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Tag Archives: Distribution

World News

Social music creation platform BandLab amplifies development with new spherical valuing firm at $425M

Posted on by Decoded Magazine

BandLab Technologies, the Singapore-based mum or dad firm of flagship social music creation platform BandLab has introduced the addition of USD $25M in a brand new spherical of Series B1 financing that raises the valuation of the corporate to USD $425M post-money.

Led by present investor Cercano Management (previously Vulcan Capital) with super-pro rata participation from Prosus Ventures, this extra tranche of capital is a major milestone for BandLab Technologies. This builds on its beforehand introduced Series B spherical in 2022 and accelerates the corporate’s imaginative and prescient to empower extra creators worldwide with accessible music creation instruments from cell to desktop.

This new funding will see BandLab Technologies additional develop its workforce and double down on rising creator campaigns. This ongoing dedication to increasing the staff and intensifying advertising and marketing efforts goals to advance the event of cutting-edge music creation instruments whereas extending the corporate’s attain and assist to untapped communities of musicians and followers. BandLab may also channel further assets in direction of supporting companies resembling main music schooling platform BandLab for Education and different comparable initiatives.

At the center of BandLab Technologies’ choices is BandLab, a groundbreaking platform that empowers aspiring music creators all over the world to create, collaborate, and share their music on-line with an emphasis on rising artist discovery, neighborhood, and fandom. With a wide-reaching neighborhood starting from first-time creators to viral TikTok stars to GRAMMY-winning producers, BandLab’s award-winning complete ecosystem is an end-to-end creator-centric vacation spot.

Ranked as Fast Company’s most progressive music firm in 2023, BandLab’s deep array of options consists of cross-platform digital audio workstation Studio, main royalty-free pattern and loops service Sounds, AI music generator software SongStarter and extra, all designed for creators to simply spark new musical concepts. The firm’s vibrant ecosystem additionally consists of main professional-level digital audio workstation Cakewalk, artist companies platform ReverbNation, and not too long ago acquired beat market Airbit. 

Since its Series B spherical in 2022, the corporate has seen exceptional milestones from its neighborhood of over 60M registered customers, with groundbreaking artists resembling d4vd, ThxSoMch, and Luh Tyler trending on international charts and experiencing main label success. Additionally, the introduction of direct fan subscriptions, discovery, and promotional analytics software Boost, in addition to the launch of Opportunities by way of Reverbnation proceed to raise the vary of companies accessible to artists in the beginning of their creator journey. BandLab’s dedication to bridging the hole between impartial artists and labels has seen quite a few hero tales and collaborations emerge, serving as an inspiration to the quickly rising world of aspiring creators worldwide. 

“We are at a fascinating juncture the place know-how and artwork intersect, bringing down the standard obstacles to creativity,” says Meng Ru Kuok, BandLab CEO & Co-Founder. “In this transformative period of mass music creation, our dedication to artists, aspiring musicians, and creators worldwide has by no means been stronger. Not solely are we democratizing music creation on a world scale, we’re fostering a neighborhood the place everybody can categorical themselves by means of music, no matter their assets or technical prowess. With this funding, we step ahead right into a future the place each smartphone proprietor has the potential to be a singular music artist who’s protected, empowered, and heard.”

Managing Director & Head of Southeast Asia at Vulcan Capital, Tommy Teo, says, “Since our unique funding, BandLab has been steadfast in demonstrating its distinctive potential in making music creation accessible and satisfying to a world viewers. BandLab’s dedication to nurturing creativity and fostering collaboration amongst its rising neighborhood of highly-engaged customers is really distinctive. We consider of their imaginative and prescient and the ability of the BandLab platform to unlock the following technology of artists and followers and to bridge the creation hole between established markets and rising, underserved areas. As we proceed our assist for the corporate, we count on that BandLab will play an important function in driving a vibrant future for music creators worldwide.”

The submit Social music creation platform BandLab amplifies development with new spherical valuing firm at $425M appeared first on Decoded Magazine.

World News

Splice adds ability to generate certified license for samples

Posted on by Decoded Magazine

As of last week, Splice subscribers can generate a PDF document that shows the certified license for any sample they have downloaded on our platform. If this sounds like peak boredom to you, you’ve probably never received a flag from a hosting platform like YouTube, CDBaby or DistroKid, claiming that your track is not 100% original. Read on to learn more…

Why do I need a certified license for my Splice samples?

Every single sample on Splice is 100% royalty free, meaning they’re free to use, even for commercial use. This means you can download samples on Splice, then make and release original music with those samples, and you don’t owe Splice (or anyone else) any more than your subscription fee, even if your track goes viral or gets picked up by Taylor Swift. However, you still need to disclose the use of third-party materials in your new content / creation.

