
Ryan Van Etten in 2010.
Read more about Ryan here.
On the road of sound, there are players, and there are consumessengers. Due to the increase in communication mediums, consumers—the fans—are spreading the message now more than ever. Hence, the consumessenger has emerged. These modern fans are still fueled by the music, but what we’ve seen is a shift to an era where musicians are the engine, and their fans are the only fuel that matters. Gassing up your car isn’t free, but hybrid music fuel can be.
Here’s some graphical perspective on Facebook’s growth via estimated traffic data from Quantcast and Compete. The numbers are significantly different between the sources but the basic trend and relative traffic difference between Facebook and Google is evident: Facebook is a rocket, or, rather a full-blown planet with enough gravity to start a galaxy—the data shows it surpassed Google in traffic in late 2009.
Game designer/researcher Jane McGonigal asserts that collaborative videogames are the key to solving our real-world problems. In the video here, she outlines why she considers World of Warcraft to be an “ideal collaborative problem-solving environment.” She discusses four key factors in gaming culture that give gamers an edge at problem-solving—urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning.
Last week, with the help of photographer Adam Jackson, I posted a photoset from the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. UMF was a sellout event, but only a few photographers seemed to capture it. Adam voiced his frustration that for such a huge event like UMF, only a relatively small amount of decent media makes it to Flickr and YouTube.
In today’s fluxing music economy of freeconomics, ubiquitousness, and abundance, musicians are leveraging data and metrics tools to drive their careers. What answers can digital data deliver for musicians? Who… What… When… Where… Why… How…
UMF is an annual electronic music festival in Miami’s Bicentennial Park, and is the official closing event for WMC—a music industry panel/workshop event for DJ’s, producers, label reps, and the like. This year—for the first time ever—UMF completely sold out, and announced that next year this 2-day multistage dancefest would expand to 3 days. 25 photos.