Has Apple missed the social-music train?
october 2011 by patrix
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the music service Google is close to launching will include sharing features via integration with its Google+ platform, which isn’t that surprising, since Google has said the new social network will be part of everything it does. For Apple, however, the new social features in Google’s offering will reinforce what Spotify and other music services have already made obvious: Apple and iTunes are falling behind in the social-music race, which could have significant consequences for the company as the music industry continues to evolve.
By any measure, iTunes is still the 800-pound gorilla of the digital-music industry: More than 10 billion songs have been downloaded since Apple launched the service in 2001, and some record labels and music publishers now get a huge proportion of the revenue they make on their artists from iTunes. By launching the service — along with the iPod, which turned 10 years old on the weekend — Apple effectively re-engineered the entire music industry, convincing the major labels to use it as a conduit to reach music lovers who were busy downloading whatever they could get their hands on.
Obviously, that kind of power means iTunes isn’t going away anytime soon, and it will continue to be the main choice for record companies who want to monetize an artist. But the music business is changing — along with virtually every other form of media and content — as a result of the increasingly social nature of the web. And in that particular race, services such as Spotify are winning, in part because of their integration with networks like Facebook and their focus on streaming over buying.
Streaming and sharing is the new downloading
Facebook and Spotify have gotten a lot of criticism since the social network launched its “frictionless sharing” features, which allow services like Spotify to publish sharing info to a user’s Facebook page without having to ask permission every time. Many users have complained about this behavior — and that Spotify requires that anyone signing up have a Facebook account to connect to — and some have no doubt cancelled their accounts, but they are likely in the minority. In the end, this new kind of sharing, which shows links to what friends are listening to in the “ticker” stream on a user’s page, could be a hugely powerful driver for the industry.
And what kinds of weapons does Apple have? It has its massive market dominance — and it has Ping. Remember Ping? Apple’s music-based social network launched last fall, and was designed to do something similar to what Spotify and others are now doing: make it easy for users to share their activity and convince others to buy music. Except that Ping almost instantly looked like a social network from the late 1990s rather than a contender for the music-sharing future: as GigaOM’s Cyndy Aleo argued at the time, it looked lame in part because it wasn’t connected to anything else, and it made sharing surprisingly cumbersome (for his part, Om said that he thought Ping was part of “the future of social commerce”).
Ping shone a spotlight on one of Apple’s major weaknesses, which is a lack of knowledge or experience with social networks or social behavior. The company’s products are famous for their brilliant design and usability, but virtually none of that applies to things like Ping or Apple’s Game Center network (or to iTunes itself, arguably) since both seem more like ghost towns and afterthoughts than powerful competitors.
Twitter integration may not be enough
In an attempt to bolt on some form of social behavior, Apple added support for Twitter to Ping, and more recently it has integrated Twitter into many of its apps and services through iOS 5 — a ground-breaking move, since it rarely gives that kind of preferential treatment and real estate to a third party. (It tried to negotiate a Facebook deal but was rebuffed, presumably because of Spotify). This was a smart decision, since Twitter accomplishes much of what iTunes and Ping do not: Users can easily send out links to what they have bought or are listening to, and those links appear in the “media pane” at Twitter’s website and can be easily clicked on.
Despite this, however, it still feels like Apple is fundamentally playing catch-up in an industry that is moving rapidly towards sharing and streaming of music rather than simply purchasing, a la iTunes. With social services like Spotify and Rdio and MOG — not to mention Turntable.fm and Soundtracking — it is all about sharing music with friends rather than just acquiring it to keep forever. So how is Apple going to compete in this new kind of landscape? It will soon launch a streaming feature called iTunes Match, but the social element continues to elude it.
For the time being, at least, iTunes will remain the store of choice for many when it comes to buying music. And those who see their friends listening to music via Spotify and want to buy the same track may go to iTunes to do so — but then again, they might not. And if Google and Facebook integrate support for instant payments via Google Checkout or Facebook Credits, what kind of draw will Apple or iTunes have for new users then? The market dominance that Steve Jobs so brilliantly executed continues for now, but that dominance looks more and more precarious every day.
Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr users Josh Lindsay and Yodel Anecdotal
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Facebook
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music
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By any measure, iTunes is still the 800-pound gorilla of the digital-music industry: More than 10 billion songs have been downloaded since Apple launched the service in 2001, and some record labels and music publishers now get a huge proportion of the revenue they make on their artists from iTunes. By launching the service — along with the iPod, which turned 10 years old on the weekend — Apple effectively re-engineered the entire music industry, convincing the major labels to use it as a conduit to reach music lovers who were busy downloading whatever they could get their hands on.
Obviously, that kind of power means iTunes isn’t going away anytime soon, and it will continue to be the main choice for record companies who want to monetize an artist. But the music business is changing — along with virtually every other form of media and content — as a result of the increasingly social nature of the web. And in that particular race, services such as Spotify are winning, in part because of their integration with networks like Facebook and their focus on streaming over buying.
Streaming and sharing is the new downloading
Facebook and Spotify have gotten a lot of criticism since the social network launched its “frictionless sharing” features, which allow services like Spotify to publish sharing info to a user’s Facebook page without having to ask permission every time. Many users have complained about this behavior — and that Spotify requires that anyone signing up have a Facebook account to connect to — and some have no doubt cancelled their accounts, but they are likely in the minority. In the end, this new kind of sharing, which shows links to what friends are listening to in the “ticker” stream on a user’s page, could be a hugely powerful driver for the industry.
And what kinds of weapons does Apple have? It has its massive market dominance — and it has Ping. Remember Ping? Apple’s music-based social network launched last fall, and was designed to do something similar to what Spotify and others are now doing: make it easy for users to share their activity and convince others to buy music. Except that Ping almost instantly looked like a social network from the late 1990s rather than a contender for the music-sharing future: as GigaOM’s Cyndy Aleo argued at the time, it looked lame in part because it wasn’t connected to anything else, and it made sharing surprisingly cumbersome (for his part, Om said that he thought Ping was part of “the future of social commerce”).
Ping shone a spotlight on one of Apple’s major weaknesses, which is a lack of knowledge or experience with social networks or social behavior. The company’s products are famous for their brilliant design and usability, but virtually none of that applies to things like Ping or Apple’s Game Center network (or to iTunes itself, arguably) since both seem more like ghost towns and afterthoughts than powerful competitors.
Twitter integration may not be enough
In an attempt to bolt on some form of social behavior, Apple added support for Twitter to Ping, and more recently it has integrated Twitter into many of its apps and services through iOS 5 — a ground-breaking move, since it rarely gives that kind of preferential treatment and real estate to a third party. (It tried to negotiate a Facebook deal but was rebuffed, presumably because of Spotify). This was a smart decision, since Twitter accomplishes much of what iTunes and Ping do not: Users can easily send out links to what they have bought or are listening to, and those links appear in the “media pane” at Twitter’s website and can be easily clicked on.
