Popular indie bands Haim and Sleigh Bells performed an exclusive, rocking concert last night in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The ticket to entry? Free — as long as you were wearing Levi's.

The Levi's-sponsored event was strictly enforced. Guests who arrived not wearing the denim brand were promptly turned away, with many tweeting their frustration.

“F---@LEVIS,” tweeted @infinityguitarz. “I’m going to buy lucky brand jeans.”

While others made jokes about the rules:

Hope you’re not planning to go to the @LEVIS@HAIMtheband@sleighbells concert in your other jeans. #WTH? pic.twitter.com/96eHvosg4B

— Adrianne (@ABenzion) August 4, 2014

Hopeful concert goers' jeans labels were checked here at the entrance:Those who did follow the rules were greeted by a giant board, where you could fill in the blank, "I ___ in Levi's." As you can imagine, people got creative:

Hundreds of people showed up to the event, but it would have been more crowded if all brands of jeans were welcome.

Sleigh Bells took the stage first, followed by girl band, Haim.There were food trucks set against a gorgeous city setting.

And an equally as photogenic bar.

The view alone was worth the entry fee.

SEE ALSO: Everything You Missed At Lollapalooza Music Festival In Chicago [PHOTOS]

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Before you ask your boss for a raise or that cute colleague on a date, you may want to turn up the bass. 

According to a new study led by Dennis Y. Hsu, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, bass-heavy music can make you more confident. 

"The effect of music appears to manifest itself not only in its ability to entertain,"he and his colleagues write, "but also in the ability to imbue humans with a real sense of power." 

As Tom Jacobs notes at Pacific Standard, writers like Henry David Thoreau and George Eliot have noted how fiery music can stoke you into action, but the new research lends empirical evidence. 

Jacobs summarizes one such experiment:

... 78 undergraduates listened to an original, two-minute-long piece of instrumental music in one of two conditions: With the bass line prominent or subdued. Afterwards, they "rated how powerful, dominant, and determined they felt," as well as how strongly they were feeling three positive emotions (happiness, excitement, and enthusiasm).

The result: People who heard the heavy bass line felt more powerful, dominant, and determined than their easy-listening peers.

Why? Researchers chalked it up to the associations we have between deep sounds and authority, calling out how James Earl Jones sounded when he voiced Darth Vader in "Star Wars." Similarly, CEOs with deep voices make more money. 

This connection extends to whatever summer jam you have pumping through your headphones. 

"People can hear specific music components that express a sense of power and mimic those feelings internally," the study authors write.

If you have any recommendations for what to listen to — aside from Black Sabbath on repeat — tell us in the comments. 

SEE ALSO: The Science-Backed Reason You Should Watch Standup Comedy Before A Meeting

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There are people who like music. They turn on the radio, every now and then it grabs their attention at bars, and they sing along to the lyrics of whatever Top 40 song happens to be playing.

A gentleman, however, does not like music. A gentleman knows music — what's good, what's bad, what just is ... and why.

That said: Not all people grew up exposed to sounds beyond their stereo, so we put together a list of must-know albums that you may have missed while fist-pumping to Journey in your college dorm room.

On this list you'll find everything from indie rock to hip-hop, dance music to funk. You'll find some No. 1 hits, but more importantly, you'll find music that has stood the test of time — or is definitely about to.

Maggot Brain, Funkadelic

Even if you've never heard this album, you've heard Maggot Brain. Almost all of its songs have been sampled or used in ads, or in the case of the most recent Apple ad, both. 

Release: July 12, 1971

Brighten The Corners, Pavement

Pavement is one of the godfather bands of indie rock music, and Brighten the Corners, the band's fourth work, might just be its best album. The sound is polished, ranging from gritty to dreamy, but always staying singularly rock and roll. Pay attention to the lyrics. They're brilliant.

