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Apple Music adds exclusive DJ mixes from Steve Aoki and more
Spotify and Apple Music partnered up with Dubset, a rights-management and distribution platform for DJs and remixers, a couple of years ago. Sony Music and independent record company Merlin also partnered with the company to make sure samples in remixed songs are monetized, as well. Dubset's MixBANK system makes sure both artists being sampled and those creating mixes get the royalties they deserve. Now, the company is bringing hundreds of DJ mixes to Apple Music, with three exclusive DJ sets from Steve Aoki, Sigala and DJ Suss One.
The charity that wants video game karts in every hospital
In many ways, Jonathan Watson is like other 11-year-olds. He does his homework, dreams of becoming a doctor and plays video games when he can. Depending on the day, his favorite is either Minecraft or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Unlike most kids his age, though, Jonathan is at the hospital every three weeks for blood transfusions -- a procedure that can take up to six hours at a time. When I visited him at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he wasn't slaying dragons or building a pixelated fortress; he was replaying the opening levels of Rayman Legends on a kart that had just been wheeled in. The kart was donated by a local Eagle Scout who raised funds through the Gamers Outreach Foundation (GO), a nationwide charity that puts medical-grade gaming equipment in hospitals around the country. The "GO Kart" Jonathan was using included everything needed to play video games: a modest Samsung television, an Xbox 360 (though any console will fit) and a pair of gamepads. The kit itself is hardly revolutionary, but anyone who's schlepped their gear to a LAN party can appreciate the simplicity of this rolling, self-contained setup. At Mott and 19 other hospitals around the country, they're the most popular "toy" available. And when you're a kid with a medical condition like Watson's, it's easy to see why.
Twitch focuses on music as it grows beyond gaming
It turns out that the Steve Aoki concert on Twitch was just the beginning of something much, much bigger. The company has announced that more music broadcasts are coming to the streaming service by way of its new "music" category. The new section is in beta, but it'll allow anyone who's creating, performing and presenting original songs to do so live on the internet. What's more, "certain established artists and labels" will have the option to host listening parties and broadcast what Twitch calls large-scale events (think festival performances) if its curators deem them a good fit. The streaming juggernaut is also teaming with BeatPort and SFX Entertainment for festival broadcasts and DJ/producer interviews, as well.
Twitch streams its first live concert tonight
If this weekend's Lollapalooza festival doesn't have enough electronic music for you, tonight you can catch a live DJ set from Steve Aoki (above) as he spins from Ibiza, Spain. The Twitch broadcast starts at 10 p.m. Eastern, so you might have to pull the neon hula-hoops and rainbow leggings out of the closet a bit earlier than you're used to. It's a free show of course, and you can watch it on basically every platform at hand -- gaming console, mobile device or even via this Chromecasted browser tab on your flat-screen. If competitive gaming is more your style, however, the streaming behemoth has something more traditional in store for you. Following its PAX Prime booth broadcast, Twitch is doing a digital premiere of Die Noobs, a documentary following two decade-long online gaming pals as they finally meet in person and then train to compete in their first-ever eSports event.
