Christopher Sutton's SonicTruths Stream

Google Expected to Start a Competitor to Spotify

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:06:13 +0100

Google Expected to Start a Competitor to Spotify:

The service is expected to be announced as early as Wednesday, and reflects agreements the company has made with the three major music labels.

Surely you will be saved one day | SonicTruths.net

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:43:22 +0100

Surely you will be saved one day | SonicTruths.net:

I wrote this post at the end of 2012, and then hesitated over whether to publish it. It felt too honest and raw and I don’t normally blog about my business or entrepreneurship. But I’ve drawn strength from other startup founders sharing their experiences fighting depression so I’m sharing the following in case it might help someone else.

Christopher Sutton

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:20:00 +0100

Christopher Sutton:

Christopher Sutton, Director of Easy Ear Training (music education technology). The authoritative source of Christopher Sutton’s personal information, links, and social activity.

All Things Swingle: Brand new #swingle50 track debuts on BBC radio!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:59:13 +0100

All Things Swingle: Brand new #swingle50 track debuts on BBC radio!:

swinglenews:

Today we’re thrilled to share a first glimpse of the brand new music we’ve been writing and recording for our #swingle50 project. ‘Piper’ was played on BBC Radio 3’s ‘The Choir’ hosted by our own Clare Wheeler - the full show is available here, and you can hear us at 26.50.

50 years ago, a…

Great new track from the Swingles!

Did you know BMW's door click had a composer? It's Emar Vegt, an aural designer (Wired UK)

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:49:54 +0100

Did you know BMW's door click had a composer? It's Emar Vegt, an aural designer (Wired UK)

BBC News - House concerts bring magical music into front rooms

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:44:46 +0100

BBC News - House concerts bring magical music into front rooms:

House concerts taking off in the UK! Awesome. (via @solobasssteve)

The New Draft National Curriculum for Music | Jonathan Savage

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:03:00 +0000

Music is a universal language and every pupil should have the opportunity to become fluent. A high-quality music education should provide all pupils with the opportunity to sing and to learn a musical instrument. Pupils should leave school with an appreciation of how music is composed and performed, allowing them to listen with discrimination and judgement to the best in the musical canon.

via jsavage.org.uk

This seems like a step in the right direction.

"A Cappella - As if by Magic" by Emily Dankworth

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:34:00 +0000

The day that I went to my first rehearsal was the day that my life changed. I’m not exaggerating. I discovered that every single note you sing is not only the foundation of the song, but also crucial towards the success of its sound. An A Cappella group is completely reliant on you, and you on it. Tonality-wise and emotionally, if one person falls down, everyone is going to fall down. You simply have to be strong enough – and in both respects - to pull yourselves back up.

So what can you do to get a taste of what I am attempting to portray? I would absolutely advise anyone who has a love of music and the voice to try forming an A Cappella group and reap in the rewards. Find an arranger, ask them to write you something, just see what happens. The sound of six voices (in Vive’s case) that blend together to reach a place that is only attainable if you are all completely in the zone is unlike any other. It gives me a high, an adrenaline rush, an extreme sensation of pleasure which no other form of music has managed to deliver.

via londonjazz.blogspot.co.uk

Reflections on the tremendous benefits of singing a cappella from Emily Dankworth of the formiddable VIVE

Nicola Benedetti: Social media is "a natural addition to life as a musician"

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 11:52:00 +0000

The commitment of time [for tweeting etc.] is to the bigger picture of being determined to communicate with people, not just relying on an existing format and tradition and the institutions to do that for you, it’s to take it into your own hands and be determined to break those barriers a little bit. It’s something that the public want and re looking for now, a closer and more personal connection with the people they are watching play.

And I’m more than happy to do that, because I feel what we do doesn’t exist without those people.

Listen to the rest of the interview here

via classicfm.com

Like James Rhodes, Nicola Benedetti does a great job of connecting the traditional world of classical music with the modern, fan-engaging world of music creation.

Previously on SonicTruths.net: “Can classical music engage modern music fans?”

5 attention grabbing audio tricks

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:09:00 +0000

Loud noises attract our attention and these days adverts and brands are screaming at us from every angle to take notice. Consumers are overloaded, so it’s time to look at some slightly more cunning ways to get the attention of the public and get your message out there using the power of audio.

via ithacaaudio.com

Some nice ideas here.

Google Music Adds ‘Scan And Match’ But You Don’t Care | Evolver.fm

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 07:54:00 +0000

Why can’t we have nice things — by which I mean why can’t we just, like, pay for music somehow and have it forever, rather than forever fretting about what we put in each walled garden? Really, what we need is “one big database,” or some other solution for tying music to people regardless of service or device.
If this gets figured out, here’s what it might look like for music fans:

1. Buy a song, like it, or collect it in a subscription-type environment.

2. Access the file, preference, or stream anywhere, forever, manually or through APIs.

3. That’s it.

Would you buy, like, and collect more music in a world like that? I know I would.

via evolver.fm

Eliot continues to push “one big database” of music ownership - and I think I agree. That was always the one silver lining of DRM, that it suggested you as a person owned some rights to the media, and the bits were just a representation of that. Now we’re in a weird limbo where sometimes music is treated as files you own, and sometimes the right to stream it, and never actually in a flexible or enabling way.
Whether you agree with the solution or not, this is a great post summarising the current mess.