Release: Feb. 11, 1997

Remain in Light, Talking Heads

Remain In Light is probably your best entree into the Talking Heads catalogue. It also happens to be the band's best, mostly because it's the only one you can dance to. Also watch for uncanny guitar work from Adrian Belew, as well as Brian Eno's production wizardry.

Release: Oct. 8, 1980

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Online music streaming service Spotify has re-advertised a job for a regulatory filings expert this week, half a year after the position was originally posted in February when it sparked speculation the firm could be preparing to go public.

The advertisement for an external reporting specialist in February was seen as part of preparations for a U.S. listing by the Swedish company, probably next year.

"This is the same role that was advertised back in February," Marni Greenberg, Spotify's director of communications told Reuters in an email. She declined to say why the position was being re-advertised or to give any further comment.

The August job ad said the company was looking for an "External Reporting Specialist", preparing it for international financial standards.

Both this and the previous ad said part of the job was participating in the company's Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is the 2002 Wall Street reform law that sets standards for all U.S. publicly traded company boards, management and public accounting firms.

The company's global paid subscriber base had surpassed 10 million, it said in May. It is also offering a free music service and competition has become fiercer as tech giants Apple, Google and Amazon.com have all entered the music streaming business.

Spotify's competitor Pandora's shares, which almost tripled in 2013 and peaked at close to $40 in March this year, have since fallen back to $25 in a tough race to lead the music streaming industry.

The latest corporate filings, for 2012 in Luxembourg, where Spotify is registered, show the Swedish company more than doubled revenue that year to 435 million euros ($583 million), but had a net loss of 58.7 million euros.

(1 US dollar = 0.7463 euro)

(Reporting by Daniel Dickson and Mia Shanley; Editing by Mark Potter)

SEE ALSO: Samsung Has Lost Its Grip On The Biggest Smartphone Market In The World

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The soundtrack to Marvel blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy” has reached the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. It's the second movie soundtrack to do so this year, following the success of “Frozen.”

Billboard reports the album sold 109,000 copies last weak, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The sales are up 83 percent from the 60,000 units sold in its first week of release earlier this month.

“Awesome Mix,” a title derived directly from the film in which Chris Pratt‘s character risks his life to save an old cassette player andtape to preserve his last connection to Earth, consists of 12 songs from the '60s and '70s. 11 were featured in the film.

The success marks the first time a soundtrack consisting entirely of previously released songs has topped the chart.

“Awesome Mix” consists of a number of singles that climbed the Billboard Hot 100 upon their initial release, including the Jackson 5's “I Want You Back” and Blue Swede's “Hooked on a Feeling.”

Also read: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Director James Gunn Writes Heartfelt Letter to Thank Fans for Record-Breaking Debut

Director James Gunn‘s “Guardians” has been a hit with critics and audiences, raking in over $319.1 million worldwide since opening on Aug. 1.

Upon hearing the news, Gunn took to Facebook to comment, “All those days as a child I spent locked in a room listening to AM radio were not wasted! ”

“Somewhere in a boardroom right now a movie executive is trying to give a film that's not testing well the ‘Guardians soundtrack treatment but with a new twist’ – say, nineties grunge hits over a buddy action comedy,” Gunn added. “This is something you will not thank me for.”

SEE ALSO: Photos Of Lee Pace's Transformation Into The 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Villain

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If you haven't given in to the streaming boom and you still purchase your music, Sony's new "Album of the Day" app might be for you.

Here's how it works:

Every day, the app will alert you to a discounted album from Sony's music collection, and you'll have 24 hours to take advantage of the discount. The discounts will be up to 70% off.

Upcoming offers will include albums from artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Usher, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan.

Sony includes a handy timer in the app to remind you that time is ticking away for each deal, and you can swipe left to view the deals you've missed. The best way to use the app, however, is to enable push notifications so you're alerted to the day's deal without having to open the app.

To purchase an album, Sony includes a link to the album on iTunes, but you could simply visit iTunes directly if you know which Sony album is discounted for the day. This app just makes it easy to see which of its albums are discounted on the iTunes Store and for how much longer. As The Next Web's Nick Summers points out, iTunes is currently the only place to purchase Sony's discounted albums.

