January 2, 2014

Vibe Magazine recently released outtakes of a 2013 interview with Drake in which he speaks on his approach to making music and the viability of concept albums in Hip Hop.

“I feel like the music that I write is utilized in life,” he said. “It would be tough for me to go in conceptual storytelling. The last great concept album was [Kendrick Lamar’s] good kid, m.A.A.d city—still obviously true to his life but very conceptual. Very specific stories that need to be told. I always say hats off to that album. That album’s incredible, what an undertaking. For me, I would never want to be restricted to that.”

Drake, who released his third album, Nothing Was The Same, in September, added that he looks at that effort in a similar light. “I feel like I just made a concept album about a kid from Toronto that’s on,” he said. “I’m not good at telling fictional stories, so I would never be able to do that. There are rappers that are good at telling stories about people that aren’t themselves. There are people that have vast imaginations to go and make up a story just to achieve a point. I draw off life experiences.”

Vibe’s interview also finds the emcee vaguely referencing the possibility of a new album and commenting on his lack of social media activity. “I think the next album I do is gonna be different,” he said, “I don’t know if I’ll necessarily return to family stuff and stuff that I feel I really summed up well on Nothing Was The Same. The problem is I don’t participate too much in social media, so my music is always the update that you’re looking for in my life. Twitter is not my outlet to get my message out there. My outlet is the music so my music always ends up becoming my life. I don’t know how to stop that.”

Given his comments that his music are drawn from lived experiences, Drake also talked briefly about his state-of-mind with respect to each album he’s released. “20-whatever years to make So Far Gone, then one year to make Thank Me Later,” he said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know, let me get a bunch of features and make some good music.’

“I went back home and wrote Take Care, got influenced by the city but I was in a dark place,” he added in reference to his second album. “I don’t know if I was coming back home with the best energy in the world. I was coming off a record where I loved that album with all my heart but I knew I wanted to do better. I was just getting more money than I had ever seen. I was like in this indulgent state of mind. It was a weird time for me.”

Ending with a note on his latest album, Drake referred to Nothing Was The Same as his “first time [having] no strife.” “This album is probably the most aware of self that I’ve ever been,” he said. “I did this album all over the place but for the first time have no strife. I’m here. I’m gonna own this now.”

Drake recently released a song pulled from the Nothing Was The Same sessions called “Trophies.” The Hit-Boy produced track was used in a preview for the album though only released in full shortly before the New Year.

[HipHopDX]

1. Triad Orbit Mic Stands: Mic stand technology has remained pretty stagnant for 50 years or so until the Triad Orbit articulating mic stands were introduced. What makes the Triad-Orbit stands different is that each leg of the base has four ratcheted positions that provide up to 65 degrees of pitch. The Orbital boom is built around a stainless steel ball swivel mechanism to deliver a very wide range of motion (360 x 220 degrees), and the Orbital 2 boom is also way different than anything you’ve seen since it’s basically 2 booms on one stand. Triad Orbit stands aren’t cheap at $179 for a standard stand, $139 for the standard arm boom and $259 for the dual boom, but they’re built like tanks and very well may last a lifetime.

2. SoundRadix SurferEQ: Here’s an idea that could totally change the way we think about equalization. The SoundRadix SurferEQ plugin is different from other equalizers in that it tracks the pitch of an instrument or vocal and changes the EQ on the fly, staying relevant to the music or program.
SurferEQ uses a real-time pitch detection engine that triggers a low pass, high pass, bell, shape or harmonic filter (that’s a new one) to make sure that the EQ is working at the right frequency during the song. It’s available for Mac or PC in RTAS, VST and AU, and retails for $199.

3. Apple Logic Pro X: The latest version of Logic may not overtake Pro Tools in the pro world, but there not much that can beat it when it comes to creating music. There’s a lot to like in this new version, including a new streamlined look, a new collection of virtual instruments (including the incredible virtual Drummer, with sounds from Bob Clearmountain), built-in pitch correction and remote control from an iPad. Best of all, Logic Pro X is only $199

4. Sennheiser Laser Drum Mics: This isn’t actually a product yet, but just the idea of it gets points for innovation. Actually, the laser mic is a misnomer. It’s actually a laser mic clip for Sennheiser’s e904 and e604 clip-on mics that’s the innovative piece. By placing a laser and a sensor in the mic clip, the laser can then precisely measure when the drum head is struck and open up a noise gate, so what you’re actually hearing is a laser-controlled mic (we’ll get to those real “laser mics” someday soon, as this is the just a glimpse into the future).

