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An advantage of being an aspiring artist in 2023, rather than 1983 or even 2003, is having near-instant access to millions of pre-made instrumentals — a club-wrecking drill track or soothing South African amapiano beat is just a few clicks away. For many acts today, the first step in the songwriting process is scouring sites like BeatStars, Soundee or YouTube for the right piece of music. “I just go on YouTube and look up ‘indie-pop-type beat’ or ‘R&B Daniel Caesar-type beat,’ ” Island Records artist Diego Gonzalez told Billboard last year. “I scroll through those until I find one I really like. Then I download it and start humming melodies.”
This approach has led to breakout singles and major-label deals for Muni Long, ThxSoMch, dv4d, Tai Verdes, Wisp and more. The affordability of the online beat economy, where an instrumental might cost as little as $2.99, makes it extremely convenient for young artists. But the casual nature of the business arrangements can come back to haunt them.
Acts typically license the instrumentals they want for cheap rather than buying them outright (which can cost significantly more). What they may not understand, however, is the agreements they accept to access these beats typically grant them limited rights by capping the number of streams a song can earn and allowing other acts to license the same piece of music. If a song built on a leased instrumental becomes a hit, the artist then has to circle back and try to buy out that beat. They have essentially built a highly desirable house on real estate they don’t own.
That’s when negotiations can become fraught and even lead to litigation, according to entertainment attorneys. “When we come on board and a song is starting to go, the first question is always: ‘Do you have paperwork with whoever did this track?’” says Todd Rubenstein, founder of Todd Rubenstein Law. “Licenses don’t give you exclusive rights, so there’s an opportunity for people to come back and leverage you when a record explodes.”
A producer may also be reluctant to assign exclusive rights to an instrumental they’ve already licensed hundreds of times. “If a song is going viral and a record company wants to enter into an agreement, the value of the track is impacted by the fact that you don’t have original materials and the beat exists elsewhere,” explains Leon Morabia, a partner at Mark Music & Media Law.
“These things happen all the time,” says David Fritz, co-founder of law firm Boyarski Fritz. “A baby act is doing well, and then they get a producer saying, ‘You’re over the streaming threshold on this track and we didn’t work out a deal; you have to take the song down’ ” — just at the point where artists and their teams need to slam the pedal to the metal by pouring money into marketing.
Not surprisingly, many producers like these nonexclusive agreements. “The leasing system allows the producer to be at the [negotiating] table if that beat turns into something bigger,” BeatStars president of music and publishing Greg Mateo says.
The music industry is “skewed toward artists and labels having the power,” adds Tiffany Almy, an entertainment attorney. “Producers are part of this, too,” she continues, “and [the licensing economy] gives them a voice, a platform and, potentially, a way to have more opportunities going forward.”
Fritz says the risks involved with beat-licensing deals are one of the reasons he co-founded Creative Intell, a subscription-based educational platform that dissects music contracts, among other business topics, across 18 different courses. Steven Ship, who co-founded the company with Fritz, says they hope to “revolutionize the way dealmaking is conducted in the business.” The first step toward that goal, he adds, is education “so people can understand what they’re signing and how to protect themselves.”
Creative Intell relies on animated modules to take users through beat-licensing agreements paragraph by paragraph, focusing in particular on BeatStars. (Fritz says his company is in negotiations with several music distributors, including Vydia, UnitedMasters and ONErpm, to make Creative Intell available to their clients.) The courses warn artists to look out for streaming limits and clauses that let the beat-makers end a lease at their sole discretion. Creative Intell also offers users an alternative licensing agreement that Fritz and Ship say is more artist-friendly.
The platform advises acts to be especially wary of “beat trolls” — people with mercenary motives who target viral songs built on licensed beats and try to acquire the underlying instrumental. If the trolls succeed in this effort, they own a piece of the artist’s most important track and acquire substantial power to influence — and extract money from — any subsequent label negotiations, Rubenstein says.
If a song explodes “and you don’t have perfect title to all your work, then you’re going to be a target for people, guaranteed,” adds Nicolas Tevez, founder of Tevez Law.
