As Canadas demand for housing and infrastructure continues to grow, contemporary approaches to construction and demolition pose major social, cultural, and environmental challenges. The prevailing approach to redeveloping a site is one of re-establishing a tabula rasaindiscriminately tearing down old structures to make way for new ones. This practice has led to a general disregard for the cultural and material value of existing buildings and colossal wastefulness in terms of resource consumption and associated carbon emissions and ecological impacts. Proposed redevelopments at key sites like the Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Place have sparked debate over public space, heritage, and privatisation, where political expediency and real estate economics seem to outweigh all other notions of value.The demolition of landmarks and culturally significant buildings represents only the most visible and widely spoken examples of a demolition practice that seems endemic in a city like Toronto. A study of the Citys demolition permit data reveals that over 60% of permits issued are for single-family homes in unassuming post-war neighbourhoods, like York, North York, Don Mills, and Etobicoke. The Yellowbelt is quietly undergoing a rapid transformationwhere modest post-war homes are typically replaced by ever-larger single family residences, with only a few multi-unit developments adding density.Active demolition sites in April 2022 in Lansing, North York. Source: Woodloop, Rashmi Sirkar M.Arch Thesis, 2022.This pattern of redevelopment not only turns once-affordable neighbourhoods into more expensive enclaves, but also fuels Canadas mounting construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) waste problem. Each year, CRD projects across Canada produce around 3.4 million tonnes of construction materials that are sent to landfill. According to Statistics Canada, CRD waste typically represents 20-30% and sometimes more than 50% of total municipal solid waste, equivalent to an estimated 1.8 million tonnes of embodied carbon from landfill off-gassing. This volume of dumped material also represents an estimated $4-6 billion dollars of valuable material resources that have potential for recovery and reuse. Sending potentially reusable material to landfill drives an increased demand for virgin materials, and propels further associated upfront carbon emissions.What if we were to imagine an alternative scenarioone that embraces circular methods of development, replacing destructive demolition with deconstruction and material recovery?Wood elements from the deconstruction of a typical wartime house.Source: Woodloop, Rashmi Sirkar M.Arch Thesis, 2022.Take the typical 1,000-square-foot post-war house of North York: a single home would yield approximately 70-80 cubic metres of salvageable material, including around 8,000 linear board feet of clean sawn lumber, that could be reused, recycled, or repurposed instead of being trucked to a Michigan landfill. The salvage of the wood elements alone would be equal to $5,000 of material, and almost 25 tonnes of CO2 equivalent of sequestered carbon, analogous to offsetting 25 years of driving a Canadian car. By scaling these circular practices across the city, province, and nation, we could reintegrate valuable materials into the building supply chain, addressing the housing crisis and the pressing need for more sustainable construction methods. In doing so, we would also preserve material heritage, reduce carbon emissions, and unlock significant monetary resource value that is currently being squandered.The Shift of ValueTo understand how we might incorporate circular development practices today, its essential to recognize that the redevelopment of sites did not always involve the demolition and landfilling of older structures as the norm. Up until the 1910s, deconstruction was the primary method for dismantling buildings at the end of their life. Across North America, house wreckers meticulously took apart structures, salvaging valuable materials like wood, bricks, and stone, which were resoldoften directly on-siteor stored in warehouses for future use. This process supported a robust, local secondary market for building components, exemplified by companies like the Chicago Wrecking Company, which maintained extensive stocks of salvaged materials in a series of large warehouses.Demolition of the Astor House in 1913, showing piles of lumber and rubble, possible brick sorting, derricks and a sign for the Hudson Wrecking & Lumber Co. Source: The New York Public Library, Manhattan: Broadway Vesey Street New York Public Library.This began to shift in the 1910s and 1920s, when the concept of building obsolescence began to take holdthe idea that a building had declining functional worth. This concept was closely tied to increasing investment in a growing real estate industry. Publications like Reginald Boltons Building for Profit (1911) and experts from organisations like the Chicago-based National Association of Building Owners and Managers (NABOM) promoted rapid cycles of demolition and redevelopment as a modernist virtue. As this idea rooted itself deeper into North American practices, it led to the prevailing mindset that constant urban renewal signalled progress, and contributed to more and more buildings ending up in landfill.In Canada, the revision to the Income Tax Act of 1942 reflects how pervasive and powerful this shift was. The Act instituted tax deductions based on the assumption that commercial, industrial, and rental buildings would lose two-thirds of their value within ten years. If the cumulative deductions exceeded the buildings actual loss in market valuation, the owner was not required to repay the government if the building was demolishedthereby rendering the existing building entirely valueless.New York Times headline: To Study Decline in Building Value, July 8, 1928. Source: The New York Times Digital Archives.The contemporary resistance to deconstruction and reuse remains entrenched in the financial systems that govern development. Current tax codes make demolition and rebuilding more profitable than preserving or repurposing existing structures and materials. To truly enable a circular economy in the building industry, it is crucial not only to mandate deconstruction over demolition, but also to revise the financial tools that govern and incentivize our industry. To catalyse a renaissance of salvage and reuse, we need to explore raising taxes on demolition and landfilling, along with issuing credits and tax breaks for deconstruction and reuse.Closing the Deconstruction GapIn the last decade, cities across North America have adopted deconstruction ordinances and bylaws aimed at diverting CRD waste from landfills, and reintegrating it into the building materials market to catalyse regional circular economies. In the United States, cities like Portland, Boulder, Pittsburgh, and San Antonio have led the way in legislating deconstruction. In Canada, Vancouver introduced the Green Demolition Bylaw in 2014 as part of its broader climate goals, mandating that 75% of materials from pre-1950 homes be salvaged, reused, or recycled instead of sent to landfills. Following Vancouvers lead, Port Moody and Victoria have recently enacted deconstruction bylaws. Toronto, Guelph, and Edmonton are also developing their own circular economy roadmaps, and actively consulting to introduce viable deconstruction and reuse practices.A result of these policies is the re-emergence of independent deconstruction operators like Vema Deconstruction in Vancouver and Ouroboros Deconstruction in Toronto, which have begun offering alternatives to mainstream demolition. However, these businesses face several barriers to reaching the scale of the home wreckers of a century agonotably, a disorganized secondary marketplace, and the absence of spatial infrastructure for storing, processing, and sorting salvaged materials. For wrecking and reuse to once again be part of the mainstream of construction supply, cities will need to pair new regulation with spatial provisions. As an extension of existing waste-handling logistics, cities are uniquely poised to provide the space for the re-establishment of warehouses to gather, sort, grade and store materials.While existing policies have primarily focused on harvesting materials from buildings, future regulations and programs need to create a framework that facilitates the reintegration of these materials into the mainstream construction market.Reclaiming Value Through DeconstructionDeconstruction Timeline. Source: Ha/f Climate Design.To better understand the barriers and opportunities in deconstruction, Ha/f undertook a pilot project with Ouroboros Deconstruction and Haley Anderson Consulting in Southern Ontario. Working with Guelphs Circular Opportunity Innovation Launchpad (COIL), the team dismantled a 9,850-square-foot wood-frame house, salvaging 40,000 linear board feet of lumber and 44 large Douglas fir beams in the process. The materials were quantified, sorted, and processed for reuse or resale, helping to understand their potential reusability and to inform a lifecycle assessment.De-nailing workshop at the project site hosted by project partner Ouroboros Deconstruction for University of Waterloo students, November 2023. Source: Juliette Cook.The project highlighted both the value and logistical challenges of storing, processing, and marketing reclaimed materials. Wood held the highest reuse value in this project, and lumber sales were primarily managed through platforms like Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. Other materials required additional outreach efforts. For months, materials were stored on-site in rural Ontario, where space was abundant and local sales were feasible. However, as the site needed to be vacated, finding affordable warehousing for salvaged materials in Toronto became an obstacle. Sustainability-oriented real estate developer TAS eventually provided temporary storage at a nominal rent, as part of their own circular economy initiatives. The reclaimed lumber is now being sold as graded lumber packages for new construction, but although sales are steady, demand has been slower than anticipated.For deconstruction efforts to succeed, sites and applications for reusing salvaged materials are essential: materials must flow out of warehouses and into active projects for the industry to remain viable. The project team connected with local makers who turned salvaged wood into furniture. The houses deconstruction process was showcased alongside the resulting products at the 2024 DesignTO Festival, generating immense public interest in building material reuse and its potential environmental benefits.These experiences also highlighted the importance of quantifying the environmental benefits of deconstruction and material reuse through tools like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). By capturing the substantial carbon savings these practices offer, LCA can help make a compelling case for policies and incentives, such as carbon taxes or credits, that reward low-carbon building strategies. Once frameworks are in place to account for and reward the emissions reductions achieved through material reuse, deconstruction could become a more competitive and appealing alternative to traditional demolition.The project saved roughly 31 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions and stored an additional 54 metric tonnes of biogenic carbontogether, equivalent to 20 homes energy use for one year. Scaled to Toronto, which has approximately 2,700 active demolition permits for single-family homes, deconstruction and reuse could avoid nearly 64,000 tonnes of CO2 emissionsanalogous to the energy used by 14,988 homes for one year.Mapping the carbon reduction potential of deconstruction and material reuse across Toronto. Source: Ha/f Climate Design.A Way ForwardRealizing the environmental and economic potential of building material reuse requires strengthening deconstruction legislation and fostering synergies among policymakers, market drivers, and reuse businesses. Traditional demolition, with its speed and cost-efficiency, remains the preferred option for most developers. To counter this trend, financial incentivessuch as tax breaks, grants, or subsidiesare critical in making deconstruction a competitive and attractive alternative. By highlighting the significant carbon savings achievable through deconstruction and material reuse, these incentives can further motivate developers to embrace these more responsible practices. Moreover, it is vital to account for the true costs of construction and demolition (CRD) waste by considering both the financial expenses associated with disposal, and the environmental and ecological impacts resulting from landfill use and resource depletion.Investment in reuse infrastructure is another critical area requiring attention. Facilities for storing, processing, and certifying salvaged materials are essential to support a circular economy in the construction industry. Without these facilities, even the most well-intentioned deconstruction efforts may fail to prevent materials from ending in landfills.Finally, public perception remains a significant hurdle to advancing deconstruction and material reuse. Many builders and consumers still view new materials as superior to reused ones, creating a barrier that must be addressed. Shifting this mindset will require targeted education and awareness campaigns that emphasize the environmental, economic, and social benefits of material reuse. To move forward, we must engage in a process of unlearning entrenched notions like building obsolescenceand instead recognize and appreciate the inherent value of our built fabric and building materials.Juliette Cook is a partner at Ha/f Climate Design and an enthusiast of reuse at the scale of the building and of the material. She believes that a return to a deeper understanding of materials, the way they are made, and the ways in which they go together, will enable a more regenerative design.Rashmi Sirkar is a partner at Ha/f Climate Design where her work encompasses life cycle analysis of buildings and landscape, material strategies for decarbonization, and advocacy for reuse in the built environment. Her research explores the potential for circular design practice through building reuse, material reuse and bio-based construction practices.The post Full Circle appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Virtual production (VP) is on the rise in Japan. To cater for the growing need for VP specialists, Sony and Pixomondo have launched a new school to provide skills training for a new generation of Virtual Art Department artists. Find out more.