The license that your subscription grants is perpetual and non-exclusive, meaning you have rights to use the sounds that you download forever, but so does every other Splice user who has downloaded those samples through our platform. Therefore, when you want to distribute your new content / creation with a third party (e.g., YouTube, CD Baby, Distrokid, etc.), you can now provide a copy of the certified license to any third-party distributor, which will disclose that your new content / creation contains a sample and that your use of that sample is permitted and verified. Perpetual, non-exclusive licenses have been the status quo for as long as sample packs have existed, and the system has worked fine… until recently.

How do hosting platforms check for copyright infringement?

To combat copyright infringement, platforms like YouTube use automatic copyright detection algorithms, which analyze submitted audio and compare it to a massive database of copyright-registered music. Overall, this is a great thing for producers, musicians and labels; it prevents folks from using an artist’s music without permission, or without paying for the rights to do so.

But problems arise when these automatic systems detect a royalty-free sample as a unique factor of the work. This is especially relevant for vocal samples, long instrumental loops, and other samples that are likely to be used in full, without alteration, because they stand out to the auto-analyzers. And, once a recognizable sample is associated with a song, every time the algorithm ‘hears’ the sample, a copyright infringement flag is issued to every subsequent creator who uses it prominently.

At Splice, we’ve been aware of this issue for some time, and we have supported affected users with a manual process to generate certified licenses upon request, which is less than ideal for all parties involved (shouts to our content team for staffing the emails and generating licenses by hand). In an ideal world, the third-party distributor detection systems would compare the audio to the Splice catalog and other royalty-free sound libraries out there to rule out any false copyright infringement claims.

How to generate a license

How to generate a certified license for your Splice samples

Until this is a reality, we’ve designed an automated system where you can generate a certified license document, in PDF format, right from the Splice website. Just go to Your Sounds, select the sample (or samples) you would like to be included in the license, and click ‘Generate certified license’ either from the ⋮ dropdown, or from the sidebar. Enter your full legal name, as well as the artist or producer name that will be used when releasing the work. Then, click ‘Generate certified license’ and the PDF document will land in your browser’s downloads folder. From here, you can upload the document when you submit your release to show proof of your license.

While we can’t guarantee that your tracks won’t get flagged in the future, this certified license will be all you need to show proof that you can use the sample legally, to dispute the claim and get your music out to the world as soon and seamlessly as possible.

How much does it cost to generate a certified license for your Splice samples?

Generating a certified license is completely free, and you can generate as many licenses as you want, with any combination of sounds in your library. The only condition is that you need to have downloaded the sample or samples using credits from your Splice account (don’t worry, the system doesn’t let you generate a license for samples you don’t have rights for).

To read our full Terms of Use, head to https://splice.com/terms, and check out our Licensing FAQ too. If you still have questions relating to this new feature, please contact [email protected].

The post Splice adds ability to generate certified license for samples appeared first on Decoded Magazine.

World News

Splice adds ability to generate certified license for samples

Posted on by Decoded Magazine

As of last week, Splice subscribers can generate a PDF document that shows the certified license for any sample they have downloaded on our platform. If this sounds like peak boredom to you, you’ve probably never received a flag from a hosting platform like YouTube, CDBaby or DistroKid, claiming that your track is not 100% original. Read on to learn more…

Why do I need a certified license for my Splice samples?

Every single sample on Splice is 100% royalty free, meaning they’re free to use, even for commercial use. This means you can download samples on Splice, then make and release original music with those samples, and you don’t owe Splice (or anyone else) any more than your subscription fee, even if your track goes viral or gets picked up by Taylor Swift. However, you still need to disclose the use of third-party materials in your new content / creation.

The license that your subscription grants is perpetual and non-exclusive, meaning you have rights to use the sounds that you download forever, but so does every other Splice user who has downloaded those samples through our platform. Therefore, when you want to distribute your new content / creation with a third party (e.g., YouTube, CD Baby, Distrokid, etc.), you can now provide a copy of the certified license to any third-party distributor, which will disclose that your new content / creation contains a sample and that your use of that sample is permitted and verified. Perpetual, non-exclusive licenses have been the status quo for as long as sample packs have existed, and the system has worked fine… until recently.

How do hosting platforms check for copyright infringement?

To combat copyright infringement, platforms like YouTube use automatic copyright detection algorithms, which analyze submitted audio and compare it to a massive database of copyright-registered music. Overall, this is a great thing for producers, musicians and labels; it prevents folks from using an artist’s music without permission, or without paying for the rights to do so.

But problems arise when these automatic systems detect a royalty-free sample as a unique factor of the work. This is especially relevant for vocal samples, long instrumental loops, and other samples that are likely to be used in full, without alteration, because they stand out to the auto-analyzers. And, once a recognizable sample is associated with a song, every time the algorithm ‘hears’ the sample, a copyright infringement flag is issued to every subsequent creator who uses it prominently.

