Apple reportedly wants music labels to take a smaller revenue cut from its streaming service
Apple is planning to renegotiate the terms with music labels to reduce their revenue cut from its streaming service, according to a Bloomberg report.
The deal Apple has with record labels is due to the expire at the end of the month, and it includes both Apple Music as well as iTunes, Apple's digital music store.
Bloomberg's report says that Apple is seeking to give record labels a smaller cut of its streaming service's revenue to get closer to rival Spotify.
The Swedish startup recently closed a deal that reduced the rate from 55% to 52%, Bloomberg says, while Apple Music currently sits at 58%.
If Apple wants to come closer to Spotify's rate, it will have to similarly expand its customer base. However, if the Cupertino giant won't be able to seal an agreement with music labels by the end of June, current terms will "likely be extended," Bloomberg reports.
10 magical game music tracks filled with awe and wonder
The inherent unreality of game worlds coupled with the video game industry’s massive J.R.R. Tolkien preoccupation (and through him, Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle and various Nordic mythologies) means that for decades now, players have been presented with many, many different interpretations of ‘fantasy’.
The pursuit of creating a thousand resplendent fictional worlds has led to some sumptuous video game music, and we’re here to celebrate some notable tracks by talented composers. It will likely come as no surprise that this post is going to be largely taken up with floaty, ethereal voices (often a solo female) and lush woodwind and strings — such are the colours that these particular artists have chosen to paint with.
“Mysteries Abound” by Masashi Hamauzu – Final Fantasy XIII (2009)
This particular title in the Final Fantasy series is an acquired taste (much like its predecessor, Final Fantasy XII), but it also sports a cracking soundtrack (YouTube), as do its direct sequels Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Lead composer on the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, Masashi Hamauzu, brought a different vibe to the Final Fantasy series than stalwart Nobuo Uematsu (who composed entries #1 through #9 before the two collaborated on #10). His work is more impressionistic, angular, and directly influenced by classical music and opera.
This track from Hamauzu makes you feel like you’re lying suspended in a perfectly warm pool, staring up at glittering stars. Shortly after drinking a nice mug of hot chocolate.
“Then Were Created the Gods in the Midst of Heaven” by Austin Wintory – ABZÛ (2016)
Mellow underwater exploration game ABZÛ (Spotify; iTunes/Apple Music) is basically ‘Mysterious & Magical Wonderment: The Game’, in no small part thanks to its exquisite score by Austin Wintory (I’m going to continue calling him the ‘James Horner of game music’ just to see if it sticks).
During the 2017 run of video game music shows aired on UK national radio station Classic FM, host and VGM composer Jessica Curry repeatedly highlighted the innovation of Wintory’s choral writing. Only the second game composer to have been nominated for a Grammy (for Journey in 2012/13), he takes us on yet another, erm, journey in this piece, twisting and turning through different keys — Debussy-esque — before arriving back at one of ABZÛ’s beautiful core musical themes at 3:10.
“After the Dream” by Tomoko Sasaki, arr. Naofumi Hataya – NiGHTS into Dreams (1995)
Arguably, there is a multi-faceted ‘SEGA sound’ encompassing everything from Zaxxon through to the Dreamcast’s last hurrah, Sonic Adventure 2. Somewhere amidst all those fantastic scores is the brilliantly cheesy, blended pop from the quirk-assault that is NiGHTS into Dreams (YouTube).
This dreamy ditty might not seem out of place as hold music for a dentist’s practice, but the mere fact that you could pop the Sega Saturn disc into a normal CD player and play the soundtrack endears these tracks to my heart.
“Pandora’s Box” by Winifred Phillips – God of War (2005)
Winifred Phillips literally wrote the book on composing game music (A Composer’s Guide to Game Music) and has generally been a leading light both for lady composers in media and women in games. On the God of War soundtrack (YouTube), she mixed it up with several other composers, often providing the mythological mystery in counterpoint to all the thumping percussion, brass and shouty choirs found elsewhere.
“Song For Aloy” by Joris de Man, perf. Julie Elven – Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)
Whilst his ensemble work and orchestration is generally loverly jubbly, when you strip everything out and expose Julie Elven’s voice, you access the full power of de Man’s simple main theme — the keystone of the whole score. This bare version perfectly encapsulates the emotional distance lead character Aloy has to travel from being a local outcast, ensconced in the valley of her relatively backwards tribe, to being a globe-trotting, hyper-violent, one-woman justice machine.