Mateo says he’s aware that the licensing system can create issues and has personally helped some artist lawyers get contentious deals done. BeatStars also has started to provide some major labels, including Atlantic Records and Island Records, with an assortment of instrumentals where terms of use have been agreed upon ahead of time. That way, if an act likes a beat and it turns into a hit, there aren’t any additional complications. “The last thing we want is for a placement to die,” Mateo says.
Despite the potential pitfalls of beat marketplaces, they remain popular with artists and serve as a lifeline for some beat-makers.
Even if producers secure prominent placement on a major-label album — a dream scenario — their future is hardly secure; they might not see any money for more than a year. But in online beat marketplaces, producers can earn a good living through a steady stream of leasing transactions. “A bunch of my clients are crushing it on BeatStars, making $100,000 a year,” says Adam Freedman, an entertainment attorney.
Still, for unsigned artists, learning the ins and outs of the licensing agreements remains paramount. While Ship from Creative Intell and Mateo from BeatStars have conflicting ideas about the best way to draft a beat license, both agree that there needs to be more education about how these deals work.
“Read through the terms and conditions,” says Jason Berger, a partner at Lewis Brisbois. “There’s nothing worse than you not understanding how something is going to play out based on an agreement you’ve already entered.”
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Source: Xbox / Dune: Part Two
Despite the Xbox community being in shambles following rumors of exclusives possibly landing on the PS5 and Nintendo Switch, the company continues to deliver exclusive Xbox Series S consoles and controllers.
On Tuesday, Xbox announced another partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures for the studio’s latest film, Dune: Part Two.
Like its previous collaboration with Wonka, which saw a custom Series X console inspired by a Wonka chocolate bar, a controller taking its cues from the character’s jacket, and an edible chocolate controller, Xbox gamers can get their hands on custom hardware inspired by the highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Dune.
While not being “sweet” or featuring any edible components, the Dune: Part Two does feature what Xbox describes as the “first-ever floating controller.”
The controller comes in a seemingly marble finish with the Dune: Part Two logo written on it. The controller also has a stand with the same finish that looks like it is magically floating over a sand base.
That’s not at all; a custom Series S console rests in a “specially designed console holder inspired by the Ornithopter,” making it a “true collector’s item for fans.”
Source: Xbox / Dune: Part Two
But wait, there’s more. Microsoft Flight Simulator fans can also boot up the game and pilot the Royal Atreides Ornithopter over the deserts of Arrakis in the latest expansion for the game.
Xbox is also bringing two life-size Royal Atreides Ornithopter gaming simulators to the London Microsoft Experience Center on Oxford Circus starting February 16 and the New York Microsoft Experience Center on Fifth Avenue starting February 26.
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How Do You Get The Dune Series S & Controller?
Unfortunately, you can’t buy these items. Still, you can enter a free contest to win the custom hardware by following Xbox on X (formerly Twitter) and retweeting the official Xbox sweepstakes tweet.
The contest will run from February 13, 2024, through March 25, 2024.
Good luck.
1. Xbox x Dune: Part Two Collaboration
Source:Dune: Part Two
Xbox x Dune: Part Two Collaboration xbox,dune: part two
2. Xbox x Dune: Part Two Collaboration
Source:Dune: Part Two
Xbox x Dune: Part Two Collaboration xbox,dune: part two
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When Apple launched its new $3,500 Vision Pro virtual reality headset this past week, the implication was clear: The future, whether people like it or not, is no longer knocking on the door but inside the living room. (If you can afford one, that is.) The immersive, three-dimensional experience that the headsets — and those from other companies, like Meta — offer is a test of where technology can go, and how humanity may interact through technology moving forward.
But while early reviews focused on the Vision Pro’s relative clunkiness, the quality of the graphics and how it all functions, the possibilities of VR technology are fascinating when applied to music — particularly the idea of 3D, immersive concert experiences. While those types of experiences have been around conceptually for a few years, now — with the company AmazeVR being one of the launch apps on Vision Pro (and also available on the Meta headset) — they are in people’s homes.
