Inspired by the success of the Dubspot and Ableton’s Live 8 Tour, which utilized the Akai APC40 controller, Ableton then jumped in bed with Novation to launch a similar endeavor to showcase the Launchpad.

The Ableton and Novation Live Beats Tour hit the USA and then Portugal to spread the excellent Launchpad’s abilities to manipulate Live. Now comes word that the tour is being expanded to Europe this Fall with 14 events scheduled across eight countries.

Thavius Beck has been tasked with demonstrating how to use the Launchpad with Live in the studio, as well as in live performance, using not only the Launchpad, but also Automap and some of Novation’s keyboard controllers.

Schedule:
» Tuesday 7th September, Production Room, Leeds, UK, 18:30
» Thursday 9th September, Digital Village Clapham, London, UK, 18:30
» Saturday 11th September, Teach Music, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 19:00
» Monday 13th September, Just Studio Kulturbrauerei, Berlin, Germany, 18:30
» Tuesday 14th September, Just Music, Hamburg, Germany, 19:15
» Wednesday 15th September, Hard Rock Cafe, Cologne, Germany, 19:00
» Saturday 18th September, Just Music, Munich, Germany, 16:00
» Monday 20th September, microFusa, Madrid, Spain, 19:00
» Tuesday 21st September, microFusa, Barcelona, Spain, 19:00
» Thursday 23rd September, SAE Institute, Milan, Italy, 18:00
» Friday 24th September, Percorsi Audio, Acquapendente (VT), Italy, 18:00
» Monday 27th September, Rytmus Aula, Stockholm, Sweden, 18:30
» Wednesday 29th September, ProLyd AS, Oslo, Norway, Time TBC

Registration is required for the free demos. More information on the Ableton and Novation Live Beats European Tour.

Electric Zoo has announced the final artist lineup for the 2-Day electronic music festival on Randall’s Island Park over Labor Day weekend. The open Air Festival, put on by Made Events, will run from 11am to 11pm each day and feature 70+ artists on several stages.

The 26 acres Randall’s Island Park provide the backdrop for New York’s biggest electronic music event of the year and will embark on Labor Day weekend, September 4th / 5th, 2010. This year’s final festival lineup will include additions from electronic music pioneer Moby playing a rare Main Stage DJ set on Sunday. Other notable additions include New York’s favorite resident DJ Boris, veteran German trance duo Cosmic Gate, the U.S. debut from Italian techno artist Dusty Kid, new school trance heavyweight Glenn Morrison, Dutch electro/trance superstar Sander van Doorn, and Colorado dance/rock outfit Savoy.

On Saturday, the Main Stage will be headlined by The Chemical Brothers on the heels of their latest release Further, Italian electro favorite Benny Bennasi, German trance king ATB, and dancehall bangers Major Lazer. On Sunday, Armin van Buuren returns for a headlining set on the eve of his new artist album Mirage, along with Moby, Dutch house sensation Fedde Le Grand, and Berlin’s Boys Noize with his mutant techno sound.

The Hilltop Arena will be headlined by Grammy nominated artist, globally acclaimed DJ and perennial NYC favorite Paul van Dyk, along with prolific artist Kaskade supporting his sixth album, Dynasty, and UK trance trio Above & Beyond with their upcoming album Ajnunabeats Vol 8.

The Red Bull Music Academy Tent will feature Colorado’s self-publishing machine Pretty Lights and his electro organic cutting-edge party rocking beats and San Francisco’s freeform artist Bassnectar. Finally, the Sunday School Grove returns with its signature school buses, featuring techno innovator Richie Hawtin and Bedrock maestro John Digweed.

2-Day General Admission Passes are available now. VIP Upgrades are also available with optional parking. If you are 21+ and have purchased a general admission ticket, the VIP Upgrade will get you in through a separate VIP entrance, provide prime viewing of the main stage from the VIP bleachers or front row, as well as access to the VIP tented lounge with couches, table and chairs, separate food menu, and private cash bar featuring mixed drinks, beer and wine, and VIP-only deluxe air conditioned bathrooms.

More information on Electric Zoo 2010.

Pioneer, Beatport, DJ Magazine and Let’s Mix have announced the Next Generation DJ (NGDJ) talent competition. (Hmmm, sounds familiar… —Ed.) To win, DJs will have to demonstrate their skills by uploading and promoting a mix on the new mixing and social networking platform, letsmix.com as well as prove that they have the entrepreneurial aptitude required to make it big in the world of dance music.

NGDJ is being supported by Pioneer, Beatport, DJ Magazine and Let’s Mix. Let’s Mix was developed by the team from Tonium, who introduced the Pacemaker, hand held, portable DJ system to the world.

However, to be a superstar DJ these days takes more than just skills behind the decks. You need to be able to create your brand, manage your profile and promote yourself relentlessly. Entrants to NGDJ will be required to create their www.letsmix.com profile and upload their DJ mix. From there they will need to show they can navigate the world of promo, pushing their DJ mix across all social networking / blogging platforms to generate a specific amount of votes to reach the next round. Not to mention significant traffic to Tonium’s Let’s Mix site.

