Music

Inventec begins shipping long-awaited HomePods

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Taipei Times:

Inventec Corp, one of the two assemblers for Apple Inc’s HomePod, has started shipping the US company’s long-awaited “smart” speaker with an initial shipment of about 1 million units, industry sources said.

I’m really interested in learning what features will ship with this first version of HomePod.

Obviously, the music capabilities will be first and foremost. But how much of Siri will be available? Will HomePod’s Siri be limited in any way? Will HomePod’s Siri domain be more detailed when it comes to music?

How will updates be handled? Will HomePod be linked to my iPhone, with a HomePod app for handling settings/updates like my Apple Watch?

How will HomePod distinguish itself from existing products like the Amazon Echo and Google Home? What is the value proposition here? How would a consumer justify the extra cost?

I’m very much looking forward to getting one, seeing all this for myself.

Apple Music and the loss of the album

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Over the weekend, someone started a thread asking why an artist’s album view in Apple Music has gotten so cluttered.

To see this for yourself, pick a relatively modern artist and check out their list of albums in the Music app. For example, fire up Siri and say:

Show me all the Bruno Mars albums

When the Bruno Mars page appears, scroll down to the Albums section and tap See All. Amongst the actual Bruno Mars albums, you’ll find a lot of singles and EPs. Way more singles and EPs than actual albums, in fact.

Now it certainly is great to have a complete list of all of Bruno Mars’ music at your fingertips. But sometimes you want to find an album. And there is a lot of clutter.

Personally, I think it’d be nice if there was some way to declutter the list, have a view without all the duplicated remixed singles.

To get a sense of the core of this problem, take a few minutes to read Kirk McElhearn’s excellent post, How iTunes Handles Albums, EPs, and Singles. From the post:

With digital music, everything has changed. When you see a bit of text on a website or in iTunes, all you know is the name of the release and its artist. David Bowie’s Let’s Dance could be a single, an EP, or an Album. This is because the tags – the metadata that identifies music – doesn’t allow for this type of differentiation. iTunes uses a simplified version of the ID3 tagging system, which doesn’t offer a tag to identify what type of release a record is. (MusicBrainz does use a tag called Release Group, which can be used to distinguish between singles, albums, and EPs, but also broadcasts and “other.”)

So how can you distinguish between these different formats in digital? The only way is if the record label has tagged the name of a release with the word “Single” or “EP.”

Bottom line, this is not a trivial problem to solve. Not, at least, without the cooperation of the labels. But seems to me, this is a problem worth solving. And if I, as a human, can step through an artists list of albums/EPs/singles and quickly suss out which items on the list are albums, surely this is the kind of problem that would yield to a well applied bit of machine learning.

And once Apple Music knows the difference between albums, singles, EPs, etc., it’d be easy enough to add a filter to let me search through only albums, or only singles for that matter.

Lana Del Rey says Radiohead suing her for copying “Creep”

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OK, this seems really clearcut to me, but judge for yourself.

My take: The chord structure seems identical, the production not so much. But there’s this one moment that really makes the case for me.

  • In the Radiohead video, jump to about 39 seconds in and listen to the phrase, “float like a feather”, with that bit of vocalization at the end of the word “feather”.

  • Now, in the Lana Del Rey video, jump to about 50 seconds in and listen to the phrase “my modern manifesto”. To me, I hear the same vocalization at the end of the word “manifesto”.

As I said, judge for yourself. But hard for me to believe Creep wasn’t an influence here.

UPDATE: And then there’s this from BBC News (H/T @timbo_baggins), Radiohead deny suing Lana Del Rey:

Radiohead’s publisher, Warner/Chappell, has since issued a statement clarifying its position. “It’s true that we’ve been in discussions since August of last year with Lana Del Rey’s representatives,” it said.

“It’s clear that the verses of Get Free use musical elements found in the verses of Creep and we’ve requested that this be acknowledged in favour of all writers of Creep.

“To set the record straight, no lawsuit has been issued and Radiohead have not said they ‘will only accept 100%’ of the publishing of Get Free.”

Prince playing jazz piano, coaching his band through “Summertime”

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[VIDEO] Open Culture:

We do not typically remember [Prince] as a jazz pianist. But his facility with jazz earned him the admiration of Miles Davis, who made several efforts to collaborate with the extremely busy pop star. (They performed together only once, it seems, on New Year’s Eve, 1987 at Paisley Park.) Prince’s style, stage show, songwriting, and arranging drew from jazz of all kinds—from zoot suit-era big band to the frenetic movement of hard bop to the classically-inflected show tunes of George Gershwin. Just above see him “casually own” Gershwin’s “Summertime” during a 1990 soundcheck in Osaka, Japan.