AmazeVR was founded in 2015 by Korean company Kakao and first made waves in 2021 after partnering with Roc Nation to produce a virtual reality Megan Thee Stallion concert tour, which was shown in AMC theaters in a dozen cities around the country. It also partnered with K-pop company SM Entertainment for a similar 3D concert experience with the group aespa. But for the past two and a half years, AmazeVR has been working on its app to launch with the Vision Pro headset — and later this month, on Feb. 28, it will unveil a new immersive concert experience with the band Avenged Sevenfold that will, according to AmazeVR creative director Lance Drake, be “our most dynamic and trippy, incredible show to date.” The new launch helps Drake earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Drake has been a music video director for over a decade, having worked with the likes of Miike Snow, Steve Angello and Muse. He also directed Muse’s IMAX concert film Simulation Theory, which came out in 2020 amid the pandemic and which led to what he called a bit of an existential crisis as a director, leading him to virtual reality.
“The reason why I decided to do VR was, the Muse videos that I did were adapted by Microsoft into VR games, and they took those adaptations on tour as a VIP experience, and I got to see the fans of our videos actually interact with the music videos I had made, the worlds we had built and the storylines, and I was like, ‘Wait a second, there’s something here,’” Drake says. “So when this opportunity with Amaze happened everything aligned: It’s music-driven, it’s artist-driven, and what we do is like a hybrid between a live concert, a music video and a game.”
Here, Drake discusses AmazeVR’s work in virtual reality and spatial video, the music tie-ins that are beginning to make the technology viable for artists, and the possibilities that exist moving forward. “I think just having spent a decade in music videos and feeling like 2D has hit the ceiling of what people expect, and how it’s kind of just this promotional tool, I see what we’re doing now — and spatial and VR content in general — as a new medium for musicians and visual creatives to go beyond the two dimensional,” he says. “Once you’re seeing content in 3D and it’s in your room and it’s a part of your life in a physical manifestation, it becomes way more meaningful and there’s more value to that.”
This week, Apple released its new Vision Pro VR headset, and AmazeVR Concerts launched as one of the headset’s music-centric apps. What can you do with the Amaze app?
We’re a day one launch on the Vision Pro, having been working in spatial for the past two and a half years. We create VR concerts — we’re shooting the biggest musicians in the world on stereo video and putting them in fully-immersible CG environments and giving users and fans the closest performance they will ever get. The artists are photo-real, performing to you in the most insane CG-driven world imaginable. There’s interactive moments. And over the past two and a half years we’ve been building the VR concert, which is typically four songs from an artist and an interlude in the middle, and it plays out a bit like a standard concert, but it’s 3D, the user is fully in the world with the artist, and it’s the closest performance you’ll ever get in your life. When they’re performing, they’re looking at you and they’re speaking to you.
How long have you been working on this?
I’ve been working with AmazeVR for two and a half years. We started with the HottieVerse with Megan Thee Stallion, which was our launch. We partnered with AMC and we took her show on the road to movie theaters, and fans could get a taste of the future and buy tickets. We played 12 different cities, it sold out at most locations, and then from there we grew. We’ve done five shows since, and we’ve been working on the technology, bringing the budget down. The Megan Thee Stallion project was about a year-long life cycle from creation to premiering, and since then we’ve done shows in two-month life cycles.
What was your experience like working on the Megan project, and what did you learn from it?
I think the big learning lesson was that the market was just not at the point it is right now. We’re at a real precipice with the Vision Pro launch. At the time Megan came out, which was two years ago, we had to come to the fans, we had to create a space in which fans could go to a movie theater, and oftentimes — and this was the blessing of that show — for a lot of people, their first time trying VR was with our experience, because they were fans of Megan and they had this unique chance to do something different within VR. But now we’re at a point where Meta headset sales have been growing exponentially since, and now Apple has entered the ring, and since then we’ve been hyper-focused on launching our own app, so we have our own app on Meta and now on Vision Pro. So we’re now kind of ahead of the game because we’ve been shooting spatial content and building these worlds for what people want to see in VR for over two years.
You guys also have a partnership with K-pop company SM Entertainment, right?