The free app is only available for iPhone and iPod Touch, and you can download Sony's "Album of the Day" app over at the App Store.

SEE ALSO: Today's The Last Day To Grab Apple's Deeply Discounted Collection Of Apps To Make Your Life Easier

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Queen of teens Taylor Swift announced a new album Monday — "1989"— and released the video for the record's first single, a poppy tune called "Shake It Off."

The video, which shows Swift imitating various dance moves (like twerking) from an eclectic variety of musical genres (like hip-hop), was immediately called out by Odd Future rapper Earl Sweatshirt, saying that the video was "inherently offensive and harmful."

perpetuating black stereotypes to the same demographic of white girls who hide their prejudice by proclaiming their love of the culture

— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014

He continues:

for instance, those of you who are afraid of black people but love that in 2014 it's ok for you to be trill or twerk or say nigga

— EARL (@earlxsweat) August 19, 2014

He makes a valid point. Take a look at some shots from the video, like Swift crawling under a bunch of twerking women.

Or this:

Swift, with her gold hoops and sub-par (and likely, purposefully so) dance moves, just croons "haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate."

You can watch the full video here:

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Digital Music News' Paul Resnikoff has put together a pie chart GIF showing 30 years of U.S. music industry change in 30 seconds. 

Not only is it unrecognizable from what it looked like in the '80s and '90s, its unrecognizable from even five years ago, as Spotify and Pandora had yet to enter our lives. 

You know how we feel about pie charts— but the ugliness seems well suited to that particular data display:   

Data from RIAA. We saw this on reddit.

SEE ALSO: The Most Dominant Summer Songs Of All Time

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Nicki Minaj‘s “Anaconda” video proved that she's got buns, hun — and now she's got a new Vevo viewer record.

The highly-anticipated — and highly salacious — “Anaconda” video earned 19.6 million views in the 24 hours following its midnight Aug. 19 Vevo premiere, the best-ever for the music video site.

In doing so, Minaj bested Miley Cyrus, whose “Wrecking Ball” music video set the previous Vevo record of 19.3 million views in September 2013.

See video: Nicki Minaj Finally Drops ‘Anaconda’ Video And Its As Jawdropping As You'd Expect (Oh, Drake)

Since the debut, “Anaconda” has been among the top trending topics on social media. In its first 24 hours of release, “#AnacondaVideoOnVevo” delivered 854 million estimated impressions from 145,267 Twitter mentions by 95,412 users.

Ownership of this record is not uncharted territory for Minaj. The rapper previously set Vevo's most-watched record, twice — her collaboration with Justin Bieber for “Beauty and a Beat” received 10.6 million views in October 2012, and “Stupid Hoe” got 4.8 million viewers in January 2012.

Six of Minaj's videos have been “Certified” by Vevo, getting more than 100 million views.

If you're not one of the 19.6 million who viewed “Anaconda” in the record-setting 24 hours, watch the NSFW video here >

SEE ALSO: How Miley Cyrus Killed 'Hannah Montana' And Created An Uncharted New Career Path

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Fans of the rock band "ISIS" are telling the band they'll no longer be wearing their T-shirts since it shares the same name as a militant terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.

"We've received emails from fans saying they can't wear our shirts anymore, and people suggesting we change our name," drummer Aaron Harris told Business Insider in an email.

On the band's Facebook timeline, some have posted angry rants against the group which disbanded back in 2010 shortly after releasing their last album the previous year. The band, which originated out of Massachusetts in 1997 and later moved to California, has still maintained a website and a Facebook page, which has more than 170,000 fans.

i wonder if ISIS the band are happy they broke up, now there are a bunch of terrorists called ISIS. touring would have been hard.