At Splice, we’ve been aware of this issue for some time, and we have supported affected users with a manual process to generate certified licenses upon request, which is less than ideal for all parties involved (shouts to our content team for staffing the emails and generating licenses by hand). In an ideal world, the third-party distributor detection systems would compare the audio to the Splice catalog and other royalty-free sound libraries out there to rule out any false copyright infringement claims.

How to generate a license

How to generate a certified license for your Splice samples

Until this is a reality, we’ve designed an automated system where you can generate a certified license document, in PDF format, right from the Splice website. Just go to Your Sounds, select the sample (or samples) you would like to be included in the license, and click ‘Generate certified license’ either from the ⋮ dropdown, or from the sidebar. Enter your full legal name, as well as the artist or producer name that will be used when releasing the work. Then, click ‘Generate certified license’ and the PDF document will land in your browser’s downloads folder. From here, you can upload the document when you submit your release to show proof of your license.

While we can’t guarantee that your tracks won’t get flagged in the future, this certified license will be all you need to show proof that you can use the sample legally, to dispute the claim and get your music out to the world as soon and seamlessly as possible.

How much does it cost to generate a certified license for your Splice samples?

Generating a certified license is completely free, and you can generate as many licenses as you want, with any combination of sounds in your library. The only condition is that you need to have downloaded the sample or samples using credits from your Splice account (don’t worry, the system doesn’t let you generate a license for samples you don’t have rights for).

To read our full Terms of Use, head to https://splice.com/terms, and check out our Licensing FAQ too. If you still have questions relating to this new feature, please contact [email protected].

The post Splice adds ability to generate certified license for samples appeared first on Decoded Magazine.

World News

Albedo Silver Partners with High End by Oz LLC for North American Distribution

Posted on by TAS Staff

The following is a press release issued by Albedo Silver Partners and High End by Oz.

November 2022 – Albedo Silver, based in Poland, was founded in 1996 and since then has been producing silver cables with utmost attention to detail. They smelt their own silver using argon shield and even produce their own solid speaker binding posts. The melted silver is rolled extremely slowly to make different thickness of pure Monocrystalline Silver wires. Not all cables or silver cables are created equal!

The attention to detail and the level of control is simply unmatched in the audio world, which is reflected in the quality of Albedo Silver Cables and the performance they deliver.

Albedo Silver Cables will be offered through our authorized dealer network in North America.

www.highendbyoz.com

The post Albedo Silver Partners with High End by Oz LLC for North American Distribution appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

The Monkees, Marketing & The Instant Gratification Music Business

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

Last week my music buddy Frank pinged me about a special deal on Amazon for a live album by the remaining Monkees — Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz — for more than 50-percent off.  The album documents the so called “Mike & Mickey Tour” from a couple years back, a wonderful concert which I saw (many of the live images here are from that Mountain Winery show in Saratoga, California). 

When the live album came out early last year — called The Monkees Live: The Mike & Mickey Show — my only disappointment was that it seemed priced a little high at nearly $40.  So… I decided to wait a bit.  And then Covid happened, so my focus on buying the album fell from my immediate attention. 

Fast forward to last week and the texts from my friend Frank, and all those memories rushed back into my head. I realized Frank was right and that I needed to move on this quickly as a $15 price tag made it a “no brainer” purchase. 

Click “Buy.” Done.  And I figured I’d have to wait a couple weeks to get the album, all things considered.

Onward through the fog.

Much to my surprise, the next day I get another text message from Frank that his copy of The Monkees Live: The Mike & Mickey Show — which he had ordered the day before mine — had arrived already! And just about at that same moment I received a separate text from Amazon that my copy had been delivered as well!  I thought, this has to be a mistake.… But, sure enough I went downstairs and there was an album in a plastic baggie (no box) waiting for me.

Talk about instant gratification!  I texted back to Frank. We talked on the phone. We were both a bit gobsmacked by the whole purchase experience, which got me to thinking about some bigger ideas. More on that in a moment…

The performance on The Monkees Live: The Mike & Mickey Show is great and the two LP set sounds generally excellent, mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio. While I doubt this is an analog recording, Christian Nesmith — who did the mixing and who also played guitar on the tour — did a fine job sculpting a nice organic sound for the music which rings true. Kudos also to producer Andrew Sandoval who I’m sure had a hand in this authentic pop aesthetic.  

The point is, don’t go into this expect any sort of attempt at “current” production flavors on this album, an approach which marred some of the Monkees’ 1980s reunion albums. This is a very good thing, mind you.  The band is tight and the harmonies are spot on.  Ok, we’ll talk some more about the album a little later… Now I want to share those bigger ideas with you, Dear Readers and perhaps friends in the music industry.

