Musicube Introduces Next-Generation Music Discovery AI Technology

Musicube is a software company from Hamburg, Germany, working on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) solutions intended to solve a serious problem in the music industry. Its music discovery technology generates more than 500 metadata tags (moods, instruments, and more) for more than 47 million songs using its audio analysis AI, and is intended to solve the closed "preferences" playlist loop that most users experience from existing streaming services.

It all started with an article from Billboard that stated: "On Wednesday (August 7) Apple Music announced the launch of Apple Digital Masters, a new initiative by the streaming giant that combines all of its "Mastered for iTunes" offerings into one global catalog. This is the company's first public acknowledgement of the initiative, which it has been quietly unveiling for some time." And suddenly the story was all over the place. But Apple didn't actually announce anything. Or at least, there was no official press release from Apple to be found confirming the story.

Nielsen announced it has entered into an agreement with Tribune Media Company to purchase Gracenote, the industry’s premier provider of media and entertainment metadata, including the music metadata provided to all major digital music services, including Spotify and Apple iTunes. With this transaction, Nielsen will acquire the data and technology that underpins the programming guides and personalized user experience for major video, music, audio and sports content.

I promised to come back to Apple’s announcement of Beats1 Worldwide Radio as part of its Apple Music service. From one perspective, it is a great promotional idea—not much different from those great video ads Apple puts out. It will certainly stimulate awareness for traditional radio and Apple can afford to spend the money. So, no harm done. But that’s it.

Positive Grid and Apple joined forces on the Final Touch App for iPad to add real-time auditioning through the Apple AAC encoder, providing accurate level metering and preparation for Mastered for iTunes process on a Mac. Final Touch combines seven essential mastering tools into one integrated system and is available for download at the iTunes App Store.

With an impressive design and combining aptX Bluetooth wireless audio for the first time in a portable speaker featuring electrostatic technology, BenQ’s eVolo is one of the most impressive proposals in this booming market. eVolo also signals BenQ’s entrance in the personal audio market segment.

Do you remember when radio was a primary sound source on any home stereo system? When was the last time you shopped for a new radio tuner? Chances are the last radio tuner you bought came with your car or integrated receiver amplifier. Nevertheless, radio broadcasting is still one of the world’s most important and popular media services, mostly because it’s free, it’s easy to find something interesting to listen to, and it works.

Daniel Weiss founded Weiss Engineering in 1985. The company designs and manufactures digital audio equipment for mastering studios. Daniel graduated in 1979 with a BSEE from the HTL Rapperswil. Joined the Studer Revox company in 1979 as an Electronics Engineer. There he worked on analog anti-aliasing filters, test signal generators, sampling frequency converters and digital audio processing for a two channel DASH recorder. He left Studer in 1984 to start Weiss Engineering. Daniel is a Fellow of the AES and a Member of the IEEE.