Each week, I first summarize my adventures in making music. Lately, I have been composing tracks for the Disquiet Junto, the Naviar Records Haiku Music Challenge and, this year for the first time, Weekly Beats. I also have other projects and collaborations I will share occasionally.
I also bring together the perspective I shared in posts on social media (currently Mastodon) about the music industry in the section: Music + Tech + Law. These thoughts are intended to come from me as a consumer of, and participant in, the entertainment business. However, I cannot completely separate the thoughts I generate from the part of my brain I use for my day job as a lawyer experienced in technology contracts and intellectual property.*
My Music
The prompt for Disquiet Junto Project 0631 was to "take one held tone and make it dance slowly." I decided to compose this track on my phone using AUM, Moog's Model 15 app as a sound source, plus a handful of audio effects and an Akai APC Mini. I am really happy that I pushed myself to create a track on my phone. It was nice to be able to use spare moments over the weekend when I was away from my computer to work on music rather than scrolling through news.
I am also excited to take this mobile setup on the road the next time I go on a trip where brining my laptop is not feasible. Setting it up was much more intuitive than I expected. I did have to map all of the MIDI parameters, but doing so in AUM was relatively easy and worth the effort.
I have this track that I completed recently for the Disquiet Junto Project 0619 that seems to be popular relative to my other tracks on SoundCloud based on the number of plays. The prompt for that week was essentially to make a “complicated” beat and I put something together relatively quickly between that Thursday and the following Monday. I really like how that track turned out and decided to make it my reference for this week. I went back and listened to it and decided what I think are the traits that set it apart: some irregularity to the kick, moving filters over an arpeggiated pluck sound and a structure that brings it all together in the end. From that starting point, I ended up with something much less complicated, mostly because I also wanted to spend more time on the main melodies. They are on two on different instruments - a guitar sound and a trumpet synth - that come in sequentially, but still work independently. I only hear a hint of my reference track, but either way I am happy with this week’s result.
Music + Tech + Law
AudioStack, as described in this article, is a platform for creating the audio portion of audiovisual advertisements. I tried the AudioStack demo where I entered a fake product name with text and the tool generated an ad consisting of an audio recording of a voice over music. I see how one might say this type of ad generator allows video creators to “supercharge creativity,” but what about the voice actor and composer? The reverse scenario exists too, where video is being generated by artificial intelligence tools to be combined with audio. Speaking for myself as a musician, I know that I have long been on the search for an easy and efficient way to generate video content to be combined with my music. But stories like this make it seem to me like creative sectors are being pitted against each other in the AI race.
Musiio has four episodes of a podcast called “Industry Chats” up on SoundCloud (naturally). I think these interviews are very well done and hit on important contemporary issues facing the music industry. Most interesting to me personally as a lawyer by day was that two of the four guests were lawyers, with the other guests being an economist as well as an artist with a full-time job in sync licensing who also spoke about her experience with her own entertainment contracts. I felt like it was not only a music business podcast, but also a music law podcast!
Recent news about the Animoog Galaxy for Apple Vision Pro caught my attention. I have been skeptical about the metaverse, generally, but I know that virtual reality tools are coming for music-makers and this is the first example that made sense to me. I watched this demo video and it made me think I was watching the birth of a new theremin-like instrument. I started to wonder whether I might see a true virtuoso develop like Clara Rockmore. Then I saw an announcement from AudioKit about Spatial Symphony which more directly emulates the theremin (see a preview in this video) and I now realize I am watching the birth of a whole new class of musical instruments.
This article is presented as a profile about Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, but it paints an unfairly negative picture of independent musicians, casting anyone with less than 1000 plays on Spotify as an "aspiring" "amateur" clogging up the system, "hoping an algorithm will notice" them, posting “homemade work for friends” that's “just stuff” “getting in the way of real talent and real songwriters.” This narrative is insulting and ignores a vast community of independent artists. I hope we all continue to clog the system with our music.
I play a physical instrument, but I primarily produce music “in the box” on my computer. I often look at whatever software I am working with and think, “How would I go about doing this if I could not see? Or if I could not use a mouse or trackpad?” I admire artists who overcome these challenges, but I also feel that it is important for people working in the music technology industry to embrace digital accessibility. Everyone stands to benefit from more accessible tools. There are countless examples (here are some) of items people use every day that started out as technological innovations intended to help people with certain disabilities. This recent article is a great introduction to the topic of digital accessibility for anyone interested in learning more.
*My opinions are not my employer’s and this material does not create an attorney-client relationship, is not intended to convey legal or ethics advice, and does not guarantee the same or similar results in all cases.