Amongst all those who have been able to promote themselves effectively, 100 finalists will compete in a second round, creating a mix around a special theme with their DJ skills judged by a panel of industry heavyweights. All 100 finalists will also feel the heat of the media spotlight throughout the final round, (whatever that means…)

The eventual winner of NGDJ will soon feel what it’s like to be a superstar DJ, with a set of brand new Pioneer CDJ2000’s (and inclusion in the exclusive Pioneer test DJ group), a Pacemaker, huge media coverage across DJ Mag, Beatport, Let’s Mix and many more, their own compilation release on Beatport, flights to the huge WMC event in Miami, flash hotel and massive gigs at the Beatport Pool Party and the DJ Mag opening and closing party at the Shelborne. This is a competition designed by the biggest, most influential brands in dance music to find genuine, unrivalled DJ talent, and so the final and ultimate reward for winning the competition is a future career as a DJ. The winner will be offered an exclusive contract with a major DJ management agency, giving them the chance to show dancefloors around the world exactly what they can do. 2010 will the year when the NGDJ winner will become the next big DJ brand.

More information on The Next Big Thing, ah, we mean, Next Generation DJ.

Paul McCartney, The Killers and The Cure have been officially announced as the headliners for Coachella 2009. McCartney, making his first US festival appearance, is among the 130-plus acts set for the tenth Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA.

Other artists confirmed for America’s most critically acclaimed music festival include Morrissey, Amy Winehouse, Franz Ferdinand, My Bloody Valentine, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Thievery Corporation, Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The line-up for this year’s COACHELLA (as of 1/30) is as follows:

FRIDAY APRIL 17: Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Beirut, The Black Keys, Girl Talk, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings, The Crystal Method, Ghostland Observatory, Crystal Castles, The Airborne Toxic Event, We Are Scientists, N.A.S.A., Patton & Rahzel, M. Ward, The Presets, The Hold Steady, A Place to Bury Strangers, Felix da Housecat, Buraka Som Sistema, Ryan Bingham, Bajofondo, Peanut Butter Wolf, Noah & the Whale, White Lies, The Bug, Alberta Cross, Los Campesinos!, Craze & Klever, Molotov, Switch, Gui Boratto, Steve Aoki, The Aggrolites, People Under the Stairs, The Courteeners, Cage the Elephant, Dear and the Headlights.

SATURDAY, APRIL 18: The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Thievery Corporation, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Atmosphere, Mastodon, TRAV$DJ-AM, Henry Rollins, Crookers, Turbonegro, Hercules and Love Affair, Superchunk, Glasvegas, Dr. Dog, Drive-By Truckers, Booker T & the DBT’s, Amanda Palmer, The Bloody Beetroots, Surkin, Para One (Live), Calexico, Liars, Bob Mould Band, Zane Lowe, Electric Touch, Blitzen Trapper, James Morrison, Drop the Lime, Glass Candy, Thenewno2, Gang Gang Dance, Billy Talent, Ida Maria, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Zizek, Cloud Cult, Tinariwen.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19: The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Throbbing Gristle, Lupe Fiasco, Paul Weller, Peter Bjorn and John, X, Antony & the Johnsons, Roni Size, Public Enemy, Jenny Lewis, Groove Armada, Paolo Nutini, Christopher Lawrence, Lykke Li, The Kills, Okkervil River, M.A.N.D.Y., Clipse, Sebastien Tellier, Fucked Up, Perry Farrell, The Horrors, Late of the Pier, K’naan, Junior Boys, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Supermayer, No Age, Vivian Girls, Shepard Fairey, Themselves, Gaslight Anthem, The Knux, Mexican Institute of Sound, The Night Marchers, Marshall Barnes.

Tickets for COACHELLA go on sale Friday, January 30 at 9:00AM(PT) at all Ticketmaster locations. Three-day weekend passes are $269.00 +$3 charity + $9 facility fee ($1 charity/$3 facility fee per day) and single day tickets are $99.00 +$1 charity + $3 facility fee.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., announced the discovery of cosmic radio noise is six times louder than what the scientists expected.

A team led by Alan Kogut discovered the radio noise via a balloon-housed instrument dubbed ARCADE, which stands for the Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission. In July 2006, the instrument launched from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and flew to an altitude of 120,000 feet, where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space. ARCADE’s mission was to search the sky for heat from the first generation of stars. Instead, it found a cosmic puzzle.

Detailed analysis ruled out an origin from primordial stars or from known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy. The source of this cosmic radio background remains a mystery. Many objects in the universe emit radio waves. In 1931, American physicist Karl Jansky first detected radio static from our own Milky Way galaxy. Similar emission from other galaxies creates a background hiss of radio noise. The problem, notes team member Dale Fixsen of the University of Maryland at College Park, is that there don’t appear to be enough radio galaxies to account for the signal ARCADE detected. Hence, the puzzle.

More information on NASA’s ARCADE.

FutureMusic would like to wish all of our readers a very Happy New Year! All the best in 2009!