The founders of our company are Korean, they’re engineering geniuses, and they’ve been working in VR for nearly a decade. So we have deep ties in the K-pop industry and have a partnership with SM. And the first show we launched with was aespa; similarly, we did a theatrical run in South Korea, which did really well, and our second show [with] Kai just happened through SM [and will be out in South Korea Feb. 14]. And we’re going to continue to expand and grow in the K-pop market, especially in the theatrical market because fans are very hungry and eager there for this kind of content.
You also have a new project with Avenged Sevenfold coming out later this month. What can you tell me about that?
Avenged Sevenfold is definitely our most dynamic and trippy, incredible show to date. What sets it apart is that we were able to shoot all five members of the band truly live performing. We took their entire touring team, their back line, and they were on the stage with us and we did a full recording of them performing live on a sound stage, which to my knowledge has not been done in spatial, 3D video. We’re really excited because it’s really putting the musicianship at the forefront. Brian [Synster Gates] and Zackey [Vengeance] playing guitar, you’re seeing every note they play, you’re seeing the vocal performance, and it’s what makes spatial video so special — it gives the user permission to look wherever they want. So you can really focus on the drum fills, you can really see that particular guitar solo, and it’s really bringing that performance element and the musicianship back to the forefront with this show.
What are some of the complications that still need to be worked out with music and this technology?
It’s more just getting the word out and getting people on board. The artists that we’ve worked with — from T-Pain, who is heavily involved in Twitch and the digital world; Zara Larsson, who had a huge Roblox show; and Avenged Sevenfold, who are very involved in crypto and NFTs and Web3 — it’s taken these kinds of artists to invest in us and understand and want to be at the frontier of this. But now that we’ve entered a world where Apple is in the game, I think it’s going to be a lot easier for artists to understand what we’re trying to make, and also we’ve had to do a version of every genre of music to then show to artists for them to see how it applies to them. It was hard for us to take a Megan Thee Stallion show to rock acts and say, “We want to do this for you.” It’s really taken us to fulfill every genre and what that VR concert would look like. But now we’ve done pop, K-pop, hip-hop and now rock; I think it’s going to be a lot easier for bigger artists to see how this applies to them.
Where do you see it going from here?
What’s most exciting with the Apple launch is that it’s not only a viewer, it’s a creative tool. There’s cameras built into it, it’s gonna be a lot easier to be social with this headset, and for users to create this content. I really see this as a new medium, a new genre. For years, especially in the music space, music videos have been a dying art; they’re becoming less and less popular, and a lot more visual focus has been on TikTok. I see this as a new ceiling for creativity and a new bar for fans to invest in and get closer to their favorite artists.
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Source: Akai / Akai
If you’re an up and coming producer looking to create some new sounds but don’t have all the equipment necessary to do to, Akai might have something you can add to your arsenal as they’re dropping a new production keyboard with all kinds of fixins.
Source: Akai / Akai
Engadget is reporting that Akai has just announced their new MPC Key 37 production keyboard which allows users to craft and cook beats from scratch without having to use an actual computer, laptop or DAW. Of course with that being the case it will have some limitations, but the keyboard seems like a dream come true for many would-be producers looking to get into the game.
Engadget reports:
There are 37 full-size keys, complete with aftertouch. There aren’t that many standalone devices out there with a full keybed, so this should excite musicians who lack experience with Akai-style pads. This device does have 16 velocity-sensitive pads for laying down drum parts and triggering samples, so it’s a “best of both worlds” type situation.
The Key 37 ships with 32GB of on-board storage, though 10GB is used up by the OS and included sound packs. Thankfully, there’s a slot for an SD card to expand the storage — these standalone devices fill up fast.
You get the same color 7-inch multi-touch display and four assignable Q-Link knobs as the company’s Key 61 workstation. This is great for making system adjustments and for controlling effects plugins and the like. As a matter of fact, the entire layout recalls the Key 61, though this new release is slightly less powerful.
Though the Key 37 understandably lacks some of the key aspects of it’s Key 61 predecessor (such as 2GB of RAM, compared to the 61’s 4GB and a few microphone inputs), the keyboard does feature Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity for wireless streaming on platforms such as Ableton Link. That’s gotta count for something, right?