Opus Major raises $10m in seed funding roundInvestment for Paris-based developer led by Griffin Ventures and early investor AlvenImage credit: Opus Major News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on March 24, 2025 Paris-based developer Opus Major has raised $10 million in a seed funding round, led by Griffin Gaming Partners and early investor Alven.As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Opus Major will use the investment to support the ongoing development of its debut, cross-platform multiplayer codenamed Opus #1.The studio also plans to produce a limited-access playable version of the game, and to hire more developers to join its team.Opus Major was co-founded in 2023 by CEO Jean-Nicolas Vernin and chief creative officer Pierre-Armand Nicq.Vernin previously co-founded mobile developer Madbox (where he served as CEO and chief production officer), and was previously an executive producer and editorial director at Gameloft. Nicq worked at Ubisoft for five years before joining Madbox in 2021."Our mission at Opus Major is to make the world jam together," said Vernin and Nicq. "We have experienced countless joyful memories while playing music and video games with friends.""We decided to build our first opus to fulfill this mission. We have been working with our team of jammers to offer a first glimpse at our universe in 2025."Griffin Gaming Partners' Pierre Planche added: "Music and gaming are both powerful ways to connect with people, and Jean-Nicolas and Pierre-Armand are combining them in ways that feel familiar yet unique."

Today, Im talking with Kakul Srivastava, CEO of music creation platform Splice. I dont think I need to really introduce Splice, actually I just need to play this clip:If you exist on planet Earth, you know that as the guitar loop from Sabrina Carpenters Espresso, which is an inescapable pop music phenomenon. You can check out the sample in full right here in the Espresso chorus.That loop is part of a sample pack on Splice in fact, most of Espresso is part of a sample pack on Splice, which is one of the biggest marketplaces for loops and samples around. You can just sign up, pay the money, download the loops, and try to make pop hits all day long. This is a part of making music now, and it has been ever since Rihannas monster hit Umbrella was built around a GarageBand loop called Vintage Funk 03 in 2007.Listen to Decoder, a show hosted by The Verges Nilay Patel about big ideas and other problems. Subscribe here!Now, if youre a Decoder listener, you know that some of my favorite conversations are with people building technology products for creatives and that I am obsessed with how technology changes the music industry, because it feels like whatever happens to music happens to everything else five years later. So this one was really interesting because Splice is all wrapped in all that and some of its new products, including AI tools, might change how music is made all over again.Srivastava joined Splice as its CEO three years ago. Before that, she was at Adobe, so she has a lot of experience working at a company that makes tools for a creative user base thats threatened by things like automation and AI. But if youve listened to any of our Adobe episodes, you know that the flip side of that is people actually using these tools at high rates, because theyre fun to play with and make some parts of the creative process easier.So I really wanted to dig into that with Srivastava, not only to understand where Splice stands, but also to see how the broader music industry can try and make sense of this technology and what it could do to music. I also wanted to talk about how the company navigates the incredibly complex minefield of copyright law and attribution on the internet something thats only getting more complicated with AI and the increasing number of copyright lawsuits filed against big AI companies.Theres a lot in this one and Srivastava was willing to fall pretty deep down some of these rabbit holes with me. Let me know what you think.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Kakul Srivastava, youre the CEO of Splice. Welcome to Decoder.I have wanted to have this conversation forever, so Im glad Im here.Yeah, we ran into each other at the Code Conference last year and we just were off to the races talking about music and technology and AI, and Im glad youre finally here because so much has changed since then. But all of the issues are kind of still there and still working towards resolution.Yeah, a lot has changed. A lot is going to keep changing, and youre right, some of the core issues are still the core issues.And along the way, at least one massive hit single has been made using loops from Splice, so theres that.Oh, come on. Not just one, not just one.I think Espresso. Theres Espresso and theres a lot of other ones.I love Espresso. Its awesome, but a very large proportion of top music everywhere uses Splice.Lets start with the very basics for people who maybe arent familiar with how music is made today or with Splice, what is Splice? What do you do for folks?Splice is a music creation platform that is used by music creators and musicians. Thats our focus who are our creators? And what we provide to them, we have this tagline starts with sound, so we do start with sound and we provide them with probably the worlds most diverse, most high-quality sonic palette. We send people all over the world. In fact, right before this, I was looking at a report from our team that just came back from Brazil, and were recording sounds.Were meeting artists on the ground, so were capturing the sounds of the world, and we make that available through our platform. We also provide AI-based creative tools that help you start with a sound, but make it your own. We have compositional AI. We just launched something brand new at SXSW called Splice Mic, which allows you to hum an idea, start with a musical idea right in your phone, and well help you compose around that by putting the right samples next to it, to help you get you to your final track.So theres a lot here, which is here are the foundational pieces of making a song, right? Were going to do loops and samples, were going to have this library of audio, and then theres this term, which I see a lot of companies that make creative software starting to make, which is, Were going to do it for you. You used to work at Adobe. Adobe I think is the paradigmatic example of this right now. You can just push generate to fill in Photoshop and it just does a bunch of stuff for you. You can prompt Photoshop now in various ways and it does stuff for you. Are you all the way there with Splice and where youre going, where you can say, Write me a country song, and Splice will just do it for you?Actually, were totally not. Thats totally not what were trying to do, and Im so glad you asked this question because I really want to put this idea out there. Our creatives, our musicians, our artists, the people who we think about all day long, the last thing they want is someone to make the song for them. In fact, one of the things that we learned when we launched Create, out of the gate people were like, Oh, this feels like cheating. This feels too easy. I need more controls.So right from day one, weve been adding more sophistication, more technology, more customization, more personalization for users. Because for our users, its really about the creative process, and how is that interesting? How are they able to get the tools to capture whats happening inside and turn it into a song, turn it into a vibration, turn it into something that they can share with other people? So it is absolutely not push-button creation. Thats not fun.This is a long argument in music. It goes back decades. It stretches to before AI hit the scene. You must at the company have some sense of how people perceive building music out of sample packs. And even before Espresso, like Umbrella by Rihanna was [made with] GarageBand, which I think is just a moment in music that should belong in the history books.Totally.How have you dealt with that? Okay, music is now just assembling a bunch of pre-made samples and thats good or bad. People have a lot of feelings about that. Is that a framework youre using as you enter the AI generation era?So, Im going to take exception with what you just said.Sure.I dont think music making today is putting just a bunch of samples together. I think that using samples to create music is a really profound creative process. By the way, I will concede that that is a very reductive criticism, but it is a criticism.Yeah, its a process thats been developed over decades that its really powerful. So I think of samples as the building blocks for how modern music is made, and it used to be a hip-hop thing. It used to be very specific genres, and now its in every genre. One of our largest growing genres is country music, which I never thought would happen, but it is. Youre using samples to make country music. I think the artistry of using samples to make music is that you start with a sample, you start with the sound, but then you make it your own. One, how you assemble it, but how you change the sound, how you vary it, what you do inside the digital audio workstation, which is the primary creative canvas. I think thats really important. Sorry, I got really heated about this. This is important to me. I asked that question somewhat to provoke that response, right? Because like I said, it is a reductive criticism, but its a criticism that has existed. And I guess Im curious, you have that response to the criticism of sample usage. Is that informing how youre thinking about the criticism of AI usage?Fundamentally, its about, what is the creative process? And I personally spend a ton of time with creators, and what they are telling me over and over and over again is, I want better tools. And when I was at Adobe, this is also something that we heard from people. I want better tools. And so the work for us, the work for any company thats wanting to really meet the needs of this growing and large market is, how do you build better tools in this era of AI? Its not going to be, Oh, let me type a bunch of prompts and I get a song out at the end, but what happens next? How do I edit that? How do I change this particular part of the song and get it to sound a certain different way? How do I take this sample and make it into something else? How do I get my musical idea?You saw this with the Splice Mic launch as well. A lot of it is: how do we get more of you into the music creation process as quickly as possible? So thats fundamental, whether were talking about using a synthesizer to make music, or samples to make music, or AI to make music, how do you make sure the creative process is respected throughout those different transitions in music innovation?Thats a lot of incoming about what your product should look like. Youre getting feedback from artists, from musicians, from other creators. Theres another side of the puzzle, particularly music, which is copyright holders and labels. Now there are these huge private equity companies that own huge catalogs that want to assert their rights in various ways. Theres the distributors themselves now, like Spotify and YouTube. Do they have a point of view thats informing how youre using AI, or how youre thinking about sample licensing? Because that seems like the most complicated part of your business.Yes and no. We are aligned across the industry whether its with Universal Music or any of the other key, high-quality players in the industry we are very aligned that the rights of the creator have to be respected. And again, our position is super simple. Were going to focus on the creators and what creators want, and were going to try to meet their needs. So the rights of the creators have to be respected. On the Splice side of things, we take this pretty seriously and we take it seriously throughout the entirety of our process, starting with ingestion. How does a sample producer or sample pack creator come into the Splice platform? We