Tag Archive for 'music'

Bear with me

Published
by
Ehren
on December 8, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, fun and twitter
. 2 Comments

With the holidays fast approaching plus general work and my focus on wrapping up the assignments for my part-time courses of 2008, expect a slight pause and possibly lower frequency of posts. I hope to re-design and re-shape this site during the holidays.

In the meanwhile, I’d encourage you to:

…visit peoplewantmore*, a site I’ve begun working on with a variety of people including David Miller to explore our enduring struggle we strive for something greater — for success. Perhaps through this process, we can learn more about humanity and ourselves. But that’s just my interpretation … everyone has their own. I’d encourage everyone to participate and if you’re interested in being a regular contributor, do contact me, leave a comment, or just let me know what you think.

… check out I Feel Toronto — a rather interesting endeavour. @Nationalpost refers to it as emotional cartography. There’re also maps for New York City and London as well.

… drop by The Grid System if you’re a designer of any sort or even if you’re not a designer … so that we may all appreciate the order that is design chaos. Perhaps that may be the other way around…

… go here and download Mozilla’s Songbird. If you’re tired of using Winamp (which died rather quickly after AOL acquired it) or you’re looking to take some time off away from good ol’ iTunes and DRM, Songbird is a breath of fresh air. Runs pretty smoothly and the fact that it connects to sites like Last.fm is a bonus. I’m personally hoping for more connectivity to a site like Amie Street in the future :)

… maybe experience some cuteness overload ? (ht: @collylogic)

In the meanwhile, you’ll find me on twitter as usual…

Creative independence by nattu

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Free Music On-Demand - A Complete Follow Up

Published
by
Ehren
on October 23, 2008
in Mentions, fun and web 2.0
. 1 Comment

I’ve been studying the analytics for this blog for sometime and one of the most popular search terms for people arriving on this site has been “free music on demand”.  Apparently people keep arriving on to this blog post I had written in January.  So I figured maybe I should help these people out by pointing them in the right direction(s) instead of just leaving my exclamation about Last.fm.

Let’s start with the big ones — or at least, the ones that I actually have used:

Pandora

Honestly, my favourite.  I had so many people I knew hooked on to it — and then they shut us out … that is, those of us who are outside of the U.S.  Simply enter in a few songs into the player that are to your liking and it begins to showcase music that has been deemed similar according to the “music genome project”.  You’ll get to give each song a thumbs up, in which case it would keep that in mind — or thumbs down, in which case it’d move on to another song.  I can’t remember but when I was still permitted to use Pandora, they had a limit on how many thumbs down you could give in a row within a specified period of time.  Pandora also allows you to create your own radio station or listen to your friends as well … or even mix ‘em up!

Last.fm

Second to Pandora, Last.fm continues to be a huge hit amongst fans of social media and general music aficionados.  With it, you can network with your friends or other people with similar (or different) interests and share songs of a wide variety that you give a thumbs up or down to.  Unlike Pandora, Last.fm bases its playlist on your network of friends and acquaintances which brings a whole different level of music exploration to your finger tips.

Musicovery

I discovered Musicovery not too long ago and it is brilliant way to discover new music by defining a mood.  Not only does it allow you to discover music but it’s got a great visualization of how different songs relate to one another.  Playing the music works similar to the other services in the sense that you can give songs thumbs up or thumbs down so that the system plays more music to your liking.  From my experience, it didn’t seem to work that well but on the level of discovering new and international music, Musicovery does the job pretty well.

Amie Street

I realize Amie Street isn’t an on-demand music player however IF you are seeking free music, Amie Street is a brilliant brilliant website to discover some new and upcoming artists on the scene.  I’ve found quite a few  but it takes time to go through the site and sort through what you like.  Of course, that depends on whether or not you’re a leader and like to explore — because if you’re a follower … you’ll end up paying up to 99 cents per song based on the level of popular demand.

Seeqpod

Seeqpod is a favourite in the office (shh…) when things just seem a little too quiet.  A relatively simple user interface, Seeqpod allows you to search through all sorts of media (mp3s, YouTube, etc.) but only allows you to queue up mp3s or other audio files.  The great thing is that you can then save your playlist and return, or even embed your playlist on to your own blog, website, etc.

Another neat element to Seeqpod is that you can see what other people are searching for in real time.  Good way to find new music.

