Good news has arrived for DJs and producers of SoundCloud: the platform has relaunched their invite-only ‘SoundCloud Premier’ program, which allows select artists to earn revenue for mixes, remixes and other content.

“This will be the first time we’ve invited DJs and producers who create remixes and sets on SoundCloud to start to be able to monetize and participate in the revenue that we’re generating through ads and subscriptions,” a SoundCloud spokesperson told THUMP.

Though SoundCloud Premier was originally launched in 2014, the platform seems to be targeting its largest and most active demographic – DJs and producers – for new channels of revenue after recently introducing a new mid-price tier for paid subscribers.

SoundCloud explains that the revenue will be distributed based on how the content is consumed. Likely, the revenue will be siphoned depending on the amount of plays and listening time.

SoundCloud has not shared a list of artists included in the invite-only Premier program, but encourages those who wish to participate to sign up for a potential invite here.

posted by David Miller (via mixmag)

Did LMFAO really steal Rick Ross’ 2006 “Hustlin’?” Yes, says Rick Ross. Now, in court documents obtained exclusively by Digital Music News, the Eleventh Circuit will now have to decide whether or not to revive his copyright lawsuit against LMFAO.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen M. Williams asked a simple question.

“Was the musical composition ‘Hustlin’ validly registered with the Copyright Office, and, if so, do Plaintiffs have an ownership interest in the exclusive right to prepare derivative works for the musical composition Hustlin’?”

After Ross answered “No,” she gave her final judgment, tossing out the lawsuit in the process. An altered three-word phrase wasn’t protected by copyright.

“Because Plaintiffs do not hold a valid copyright registration and because Plaintiffs have not established either legal or beneficial ownership of the exclusive right to prepare derivative works for Hustlin’, Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is DENIED and this case is DISMISSED.”

According to (then) Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante, the Copyrights Office should have issued the three ‘Hustlin’ copyrights. The application process had issues, said Pallante.

In the appeal, Rick Ross asked the Eleventh Circuit to evaluate whether the District Court misinterpreted the invalid copyright registrations. He also asked the Eleventh Circuit to evaluate,

“Whether the Plaintiff authors are the legal or beneficial owners of copyright with standing to sue as a matter of law.”

The appeal states that the U.S. District Court did not hear a cross-motions as to ownership. According to Ross,

“Instead, the Court, sua sponte, raised an issue as to Plaintiffs’ copyright registrations, resulting in the case being removed from the trial calendar so that the Court could send questions to the Copyright Office based upon the Court’s application of 17 U.S.C. §411(b)”

That process led to the 2013 lawsuit’s subsequent dismissal.

The appeal goes on to cite other irregularities in the original lawsuit, ending with the following conclusion,

“Based on the forgoing, this Court should reverse the Order of dismissal, determine that Plaintiffs are entitled to summary judgment as to ownership/standing, and remand this matter for further proceedings.”

posted by David Miller (via digitalmusicnews)

Kid Conrad drops his debut mix on Club Killers Radio! Kid Conrad has been killin’ in Las Vegas every week, spinning @ places like 10AK & Liquid Pool every Saturday inside the Aria. Lookout for his new project “Seaside Sound” coming real soon & check out his full track list after the jump! Continue reading →

Pitbull, J Balvin and Camila Cabello have teamed up for the summer-ready dance song “Hey Ma.” The single appears on the soundtrack for The Fate of the Furious.

Filmed in Miami, the trio is seen in various colorful scenes dancing and flirting with the cast of the clip. The catchy, Spanish-language song has Balvin and Cabello trading off chorus duties in between solo verses from all three contributors.
The soundtrack also features music from Jeremih, Young Thug, G-Eazy, Kehlani, Migos and Lil Yachty, and it will be released on the same day as the film, April 14th. Since officially leaving Fifth Harmony in December, Cabello has been busy promoting her new solo singles, including last year’s “Bad Things” with Machine Gun Kelly. The collaboration was released before Cabello went solo and has peaked at Number Four on the charts. More recently, she teamed with Cashmere Cat for the single “Love Incredible.”

posted by David Miller (via rollingstone)

Comedian Michael Rapaport stars in surreal clip for remix of BadBadNotGood/Kaytranada track

Snoop Dogg points a prop gun at a clown-styled President Trump in his new video for “Lavender,” a remix of the electro-psych track by BadBadNotGood and Kaytranada.

