Jeff Mills makes a weird mistake. SoundCloud becomes a distributor. Australia declares ‘war on festivals.’ A super-rare synth is getting a documentary.
Millsian drama. Drama unfolded across the Internet this week as techno icon Jeff Mills revealed he’d mistakenly released another producer’s track as his own. The track, “Patterns In Nature,” had been sent to Mills as a demo by Swedish producer Julien H. Mulder, and was included on the first EP on Mills’ new Str Mrkd sub-label, Str Mrkd 001. Axis Recordings, Mills’ label, cited, “similarity in production style,” saying “Mills mistook this track as something he had made a while ago and proceeded to add this to the release.” The track has since been credited to Mulder, and he will be credited on all future represses. See the full statement from Axis below.
SoundCloud goes distro. SoundCloud is now a distributor, as the streaming platform launched a new feature in open beta enabling artists to “seamlessly” distribute their music to rival platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Instagram, Spotify, Tencent, and YouTube Music from within their SoundCloud account. SoundCloud says it won’t cut into earnings obtained on other platforms, while promising “streamlined payments from everywhere — directly from SoundCloud.” Soundcloud also says creators will see the new function added to the monetization toolset over the next few months. A SoundCloud Pro or Pro Unlimited subscription is needed, and artists must have no copyright strikes against their music at time of enrollment. Learn more here.
Berlin’s big moneymakers. Club tourism brings in an estimated €1.5 billion to Berlin each year, according to a study by the Berlin Club Commission. The Commission gathered data by surveying venues and clubbers, and the study, called “Club Culture Berlin 2019,” showed that last year Berlin had three million nightlife tourists, who stayed an average 2.4 days and spent €205 per day, going to 58,000 events through the year, keeping 9,000 people employed. Rising rents, however, have made life for clubs more difficult, and the Commission is calling for a bill similar to London’s “Agent Of Change” principle, which makes real estate developers responsible for noise protection when building near a music venue. Visit the Commission’s website here.
Aussie festival crackdowns. Events across Australia have been cancelled as the New South Wales government introduced crippling new regulations that local media are calling a “war on festivals.” Festivals will be required to meet costly new licensing requirements, including increased police presence, which could cost events hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover. The intense scrutiny follows a string of drug related deaths at festivals. Some are calling for pill testing as a response, including the Australian Medical Association. Learn more here.
Mac troubles. The latest Mac laptops and desktops are reportedly having serious issues with their USB 2.0 ports, causing audio glitching and dropout problems when used with external audio interfaces. Machines affected include iMac Pro, 2018 Mac Mini, 2018 MacBook Air and 2018 MacBook Pro, and it’s thought that T2 chip time synchronization issues are causing the problems. One partial solution is to “Set date and time automatically” in preferences, though that only reduces dropouts. For further info on how to fix the issue, head here.
Ear warning. The United Nations has issued guidelines for safely listening to music, warning that over a billion young people are at serious risk of long term hearing loss due listening to music at unsafe levels through personal audio devices like smartphones. And that figure is expected to rise, as smartphones become more popular globally. The WHO estimates that could add $750 million a year in health care costs. One of the recommended UN proposals is fitting smartphones with a “speedometer” that measures how much sound you’re taking in, and when you’ve gone “over the limit.” See more here.
Doors Open. There’s a new job hunting service designed specifically for the electronic music industry called Doors Open. Launched by Resident Advisor, Doors Open promises to help you find “Electronic Music’s Best Jobs,” with companies like Ninja Tune, The Columbo Group, The Media Nanny, Temporary Secretary, Ableton, Beatport and Discogs featured on the site or posting jobs. It works similarly to other general job search platforms, with email alerts and location specific searches available. Try it here.
The Resynator. An ultra-rare synth from the ‘70s that’s been sitting in a dusty attic since the death of its creator in 1988 is now the subject of a new documentary. Created by Don Tavel, who died in a car crash 10 weeks after the birth of his daughter Alison, the Resynator was one of the first synths to use custom digital signal processing for pitch detection, and has a “unique” approach to tracking. Directed by Alison herself, the documentary explores her attempts to reintroduce the Resynator to the modern music scene, and features musicians from LCD Soundsystem, Goldfrapp, Portishead and more. Watch a trailer below, and help Alison complete the project through a Kickstarter donation here.
Rekordbox in the cloud? As first pointed out by DJ Mag, the latest beta version of Pioneer’s rekordbox is showing signs that cloud-based track analysis might be right around the corner. Offering what Pioneer DJ are calling “track analysis sharing,” version 5.4.4 offers users the ability to upload their analysed tracks to Pioneer DJ’s cloud, and the next time the track is loaded into rekordbox, Pioneer DJ will analyse the cloud-stored reference file instead of asking your computer to do so. Whether or not this means DJ technology will be shifting entirely to the cloud remains to be seen. Read more here.