The chairman of a major Zimbabwean retailer has officially left. Herbert Nkala retired from OK Zimbabwe Limited after thirteen years on the board, seven as chairman. His departure was announced back in June and took effect after the annual general meeting. The company, which holds over thirty million dollars in debt, is restructuring its board to bring in new expertise.
OK Zimbabwe has been struggling with serious operational challenges. It cited a steep revenue decline from issues like supply chain problems, unstable currency exchange, and heavy competition from informal markets. The board deferred naming a new chairman for now. Instead, they appointed five new non-executive directors. These are Charles Msipa, Tracey Mutaviri, Tawanda...
That plugin company Sinevibes just made Skew version 2.0 completely free. It is a nonlinear reverse delay effect for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The plugin records incoming audio into a buffer, playing it back in reversed chunks that sync to your project tempo. It uses a triple-playhead design alongside twelve different warp curves for bending pitch in rhythmic ways.
The update adds tempo synchronization with a huge delay time range, from a thirty-second note up to sixteen bars. It includes smoothed parameter controls to prevent clicks during adjustments. The effect can create sounds like tape rewinds, pitch slides, and vinyl scratches. It supports various channel configurations, including mono to stereo processing.
Got another mix utility for the plugin folder. A developer called In The Mix released Bandwidth, a stereo widening plugin. It runs on both Mac and Windows systems. The introductory price is twenty-seven British pounds. It promises very precise control over a track's stereo image with full mono compatibility.
Its main feature is multiband crossover processing. This lets you apply widening only to specific frequency ranges. You can monitor the exact signal being added to your mix. A control labeled Stereo Strength adjusts the intensity of the effect, from subtle to extremely wide. The developer markets it as an intuitive tool for adding dimension to any track quickly.
Another vocal tuning plugin just hit the market. DoublePi Technologies released Vovious for Mac and Windows. It costs 229 dollars. The company claims it uses a new audio algorithm for more natural results. It works as a standard VST3, AAX, or AU plugin, with extra integration for ARA2.
The interface gives you a lot of control. Notes are colored based on their pitch deviation. You can edit pitch, vibrato, formants, and amplitude with modern tools. A drawing mode lets you manually adjust the pitch curve. It includes a feature for detailed edits using temporary notes. The plugin also handles timing adjustments, with visual guides showing how notes align to the beat. You can even tweak the volume of sibilants and breaths, which appear as...
Some developer just dropped a new free drum plugin. Justin Ehrlichman released JDrummer, an open source VST3 for Windows and Linux. It runs on the JUCE framework. The plugin comes with twenty-nine different SoundFont drum kits right out of the box, covering acoustic, electronic, and specialty sounds like an orchestral percussion set. You get a sixteen-pad grid with standard per-pad controls for volume, pan, mute, and solo.
Its main feature is a huge library of pre-made drum patterns. These grooves are sorted into categories like break beats or swing beats. They automatically sync to your project's tempo. You can drag any pattern directly into your DAW as a MIDI clip. There is also a composition window for stringing multiple patterns...
The US government is threatening European tech and service firms with potential fees and restrictions. Officials from the US Trade Representative's office named nine specific companies that could face retaliation. The list includes Spotify, along with major firms like SAP, Siemens, DHL, and the French AI company Mistral. The warning targets the European Union's enforcement of its digital regulations against American companies.
This threat follows recent EU fines on major US tech platforms. Regulators penalized companies like Apple, Meta, and Elon Musk's X for violating new laws such as the Digital Services Act. US trade officials argue these actions are discriminatory, claiming American firms provide free services and major investments...
The O2 Arena in London had a massive year. The venue hosted 239 shows in 2025, a nineteen percent jump, selling nearly 2.9 million tickets. AEG, the operator, said this set new records for events and attendance. Radiohead's four-night run drew over 22,000 people per show, exceeding capacity. Fifty-five acts played there for the first time, including Sabrina Carpenter and Tyler, the Creator, with many selling out multiple nights.
The venue's management credited the success to several factors. They pointed to new technology, better premium ticket options, and a diverse schedule mixing music, sports, and comedy. The arena also switched completely to renewable energy. It ranked at the top globally for total attendance and number of shows...
YouTube is pulling its data from Billboard's charts. Lyor Cohen, YouTube's music boss, announced the platform will stop providing US streaming numbers after mid-January. This ends a partnership that started over ten years ago. The move is a direct response to Billboard's recent tweak to its chart math.
Billboard just changed its formula to narrow the gap between paid and free streams. Under the new rules, one album unit equals a thousand paid streams or two thousand five hundred ad-supported streams. YouTube argues this is still unfair, wanting every stream to count the same regardless of how it is paid for. Cohen called the existing weighting outdated, saying it ignores fans who use free tiers. He stated that after extensive talks...
Global music copyright value hit a new record last year, according to an industry economist. That total reached 47.2 billion dollars in 2024, with most of that money coming from recorded music. The figure grew by a little over five percent from the prior year. The report from Will Page notes that growth is slowing down now that pandemic-related surges are over.
A major trend reshaping the business is domestic market strength, called glocalization. Streaming lets local artists dominate their home countries like never before. In Brazil, for example, Portuguese-language artists fill the entire local top one hundred chart. Some even reach high positions on global charts fueled almost entirely by streams from inside Brazil. A similar story...
