GEAR + TECH
Former DJ and Electronic Music Producer Sells “Unicorn” Fintech Company for $1.1 Billion
Royalties, shmoyalties. Miguel Santos, a fintech entrepreneur and former DJ, has cashed out on his innovative company, Technisys. Santos recently sold the banking technology company to SoFi Technologies, a publicly traded digital personal finance giant, for $1.1 billion. Conceived more than 20 years ago, Technisys will now provide cloud-based digital banking solutions for SoFi. Santos may be best known for his role as founder and CEO of Technisys, but he’s also a longtime DJ and house music producer. Santos has an affinity for techno and melodic house music, often attending shows featuring the likes of electronic music legends such as Hernan Cattaneo, Solomun and more. Check out one of his own DJ mixes, which was recorded and uploaded in 2021, below. Recommended Articles Accord...
This Software Lets You Design Trippy Visuals of Your Music—Then Mint Them As NFTs
We know—NFT this, metaverse that. But before you grumble at this umpteenth blockchain tech platform, consider its value for music producers. VOID is a Web3-based platform that allows musicians to generate and customize kaleidoscopic visuals with their own songs. Created by Dutch developer Triptcip, the sequencing software essentially takes your music and spits out a trippy, beat-reactive mosaic. Triptcip’s visual synthesizer, VOID. Triptcip VOID, which Triptcip says is the first of its kind, aims to arm music producers with an easily accessible visual synthesis tool. Visual designers have enjoyed the spoils of the digital art revolution, but many musicians have found themselves stuck in a new kind of limbo. Without a budget to join forces with a capable designer or a trusted partner au cou...
Steve Aoki Says He Made More Money From NFTs In 1 Year Than a Decade of Streaming Royalties
The most fervent purveyors of NFTs have remained adamant in the technology’s ability to spark a paradigm shift in music, whereby the silos of power transfer from centralized companies and labels back to the artists. Now, Steve Aoki, one of the earliest adopters of the Web3 blueprint, has shared some eye-opening comments illuminating how his bets on NFTs are paying off. At a private Gala Music event, Aoki said he’s made more money from NFTs in the past year than he has through streaming royalties over the last decade, Decrypt reports. “But if I was to really break down, okay, in the 10 years I’ve been making music…six albums, and you [combine] all those advances, what I did in one drop last year in NFTs, I made more money,” Aoki explained. Released last year on ...
Inside the Sale of Coachella’s Lifetime Passes and $1.4 Million NFT Collection
Coachella, one of the world’s most illustrious and profitable music festivals, recently announced the launch of three NFT collections: Sights and Sounds, Desert Reflections, and Coachella Keys. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital assets—such as photos, visual artwork, or audio—stored on a blockchain. The tokens are immutable and they are purchased, sold, and traded using cryptocurrency. Coachella launched its own native NFT marketplace, which was built by FTX for the Solana blockchain. The festival’s three collections offer a range of digital photos, soundscapes, and posters that can be redeemed for real-world experiences. Perhaps the most significant, however, is the Coachella Keys collection. Each of its 10 collectibles grant their owners lifetime passes to Coachella. Afte...
DJ-Themed DJenerates NFT Collection Partners With Moonwalk to Deliver Premium Dance Music Experiences
Dance music’s famous faces have been immortalized through the immutable power of blockchain technology. DJenerates, an NFT collection supported by many of dance music’s biggest names including Benny Benassi, Carl Cox, Maceo Plex, and Paul Oakenfold, is turning the likenesses of superstar DJs into NFTs. The collection of 10,000 avatars additionally incorporates algorithmically driven concatenations of hundreds of unique potential traits to develop a host of unique, nightlife-inspired characters. Following the collection’s season one release, which completely sold out in just four days, DJenerates is taking major steps to build community and utility around their tokens, starting with a partnership with Moonwalk. Moonwalk provides the digital infrastructure for NFT crea...
New Music Industry Content Moderation Service Helps Take Down Unlicensed Metaverse NFTs
The music industry’s prominent rights-holders are rapidly taking action to protect their assets in the world of Web3. In the wake of an explosive NFT scandal involving the sale of unlicensed musical content, Digital Content Protection, an anti-piracy group, has launched a service to help ensure the rights-holders are protected from copyright abuse in the metaverse. Web 3.0 technology, including NFTs, has the ability to revolutionize the creator economy. However, in its current form, the field remains an unregulated Wild West. As Torrent Freak notes, Digital Content Protection is currently working alongside major labels Sony, Universal, and Warner in order to facilitate takedowns of unlicensed digital content. “DCP uses a pool of experienced professional...