I had no idea Prince even played piano, let alone so well. I love this video (embedded in the main Loop post). The groove is right there, with Prince driving. Super talented.

Students with autism make music with iPads

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[VIDEO] This is a fantastic story. A teacher discovers that an autistic student responds to music, is determined to bring music creation and performance to an entire class of autistic kids.

The result just might bring a tear to your eyes. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Sources: Apple is acquiring music recognition app Shazam

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Ingrid Lunden and Katie Roof, TechCrunch:

As Spotify continues to inch towards a public listing, Apple is making a move of its own to step up its game in music services. Sources tell us that the company is close to acquiring Shazam, the popular app that lets people identify any song, TV show, film or advert in seconds, by listening to an audio clip or (in the case of, say, an ad) a visual fragment, and then takes you to content relevant to that search.

We have heard that the deal is being signed this week, and will be announced on Monday, although that could always change.

The deal is said to be worth about £300 million ($400 million).

Billboard’s intimate dinner with Jimmy Iovine, discussion of the music biz

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Billboard:

It’s been three and a half years since Jimmy Iovine left his role as CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M to run Apple Music, but that doesn’t keep him from thinking about the problems facing labels today — or the rest of the industry for that matter.

Over a dinner recently at NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles with Iovine and Allen Hughes, who directed the four-part documentary series, The Defiant Ones — which focuses on storied careers of Iovine and Dr Dre., his partner in developing Beats Electronics — a handful of journalists lobbed questions at and shared their thoughts with the iconic exec.

This was a fascinating read. Not too long, and completely Jimmy.

Just a little taste:

It’s not the price point that’s the problem for streaming services. It’s the free alternatives that are undermining the system in a way film and television streaming platforms are not forced to manage. He pointed to Netflix as a prime example, spending $6 billion on original content in 2017, while charging customers $9.99 or $11.99 for unlimited access to its unique offerings — including TV and film they exclusively license. Meanwhile in contrast, by and large, all music digital streaming platforms offer the same material.

And:

Put yourself in Kansas without a job and YouTube is free, Pandora is free, Spotify is free…. If there’s a restaurant down the street with the exact same food as this restaurant that’s on a mountain with a view, only this one’s for free, a lot of people are gonna eat there. They’ll use paper towels, they don’t give a shit about napkins.

A great read, well worth your time.

How to make a custom ringtone for your iPhone, with GarageBand on iOS

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Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

With the latest version of iTunes, Apple buried the interface for making ringtones on the Mac. It’s still possible but a lot more cumbersome to manage.

A little-known secret is that you can actually make custom alert an ringtones for iOS on your iPhone itself, using GarageBand. Here’s how.

If you like playing with sound, this is a fun, achievable project to take on.

Pandora has lost $1B in 4 years, now worth less than ever. Salvageable?

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Music Business Worldwide:

When Pandora Media launched on the NYSE in June 2011, it started trading at $16 a share – with a $2.6bn valuation.

Optimism was rife for music’s big digital play on the stock market. The expectation was that the firm’s valuation, and global presence, would soar.

Today, over six years on, Pandora is worth less than a third of what it was that day, at under $5 per share.

And, according to MBW’s calculations, there’s even sorrier news for the firm’s new regime to contemplate: Pandora has now lost over a billion dollars in less than four years.

I hate the math, but it is the math. To me, Pandora hasn’t lost value as a music service. They still serve the same purpose, offer the same set of services. The loss is financial. But that’s what counts in this situation.

It gets worse: as recently as summer 2016, SiriusXM reportedly made a bid to acquire Pandora for $3.4bn, or $15 per share.

That’s more than three times what Pandora’s worth now.

The offer was rejected.

Ouch.

Chopsticks

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[VIDEO] This is super old, but ran into it yesterday, thought it was worth a share (watch the video on the main Loop post).

  1. Spiderman as Emcee? Wonder what that was about.
  2. That’s a pretty solid list of musical borrowings. Scroll down in the comments for a liszt (sorry).

Enjoy.

The mathematical genius of Auto-Tune

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Zachary Crockett, Priceonomics:

Auto-Tune — one of modern history’s most reviled inventions — was an act of mathematical genius.