Julie Elven, also a vocalist on several Total War titles, Star Citizen and World of Warcraft: Legion, gets to get her Enya on:
“To the Successor of the Crystal” by Kumi Tanioka – Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (2003)
As mentioned above with Masashi Hamauzu and the Final Fantasy XIII series, Final Fantasy as a brand has become a home for many fantastic composers — beyond Nobuo Uematsu — to create wonderful soundtracks.
The sound of spin-off series Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (YouTube) was crafted by the Hiroshima-born Kumi Tanioka, who was also one of the three composers on Final Fantasy XI (and member of FFXI tribute band, The Star Onions). A pianist at heart, she adds some delicate tinkling to this lovely, ethereal piece.
“The Ancestral Trees” by Gareth Coker – Ori and the Blind Forest (2015)
Brit-in-exile Gareth Coker has been doing more than just soaking up the L.A. sun — according to an interview he recently conducted with Kate Remington on the Music Respawn! podcast, he cut his teeth composing for trailers, learning how to tickle the listener’s eardrums across the whole audible frequency spectrum. His score for Ori and the Blind Forest (Spotify; iTunes/Apple Music) was nominated for a BAFTA in 2016 but faced stiff competition, losing out to Jessica Curry’s Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture (Ori and the Blind Forest won the award for Artistic Achievement).
In The Ancestral Trees, Coker cranks up the feels to 11 with shimmering tremolo strings, a touching piano melody in octaves from 0:21 before the whole thing erupts in a geyser of moonlit romance at 0:43.
“Wretched Weaponry:Quiet” by Keiichi Okabe – NieR:Automata (2017)
Like previous NieR games, NieR:Automata’s soundtrack (YouTube) was composed by Okabe Keiichi and his music production team, dubbed MONACA.
Like the game’s many endings, the soundtrack can be a bit complicated to get your head around. In the case of this particular track, it’s one of three variations on the soundtrack album and is sung by a double-tracked Emi Evans who wrote the lyrics in her invented, French-derived language ‘Nouveau FR’ or ‘New French’. Frankly, the whole thing puts the ‘bon’ in ‘bonkers’.
“The Ballad of the Space Babies” by Jim Guthrie – Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (2011)
Like Disasterpeace (FEZ), Darren Korb (Bastion), Terence Lee AKA Lifeformed (Dustforce) and Ben Prunty (FTL: Faster Than Light), Jim Guthrie is one of a gang of composers that helped elevate a generation of superb, trailblazing indie games in the early part of the 10’s. As well as composing for the hit iPad adventure Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (releasing the soundtrack by way of album Sword & Sworcery LP – The Ballad of the Space Babies — Spotify; iTunes/Apple Music), Guthrie in many ways soundtracked the entire indie movement through his score for the 2012 documentary, Indie Game: The Movie (Spotify; iTunes/Apple Music).
Much of his music is gentle and subtle, reminiscent of the sorts of tracks found in Sofia Coppola movies.
The Fields of Ard Skellig by Marcin Przybyłowicz – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt(2015)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Spotify; iTunes/Apple Music) is a gigantic game, thus the task of music director and lead composer Marcin Przybyłowicz in soundtracking its various regions and story events was also gigantic.
To get an authentic medieval Polish sound, Przybyłowicz recruited folk musicians — various multi-instrumentalists and the group Percival — to essentially just jam out on traditional instruments including the lute, hurdy-gurdy, renaissance fiddle and bowed gusli. This behind-the-scenes video shows how he had to throw out his careful planning in favour of more free-form recording sessions.
In this atmospheric piece, we hear some of that folk playing and singing over the top of more filmic, dramatic chords and synth pads.
This Startup Will Let You Write A Song With Your Favorite Musician
First of all thanks to Hugh McIntyre for this article.
Songwriting can be one of the most personal things an artist can do in the process of creating a track, but over the years, it has become a much more collaborative experience, especially when big names are involved. Very few songs that make any impact on the charts are penned by one person, and there are plenty of instances of up to a dozen writers appearing on the same track, and sometimes none of them are even the act that ends up recording the tune and making it a hit.
Hookist is taking collaborative songwriting to the next level, and the startup is doing so in a way that helps up-and-coming artists make a few dollars in the process. An artist can partner with the company to launch a competition of sorts, and they then promote it to all of their fans. Those that love their art can submit lyrics one line at a time, which the musician running the show sorts through, choosing as many as they like to compose a final product. Hookiest is a place online where lyrics can be crowdsourced, and while that might sound somewhat impersonal for the artist collecting submissions, it is a way for the biggest fans to open up their hearts and become part of the art they’ve always loved.
Those that want to take part in the fun pay just $0.49 to submit every line, a price point which co-founder Meredith Collins felt was important to keep intact.
“It’s not going to break anybody’s bank,” Collins suggested, “but it will provide just enough friction so that people actually craft something.” If there wasn’t any money connected to the submission process, artists might be flooded with terrible suggestions, and then it’s not about choosing the best of the bunch, but sorting through the garbage. Most projects receive just under 1,000 submissions, but as the startup grows and more people learn about it, that number could easily double or even triple, and it might soon become difficult for acts to read every submission, even if fans need to pay.
Despite the extremely manageable price of sending in a line, many dedicated followers spend up to $15 per project, because the desire to share a songwriting credit with a favorite band is worth the price of admission, and they want to submit enough lines to ensure at least one will wind up chosen.
So far, Hookist has worked with acts like the Crash Test Dummies and the Spin Doctors, and the legendary Paul Williams even joined the group on a tune created to be the anthem for a charity organization called Facing Addiction.
At the end of the day, Hookist is not meant to alter how artists create full albums, or to take away the task of songwriting entirely. It’s also not a way to bring in a truly meaningful sum of money, though for many names partnering with this startup, every little bit counts.
Collins calls it “a really powerful fan engagement tool,” and she’s smart to do so. Forming strong connections with those paying to see concerts and buying new albums is incredibly important to every musician on the planet, from bands just starting out to the most famous pop stars on the planet. Hookist allows them to connect on an even deeper level than they already might have been, while at the same time “staying relevant and doing something respectful of the art,” according to the co-founder.
Spotify is letting record labels pay to promote songs in users' playlists
Spotify has launched a new ad format called sponsored songs which lets labels pay to promote songs and have them appear in users' playlists.
The songs don't appear amongst your music, but instead are featured at the top of playlists.
TechCrunch spotted the new ad format, and Spotify told the site that sponsored songs are "a product test for labels to promote singles on the free tier."
Here's what sponsored songs look like:
It's possible to opt out of seeing these kind of adverts on Spotify: Go to "display options" and turn off the option titled "show sponsored songs." It's on by default, as Chris Messina spotted on Twitter.
Messina was using Spotify Premium and saw the option to disable the ads — but the ads only show up on Spotify's free, ad-supported tier.
How Film’s Top Composers Push Past Constraints Of On-Demand Creativity
The doc “Score” explores film’s intrinsic connection to music and pulls the veil back on the creative processes of the best composers in the business.
From “SCORE: A Film Music Documentary”, featuring the film American Beauty,
There’s a scene in director Matt Schrader’s documentary, Score, where film composer Joe Kraemer lays out a frank truth: “When you’re a film composer, part of the gig is you’re giving the director and the producers the music they want. But at the end of the day, if they don’t like it, it’s not in the movie.”
Film composers navigate in a space where their creativity is on consignment–their duty is to tailor their artistry to fit a vision that isn’t their own. In addition to exploring the human body’s physiological responses to music and digging into the history of film scores, Schrader’s doc also touches on the creative process of some of film’s top composers and how they work through some of their most challenging work. Below, three of the composers featured in the film expand on their methods, dealing with writer’s block, and what they would change in their industry.
WHAT HAS BEING A COMPOSER TAUGHT YOU ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS?
Marco Beltrami (Logan, The Hurt Locker, Scream): “If I’m working on a movie, I don’t try to work at a particular scene. I try to get the overall feel of what it is–the emotional heart of what it is. Sometimes it’s a sequence of notes that come to mind; sometimes it may be a harmony. Sometimes it’s even just a sound that will be a starting point for me that I can expand on. The creative process, it sounds very elusive but you have to be able to tap into it on-demand. And that is often a scary thing because I don’t fully understand the process of inspiration and developing ideas. You work at a problem and sometimes nothing happens. But then, out of the blue, when you’re not thinking about it, you solve it. But the people that hire you don’t want to hear about that–they just want the results.”
