Man of Many: New Google Feature Let’s You to Hum a Song You’re Trying to Find. “Hey, you know that song that goes, ‘duh do do de duh duh’? Nope? Me neither, but I can guarantee the geniuses over Alphabet Inc. might have the answer to the dreaded earworm question because Google is bringing out a brand new feature allowing you to hum or even sing the song you’re trying to find.”
Music
Music is at the heart of Yezidis’ lives: Baroness Emma Nicholson (Rudaw)
Rudaw: Music is at the heart of Yezidis’ lives: Baroness Emma Nicholson. “Efforts to preserve Yezidi music for future generations are making headway, says Baroness Emma Nicholson, a British politician and founder of a charity that has spearheaded a cultural digitization project with the minority group.”
NFSA Launches ❤ Kylie: A Celebration (National Film and Sound Archive of Australia)
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: NFSA Launches ❤ Kylie: A Celebration. “The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is turning into a Disco to celebrate Kylie Minogue’s countless achievements with a new online-only exhibition, ❤ Kylie: A Celebration. Now available at nfsa.gov.au/kylie, this online experience features rare content sourced from the NFSA’s vast audiovisual collection, spanning four decades of Kylie performances, interviews and more. ❤ Kylie: A Celebration is published three weeks ahead of Kylie’s 15th studio album, titled Disco.”
CNN: NY Philharmonic cancels entire concert season for the first time in its 178-year history
CNN: NY Philharmonic cancels entire concert season for the first time in its 178-year history. “The symphony orchestra announced Tuesday that it is canceling the rest of its 2020-21 season through June 13, 2021, citing mandatory state and city government health regulations during the pandemic. The symphony closed its doors in March when the pandemic began to surge in New York City.”
Geeky Gadgets: Roland TR-808 and TB-303 synthesizers now available in your browser
Geeky Gadgets: Roland TR-808 and TB-303 synthesizers now available in your browser. “A new website… has been created by Yuri Suzuki, in collaboration with Roland, offering a digital musical instrument emulating the sound of the original TR-808 drum machine and TB-303 bass synthesizer, allowing you to play around with the iconic instruments directly from your browser.”
The Gamer: Twitch Is Rolling Out The Beta For Soundtrack, A Collection Of Free Music For Streamers
The Gamer: Twitch Is Rolling Out The Beta For Soundtrack, A Collection Of Free Music For Streamers. “There is great news today for streamers as Twitch begins to roll out Soundtrack, a new collection of free music that can be used while broadcasting that is fully licensed, removing the potential for copyright claims. The new tool is a great addition for all streamers and offers a new way for artists to be discovered by audiences.”
Northwestern University: Archive of Berkeley Folk Music Festival fully available online
Northwestern University: Archive of Berkeley Folk Music Festival fully available online. “Fifty years ago today [October 8], the famed Berkeley Folk Music Festival opened its annual concert series for the 15th and final time, presaging the sunset of a creatively and politically impassioned folk revival in America….A half century later (almost, if not quite, to the day), Northwestern Libraries has finished a massive grant project to digitize the festival’s archive, which resides in the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives.”
Exclusive: Jazzwise Launches Dedicated Reviews Database (Jazzwise)
Jazzwise: Exclusive: Jazzwise Launches Dedicated Reviews Database. “…to help you track down the best new music or discover hidden gems you’ve never heard before, we have launched a dedicated, fully searchable database of our reviews. With over 9,500 for you to explore, this new resource is a wonderful new tool subscribers can access to help them explore and discover all the music we have reviewed since 2010.” It’s not free, but a monthly sub is £6.25 (a little over $8 USD.) An annual sub is £60 (a little less than $78 USD.)
Gizmodo: Spotify Adds Ability to Search Songs by Lyrics and Launches New App
Gizmodo: Spotify Adds Ability to Search Songs by Lyrics and Launches New App. “This week, Spotify is rolling out the ability to find songs by searching for their lyrics. It’s a feature that’s been a long time coming and it will undoubtedly become second-nature for users in no time at all.”
Classic FM: Genius Google tool turns your tuneless humming into a lovely violin solo
Classic FM: Genius Google tool turns your tuneless humming into a lovely violin solo. “Using your phone or desktop, you can transform any unpolished melody into a violin, saxophone, flute or trumpet solo. And when we say unpolished melody, we literally mean any noise. Honestly, anything.”
Introducing: The Groupmuse Foundation (Groupmuse)
Groupmuse: Introducing: The Groupmuse Foundation. “The Groupmuse PBC is a squad of millennial cultural activists — no one on the team is older than 40. We’ve got the energy, the tech-savvy, and the fresh thinking to build something unprecedented. But we don’t need to erase the old to create the new. We need to honor and make space for all the work that has been done by those that came before us. Classical music has always been supported by patrons and communities who understand there are some things that are too important to be buffeted by economic forces, and that is what The Groupmuse Foundation is ultimately about.”
Classical Music: The best score-reading apps for classical musicians
Classical Music: The best score-reading apps for classical musicians. “I’m a busy concert pianist and teacher, and have had little time for deciphering each of the many apps. I’ve also been terrified that a tablet might crash or run out of charge midway through a concert. But technology moves quickly and the time has finally come for me to overcome these fears and plunge headlong into the brave new world of score-reading apps.”
Vinyl Factory: New Record Deal Simulator website launches to help artists and labels
Vinyl Factory: New Record Deal Simulator website launches to help artists and labels. “A new website called Record Deal Simulator, designed by CreateOS, has launched. The website allows both artists and labels to calculate profits based on streams, as well as adjusting advance and distribution fees, recording and marketing costs.”
BetaNews: Spotify launches new Collaborative Playlist features
BetaNews: Spotify launches new Collaborative Playlist features. “The changes simplify the process of adding new contributors to a playlist so they can start adding songs, as well as making it easy to see who is working with you on a particular playlist. Spotify says the changes are being introduced to help people feel closer together during the current climate.”
Complete Music Update: BBC launches new classical music discovery service
Complete Music Update: BBC launches new classical music discovery service. “The BBC has launched a new archive of more than 600 recordings of classical music performances, under the name Experience Classical. A collaboration between BBC Radio 3 and BBC Archive, the project is being fronted by BBC Young Musician winner Sheku Kanneh-Mason, his sister Isata, and composer Hannah Peel. It aims to provide tools for people – particularly newcomers – to discover classical music. Users can browse music by composer, instrument, mood and the age of pieces.” While the archive seems to be free, it also seems to be geo-restricted.