— David Farrier (@davidfarrier) June 18, 2014

"Just like our fans, we've been watching the news in disbelief," Harris told ABC, in response to brutal acts carried out recently by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL) militant group. "We haven't commented on it because we haven't been an active band since 2010, even though our music does live on. We maintain our Facebook page to keep people up-to-date on our current musical projects."

In an effort to avoid the confusion, the band changed its Facebook page name from just "ISIS" to "Isis the band."

The rockers aren't the only ones to consider a name change. In July, a tech company named "ISIS" which built a mobile wallet app announced it was re-branding in the following months to avoid the negative association, The Verge reported.

"We have no interest in sharing a name with a group whose name has become synonymous with violence and our hearts go out to those who are suffering," CEO Michael Abbott told The Verge.

Correction: A previous version of this post indicated the band was receiving "threats." Drummer Aaron Harris told Business Insider the band's publicist mistook pro-Islamic posts on its Facebook page as threats, but instead they've only been hearing from fans about a name change.

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Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and singer Jessie J. opened up MTV’s Video Music Awards with a showstopping performance of their three hit songs of the summer.

Grande opened the awards show with “Break Free” in a sparkly silver getup.

She then joined in with her back up dancers.

Minaj then strutted out debuting her new Vevo record-breaking song “Anaconda” on stage. The music video for the song, which samples from Sir Mix A Lot's "Baby Got Back," was viewed 19.6 million times in 24 hours after it launched making it Vevo's best-performing music video to date. 

Minaj and her backup dancers were all covered in green bodypaint resembling the jungle.

The crowd loved it.

English singer Jessie J joined the duo to perform their hit song “Bang Bang.”

She started dancing with Grande who made a quick outfit change.

However, when Nicki Minaj came back out she had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction.

Minaj made some adjustments and the three killed it on stage.

Watch the entire performance below:

SEE ALSO: Nicki Minaj Had A Major Wardrobe Malfunction During The MTV VMAs

MORE: Beyonce's epic 16-minute performance at the VMAs

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Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande may have opened the MTV Video Music Awards with a showstopper; however, no one closes out an awards show like Queen Bey.

Beyoncé shut down the VMAs with an epic 16-minute medley of a dozen of her songs.

It was sexy, sensual, raw, and emotional.

It was flawless.

The singer's performance came in lieu of accepting the the Video Vanguard Award, MTV's equivalent to a lifetime achievement award.

Here's how it went down.

Beyoncé came out on stage surrounded by a group of dancers while singing "Mine."

She was then joined by a group of dancers with the name of the song on fire in the background.

The moment Bey joined in to dance fans went wild.

Girls in lacey lingerie joined in for her next song, "Haunted."

Amazing.

There was a quick segway into "No Angel," and then another Beyoncé popped up on a screen behind the Yoncé singing "Jealous."

And just like that, the performance cranked the dial up a few notches with two of Beyoncé's raunchier singles "Blow" and "Cherry."

From there, Beyonce switched gears again to her more sensual "Drunk in Love."

Surfboard indeed.

Bey then went to her sexiest songs "Rocket" and "Partition." She danced all over a chair to the tune of the first song.

Beyonce then took it to a pole for "Partition."

She then made the perfect transition to "Flawless," an empowering song which comments on how women are viewed in society, by standing in front of the word feminist. 

The background faded to orange and Beyoncé broke out in dance. 

Bow down.
 

She finished up the tour de force with "Yonce" before slowing things down with an emotional performance of the song Beyoncé wrote for her daughter, "Blue." 

Beyoncé asked the audience to join in with her last song, "XO."

As she accepted her MTV lifetime achievement award, husband Jay Z and daughter Blue Ivy surprised her on stage.

Watch her performance below.

SEE ALSO: Watch Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and Jessie J open the VMAs

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U.S. album sales hit 3.97 million last week, the smallest weekly total for album sales since Nielsen SoundScan first began tracking data in 1991, Billboard's Ed Christman and Glenn Peoples report.

It was also the first time during that period that weekly sales had fallen below four million, they write.

