Everything I post, gathered into one email every ten posts or so.
More than $2 trillion in market value is set to be wiped from the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 this month, as Big Tech earnings intensified investor scrutiny of whether the billions being poured into artificial intelligence can generate returns quickly enough.
The wipeout would amount to slightly more than SpaceX’s entire market value.
😬
Splice knows its market here - that is, beginners who just want to smash a tune out but won’t go as far as to just use Suno.
I think we’re going to see an increasing tension between seasoned music makers who like the hard work of learning a DAW etc, versus the people who just chat into apps or platforms like this and make whatever they like. Will that de-legitimise their efforts? Time will tell I guess…
Shouts to Oli at This Is Music for turning me on to this one. I am instantly down with anything that has masses of hissy ambience, dub touches and a ton of low end. This ticks all three boxes. Ironically it sounds relatively close to the music I make, heheh. Not sure about the name, mind 😆
It always bugged me that you cannot start typing any emoji by typing it’s name in - e.g. “:laughing:” - as you can on things like Slack or WhatsApp and Signal etc.
This free app, Mojito, fixes that by enabling that method whatever app you are using on your Mac. I’ve had it for a week now and it’s already indispensable, LOL
This caught my eye: https://edjefferson.com/localwiki/
You put in your location and it generates a more localised version of Wikipedia showing you interesting things nearby. Oddly fascinating!
As everybody is no doubt aware, there’s a million custom firmwares popping up for things. I’ve been tracking one in particular for my Polyend Tracker devices, not least because they had a long-standing bug where they didn’t export at exactly 44,100 Hz. That caused a load of clock drift issues when attempting to migrate stems into your DAW.
Anyway, whilst custom firmwares have abounded, I’ve not yet seen a company really respond officially to that. Today, though, Polyend have just sent an update out with what they’re calling a community firmware. It basically seems like it’s pinched all the best features from the community mods that they’ve seen and rolled it into one official update.
Crucially, as well as adding a couple more synths and direct SD card streaming, it also fixes the export bug that was principally the reason I’d abandoned using the devices. Also, though, I note that they have now made the firmware open source on GitHub, so that essentially anyone can do anything they want with it from here on.
I think it’s the smart response, and I suspect it will generate a whole new wave of interest in the Tracker devices. Curious to see how other companies respond as I’d imagine at this point it would be madness NOT to post the firmware, especially if the devices are no longer supported (as is the case with the OG Tracker and the Mini).
Back on the 16th of October I questioned whether Meta's new terms of business (that it announced it was automatically rolling out) would give it carte blanche to train on music or other IP hosted on any website.
Clearly I was not alone in that concern, as the Copyright Alliance, which comprises bodies like the RIAA and the NMPA, has now issued a statement calling the terms “unconscionable”.
Things have not turned legal yet, as Meta has pushed back its plans to roll out the new terms, but don't be shocked if it still goes that way…
I’d heard about this lost DJ mix that was only recently unearthed; I think there was a good amount of press covering the decision to post it up. Either way, I highly recommend it. This is a DJ set that is very much in that chaotic, live, play-whatever-you-want kind of mode, and it’s a true gem because of it.
Take a listen:
I will keep saying it: there was FAR too much music being released long before AI rocked up. Now though, it is just turbo-charging a shit machine such that more than 50% of all uploads to DSPs are AI slop.
Obviously Suno has now doubled down on this by launching an MCP so you can create even more dross from within Claude, OpenAI or your LLM of choice.
Urgh.
Yesterday I published a piece over on Network Notes, examining what is going on with Universal Music and its attempts to move back into private ownership, which - for now anyway- appear to be floundering.
One observation was that the share price is continually dropping (down about 33% YoY), so I was curious to see how the share price would respond after the company reported its Q3 performance last night. The report basically confirmed better earnings, fuelled by faster growth in streaming revenues and its continued cost-cutting drive.
Share prices appeared to rebound upon the news, going up 12% as the markets opened again this morning. As the day has progressed however, the price is slowly coming back down again. Not great:
For now, this seems to confirm my suspicion that investors are just losing interest in Universal's ability to deliver meaningful returns to them. That is the reason the company is looking to go back into private ownership. Per my article, however, I suspect they may struggle to achieve that. If they do not succeed, then they find themselves in a very risky position where they will be attempting to cut even more in order to increase profit, which I suspect will end badly.
A story to keep tracking, no question.
I’m loving these plugins from Ebb & Flow. Just a fantastic sound to each of them. For me the mark of a great plugin is when you get super inspired within seconds of using it, and all three here do not disappoint on that front.
Highly recommended!
I am genuinely starting to think that a viable solution to ticket sales being overrun by bots is to revert back to selling paper ones from a kiosk. That or ticket sellers integrate the ID checking functions that exist when undertaking legal matters etc, which involves scanning your passport and doing full face scans etc.
This problem is only going to get worse, after all…
If you missed it, Sony and Universal are attempting to get a social post from a Suno investor in which she wrote “I’ve personally shifted most of my listening to Suno. I was so tired of Spotify giving me the same overplayed recommendations.”
Their point is that this demonstrates Suno’s desire to replace Spotify et al - something it always said was not the case.
For me though, what this really shows is this deluded position Silicon Valley tech people seem to hold, namely that all music and art is easily replaced by AI. It says so much more about them than it ever does anything else.
With it being a windy, grim Sunday I thought it was a fine time to pen another Missed Listen, this time about Swell’s exquisite album “Well?”.
Read the full article here:
It is an eternal regret of mine that I never got to see Sufjan Stevens live on the Illinois tour. This bootleg, compiling various soundboard recordings from his shows on that run, is therefore a real treasure.
The quality is amazing, the songs are utterly beautiful, and, trivia fans, the female performer you hear alongside him is a pre-St Vincent Annie Clark. Glorious.
Dive in: