This Week We Heard

Relevant and inspiring happenings tied into music and media

Turn your computer keyboard into an MPC!

18

Aug

Seb

Thanks to developer Matt Daniels you can now play and recreate Hip Hop beats from J Dilla, Kanye West and 9th Wonder by chaining together original cuts from the songs they sampled. Whether you’re replicating or reinterpreting, Sample Stitch also allows a record function and of course the ability to share your creations via social. If you’ve ever wondered how contemporary producers reinvent and remix using individual cuts from songs to create original productions, this interactive Hip Hop sampler is just what you need to waste away the last few hours of your working week.

Turn your computer keyboard into an MPC!

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YouTube introduces Music Insights tool for artists

18

Aug

Seb

Ever wondered which geographical location your favourite artist receives the most video views from? Monolithic video streaming business (and notorious hoarder of big data) YouTube has just unveiled Music Insights – a tool for tracking the digital footprint of artists’ fan bases across the globe. Tracking fan data for videos uploaded since September 2014, musicians will now be able to see cities where they have the biggest fan-base, most popular songs and also the ways fans are engaging with their content.

YouTube introduces Music Insights tool for artists

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Sprite prints “inspirational” Hip Hop lyrics on cans

18

Aug

Seb

Sprite’s long-time appropriation of Hip Hop culture (dating back to the mid-eighties with Kurtis Blow all the way through to their mid-90s ‘Obey Your Thirst’ campaign with underground luminaries Pete Rock, C.L. Smooth & Grand Puba) has just received a reinvigorating lease on life with 16 limited-edition cans released as part of their ‘Obey Your Verse’ lyrical collection featuring lyrics by Rakim, Nas, Notorious B.I.G and Drake printed on cans. For MCs, our legacy lives on in our lyrics, so this is a simple and original concept we at Safe & Sound wished we’d spearheaded ourselves!

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DJ Slice streaming to the world on Sub FM live from The Record Store

18

Aug

Seb

Yours truly will be performing live from 255 Crown St, Darlinghurst this Saturday 1-3pm AEST for the The Record Store X AU Sound takeover banging out exclusives and unreleased dubplates spanning a healthy cross-section of bass-heavy genres. An opportunity to showcase all the amazing artists we’re releasing on our record label ‘Inna Riddim’ (https://soundcloud.com/innariddim) and talk about upcoming releases, it’s bound to get a little bit lively in-store. Having played host to local luminaries such as Kato, Lorna Clarkson, Mike Who and Preacha to name a few, why not pop in for a beer to say hello, or stream live from the place of your choosing via the above URL. Safe!

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Apple’s streaming music service and revamped iTunes Radio launching late June

18

Aug

Seb

With so much fierce competition in the streaming sector, Apple should be well placed to capitalise on its commercialised audience base by providing exclusive content to differentiate itself from its rivals. Reportedly launching in late June alongside a revamped iTunes Radio with unlimited skipping as a paid option and working with ex-BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe to champion the platform, it will be interesting to see if they can translate streams into incremental downloads, the latter of which continues to suffer a downturn. While we all wait for the verdict, lucky users outside of Australia can stream Jamie XX’s debut LP ‘In Colour’ in advance of its official release next Monday.

Apple’s streaming music service and revamped iTunes Radio launching late June

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Intel teams up with DJ Qbert to revolutionise the digital DJ set up

18

Aug

Seb

Turntablist pioneer and DMC world champion DJ Qbert (unrelated to the successful arcade video game for those who, like me, grew up in the golden age of the eighties) has teamed up with multinational giant Intel to revolutionise the DJ booth by ridding the all-too-familiar sight of laptops from the equation, instead replacing the contemporary digital DJ set up with a new chip called the ‘Edison’ processor. Allowing audio playback from USB and compatible with production hardware such as drum machines and keyboards, it’s an interesting fit for a tech company that doesn’t even produce hardware.

Intel teams up with DJ Qbert to revolutionise the digital DJ set up

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