The pitch correction software, which automatically calibrates out-of-tune singing to perfection, has been used on nearly every chart-topping album for the past 20 years. Along the way, it has been pilloried as the poster child of modern music’s mechanization.

And:

For inventor Andy Hildebrand, Auto-Tune was an incredibly complex product — the result of years of rigorous study, statistical computation, and the creation of algorithms previously deemed to be impossible.

And:

“The sampling synthesizers sounded like shit: if you sustained a note, it would just repeat forever,” he harps. “And the problem was that the machines didn’t hold much data.”

Hildebrand, who’d “retired” just a few months earlier, decided to take matters into his own hands. First, he created a processing algorithm that greatly condensed the audio data, allowing for a smoother, more natural-sounding sustain and timbre. Then, he packaged this algorithm into a piece of software (called Infinity), and handed it out to composers.

And:

Infinity improved digitized orchestral sounds so dramatically that it uprooted Hollywood’s music production landscape: using the software, lone composers were able to accurately recreate film scores, and directors no longer had a need to hire entire orchestras.

“I bankrupted the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” Hildebrand chuckles. “They were out of the [sample recording] business for eight years.”

Great, great read. [H/T The Overspill]

Coming to Apple Music: Bang! The Bert Berns Story

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[VIDEO] This looks to be a well crafted love letter to an unsung hero of the music industry. This could be a sweet spot for Apple Music, something I’d normally associate with HBO. A bit of a niche documentary, but foundational, something that adds value to my Apple Music subscription, something I can’t get on Spotify.

The film was produced by Bert Berns’ son and premiered at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival to great acclaim. Here’s a review.

Watch the trailer embedded in the main Loop post. Drops on October 24th. My calendar is marked.

A-Ha, live unplugged performance of Take On Me, last week

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If the headline means nothing to you, take a moment to immerse yourself in this (at the time) groundbreaking video, listen to the musical earworm that took over the world in 1984, the year the Mac was born.

Back? OK, now fast forward to last week, when A-Ha got together to perform an unplugged version of the song, slow enough that you can actually follow the lyrics. That video is embedded in the main Loop post.

Such a voice! Want a version with the original beat and a bit more falsetto? Here ya go.

Liam Gallagher, forced to make his own tea

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If you know who Liam Gallagher is, you’ll no doubt find this both in character and, perhaps, an insightful comment on changing times. If you don’t know him, think controversial rock star (lead singer of the band Oasis).

From his Wikipedia page:

His erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style, and abrasive attitude have been the subject of commentary in the press; he remains one of the most recognisable figures in modern British music.

With that background, check out the video embedded in the main Loop post.

Listen to music in VR, turn individual instruments on and off

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This interesting experiment from Song Exploder uses WebVR to play tracks that surround you with instruments which you can switch on and off, live.

So far, there are only 6 tracks in the library, hoping that number grows over time. But cool to play with. It works in a regular browser, though not as effective as with a real VR setup. Be sure to use headphones.

If this interests you, check out the Song Exploder podcast, which brings on artists who walk through a specific song, layer by layer.

Apple reaches music deal with Warner, eyes Sony pact

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Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. has secured a deal for songs from Warner Music Group, the technology giant’s first agreement with a major label since introducing its on-demand music service two years ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

Warner will provide Apple a catalog spanning Ed Sheeran, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bruno Mars for both iTunes, the online store, and Apple Music, the streaming service. Apple plans to pay record labels a smaller percentage of sales from Apple Music subscribers than it did under its first deal for the streaming service, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

And:

Sony Music Entertainment, owner of the second-largest record label, is also on the verge of a deal with Apple, one of the people said. A deal between Apple and Universal Music Group, owner of the top label, is further off.

This is a renegotiation of an expiring deal to a lower rate.

Apple axes annual music festival in London after 10 years

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Music Business Worldwide:

Apple has confirmed to MBW that it will no longer be hosting the annual Apple Music Festival at London’s Roundhouse.

And:

However, the cancellation of the festival doesn’t signal a move away from live events by Apple Music completely.

The brand was recently a partner of shows by Haim and Skepta in London and Arcade Fire in Brooklyn and it had a heavy presence at SXSW in Texas earlier this year – where it backed shows from Lana Del Rey, Vince Staples and DJ Khaled.

In addition, Apple Music also sponsored Drake’s 32-date Summer Sixteen Tour in 2016 and it supports regular live sessions from its ‘Up Next’ artists.

The closure of the Apple Music Festival is likely because Apple is concentrating its resources on one-off events like these, in addition to its original content efforts in video – which have recently included a Carpool Karaoke spin-off series and a behind-the-scenes documentary on Harry Styles.