Despite this, however, it still feels like Apple is fundamentally playing catch-up in an industry that is moving rapidly towards sharing and streaming of music rather than simply purchasing, a la iTunes. With social services like Spotify and Rdio and MOG — not to mention Turntable.fm and Soundtracking — it is all about sharing music with friends rather than just acquiring it to keep forever. So how is Apple going to compete in this new kind of landscape? It will soon launch a streaming feature called iTunes Match, but the social element continues to elude it.
For the time being, at least, iTunes will remain the store of choice for many when it comes to buying music. And those who see their friends listening to music via Spotify and want to buy the same track may go to iTunes to do so — but then again, they might not. And if Google and Facebook integrate support for instant payments via Google Checkout or Facebook Credits, what kind of draw will Apple or iTunes have for new users then? The market dominance that Steve Jobs so brilliantly executed continues for now, but that dominance looks more and more precarious every day.
Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr users Josh Lindsay and Yodel Anecdotal
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
NewNet Q3: Facebook remakes headlines in social mediaConnected Consumer Q3: Netflix fumbles; Kindle Fire shinesFacebook and the future of our online lives
october 2011 by patrix
7 Reasons Nerds Should Listen to Classical Music
music
classical
nerd
fave
pb
october 2011 by patrix
If you’re like me then you’ve probably listened to quite a few classical pieces, but haven’t ever really, really gotten into them — at least not in the same way as your favorite non-classical pieces of music. Here are 7 reasons why if you are a true nerd you should seriously consider giving classical music a more serious listenI found this link thru <a href="http://skeptic.skepticgeek.com/western-classical-series/">SkepticGeek's excellent primer on Western Classical Music</a> that I'm currently reading (and listening). As the author says, I too have listened to several classical pieces without really understanding although enjoying them. Perhaps I should give it another try.
october 2011 by patrix
Listen to a Rare David Bowie/Brian Eno Collaboration
october 2011 by patrix
The epic collaboration between David Bowie and Brian Eno produced what some argue were the three best releases of Bowie’s career. We’ve played our Berlin Trilogy (Low, “Heroes,” The Lodger) LPs so often we’ve practically worn them out, so we couldn’t plug in our headphones fast enough when we saw that Dangerous Minds had posted a rarely heard Bowie/Eno cut from the Lodger sessions. “I Pray, Ole” is an upbeat, Bowie-penned track with a driving, shout-along chorus and a synth underpinning that could only have come from the twisted, Krautrock-infected mind of Eno. Listen to it after the jump, and be sure to let us know WTF is going on with Bowie’s outfit in the video, which may well be the missing link between the ’70s and the ’80s.
Music
Brian_Eno
David_Bowie
from google
october 2011 by patrix
Facebook’s Music Sharing Partnerships Aren’t Helping Musicians Gain Fans
october 2011 by patrix
Facebook has yet to create an easy and obvious way for users to Like the Pages of musicians they listen to, costing artists significant marketing opportunities. Since the listening activity of Spotify, Rdio, and other music service users began being automatically shared to the social network late last month, Facebook Pages of musicians have not been gaining fans any faster.
Musical artists and record labels should push Facebook to implement a better retention mechanism that helps them convert listeners into fans who they can then reach with marketing updates through the news feed. This could come in the form of a Like button for an artist’s Page on feed stories about users listening to them, or a a “Recommended Musicians” panel that suggests users Like the artists they listen to most.
Until then, Facebook is gaining compelling feed stories about listening habits and data it can monetize through ad targeting without returning the favor to musicians.
Musicians Need Likes, Not Listens, to Make Money
Currently, to Like an artist they have been listening to, users have to find a story about their listening activity in the news feed, Ticker, or Timeline. The use can then click through the artist’s name to visit their Page and Like them. A lesser known method is to hover over the artist’s name and use the Like button in the hover card. The hidden buttons and high friction flows mean only users already intent on Liking an artist will become fans.
Facebook’s music partnerships are making some money for musicians by driving usage of streaming services that pay out royalties when an artist’s songs are streamed. However, these royalties can be just a fraction of a cent per listen. Artists depend on concert ticket and merchandise sales that Facebook’s music apps aren’t helping them increase directly.
Many artists use their Facebook Pages to promote their tours and merchandise lines in the news feed, but only fans receive these updates — not listeners. However, the 20 most popular musician Facebook Pages and the Pages of a dozen smaller artists we checked showed no increase in the rate of new Likes starting on September 22nd when the music partnerships launched. Therefore, it’s important that Facebook make it easier for users to Like the artists listen to.
How Facebook Could Improve Listener Retention for Pages
There are several ways Facebook could do this. This simplest and probably the most effective way would be to add a prominent, one-click “Like this artist” button to stories about listening activity, as mocked up below. When users see who they’ve been listening to on their profile Timeline, or discover a new artist by clicking through a story about a friend’s listening activity, they could then instantly become a fan.
Facebook could also create a “Recommended Musicians” sidebar module that could be displayed to users while they browse the site or on the Music Dashboard that aggregates their network’s listening activity. It could show Like buttons for the artists they or their friends have been listening to most. There’s already a Top Songs module in the Music Dashboard that could be augmented with a Like button as I’ve mocked up below.
Getting more users Liking musician Pages could also benefit Facebook. These Likes fill a user’s new feed with rich content that increases return visits and time-on-site. They provide advertisers with something to target that can be indicative of a potential customer’s lifestyle. Finally, musicians own 37 of the top 100 most popular Facebook Pages, which shows how central people see music to expressing their identity — one of Facebook’s overall goals.
There are some issues with reducing friction in the musician Page Like process I’ve described. Placing a Page Like button near an activity story’s Like button could cause confusion. Also, Facebook not want to drive more Likes to a category of Pages that already has lots of fans. Still, these are users who are already listening to an artist — it’s not far fetched to think they might be interested in Liking that artist’s Page if given a chance.
If Facebook want to keep musicians from bringing their content and fans to another social platform happy, and compensate them for the engaging listening activity stories they power, it should bridge listening and Liking.
Facebook
Music
from google
Musical artists and record labels should push Facebook to implement a better retention mechanism that helps them convert listeners into fans who they can then reach with marketing updates through the news feed. This could come in the form of a Like button for an artist’s Page on feed stories about users listening to them, or a a “Recommended Musicians” panel that suggests users Like the artists they listen to most.
Until then, Facebook is gaining compelling feed stories about listening habits and data it can monetize through ad targeting without returning the favor to musicians.
Musicians Need Likes, Not Listens, to Make Money
Currently, to Like an artist they have been listening to, users have to find a story about their listening activity in the news feed, Ticker, or Timeline. The use can then click through the artist’s name to visit their Page and Like them. A lesser known method is to hover over the artist’s name and use the Like button in the hover card. The hidden buttons and high friction flows mean only users already intent on Liking an artist will become fans.
Facebook’s music partnerships are making some money for musicians by driving usage of streaming services that pay out royalties when an artist’s songs are streamed. However, these royalties can be just a fraction of a cent per listen. Artists depend on concert ticket and merchandise sales that Facebook’s music apps aren’t helping them increase directly.
