entertainment blog
SoundCloud Spotlights SoCal’s Emerging R&B Community in Mini-Documentary
SoundCloud is spotlighting emerging R&B artists in the latest episode of its music discovery docuseries, SCENES: SoCal Soul. The original series looks at the rise of music subcultures and communities coming together on SoundCloud. For the new episode, SoundCloud headed to Southern California to turn the lens on its bubbling R&B scene. The genre was pioneered by Black artists in the 1940s in cities such as Chicago, Detroit and New York. Nearly a decade later, creatives in SoCal are revitalizing the region’s music scene with their own inventive takes on the genre. In a montage of interviews, SCENES sits down with artists Alex Isley, Destin Conrad, Fana Hues, India Shawn, Kenyon Dixon, and Mack Keane, as well as producers D’Mile and Jack Dine, to talk about their musical influences an...
Kygo, Diplo, More Invest In Cove, the World’s First Biodegradable Water Bottle
The ongoing initiative to make single-use plastics a thing of the past has broken new ground with Cove, the world’s first biodegradable water bottle. The Cove water bottle has been an effort five years in the making. Diplo, Ellie Goulding and Kygo‘s Palm Tree Crew are among the company’s high-profile list of early investors. It’s no surprise the artists are backing the future of environmentally friendly water consumption as the technology has been highly sought after by festivals around the globe looking to reduce the stubbornly large size of their carbon footprint. But the reach of Cove is likely to extend well beyond the festival niche. Most major retailers have already expressed interest, according to Cove’s Founder, Alex Totterman. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles The company ra...
RIAA Raises Concerns Over Digital Music Services Enabling A.I. Piracy
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is sounding the alarm on the potential for A.I. piracy as the technology begins to proliferate throughout the field of music tech. The emerging prominence of A.I. extractors, mixers and more raises some intriguing questions around creator ethics. Can artificial intelligence infringe upon someone’s copyright? Furthermore, is A.I.-generated content in itself copyrightable? While those questions linger, the RIAA is proactively taking a strong stance against multiple branches of A.I.-generated content. In its most recent report to the U.S. Trade Representative, the RIAA takes aim at a few specific digital services designed with the intent to use existing copyrighted materials to create derivative works. “There are online services that,...
3LAU Faces Lawsuit Over Royalty Dispute Related to $11 Million NFT Sale
One of 3LAU‘s collaborators has served the artist a lawsuit, claiming she has been under-compensated based on the terms of their agreement. 3LAU has been one of the music industry’s most steadfast purveyors of NFT technologies. As a result of his efforts, his own Ultraviolet NFT offering was met with much excitement, fetching over $11 million at auction and serving as a watershed moment. Now, Luna Aura, his collaborator on “Walk Away,” says she is owed a 50% royalty share of the NFT proceeds pertaining to that track, but instead was met with a $25,000 lump sum offer from 3LAU’s team. Aura’s camp also maintains they were not provided notice of the NFT sale itself and she has not received any revenue thus far, Billboard reports. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles...
3LAU Faces Lawsuit Over Royalty Dispute Related to $11 Million NFT Sale
One of 3LAU‘s collaborators has served the artist a lawsuit, claiming she has been under-compensated based on the terms of their agreement. 3LAU has been one of the music industry’s most steadfast purveyors of NFT technologies. As a result of his efforts, his own Ultraviolet NFT offering was met with much excitement, fetching over $11 million at auction and serving as a watershed moment. Now, Luna Aura, his collaborator on “Walk Away,” says she is owed a 50% royalty share of the NFT proceeds pertaining to that track, but instead was met with a $25,000 lump sum offer from 3LAU’s team. Aura’s camp also maintains they were not provided notice of the NFT sale itself and she has not received any revenue thus far, Billboard reports. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles...
Surprising Research Finds Rats Can Dance to Music Too
It seems a love of dancing is one commonality humans have with rats. A new study published in Science Advances found that not only can rats perceive the beat of music and bop their heads to the rhythm, but they also share a similar strength with humans particularly in synchronizing with beats between 120 and 140 BPM. The dancing rats studied at the University of Tokyo were no modest mice. The experimental research saw the furry rodents reacting to the sounds of Lady Gaga, Maroon Five, Queen and Mozart, among others. The movements of the rats were studied using an accelerometer attached to their heads. The desire to head-bob to music was previously only thought to have existed in humans alone, but in a squeaky clean conclusion, they found otherwise. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles &...