have an entire organization that does the intake, does the quality control, and checks the provenance. If youre telling us youre the creator, do we know that youre really the creator? So that process of ingesting is something we take seriously.Is it tagged effectively? Is it tagged appropriately all the way through getting onto the platform? And all the quality stuff: Is the sound clear? Is the recording nice? All of that. On the other end of it, what is the experience of someone who is downloading a sample from Splice and able to use it? We want to make sure that every single download that you do on Splice lets you download the PDF that says, Youve got royalty free, youve got full rights to this material to use it for any kind of creation. So thats something thats a basic part of what we do, and its been that way for a long time. On top of that is the AI story, and thats the big story that everyones talking about, and I think there, its really simple as well. It should be, which is if youre going to use content to train, you should train on content that you have rights to. Its not okay to disrespect the rights of creators, and I think, again, most players in this space are pretty aligned on that.It occurs to me just as you described that, that you are a creator platform for creators.We are, yeah. Both sides of it.There are people who sit around making sample packs and then they might make money uploading sample packs to Splice, and then on the other end, youve got artists who are downloading the sample packs, paying you money to go use some in other songs. Thats a unique situation.It really is. Can I just add, go back to your sample thing?Yeah.Because you really poked me on that, and I wanted to come back to that for one second. Thats whats really magical about using samples to make music. Its not just a random sound that you got on Splice. Theres an artist at the other end of that. Just for the Sao Paulo team, we work with some of the people who are really at the forefront of funk, and what that means and what that sound is, and how its evolving. So when youre using a sample pack from Splice, youre collaborating with those people, and its a collaboration. Its a storytelling between those two different artists coming together. I think thats really fun. Its a neat part of Splice.Are there creators who make their entire living just making sample packs for you?There are some, yeah.Is that a viable approach to being a professional musician?I think it is for some people. For some people, they make hundreds of thousands of dollars. For some people, theyre building their own musical career and this is part of what theyre doing, so we see a big range of people. I will say that the revenue that weve shared with the artists on our platform over time, its at an all-time high. So its nice to be able to feel good about that, too.Ive been spending a lot of time just thinking about the economics of creator platforms, whether theyre sustainable over time. On sort of the big consumer platforms, you see that creators have to augment their income. They all have to do brand deals, they all have to do brand expansions or sponsored content or whatever.You cant really do that on a Splice. Is there a ceiling to how successful you can be on a Splice? Ill just use Espresso as an example. Sabrina Carpenter makes Espresso. Im guessing the person who made that sample pack did not get paid more money because that song was a hit, just based on how your licenses work.Yeah, thats the pro and the con of being royalty-free. We are royalty-free in that, what that means for the creators is they dont have to get stressed about it. You can use the sample. Its clear. You dont have to worry about clearing the rights. The downside is you dont get to share in the sort of upside when something big like that happens. Were really here to make sure that as many people can create as possible, and thats part of how our model works.How does your revenue work? Where does Splice take the money?We are a subscription platform. So people buy a subscription to Splice, and that gives them access to this unlimited library of sounds, along with the creative tools that were investing in heavily for the future. You get a certain number of credits per month, and use those credits to download sounds that you can then use as you want.And is growth just getting more and more artists to use Splice on both sides, as creators and as people who are subscribers?So that is growth and both is, its been an interesting journey over the last three years while Ive been here, but growth is really good.We should talk about that. I think that brings us to the Decoder questions. Youre a newish CEO. Youre three years in, you were at Adobe before. I think you had two different stints at Adobe?I did. Right out of business school and when it was a perpetual business and more recently, well on its subscription journey.Adobe is the creative software company. They have a very, I would say, back-and-forth relationship with creatives. We had [Adobe CEO] Shantanu Narayen on the show. We got feedback on that episode of Decoder like nothing else weve ever experienced.Ive heard.People have a lot of feelings about Adobe, what that software represents, what that subscription is worth, what AI means to Adobe as a company and its user base. You obviously have some of that experience. As youve come into Splice, how have you thought about applying those lessons to what is well on its way to being one of those companies for the musical community?Adobe has been a really important part of my career journey. I learned a ton of great things at Adobe, both good and bad. I was also one of the early people at Flickr, the photo-sharing site, which I dont know if you ever used, but a lot of people loved it.Theres some Flickr users right now who are writing us emails. Im just letting you know, they still love it. [Laughs]I was also head of product and marketing at GitHub. So Ive had a chance to see creator tools in multiple different places, and all of that has really informed what Im bringing here to Splice. The journey for me has been a little bit around pattern recognition. One thing that Ive seen at Flickr, at GitHub, some parts of Adobe, that I see here at Splice is that you have a business thats centered around content, and you have a lot of rich metadata around that content, and you have lots and lots of impressions around that content so that users are giving you information about it. So at Splice, we have about a million songs that are samples that are sounds that are downloaded today. Thats a lot. We have 28 million stacks that have been created using our AI tools. So we have a lot of impressions of what sounds people are listening to, how theyre creating things together, and what sounds go well together. Thats been a really interesting thing. Once you have that data, once you have that metadata, you can use that to build rich experiences on top, which is what were doing now with the creative tools, the AI-based creative tools. That feels very familiar to bring to Splice, to bring to the music industry where Ive seen it at GitHub, Ive seen it at Flickr, Ive seen it at these other places.That turn to, We are going to make the tools that actually help you create the music. You can look at it in a slightly more abstract way, right? In an early version of Splice, you downloaded some sample packs, you would open Logic or Pro Tools, and youre off to the races. Splice doesnt see what youre doing in those apps, but those are the dominant music creation apps. To this day, theyre the dominant music creation apps. Youre suggesting with something like Splice Mic or Splice Create, youre going to take some of that creation. Particularly on a phone, I think theres a lot of opportunity to reinvent how we make music. Its still fairly cumbersome. Phone screens are small. The features you launched at SXSW are interesting, because they use AI to make that a little bit faster, more seamless, more sketchy. You can sketch an idea very quickly on a phone now.Is that the extension Were going to take some of Pro Tools market share. Were going to go take some of Logics market share? So I think that word take suggests a zero-sum game. This is not a zero-sum game, right? Its about expanding and exploring the creative process. Many of our users use Splice Mic, or use our mobile app as an adjunct part of their process that they will ultimately finish inside a digital audio workstation (DAW), and I love to see that. So one of our super, super top-end producers has worked with many of the big names that you would recognize. Hell tell me, Ill get into my Uber, Ill start playing the Splice app. Ill generate a bunch of stacks so that by the time I get to the studio, Ive got a bunch of ideas that I can show the artist right away to say, Do you want to go this way or do you want to go that way? And thats a really core part of his creative process.I was just at my kids school where they have a digital music production class. And for them, listening to sounds on Splice is a really core part of learning, What does this genre sound like? What does this genre sound like? What does it mean to create a Bollywood hit? What does it mean to create something thats a K-pop sound? And I think thats a different way to use this experience. So for us, its not that were going to take [market share] away from this place or this place, but how do we expand how much were part of the creative journey in different ways?But the idea that youre going to start and finish a song in a Pro Tools, youre not looking at that.Do we think that were going to directly compete with Pro Tools? No, I dont think so. I think Pro Tools has its place, just like Photoshop has its place. There are people who tell us every single day, You will take Ableton out of my cold dead hands. Its not going to happen. And there are a lot of other parts of the creative process that are painful. So for example, when I sit down with one of our creators, inevitably there will be a situation where theyre like, Oh, we need to find a certain kind of kick drum. And theyll find a folder and theyll do a subfolder and theyll do a sub-folder, and then theyll finally find the sub-sub-sub folder that has 20 kick drum sounds that they have saved.You just go through and you listen to these sounds. That is painful. That is a painful process, and it shouldnt be that hard. And so, weve just done this new experience that we launched in October last year where we integrated with Studio One, which is one of the top DAWs, and theres a Splice integrated search with sound experience. So we listen to what youre creating inside Studio One, and well suggest the samples that go with it right there integrated as part of your creative workflow. Do I think Im going to replace Studio One? Absolutely not. Can I make the Studio One experience a lot better, because Splice is there and Splice is smart with AI? 100 percent, all day long.How do those conversations work with all those digital audio workstation providers? Theyre all very different. The companies that make them are all very different. Some of them are very quirky. Some of them are Apple, which...All of the music tech industry is very quirky.Its all very quirky. Theres a lot of, I would say, eccentric Europeans floating around this industry in particular. Its great. Its one of my favorite parts of the tech industry to cover. And then you have a company like Apple, which is, theyre just going to do whatever it wants to do. Thats just how they work. Splice has to integrate with all of it. Some of them are expanding into your zone. They are adding sample packs, libraries, and subscription features. A lot of them are adding AI tools. How does that competition and cooperation work?Generally speaking, its a very strong cooperation. Ive actually been really impressed at how collaborative the industry really is. So the conversations with Studio One was very, very positive, and were working with other partners as well to bring that integration, and its been very, very positive. I think theres