Many artists use their Facebook Pages to promote their tours and merchandise lines in the news feed, but only fans receive these updates — not listeners. However, the 20 most popular musician Facebook Pages and the Pages of a dozen smaller artists we checked showed no increase in the rate of new Likes starting on September 22nd when the music partnerships launched. Therefore, it’s important that Facebook make it easier for users to Like the artists listen to.
How Facebook Could Improve Listener Retention for Pages
There are several ways Facebook could do this. This simplest and probably the most effective way would be to add a prominent, one-click “Like this artist” button to stories about listening activity, as mocked up below. When users see who they’ve been listening to on their profile Timeline, or discover a new artist by clicking through a story about a friend’s listening activity, they could then instantly become a fan.
Facebook could also create a “Recommended Musicians” sidebar module that could be displayed to users while they browse the site or on the Music Dashboard that aggregates their network’s listening activity. It could show Like buttons for the artists they or their friends have been listening to most. There’s already a Top Songs module in the Music Dashboard that could be augmented with a Like button as I’ve mocked up below.
Getting more users Liking musician Pages could also benefit Facebook. These Likes fill a user’s new feed with rich content that increases return visits and time-on-site. They provide advertisers with something to target that can be indicative of a potential customer’s lifestyle. Finally, musicians own 37 of the top 100 most popular Facebook Pages, which shows how central people see music to expressing their identity — one of Facebook’s overall goals.
There are some issues with reducing friction in the musician Page Like process I’ve described. Placing a Page Like button near an activity story’s Like button could cause confusion. Also, Facebook not want to drive more Likes to a category of Pages that already has lots of fans. Still, these are users who are already listening to an artist — it’s not far fetched to think they might be interested in Liking that artist’s Page if given a chance.
If Facebook want to keep musicians from bringing their content and fans to another social platform happy, and compensate them for the engaging listening activity stories they power, it should bridge listening and Liking.
october 2011 by patrix
Flipkart Acquires Mime360; To Launch Digital Distribution Of Music, E-books, Games
october 2011 by patrix
Exclusive: Flipkart.com, among India’s largest online retail businesses, is entering the digital distribution domain by acquiring Mime360, a Mumbai based business digital content platform company which hosts music streaming for labels like Saregama, Universal Music and Inreco. Mime360 delivers music content to publishers like Gaana.com (Indiatimes), Myusic and iMusti, but it also allows for distribution of video (TV and Films), Games and Music. Last week, Mime360 began informing labels of the acquisition by Flipkart.
Confirming the development to MediaNama, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal said that that they were talking to Mime360 about powering their digital music launch, and they liked the team and the technology platform that had been built. “We’ve acquired them for the team, because they’re strong in both business and technology. That is coupled with their strong domain knowledge, because they’ve been been at it for the last two years. They have strong relationships (in the music business). The digital distribution platform that they’ve built helps us with the time to market.” It’s a 100% acquisition, and a part-stock, part-cash deal; Bansal declined to comment on the valuation of Mime360.
Flipkart will begin with launching digital music distribution, for which the company is in talks with labels, and eventually roll out ebooks and games. Bansal declined to comment on specific plans, since they’re still in discussions with potential partners, saying that a concrete plan is not in place.
Mime360 has around 11-12 people, and the technology team will eventually shift to Bangalore, while the business team will remain in Mumbai. Sameer Nigam, CEO of Mime360, will head lead Flipkart’s digital distribution business. There are plans to expand both the business team and technology team.
Also read: How Mime360 Is Trying To Change Music Distribution In India
*Reach India’s Digital Industry Decision Makers: Advertise on MediaNama. Contact sales@medianama.com. For more info, click here.
Books
Digitization
Flipkart
Gaming
Mergers_&_Acquisitions
Music
Mime360
from google
Confirming the development to MediaNama, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal said that that they were talking to Mime360 about powering their digital music launch, and they liked the team and the technology platform that had been built. “We’ve acquired them for the team, because they’re strong in both business and technology. That is coupled with their strong domain knowledge, because they’ve been been at it for the last two years. They have strong relationships (in the music business). The digital distribution platform that they’ve built helps us with the time to market.” It’s a 100% acquisition, and a part-stock, part-cash deal; Bansal declined to comment on the valuation of Mime360.
Flipkart will begin with launching digital music distribution, for which the company is in talks with labels, and eventually roll out ebooks and games. Bansal declined to comment on specific plans, since they’re still in discussions with potential partners, saying that a concrete plan is not in place.
Mime360 has around 11-12 people, and the technology team will eventually shift to Bangalore, while the business team will remain in Mumbai. Sameer Nigam, CEO of Mime360, will head lead Flipkart’s digital distribution business. There are plans to expand both the business team and technology team.
Also read: How Mime360 Is Trying To Change Music Distribution In India
*Reach India’s Digital Industry Decision Makers: Advertise on MediaNama. Contact sales@medianama.com. For more info, click here.
october 2011 by patrix
Complaints Choir of Singapore
october 2011 by patrix
They sing complaints about their city-state, here is one excerpt:
Stray cats get into noisy affairs
At night my neighbor makes weird animal sounds
People put on fake accents to sound posh
And queue up 3 hours for donuts
Will I ever live till eighty five to collect my CPF?
It sounds like a terrible place:
Old National Library was replaced by an ugly tunnel
Singaporean men can’t take independent women
People blow their nose into the swimming pool
And fall asleep on my shoulder in the train
Full lyrics and explanation are here. Yet it is now legally banned for foreigners to sing the complaints. Here is a video of the Choir, definitely recommended, best video I’ve seen this year and do watch it through to the end.
For the pointer I thank Chug Roberts.
Music
Political_Science
Uncategorized
from google
Stray cats get into noisy affairs
At night my neighbor makes weird animal sounds
People put on fake accents to sound posh
And queue up 3 hours for donuts
Will I ever live till eighty five to collect my CPF?
It sounds like a terrible place:
Old National Library was replaced by an ugly tunnel
Singaporean men can’t take independent women
People blow their nose into the swimming pool
And fall asleep on my shoulder in the train
Full lyrics and explanation are here. Yet it is now legally banned for foreigners to sing the complaints. Here is a video of the Choir, definitely recommended, best video I’ve seen this year and do watch it through to the end.
For the pointer I thank Chug Roberts.
october 2011 by patrix
People Who Became Nouns: The Music Video
october 2011 by patrix
Boycott, Maverick, Guillotine, Shrapnel, Cardigan, Sandwich, Silhouette, Zeppelin, Leotard, Lamborghini.
Finding your name in the dictionary as a noun is a sure-fire litmus test for having made a impact on culture and history. Just look at OED-approved fine folks like Charles Boycott, Samuel Maverick, Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, Henry Shrapnel, and Lord Cardigan. But there are unsuspected downsides to being reduced to a noun — just ask suffragette and women’s rights pioneer Amelia Bloomer, now equated with a baggy pair of women’s underpants.
Now, thanks to NPR‘s Robert Krulwich and Adam Cole, there’s a delightful music video about them.
Semi-relatedly, this reminded me of a lovely illustrated children’s book called If You Were a Noun.