Apple May Soon Offer Music That Adapts to Your Heartbeat In Real-Time
Go from REZZ‘s midtempo to Headhunterz‘s hardstyle in just a quarter-mile sprint. Apple has acquired AI Music, a startup that creates songs using artificial intelligence based on your heartbeat. The tracks that AI Music’s Infinite Music Engine is capable of creating are royalty-free, dynamic, and change in real-time based on the user’s interactions. A higher intensity run, for example, would signal a more upbeat and energetic sound. AI Music reportedly believes their proprietary Infinite Music Engine is capable of generating custom music to provide the most flexibility for users based on their activity. “Music that adapts to your heartbeat, audio advertising that matches listener context, universal licenses across formats… All of this is possible, and mo...
Coachella Is Selling Lifetime Music Festival Passes As NFTs
It was only a matter of time: Coachella has officially hopped on the NFT train. Via a partnership FTX US, a massive collection of 11,010 NFTs is slated to hit Coachella’s environmentally friendly marketplace on the Solana blockchain this Friday, February 4th, at 10AM PT (1PM ET). The drop’s crown jewel is the “Coachella Keys Collection,” which consists of 10 NFTs that grant each owner lifetime access to the fabled music and arts festival. Each of these unique collectibles also unlock specific luxury experiences for the 2022 fest, like prime viewing access at the electronic dance music-focused Sahara Tent to a private party on the Coachella grounds. Naturally, there’s also an “Infinity Key” offering its owner a combination of lifetime gu...
The Guetta-verse: Roblox and Warner Music Announce Avatar DJ Set By David Guetta
When you’ve graced the stage of practically every music festival and club short of Mars, like David Guetta has, where else to go but the metaverse? According to a press release, the chart-topping “Titanium” producer has been confirmed to perform a DJ set as his avatar self within the Roblox ecosystem. Created in partnership with Roblox developer Wonder Works Studio and Warner Music Group, Guetta’s innovative DJ set will debut this Friday, February 4th at 4PM PT (7PM ET). “Working on this concert has allowed me to bring an amazing new creation to life with design and production to suit the virtual world,” Guetta said. “We’ve built something that will play host to one of the most unique shows I’ve ever done and I can’t wait for everyone to ...
Artists Are Blasting an NFT Auction Platform After Their Music Appeared Without Their Knowledge
A controversial NFT marketplace has drawn the ire of many in the music industry and creator economy at large. Legions of musicians are taking to social media to condemn HitPiece, a platform allegedly minting and selling music NFTs without artists’ knowledge. According to HitPiece’s website, the marketplace “lets fans collect NFTs of your favorite songs.” However, it’s unclear whether or not the company has acquired the rights to the songs and gone through the necessary channels to publicly list them on its platform. Per its website, HitPiece also claims to remit a royalty to artists whose music NFTs are purchased or sold, but suggests the rights-holder must create an account to receive payments. “Each time an artist’s NFT is purchased or sold, a royalty ...
Innovative Digital Instrument Lets Disabled Musicians Make Music With Their Eyes
A new digital instrument is empowering disabled musicians and students to create music with their eyes. The assistive technology is called the EyeHarp, and it pairs with eye and head trackers so that players can control melodies—including chords, arpeggios and pitch—with only the smallest of movements. This feature makes EyeHarp uniquely accessible to players with all kinds of physical and mental disabilities, in therapy, teaching and performance settings. The technology is also adaptable to each user’s skill level and can change between the tones of more than 20 instruments, including piano, flute, trumpet and bass guitar. Watch it at work below, played by 11-year-old Joel Bueno. Recommended Articles According to founder Zacharias Vamvakousis, the idea for the EyeHarp wa...
Exclusive: The Chainsmokers to Headline First-Ever NFT-Gated Art and Music Festival, Afterparty
An innovative new music festival is primed for Sin City—and NFTs are the ticket in. Afterparty, a renowned creator tools platform operating at the forefront of the Web3 epoch, have announced the first-ever NFT-gated music and art festival. Complete with unique digital art gallery activations, the inaugural Afterparty NFT Art and Music Festival will immerse attendees in NFTs in the company’s goal to democratize them for the creator economy. The festival’s pièce de résistance, however, is its entry point. Afterparty’s generative “Utopian” NFT collection, which lives on the Ethereum blockchain, will moonlight as “all-access” passes and offer their owners tangible rewards both in real-time and in the metaverse. For example, they unlock ac...