This feels like a shift in marketing focus, not a shift away from music. As always, Apple is still learning, adjusting their business model. No doubt, music is still deep in their DNA.

Walter Becker, Steely Dan guitarist, arranger, composer, dead at 67

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I was on a long drive from upstate New York when I heard the news. Walter Becker was dead. Damn.

Hard to explain just how important Steely Dan was to me. They were the first band I ever loved deep down in my musical bones.

Click through to the main Loop post for my appreciation, and a bit of shared music.

Winamp’s woes: How the greatest MP3 player undid itself

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This is a fascinating story about how Winamp squandered its opportunity to be the dominant force in the music universe.

Great read, all the way through, but this bit amazed me:

Amazingly, given all the time elapsed, AOL still makes a decent amount of money on the site and on the program—while the company has declined to release official figures, former employees who worked on Winamp estimate its current revenue at around $6 million annually.

Wait, what? I find that astonishing.

This piece originally ran on June 24, 2012 (and Winamp finally called it quits in November 2013).

Ah, that explains it. Still, a great read.

How to make your iPhone speaker louder

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This setting has been around for a while, but it’s subtle enough to have slipped through the cracks for many.

Take a look at this tweet.

To see this setting at work, fire up some relatively loud music on your iPhone.

Now go to Settings, scroll down to Music, make sure EQ is set to off. Get a sense of the volume.

Now scroll down and select the Late Night EQ setting. Notice a difference? To me, the difference is significant, the quiet elements boosted, the overall impression louder.

If you don’t hear a difference, tap to turn EQ off, then go back to Late Night. It’s subtle, but a good tip, worth sharing.

Pandora shuts down in Australia and New Zealand after 5 years

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Music Business Worldwide:

Pandora’s run in Australasia has come to an end.

The digital radio company, which launched in Australia and New Zealand in 2012, is officially closing down its app and website in the territories on Monday (July 31).

Approximately 5m registered customers in the region will be locked out of their accounts, having received a message from Pandora which tells them: “We’re honored to have connected so many listeners with the music they love these past few years. Thank you for your loyalty and the opportunity to serve you.”

The cost-cutting move will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on Pandora’s global active monthly listener count, which was last officially pegged at 76.7m in Q1.

Pandora is shifting all their resources to focus on the US market.

A powerful, yet easy to use, songwriting app

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Interested in songwriting? Check out the Chasing Sound review of an app called Tab Bank. Tab Bank uses plain text and Chord Pro formatting to make it easy to lay out lyrics, chords, and tabs.

This looks great.

Want to get started with Logic Pro? Here’s one path.

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Interested in digging into Logic Pro, but find the interface a bit intimidating? Here are two resources that might ease the learning curve.

First, spend some time with this excellent, free 4 part series from Justin Kahn, writing for 9to5Mac. To me, there’s enough depth to really understand the basics, while maintaining a slow enough pace that it’s still easy to follow.

Second, take a look at this series of slides, part of a music production course from the esteemed Berklee College of Music. The slides focus on the details of the mixer and the channel strip. To me, these are the most complex pieces of the Logic Pro interface.

Have some other suggestions for learning Logic Pro? Ping me on Twitter or post a comment.

UPDATE: Mark Dalrymple posted an excellent list of Logic learning resources in the comments.

Neilson Music: Hip-hop is bigger than rock music for the first time

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Amy X. Wang, Quartz:

“Change—shit, I guess change is good for any of us,” Tupac raps at the start of one of his most beloved singles, recorded in 1995 and released the following year after his death. Back then, rap, hip-hop, and R&B were still subcultures, brimming with loyal followers but lagging just below the attention of the mainstream. Fame was fierce, yet limited.

Just over a decade later, the status quo’s been flipped on its head. According to Nielsen Music’s latest semi-annual report, hip-hop (including R&B) is now the biggest genre in the US, overtaking rock music for the very first time. Hip-hop claims 25.1% of all music consumption, while rock music is at 23%.

That’s be just over two decades, no? But I digress.

Why this happened has as much to do with US’s listening methods as it does the undeniable talent of many modern-day rappers. In the 1990s, CD sales still dominated. Digital-music streaming has now outstripped physical album sales and iTunes downloads as the primary way people listen to songs; with this new order comes both a new audience and a revamp of music charts.

The article tells the tale of the data embedded in this Neilson Music report. Lots to process there, including the death of the album.