generally a recognition that were good at what we do, the kind of work that we can do in terms of bringing these sample packs to the world, the global coverage, the high quality, or consistent high-quality, control process. Its not something that they want to replicate. They want to make great experiences inside Ableton, the next feature, this is not what they want to do.I think the AI stuff is new to a lot of people in the industry. I come from a core tech background. A lot of the team that Ive brought into Splice over the last few years comes from a core tech background. So, we have a lot of expertise around that, which is unique in some ways for the music tech space. So I think theres a lot of respect around that. I think theres an attractiveness to a subscription business model that has been difficult for this industry to adopt. And so, I think theres a lot of curiosity about that. Could we use a content business model to get more recurring revenue? But I think many people have found that its not as easy as it looks, and theyve struggled with it.One of the things you say about bringing people who have a core tech background is that helps you innovate in things like AI, Im sure, right? Where you just need to be on the cutting edge of the technology. Tech and music in particular have always just crashed into each other. The thing I say on the show over and over again is if you pay attention to the music industry and what tech is doing to the music industry, you have the view into what tech will do to everything else five years out.How are you thinking about that dynamic right now? Inside of Splice, youve said, I need to hire more tech people. Is it just for AI or is there something else youre trying to accomplish with the addition of that talent?Innovation is really important, and when I look at the music creation process, especially as an outsider, I feel like these music creators have been underserved with great innovative experiences, and I think its important to focus on the creative workflow and provide people better tools over time. When I think about the collision between tech and music, its weird because theres actually more similarity than dissimilarity in Splice. Inside Splice, we have some really great software developers who love music, and are music creators in their own right. We have a whole bunch of musicians and artists who think in that same weird mathy way that great software developers think. So, theres a lot of similarity. Surprisingly, theres a lot of similarity.I also think that theres this mindset out there that musicians are scared of technology, scared of innovation. I actually think that musicians love hacking. They love trying new things. Again, there was all this threat around synthesizers and all of that stuff, and then Stevie Wonder took it to a totally different, magical new place. I think artists love innovation, and it allows them better tools to get to the other place. What they dont love is push-button creation. I think if you stay away from that, if you stay close to the creative process, you will find the right ways to bring technology innovation here. I think theres something else that youre pushing on here that I think is important, and maybe its one of your Decoder questions, around how do you bring the cultural mindset from the tech industry and meld it with the music industry? And is that a difference? Is that a challenge?Yes, thats definitely where Im going. I might as well ask you the Decoder questions. Youve been the CEO for three years. How is Splice structured today? How have you changed it?This is the tech part. We are fundamentally a product company first. So my largest organization at Splice is the product development organization, and thats product managers, engineers, designers, and [customer support]. And whats neat about that is, I do keep CX very close to product. Because I think that tight loop is super important. Wait, I just want to make sure. CX is customer experience? Customer support.Customer support, okay.So support, design, engineers, [product managers], theyre all in one org and thats product development, and its our largest org. Our second largest org is our content team. And those are the people that theyre going to Brazil, theyre going to South Korea, theyre going to India, theyre recording these sounds. Its our quality control department. Its our data and ingesting, and metadata tagging groups. So thats the content org. Maybe the third thing that Ill point out thats really important to me and how I structure the org. Is we have a very strong central data organization that reports directly to me. So a lot of people put that inside product dev, but for me, datas important for content, datas important for marketing. Datas obviously important for finance and how we run the business. Its really important for product. So I have that as a central organization, and again, it reports directly to me.How big is Splice now? How many people is it?Were about 200 people, a little bit less than 200 people.And how is it split between those three groups?So product dev is our largest org, maybe 80, 60, somewhere between there. And then content is the next biggest, and its somewhere between 40 and 60.One of the really interesting things here, again, its a creator platform for creators, which is just an interesting dynamic. Other creator platforms at scale, they say they have investments in content teams, but they really just hope the scale carries them forward, right? Instagram does not have some huge content team that is traveling the world to get content. They just wait for people to come to them.Its the same with YouTube or TikTok or whoever else. They might manage some of their top influencers, but really the volume of content comes to them. Is that a tipping point that you think Splice can reach, or do you want to maintain control over the library?Its really important for us to make sure our library is the highest quality that it can be. So, its not going to be a free-for-all where anyone is uploading anything they want, because we need to maintain that high quality, especially in the age of AI, right? Theres all kinds of stuff thats being uploaded to all of these big platforms, so its never going to be that way for us.And so, thats just a core investment, right? Its a core piece of, I think, your cost model. How was Splice organized before? Again, youre three years into it, how have you changed that structure? Is it still largely the same, or have you reoriented the company?So I think the biggest change has been around, I would say, three big ideas Nilay, which are core to how I run a business. The first is data. Ive brought in a lot more data people. Its very, very critical. The reason thats important for me is because I need to understand what our customers actually care about. So, how are they voting with their clicks as opposed to whatever opinions everybody else has. So, thats a big investment.The second is design, and that is really where data and the math and the science turns into something else, which is a real experience that people can feel. Its where the art becomes magic. The reason thats important is because were serving creative people, and thats what creative people do as well they take all of these inputs and they turn it into something new. So building a strong design team that is either made up of music creators themselves or people who spend a lot of time with music creators is really important. And the third thing that I really brought in thats important is that we build our products with the customers. So everything that we launch, there are tools that we built in to allow people to give us feedback. In fact, when we launched Create, the biggest button in the Create experience was the feedback button. It was weird, but it was important for us. Every single time someone typed in something to give us feedback, it comes into a Slack channel thats with all the designers and the engineers and the product managers. So were actively talking about the feedback from the customers as its coming in, and responding to it for the next version. I love that. I absolutely love that we build product that way. I think everyone should build product that way.One of the reasons I always ask about structure on the show is that its a proxy for culture. You kind of get what you get. You make some big choices about how things are organized, and that leads to a culture. Youre in an interesting spot because you took over for co-founders. One co-founder left, he was a CTO in 2019. The other co-founder, Steve Martocci, hes the executive chairman now, but hes off doing another startup. How have you thought about changing the culture, inheriting the culture, and the balance between the two?The reason I love your question around structure is because I do see that its a proxy for values, and thats why I answered it the way I did around data, design, and building with customers. Those are fundamental values that I want to bring and inculcate into the company. Theres something else that we also did that was around building culture. I spent a lot of time listening to the team, trying to learn what made this culture unique, and then I reflected back to the organization, Hey, these are the values that Im hearing from you all. Do you think this captures it?And we came up with something that we call our DISCO values: direct, inclusive, Spliced together, creator-centric, and optimistic. And even though these are new values that we came up with after I joined, they have felt so authentic to the culture that we have thats existed for a long time, but its given voice to it. So DISCO is something we talk about a lot. Every single new employee that comes on talks about which DISCO value they resonate with most. We use it in performance reviews. We do use it for shout-outs. Its a core part of who we are.The second Decoder question, which is also in many ways a proxy for culture and values, is about decisions. How do you make decisions? Whats your framework?This is something that Im working on. Ive always been a very math and science kind of person. Ive always been someone whos very analytical. I use a lot of data. I have a framework for decision-making. I study all the different tools for decision-making, but as the decision sets that come to me become more complex, and as we operate in an increasingly more complex world, fires, politics, etc., I have found myself relying more and more on intuition, and I think balancing those two.So, I would say that my decision-making process is, I will drown myself in data. I will really get deep. People know in my team that I spend a lot of time on our dashboards. I will spend a lot of time watching research videos and understanding how people are using our tools. I will spend a lot of time personally talking to different customers. Im talking to customers all the time, and once Ive kind of drowned myself in all this information, Ill just try to listen deeply, and usually the answer is very clear.All right. Were going to put this into practice because the making creative software for creative people in the age of AI is about as tense as it gets in the balance between what the numbers are telling us and how the people feel. And what I mean specifically is the numbers are telling everyone that people are using the AI tools. Just down the line, every software maker Ive talked to has introduced AI tools with any meaningful value, says the users are using them, theyre clicking the buttons, theyre doing generative fill all day long. Im sure you see that in your numbers, too.Then what you hear from the creatives on social media or online, or in letters to Congress is, Get this out of my face. They stole everything from me. And that is about as big of a divide in tech, in culture, in creativity as I have ever experienced. I think that is challenging a lot of how everyone is going to make decisions. So Im going to read you a quote from one of your ostensible competitors, and it tracks with everything youre saying, but I suspect you are going to disagree with this