Musicians
Apple will pay artists more to have a spatial audio version on Apple Music
Apple will pay additional royalties starting this month to artists if they have a spatial audio version on Apple Music, according to multiple reports. The company will pay up to…
Tape It’s software for musicians aims to deliver studio-quality noise reduction via AI
After Apple discontinued its Music Memos app favored by musicians for developing song ideas, a new startup called Tape It stepped in to fill the void with an app that…
Singapore-based BandLab Technologies raises $25M at $425M valuation
Updated with more information from BandLab Technologies’ CEO. Correction also made to the valuation amount in headline. Singapore-based BandLab Technologies, the parent company of social music creation platform BandLab, has…
Arpeggi Labs banks a16z funding to build web3 music software
The quest to define what exactly a web3 use case looks like hasn’t always been easy but has allowed plenty of founders to get creative in building out products designed…
It’s not a DAO, it’s a Koop: 21-year-old founder raises $5M for NFT fan engagement
Natalia Murillo was an undergraduate at the University of Southern California when a professor taught her about the cryptographic technique of zero-knowledge proofs. She’s been immersed in web3 and blockchain…
Roku debuts a hilarious new trailer for ‘WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story’ starring Daniel Radcliffe
Al Yankovic, the 62-year-old parody artist known as Weird Al, is getting his own equally weird biopic this fall. The trailer for “WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story” gives a first…
Apple Music Sessions launches with country stars Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes
Apple is introducing a new perk for Apple Music subscribers, Apple Music Sessions, which gives listeners access to exclusive releases in spatial audio that have been recorded in Apple’s music…
SoundCloud acquires Musiio, an AI music curator, to improve discovery
An online audio sharing platform and streamer, SoundCloud has acquired Musiio, an AI music curation company. With Musiio’s team and technology, SoundCloud plans to strengthen its music discovery features. The…
Artists like Harry Connick Jr. are using web3 to engage with fans
Web3 has attracted people from all walks of life, from finance analysts and hedge fund managers to software developers. But a fairly new group entered the space over the last…
Dorian’s no-code, interactive storytelling app turns fiction writers into game developers
As an interactive storytelling platform, Dorian is building a new way for writers to make money off of their fiction by turning their tales into choose-your-own-adventure mobile games. As users…
What’s more illustrative of American capitalism than that day-after water cooler chat about the advertisements we saw during the Super Bowl? From food delivery apps to phones that were shockingly…
Spotify will invest $100M in content from underrepresented creators, says CEO Daniel Ek
In the latest installment of the Spotify-Rogan saga, CEO Daniel Ek sent out a company memo on Sunday addressing Joe Rogan’s use of harmful racial slurs in past episodes of…
Spotify removes Neil Young’s music after falling out over Joe Rogan
Musician Neil Young is following through on his threat to pull his extensive and well-loved sonic catalogue from Spotify. Young took a stand against the company’s relationship with podcaster Joe…
Patreon CPO says the company will double in size in 2022
Creator monetization startups are cropping up left and right as the tech world embraces the fast-growing creator economy. But Patreon, founded in 2013, has been around since before words like…
InCloudCounsel raises $200M, rebrands as Ontra to expand its automation tools for contract management
A typical enterprise grapples with hundreds or thousands of agreements, contracts and other legal documents every year, and it usually engages costly legal counsel either inside or outside the company…
NFT startup Dapper Labs acquires virtual influencer startup Brud
Dapper Labs, the NFT startup behind NBA Top Shot, which was recently valued above $7.5 billion, made an interesting acquisition this morning, telling Decrypt that they have purchased virtual influencer…
Pandemic’s shift to remote wellness helps Numan raise $40M Series B led by White Star
Numan, the European subscription service covering erectile dysfunction (ED) and men’s wellness/health needs more generally, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by White Star Capital,…
Founders Fund backs Royal, a music marketplace planning to sell song rights as NFTs
Founders Fund and Paradigm are leading an investment in a platform that’s aiming to wed music rights with NFTs, allowing users to buy shares of songs through the company’s marketplace,…
Fortnite’s Ariana Grande concert offers a taste of music in the metaverse
Ariana Grande strutted and soared around a candy-colored series of Fortnite sets in Epic’s latest major in-game live music event. The multi-day “tour” offered gamers and Grande fans alike plenty…
Tune in today to watch Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Global Finals
It’s not too late to enjoy an epic pitch-off of global proportion. The Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Global Finals start today, July 22 at 9:00 am (PT). Register here for…
Maestro nets $15 million for its interactive commerce, community and engagement tools for livestreams
Making money on livestreams has never been easier thanks to a suite of tools from the Los Angeles-based startup Maestro, which just nabbed $15 million in financing to grow its…
Snoop Dogg’s Casa Verde Capital closes on $100 million as the cannabis industry bounces back
Casa Verde Capital, the investment fund co-founded by cannabis connoisseur Snoop Dogg (also known as Calvin Broadus), has closed on $100 million for its second investment fund, according to documents…
Reface grabs $5.5M seed led by A16z to stoke its viral face-swap video app
Buzzy face-swap video app Reface, which lends users celebrity ‘superpowers’ by turning their selfies into “eerily realistic” famous video clips at the tap of a button, has caught the attention…
Roblox to host its first virtual concert, featuring Lil Nas X
Roblox this morning announced a partnership with Columbia Records that will allow it to bring a virtual concert experience featuring Lil Nas X to its gaming platform. Notably, this will…
Spotify will now allow artists and labels to promote tracks in your recommendations
Spotify announced today it will begin to test a new service that gives artists more of a say in how their music is discovered on the Spotify platform. At launch,…
The Flume 2 Smart Home Water Monitor is a smart, easy-to-use and essential smart home device
Many smart home gadgets focus on convenience or automation of typically manual tasks, but Flume’s smart water sensor provides a potentially much more vital service: The ability to track how…
Jared Leto, Scooter Braun and Troy Carter are backing Moment House, a startup recreating live events… digitally
A pitch to offer artists a way to give geo-fenced, live events to fans around the world has brought the new Los Angeles startup Moment House $1.5 million in seed…
Gaming network Venn will launch with 20 hours of live programming on August 5, 2020
Venn, the company looking to be gaming’s answer to ’80s-era MTV, has revealed the first slate of shows to premier on the network when it launches August 5, 2020. Working…
Facebook launches Collab, a mix-and-match app for making collaborative music videos
Facebook’s internal R&D group, NPE Team, is rolling out yet another new app today called Collab after having just launched a new group audio calling app, CatchUp, on Tuesday. With…
Fortnite hosted a psychedelic Travis Scott concert and 12.3M people watched
The idea of an in-game Travis Scott concert might seem a little silly — particularly if, like me, you’re not really a Fortnite player. Yes, the popular multiplayer game has…
