalimba to create epic sounds that would make Hans Zimmer jealous. Now he’s explained how to recreate the Earth-shaking drones, but fair warning, it calls for some pretty obscure and expensive gear.

For those of you not familiar, Afroman was raided by the police and then made two music videos (“Will You Help Me Repair My Door“ and ”Lemon Pound Cake”) about it. The officers sued him for using surveillance footage of their raid in the videos. On cross-examination during the trial, Afroman gave a stirring speech on the importance of the First Amendment. He’s also released another video, “Battle Hymn of the Police Whistleblower.”

It’s a joke so good half the comments section had to make it, but sad to say it’s the other Sotomayor who dropped Terrence’s album of the week (which, I’m happy to confirm, is indeed a total bop).

I love tools that let you make music based on a simple set of rules. Tim Holman created this one based on a YouTube video in which notes are triggered by a simple binary counter. Now if only I could get this out of Chrome and into my DAW.

People are tired of not owning anything, iPods are popular again, and Tidal is trying to cash in. You don’t need a subscription to buy songs, and the company is only taking a 10 percent cut, but there’s an extra service fee if you use Apple’s in-app payment system.

Bitwig teased its latest version back in August, and it’s finally here. There are tons of new editing features, like automation clips, which make it easy to create repeating patterns for any parameter. You can also lock projects to a key signature to ensure you never hit a wrong note.

MTV Rewind collects broadcast clips and music videos from YouTube and strings them together to recreate the experience of actually watching MTV in its heyday. There’s even a collection of 98 videos that attempts to piece together the first full day of broadcast, complete with classic bumpers.

The BBC’s hottest take in 1986 about kids making music on computers is, let’s say, questionable. But watching kids create a composition in this recently dug up clip on what appears to be a Yamaha CX5M and seeing how far music software has come is fascinating.

The next one won’t be until May 1st, so if you’ve been itching to pick anything up, maybe today is the day. Let me know what you’re grabbing in the comments. I’m eyeing a few things, including the collab between Montreal rapper cropscropscrops and NYC producer Vaygrnt: We’ve Been After Each Other.

I’m at the courthouse in downtown Manhattan, where the DOJ and 40 state and district attorneys general are accusing the entertainment titan of maintaining an illegal monopoly that drives up ticket prices.

The band didn’t mince any words in the statement after a choral version of the song was used in a video claiming that “Thousands of American families have been torn apart because of criminal illegal alien violence,” saying:

Deezer started labeling AI content last year. Now Qobuz is doing the same. It’s also enacting an AI charter promising “The heart of Qobuz is and will remain human,” saying curation and editorial won’t be AI-driven. It stopped short of banning AI content, which some customers have been asking for.

Australian mobile carrier Telstra launched Second Life Sounds to raise awareness of the discarded electronics in landfills and collecting dust. I don’t know how much of an impact this box of repurposed mobile phones, game consoles, and old cables is going to have, but it’s a good reminder to revisit Since I Left You.

Uematsu has created music for countless Square Enix games, including classics like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Final Fantasy VII. Now he’s going to be the subject of a biography by James Mielkem, Nobuo Uematsu: On the Record.

Windows MIDI Services is ready for primetime and brings support for MIDI 2.0 and improvements to MIDI 1.0 to Microsoft machines. This includes support for higher resolution expression, loopback, and bidirectional communication with MIDI 2.0 hardware. Now with the major OS providers onboard, maybe adoption of MIDI 2.0 will pick up steam.

Ahead of the debut of The Gorillaz’s new album The Mountain, the animated band has dropped a teaser video that makes it seem like there might also be a short film situation on the way.

With the new integration, SeatGeek will join the dozens of other companies Spotify partners with to sell tickets within its app. SeatGeek will surface tickets for shows at 15 major venues around the US, which could appear as recommendations on an artist’s Spotify page or inside notifications.

It can apparently recognize how much influence a given track or artist had on AI content, and can work with or without cooperation from AI developers. Sony thinks it could be used to create a licensing system for AI music, but “has yet to decide” when it might be put to use.

Flow Tuner lets users pick which genres are included in a Flow session, rather than just disliking individual songs. It’s a hamfisted way to customize your algorithm, but the specificity of Deezer’s options are impressive: Metalcore, Balkan Folk, Schlager. This is well beyond your basic buckets like rock and pop.

Similar to the Prompted Playlists that Spotify launched in December, YouTube Music premium subscribers on iOS and Android can now use voice or text descriptions to turn ideas, genres, or vibes into personalized playlists.

The world of affordable plugins, sample library subscriptions, and a particularly virulent case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) has me making less music, not more. YouTuber and producer Jon Makes Beats is developing a TTRPG that battles decision paralysis with dice rolls and a Dungeons & Dragons-like rule system.