quote, and I just want to sit with that for a minute.Yeah, lets do it.So you have said, Right, creators just want to create, they want all this stuff to get out of their way. So heres the CEO of Suno, Mikey Shulman. Suno is just push a button, it makes you a song, right? You say country song, it just spits out a country song at you. And heres what he recently said: It takes a lot of time, a lot of practice. You have to get really good at an instrument or really good at a piece of production software. I think the majority of people dont enjoy the majority of time they spend making music. It is not really enjoyable to make music now.Now Ive made a lot of music. I have no idea what Mikey Shulman is talking about. I think its quite fun to make music, but that does track with what youre saying, that you just want to get the software out of the way. You want to get the creators creating. But he spun the knob all the way to just prompt me for a song. And a lot of people reacted to this quote very strongly.Yeah, I heard a lot of feedback. How do you sit in the middle of that to say, Theres a line and Im going to enforce the line, and were not just going to prompt it all the way to a song?Also, do you think hes right? Do you think people dont enjoy making music?Heres what I have learned by serving creative people for most of my career: the creative process is essential for people who create. Its not essential for everybody. For the people who create, it is a sacred experience. It is a core part of who they are. They cant not do it. And there is a struggle, but the struggle is to authentically translate what is inside you into something else. And sometimes, your tools will help you will enable you to do that and other times your tools will get in the way. Understanding the distinction between those two is the whole ball game, but its really about allowing the struggle to come to life. Giving birth to something new is hard, but its profoundly important, and to dismiss it by this push-button set of tools, its insulting, its dismissive, its reductive. And, I think the creative process and creative people deserve better. They deserve better technology that enables them, as opposed to reducing this profound activity to a button.So this is where I think the line is inherently qualitative, right? Well, heres what were going to do and heres what were not going to do. And the tension of, Its not really enjoyable to make music now, you can describe that as using the software sucks, or I just want to have an idea and hear it as fast as I can. And then you can describe it the way youre saying, which is theres some parts of the struggle that are the creative process, which make the art compelling. Its profoundly important.If the data tells you that people really want to just click the button and make the music, are your values strong enough to not send you all the way down the road?I think it depends on which people youre listening to. We are really clear about the people that were listening to. We are listening to creative people who love the process of music creation, that its essential for them. Yes, are there challenges? But the challenge is the creative process, right? That is the challenge. And for those people, the signals are really clear. They do not want push button creativity. In fact, like I was sharing before, when we gave them Create for the first time, theyre like, This is too simple. I dont want this. I want something that gives me more creative freedom, more creative control. And so for us, the signal, the people were listening to are super clear and the signals theyre giving us, theres no confusion in what they want. They want more creative process. They want more creative control.The other side of this marketplace is consumers. We see consumers and fans all the time now react very strongly to AI generated imagery. In particular, you make a movie poster and its got a bunch of AI in it. The fans are going toIts not just Photoshop.That movie poster is coming down. Its maybe different in AI. Its not in your face. You cant see that the characters in the movie poster have 12 fingers and their hair bleeds into the skyscraper behind them. Its not as obvious, but its there. Do you perceive that kind of consumer or fan backlash to AI in music the same way that we see it in visual art?We havent seen it yet. Heres what I have seen. I have seen really clear signals from our customers that they are not really interested in computer-generated samples, and its clearly not our strategy. We are in fact investing in more human-created samples, human-curated samples. This is why were sending people out to the sort of subgenre locations, talking to authentic artists, getting their voices. Its really important for our strategy to continue to do that, because people want to connect with the stories of the real artists on the other side of the sample. So thats really, really important, and really clear for us.I think what an end user whos listening to Sabrina Carpenter today and will listen to somebody elses music tomorrow, what they can hear is going to be interesting, is going to evolve over time. I love that Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for music, and the people who won the Pulitzer Prize for music, when that award was first introduced, it was a completely different sound. So what art is and what is acceptable changes over time. I would expect it to continue to change over time, so I dont want to reflect on that. I know that artists will use different tools, and they will use AI-based tools. Absolutely.At least on the visual imagery side, theres a lot of endless, sort of futile, discussion about watermarks and encryption, and letting people know when images were edited by AI or created by AI. I would not say thats come to anything, and I would say there are some deep and meaningful challenges with even making that technology work consistently. Theres not anything quite like that on the music side.No, there isnt.Do you think there should be?I think its going to be really hard to disambiguate around sound, and around images, around video. Youve had some really great conversations about this topic on your podcast. Ive listened to them. I think its a really important debate and discussion to have. There is going to be a bunch of bad AI-generated content out there. Its already happening. Its going to happen with music. I think that the toothpaste is out of the tube. I think as an industry, we have to do the right thing around respecting the rights of creators, and doing the right thing with respect to training data, respecting credits. This is work that has to happen. I dont think its solved yet. Maybe some of these cases that are open will help us get to the right answer, but I dont think its going to come out of watermarking.You talked about the flood of AI content thats coming. We can all see it. The big consumer platforms are embracing it. I think to some extent, Mark Zuckerberg would love it if all the content on Facebook was AI and he was paying zero out to creators. I think to some extent, YouTube is really leaning into the idea that you should interact with your favorite creators through AI avatars, and that they should make even more videos or AI should help them make even more videos to increase the volume of content that appears. Thats all very complicated. I dont know exactly how its going to play out, but I understand the incentives for those platforms to make those choices to say, Actually, what we want always is more content because that will create more attention and we can serve more ads, and were in this finite zero-sum intention game. Youre not in that game specifically. You dont have those incentives, and you do allow artists to make music with AI using your tools. Do you allow AI-generated samples to enter your library?We do not. We do not.Draw that distinction. Why is it okay to make music with AI but not to have it in the sample library?I think its what users are coming to Splice for today. They are coming to find those authentic sounds made by humans. Thats not to say that people arent using AI to master sounds or things like that. Youre using AI to master your audio and video probably here. I think those are tools, and thats fine as long as theres an authentic artists artistic vision and voice behind it. So, thats super important for us to continue to be focused there. With respect to these social platforms that youre talking about, I think thats a really important insight. And inasmuch as these social platforms are important for our creators as a way to share their output, to share their musical idea, theyre really important for us.But these social platforms have grown because they allow people to have emotional connection with each other. Im really angry about this particular issue, or Im reaching out for support for these fires in LA, or these connections that we make, and finding support around this very specific cancer that I have that I cant find other people to connect with online. If we erode that, if we erode those actual emotional connections between people in order to save a buck in paying out creators, I think the value of these platforms will diminish over time, and maybe thats okay. Maybe we shouldnt spend so much time on TikTok. Maybe we should spend more time creating music on our own.So I think these are really interesting evolutions that are going to happen in the industry. And as a mom, I care a lot about where some of this stuff goes. For Splice and as the CEO of Splice, my focus is going to stay the same, which is Im focused on creators, Im focused on what they need, and so many things our users create just to hang out on their desktop because it was just for the joy of creating. And some of it goes on and becomes a Billboard top 100 hit. Great. Im happy that that happens, but Im just as happy that someone is spending time creating, and it just hangs out on their desktop.Let me ask that again in just a different frame. I want to push on it. It feels important to me.Yeah.Weve talked a lot about active creation and what the tools are for and the fact that your customers, artists, do not want ready-made, push-button songs. They want controls. They want to add something to what the computer-generated product is giving them, right? They want to add something to the AI, they want to add something to the samples, and that process of addition creates additional value. Some very important songs have been made that way using Splice and other tools. But youre saying that is not a good enough argument to get AI-generated audio into the sample library, and Im just wondering why the difference, because you could make the same argument. I use Splice to generate some samples. I tweak them, I filter them. I made a bunch of different things. If its good enough for me to send to a major label and play on the radio, shouldnt it be good enough to get into the Splice sample library?So I think that the distinction in my mind, and I think for many of our creators is that, is it AI-generated, or was AI used as a tool to bring a human creators idea to life? Do people use technology to create the samples that end up on Splice? Absolutely. People are using Pro Tools. People are using synthesizers. People are using lots of tools and technology, and like I said, some of those tools might be AI-based, like mastering tools or mixing tools, things like that. That is really different from, Ive created an algorithm to pump out a whole bunch of samples that are computer-generated for the mass market. Those are not going to end up on Splice, I will guarantee, but if theres an authentic user, the Stevie Wonder of the AI age, who is creating art that they care deeply about, and theyre using AI tools as part of that process, absolutely. That distinction is very important.I agree its important. I just dont know how to write it down in a way that can be consistently enforced across all the geographies that youre operating in, with all of your teams going out in the world, or in a way thats understandable to artists who might