The MPC Key 37 is currently available for a cool $900 on inMusic and authorized retailers around town. Would you be interested in copping one? Check out the video for the keyboard below and let us know in the comments section.
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Source: LISA O’CONNOR / Getty / Elon Musk
Elon Musk is once again showing his a** on his X platform. The Tesla chief is pushing conspiracy theories in response to a video of immigrants assaulting a New York City police officer.
The X owner is back on his bullsh*t. Spotted on Crooks and Liars, Musk decided to add his unwanted two cents into the “migrant crisis” after a video of migrants beating an NYPD officer went viral.
Dipping into the white supremacist bag, Musk used the great replacement theory, describing it as a tool the Biden Administration is using to influence the 2024 presidential election.
“This explains why there are so few deportations, as every deportation is a lost vote. As happened this week, you can literally assault police officers in broad daylight in New York, be released with no bail, give everyone the finger and *still* not be deported!! Outrageous,” Musk wrote in a quote post on X, formerly Twitter.
Elon Musk Is Also Helping MAGA Lover Gina Carano
Musk wasn’t done showing his a**. Actor and former professional MMA fighter Gina Carano, who got canned from The Mandalorian for her MAGA-influenced political views, announced she is suing Disney and that Musk and X will be backing her.
Per NBC News:
“A short time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought, speech, or action was acceptable in their empire, and that those who dared to question or failed to fully comply would not be tolerated,” the lawsuit says. “And so it was with Carano.”
X is helping cover the costs of the lawsuit, Carano confirmed Tuesday in a post to the social media platform.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude & thank you to @ElonMusk & @X for giving me an opportunity to bring my case to light,” she wrote.
Carano also claims that she was the victim of a “bullying smear campaign” and that Disney wanted to “make an example” out of her.
Okay girl.
Elon Musk continues to prove he has an allegiance to losers.
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Source: JUNG YEON-JE / Getty / Xbox
The Xbox community is in shambles after several leaks over the weekend, indicating a significant shift when it comes to the company’s “exclusive” titles is coming.
Multiple reports from The Verge, XboxEra, and Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb claim Xbox will put exclusive titles like Bethesda releases, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield, and even Gears of Wars are coming to the PlayStation 5, adding a lot of fuel to those Xbox going multiplatform fires.
According to The Verge’s reporting, a source close to Bethesda told the outlet that MachineGames, which is owned by Bethesda’s parent company, ZeniMax Media, is “considering” releasing the upcoming Indiana Jones game on the PS5 console after its launch on PC and Xbox Series X/S in 2024.
We got our first look at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle during the recent Developer_Direct presentation, and it met with some mixed reactions, with some excited about the game and others mum on the idea of the game being in first person.
Per XboxEra’s reporting, Starfield, the massive Xbox exclusive, is also coming to the PlayStation 5, allegedly sometime after the release of the Shattered Space DLC. The website also claims Microsoft has invested in more PlayStation 5 dev kits to make the interstellar RPG’s jump to the PS5 happen.
“The other one that I’ve heard that’s definitely under consideration—it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen, but it’s in talks—is Gears of War,” Grubb said on a recent episode of Game Mess Mornings.
Other games like live service pirate adventure Sea of Thieves and Tango Gamework’s surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush are also rumored to jump from Xbox consoles to the PS5.
As you can imagine, the news sent the Xbox community spiraling on X, formerly Twitter, with Spaces titled, I’m not an Xbox fanboy anymore.”
We’re dead serious. Well-known Xbox enthusiast Tim Dogg started it, and we paid a visit to it, and it was A LOT, to say the least.
Phil Spencer Hears You
Hilariously, while all this was happening, Xbox Chief Phil Spencer was happily playing Diablo IV, according to Tim Dog, but he finally broke his silence on Monday, Feb 5.
In a very Spencer-like response, he wrote on X:
“We’re listening and we hear you. We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.”
Oh boy.
He honestly needs to say something now, but we’re just going to have to be patient and wait on Phil.
Justified Anger or Just Overeacting?