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Finding your name in the dictionary as a noun is a sure-fire litmus test for having made a impact on culture and history. Just look at OED-approved fine folks like Charles Boycott, Samuel Maverick, Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, Henry Shrapnel, and Lord Cardigan. But there are unsuspected downsides to being reduced to a noun — just ask suffragette and women’s rights pioneer Amelia Bloomer, now equated with a baggy pair of women’s underpants.
Now, thanks to NPR‘s Robert Krulwich and Adam Cole, there’s a delightful music video about them.
Semi-relatedly, this reminded me of a lovely illustrated children’s book called If You Were a Noun.
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.
Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets us know we're doing something right and helps keep the lights on.
october 2011 by patrix
Cirque du Soleil Takes On Michael Jackson In Front of Sold Out Crowd
october 2011 by patrix
The cast of Cirque du Soleil took to the stage on Friday night to perform The Immortal World Tour the biggest project authorized by the Jackson estate since Michael Jackson died in 2009.
In attendance for the show was Tito, Jackie and Marlon Jackson along with Michael’s mother Katherine and his children Prince, Paris and Blanket.
The Sunday show was the first in a 47-city North American tour that officially begins on Oct. 15 in Detroit and wraps up in Chicago on July 20.
According to USA Today the Montreal show drew in an audience from all over the world with some show visitors wearing Jackson’s classical Thriller jacket and singular white glove.
The Jackson show is directed by Jamie King and was choreographed by longtime Jackson associates that included Travis Payne.
It has also been pointed out that the show is not your typical “Cirque du Soleil” event and was instead intended to be more of a “fantasy concert” featuring Jackson’s signature moves with Cirque’s own flare for the oddly extravagant.
After the show Tito Jackson said of the performance:
“That was Michael’s message — to help us understand that love is so important.”
Jackie added that the song Gone Too Soon was especially moving for the family, revealing, “Our mother is probably bawling out there somewhere.”
Do you plan to see the The Immortal World Tour when it arrives in a city near you? How many of our readers plan to travel out of their way to see the hits of Michael Jackson performed by Cirque du Soleil?
Cirque du Soleil Takes On Michael Jackson In Front of Sold Out Crowd is a post from: The Inquisitr
Music
Cirque_du_Soleil
Michael_Jackson
from google
In attendance for the show was Tito, Jackie and Marlon Jackson along with Michael’s mother Katherine and his children Prince, Paris and Blanket.
The Sunday show was the first in a 47-city North American tour that officially begins on Oct. 15 in Detroit and wraps up in Chicago on July 20.
According to USA Today the Montreal show drew in an audience from all over the world with some show visitors wearing Jackson’s classical Thriller jacket and singular white glove.
The Jackson show is directed by Jamie King and was choreographed by longtime Jackson associates that included Travis Payne.
It has also been pointed out that the show is not your typical “Cirque du Soleil” event and was instead intended to be more of a “fantasy concert” featuring Jackson’s signature moves with Cirque’s own flare for the oddly extravagant.
After the show Tito Jackson said of the performance:
“That was Michael’s message — to help us understand that love is so important.”
Jackie added that the song Gone Too Soon was especially moving for the family, revealing, “Our mother is probably bawling out there somewhere.”
Do you plan to see the The Immortal World Tour when it arrives in a city near you? How many of our readers plan to travel out of their way to see the hits of Michael Jackson performed by Cirque du Soleil?
Cirque du Soleil Takes On Michael Jackson In Front of Sold Out Crowd is a post from: The Inquisitr
october 2011 by patrix
Spotify Gains 1 Million New Facebook Users Following f8
september 2011 by patrix
At f8 last Thursday, music services such as Spotify, Vevo, Rdio and Mog gained the ability to publish the listening activity of their users to Facebook’s new home page Ticker. The exposure to the friends of their users through the tickers has led to big gains for some music partners.
Most significantly, Spotify has gained one million new monthly active Facebook-integrated users since f8 to reach 4.4 million MAU. It spiked from 1.12 million to 3.25 million daily active users the day after f8, and appears to be settling back to roughly a quarter million new DAU. Rdio, MOG, and Deezer have also seen significant gains in their numbers of Facebook-integrated users.
The total user growth for these services could be even higher. Exposure through the Ticker could be encouraging more users to sign up but not necessarily integrate their accounts with Facebook. This won’t be the case for Spotify, though, as it now requires new users to have a Facebook account, even if they don’t grant the app publishing rights.
Our AppData tracking service for Facebook apps only records users who grant these apps access to their Facebook accounts, so these figures should be interpreted as representative of recent user count changes rather than as absolute total user counts.
With few other Open Graph apps contributing stories to the Ticker, the home page redesign and new ability to publish activity without users having to explicitly share each listen is creating a bonanza for music apps that were prepared for the changes. The redesign appears to have rolled out already to all US users, although we’re not sure what the total potential user base was here.
Spotify in particular was poised for explosive growth, as it already had the largest user base with 2 million paying customers compared to the next largest competitor Rhapsody which has 800,000. Spotify had also been aggressively pushing users to connect their Facebook accounts in order to view the playlists of friends via large prompts on the app’s homescreen.
Spotify is falling from its peak the day after f8, with 1.61 million DAU yesterday and 1.48 million today. Still, user counts are stabilizing and so the service could come away with as many as 30% more Facebook-integrated users than it had before f8. Spotify is also the top “Featured Music Service” in Facebook’s new Music dashboard. The rapid growth of Facebook-integrated users has big implications for Spotify’s bottom line, as CEO Daniel Ek said those who connect their Facebook accounts are twice as likely to become paying customers.
Rdio, the music app we’ve seen the most of in the Ticker besides Spotify, has shot up from 23,000 to 29,000 Facebook-integrated MAU since f8. Its DAU count spiked from 3,800 to 8,000 the day after f8, but is now rapidly declining. Dedicated Rdio users might be seeing so many of their friends using Spotify thanks to the Ticker that they may considering switching services.
Mog saw strong growth from the release of its free subscription tier the week before f8. Since the conference, it has mildly grown from 32,200 to 36,800 MAU, with DAU fluctuating between 3,000 and 3,500.
Vevo, the ad-supported music video wing of YouTube, has seen strong sustained growth since f8, jumping from 85,00 to 94,000 MAU. Unlike the other apps, DAU continues to climb, building on an initial spike from 7,700 to 10,100 to now reach 10,300. Lesser known partners Earbits and Songza also saw some growth since f8.
Meanwhile, some of Facebook’s music partners have lost Facebook-integrated users since f8. This could be because they didn’t have Ticker integrations ready, their integrations broke down, or they’re being outcompeted by those with functioning integrations.
SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, and Deezer all lost DAU since f8, or have fallen lower than their initial DAU count following a spike the day after the conference. With music suggestions coming straight to the news feed, users may be seeking out less internet radio and free streaming services.
It will take a few weeks for more of Facebook’s music partners to launch their Ticker integrations. The same goes for users experimenting with the services they see their friends using and choosing the one that fits them best. Once other listening apps as well as reading, video, and non-partnered lifestyle apps get their Open Graph publishing set up, there will be more competition in the Ticker and the bonanza for the music partners who were ready at launch may end.
