Music

YouTube Shorts can now include 60 seconds of music or sounds, up from 15 seconds before • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 15, 2022Posted in Apps, Creators, Media & Entertainment, Music, shorts, Videos, YouTubeNo Comments

YouTube today is addressing one of creators’ chief complaints with filming videos for its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts: to date, the music and sounds added to videos could only be 15 seconds in length, even though Shorts themselves can be as long as 60 seconds. Now, thanks to revised licensing deals, YouTube says the majority of music on Shorts will be available in durations of up to 60 seconds. In addition, creators can “remix,” or sample, up to 60 seconds of sounds from other videos, instead of only 15 seconds, as before. Over the next few weeks, YouTube creators will begin to see the expanded options for adding music to their videos when using the audio picker in the YouTube app for iOS and Android. In some cases, the songs will only be 30 seconds in length, due to continued licensing restrictions, YouTube notes. The company, like TikTok and others, negotiates with songs’ rights holders, including the music label or distributor and publisher, before including the track in YouTube Shorts. While YouTube won’t comment on the state of its deals with its music industry partners, it says that most songs in its audio library will now have a maximum duration of up to 60 seconds. The update aims to make YouTube Shorts more competitive with its rivals, including TikTok and Instagram Reels, at a time when the length of what’s considered a “short-form” video is also changing. To access the longer music tracks, creators will need to tap the “+” icon to enter the Shorts camera in the mobile app then pick an audio track from the library. When choosing the sound in the audio picker, you’ll be able to see the duration time which indicates how much audio you can use from the specific track. Creators will also need to change their video recording duration in the Shorts camera in order to use more than 15 seconds of audio, YouTube notes. Similarly, the company is also expanding the length of audio that can be clipped and re-used from other videos. In April, YouTube announced the launch of a remix feature that allows Shorts creators to sample clips from existing YouTube videos that have been posted publicly on the platform — unless the video’s owner had opted out. Many creators see this functionality as a way to bring more visitors to their channel or to introduce their content to a younger generation of users who may have only discovered their videos through Shorts. Before, creators could only sample 15-second segments of original audio from eligible Shorts and video-on-demand content. Now, they can sample up to 60 seconds. While the length of music is being expanded, the maximum length of a YouTube Shorts video itself is not — it will remain 60 seconds. The new feature will roll out to YouTube users globally on iOS and Android. Currently, YouTube Shorts are being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month and garner over 30 billion views per day, the company claims. Unrelated to music expansions, YouTube also today confirmed the launch of Shopping on YouTube Shorts — a new feature being piloted with U.S. creators that lets them tag products from their own stores. The move follows the launch of TikTok’s own of e-commerce features. Currently, viewers in the U.S., India, Brazil, Canada, and Australia can view and interact with these tags for the time being, and the feature will expand to more creators next year.

Zebra Labs raises $5M to help Chinese celebrities enter the metaverse • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in China, Media & Entertainment, metaverse, MusicNo Comments