Lets go back to that overnight delivery magic that happened for me and Frank. So… I paid $15 on Wednesday evening and received a physical album hand delivered to my door the next Thursday morning. That is a pretty remarkable feat when you stop to think about it. 

Now I don’t know if anyone has really tried to do this intentionally with a new release yet (if they have please let us know in the comments below) but it seems like there is a golden opportunity waiting here for the music industry to riff on.

It is especially stunning when you consider that one of the factors which many fans of digital downloads and streaming relish is the ability to “get” the album almost instantly. Instant gratification. Its the essence of the impulse purchase psychology. You see a cool thing at the check out in a favorite store and you get it without any heavy mental considerations. 

Boom. Its done. For the purpose of this article, I’ll call it the “Instant Gratification Factor” or IGF.

In the recent past, physical media hadn’t really been able to “compete” with this IGF, save for buying an album at an artist’s concert before it hits the market. So called “pre-ordering” aimed to address it but even that has become an issue as pre-ordered titles don’t necessarily show up early or even near release date. Heck, even many of us writers who get advanced copies of albums for review purposes don’t get the physical versions until the brick and mortar stores have been serviced! 

That said, imagine if there was a different IGF model put in place leveraging the giant that is Amazon (and maybe some of its competitors… more on that in a moment)? Lets start with major artists who have achieved a certain level of success…. lets say… Justin Bieber or Black Pumas or Lady Gaga or Cardi B or even Madonna and Dolly Parton for that matter.  Lets say they want to put out a new album in a physical form first and make it available to those fans before the digital and streaming versions…  What is stopping them now? Nothing, it seems… 

They could ship off adequate quantity of the product to the key markets where these artists are popular. Then, announce the album’s availability — at a reasonable price akin to this Monkees album, a loss leader promotion effectively in a limited window of availability — via text, email and social media promotions. Then fans would log in to their Amazon accounts. Click “buy” and within 24 hours the artist would have in place a passionate instant “street team” of serious fans who will be telling the world about their great pre-ordered new physical vinyl record album.  

A day later traditional radio gets the release serviced to them at the same time as the streaming services. And of course key retailers get their stock to accommodate the general public who are starting to hear all the buzz about this new release and want to check it out. 

If the record industry doesn’t want to deal with Amazon, they could probably set up their own “instant drop” delivery service via an affiliation with Fed Ex, UPS or even the good ‘ol US Postal Service! 

All of these key mechanisms would (a) sell recordings, (b) make money for the artists and labels and (c) stimulate word of mouth street buzz, one of the most valuable forms of advertising which can’t really be purchased.  

For those of you who may still be questioning the viability of vinyl (and physical media in general) consider these details from a report in Billboard at the end of December:

“As predicted, U.S. vinyl album sales hit another historic high, as 1.842 million LPs were sold in the week ending Dec. 24, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. That’s the largest week for the format since Nielsen Music/MRC Data began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. The previous high was set only a week earlier, when 1.445 million were sold in the frame ending Dec. 17.”

Those are some significant number. And to recap, the appeal of the large scale physical vinyl format to many customers is generally better sound than the most popular streaming services such as Spotify and a more engaging listening experience — I suspect there is a tendency towards more focused whole album listening (vs. individual tracks on playlists running in the background while doing something else).  For the artist, they make more money selling physical products than they do on streams and there is a stronger opportunity for artistic expression with the large format media size (as opposed to a mere JPEG file on a stream or a CD sleeve).

Food for thought…

Anyhow, getting back to the review, The Monkees Live: The Mike & Mickey Show is a great way to catch up on how this influential group sounds in present times — great vocals, great band, great arrangements!  While the versions of classics like “Last Train To Clarksville” and “I’m A Believer” are fabulous, the real stand outs for me are previously rarely (if ever) performed tracks like Carole King’s “As We Go Along” from the movie Head and Mike Nesmith’s “Tapioca Tundra” (B-side to “Valleri,” also appearing on the 1968 album The Birds The Bees & The Monkees).  It is kind of amazing to hear obscurities like “St. Matthew” (from 1969’s Instant Replay) performed live.  

Also, hearing the newer Monkees songs in concert is a fantastic thing, so look forward to the epic “The Birth Of An Accidental Hipster” and the beautiful acoustic version of “Me & Magdalena.”  I only wish there were more of those new songs on this album.  

To that, if you haven’t heard The Monkees’ fantastic 2016 reunion album called Good Times, you owe it to yourself to listen. Click here for my review of the album and here for the companion 10-inch EP of bonus tracks. It is a superb collection with new songs written for The Monkees by Andy Partridge (XTC), Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), Noel Gallagher (Oasis) and Paul Weller (The Jam) as well as new classics by Carole King and Neil Diamond!  The title track is even a duet with Harry Nilsson! 

Good Times, indeed!

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