Songza

Is very much like Seeqpod.  Search for songs you like and queue them up on your playlist.  Slightly more straight-forward cleaner interface and they feature artists.

—

Now on to stuff I haven’t actually tried but looks pretty spiffy to some degree:

Guitarati

This reminds me of Musicovery — playing music based on mood.  It’s really like a blend between Musicovery and Amie Street.  The difference with Guitarati is that you get to select music based on a diverse number of big colourful circles!  Oh … and you have to pay for some of the music but again like Amie Street, it varies based on demand.

Deezer

A French start-up that looks like it’s got potential.  To quote from the website: “The concept is simple: To offer, free of charge and legally, all kinds of music, from rock to hip-hop, jazz, electro and world music While at the same time, artists and rights owners receive a share of advertising revenue.“  So lots of free music of all kinds to enjoy.  Supposedly you can even download and store mp3s for yourself — sound good?

iLike

For those who have iLike attached to their Facebook or Myspace or <insert social networking site> … iLike works similar to Last.fm and allows for discovery of music through your network of friends.  I haven’t really touched this but it is likely just as popular as Last.fm — I guess when it comes to stuff like this, you have to ask — where are all of your friends?  I presume you’ll be joining them…unless you’ve got a rebellious streak…

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Here are some other sites that seem interesting but I’m not so sure that I will likely make use of:

Free Napster

Wow… Napster… I haven’t touched Napster since my days in university.  This is their free version as opposed to their subscription-based site.  Seems to be good for all around music tastes but I left Napster a long time ago — don’t really intend on returning.

Highnote

From scanning through this website, it seems like a large number of “stations” set up playing various types of music.  I believe you can create your own as well.  Just a glance noted that the highest number of stations were hip hop related but there are a fair share of other genres being played.

Qbox

This is a download that allows you to stream music from social networking sites like Bebo or Myspace.  While the interface reminds me very much of iTunes, it isn’t really to my liking.  I like web-based applications that I don’t need to download on to new machines.  At the same time, this may be to your liking if you’re quite involved in MySpace and just want to queue up all your favourite artists.

Soundlantern

This reminds me of a blend between Highnote and YouTube.  People often upload their own remixes and there are a lot of channels that you can subscribe to.  Sort of like … stations?

Streamzy

This is like a slightly more complex looking Seeqpod or Songza.  The user interface is a little more slick.

HearWhere

Not quite an on-demand website, this actually seems somewhat interesting.  Primarily for concert goers, the idea is to listen to the tracks by various artists and decide whether or not you want to attend.  It primarily streams from other social networking sites.

—

I hope this has been helpful to you folks who keep arriving at my site looking for free music on-demand!  Now go listen to your hearts content :)

A few others that I haven’t checked out just yet:

8tracks

Muxtape

Hmm… if only I had all that music handy on my road trips. But the local radio station was still cool.

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Live and Let Learn

Published
by
Ehren
on August 3, 2008
in travel
. 1 Comment

Some awesome things:

- While Iowa was very pretty, Nebraska was somewhat boring — but I-76 into Colorado is amazing.  Bald rolling yellow-green hills.

- Unfortunately, I drove past the welcome center but I’m glad because I ran into Lucy’s Cafe which has a beautiful view of I-76.

- Listening to country while driving through Iowa and to Celtic music and the Omaha Symphony while through Nebraska is soulful experience.  Denver has some good rock too.  Will have to look up a whole lot of music when I get home — both new and classic.

- Thrilled that for the first time, my rental car was hit by a tumbleweed (i think!)

- Drove through a weird storm.  I’ve only seen storm clouds like this in photos.  Stunning to see them in real life! Photo doesn’t do justice.

Other thoughts:

- No matter how fast people want you to drive, you drive at a speed that’s comfortable to you and safe to everyone else.

- Travel inexpensively by consuming only water, bread and peanut butter. Add a 53 cent pecan pie for some luxury! Pay for meals that are truly unique.

- Use WiFi spots wherever possible. Some states have amazing rest areas.

- Annoyed at the fact that the Hyundai Accent that I rented guzzles gas at 75mph/120kph legal limit so I have to stay within 100-110kph.

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Going Beyond The Product

Published
by
Ehren
on June 2, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, Ponderings, marketing, technology and work
. 0 Comments

Funky Monday.