Sales for the week ending Aug. 25 fell 18.6%. The bestseller was rapper Wiz Khalifa's "Blacc Hollywood" which debuted with 90,000 units, Billboard says. For the first time in more than a year, sales for the soundtrack to Disney's "Frozen" fell below 100,000 units.

CD sales have practically vanished, down 19.2% year-over-year, with sales at mass merchants and chains down 23 percent and 25.6 percent, respectively.

And even digital sales are faltering, with digital album sales off 11.7% and track sales down 12.8%.

"This year the bottom fell out of digital sales to a degree that we never anticipated, which is why many companies are not meeting this year's revenue projections," one indie distribution executive told Billboard.

Revenue from streaming has not been able to compensate. Although streaming sales climbed 39% in 2013 and now make up a fifth of the marketplace according to MusicWeek, as Re/code's Peter Kafka recently observed, lots of people are still freeriding on music streaming platforms.

"The problem for the music business is that most music streamers — around 80 percent of them — are free music streamers, relying on services like YouTube, Pandora, and SoundCloud for the tunes, says Midia Research," he writes. "And those ad-supported businesses generate about 10 percent of the revenue per user that subscription businesses do."

Here's Midia's chart:

SEE ALSO: The Most Dominant Songs Of The Summer Of All Time

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(Reuters) - Seven people were arrested on Sunday at the Made in America music festival in downtown Los Angeles, following an opening day that left more than two dozen people in handcuffs, police said.

During Sunday's show at Grand Park there were four felony arrests, including one for battery and the rest for possession of narcotics, besides three misdemeanor arrests, including one charge of public drunkenness, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Another 23 people were given alcohol citations, an LAPD police spokeswoman said.

So far about 27,000 tickets have been scanned for Sunday's full day of events, including top-billed stars John Mayer and Kanye West later in the evening.

On Saturday, 29 people were arrested, 23 for misdemeanors, most of them involving infractions related to alcohol, the spokeswoman said.

The two-day festival's Philadelphia edition was briefly halted on Sunday by driving rain, organizers said. In Los Angeles authorities were asking concertgoers to stay hydrated amid extremely warm temperatures.

 (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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The Castro Theatre, located in San Francisco's Castro District, is losing the Wurlitzer organ that has called the theater its home for the past 30 years.

But the organ music will continue to play, thanks to a huge high-tech donation.

The "Mighty Wurlitzer" will be replaced by a "pipe/digital hybrid with a full piano-length keyboard and a full orchestral sound library," according to the SF Castro Organ Devotees Association (SFCODA), a nonprofit that's dedicated to keeping music at the theater.

The Wurlitzer is privately owned, and its owner is moving out of the area and removing the organ from the theater, as well as most of the pipes.

The theater considered purchasing the organ from its owner, but it didn't make financial sense.

"Unfortunately, this organ, having been played constantly for over 30 years, is wearing out. It needs a total rebuild, which is very expensive,” the Castro Theatre's resident organist and president of SFCODA, David Hegarty, tells KQED.

An organ that's as big as the one that's replacing the Wurlitzer would take up the entire theater if it were made of pipes. But since it incorporates digital technology, it will fit perfectly in the space provided.

"This will not merely include some after-market General MIDI modules with 'a few nice strings' — it will be the most expressive, gigabyte-heavy, instantaneous-response-time live performance orchestra in existence, with its own custom-designed independent sound system," according to SFCODA's website.

The new organ, which is being called the "Castro Symphonic Theatre Organ," is already being built, according to CNET. Famed organ builder Allen Harrah is in charge of the project. 

It will cost around $700,000, and is being funded by private donations, as well as money from the Castro Theatre, a grant from New York's Schapiro Fund, and an Indiegogo campaign.

When it's completed, it'll be the third-largest organ in the world. 