want to be part of Splice. Is there a definition you have of where the line is? For how much AI is too much?For me, again, I will take it down to something very simple. Theres a human being who we have a relationship with on both sides of our platform, and so on the side of the platform where we are working with a musician, an artist, an instrumentalist who wants to provide a sample to Splice. We actually have a relationship with them, and we talk to them about what theyre trying to do, what the idea behind their label is, what is their artistic vision, and we will work with them. What is your tool set? How are you doing it? How many sample packs do we need every quarter? All of those kinds of things. And some of those people are, theres a Japanese potter who is making handmade percussion instruments that he then records, that end up on Splice. Thats a really cool part of the process. And then, weve got crazy kids making all kinds of super electronic, super grungy, super sharp technical sounds, and theyve got a different tool set that theyre using as part of their process. Were not going to tell them, Oh, you cant use this tool because its AI-generated or not, but do you have that authentic vision for what youre creating? And its not that difficult to tell the difference between a person who is creating that way, and a person who is like, I typed in a bunch of prompts and I got a whole plethora of computer-generated sounds.The other extremely challenging piece of the puzzle with AI-generated content is when you veer into impersonation. Weve seen this in the hip-hop industry a lot recently. Weve seen it with OpenAI and Scarlett Johanssons voice. Theres a lawsuit. The voice got pulled. Who knows how thats going to play out? We see theres the Elvis Act, in Tennessee where impersonation is illegal, and I dont think theres a great answer for whether Elvis impersonators themselves are now illegal. Are you playing in that space where youre letting people use artist voices or sound-alikes?Were not. I think there are lots of people who are playing in that space or interested in that space. We are focused on creative people, and creative people are actually really clear with us. They are coming to Splice because they want to find their authentic sound, and so we work really hard at the very other end of that, which is how do we allow our users to authentically find their own vibe?Voices is one thing, right? Theyre pretty recognizable. The fake Drake song set the industry ablaze. It was just very obviously a fake Drake song, or Drakes voice. Theres not a great legal system for saying, Thats Drakes voice. You cant use it. Well get there. It seems like were on our way to understanding how to get there. Then theres kind of the existing mess of music copyright. We talk about the Blurred Lines case on this show a lot. I think more than any other podcast weve talked about Blurred Lines, a song which came and went and whose moment is over, but it continues to come up on Decoder maybe once a month, right? That lawsuit is you guys stole a vibe from Marvin Gaye, not notes, not chords, not anything direct, but the jury was like, These vibes are too close. Robin Thicke and Pharrell have to pay the money.Thats something you could very easily see a user of Splice wandering into, right? Were going to prompt for a beat. Were going to do a stack. Were going to layer some samples and were going to get to a vibe thats too close to another artist. Is that something you worry about? Is that something you try to protect users from? It feels like in the age of AI, its ever more of a danger.It is, and its also been a core part of how music evolves over time. Theres this whole conversation around reheated nachos and what that means, and I think artists and musicians build upon each others work. Theyre influenced by each other, and this conversations been around since the beginning of sampling, which is what am I referring to when I use this sample, and whats the story that Im trying to tell?You could argue that its derivative, or you could argue that its an homage, or you could argue that its building on a shared piece of work thats a community piece of work that continues to evolve over time. I think that thats what makes art and music in particular super fascinating. I love that you guys have this whole debate around that particular song. I think its fascinating. I think its going to continue to grow, and whats right and wrong should be defined by the artists.But the idea that you would accidentally boost too much of an existing song by using an AI tool, which is trained on bits and pieces of existing songs. Thats a new danger, right? I mean, the cycle youre talking about with music, I agree has existed since music. Were all building on one another. Were all lifting bits and pieces. Great artists steal. Everybody kind of understands it, and along the way, there has been a lot of litigation. Thats the other part of the cycle.The push and pull is people being very unhappy about the money, and now were at a place where its easier than ever to be derivative, and the money is absolutely not clear that artists are very upset about their work being trained on, maybe not in your tools, but certainly in other tools. The labels are suing Suno and Udio, its competitor, for training on their data. Do you see that resolving? Because it seems like the problem is going to get worse faster than the legal system will even comprehend the technology.Most of these problems get worse before the legal system catches up. I mean, we know this. We know this for privacy, we know this for many areas. Technology outpaces how quickly legislative action catches up. I think in the music industry, were doing a lot of work to try to create standards within, so were a part of a coalition of, again, great companies in the music space that are saying, Weve got to support ethical AI. We have to support the rights of creators. We have to make sure our training data is clean. So, I think there are a lot of companies that are trying to do the right thing. Is there one standard that has won out amongst all the others? No, but I know that a lot of people are working really hard on this problem, and we are too. We care deeply about the rights of creators, so thats going to stay really important for us.How do you feel about the labels suing Suno and Udio? Is that something thats a warning sign for you? Is that something you support? Do you think that that is going to get resolved?I think what the labels are trying to do is support the rights of the creators, and we are a creator-centric company, so we absolutely support the rights of the creators. Do I take one side or the other? No. Ultimately, its always going to be about the creators first, and I know my customers deeply care about the fact that they have rights to the content they create using Splice. Thats why we allow people to download the rights PDF. It matters to people, even if theyre not putting their song up on Spotify or trying to make a billion dollars from it, they want to know that they have the ability to do that. So thats what governs our decisions around clean training data, ethical AI, etc.If I wanted to sign up for a Splice account, download a bunch of tracks, and then train my own AI on them, is that allowed in your license?Its not allowed.And you spell that out. You say you cant train AI on these tracks?Yeah.I bring this up and you probably dont know, Im going to pre-apologize to you for this question because I know you havent seen this document, but just go with it. Basically what Im saying, Im asking a question just today, Im sure you havent seen it, but Google filed a letter with the government basically saying, Look, you need to make an exception of fair use to allow us to train on everything. OpenAI filed a similar letter in the past few days.Theres a big push from the AI companies to say, Look, we just need this stuff. Give it to us. We dont want to pay for this. It has to be fair use. This is going to slow us down too much. At the same time, youre saying, Here in our license were saying you cant do that. Do you think that can get resolved? That seems like a big problem where if you steal enough of it, you get to write a letter to the government saying, Write us an exception. And if you steal a little of it, you might end up in court. And I dont know how to resolve that.Yeah, I dont either. Its such an important issue. And the scale of the Internet, the scale of content on the internet is so vast that What is fair use? What is not fair use? What is public consumption? What is public record? What is public ownership? We are in uncharted territory, and were going to be watching it just like you are.How would you write a fairer system if you were clean sheeting this? How would you write a fairer system that makes creators feel valued, gets them paid, and still allows people to build these AI systems that a lot of people are getting some value out of?I would love to say that Im the expert who could write something like that. I have a much more straightforward problem to look after, which is, how do I help creative people be creative and get the ideas from their hearts and minds out there? Yeah, Im going to leave that problem to people way smarter than me, who are legal minds who are working really hard on this.Well, if I get anyone on the show who has an answer, Ill let you know.Youre a lawyer, right?I just talk for a living. I havent done anything useful in a long time. Kakul, youve given us so much time. Whats next for Splice? What should people be looking out for?So, whats next for Splice is that were going to keep going deeper into the creative process. Ive been really public about this with my blog posts and all of that. Users keep telling us, I love Splice. I want it deeper in my creative process. So whether its these partnerships that were doing with DAWs, thinking through how we build more creative flexibility for users on our own platform, whether its with Create or Splice Mic, theres a lot for us still to do, and well keep going down that path.All right. Well have to have you back soon as some of these issues play out. Thank you so much for coming by.I would love to. I had such an enjoyable conversation. Thank you so much, Nilay.Questions or comments about this episode? Hit us up at decoder@theverge.com. We really do read every email!Decoder with Nilay PatelA podcast from The Verge about big ideas and other problems.SUBSCRIBE NOW!See More:

Apple is bringing higher-fidelity audio to its AirPods Max headphones in April, the company announced today. When the $549 headphones switched to a USB-C connector last year, they lost support for wired audio playback but Apple is about to rectify that with full lossless support, which even the prior Lightning model technically lacked.With the included USB-C cable, users can enjoy the highest-quality audio across music, movies, and games, while music creators can experience significant enhancements to songwriting, beat making, production, and mixing, the company wrote in a press release on Monday. With this update, AirPods Max will unlock 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio, preserving the integrity of original recordings and allowing listeners to experience music the way the artist created it in the studio. Lossless support extends to Personalized Spatial Audio, Apple noted.The previous edition of the AirPods Max with a Lightning connector dont offer true lossless playback because of a signal conversion that occurs whenever a wired input is used.Theres also an ultra low latency aspect to this soon-to-arrive update, which the company says should make the AirPods Max better suited for music production and gaming purposes. The new firmware update will roll out alongside iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 sometime in April.You can use a USB-C to USB-C cord for lossless audio, but Apple is also now selling a $39 USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable that shares the same braided design as the companys other recent cables.