Until then, though, it appears that Spotify will strengthen its lead as the Ticker bombards Facebook users with implicit social recommendations for the service. As users may not want to simultaneously run multiple music desktop and web apps, Facebook’s recent changes could produce a “winer-take-all” scenario where users choose the music service used by the most of their friends, and right now, that’s Spotify.
AppData
Facebook
Growth
Music
from google
Most significantly, Spotify has gained one million new monthly active Facebook-integrated users since f8 to reach 4.4 million MAU. It spiked from 1.12 million to 3.25 million daily active users the day after f8, and appears to be settling back to roughly a quarter million new DAU. Rdio, MOG, and Deezer have also seen significant gains in their numbers of Facebook-integrated users.
The total user growth for these services could be even higher. Exposure through the Ticker could be encouraging more users to sign up but not necessarily integrate their accounts with Facebook. This won’t be the case for Spotify, though, as it now requires new users to have a Facebook account, even if they don’t grant the app publishing rights.
Our AppData tracking service for Facebook apps only records users who grant these apps access to their Facebook accounts, so these figures should be interpreted as representative of recent user count changes rather than as absolute total user counts.
With few other Open Graph apps contributing stories to the Ticker, the home page redesign and new ability to publish activity without users having to explicitly share each listen is creating a bonanza for music apps that were prepared for the changes. The redesign appears to have rolled out already to all US users, although we’re not sure what the total potential user base was here.
Spotify in particular was poised for explosive growth, as it already had the largest user base with 2 million paying customers compared to the next largest competitor Rhapsody which has 800,000. Spotify had also been aggressively pushing users to connect their Facebook accounts in order to view the playlists of friends via large prompts on the app’s homescreen.
Spotify is falling from its peak the day after f8, with 1.61 million DAU yesterday and 1.48 million today. Still, user counts are stabilizing and so the service could come away with as many as 30% more Facebook-integrated users than it had before f8. Spotify is also the top “Featured Music Service” in Facebook’s new Music dashboard. The rapid growth of Facebook-integrated users has big implications for Spotify’s bottom line, as CEO Daniel Ek said those who connect their Facebook accounts are twice as likely to become paying customers.
Rdio, the music app we’ve seen the most of in the Ticker besides Spotify, has shot up from 23,000 to 29,000 Facebook-integrated MAU since f8. Its DAU count spiked from 3,800 to 8,000 the day after f8, but is now rapidly declining. Dedicated Rdio users might be seeing so many of their friends using Spotify thanks to the Ticker that they may considering switching services.
Mog saw strong growth from the release of its free subscription tier the week before f8. Since the conference, it has mildly grown from 32,200 to 36,800 MAU, with DAU fluctuating between 3,000 and 3,500.
Vevo, the ad-supported music video wing of YouTube, has seen strong sustained growth since f8, jumping from 85,00 to 94,000 MAU. Unlike the other apps, DAU continues to climb, building on an initial spike from 7,700 to 10,100 to now reach 10,300. Lesser known partners Earbits and Songza also saw some growth since f8.
Meanwhile, some of Facebook’s music partners have lost Facebook-integrated users since f8. This could be because they didn’t have Ticker integrations ready, their integrations broke down, or they’re being outcompeted by those with functioning integrations.
SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, and Deezer all lost DAU since f8, or have fallen lower than their initial DAU count following a spike the day after the conference. With music suggestions coming straight to the news feed, users may be seeking out less internet radio and free streaming services.
It will take a few weeks for more of Facebook’s music partners to launch their Ticker integrations. The same goes for users experimenting with the services they see their friends using and choosing the one that fits them best. Once other listening apps as well as reading, video, and non-partnered lifestyle apps get their Open Graph publishing set up, there will be more competition in the Ticker and the bonanza for the music partners who were ready at launch may end.
Until then, though, it appears that Spotify will strengthen its lead as the Ticker bombards Facebook users with implicit social recommendations for the service. As users may not want to simultaneously run multiple music desktop and web apps, Facebook’s recent changes could produce a “winer-take-all” scenario where users choose the music service used by the most of their friends, and right now, that’s Spotify.
september 2011 by patrix
Facebook Launches Music Dashboard That Shows What Friends Are Listening to Across Services
september 2011 by patrix
Thanks to the integrations Facebook launched with Spotify, Rdio, and many other music services at yesterday’s f8 conference, users are now finding out what their friends are listening to in the home page’s Ticker. To make it even easier to discover music, Facebook has launched a “Music” dashboard that shows users trending albums, top songs, featured music services, and a stream dedicated to the recent listens of all of a user’s friends. Clicking through to a playlist appears to be one way to activate the dashboard and make its bookmark appear in the home page’s left sidebar, though this direct link also works.
The Music dashboard will allow users to actively and efficiently seek discover new music in addition to passively seeing what friends are listening to while browsing the news feed. The “Featured Music Services” panel could be an important driver of growth for Facebook’s lesser known music partners, and it could also become a way for Facebook to monetize music by charging for placement in the panel.
Rather than showing bookmarks for individual music partners, it seems that Facebook has decided to aggregate all the services into a single hub. In the future, it could gain more engaging features such as the ability to set up simultaneous listening between friends similar to Turntable.fm. It could also serve as a payment portal through which users could buy their subscriptions to partnered music services with Facebook Credits. This would provide a direct way for Facebook to get a cut of the revenue partners are earning from the exposure and user growth they get on the site.
It’s unclear whether the Music dashboard would preclude partners from developing native versions of their services that live within the Facebook chrome as canvas apps. Such apps could silo users, and make them less likely to discover music from friends that use a different service than them. With the dashboard, a Spotify user could see a friend was listening to something on Rdio, click through the story and download Rdio, find it better fits their design and music library needs, and end up becoming a paying Rdio user.
However, Facebook also allows users to discover a song from a service they don’t use and rather than having to download that partner’s app, they can play the song in an app they already have. For example, a Spotify user could see a friend had listened to a song on Rdio, click the play button in the Music dashboard story, and use the small link in the prompt to launch or download Rdio to instead listen on Spotify. The relatively small size of the link to play a song in one’s native service could be Facebook’s way of getting users to try out multiple services, and prevent an app with an early lead such as Spotify from pulling back users who might have been prepared to try a different service.
Current Dashboard Features
The Music dashboard dynamically displays different content depending on the recent activity of a user’s friends. The Friends’ Music section of the dashboard shows full size rich media stories about the listening activity of friends, complete with play buttons on songs that launch their corresponding desktop or web applications. Most of these stories otherwise only appear in the Ticker as simple text activity stories that must be hovered over and expanded to reveal play buttons.
With the Playlist section, Facebook will reward music services that make it easy to create and publish mixes. As playlists automatically continue to play without users have to select the next song they want to hear, this section of the dashboard will facilitate a laid-back listening experience. It could also get users to burn through the free listening time users get with the unpaid tiers of some music partners, which could lead users to hit their limit faster and get them to buy subscriptions.