A similar organ exists in West Virginia, and you can hear Hegarty playing it in the clip below. Keep in mind, that's just one instrument playing all those sounds:

SEE ALSO: This app teaches you how to play almost any song you can find online, and it's awesome

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The Disney corporation and Joel "Deadmau5" Zimmerman have never seen ear-to-ear — and now the company has filed in opposition of the EDM star's trademark logo (a black-and-white replication of his mouse head, worn on-stage for a decade), which they say closely resembles their own, Mickey Mouse-inspired image.

But Zimmerman is confident he'll take the big cheese if the matter winds up in court: "Lawyer up mickey," he tweeted Tuesday night, followed by another confident declaration: "Disney thinks you might confuse an established electronic musician/performer with a cartoon mouse. That's how stupid they think you are."

"The deadmau5 front facing mau5head is a registered trademark in 30 countries worldwide," the musician's attorney Dina LaPolt tells "Rolling Stone.""In June of last year, deadmau5 applied to register the front facing mau5head with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Disney is now opposing the U.S. filing. Given that the mau5head and other identifying deadmau5 trademarks have been used in the U.S. and around the world for almost a decade, we wonder why Disney is only now coming after deadmau5. Our client will not be bullied by Disney and is prepared to fight to protect his rights to his property."

Multiple requests for comment to Disney were not returned.

As reported back in April, the registration would allow the logo to appear on an array of products, including electronic equipment, toys, entertainment services, BMX bikes, paper and leather goods, and even food products like coffee. Disney claims the Deadmau5 trademark would damage their business and mislead consumers. In 2012, the producer did acknowledge the alleged Mickey similarities in a 2012 "Rolling Stone" cover story, saying, "Someone at the Disney patent office fell asleep on that one."

The seventh Deadmau5 album, the double-disc June release "While (1<2)," found Zimmerman experimenting with new sounds and textures. That same month, the outspoken producer unleashed some unkind words about contemporary EDM in an interview with "London Evening Standard," likening the movement to a sinking ship.

“As they say, the rat is the first one to jump off the boat when it starts going down, and that’s kind of what’s happening," he said. "It’s already been going down the last couple of years, for me. Maybe not in the industry. Maybe there’ll be a whole new herd of sheep following that shit, and f--king good luck ... I think it’ll eventually f--k itself so hard.”

More From Rolling Stone:

• Disney Investigating Deadmau5's Attempt to Trademark Mouse Logo
• Deadmau5 Talks EDM’s Coming Demise and His New LP
• Deadmau5 Replies to Arcade Fire's Anti-EDM Jab: 'What's Your Problem?'
• Rolling Stone’s 50 Most Important People in EDM
• Rolling Stone’s 30 Greatest EDM Albums of All Time

SEE ALSO: Photos of the craziest costumes at Burning Man

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Los Angeles (AFP) - Robin Thicke's blockbuster but much criticized hit "Blurred Lines" grew even more controversial as the singer revealed he never wrote it, according to court documents.

The Hollywood Reporter on Monday printed Thicke's previously confidential deposition to a Los Angeles court where he volunteered that he had been high on the painkiller Vicodin and alcohol when he recorded the song and that he was not sober during later media interviews.

Thicke, speaking under oath, said that Pharrell Williams -- who later released the smash hit "Happy" -- had written "Blurred Lines" on which both perform. Thicke said he was envious and lied.

"After making six albums that I wrote and produced myself, the biggest hit of my career was written and produced by somebody else and I was jealous and wanted some of the credit," he said.

"The record would have happened with or without me. I just was lucky enough to be there when he (Williams) wrote it and I was in the room," Thicke said, according to the court documents reproduced by The Hollywood Reporter.

"Blurred Lines" was a worldwide hit in 2013 but faced charges it was misogynistic due to its refrain -- "I'm gonna take a good girl / I know you want it" -- and an accompanying video that prominently featured naked women.

The hearing in April was part of a court process over claims by Marvin Gaye's children that "Blurred Lines" copied the late legend's song "Got to Give it Up". A trial is expected next year.