When Pocketpair's monster capturing survival adventure Palworld launched, many people compared it to Pokemon, specificallycalling it "Pokemon with guns." It's not Pocketpair's favorite comparison, according to communications director John 'Bucky' Buckley, but the thought of collecting a following of adorable monsters has nonetheless prompted a number of people to ask if Palworld would ever make it to Pokemon's platform of choice, the Nintendo Switch.Unfortunately, according to Buckley, that's not in the cards, largely due to technical reasons. "If we could make the game work on the Switch, we would, but Palworld is a beefy game."PlayI spoke to Buckley at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week following his talk, 'Community Management Summit: A Palworld Roller Coaster: Surviving the Drop.' During our chat, I also asked Buckley about the possibility of a Nintendo Switch 2 release. He said that Pocketpair is interested, but hasn't gotten a chance to see if a port is even possible yet."We haven't seen those specs yet," he said. "Like everyone else, we're waiting. I'm walking around GDC hoping someone will tell me them, but everyone I've spoken to says they haven't even seen them."If it's beefy enough, it's 100% worth considering. We did a lot of optimization for Steam Deck, which we were really happy with. Still work to do, but we're really happy with how it turned out. So we would like to get it on more handhelds if possible."Pocketpair remains entangled in a lawsuit from Nintendo over alleged patent infringement against Pokemon's ball-throwing mechanics, leading some to speculate that to be the actual reason Palworld hadn't made it to Switch.But the lawsuit isn't really what's stopping the studio from releasing games on Nintendo's platforms, as we saw back in January. Buckley addressed the lawsuit very briefly in his GDC talk, saying that it caught the team by surprise, and that the team had done numerous legal checks in the lead-up to release in order to prevent that exact thing. "Pretty much everyone at Pocketpair is a huge fan [of Pokemon]," Buckley said in the talk, "so it was a very depressing day, everyone heads down and walking in the rain."The question is, would Nintendo allow a game it's taken such issue with on its next-gen console?We'll be posting our full interview with Buckley at GDC later this week, so keep checking back for more about Palworld. In the meantime, it's a great time to revisit Palworld if you've stepped away, as the game just got cross-platform play in a new update last week.Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Bloodborne turns 10 years old today, and fans are celebrating by organizing yet another return to Yharnam community event.FromSoftwares PlayStation 4 masterpiece launched on March 24, 2015, and helped cement the Japanese developer as one of the greatest of our time. Critical and commercial acclaim followed, and a follow-up in the vein of the Dark Souls sequels seemed inevitable.But since then nothing. Why hasnt Sony followed up Bloodborne with either a current-gen remaster, a full-on sequel, or at the very least a next-gen update that would finally make it officially playable in 60fps? Fans have begged Sony for more Bloodborne ever since it came out. The deafening silence in response remains one of the most puzzling business decisions in all video games.PlayEarlier this year, we got an explanation of sorts. Following his exit from Sony, PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida revealed his Bloodborne no-show theory. To be clear up front: this is Yoshidas opinion, which in an interview with Kinda Funny Games he stressed was not inside information, or the reveal of the current deliberations within the bowels of Sony itself.Bloodborne has always been the most asked thing, Yoshida said. And people wonder why we havent really done anything, even an update or a remaster. Should be easy, right? The company is known for doing so many remasters, right, some people get frustrated.I have only my personal theory to that situation. I left first-party so I dont know whats going on, but my theory is, you know because I remember, you know, Miyazaki-san really, really loved Bloodborne, you know, what he created. So I think he is interested, but hes so successful and hes so busy, so he doesnt want, he cannot do himself, but he does not want anyone else to touch it. So thats my theory. And the PlayStation team respect his wish. So thats my guess, right? Theory. I am not revealing any secret information, to be clear.Miyazaki-san is of course Hidetaka Miyazaki, the boss of FromSoftware. And yes, hes incredibly successful. Not only for the influential Dark Souls series, but, most recently, the mainstream hit Elden Ring, which propelled FromSoftware to new heights. So much so that its getting a multiplayer spin-off this year.The Best PS4 Games (Summer 2020 Update)And it seems obvious to say Miyazaki will be incredibly busy with multiple projects to direct and a company to run. After Bloodborne came out in 2015, Miyazaki directed Dark Souls 3, then 2019s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for Activision, then the aforementioned Elden Ring for Bandai Namco. What's next? Miyazaki has yet to say.In interviews, Miyazaki often deflects questions about Bloodborne, pointing to the fact FromSoftware does not own the IP. But in February last year, Miyazaki at least admitted the game would benefit from a release on more modern hardware.In the years since, modders have tried to fill the gaps with fan-made projects that improve upon the base PS4 Bloodborne experience. But Sony has taken a dim view. Well-known Bloodborne 60fps mod creator Lance McDonald announced in January that hed received a takedown notification on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment asking that I remove links to the patch I posted on the internet, so I've now done so. The DMCA takedown arrived four years after the mod was released.Then, just a week later, Lilith Walther, creator of Nightmare Kart, which was previously known as Bloodborne Kart, and the eye-catching Bloodborne PSX demake, tweeted to say an old YouTube video of the demake was hit with a copyright claim.Recently, fans managed to get PS4 emulators to deliver something akin to a remaster on PC. The tech experts at Digital Foundry released a video covering a breakthrough in PS4 emulation via ShadPS4, which means Bloodborne is now fully playable start to finish in 60fps. Could this breakthrough have triggered an aggressive response from Sony? IGN asked Sony for comment at the time, but it has yet to respond.Thats all we have to go on, really, which leaves Bloodborne fans to take it upon themselves to organize Return to Yharnam community events. Another kicks off today, on Bloodbornes 10th anniversary, and calls on fans to create a new character, and summon as many random cooperators and invaders as possible, and leave in-game messages flagging theyre a part of this latest community drive.Perhaps this will be all thats left for fans to do in the world of Bloodborne forever more.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

With the Deluxe Edition of Atomfall launching today, and the regular game releasing with Xbox Game Pass this Thursday, March 27, I thought it would be an opportune moment to give you a few choice tips for how to survive life inside the Quarantine Zone.For those of you new to the game, Atomfall is an action-survival mystery set in the UK. The story takes place five years after the real-life events of the 1957 Windscale Disaster in the North of England. In the world of Atomfall, a quarantine zone has been established around the Windscale Atom Plant and no one has been allowed in or out for five years. Life and society have changed and adapted under these trying circumstances, and gangs of strange folk now wander the countryside.You wake up in a bunker with no idea who you are or how you got there. Given the circumstances, you have little choice but to set out on a journey to discover what really happened at Windscale and maybe try to find out who you are in the process.The world of Atomfall is essentially a large sandbox where you are free to explore and investigate at your own pace and in your own style. The way you approach every encounter and each scenario is completely up to you, but here are a few bits of advice to get you started.1) Pick your PlaystyleBefore you start the actual game, youll be prompted to set your playstyle. There are five pre-sets to cater for different approaches, as well as the option to customise this further should you wish. They adjust the challenge of combat, survival and exploration in the game.Sightseer a low-pressure mode for those who want to enjoy the narrative and exploration of Atomfall.Investigator for players who enjoy unguided exploration but prefer lighter survival and combat.Brawler you enjoy combat but prefer lighter survival and guided exploration.Survivor the classic Atomfall experience. A balance between combat and survival.Veteran harsh combat and consequences, a gritty battle for survival.Survivor offers the recommended Atomfall experience but pick whichever best suits you and the way you want to play. And dont worry, if you get into the game, and feel youve made a mistake, these settings can be adjusted at any time in the Options menu.2) Following LeadsAtomfall doesnt have a traditional quest or mission system. Instead, we have Leads snippets of information that you will uncover as you explore the world. There are numerous ways you can discover Leads, such as through conversations, tape recordings or by finding letters and items as you investigate the areas in the game. Discovering a new Lead will help you piece together the puzzle of what happened inside the Quarantine Zone, but how you use that information is up to you.In Survivor difficulty, the game does not add waypoints to your map or compass by default, but you can manually place markers on the map, which will then be shown on the in-game compass during play. If you do prefer a more guided experience, you can also adjust the Exploration settings in the Options menu.3) Where to StartSo, where is a good place to gather some Leads at the start of the game? When you leave the bunker, you are greeted by the lush open countryside of Slatten Dale. Directly in front of you is a ringing phone box that is just begging to be answered.Head down the hill to the left and youll come across Nat. Hes a talkative fellow and provided you dont offend him might be convinced to give you directions to find the nearby Molly, a trader who happens to indulge in lots of juicy gossip. Once youve have had a chat with Molly and maybe done a deal or two, why not visit the nearby village of Wyndham, where there is plenty to explore? We heartily recommend taking in the sights. Maybe visit the church or frequent the village shops, bakery and, of course, the village pub, to discover some Leads.Wyndham is under the control of Protocol a military force who was sent in when quarantine was put into effect to keep the peace. You can find their leader, Captain Sims at the band stand in the centre of the village, where he regularly harangues the populace.4) Pick your FightsAs you explore the various areas in the game you will encounter all sorts of colourful characters and gangs, some friendly, some less so. Remember that, when confronted, force is not always the best course of action many folks youll meet are just trying to make their way, same as you. Knowing when to back down and head for safety can be a great survival tool.Before charging into any fight, our suggestion is observe, plan, execute. Think about who youre fighting. Are they armed and, if so, with what? Can you take them out silently or should you just slip past and hope they dont notice you? Any course of action is open to you. It is, in fact, entirely possible to complete the game without killing anyone (although it is extremely challenging).5) Listen CarefullyYou will meet a host of weird and wonderful folk as you explore Atomfall. Some of these will want to trade but remember that money is useless in the Quarantine Zone, so bartering will be key. Others may have Leads that could help you understand what really happened at the Windscale Atom Plant. Some may have both. Others will simply push their own selfish agendas.You need to listen carefully and give real thought to the way you reply in order to gain an understanding of who you want to trust and who you dont. Some characters will play you off against another and may even want you to kill for them. Choosing the path you take, which Leads to follow, and who to trust will ultimately determine the end of the game, so choose wisely!6) Search and Scavenge Whenever You CanResources are scarce in the Quarantine Zone. Guns and ammunition are particularly hard to come by, so waste them at your peril. Take every opportunity you can to search areas for resources be that food, weapons or other items.As you explore you will also uncover Manuals that teach you new skills and unlock them by finding Training Stimulants. You can then choose which skills will be most beneficial to you and your playstyle.You will also acquire the ability to craft various resource and tonics that will help you fight, survive and heal. There is limited space in your backpack, so make sure to craft what you need as you go in order to have the best weapons and tools at your disposal.You can also make use of pneumatic dispatch tubes that you find in various places around the game world, a still-functioning relic of the military and science facilities. These are extremely useful for storing items that you dont immediately need access to. For example, you might find a great shotgun but have no bullets so you can choose to store it and then grab it back once you have enough shells to make the best use of it.Hopefully that little lot should give a little bit of a head start in the world of Atomfall. I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we have enjoyed building such a unique and mysterious experience.See you in the Quarantine Zone!Atomfall Deluxe EditionRebellion$79.99Get it nowDeluxe Edition includes:The entire Atomfall game3 days Early AccessStory Expansion Pack (*not available Day 1):Basic Supply Bundle PackEnhanced Supply Bundle PackA survival-action game inspired by real-life events, Atomfall is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England.Explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies.From Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite and Zombie Army, Atomfall will challenge you to solve the dark mystery of what really happened.Player Driven Mystery: Unravel a tapestry of interwoven narratives through exploration, conversation, investigation, and combat, where every choice you make has consequences.Explore this Green and Unpleasant Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you.Search, Scavage, Survive: Youll need to scavenge for supplies, craft weapons and items, and fight desperately to make it out alive! AtomfallRebellion2$59.99Pre-orderPre-order the Atomfall Standard Edition to receive:Basic Supply Bundle Supplies are scarce in the quarantine zone. Improve your chances for survival with additional items to find, including an exclusive melee weapon to help you in those brutal close-quarters engagements.Exclusive Melee Weapon VariantAdditional Loot CacheItem RecipeA survival-action game inspired by real-life events, Atomfall is set five years after the Windscale nuclear disaster in Northern England.Explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk your way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies.From Rebellion, the studio behind Sniper Elite and Zombie Army, Atomfall will challenge you to solve the dark mystery of what really happened.Player Driven Mystery: Unravel a tapestry of interwoven narratives through exploration, conversation, investigation, and combat, where every choice you make has consequences.Explore this Green and Unpleasant Land: The picturesque British countryside, with rolling green hills, lush valleys, and rural villages belie the dangers that await you.Search, Scavage, Survive: Youll need to scavenge for supplies, craft weapons and items, and fight desperately to make it out alive!