Users have begun to receive notifications when a friend sees a story about their listening activity and clicks a play button on of the songs. These notifications direct users to an Activity section of the Music dashboard, which encourages them to comment in order to start a conversation about a song them and a friend both listened to. Right now this is the closest thing to real-time social activity around music, but simultaneous listening or dedicated listening Chat could be on the way.
As part of its partnerships, Facebook may have promised free placement in the Featured Music Services panel in the right sidebar of the Music Dashboard. This could give services that haven’t gained any users in a network a way to gain a foothold and begin growing through exposure in the Ticker. However, Facebook could also opt to charge music services for this real estate. We’re waiting to hear back from Facebook about how services are chosen for placement.
Even without more engaging features, the Music dashboard could become stop on users’ routine browsing flow around Facebook. While the Ticker may remain the primary way users discover new music because of its prominent presence on the news feed and its eye-catching movement, that Music dashboard could become the place users to go to find something to listen to right now.
Facebook
Music
from google
The Music dashboard will allow users to actively and efficiently seek discover new music in addition to passively seeing what friends are listening to while browsing the news feed. The “Featured Music Services” panel could be an important driver of growth for Facebook’s lesser known music partners, and it could also become a way for Facebook to monetize music by charging for placement in the panel.
Rather than showing bookmarks for individual music partners, it seems that Facebook has decided to aggregate all the services into a single hub. In the future, it could gain more engaging features such as the ability to set up simultaneous listening between friends similar to Turntable.fm. It could also serve as a payment portal through which users could buy their subscriptions to partnered music services with Facebook Credits. This would provide a direct way for Facebook to get a cut of the revenue partners are earning from the exposure and user growth they get on the site.
It’s unclear whether the Music dashboard would preclude partners from developing native versions of their services that live within the Facebook chrome as canvas apps. Such apps could silo users, and make them less likely to discover music from friends that use a different service than them. With the dashboard, a Spotify user could see a friend was listening to something on Rdio, click through the story and download Rdio, find it better fits their design and music library needs, and end up becoming a paying Rdio user.
However, Facebook also allows users to discover a song from a service they don’t use and rather than having to download that partner’s app, they can play the song in an app they already have. For example, a Spotify user could see a friend had listened to a song on Rdio, click the play button in the Music dashboard story, and use the small link in the prompt to launch or download Rdio to instead listen on Spotify. The relatively small size of the link to play a song in one’s native service could be Facebook’s way of getting users to try out multiple services, and prevent an app with an early lead such as Spotify from pulling back users who might have been prepared to try a different service.
Current Dashboard Features
The Music dashboard dynamically displays different content depending on the recent activity of a user’s friends. The Friends’ Music section of the dashboard shows full size rich media stories about the listening activity of friends, complete with play buttons on songs that launch their corresponding desktop or web applications. Most of these stories otherwise only appear in the Ticker as simple text activity stories that must be hovered over and expanded to reveal play buttons.
With the Playlist section, Facebook will reward music services that make it easy to create and publish mixes. As playlists automatically continue to play without users have to select the next song they want to hear, this section of the dashboard will facilitate a laid-back listening experience. It could also get users to burn through the free listening time users get with the unpaid tiers of some music partners, which could lead users to hit their limit faster and get them to buy subscriptions.
Users have begun to receive notifications when a friend sees a story about their listening activity and clicks a play button on of the songs. These notifications direct users to an Activity section of the Music dashboard, which encourages them to comment in order to start a conversation about a song them and a friend both listened to. Right now this is the closest thing to real-time social activity around music, but simultaneous listening or dedicated listening Chat could be on the way.
As part of its partnerships, Facebook may have promised free placement in the Featured Music Services panel in the right sidebar of the Music Dashboard. This could give services that haven’t gained any users in a network a way to gain a foothold and begin growing through exposure in the Ticker. However, Facebook could also opt to charge music services for this real estate. We’re waiting to hear back from Facebook about how services are chosen for placement.
Even without more engaging features, the Music dashboard could become stop on users’ routine browsing flow around Facebook. While the Ticker may remain the primary way users discover new music because of its prominent presence on the news feed and its eye-catching movement, that Music dashboard could become the place users to go to find something to listen to right now.
september 2011 by patrix
Sean Parker says Spotify on Facebook lives up to original Napster vision (video)
september 2011 by patrix
Sean Parker, the billionaire of Napster and Facebook fame, is on to his next big deal: Spotify, which started in Europe and is now offering streaming music in the U.S.
In a conversation with Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek, Parker said that the rise of Spotify and other music streaming services and the debut of their integration with Facebook today fulfilled the original vision he had for Napster. And that vision wasn’t about music piracy.
“This is actually very similar to what I dreamt of 10 years ago,” Parker said, speaking on stage at a press event after Facebook’s f8 event. (That’s Parker on the right in the above photo; Ek is on the left in the “Suits Suck” t-shirt.) “We never really wanted to create a service to destroy the record business or hurt artists in any way. The goal was really to create a more frictionless system. We really believed we would succeed in striking deals with the record labels.”
Parker predicted no less than a rebirth of the music business itself, thanks to better music discovery through the combination of Facebook and Spotify.
Parker was a co-founder of Napster, an early shepherd of Facebook, and is now an investor in Spotify. He was such a unique and interesting character that he was played by Justin Timberlake in the movie The Social Network, a fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook. In real life, he played a role in cracking the foundations of the old music business, and now he’s looking to rebuild it.
Parker and Ek held their discussion in a warehouse in San Francisco with opulent party trimmings. The catered meal included roasted pigs, oysters, bottles of tequila, and sushi. The entertainment included The Killers, Jane’s Addiction, and Snoop Dogg.
Ek said that Napster, the disruptive music sharing service started by Parker and Shawn Fanning (who was also there tonight), inspired him when he was growing up.
“Napster for me personally was probably the biggest event in my life when it comes to the internet,” Ek said. It really changed how I considered music, my favorite artists, how I shared music with friends.”
And Parker said, “Meeting Daniel was one of the three key moments in my life, alongside meeting Shawn Fanning and meeting Mark Zuckerberg.”
Facebook today announced that Spotify would be integrated into Facebook so that a friend could listen to a song at the very same moment another friend was listening to it, in a kind of social music discovery. Spotify’s iPhone app, which offers users convenience, requires a subscription fee. Users can now listen to music, watch TV, or view movies without ever leaving Facebook.
“If you want full portability, you have to pay,” Parker said. “The iPhone version has paved the way for that. This was ultimately the most important element in monetization. The element that consumers were wiling to pay for was convenience.”
Parker added, “Solving the music piracy problem can’t happen unless you build a music service that is more convenient than piracy. It didn’t compete with any of the existing services like iTunes or Napster. It competed with piracy.”
The most important unanswered question? Parker said, “Music discovery has always been social. Obviously there has been these top-down media like MTV and radio, but so much music discovery has happened by word of mouth in a dorm room, people going to clubs or hearing music in a restaurant. That social process has always been the real fuel.”
With Facebook, Spotify can now “supercharge that discovery,” Parker said. “More people will experience music than ever before. As long as that is coupled with a monetization platform that actually works, we have a solution.”