In June, Chinese pop-punk singer Wowkie Zhang released a music video where he encounters a virtual character in a hyper-colored, animated world that is reminiscent of Pixar films. The avatar, sporting Gen-Z-styled silver hair, a yellow and black oversize sweat, and baggy pants, makes hip-hop moves to Zhang’s catchy, light-hearted tune. The virtual character isn’t a one-off creation; instead, Zebra Labs, which produced the video, is turning him into a piece of reusable intellectual property that can be bought as NFTs on marketplaces and appear in other virtual occasions like video games. The startup is waiting for the bull market to return to launch the NFT project, Scarlett Li, founder and CEO of Zebra Labs, tells ZebethMedia. The aim of Zebra Labs is to “create intellectual property that’s deeply integrated with content” and “run virtual idols like celebrities,” says Li. Some of the avatars it creates are based on real-life stars, while others are original characters. To generate revenues, Zebra Labs cultivates an audience for its idols through short films, images, and social posts and in turn monetizes the fan base. It also licenses its virtual idols to partners for a fee. NFT, which is already being widely used in authenticating IP rights, can be used to better engage fans, reckons Li, who previously helped organize some of China’s largest music festivals. “When you reach 30 years old, you lose interest to explore music, so a virtual environment can jumpstart visualization [of music] again.” NFTs also give emerging musicians a more direct avenue for income. In China, music distribution is in the grip of music streaming giants owned by Tencent and NetEase. These platforms tend to allocate user traffic to musicians already with a lot of fans, “so to live well as a musician, you need to have a million followers,” says Li. “NFTs can change that.” As a veteran of music festivals, Li is excited about the prospect of online concerts. She’s benchmarking against Ariana Grande’s Fornite concert, in which the singer descends into a colorful island in her virtual manifestation with a shimmering silver dress and a glowing white ponytail. Zebra Labs is in talks with several gaming firms to launch virtual concerts for Chinese artists inside a Minecraft-like game and a metaverse platform by 2023, Li says. Zebra Labs recently raised $5 million to advance its metaverse vision. The funding came from the Chinese gaming firm NetDragon and the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo. Onboarding a Japanese investor, according to Li, can help the startup learn from the country’s long history of IP management, which is exemplified by the success of virtual idols like Hatsune Miku. The company is also backed by SOSV, the VC firm known for its network of accelerators. Following its collaboration with Wowkie Zhang’s music video, which has garnered some 40 million clicks across an array of online channels, Zebra Labs has five other artists in the pipeline. It’s also planning to release a digital twin of Zhang by the first quarter of 2023.

Hyph set to launch a music creation app with an emphasis on remixing • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 25, 2022Posted in Apps, Music, SocialNo Comments

Music startup Hyph announced an upcoming mobile app, which aims to be a music creation and remixing tool for everyone to use. With the creator economy estimated to be worth $100 billion, Hyph is targeting the over 50 million people worldwide who identify as content creators. Hyph allows users to create original songs by taking music from the app’s library and customizing it by adding instrumentals like bass, lead guitar, strings, drums and piano, or a voice recording of them singing. Users can choose music based on genre or mood. Hyph will be available in the U.S. via an invitation this fall. The app is slated for a Spring 2023 launch and will be available on Android and iOS devices. Along with sharing to social media platforms, users can also share their creations in the app with a backdrop of their chosen photo or video. The music-creation-centered social media app will also let users take songs made by other users and republish them with new edits. Image Credits: Hyph The New York City-based startup was founded this year by Max Renard, Anthony Kennedy Shriver and Alexander Dessauer. It raised $26 million in seed funding from private investors. The company aims to launch an app that allows everyone with a smartphone to “create professional-quality music,” Hyph wrote in its announcement. “Hyph will do for music creation what smartphone cameras did for photography, which provided anyone with a smartphone the ability to produce quality photos without the financial commitment and time previously required,” Renard said. Renard notes that Hyph is targeted at Gen Z, a “hands-on generation who want to be a part of the creation process.” A recent survey found that 45% of Gen Z wants to make money creating content. The Hyph team says that the purpose of the forthcoming app isn’t for creators to make money as professional musicians but to have fun making songs and sharing them with friends. Hyph owns the rights to all songs created on its app, but the company plans to share the proceeds with song creators and music contributors. In-app ads will make Hyph accessible and free for all users. However, it will have paid features and the option to remove ads for a fee. Those premium options will range from $0.99 to $29.99, the company told ZebethMedia. Renard notes that Hyph doesn’t rely on AI-generated music, instead providing a catalog of songs recorded by session musicians.

Artiphon releases Orba 2, to make music-making even more accessible • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 24, 2022Posted in artiphon, Gadgets, Music, orba 2, StartupsNo Comments

