iTunes says goodbye. The future of streaming looks profitable. Berghain recreated in Minecraft. Café Capital makes its return.
Goodbye iTunes. 18 years after launching, iTunes is being discontinued by Apple. The announcement came at Apple’s annual developers conference. iTunes will be broken up into three separate macOS apps: Podcasts, TV, and Music as part of the next MacOS update, Catalina, which is coming fall 2019. While many DJs lamented the decision across social media, complaining that the app was still central to music sorting, iTunes was viewed as outdated by Apple and the general public, harking to an era when music, podcasts and movies were all purchased and stored in one place.
Make Your Music Make Money. Attack have released their second book ‘Make Your Music Make Money’ available now and priced just £6.99. The new 238 page PDF book from Attack Magazine, will show you how, armed with nothing more than a laptop, some talent and a decent work ethic, you can write and record your music, create an international profile and access a worldwide sales infrastructure to make money and build a fanbase from day one. You can check it out and buy your copy here.
Ibiza’s new club. Taking over the former Sankeys Ibiza location is a new club called Octan. Located in Playa d’en Bossa, the new space opens on Sunday, July 7th with Steve Lawler’s Warriors party, which is the club’s first announced residency. The club will focus mainly on house and techno events, pushing independent, underground artists to create a more “intimate and personal” environment than the average Ibiza club. Ryan O Gorman is the club’s musical director, and Lindsey Matthews, Kellie Allen and Stephane Ghenacia are its main residents. Find out more about the club here.
Berghain Minecraft. Someone made a near-perfect rendition of Berlin’s Berghain in Minecraft. Originally shared as a video tour on Reddit’s r/techno by u/throwawayforlewdstuf, viewers can get a virtual glimpse of nearly every area of the club, including the notorious dark rooms. The creator gave their reasoning behind the project, stating: “I know there are a lot of people who can’t really travel to Berlin, so giving this little sneak peak inside to those people was kinda my intent!” Watch the video below.
Golden future. Investment firm Goldman Sachs has forecasted that by 2030, the global recorded music industry will be pulling in $45 billion in annual revenue. That forecast comes via an update to its 2017 report, Music In The Air, which predicted huge gains for record labels. The update also outlines a booming future for paid streaming, with predictions of $27.5 billion in revenue generated for labels and artists in 2030, with overall annual global trade streaming revenues reaching $37.2 billion. These predictions are predicated in part on the firm’s belief that by 2030, 1.5 billion people will be paying for music streaming as it grows in popularity worldwide — two thirds of subscribers will come via “emerging markets” like India, the firm states, rather than “established markets” like the US and Europe. For a more in depth look at the report, head to MBW.
Clear your mixes. DJs can now legally clear their mixes through Pioneer’s new DJM-REC app for iOS. Once a mix is uploaded, rights management company Dubset analyses it for copyrights, then distributes the mix through music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. When someone listens to your mix, royalties are paid to the labels and publishers who own the copyrights. Dubset CEO Stephen White called the app a “seamless live performance-to-distribution model” that DJs have long been asking for. To find out more, head to the Pioneer website.
Connecting borders. As part of the DMZ Peace Train Festival, Seoul Community Radio will be hosting an electronic music stage promoting peace between North and South Korea. The festival takes place this weekend at Soi Mountain in South Korea’s Gangwon Province, which sits at the DMZ, or Korean Demilitarized Zone between North and South. Several local acts will perform, alongside artists from Cuba, Denmark and Japan. DMZ Peace Train was launched last year with the help of veteran British promoter Martin Elbourne, who’s best-known for booking Glastonbury Festival.
Café Capital returns. Nine years after a devastating fire destroyed Café Capital, the Antwerp venue will reopen as Grand Café Capital, with the first party taking place on June 9th. While the venue will only host sporadic club nights initially, more events are expected to take place in the future. The space itself features a restaurant, terrace, a small club area equipped with an HK soundsystem, and “Japanese-inspired” design. Before it burned down, Cafe Capital was one of the city’s most popular venues, regularly hosting events with Theo Parrish, Four Tet, Marcel Dettmann and others.