John Debney (The Jungle Book, Iron Man 2, Sin City): “For me, one of the biggest challenges is just to start the process. I’ve learned over the years to not think too much about it–I sit down and let the creativity flow through. That has served me well because the creative process gets difficult when I’m overthinking when I’m trying to intellectualize too much about some emotional piece of music I’ve got to write. So I always try to take my ego out of the process and just write. And I bet there are a lot of other artists that would agree with that, to get out of your own way.”
Composer John Debney and director Garry Marshall behind the scenes of “SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY” [Photo: courtesy of Gravitas Ventures]
HOW DO YOU GET OVER WRITER’S BLOCK?
John Debney: “It’s trial and error trial–you can’t be afraid to do a piece of music 20 times before you get it. Part of that is divorcing yourself from it and realizing that you’re servicing the movie–you’re servicing the director’s vision. But I work best when there’s the pressure of having something done at a certain time. For whatever reason, that spurs me into activity. So let’s I’m working on a film that I know I have to have done by a certain date–I break it down and I force myself to sit at my keyboard and do four minutes a day or five minutes a day, whatever the math is that would then enable me to have a completed score by a certain date. Part of it is trusting yourself and pushing through.”
Composer Harry Gregson Williams behind the scenes of “SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY” [Photo: courtesy of Gravitas Ventures]
WHAT’S MISSING FROM YOUR FIELD AS A FILM COMPOSER?
Brian Tyler (The Mummy, The Fate of the Furious, Now You See Me): “Something I’m a big proponent of is knocking down the borders of music genres–I’m someone that really loves to blur the lines. I find that people get in their lane and they’re afraid to embrace things that are unfamiliar, and my mantra is to love the unfamiliar. There are people around the world that love every type of music and there’s a reason for that: They’re all legit. But you have to really dive in and not just give it lip service but really learn about it and love it and incorporate that into your arsenal. It’s a good tool that’s often overlooked.”
John Debney: “If somebody gave me a magic wand, I would just try to get a little more time on some of these films. The longer I’m on a show or film it always seems to make my work better because I have more time to make a mistake or fail. My friend [director] Jon Favreau, what I love most about him is we’ll start working together and he’s not afraid of me failing. In fact, he wants me to fail because then we can discover something together and then get to the spot that’s right for the film.”
Marco Beltrami: “The fact that it’s so easy to edit and change both movies and music is something I think has caused some of the creative process to suffer a bit. By doing mock-ups of everything, you’re not allowing for some of the performance creativity that happens, some of the magic that used to happen when you’re out there working with the orchestra. Oftentimes you’re not even recording the whole orchestra–you’re recording just the strings and just the brass and just the woodwinds. It becomes less and less musical and more and more a technical process. And that, to me, I don’t think is a good change. On the other hand, I think technology has opened the doors for a lot of people that have ideas and they don’t have a whole orchestra at their disposal. There’s a lot of room for experimentation with virtual instruments and creating sounds and coming up with your own idea of what music is.”
Soundtrack Album Sales Up 31 Percent in 2017, Thanks to 'Moana,' 'Trolls,' 'Guardians 2' & More
t’s been a banner year for soundtracks on the Billboard 200 chart following the success of top 10 efforts like La La Land, Moana and Fifty Shades Darker. In total, soundtrack albums have sold 4.58 million copies in 2017 (through the week ending June 8, according to Nielsen Music), up a big 31 percent compared to the same time frame a year ago (3.51 million).
To put that 4.58 million figure in perspective, soundtracks have sold more in 2017 than Latin albums (1.35 million) and Dance/Electronic albums (1.79 million) combined (3.14 million). In terms of overall sales among all genres of music, total album sales stand at 72.54 million in 2017 – down 19 percent year-to-date.
Further, of the top 20 selling albums in 2017, five are soundtracks, led by Moana(the year’s No. 4 seller with 457,000), Trolls (No. 7; 342,000), Beauty and the Beast (No. 9; 311,000) and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2(No. 10; 300,000). In the same span of time in 2016, there was just one soundtrack among the top 20 sellers: Prince and the Revolution’sPurple Rain(No. 5, with 542,000), which saw a surge of sales following Prince’s death on April 21, 2016.
On the latest Billboard 200 chart (dated June 24), soundtracks continue to sizzle, as Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe, Volume 1 bows at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 (22,000 units; 18,000 in album sales) and at No. 2 on the Soundtracks chart.
