🔗 Spotify Buys Online Recording Studio Soundtrap

Spotify Buys Online Recording Studio Soundtrap:

STOCKHOLM — Music streaming company Spotify has bought online music and audio recording studio Soundtrap, it said on Friday, declining to give financial details of the deal.

Stockholm-based Soundtrap allows its subscribers to have an online music studio and create music together with other people in real time, its website says.

”Soundtrap's rapidly growing business is highly aligned with Spotify's vision of democratising the music ecosystem," Spotify said in a statement.

This is a really interesting deal for music technology education. Spotify is a major player in the music streaming space and is well known to the major public. I can definitely see how Soundtrap fits into Spotify’s vision. But it will be interesting to see what they actually do with it, and if it has any influence over Soundtrap’s usefulness in the music classroom.

🔗 “The Simpsons” Composer Alf Clausen Fired After 27 Years

 “The Simpsons” Composer Alf Clausen Fired After 27 Years:

Two-time Emmy winner Alf Clausen has been fired from “The Simpsons” after 27 years of providing music for Bart, Lisa, and company.

Clausen told Variety that he received a call from “Simpsons” producer Richard Sakai that the company was seeking “a different kind of music” and that he would no longer be scoring the longtime Fox hit.

This just makes me entirely sad.

🔗 Sibelius 8.7 released with Cloud Sharing, other fixes - Scoring Notes

Sibelius 8.7 released with Cloud Sharing, other fixes:

Today Avid released Sibelius 8.7, the latest update to Sibelius. The new feature in Sibelius is Cloud Sharing, which we previewed a couple of weeks ago. The update is free for all 8.x users with an active subscription or support plan. Sibelius First has been updated as well.

Sibelius users share scores online in a format that can be displayed in any browser on a modern device, regardless of whether or not the person viewing the score owns Sibelius. No extra plug-ins are necessary.

Sibelius is pretty late to the game here. I admit, this is a nice improvement upon Scorch, but Scorch was terribly out of date. The best part in my opinion is the easy web publishing, though Noteflight has had it for a while now. 

The Sibelius team would have to do a lot at this point to get me to come back to it after switching to Dorico last fall. Sibelius is still plagued with layout issues, has a horrid user interface, and performs poorly alongside all of the other professional apps on my Mac. That being said, if you are using Sibelius, this is a nice update.

🎬 Using the iOS 11 Files app makes working with Dropbox and Google Drive on an iPad smoother than ever before

As of Thursday, Google Drive Now Supports iOS 11’s Files app. Now that Google Drive and Dropbox support the new iOS 11 Files app, you can view all of your documents under one roof. This integration means that using third party cloud drives feels native to the iPad, something we have been able to experience with the Finder on macOS for years. You don’t ever even need to launch the Google or Dropbox apps again. I made a shoe video demonstrating the utility of this integration. 

🔗 Why every orchestra is going to scrap sheet music and go digital

 Why every orchestra is going to scrap sheet music and go digital | David Taylor Music:

This summer, my orchestra took a risk. Yorkshire Young Sinfonia became the first youth orchestra in the world to become 100% digital, using iPads and an app called Newzik instead of sheet music.

Cool story. Interesting that they are using Newzik and not something like forScore. Newzik is a really cool alternative but I personally do not have a huge need for reading XML files on my iPad. Most of the scores I work with are scanned copies of original paper. There are a lot of cool things you can do with XML though, like resizing the music and having the entire layout of the score adjust itself to the size you prefer. Neat stuff.

🔗 Rogue Amoeba’s 15th Anniversary Sale

EVERYONE! Seriously check out the deal below. Rogue Amoeba makes some very creative and productive Mac apps for audio. I use Audio Hijack daily to record apps and produce my podcast. All of their apps are on sale until the end of the month.

Rogue Amoeba’s 15th Anniversary Sale:

We’re always eager to help even more people with their audio needs, so to celebrate our 15th anniversary, we’re offering a rare and very limited-time sale. Through the end of September, we’re offering discounts on every product we make.

So just how big is this sale? We started by lowering the price of all of our products by 15%, to match the 15 years we’ve been in business. We didn’t stop there, however. We’re also offering the chance to boost those savings by 1.33x, 1.67x, 2x, 3x, or even 4x. A few lucky users will save as much as 60% off our everyday low prices.

Providing a great deal on our apps is one small way we can thank our existing customers for all their support, and to help new users with our tools as well. We don’t discount our software often, but right now, everyone can save on every purchase from Rogue Amoeba.

🔗 macOS High Sierra is out! Make sure you know which notation software is compatible!

The Scoring Notes blog is keeping track of High Sierra compatibility updates for all the major notation editors…

Music notation software and macOS High Sierra:

Today Apple is releasing macOS High Sierra (10.13), the newest iteration of its Mac operating system. High Sierra’s most significant change is its use of a new file system, Apple File System (APFS), for computers with all-flash storage. High Sierra brings a number of other new features, too, but on this blog we’ll focus on its compatibility with desktop music notation software: Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, and MuseScore.

🔗 Integrating Technology into the Elementary Music Classroom: FAQ | Music, Education & Technology -MusTech.Net:

Amy Burns does some great writing for mustech.net. She is writing to the elementary general music classroom in the blog post linked below, but I think her tips and strategies will resonate with music teachers of every variety. Be sure to check out her blog and subscribe!

Integrating Technology into the Elementary Music Classroom: FAQ | Music, Education & Technology -MusTech.Net:

This question is excellent and is asked often. When I was performing research for a keynote address I gave recently titled, “How Technology is Transforming the Way We Teach Elementary General Music Classes”, I directly addressed this question. When reading numerous Facebook music education boards, there is a divide on this topic. Music educators will comment on how technology can enhance certain activities like composition and music making for those who have limited abilities. Others will state that their music classroom is a “screen free” zone because students need a break from screens. While others are expected to utilize technology to address 21st century skills or their schools have become 1:1 (one device per student).

🔗 Noteflight Learn Now Integrates with Google Classroom:

Noteflight Learn Integrates with Google Classroom:

Noteflight Learn offers direct Google Classroom integration! All student and teacher logins, classes, and assignments are seamlessly integrated, offering several advantages:

• Google login is automatically synced; simply login to Noteflight Learn using Google.

• Individual classes, schools, or entire districts can integrate with a single Noteflight Learn site.

• Google Classroom classes are mirrored as Noteflight Learn Groups, so sharing scores and assignments with classes is easy.

• Noteflight can create assignments in Google Classroom and students can turn in or mark as done from their Noteflight score.

This new integration looks fantastic! The list of reasons to subscribe to Noteflight just keeps getting longer and longer.

🔗 If SoundCloud Disappears, What Happens to Its Music Culture? - NYTimes.com

More on the doom of SoundCloud…

At least the article ends with a little bit of hope.

If SoundCloud Disappears, What Happens to Its Music Culture? - NYTimes.com:

SoundCloud’s fan base may soon learn this lesson the hard way. The service’s founder, Alexander Ljung, declined to be interviewed for this column, but after Chance the Rapper tweeted about his interest in saving SoundCloud, the men talked on the phone, which Chance reported was ‘‘very fruitful.’’ Ljung agreed, tweeting that for now, SoundCloud was ‘‘here to stay.’’ Whether SoundCloud can last another 10 years remains to be seen. But the moral of its struggle is clear: As digital culture becomes more tied to the success of the platforms where it flourishes, there is always a risk of it disappearing forever.