The clip takes place in a universe populated by clowns. Comedian Michael Rapaport stars as an ordinary family man who is pulled over and shot by a police officer – an event filmed by a bystander and uploaded to “ClownTube.” Snoop Dogg criticizes police brutality on the smoldering track, rapping, “Trying to keep from dying in these muthafuckin’ streets/ Fuck the police, from a black man’s point of view.” Moments later, the rapper smokes weed next to a chain-bound Trump.

PrankvsPrank YouTube star Jesse Wellens, who co-directed the clip with James DeFina, conceptualized the video during an October smoking session with Snoop Dogg. He was partly inspired by the fatal police shooting of Philandro Castile in July.

Snoop elaborated on the video concept in an interview with Billboard, criticizing police brutality and President Trump’s policies, saying: “The ban that this motherfucker tried to put up; him winning the presidency; police being able to kill motherfuckers and get away with it; people being in jail for weed for 20, 30 years and motherfuckers that’s not black on the streets making money off of it – but if you got color or ethnicity connected to your name, you’ve been wrongfully accused or locked up for it, and then you watching people not of color position themselves to get millions and billions off of it,” he said.
“It’s a lot of clown shit going on that we could just sit and talk on the phone all day about, but it’s a few issues that we really wanted to lock into [for the video] like police, the president and just life in general.”

posted by David Miller (via rollingstone)

The Weeknd has shared the music video for his Starboy track “I Feel It Coming,” featuring Daft Punk. In it, the singer croons to a girl before succumbing to a cataclysmic event. The French robots make an appearance at the very end of the video, which was directed by Warren Fu. They previously appeared in the Weeknd’s video for the album’s title track, making a cameo on a poster in the singer’s house.

Posted by David Miller

Diddy‘s new documentary, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: The Bad Boy Story, will premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Daniel Kaufman, the film will look at Bad Boy Entertainment‘s 20-year history including the infamous murder of the label’s star rapper, The Notorious B.I.G. It will also offer a behind-the-scenes look at Diddy attempting to reunite the Bad Boy roster for their 2015 Barclays Center show. In a statement to Billboard, the Bad Boy honcho shares:

“I am blessed to be introducing our film at the Tribeca Film Festival. Tribeca brings the biggest names in entertainment and culture together with visionaries from across industries to celebrate the power of storytelling. There is no better place to share the story behind the Bad Boy movement and this unprecedented musical event.”

posted by David Miller (via hypebeast)

German producer Zedd just scored a new, exclusive deal with one of the biggest publishing groups in the music industry, Universal Music Publishing Group, joining from his previous publisher, Kobalt.

Having burst on the scene in 2011 with Shave It Up, followed by his 2012 chart-topping album Clarity, featuring hits like Spectrum, Stay the Night, and Clarity, Anton Zaslavski has been one of the most popular producers in the electronic music industry. Since then, he has teamed up with pop icons like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and most recently, Hailee Steinfeld on “Starving” and Alessia Cara on “Stay.” His eclectic style will surely continue to grow under his new publishing umbrella.

UMPG CEO Jody Gerson is ecstatic about the new partnership, stating, “He is a gifted musician and we couldn’t be more excited to help expand his opportunities as a songwriter, producer, and artist across the globe.”

In addition to Zedd joining the Universal Music family, the German sensation will be bringing along two of his most recent collaborators, Lophiile and Grey, who Zedd teamed up with on “Starving” and “Adrenaline.”

