Music

The latest news and reviews of music.

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Tidal adds high-resolution audio to its iOS app
You don't have to grab an Android phone if you want to listen to Tidal's Master audio on your phone. Tidal has introduced support for the "studio quality" format to its iOS app, giving you an option if standard compressed music doesn't do your headphones justice. If you insist on listening to the Beatles or Janelle Monáe as if you were in the recording booth, this might be your best shot.
Robots are playing ASMR-infused techno at SXSW
In 2012, Moritz Simon Geist left a promising career as a research engineer in Germany to build robots and travel the world playing music full-time. He'd studied classical music in school, starting with the clarinet and piano, and toured with punk bands since he was a teenager in the '90s. That was when he started tinkering with equipment, building cheap solutions for complex audio problems and creating brand-new tools.
Recommended Reading: The battle to make the end of 'Game of Thrones'
'Game of Thrones' first look: Inside the brutal battle to make season 8 James Hibberd, Entertainment Weekly HBO's insanely popular epic concludes in April, but the battle to film the battles, and to keep them from being leaked ahead of time, was a constant struggle for the crew. Entertainment Weekly goes behind the scenes of the final season and offers a spoiler-free primer ahead of its debut in a few weeks.
Sonos adds another hi-fi music streaming option in the US
If you're a Sonos owner in the US who's interested in listening to music in high quality, you might be pleased to learn there's another streaming option available for you through the Sonos app. French streaming service Qobuz, which arrived stateside last month, is now integrated with the Sonos platform.
J Dilla-inspired sampler makes it easy to create beats on your phone
If you ask Elf Audio's Marek Bereza, many music samplers are too fussy -- you're focused more on making tiny edits than, well, making music. He's trying to remedy that with his new Koala sampler. Inspired by the late J Dilla's knack for creating tracks with a BOSS SP-303, the iOS app is not only designed to be easy to understand, but doesn't give you ways to micro-manage your tunes. You just record samples with your device's mic, create sequences and perform those sequences with effects like pitching and stuttering. You can resample if you'd like to put your audio bites through effects, such as dropping them down an octave.
Music streaming services are fighting a big royalties increase
Spotify, Pandora, Google and Amazon are fighting back against royalty increases that could be as high as 44 percent. The four companies -- each with its own streaming service -- have issued appeals against the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision to give songwriters a major pay raise.
Your Echo device can announce each song before it plays
So many people were asking Alexa what song they just heard and who sang it that Amazon responded with a new Echo feature. Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers and Prime Music listeners in the US can use Song ID to hear the title and artist of each song before it plays on your Echo device. That should cut down on the "hundreds of thousands" of music questions Alexa hears daily.
SoundCloud finally offers student pricing for its paid music service
SoundCloud has taken some steps to reform its paid streaming music services since a messy 2016 debut, but student pricing hasn't been part of it. You've paid $10 per month while your Spotify- and Apple Music-toting classmates shelled out half as much for years -- and they've sometimes received more in the bargain. The company is at last closing the gap, though. It just launched a SoundCloud Go+ plan for students that offers the same unfettered access for $5 per month, making it a considerably better deal if you need some tunes for study breaks.
Elektron Model:Samples review: A powerful groovebox for beginners
Note: The video above mistakenly states that the Novation Circuit does not have velocity sensitive pads. The review below correctly reflects that it does. Synthesizers and samplers are starting to look more and more like consumer electronics. That's been driven in large part by companies like Korg and Roland building small, affordable devices that make instant gratification a priority. Price and ease of use are finally being treated with the same importance as sound quality, which is key for reaching budding electronic musicians and producers. Elektron, on the other hand, has always been one of those companies that focused on making high-end toys for "serious" musicians. Even its relatively affordable instruments -- the Digitakt and Digitone -- cost around $750. But the Model:Samples is different. It's a legitimate entry-level device that tries to deliver everything special about Elektron gear at a beginner-friendly price.
Endlesss shares details on its collaborative iOS music platform
The new iOS music-making platform Endlesss is scheduled to launch later this year, and as its release approaches, we're starting to get a better picture of what it will include. What we know is that Endlesss, driven by musician and software developer Tim Exile, has been pitched as "a virtual place where you can make and share music in the moment, solo or with friends." It's been in the works for three years, and this year, we'll finally get to see it on iOS.
RIAA reports music streaming pulled in $7.4 billion last year