On the former tally, it’s the third TV soundtrack to debut in the top 40 in 2017, following The Bob’s Burger’s Music Album (No. 21 on the June 3 chart) and Big Little Lies (No. 23, April 22). Including Steven Universe, there have been 17 soundtracks that have reached the top 40 in 2017 (including debuts and titles that carried over from 2016, or those that returned to the tally after a longer absence). Comparably, in the same span of time in 2016 (from Jan. 1 through June 25) there were just 10 soundtracks that ranked among the top 40.
From Bleeps of 'Pong' and 'Mario,' Video Game Music Comes of Age
The electronic bleeps and squawks of "Tetris," ''Donkey Kong" and other generation-shaping games that you may never have thought of as musical are increasingly likely to be playing at a philharmonic concert hall near you.
From the "ping ... ping" of Atari's 1972 ground-breaking paddle game "Pong," the sounds, infectious ditties and, with time, fully-formed orchestral scores that are an essential part of the sensory thrill for gamers have formed a musical universe. With its own culture, sub-cultures and fans, game music now thrives alone, free from the consoles from which it came.
When audiences pack the Philharmonie de Paris' concert halls this weekend to soak in the sounds of a chamber orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra performing game music and an homage to one of the industry's stars, "Final Fantasy" Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu, they will have no buttons to play with, no characters to control.
They're coming for the music and the nostalgia it triggers: of fun-filled hours spent on sofas with a Game Boy, Sonic the Hedgehog and the evergreen Mario.
"When you're playing a game you are living that music every day and it just gets into your DNA," says Eimear Noone, the conductor of Friday's opening two-hour show of 17 titles, including "Zelda," ''Tomb Raider," ''Medal of Honor" and other favorites from the 1980s onward.
"When people hear those themes they are right back there. And people get really emotional about it. I mean REALLY emotional. It's incredible."
Dating the birth of game music depends on how one defines music. Game music scholars - yes, they exist - point to key milestones on the path to the surround-sound extravaganzas of games today.
The heartbeat-like bass thump of Taito's "Space Invaders" in 1978, which got ever faster as the aliens descended, caused sweaty palms and was habit-forming.
Namco's "Pac-Man," two years later, whetted appetites with an opening musical chirp . For fun, check out the 2013 remix by Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, and game music composer Tommy Tallarico. Their take on the tune speaks to the sub-culture of remixing game music, with thousands of redos uploaded by fans to sites like ocremix.org - dedicated, it says, "to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form."
Based on the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki," the music of the 1984 game "Tetris" has similarly undergone umpteen remixes - including "Tetris Meets Metal," with more than 2.2 million views on YouTube.
By 1985, the can't-not-tap-along-to-this theme of "Super Mario Bros.," the classic adventure of plumber Mario and his brother Luigi, was bringing fame for composer Koji Kondo, also known for his work on "Legend of Zelda." Both are on the bill for the "Retrogaming" concert in Paris. Kondo was the first person Nintendo hired specifically to compose music for its games, according to the 2013 book, "Music and Game."
Noone, known herself for musical work on "World of Warcraft," ''Overwatch" and other games, says the technological limitations of early consoles - tiny memories, rudimentary chips, crude sounds - forced composers "to distill their melodies down to the absolute kernels of what melodic content can be, because they had to program it note by note."
But simple often also means memorable. Think "da-da-da-duh" - the opening of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
"That is part of the reason why this music has a place in people's hearts and has survived," Noone says of game tunes. "It speaks to people."
She says game music is where movie music was 15 years ago: well on its way to being completely accepted.
"I predict that in 15 years' time it will be a main staple of the orchestral season," she says. "This is crazy to think of: Today, more young people are listening to orchestral music through the medium of their video game consoles than have ever listened to orchestral music."
She still sometimes encounters snobbism from orchestras: "They saw 'Pong' once and that's video game music to them, you know?"
But "halfway through the first rehearsal, their attitude has changed," she adds. "And then when they walk out on stage and the audience treats them like they're The Rolling Stones."
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first game-music concert: The Tokyo Strings Ensemble performed "Dragon Quest" at Tokyo's Suntory Hall in August 1987. Now there are six touring shows of symphonic game music, Noone says.
"This is just the best way, the most fun way to introduce kids to the instruments of the orchestra," she adds. "It may be the first time ever they are that close to a cellist, and that's really exciting for me."
Composer John Debney and director Garry Marshall behind the scenes of “SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY” [Photo: courtesy of Gravitas Ventures]
Composer Harry Gregson Williams behind the scenes of “SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY” [Photo: courtesy of Gravitas Ventures]