The laser drum clips are still in the prototype stage, so there’s no pricing yet, but you can see and hear how well they work in this video.

5. UAD Ocean Way Studios Plugin: The Ocean Way Studios plugin takes room simulation to the next step by modeling the sound of two of the studio’s famous Bill Putnum-designed tracking rooms (Putnam was the original owner of both United Studios (now Ocean Way) and Universal Audio when it manufactured hardware starting back in the 1960s. Bill Putnam jr. runs Universal Audio today). You’re able to choose from a number of Ocean Way owner Allen Sides’ great vintage mic emulations and place them any distance in the room, as well as mix and EQ multiple combination of mics.

This could be a great addition to a home studio owner who only has a small room to record in, but wants it to realistically sound like a larger one – and with the Ocean Way sound to boot. The Universal Audio Ocean Way Studios plugin works on the UAD platform and can be purchased for $279.

Winter NAMM is coming up in less than a month, and I’ll probably have a new list afterward, but for now, this list above are the products that caught my attention in 2013.

We’re coming to the end of 2013, so now is a good time to look back at the music business happenings of the year to see the trends and events that affected it. The following 15 events may have been taken lightly at the time, but at least some of them will have a lasting effect on the industry.

The highlights are broken into three major areas: music distribution, artists and record labels, which all include tech and marketing related events to some degree. Here we go, in no particular order of importance.

Music Distribution
1. Spotify sets its mobile service partially free and expands into 55 countries, then licenses the Led Zeppelin catalog to help with the promotion. Time to get all the market share possible before the deep pocket competitors like Apple AAPL +1.17% and Google GOOG +0.98% hone in on the sector.

2. Crying poverty despite 72 million monthly active users, Pandora tries to lower its licensing royalties by buying a terrestrial radio station. Royalty collection organizations, artists and songwriters decry the move as suits fly back and forth. Bottom line, Pandora still loses money.

3. iTunes Radio is unveiled amid much fanfare in September, reaches 20 million users in a month, then disappears from the public consciousness. Is the service a sleeping giant or just sleepy?

4. Beats Music and YouTube Music both postponed their launches until 2014. The streaming music services will have stiff competition; they have to get it right out of the gate.

5. Twitter’s #Music lies dormant after few users adopt, which proves the point – just because you have a large user base doesn’t necessarily mean that users want to get their music from you.

6. Pirating decreases as users find that streaming is more convenient and efficient. Pirates are also found to be some of the most prolific music consumers, so is the decrease good or bad?

7. The first YouTube Music Awards show proves that what seems like a good idea isn’t always so, as it draws shockingly few viewers. You can be the largest online music portal, but that apparently isn’t enough to get users to watch your event.

Artists
8. Miley Cyrus makes us forget about her Disney days with a twerk-filled marketing campaign. We remember her for how she is now, but can we remember her music?

9. Jay-Z does a product tie-in with Samsung for his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail. What seemed like a brilliant marketing move at first looks like only a cash-grab by the end.

10. Beyonce drops her latest album without any advance publicity to huge initial sales and hype. Thanks to a digital exclusive on iTunes, Target and Amazon refuse to stock the CD, a cautionary tale for other artists considering the same strategy going forward.

11. Kid Rock plays to his core audience and defies the cynics by touring with $20 tickets that include parking, along with $4 beer, and free coffee at the end of the show. The tour shakes up the concert industry, takes out the scalpers, and sells out 33 shows. What’s more, he plans to do it again next year. Could this be a sign of things to come in the industry?

Record Labels
12. Irving Azoff merges his management company with Madison Square Garden Company to form Azoff MSG Entertainment. The company creates four divisions (artist management, music publishing, television product and digital branding) which look a lot like the prototype for the major label of the future.