Surprising Research Finds Rats Can Dance to Music Too
It seems a love of dancing is one commonality humans have with rats. A new study published in Science Advances found that not only can rats perceive the beat of music and bop their heads to the rhythm, but they also share a similar strength with humans particularly in synchronizing with beats between 120 and 140 BPM. The dancing rats studied at the University of Tokyo were no modest mice. The experimental research saw the furry rodents reacting to the sounds of Lady Gaga, Maroon Five, Queen and Mozart, among others. The movements of the rats were studied using an accelerometer attached to their heads. The desire to head-bob to music was previously only thought to have existed in humans alone, but in a squeaky clean conclusion, they found otherwise. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles &...
ODESZA, RÜFÜS DU SOL, More Nab 2022 Grammy Nominations: See the Full List
The Recording Academy has revealed the nominations for the 65th annual Grammy Awards. Receiving Grammy nods in the category of Best Dance/Electronic Recording were Beyoncé (“BREAK MY SOUL“), Bonobo (“Rosewood“), Diplo and Miguel (“Don’t Forget My Love“), David Guetta and Bebe Rexha (“I’m Good [Blue]“), RÜFÜS DU SOL (“On My Knees“) and Kaytranada (“Intimidated feat. H.E.R.”). Up for the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album are ODESZA’s The Last Goodbye, Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE, Bonobo’s Fragments, RÜFÜS DU SOL’s Surrender and Diplo’s self-titled album. The Grammys will air live on Sunday, February 5th, 2023 on CBS. You can check out the full list of nom...
This Innovative Music Production Tool Turns Your Voice Into MIDI In Real Time
Having the right tools and processes that allow for frictionless output of creative ideas is paramount to any musician’s workflow. This notion is a key pillar of London-based Vochlea Music, an audio company empowering creatives with Dubler 2. The advanced voice-to-MIDI desktop application uses the most intuitive instrument of all, the human voice, to effortlessly print musical ideas into MIDI. Dubler 2 is a standalone app which connects to any DAW. It comes with a game-changing “MIDI Capture” AU/VST plugin, which musicians can utilize to produce and manipulate vocal-driven beats without even touching a keyboard. It’s important to note that Dubler 2 is compatible only with dynamic microphones. After you’ve connected your mic (the same way you would an external ...
Steve Lacy, Brandi Carlile & More LGBTQ Artists Make Waves With 2023 Grammy Nominations
After months of debating who would score nominations at the 2023 Grammy Awards, we finally have our answers. The Recording Academy unveiled the new slate of Grammy nominees on Tuesday (Nov. 15), with Beyoncé garnering a whopping nine nominations, followed by Kendrick Lamar with eight. Beyoncé also tied with her husband Jay-Z (who scored five nods of his own this year) for the most Grammy nominations by any artist, with 88 total throughout her career. But Beyoncé was far from the only big winner with the 2023 noms — LGBTQ artists once again found themselves winning big, with nominations across each of the Big Four categories, and representation throughout genre categories including pop (Sam Smith & Kim Petras), rock (Brandi Carlile), R&B (Steve Lacy), country (The Brothers Osborne),...
Dua Lipa’s Lawyers Blast ‘Levitating’ Copyright Lawsuit: ‘Devoid of a Shred of Factual Detail’
Attorneys for Dua Lipa are asking a federal judge to quickly toss out a lawsuit claiming she stole her smash hit song “Levitating” from a little-known reggae track, calling the allegations “speculative,” “vague” and supported by little real evidence. Members of the Florida band Artikal Sound System sued Lipa earlier this year, claiming her 2020 smash hit – which spent 77 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – borrowed its core hook from their 2017 song “Live Your Life.” But in a motion to dismiss the case filed Monday (Nov. 14), Lipa’s lawyers said there was no sign that anyone involved in creating “Levitating” ever even had access to the earlier song – a key requirement in any copyright lawsuit. Artikal Sound System’s attempts to show such a connection, they said, were “tortured.” “They a...
Morrissey Says His Upcoming Album ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ Will Be Delayed
Morrissey issued a statement on Monday (Nov. 14) informing fans that the release of his upcoming album is being pushed back. “Bonfire of Teenagers is no longer scheduled for a February release, as stated by this site,” the singer shared in a note titled “Bonfire Unlit” on his official website. “Its fate is exclusively in the hands of Capitol Records (Los Angeles.).” Billboard reached out to Capitol for comment. The long-gestating album is meant to serve as a follow-up to 2020’s I Am Not a Dog on a Chain. It was reportedly completed in mid-2021 and features production by Andrew Watt and musical assists from the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, bassist Flea and former RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. Miley Cyrus and Iggy Pop also guest. Morrissey has already debuted nu...
