This Week We Heard

Relevant and inspiring happenings tied into music and media

Serato launches Pyro: the automatic DJ that seamlessly beat-matches you music.

14

Mar

Seb

Serato (the biggest Kiwi tech company you’ve never heard of) launched Pyro this week: a smart-phone app that seamlessly mixes the tunes in your music library for you without skipping a beat, playing any song stored on your device or integrating with your Spotify premium account. Serato has been at the forefront of digital DJ technology for over 10 years and revolutionised the art-form allowing performers to play digital music via time-coded control vinyl. Even DMC champion Z-Trip is praising the technology, despite being dubious of “the machine doing all the work”. Speaking of mixes, here’s one to ring in the weekend, recorded using Serato’s flagship Scratch Live SL4.

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Tumblr partners with Laneway Festival; politely requests you create lots of content for them.

10

Feb

Seb

Popular inner-city music festival (one of the few that seems to have escaped the evangelical vitriol that large youth gatherings seem to be facing of late from the fun police) has partnered with the social platform by means of integrating Tumblr’s GIF maker into the 2016 St Jerome’s Festival Laneway app and encouraging attendees to capture and tag their content using the #Laneway16 hashtag. Onstage filming, backstage interviews, and the 360 selfie (a video camera with a digital timer that allows attendees to spot themselves amongst the action) will be tapping into Tumblr’s 4.6M strong Australian user-base with the content then published directly onto users’ pages.

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Samsung put on a party at the Opera House last weekend; Vice has photos to prove it.

10

Feb

Seb

Sound+Vision (branded as a night of music, art & technology) was held last Sunday at one the most iconic venues our beautiful country has to offer: the Sydney Opera House. Featuring a slew of emerging talent and presented in partnership with youth publisher Vice, the free event featured Empress Of (US), Nonotak, Banoffee & Oscar Key Sung, Prue Stent, Charles Murdoch as well as Tin & Ed. Using Samsung technology combined with motion sensors, midi triggers and audio manipulation helped weave the music performances and artwork—creating different and immersive shows for each of the three sets. Check out the photos here and here.

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Safe & Sound teams up Pretty Shady with Kid Kenobi to create a track for Summer!

10

Feb

Seb

It’s been a busy last few months working with Pretty Shady, the social awareness campaign encouraging young Australians to help stop skin cancer one summer at a time. We’ve teamed them up with legendary Australian DJ/producer Kid Kenobi to create a track for summer titled ‘Sunshine’, featuring Australian vocalist Andrea Kirwin. Available now as a free download and soon receiving an official release on Kid Kenobi’s record label Klub Kids, you can check out the track here. Documenting the creative process along the way, unveiled via his social channels, check out the behind-the-scenes photo shoot here. A social competition to help design the release artwork received a huge number of entries, and a remix competition is currently running offering the chance to win an official release on Klub Kids!

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Coca-Cola overhauls its global brand strategy; borrows the voice of Conrad Sewell

02

Feb

Seb

While the recent announcement that Coca-Cola is overhauling its global marketing and brand strategy to unify its core products under the one banner has dominated recent conversation in the industry news, it’s Australian singer Conrad Sewell’s appointment as the voice for the latest campaign that’s piqued our interest – a huge win for the Brisbane-based songwriter whose voice will be heard across select markets in the song ‘Taste The Feeling’. By the same means, Swedish DJ Avicii has been commissioned to remix the track to be used to soundtrack Coca-Cola’s new interactive website. Now let’s nostalgically reminisce to a time during that magical decade of the eighties when Coca-Cola’s brand placement was less overt (albeit way more cheesy) with Robin Beck’s ‘First Time’.

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Action Bronson straps Go-Pro to his head; performs Boiler Room set

02

Feb

Seb

Notoriously foulmouthed bearded rapper Action Bronson recently put on a surprise Boiler Room performance with a Go-Pro camera strapped to his forehead, setting the tone for a series of forthcoming collaboration events. Whilst it’s certainly not the first time an artist has brought a Go-Pro on tour attached to various appendages or instruments to capture the energy of their sets, it is the first time Boiler Room has deviated from their tried and tested formula by providing viewers around the globe with a more immersive experience (in related news, did you know Go-Pro has opened up its own licensing portal for marketers and brands?). Watch the full set here.

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