New music technology for would-be DJs

August 5, 2010 Radio Industry, Technology Comments Off

The story of Last.fm seems like every start-up’s fairy-tale dream:  a bunch of music fans start up a personalized radio and social media network in a small East London office.  It catches on worldwide. Then, the site is bought out by CBS.  When Last.fm dropped its coveted on-demand music streaming service in April 2010, though, spectators worried that CBS was running the service into the ground.  Now, a new partnership with music technology developer MXP4 has them back in the news—and could be changing the way the online radio industry works.

MXP4 produces audio-mixing software which lets people manipulate their favorite songs by adding instruments, stripping away backing music, or blending songs together.  The technology is now available on the websites of licensed artists and on MXP4’s website. Read the rest…

Veteran broadcaster Tom Leykis launches new online initiative

July 14, 2010 Radio Industry Comments Off

For radio music fans who feel the waters have grown stale in recent years, there is now light on the horizon.  You won’t hear it on the FM dial, though:  “New Normal Music” is currently an online-only initiative, though it was started by radio veteran Tom Leykis.  Leykis promises to bring a wealth of experience to the venture, and says the show will highlight artists not normally played on Modern Rock stations, starting with a continuous stream of 50,000 songs less than a year old.

Leykis has been involved with radio since he was 14 years old, when he served as a fill-in host for Long Island station WBAB.  He contributed to talk radio shows in the late 1970s and became the host of the long-running and often controversial talk show The Tom Leykis Show in 1994. The show ended in 2009, and Leykis began a weekly program called The Tasting Room focusing on the high-class lifestyle. Read the rest…