Here’s some video of the full conversation between Parker and Ek below. And below that we have a panel of industry artists and managers talking about the significance of Spotify. The panel includes Jane’s Addiction lead singer Perry Farrell, Brandon Creed (manager for Bruno Mars), producer Ray Romulus, Paul Rosenberg (Eminem’s manager) and disc jockey Kaskade. Afterward, the Killers opened the show and Parker danced next to me. At the bottom is the Killers performing.
Filed under: social
social
editor's_pick
Facebook_f8_2011
music
Snoop_Dogg
streaming
Streaming_media
The_Killers
from google
In a conversation with Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek, Parker said that the rise of Spotify and other music streaming services and the debut of their integration with Facebook today fulfilled the original vision he had for Napster. And that vision wasn’t about music piracy.
“This is actually very similar to what I dreamt of 10 years ago,” Parker said, speaking on stage at a press event after Facebook’s f8 event. (That’s Parker on the right in the above photo; Ek is on the left in the “Suits Suck” t-shirt.) “We never really wanted to create a service to destroy the record business or hurt artists in any way. The goal was really to create a more frictionless system. We really believed we would succeed in striking deals with the record labels.”
Parker predicted no less than a rebirth of the music business itself, thanks to better music discovery through the combination of Facebook and Spotify.
Parker was a co-founder of Napster, an early shepherd of Facebook, and is now an investor in Spotify. He was such a unique and interesting character that he was played by Justin Timberlake in the movie The Social Network, a fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook. In real life, he played a role in cracking the foundations of the old music business, and now he’s looking to rebuild it.
Parker and Ek held their discussion in a warehouse in San Francisco with opulent party trimmings. The catered meal included roasted pigs, oysters, bottles of tequila, and sushi. The entertainment included The Killers, Jane’s Addiction, and Snoop Dogg.
Ek said that Napster, the disruptive music sharing service started by Parker and Shawn Fanning (who was also there tonight), inspired him when he was growing up.
“Napster for me personally was probably the biggest event in my life when it comes to the internet,” Ek said. It really changed how I considered music, my favorite artists, how I shared music with friends.”
And Parker said, “Meeting Daniel was one of the three key moments in my life, alongside meeting Shawn Fanning and meeting Mark Zuckerberg.”
Facebook today announced that Spotify would be integrated into Facebook so that a friend could listen to a song at the very same moment another friend was listening to it, in a kind of social music discovery. Spotify’s iPhone app, which offers users convenience, requires a subscription fee. Users can now listen to music, watch TV, or view movies without ever leaving Facebook.
“If you want full portability, you have to pay,” Parker said. “The iPhone version has paved the way for that. This was ultimately the most important element in monetization. The element that consumers were wiling to pay for was convenience.”
Parker added, “Solving the music piracy problem can’t happen unless you build a music service that is more convenient than piracy. It didn’t compete with any of the existing services like iTunes or Napster. It competed with piracy.”
The most important unanswered question? Parker said, “Music discovery has always been social. Obviously there has been these top-down media like MTV and radio, but so much music discovery has happened by word of mouth in a dorm room, people going to clubs or hearing music in a restaurant. That social process has always been the real fuel.”
With Facebook, Spotify can now “supercharge that discovery,” Parker said. “More people will experience music than ever before. As long as that is coupled with a monetization platform that actually works, we have a solution.”
Here’s some video of the full conversation between Parker and Ek below. And below that we have a panel of industry artists and managers talking about the significance of Spotify. The panel includes Jane’s Addiction lead singer Perry Farrell, Brandon Creed (manager for Bruno Mars), producer Ray Romulus, Paul Rosenberg (Eminem’s manager) and disc jockey Kaskade. Afterward, the Killers opened the show and Parker danced next to me. At the bottom is the Killers performing.
Filed under: social
september 2011 by patrix
This Guy Sounds Exactly Like Eddie Vedder [Video]
september 2011 by patrix
No doubt, that guy who sounds a hell of a lot like Freddie Mercury was pretty impressive. But Javier Diaz, who hails from Santiago, Chile, sounds exactly like Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder. As in jaw-dropping, OMG, holy shit, unreal. More »
Music
Chile
Eddie_Vedder
Fb
Javier_diaz
Pearl_Jam
singers
Sound-alikes
Tweetg
Tweetv
Video
from google
september 2011 by patrix
I wonder how other music services are feeling today
september 2011 by patrix
For the past few days I have been reading about various music services such as MOG, Rhapsody and others being part of the big Facebook re-launch. They were, except they ended up being an afterthought. Somewhat predictably, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg brought Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, on stage. Spotify got the big billing while competitors were relegated to little icons on a single slide.
Spotify, which announced general availability today, is tightly weaved into Facebook and is betting that Facebook’s global audience is going to turn the music service into a powerhouse. The on-demand music service shares investors with Facebook, both DST Global and Horizons are two common investors in the two companies. More importantly, Zuckerberg is a fan of Spotify and he uses that to listen to Green Day.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodesFlash analysis: the tech startup investment environment, Q3 2011Millennials in the enterprise, part 2: benchmarking IT’s readiness for the new digital workforce
Uncategorized
Daniel_Ek
f8
Facebook
Mark_Zuckerberg
music
spotify
from google
Spotify, which announced general availability today, is tightly weaved into Facebook and is betting that Facebook’s global audience is going to turn the music service into a powerhouse. The on-demand music service shares investors with Facebook, both DST Global and Horizons are two common investors in the two companies. More importantly, Zuckerberg is a fan of Spotify and he uses that to listen to Green Day.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodesFlash analysis: the tech startup investment environment, Q3 2011Millennials in the enterprise, part 2: benchmarking IT’s readiness for the new digital workforce
september 2011 by patrix
The Wonder Years Music Guide
july 2011 by patrix
“What would you do if I sang out of tune … would you stand up and walk out on me?"
This list is the work of many people. Shane Hill and Dawayne Melancon corrected and insertedseveral songs. Kyle Gittins revised the list. It is close to complete but there are still a few blank spots.Used with permission.
music
television
WonderYears
soundtracks
Nostalgia
This list is the work of many people. Shane Hill and Dawayne Melancon corrected and insertedseveral songs. Kyle Gittins revised the list. It is close to complete but there are still a few blank spots.Used with permission.
july 2011 by patrix
How to Create iPhone Ringtones for Free
january 2011 by patrix
All you need is Garage Band and iTunes.
apple
mac
itunes
ringtones
music
howto
january 2011 by patrix
Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk Has a Party on His Laptop
music
mashup
innovation
fave
january 2011 by patrix
All this excitement is focused on a performer whose instrument is a laptop. Girl Talk songs are mash-ups: chunks of other people’s songs combined into new ones: the Rolling Stones and the rapper Wiz Khalifa, Ice Cube and Devo. The mash-ups sound ironic to the ironically inclined and like pure joy to the joyfully inclined, and for both camps they’re fun to dance to. These are not just a collection of other people’s hooks; Girl Talk has created a new kind of hook that encompasses 50 years of the revolving trends of pop music. Sometimes cynicism is a hook, sometimes the hook is humor, angst, irony, aggression, sex or sincerity. Girl Talk’s music asserts all these things at once.
january 2011 by patrix
When it drops
movies
books
music
dvd
releases
october 2010 by patrix
Helping you keep track of the newest releases
october 2010 by patrix
Arcade Fire on Suburban Sprawl
Arcade Fire'a latest album, The Suburbs is one of the finest example of city planning commentary in pop culture today.
sprawl
urbanplanning
music
upb
august 2010 by patrix
Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs isn’t as much about suburbanism versus urbanism, or cars versus bicycles, as it is a question of “What now?” The album’s vision of suburbia may not exactly be an ideal place to live – not in the 1980’s and certainly not upon returning to it today. But the narrator of the album does return, nostalgic for his wasted hours of youth and fearful of what may remain for his children. If suburbia is no longer necessarily the dream, what is to be made of those communities we built in the 70s?