With the deal, hopefully, this means new music from Zedd will continue to head our way!

posted by David Miller (via weraveyou)

Despite the annual longing for Daft Punk to play at Coachella inching closer to reality with Beyoncé dropping out of her originally scheduled headline slot, the rumors have once again been shut down with the confirmation of yet another mega pop star.

Lady Gaga has instead been tapped for the festival’s Saturday headline spot. She adds the two back-to-back weekends to her 2017 tour schedule, which sees her embarking on a major leg later in autumn.

Insiders told Billboard that Coachella organizers were adamant about replacing Bey with female artist, which now makes Lady Gaga the first female headliner of the festival since Bjork in 2007.

posted by David Miller (via mixmag)

When you’re a DJ company, and you just happen to have a DMC champion working for you, it makes sense to put those skills to good use to promote your newest gear right? And that’s exactly what American Audio asked Edgar Bernal aka DJ Etronik to do with their VMS5 controller.

Before the comments section gets to work, I’ll preempt this by saying that this is a $299 controller. And yes, you can get a much better vinyl emulation from using turntables. But this is a $299 controller, and not about vinyl emulation — this is very much about providing as complete a DJ experience as you can from for a lump of hardware that doesn’t cost a lot of money. Ergo, it’s a $299 controller, and for me it’s performing incredibly well for the money. If you want vinyl like feel, get some turntables and put vinyl on them.

If however you fancy dipping your toe in the DJ pool, or just want a portable backup, the VMS5 looks to be a very cost effective option. Skills however are not included.

posted by David Miller (via djworx)

Oh look, another turntable on Kickstarter. Is that what your snide little mind is thinking? Don’t, because Wheel is likely something special.

To start with, this turntable’s from Miniot, that tiny family-run company in Holland known for its meticulously handcrafted cases for phones and tablets. Second, this thing is clever, making it stand out in a wave of wild, weird, and wholly wonderful turntable introductions we’ve seen over the last few months.

Wheel is a minimalistic thing of beauty the turns the traditional record player upside down. Literally. The tonearm and stylus are located below the record, inside the cavity of the rotating platter. As such, your records spin counterclockwise which purists might see as an abomination. I think it’s cool. Wheel can also be hung on the wall to further disorient the traditionalists in your life. And because it’s from Miniot, the tonearm is milled from a single piece of laminated mahogany, while Wheel’s base will be offered in choices of mahogany, walnut, or cherry.

posted by David Miller (via factmag)

Now here’s something interesting from Pioneer DJ. Normally an entry-level DJM mixer might garner a modicum of interest from the DJ community. And on the face of it, the updated DJM-250MK2 mixer is likely to raise the odd eyebrow, if only because it’s a new Pioneer DJ product. But what we have here is something special, for the new DJM-250MK2 is a rekordbox DVS ready mixer, and by my reckoning the cheapest on the market by some margin.

The upper half of the new mixer packs in several features including 3-band isolators, which you can use to completely eliminate your chosen frequency range. Each channel has its own filter inherited from the Sound Color FX on the DJM-900NXS2, which you can apply by twisting the dedicated knob and then add texture with the separate parameter knob.

Warm, high-quality audio from both analogue and digital sound sources comes thanks to the DJM-250MK2’s dithering technology. The built-in sound card means you can connect the mixer to your PC/Mac with a single USB cable and use the bundled rekordbox dj application to mix music files stored on your computer via Pioneer DJ multi players. If you like to DJ using digital files but prefer the feel of vinyl, you can use rekordbox dj with rekordbox dvs plus pack application, which is also included, to control the tracks stored on your computer with turntables and our control vinyl (available separately).

The DJM-250MK2 looks to be a seriously good entry-level mixer. It offers the basics at an established Pioneer DJ quality level, but importantly includes an audio interface. And at £299, this is likely fly off the shelves, and give rekordbox an important foothold in the up and coming DJ generation’s hearts and minds.

posted by Mark Settle (via djworx)