Technology

Spotify has launched its own digital space on Roblox, called Spotify Island, allowing players to make music, play games, and interact with virtual artists. Although it’s called Spotify Island, it’s more like a virtual archipelago — players can hop between other interactive music-themed islands that change throughout the year. Spotify is bringing k-pop artists Stray Kids and Sunmi to its island.

Source: Spotify brings music-themed islands to Roblox

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 terms of the deal are undisclosed. Based in Singapore and founded in 2018, Musiio built an AI that can “listen” to music faster than any human possibly could, tag the audio and curate playlists.

Source: SoundCloud acquires Musiio, an AI music curator, to improve discovery

Music-making platform Splice – which says it has paid out tens of millions of dollars to creators – has launched a new AI music creation platform that helps further flesh out our ideas of how human-AI creative partnerships will work. It’s in the form of an easy-to-use sampler/synth app called “CoSo”, meaning “complimentary sounds”.

Source: Splice launches AI-powered music creation platform as AI music continues to find its place – Music Ally

Bob Dylan has re-recorded some of his classic songs using the technology, but they’re not available to the public yet. According to the press release, the producer is hoping to “reset the valuation for recorded music.” The Ionic Originals format features “lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music.” T Bone Burnett’s development is the first major move in analog music reproduction in more than 70 years as vinyl became the standard.

Source: T Bone Burnett Reveals New Analog Audio Format; Tested by Bob Dylan

Lawmakers in the European Union reached an agreement on the main points of a new law aimed at forcing tech companies to take more responsibility for the content their users post online, part of a sweeping package of regulations introduced by the EU to set new rules on digital competition and services.

Source: European Lawmakers Reach New Deal on Social Media Regulations

Here’s a comforting thought for email marketers who are themselves confused by the Metaverse: 49% of consumers haven’t heard of it, and 27% know little more than the name, according to 2022 Consumer Trends: Metaverse & Social Commerce, a study by CommerceNext. Another 20% of consumers know what the metaverse is but don’t know how to interact with it, and a mere 5% are familiar with it and are excited to use it.

Source: Email Marketing Daily: Consumers Haven’t A Clue About The Metaverse, Study Shows

Equity, the performing arts workers union, is campaigning against the use of AI in film and audio production, calling for laws to be changed to protect performers’ rights. The group in their campaign called “Stop AI Stealing The Show” proposes that laws should be introduced which would force companies to get actors’ permissions before using AI to replicate their likeness or voice.

Source: UK performers union is fighting Artificial Intelligence for actors’ rights

The NFT movement, and the business around it, has built so much momentum over the past 18 months that it’s attracted the attention of all three major labels, plus substantial investment from prominent VC firms. Some superstar artists have even generated tens of millions of dollars from single NFT drops.

Source: ‘For music rightsholders, Web3 is an opportunity for extraordinary growth.’

With the buzz around the metaverse and the figures to back up its potential, record labels, musicians, producers and investors are scrambling to figure out their role as music and gaming engines collide. Pair that with the rise of NFTs and artists and labels are looking at a whole new economic and creative virtual landscape.

Source: Music and the Metaverse: Are we on the brink of a virtual artist revolution?

Snapchat is introducing a new “Dynamic Stories” feature that will allow publishers to automatically create Stories on the app based on news stories they publish online, the company announced on Tuesday. Early partners include CNN, Bloomberg, ESPN and more. The new feature uses a publisher’s RSS Feed to automatically create and post Stories on a publisher’s Snapchat Stories

Source: Snapchat’s new feature automatically creates Stories based on select newsrooms’ content