🚀 Midjourney Office Hours Highlights: July 2nd

Midjourney continues to advance its platform with significant enhancements to video capabilities, professional-grade features, and infrastructure, while also preparing for a controlled business API rollout and exploring new audio functionalities. The team is balancing rapid innovation with sustainability, focusing on both user experience improvements and long-term growth.

Video Model Enhancements 🎬

Midjourney is actively developing several new features to improve video generation. Upcoming capabilities include start and end frame controls for greater creative direction, as well as looping functionality for seamless video playback. Motion quality improvements are a longer-term focus, aiming to deliver more natural and consistent movement. The video upscaler, intended to enhance output resolution, has been delayed by a month due to necessary server backend changes. Additionally, a "turbo mode" is in the works, promising significantly faster video generation for users.

Professional Video Features 🎥

A native HD image-to-video mode is now ready for testing, targeting professional film production needs. This mode is approximately 20 times more expensive than the standard offering and will likely be restricted to "mega" subscription plans (€120+/month), reflecting its suitability for high-budget projects. The team emphasizes that the best quality-to-value ratio will depend on individual use cases, with this feature designed to meet the demands of professionals seeking top-tier output.

Model Development Updates 🧠

The V7.1 model candidate demonstrated improvements in coherence, hand, and body rendering but suffered from reduced texture quality and style, prompting further experimentation before any release. Meanwhile, V8 development is underway and showing more promise. The team is also exploring real-time image generation, aiming for speeds surpassing the current draft mode, and testing faster voice integration partners to enhance the platform's capabilities.

Business API Launch 💼

Midjourney is preparing to launch its business and enterprise API, initially targeting the 10–1.000 largest customers. Pricing will start at a premium and gradually decrease as the rollout progresses and feedback is incorporated. The approach is intentionally slow and controlled, with an application form and screening questions to ensure a tailored onboarding process.

Audio & Sound Features 🔊

The team is considering the addition of low-quality sound effects, such as ambient noises (wind, water, traffic, footsteps), to enrich generated content. Speech synthesis is not planned at this stage, and high-quality audio remains a longer-term objective. To involve the community, a sound effects ranking contest may be organized, allowing users to influence feature development priorities.

Platform Updates 🖥️

Several user experience improvements are on the horizon. A mood board update is set to launch this week, and a style explorer tool is in development, starting with basic functionality and expanding over time. User profiles will soon be available on the website, and enhancements to the mobile experience are under consideration. Additionally, efforts are underway to better integrate office hours content into the website for easier access.

Infrastructure & Sustainability 🌱

The video service is transitioning from operating at a loss to breaking even, thanks to ongoing server cost optimizations. New revenue initiatives are being introduced to support the development of larger video models. The overarching goal is sustainable growth, ensuring that continuous improvements to the models and services can be maintained over time.

TL;DR

• 🎬 Video Model Enhancements: New controls, looping, and turbo mode are in development; upscaler delayed due to backend changes.

• 🎥 Professional Video Features: HD image-to-video mode targets film professionals, restricted to high-tier plans due to cost.

• 🧠 Model Development Updates: V7.1 mixed results; V8 and real-time generation in progress; faster voice integration being tested.

• 💼 Business API Launch: Enterprise API applications opening soon with premium pricing and a gradual rollout.

• 🔊 Audio & Sound Features: Ambient sound effects under consideration; no speech yet; community may help prioritize features.

• 🖥️ Platform Updates: Mood board, style explorer, user profiles, and mobile improvements are upcoming; better office hours integration planned.

• 🌱 Infrastructure & Sustainability: Video service reaches break-even; cost optimizations and new revenue streams support sustainable growth.

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