Wow, 2024 has been an amazing year for Songzap and our parent company RT60, led by Prof Rob Toulson and Dr Mike Exarchos. We went on a wild and varied adventure of technology, creativity and business development – some which was reported through our social channels and some which just passed us by a bit too quickly to mention!
So here’s a quick roundup of our most exciting events that happened through the year:
January
In January, we wrapped up our Creative Catalyst project funded by Innovate UK. The project was to help with developing the AI music composition features that were built into Songzap V2. There’s plenty of admin with these types of projects, but they’re well worth it – if you’re in the UK and starting a creative-tech project, look up the Creative Catalyst and consider applying yourself! We also hit the studio to record drums for Miranda Sex Garden, which is a great way to start the year!
Feb – April
From February to April, we were very much head down in the office putting the finishing touches to Songzap V2. This meant testing the Autozap AI composition algorithms, finalising the Songzap for Teachers and Songzap Course materials, and filming loads of demo videos ready for launch. Rob also mixed and mastered the new single for Miranda Sex Garden, titled Velventine, which was released to coincide with their upcoming European tour and received BBC Radio 6 airplay from Iggy Pop! Take a look/listen here:
At the end of March, Mike was invited to join a panel of speakers at the Star Forum 2024 conference in Lamia, Greece, where he shared his insights on the ‘Brain Drain’ phenomenon affecting Greek culture. Mike talked about the reasons he immigrated to the UK, his career as an academic, music producer and creative director, and the ways in which Greece could improve conditions for artists to thrive both locally and internationally. You can watch the televised panel discussion here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8vzr2m
May
In May, we launched Songzap V2, hurray – congrats to the team, Jamie, Rob, Mike and Isaac (below)! Anyone who’s worked in technology development will know that launch date is a huge milestone (and relief), but in many ways it’s the point where the hard work reality starts – promoting, discussing with journalists, and listening to the feedback of users and musicians who are getting their hands dirty with the app! At the end of May, Mike presented two papers at the Droppin’ Science hip-hop conference in Ireland, hosted by University College Cork.
June
In June, we took a very exciting trip to Half Ton Studios in Cambridge, UK, for a residential recording session with one of our favourite artists: Ethan Ash. While in the studio we filmed some features about making demos with Songzap, but then we moved into pro-music-producer mode, and Rob and Mike spent a few days producing and tracking what will become Ethan’s next EP release. It’s sounding fantastic in the mix, so keep an eye out for the new Ethan Ash EP in 2025, produced with the help of Songzap! Rob also took a trip to Oslo to present at the Innovation In Music conference! Mike put the finishing production touches on Theanò’s debut single Exorcise, released on June 20th and available here: https://open.spotify.com/track/6Th2c7KAW0LN9VjIiupmK7?si=9f1c804fc15044c0
July
Earlier in the year Mike and Rob were a bit shocked to hear that we’d been shortlisted for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Sound. The previous year we took some time to produce the music, sound design and dialogue for a cool indie documentary about beer brewing in the 16th Century (directed by BAFTA Winner Professor Shreepali Patel). So, in July, we had to head from London back to Cambridge (coincidentally!) for the awards ceremony – we didn’t win unfortunately, but it was a brilliant celebration of creativity and great to be part of it!
August
In August, we delivered our first free online teaching sessions around Songzap – these allowed us to talk directly with users and helped them to start ‘self-learning’ about demo recording and music production. We’ll be running more in 2025, so look out for the announcements and get ready to sign up, or you can watch a rerun of one of the seminars here: https://youtu.be/WOxCJ-yKKcY?si=Ui-1PjUJQmT6zN7b
We also got to do one of our favourite things ever, production and recording at Abbey Road – and this time in the beautiful Studio 2 where so many iconic albums from the Beatles and Kate Bush to Oasis and Royal Blood were recorded. We were working on a project with our long-time collaborator Dr Paul Thompson – for a special big band project with 25 musicians and singers, which will be released as a single next year.
September
September was a hugely exciting and busy month! Firstly, we heard that we had been invited onto the prestigious BPI Abbey Road Studios incubator for music technology companies – a programme called ‘Grow Music’. Rob went to attend the opening event at the world famous Abbey Road Studios, while Mike headed to Leeds to present at the Society for Music Production Research conference. To top it all, we then learnt that Songzap had been shortlisted for a NAMM TEC Award, which is like the Grammy’s for music tech businesses and a huge accolade for us. We barely had time to stop and take it all in!
October
In October, the reviews for Songzap started being published thick and fast. We could barely believe the words written by Sound on Sound magazine, giving Songzap the most unbelievably glowing review and describing our AI composition feature as ‘northing short of alchemy’. Wow! This was followed up quickly with a similarly glowing review in Tape Op magazine.
October was also a busy musical month for Mike, who performed in Athens and London for the Hip Hop Culture and DefibFest concerts respectively, showcasing his new album KATALH3H (Vol.1) scheduled for release in 2025 via RT60’s Red Planet Records. Mike produced Theanò’s second single Rhombus, which was released on October 12th and available here: https://open.spotify.com/track/6U6zfhuMpWQDq9xk2cjaVB?si=81f1302526ab4fc2
November
November took things up a notch when we were invited to UK Houses of Parliament to be part of a group of music technology experts that were discussing UK innovation policy with politicians. Rob couldn’t make it because he became a dad to a gorgeous little girl at the end of October (as if he weren’t busy enough!), but Mike took our long-time advisor Professor Justin Paterson along and suitably impressed the politicians! Mike also gave a talk in London for An Afternoon of Dilla – a UK celebration of Jay Dee and an official fundraising event for the James Dewitt Yancey Foundation, the charity established by Ma Dukes (Jay Dee’s mum).
December
So here we are in December, reflecting on an amazing year and thinking ahead to 2025, starting with NAMM in Los Angeles in January. We’ve continued developing new technologies though and have recently had a major breakthrough with an exciting new innovation that could have a huge positive impact for music makers – it’s a big secret for now. But stay on the lookout for a BIG announcement in early 2025, which promises to be just as (if not more!) exciting, engaging and enthralling as this year!
In the meantime, take a look at our December interview with Cold.Inc‘s Tom Lloyd, as part of the awesome Sequence series – entitled “Lo-fi Spirit, High-tech Tools: How Songzap is Transforming DIY Music With AI” and available here:
Huge thanks from Rob and Mike to all those who are following the journey of Songzap and RT60. As always, we really want to hear feedback from users, and keep improving, innovating and helping musicians worldwide to achieve their creative goals and aspirations!