Music discovery is/isn’t a lie | Hypebot vs. Music Machinery

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:40:00 +0000

This week, the usually excellent Hypebot published a post by Kyle Bylin called Music Discovery: The Path to Digital Failure. In this post, Kyle takes issue with a recent Billboard article about how music discovery is one of the key areas in the new music business. Kyle pulls no punches. He says “Music Discovery is a lie that is never going to come true”. His argument is threefold:

via musicmachinery.com

Interesting discussion of music recommendation & discovery services and whether they work and whether people want them anyway…

The Joe Smith Collection: >225 interview recordings w/musical greats

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 10:02:00 +0000

The Joe Smith Collection at the Library of Congress

More than 25 years ago, retired music executive Joe Smith accomplished a Herculean feat—he got more than 200 celebrated singers, musicians and industry icons to talk about their lives, music, experiences and contemporaries. In 2012 Smith donated this treasure trove of unedited sound recordings to the nation’s library.

The Joe Smith Collection contains over 225 recordings of noted artists and executives and is a veritable who’s who in the music industry. They include Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Elton John, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Sting, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Dick Clark, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, B.B. King, Quincy Jones, David Geffen, Mickey Hart, Harry Belafonte…more

via MeFi and loc.gov

Atoms For Peace (Thom Yorke + Flea + Nigel Godrich) – Default

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:11:00 +0000

(via Pitchfork and weallwantsomeone.org)

I am late to the party, but this Atoms For Peace project seems pretty exciting. Listen to the first single, “Default”, above. Heard about this on The Current yesterday.

No, seriously, you had me at “Thom Yorke and Flea”.

Hacks that made me laugh: lalalalalala

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:59:00 +0000

Another wonderful app from this weekend’s Music Hack Day, lalalalalala auto-creates singing artist images in sync with lyrics:

It can be a little hit-or-miss whether it’ll work with the artist you put in - but when it does, it’s fantastic. Try it with BeeGees!

Johnny Cash Has Been Everywhere (Man)! - Music Hack Day London 2012 - Iain Mullan

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Johnny Cash Has Been Everywhere (Man)!

by Iain Mullan at Music Hack Day London 2012

Easily one of my favourite hacks from the hack day, this demo put a massive grin on my face and had me cracking up.

Go watch it!

Kate Nash & Emmy the Great perform the Buffy musical live in London

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:19:00 +0000

For Hallowe’en, bum-loving popstrel Kate Nash, Emmy the Great and some of their friends took over a screen in the Hackney Picture House for a top-to-bottom performance of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, Once More with Feeling.

And you missed it.

Thankfully, quite a lot of the show was filmed and put online.

via bleedingcool.com

One of my favourite artists (Emmy the Great). Performing my favourite TV show’s best ever episode (BtVS Once More With Feeling). In my city. Last night.

I cannot tell you how upset I am that I missed this.

Clearly I am signed up to all the wrong mailing lists and have all the wrong friends.

(sorry friends)

The Tickled Pink Ribbon Relay

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:12:00 +0100

Good citizens of the MR Forum parish. You may remember that a few weeks ago there was some big talk of getting an olympic-torch-style relay together, which would see one of Mrerikryman’s new Jooky creations being passed from forumite to forumite, taking a proper roadtrip around the land. Maybe it was all the positive vapors from the olympics, I don’t know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time…

But of course, apart from furthering the general air of bonhomie among the good eggs of the forum (and getting a week or so in the company of one of Mark’s kooky creations), there is a point: to raise some dosh for a worthy cause. By coincidence, Mark had already agreed to donate a Jooky to be auctioned off via sealed bids at the wedding of a friend, whose fiancee has recently done battle with breast cancer, so a cunning plan has begun to emerge out of the fug…

The guitar will be this one, a tasty Cabronita, covered in the pink ribbon material associated with the Breast Cancer Awareness charity. And the plan, such as it is, is to generate a list of people who are up for it, a log of where they are and an idea of how far they are prepared to travel to receive it and/or pass it on. Then we can try to plot a rough route.

In return for a donation (suggested minimum a tenner) at this Just Giving Site, people would get up to a week with the guitar, perhaps take a pic for the blog (clothed, please) before committing to deliver it to the next temporary custodian. If people fancy, they can submit a sealed bid for the guitar, to be unveiled at the wedding of Mark’s mate in February next year.

via @monquixote and forum.musicradar.com

What a fantastic idea!

35+ people so far, this is quite an epic journey for a young guitar to make…

You can donate here or visit the original MusicRadar thread if you’d like to get involved.

Aural skills training for... mice?!

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:31:00 +0100

Mice learn songs in similar way to humans and birds

Mice may have abilities long thought to be restricted to animals such as birds and humans

US researchers say that mice may have the ability to learn songs based on the sounds they hear.

They found that when male mice were housed together they learned to match the pitch of their songs to each other.

Mice also share some behavioural and brain mechanisms involved in vocal learning with songbirds and humans, say the researchers.

Read the full article at bbc.co.uk

“We think mice are intermediate in this ability between a chicken and a song bird or even a non human primate and a human,”
Well I’d say that’s pretty good going for mice. Well done, songster mice.

The second half of this video is kind of beautiful. | a show :: soundz

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:30:00 +0100

ashow.zefrank.com

A little rambly, but then the second half of this video is kind of beautiful.

Just listen.