Spring is almost here, which means it's almost time for backyard parties, outdoor hangouts, and nights spent by the fire pit without freezing half to death. As you've been prepping your house for its first round of seasonal cleaning, planning out the trips you're going to take later in the year, and keeping up with your previously scheduled life, you may have procrastinated thinking ahead to home maintenance that will get your home spring-ready. (We know we have.) Luckily, there's still time to make the exterior of your home the envy of all your neighbors, and a delight for friends to visit come spring. We asked a handful of landscape professionals to share landscaping ideas that could easily be completed within a month, and they did not hold back. From DIY-friendly ideas to professionally-done jobs, the 11 landscaping ideas below will transform any yard, big or small, into the place to be this spring and summer. If that wasn't enough motivation to get landscaping, these additions will almost definitely add resale value to your property too. (Sure, a beautiful green yard does a lot for your curb appeal, but hardscaping adds personality and originality to your exterior, too.)From retaining walls to river rock borders, these landscaping ideas offer inspiration as we creep closer to spring. And the effort you put in will be so worth it when you can finally take advantage of your outdoor space again. Additional copy by Stefanie Waldek.Related StoriesPut In a Raised Herb GardenNeil Landino JrAnyone with a yard and even a tiny bit of a green thumb should be growing their own herbs for use in the kitchen. Even though it serves a practical purpose, your herb garden should look just as elevated as the rest of your yardand accomplishing that is easier than you think with a raised garden bed. "One long raised bed or container will be able to furnish fresh herbs easily," says landscape architect Janice Parker. There are many different types of beds you can opt for, from wooden to steel, to suit the style of your home, from wooden to steel.You can even find a ready-to-go kit that does the prep work for you. "The nice thing about a do-it-yourself raised bed kit or planter is that you can put it in the area of your garden where you will get the most sun and where it will be easy to water," Parker adds. While she suggests buying small herbs from a nursery rather than starting from seed, it's definitely possible to grow thriving herbs that way. Invest in a Fire BowlNeil Landino JrFor a relatively quick yard addition, Parker suggests adding a fire bowl to your landscape, especially if you have a smaller yard. "These features are typically gas burning, which is a big plus if you want easy clean up," Parker says. "Plus, they come in a wide variety of sculptural styles that can really enhance your landscape design aesthetic." Such additions can be seen as functional pieces of art for your outdoor space. But don't forget practical considerations. Parker emphasizes the importance of placing it close enough to the house (without it being a hazard) so you can still reach the WiFi! Create Rock BordersCourtesy of Borst LandscapeA river rock installation by Borst Landscape & Design.Karl Wahlberg of Borst Landscape & Design suggests putting in a river rock installation for an easy landscaping idea that can be completed in less than a month. "River rock controls any soil erosion, especially in the seasons of heavy rain, and helps prevent weeds," he explains. Plus, river rock borders are pretty low-maintenance and the natural material goes beautifully with any landscape. Plant a Pollinator Garden Courtesy of Borst LandscapeBorst Landscape & Design introduced this pollinator garden to a clients yard to attract beneficial insects and birds."Installing a pollinator garden is a colorful way to make a positive contribution to the environment," says Deandra Hanke, another expert from Borst Landscape & Design. Choosing to plant species native to your location doesn't just result in a beautiful yard, but it also promotes biodiversity and creates vital food sources for birds and insects. Install a Privacy ScreenCourtesy of Borst LandscapeA privacy screen, like this one installed by Borst Landscape & Design, can make spending time in your outdoor space more enjoyable.Nosy neighbors exist everywhereno one wants to be hanging out with their family or friends in their backyard and see their neighbor watching from their own property. Thankfully, green privacy "screens"created by a row of trees or bushes that block an area from viewcan go up a lot faster than you might think. Hanke points out that while installing a privacy border is a larger project, it can easily take less than a month to complete. "Options range from Arborvitae privacy trees to Skip Laurel shrubs, allowing for total privacy to be established in just a few days, depending on the size of your property," she adds. Eric PiaseckiDesigner Gil Schafer used pavers to create a clear pathway around this backyard, inspired by a Japanese water garden.Plot Beautiful PathwaysThe walkways in your yard and garden aren't just for practical purposesthey can provide visual interest too. "Designing transitions from a pool house with exterior hardscape, such as utilizing large scale stone and steps and pathways, you can navigate grade changes and at the same time create an architectural solution that is softened by landscape beds," Kurth says. "Details such as pebbles between the pathway joints add a modern Zen touch to the landscape and help to define the aesthetic."Courtesy of Betsy WentzBetsy Wentz added simple string lights above this rustic gathering area around the fire pit to bring in some enchantment.Incorporate LightingAn element that adds drama to the landscape is integrating the usage of lighting, which further extends the use of your landscape into the evening hours, Kurth says. Creating outdoor living spaces and finding ways to navigate tricky terrain expands your homes livable footprint, provides enjoyment, and blurs the boundaries between indoor and outdoor living. Remember: You can do this fairly easily with solar-powered lighting!Eric PiaseckiGil Schafer shows that a garden doesnt have to be pristinely manicured to look beautiful.Plant a Low-Maintenance, Sustainable Garden"Landscaping is that silent ambassador that speaks volumes about your home, creating that crucial first impression," says Gagan Saini, director of acquisitions at JiT Home Buyers. "An artfully landscaped garden is the x-factor that significantly uplifts your property's value." But many potential buyers arent going to want to put in too much effort to care for the garden, so low-maintenance features such as irrigation systems can help boost your home's value. "Here's something most people dont know: Sustainable landscaping practices can significantly increase property value," says landscape architect Bryan Clayton. "By implementing water-efficient irrigation systems, using native plantings, and opting for organic fertilizers, you demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. This appeals to environmentally conscious buyers and adds an extra layer of value."Annie SchlechterDesigner Peter Dunham was sure to take advantage of a yard this beautiful and designed multiple outdoor living spaces for his clients to enjoy. Develop Outdoor Living SpacesIndoor-outdoor living is all the rage, even in four-season destinations, so you'll want to build out an alfresco space for day-to-day use. The key is not to go overboardjust keep it simple. "If you're designing for enjoyment now and ROI later, just think of adaptable, functional elements," says design director Kevin Lenhartof the online landscape design site Yardzen. "In other words, focus on functional features like a fire pit area or flexible space like a patio, deck, or outdoor dining area that's adaptable to many potential buyers versus very personalized features like a putting green, elaborate water feature, or built-in pizza oven."Mike Van TassellA fieldstone wall by Carol Kurth doubles as a cooler.Make Difficult Terrain UsableIf you have a hilly property, go the extra mile to add retaining walls to create usable outdoor space. "Creating and revitalizing spaces with complicated terrain can transform an underutilized space and elevate a home in terms of enjoyment, lifestyle, and property value," Kurth says. "Our Oasis project [shown above] illustrates how a site with a steep grade change can be transformed with fieldstone retaining wallsone of which was used to create an oversized herb garden for meals alfrescoand a thoughtful verdant landscape."Julian Ungano and Tommy AgriodimasThe manicured lawn of this home by Lauren Wills makes the exterior look so elevated.Keep Up with MaintenanceThis may sound obvious, but when youre ready to list your homeor just to start entertaining outsidebe sure all your landscaping is impeccably maintained. Remember: First impressions are everything, and it's all too easy to let landscaping get away from you. "Proper landscape maintenance is essential. Well-maintained lawns, trimmed hedges, and weed-free gardens contribute to a polished and cared-for appearance," Clayton says.Working on a home project? Let us help!Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.