Engineer Derek ‘MixedByAli’ Ali, whose credits include music by Kendrick Lamar, Roddy Ricch, SZA, Summer Walker and the late Nipsey Hussle, and his Los Angeles-based music-tech startup EngineEars has teamed up with Dolby Laboratories to bring Dolby Atmos training programs and resources to the platform.
EngineEars, which had secured $1 million in seed funding led by L.A. venture capital firm Slauson & Co., as well as angel investments from the likes of Lamar, Ricch and DJ Khaled, aims to level the playing field in the music industry by providing tools and access to creatives in the music-making process, including support on automating back office workflows, facilitating collaboration between creatives, handling payments on time, storage and archiving project files. Ali launched the platform earlier this year, running a closed beta that has already paid out $200,000 to 140 verified engineers since January. There are more than 4,000 engineers on the waitlist currently.
“This is an important next step in the world of audio for both music creatives and consumers,” said Ali. “Our goal is to educate our community on the many opportunities of working in Dolby Atmos while continuing to provide our members more resources and opportunities to create music using this game changing technology.”
Dolby Atmos mixes, now supported by major streaming services like Apple Music, have become a more common request of mixers.
Added Christine Thomas, senior director of music partnerships at Dolby Laboratories: “Dolby Atmos is empowering artists to push the boundaries of their creativity and artistic expression. We want to provide everyone who wants to start creating music in Dolby Atmos with this opportunity, and our work with Derek and the EngineEars platform to offer educational programs and resources for creatives is an important part of this effort.”