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Month: October 2023

Diamond States – “While You Were Sleeping” (Song Premiere)

Diamond States
Adam Grundy

Today is a great day to introduce everyone to the power pop band known as Diamond States. While some have classified their sound as “American Britpop,” this band features a nice blend of Alternative Rock, dream pop, and indie rock in a package that is sure to leave you feeling better about the prospects for new music today. “While You Were Sleeping” is a tribute to the band’s guitarist Bryan Frazier’s late friend, Rob Fisher, who passed away in 2016. As Frazier puts it, “‘While You Were Sleeping’ is sort of a one-sided conversation with Rob. Just imagining that he’s still out there somewhere, and that we’ll meet again someday.” The single was mixed by veteran producer/engineer Brian Reeves (U2, Sparks, Rooney), and sounds as heavenly as its likely intended to be.

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Review: The Format – Interventions + Lullabies

Adam Grundy

How does one begin to encapsulate the meteoric rise of lead vocalist Nate Ruess’s career? Like most stories, you start at the very beginning. The Format (Nate Ruess and multi-instrumentalist Sam Means) formed in February 2002, and while their friendship goes as far back as grade school, their band chemistry was felt almost immediately. That electric-charged feeling of when a group of talented musicians come together to make art was felt far and wide in The Format. I first got wind of this band when they opened up for Jimmy Eat World and Paramore, and I found their charming mix of emo, pop, and Beach Boys-esque melodies to be immediately infectious. The Format was signed to Elektra Records for what would become their debut LP, Interventions + Lullabies, and much like many other major label artists during this period of time, the merging of record companies led to conflicts on whom the executives found worth pushing on radio, MTV, etc. The Format were ultimately left on the outside looking in when Warner Brothers (and finally Atlantic Records) had the rights to the band’s music. “The First Single” was the only song to be promoted during this album cycle, and it would remain a staple in the band’s set until their breakup in 2008.

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YouTube Negotiating With Labels Over AI

YouTube
Jason Tate

Lucas Sha, writing for Bloomberg, details the record labels and YouTube negotiating an AI tool that would let people create content using major musicians’ voices:

When YouTube hosted an event for creators in late September, the company unveiled a bunch of new AI-powered tools, including ones for video backgrounds and dubbing.

YouTube had hoped to unveil a tool that would let users perform using the voices of major musicians. Imagine you are an amateur creator uploading a video or a song, and you could sound like Dua Lipa.

Just one problem: None of the major music companies have agreed to participate — at least not yet. Music companies have some questions, and YouTube is still working to supply the answers.

This could be a pivotal moment for the use of AI in the creative industries. For all the fuss about the potential of AI, many of the most-hyped new tools have yet to establish meaningful commercial relationships with artists (aka rights holders). That’s why there are so many lawsuits; nobody has decided how copyright law is going to work in this new(ish) field.

While this is just a test — YouTube wants to try the feature with a little more than a dozen artists — it is still a negotiation between the largest music service in the world and the largest music companies that could result in artists consenting to the use of their work.

Look, I get it, I’m old and not cool and am probably yelling at clouds, but I can’t put into words how much I hate this idea.

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