Arcade Fire'a latest album, The Suburbs is one of the finest example of city planning commentary in pop culture today.
august 2010 by patrix
Galactica: Sabotage vs. BEASTIE BOYS
march 2010 by patrix
YouTube Doubler mashup
youtube
mashup
remix
pb
battlestargalactica
beastieboys
music
march 2010 by patrix
Attic App - iPhone App For Forgotten Albums in Your Library
march 2010 by patrix
Attic is a slick music controller for all those unplayed albums that are collecting dust sitting in your iTunes library. Listen to, create playlists of, and shuffle through your forgotten albums.
apps
iphone
music
random
pb
march 2010 by patrix
liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine
february 2010 by patrix
@cgawker Yeah but if all you want is a visual map without first listening to songs, Live Plasma is a nice toy -
music
pb
from twitter
february 2010 by patrix
Turn Google into Your Personal Napster with a Bookmarklet
february 2010 by patrix
To create the bookmarklet (this is how you do it on Firefox—other browsers should be similar), just right-click your bookmarks toolbar, select New Bookmark, and paste the text below into the Location field:
javascript:var searchterms = escape(prompt('Enter Artist and Album'));var query = searchterms + ' site:mediafire.com';window.location='http://www.google.com/search?q=' + query;
music
mp3
download
google
search
pb
javascript:var searchterms = escape(prompt('Enter Artist and Album'));var query = searchterms + ' site:mediafire.com';window.location='http://www.google.com/search?q=' + query;
february 2010 by patrix
Find only exact duplicates in iTunes
january 2010 by patrix
So here’s the trick…the Option key. Hold it down, then select File, and notice that Show Duplicates has changed to Show Exact Duplicates.
itunes
music
howto
january 2010 by patrix
Heavy Metal | Taiwan Music
january 2010 by patrix
Meet Chthonic, Taiwan's premier metal act. Don't expect to see them in China anytime soon.
taiwan
china
music
rock
rebel
january 2010 by patrix
thesixtyone
january 2010 by patrix
a music adventure
music
mp3
community
social
discovery
from delicious
january 2010 by patrix
YouTube - Music Discovery Project
january 2010 by patrix
YouTube goes Pandora and launches the Music Discovery Project
google
discovery
music
search
streaming
from delicious
january 2010 by patrix
Exploration of Beatles music through infographics
january 2010 by patrix
These visualizations are part of an extensive study of the music of the Beatles. Many of the diagrams and charts are based on secondary sources, including but not limited to sales statistics, biographies, recording sesion notes, sheet music, and raw audio readings.
culture
visualization
graphics
music
beatles
collaboration
infographics
from delicious
january 2010 by patrix
Manage multiple iTunes & iPhoto libraries on the same computer
january 2010 by patrix
There is a surprisingly easy way to set up more than one library in both iTunes and iPhoto under a single user account.
mac
macosx
itunes
iphoto
howto
tips
photos
music
from delicious
january 2010 by patrix
Slumdog composer welcomes spotlight on Indian music
january 2009 by patrix
Composer A.R. Rahman might not be a household name in the United States quite yet, but he's one of most well-known musicians in his native India
nefa
movies
music
bollywood
arrahman
fordesipundit
slumdogmillionaire
january 2009 by patrix
Miles From India
january 2009 by patrix
Miles Davis meets the sounds of India in an endlessly compelling meeting of minds and cultures
music
india
MP3
fordesipundit
january 2009 by patrix
Yo-Yo Ma Brings Remix Culture to Music's Ivory Tower
january 2009 by patrix
Renowned cellist and 15-time Grammy winner Yo-Yo Ma is hosting an online competition, inviting listeners to add their own accompaniment to his performance of the traditional hymn "Dona Nobis Pacem," from his latest album, Songs of Joy & Peace.
nefa
software
music
technology
wired
fordesipundit
remix
january 2009 by patrix
Why the Recording Industry Really Stopped Suing Its Customers
january 2009 by patrix
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has announced that they're going to stop suing people for pirating music on P2P networks. For people under 30 years old, this has been the cause of much rejoicing.
nefa
music
law
copyright
p2p
piracy
riaa
fordesipundit
january 2009 by patrix
Hip-Hop Violin Music
december 2008 by patrix
In hip-hop violin music, performers use the violin to perform popular hip-hop music or write their own pieces.
nefa
music
inspiration
violin
fordesipundit
hip-hop
december 2008 by patrix
The 11 Most Unintentionally Gay Rap Lyrics Ever
april 2008 by patrix
With all of the negative press surrounding hip-hop music, rappers often complain about the media taking their lyrics out of context, to make them seem more violent or misogynistic than they really are.
funny
rap
gay
music
humor
NEFA
april 2008 by patrix
1000 True Fans - Kevin Kelly
march 2008 by patrix
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
longtail
business
marketing
fans
music
NEFA
march 2008 by patrix
Amazon.com MP3 Downloads
september 2007 by patrix
Amazon breaks the DRM shackles and promises to give iTunes a run for their money.
music
itunes
amazon
DRM
mp3
media
NEFA
september 2007 by patrix
Study Affirms Rocks Stars Do Die Younger
september 2007 by patrix
Living fast and dying young has long been part of rock 'n' roll lore. And now there are statistics that affirm the image
research
music
statistics
nefa
september 2007 by patrix
A Classic Review of the Paris Hilton album
july 2007 by patrix
"I know music," she reassured the Sunday Times children's section. "I hear it every single day." While this obviously gives Hilton a massive advantage over those who have never heard any music and thus believe it to be a variety of cheese.
ParisHilton
music
humor
review
NEFA
july 2007 by patrix
Save Net Radio
april 2007 by patrix
Recent government action has dramatically increased the fees internet radio companies must pay to play the music you enjoy and threatens the future of internet radio.
activism
radio
internet
politics
music
NEFA
april 2007 by patrix
Pearls Before Breakfast
april 2007 by patrix
Renowned violinist plays at a DC train station oblivious to all
music
culture
experiment
violin
art
NEFA
april 2007 by patrix
How to digitize cassette tapes
december 2006 by patrix
digitize cassette tapes
tapes
cassettes
digital
music
convert
december 2006 by patrix
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