Today I ran across and shared two recent articles from the Globe and Mail at work. One being that the Globe and Mail was opening up its business model, and the other being that the Metallica was endorsing a new way of doing business on the web (but really it’s not that new).

I was asked … what does this mean?

It’s just what I’ve been stating over and over again. Book publishers are no longer able to be purely book publishers. Technology has provided a way for different forms of media to converge — take a look at the iPod (and other new mp3 players) or even newer ultra portable laptops like the Asus EEE. This means that your product must be flexible and adaptable (mostly figuratively speaking, although literally would be nice too). This doesn’t mean you can’t have a printed book, but rather that any static product is pretty much obsolete.

Sadly enough, publishers actually have a choice to focus on their core business or diversify. Their core business is typically the reader that literally consumes books at an incredible rate. The funny thing about this market is that despite that consumption level, book publishers still pump out way too many books and overwhelm that market. We expect slower readers or occasional readers to pick up the slack but it just doesn’t happen. Why? I don’t think we really put enough thought into the value of the product — what the customer wants or desires. A customer doesn’t necessarily know what they want but customers are smart. They have and will find more ways to ensure they are getting the best value and experience for their money. If a book uses cheap paper, they know. If we don’t invest time into a book cover, they know.

Production values are interesting because they appear to me as very similar to school work (remember that?). When we don’t put in the time and thoughtfulness into a project, it really shows.

Movies and music are two types of products that have been forced to continually re-examine the way they sell their product. In the late 90s, movie cinemas began raising prices after creating bigger screens and sound systems in order to improve the customer experience. Did that bigger screen and bolder sound help the movie industry? Yes but not necessarily as good as it could have if it were introduced earlier because it coincided with the increase of movie rentals. But the cash kept flowing because people were still interested in seeing a movie on the bigger screen.

Fast forward to 2001 and the mass adoption of DVDs. The bigger screen is in decline. Why? Because the customer experience has changed. DVDs now provides greater value directly into the hands of the customer than a night at the cinema. That and the seven reasons that The Big Picture lists out in an old blog posting. Will the DVD sales decline? Potentially as legal and DRM-free digital downloads become prominent, while pirated DVDs continue to propagate. Toss into the mix far-reaching/long range cellular frequencies and an uncapped/unlimited wireless connection — the movie purchasing equation will be altered forever.

Despite the long and controversial existence of the mp3 file, the music industry has been very lucky in the sense that the mp3 itself and Apple’s iPod infused the customer with a sense of power and freedom that they had not felt before. Sure it caused chaos on the sales of CDs but what really has happened is the resurgence of interest in a wide-range of music regardless of time. Cut the waste (i.e. CDs and albums), focus on the music itself, give the customer the freedom to do what they please with the product sans the packaging, a lower price point for the work they do (i.e. pick and choose individual songs) and they will come back for more to do more. People want to be able to customize their own little jukebox full of music and they want to do it in their own way.

Now with books, add on the fact that Acrobat 9 is about to be released and as Mark puts it, it’s a game changer. The ability for rich media to be embedded within PDF files has arrived. Can’t figure out what that means?

What if you could be read a book and watch movie clips as part of the story? What if you could interact with the characters? What if we could draw our own animation — upload it to the book and share it with other readers? Or on a particular connection point over the internet where all other readers of a book could meet up? What if we could discuss an idea directly within a book with all other readers? Can you imagine what it will be like in the future? Take a look at the introduction of Disney’s Treasure Planet. These ideas aren’t taking away the essence of a book; they are enriching what’s within every book — far beyond the means of text on a page.

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Finally … Free Music On-Demand

Published
by
Ehren
on January 23, 2008
in Interests, Mentions, fun, marketing, technology and web 2.0
. 1 Comment

The Globe and Mail has an article today about Last.fm now offering music on-demand with advertising.  It’s good to see that the music industry isn’t totally ruling out internet radio, although this is slightly different.

I still miss listening to music on my Pandora account — while Last.fm allows me to find songs based on similar interests among other users, Pandora was really easy to use and was customized for me and only me.  I hope that Canada can get back in on that action soon.  I miss being able to find new artists or artists a just had not heard of before, without the “word of mouth” step.  Sometimes “word of mouth” can be a pain…

Update Oct. 23 2008: If you’re looking for a more detailed list of free music on-demand — I’ve posted a list here.

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