The original Orba was a curious little baseball-sized device that invited people who couldn’t play a triangle if they tried to somehow create beats, bops and bass lines. The success of the original — and the adoption of it as a tool for more serious musicians — inspired the Artiphon team to release an updated version. With the same form factor as the original, but a lot more smarts and the ability to record and upload your own sound samples or use sample packs, Orba 2 opens the door for a new generation of musicians, whether tone-deaf talentless hacks such as myself, or musicians who want to carry a versatile synth-like instrument in a small form factor. As much as I would love to subject you to my attempts at making music, here’s an actual musician — Taetro — showing off some of the fun: “With Orba 2, being able to be out, capturing sounds with the app and nearly instantly turning it into an instrument is empowering because, no matter your relationship with music, being able to do fun sampling things like that is huge,” says Taetro in a blog post from Artiphon. “It can open up worlds for people, and people can interact with it in the same way they would by picking up a pen and doodling on a sketchpad.” From the original Orba, the most requested feature the company received was the ability to play instruments — guitars, acoustic drum sets, pianos, etc. The company says it rebuilt the Orba from the ground up to create the Orba 2, with a new sound engine, and adding more than 100 new sounds that are all based on real instruments. “We didn’t want to change too much about the industrial design of it; we knew that people love the form factor. The insides of the Orba 2 are completely different. Being able to play these samples and being able to make your own samples is new, and the ability to have longer songs –up to five minutes on the device itself — all of that is possible because of a new computer inside of it,” Adam McHeffey, chief marketing officer at Artiphon, said in an interview with ZebethMedia. “The new engine means it could play these audio-based samples. That’s the biggest thing that’s new, but in addition, we have added two gigabytes of sample memory, so that you could add your own samples to it as well. We also improved the converter and the speaker amps, and the headphone-out on it as well. We don’t make a big deal out of the tech specs with most of our marketing materials; we focus on what you can do with it.” I’ve had an Orba 2 on my desk for a few weeks, and I can attest it’s a very compelling play-thing: Picking it up between (and sometimes during) Zoom meetings and exploring a quick musical riff is pretty awesome. I noted that to McHeffey, who laughs in agreement. “It’s the perfect fidget toy,” he says. Writing off the Orba as a toy would be a mistake, however; it’s turning out to be a powerful learning tool as well. The company claims that two-thirds of its users had never played a musical instrument before. Orba 2 is on sale today, and costs $150.

Pinterest partners with record labels to bring popular music to its TikTok rival, ‘Idea Pins’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 19, 2022Posted in Apps, Music, Pinterest, record label, TikTok, VideoNo Comments

Pinterest’s TikTok competitor is gaining new music. The company announced today its video-focused “Idea Pins” feature will now include the ability to add popular tracks from top artists, thanks to new licensing deals with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin and BMG. This will expand upon the music already provided through Pinterest’s royalty-free music library from 7Digital, the company noted. With the launch, Pinterest says there will be thousands of new tracks available from artists like Dan + Shay, Bruno Mars, Michael Bublé, Twenty One Pilots, Zach Bryan, Paramore, and others. To make it easier to browse and access this larger music catalog, the Pinterest mobile app will also introduce a new music experience on iOS and Android. Here, creators will be able to search for music by artist, track name or keyword in order to find the right song to accompany their Idea Pin. To use the feature, creators will first open Idea Pins, then click on the music icon to be taken to the screen where they can search and add their desired track. They’ll then record their Idea Pin and publish it. The update could help to make Pinterest’s Idea Pins a more viable competitor to TikTok as well as other social apps that have ventured into the short-form video format, like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts — all of which already include the ability to add popular songs from major labels. Launched last year, Idea Pins are Pinterest’s own unique take on the now ubiquitous TikTok short video format, which has shown up in numerous apps including Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, and most recently, Twitter. Instead of copying TikTok directly, as some others have done, the 60-second Idea Pins allow creators to tell their stories using a combination of video, images, music, and other editing tools — but in a way where the Pins themselves can be tapped through, which is similar to Stories. The Idea Pins feed, meanwhile, is scrolled through vertically, like TikTok. This format can be useful for the types of videos Pinterest creators would want to make as it allows them to add elements to their Pins that a video-only feature wouldn’t as easily permit — like a list of ingredients and steps for a recipe, for example, or the names of products used in a makeup tutorial. Pinterest users can like, share and comment on the Idea Pins. But they can also save them to different boards for later reference — an organizational feature TikTok today lacks. This summer, Pinterest opened up the Idea Pins format to advertisers, too, with the launch of “Idea Ads.” “Music plays a vital role in elevating storytelling and empowering storytellers, creators and Pinners who inspire the world every day on Pinterest,” said Malik Ducard, Pinterest’s Chief Content Officer, in a statement about the launch. “We are thrilled to partner with Warner Music Group, Warner Chappell Music, Merlin and BMG to bring the latest music tracks to our platform and elevate the content and inspiration created on Pinterest.”