For the third year in a row, the RIAA's annual report (PDF) shows recorded music revenue growing rapidly, shooting up 11.9 percent from 2017 for a total of $9.8 billion. Just as we saw over the last few years, the reason for that growth came from one area: streaming. Whether it's from paid subscriptions, ad-supported services or digital radio types, the $7.4 billion haul from streaming contributed 75 percent of revenue for the year, matching the RIAA's mid-2018 stat.
Google Clock can now wake you up with YouTube Music and Pandora
Last year Google made the business of getting out of bed in the morning an altogether more pleasant affair when it introduced Spotify integration to the Google Clock app. The feature let Android users set a song or playlist as an alarm, rather than the usual odious beeping, and it was so well received that users were quick to ask when there would be similar support for other music services. That's finally arrived, and Google Clock 6.1 will now also let you pick music from Pandora and YouTube Music.
Recommended Reading: The smartwatch EKG
Smartwatches are changing the purpose of the EKG Andrew Bomback and Michelle Au, The Atlantic Devices like the Apple Watch and other wearables now offer access to an EKG on your wrist. What was once reserved for a hospital or doctor's office can now be worn every day. Well, a version of it at least. The Atlantic discusses the limits of the smartwatch EKG, including exactly how helpful it is for most people and what it can't tell you.
Teenage Engineering OP-Z review: Small synth, big dreams
Read the fucking manual. It's pejorative advice usually dispensed to someone struggling to find an answer — one typically available to them with minimal effort. The OP-Z from Teenage Engineering doesn't ship with a full manual (though there is one online). But even if you read that thing from top to bottom, twice, I bet you still wouldn't know everything this magical box of secrets has to offer. It's a mind-bendingly complex, yet hysterically fun mini-studio that keeps on giving. And at $600, it's not crazy expensive, so you're probably going to get more than your money's worth.
SoundCloud lets artists distribute music to Spotify and Apple Music
SoundCloud is helping artists distribute uploaded music to other services, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Instagram, Pandora and even Napster. The Premier distribution tool will be available in open beta at no extra cost for eligible Pro and Pro Unlimited subscribers. SoundCloud won't take a cut of the earnings artists make from other platforms, and it pledged to streamline payments for them. Musicians will also keep all of the rights to their work.
NYC's hip-hop museum will include iPad graffiti and a VR theater
Hip-hop and rap were not only instrumental in defining modern music, but in defining the technology behind that music. It's only fitting, then, that a major museum dedicated to the genres will be shaped by tech. New York City has confirmed that the Universal Hip-Hop Museum will start construction in the Bronx at 65 East 149th Street in winter 2019, and tech-driven exhibits will play a central role. The creators (including rap legend Kurtis Blow) plan on a virtual graffiti station that translates iPad drawings to an external building projector, holograms and a VR theater to "put you at the center of the show."
Qobuz's hi-res music streaming service comes to the US
Another music-streaming service has entered the game. French company Qobuz (pronounced ko-buzz) has announced it's now available in the US and plans to take on the likes of Spotify and Apple Music by focusing on sound quality, making hi-res streaming available to everyone without the need for proprietary gear.
Harmonix's answer to 'Beat Saber' is a VR rhythm shooter
Beat Saber has become something of a hit in the rhythm game scene thanks to its clever VR mechanics, and the veterans at Harmonix clearly want to offer their own response. They've unveiled Audica, a VR-only title where you blast the notes instead of slicing or tapping them. You're testing both your aim and your knack for keeping time, really. The soundtrack includes tunes from "some of the world's most popular electronic artists" (no Rock Band-style jams here), and you'll naturally compete against others on global leaderboards.
Tidal follows Spotify's lead by adding a block button
Tidal is following in Spotify's footsteps by allowing you to block music you don't want to hear from popping up in personalized My Mix playlists, as well as the radio stations the service creates for you based on an artist or track. From today, when you're listening to My Mix or artist or track radio, and a song you just can't abide starts, you can remove it permanently by tapping a block button on the playing page.
AudioKit's free, feature-loaded synth is available for iPhone
AudioKit Synth One was a minor breakthrough for mobile music making as a free, open source synthesizer that could compete with the heavyweights, but its iPad-only nature limited its audience. You'll be glad to hear, then, that AudioKit Pro has launched a universal version of the app that works with iPhones. It's the same professional-grade hybrid analog/FM poly synth as before, complete with LFOs, oscillators, sequencers and hundreds of presets. It's just crammed into a smaller screen area. You wouldn't want to use this for full-time music creation due to the limited room for controls, but this could be helpful for starting work on a track when you're nowhere near a studio.

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