MusicTech Rewinder - Issue #74

Happy Friday,

it's Winter here in Berlin with quite an unusual amount of snowfall. It is the perfect weather to stay at home and read through all the news. :-D

Before we get into music tech stuff (a lot about Web3, NFTs, and DAOs today), here are a few other articles I came across this week which are not particularly music tech-related.

1) An interesting article about researchers who are pursuing age-old questions about the nature of thoughts—and learning how to read the mind.

2) I wouldn't say that this is the complete "History of the Kings and Queens of New York Rap" but it covers the most important people for the genre. If you are into rap music, you gotta read that

3) I had a good laugh when I read this story about that guy who rickrolled his entire high school district with IoT hacks as graduation goodbye. Not just his school but the entirety of Township High School District 214. One of the largest high school districts in Illinois, consisting of 6 different schools with over 11,000 enrolled students.

4) It's almost the end of the year and that means lists about everything will pop up everywhere. I found this one from The TIME Magazine quite interesting. Here is a list of "The Best Inventions Of 2021" with 100 innovations changing how we live.

Enjoy reading and have a wonderful weekend.

Cheers,

Matt

A research project to make digital instruments sound more realistic takes a hard left turn.

Music Ally has been analysing the UK Parliamentary inquiry into music streaming economics in fine detail, including last Friday’s Commons debate. The debate and evidence sessions (or “grillings”, depending on your point of view) covered a wide range of topics as the politicians, label chiefs, artists and representative groups grappled with the central conceit of […]

Prince was way ahead of non-fungible tokens - with a symbol that was intended to make life a pain-in-the-a** for the record label. (Non-f***able totem?) And now Anil Dash and Limor Fried/Adafruit have brought back that image from a floppy.

Since the beginning of history, people have made bold claims for music’s healing properties. Are we finally reaching an era where this can be a rational claim?

The explosion of virtual concerts during the pandemic gave artists unprecedented insight into their fans, and they plan to tailor their offerings accordingly.

Built by electronic music experts, RCRDSHP is making NFTs accessible and affordable for creators and fans alike

The popular NFT collection-turned-collective Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) entered the music industry this week, as Universal Music Group (UMG) and Timbaland both announced plans to turn the brand’s trendy…

Securitizing music royalties and selling them to fans was first trialed back in 1997 by David Bowie with the Bowie Bond. In recent years, as streaming has solidified into a strong business model for…

Artists have released their music and concert tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) before. But MODA DAO, the first Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), is offering an inclusive framework through which artists can harness Web3 technology such as NFTs, micro-licensing, DAO governance and DeFi to evolve their careers.

Thanks to the Music Modernization Act passed by US Congress in 2018, all sound recordings prior to 1923 will have their copyrights expire in the US on January 1st.

Byta’s Whitepaper examines the state of music sharing, sending and receiving digital audio in the music ecosystem. The first of its kind on the subject.