Until that day comes, and Phil drops the news many Xbox fans are dreading, there are plenty of reactions, some hilarious, also quite delirious.
Are these reactions to this news warranted? We guess. Listen, we get it; some people buy these consoles due to brand loyalty and love the idea you can have certain titles on them.
Believe it or not, some gamers bought a PS4 or PS5 because they want to play exclusives like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, or God of War.
Xbox console owners were hoping to get the same thing, and hearing games they used in their arguments to prop up their consoles are now possibly heading to the competitor.
Then, some don’t care where they play their games; they want a machine that can run them flawlessly.
But if this news is accurate, it does seem that Xbox is waving the white flag, and understandably, the people who ran out and bought Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are now giving them the ultimate side-eye.
We shall see if there is any truth to these reports next week when Phil Spencer speaks on it; until then, you can see more reactions in the gallery below.
3. Howling
5. Did they?
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The greatest impact of Universal Music Group and TikTok’s licensing stalemate will likely not come from UMG’s superstar artists leaving the platform, it will come from the loss of its songwriters.
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Losing music from record label signees like Taylor Swift, Drake, Morgan Wallen, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo and more on TikTok is seismic on its own, but media coverage of the now-expired license that lapsed on Jan. 31 has largely ignored that the world’s largest music company’s songwriters are leaving, too. That means that any record that was touched by a Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) songwriter will also be subject to removal from the platform — even if it was released on a non-UMG label. Artist-songwriters like Harry Styles, Bad Bunny and SZA are three of many notable examples of UMPG writers that release music under non-UMG labels that will be affected. Artists who work with UMPG hitmakers like Metro Boomin, Jack Antonoff or Fred again.. could also face this.
In today’s pop and rap markets, writing rooms are considered to be bigger than ever, crediting anywhere from one to 30 contributors in extreme cases like cases like Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.” A typical pop song on the radio likely has at least three or four people receiving publishing. This, mixed with the fact that UMPG is one of the largest music publishers in the world with 4 million copyrights to its name, means that removing all songs with UMPG interests will impact just about every other record label and music publisher in some way.
In the third quarter of 2023, it was calculated that UMPG held a fifth of the market share on the Billboard’s Pop Airplay and Hot 100 charts. For Country Airplay, UMPG represented a tenth of the chart.
There’s also a chance of this standoff spreading to other publishers this spring. On Thursday (Feb. 1), at the Association of Independent Music Publishers event in Beverly Hills, National Music Publishers Association president and CEO David Israelite revealed during a speech that his organization’s TikTok model license is up for renewal in April. This license is negotiated by the trade association and adopted by a large number of the country’s independent publishers.
The NMPA has been known for its aggressive approach to licensing negotiations with other social media sites, games and apps in recent years, including a recent $250 million lawsuit against X (formerly Twitter) for alleged copyright infringement, and it would not be surprising if the trade organization considered following suit with UMG. If that happened, all indie publishers would be on their own to decide whether they wanted to negotiate with TikTok directly or leave the platform.
Already 21 of the 50 tracks on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart have been removed due to their UMG affiliation, but so far those take downs have focused on the company’s recordings, not publishing. Removing UMPG songs will be a far more arduous and complicated task than removing UMG records, given there are sometimes multiple recordings by multiple artists for the same underlying song. Publishing metadata — which keeps track of who wrote what song — is also notoriously incomplete or incorrect. In some cases, the metadata is often not even finalized and input until weeks or months after a song is released, making matters even more complicated.
It is widely believed that the process of taking down publishing interests will likely take a while and will be piecemeal and spotty, potentially forcing the UMPG team to police the platform and to issue takedown notices.
In the interim, UMG and TikTok are showing no signs of backing down. TikTok said the music company had “put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters” after the letter was released. UMG fired back with another statement Thursday, calling TikTok’s view on compensating artists and songwriters “woefully outdated.” Amidst all the finger pointing, TikTok users are attempting to fill the gaps with non-UMG songs or covers of UMG records, while at least one UMPG writer, Metro Boomin, took to the internet to show his support: “It’s about damn time,” he posted to X.