Thicke earlier said that "Blurred Lines" was inspired by the Motown great. In court, Thicke hinted that racial factors were at play in his earlier comments, saying he had been called the "white Marvin Gaye" and sought to "embellish" the connection.

Despite his frank admissions, Thicke said he was sober during the court appearance. He said his separation two months earlier from his wife, actress Paula Patton, had led him to clean up his lifestyle.

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CBS decided not to run a planned intro song by Rihanna on last week's "Thursday Night Football" game in the wake of the Ray Rice fiasco, and the artist is not happy about it.

The song, "Run This Town," was supposed to run before every TNF game accompanied by a game-specific voiceover by Don Cheadle. It's basically CBS's answer to "Are You Ready For Some Football?"

Rihanna was the victim of domestic abuse by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told SI's Richard Deitsch that the intro was cut to achieve the "appropriate tone and coverage."

Rihanna called out CBS for wanting to run the song in Week 2:

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After selling messaging app GroupMe to Skype for $85 million in 2011, Steve Martocci did not sit still. Within two years he had his next startup, a music platform called Splice, in the works.

Splice is a cloud-based platform for music creation that helps artists save, share, collaborate, and remix music by working alongside professional music creation tools like Ableton Live, FL Studio, and Logic X.

It lets you look at the revisions you make in case you want to look at other versions of your song. It's sort of like Apple's GarageBand for professionals, paired with the social network aspect of being able to share your creations with other artists for their input and remixing.

Last October, Splice raised $2.75 million in a seed round, and on Wednesday the startup announced a new round of funds — a $4.5 million Series A round led by True Ventures with participation from Scooter Braun, Tiësto, Steve Angello, AM Only, WME, Plus Eight Equity Fund LP, plus some repeat investors from its seed round such as Union Square Ventures.

At the same time, Splice is moving into open beta and rolling out a new product called DNA Player along with a new track from artists Henry Fong and J-Trick.

The DNA Player lets you see how a song was built while listening to it. It lets you look at all of the nitty gritty components that go into the song with annotations explaining each piece, and it helps artists visualize music’s source code.

"We built a platform that allows musicians to focus solely on the creative process without interruption and are excited to open up the beta to all musicians today," Martocci said in a press release. "We’re thrilled to see music veterans alongside up and coming artists work with us in different capacities to bring the industry up to speed with technology." 

SEE ALSO: GroupMe Cofounder Steve Martocci Just Snagged $2.75 Million For His New Music Startup, Splice

SEE ALSO: This Company Raised $2 Million For A Universal Music Streaming Service

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Every year, the MacArthur Foundation selects a class of fellows — we call them geniuses — for their work that benefits society, whether it be writing plays or investigating nanomaterials. 

Each Fellow receives $625,000 to support and further their work. 

"The fellowship is designed to provide recipients with the flexibility to pursue their own artistic, intellectual, and professional activities in the absence of specific obligations or reporting requirements,"the foundation's website says.

This year's class has a diverse set of talents, from discovering the nature of prime numbers to educating public defenders, and ages ranging from 32 to 71. 

See the full list of winners here, and read on to find out how they're changing the world.

Danielle Bassett is a physicist who models brains.

Age: 32

City: Philadelphia

Bassett's research has used breakthroughs in network science — which studies how people affect one another — to gain a deeper understanding of how brain regions communicate. 

Full bio here.

Alison Bechdel makes incredible graphic novels that explore the nature of the family, like her 2006 breakout 'Fun Home.'

Age: 54

City: Bolton, Vermont

Bechdel has expanded the scope of the graphic novel, using the comic-book format to make deep inquiries into the nature of family, gender, and maturity.

Full bio here.

Mary L. Bonauto is a civil-rights lawyer fighting for equal legal treatment for any sexual orientation or gender identity.

Age: 53

City: Boston

For over 15 years, Bonauto has won cases that have changed gay-exclusionary laws, and she continues to serve as the Civil Rights Project Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. 

Full bio here.