Discussion

Open Discussion and Idea Sharing

Music Blogs: Taste or Waste?

By Ryan Van Etten on 08/17/2010

Is The Hype Machine the Lonely Planet of music blogging? “I just feel like everyone tries to do something different, but you always wind up doing the same damn thing.” Our world is a paradox without a crash course. The streets are filled with drivers who supposedly ‘can’t drive’ and writers who supposedly ‘can’t write.’ Perception is all you have. Run with it.

Posted in Discussion, Editorial, Media/Journalism, Music, Music Flux | Tagged 140conf, blog aggregators, bloggers, blogging, blogosphere, change, Chris Weingarten, curating music, denial, drones, Elbo.ws, Hype Machine, meaning/purpose, mediacracy, MOG, MOG Music Network, music bloggers, music criticism, music math, perception, poll, progress, rock journalism, rock/pop, taste, The Beach, The Ramones, travel, traveler vs. tourist, Twitter, unique experience, writing | 6 Responses

Anti-P2P = Denying Reality Now

By Ryan Van Etten on 06/25/2010

When it comes to music, value is in the ear of the listener. Value is always decided by the market. It’s a fundamental economics principle that Universal Music Group and the RIAA can’t seem to grasp—at least based on their latest propaganda initiative against music piracy in the US called Music Rights Now, which would be more appropriately named Denying Reality Now. Do they think they can change human nature?

Posted in Discussion, Editorial, Music, Music Flux, News, Popular | Tagged behavior, change, denial, economics, free, human nature, internet, ISP, legal, legalize it, music industry, music value, p2p, p2p legalize us, p2p movement, RIAA, rights, Universal, wackness | Leave a response

Flickr Search Fail

By Ryan Van Etten on 06/01/2010

Is water polo related to digital music? Flickr thinks so. It also can’t tell the difference between a house and a person. Can anyone make sense of this and/or provide insight into Flickr’s search algorithm? I’m using the Recent tab, because I’m often most interested in more recent photos. The Recent search results should still be relevant. I’m a huge Flickr fan, but this isn’t the first time the search has me asking what the Flickr? Anyone else?

Posted in Design, Discussion | Tagged fail, flickr, image search, realtime search, search, search relevance, tagging, Yahoo | 2 Responses

Hip Hop Bloggers “If I Ruled the Blogosphere”

By Ryan Van Etten on 05/26/2010

“You’ve just got to be open and free, because that’s the way people want to get content on the web”, says Dallas Penn. “Don’t be afraid of someone stealing your work so much, just have more work to give, and, if people are stealing it, you know what you’re onto something. You’re moving in the right direction.” continued Penn. Frank Talk summarized it in poetic terms, “If they’re stealing from you, [then] you’re on the right track.”

Posted in Discussion, Infoculture, Media/Journalism, Music, Music Flux | Tagged bandcamp, blogging, blogosphere, blogspot, circular promotion, community, content, copyright law, counterculture, culture, curating music, hip hop, internet, music bloggers, MusicBiz, net neutrality, new media, Oddisee, open, openness, personal brands, video | Leave a response

Musician Apps—What Do Fans Want? 5 Key Components.

By Ryan Van Etten on 05/12/2010

Last year I covered four platforms that musicians can use to build iPhone apps—Mobile Roadie, MobBase, iLike, and Kyte. Sound Around is another one, and is currently in private beta. Discussion from yesterday’s autoplay poll got me asking myself, “what do fans really want in an artist app?” I thought about it for a while and came up with 5 key components.

Posted in Apps, Design, Discussion, iPhone Apps, Music, Music Flux, Popular | Tagged app design, app services, artist channels, communication, community, development, direct-to-fan, fans, geotagging, ideas, iPhone, key components, Kyte, location, MobBase, mobile, mobile music, Mobile Roadie, music apps, musicians, networks, services, social media, Sound Around | 4 Responses

Music Autoplay: On or Off? [Poll]

By Ryan Van Etten on 05/11/2010

Have you ever visited a band’s website or MySpace page only to be blown out of your chair by a blaring music player? Usually the first thing I do is try to figure out how to turn it off, and, if I can’t figure that out in one nanosecond, I often exit the page and never return. Is this really the message one wants to send to their website visitors? Probably not. But maybe I’m a freak and the majority disagrees, so I ask, what do you think?

Posted in Design, Discussion, Music, Music Flux, Popular | Tagged autoplay, band websites, best practices, engagement, music web design, MusicBiz, poll, pros and cons | 9 Responses

Lala Shutdown: Twitter Top 20

By Ryan Van Etten on 04/30/2010

Apple caused a Twitter storm today with the abrupt announcement that their newly acquired cloud-based music service “Lala is shutting down.” I won’t speculate today on what this may mean for the future of iTunes and the music industry. Instead, here’s our top ten reactions to the news—reader discretion is advised.

Posted in Discussion, Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged Amazon, Apple, cloud, Grooveshark, humor, iTunes, Lala, Music, music industry, piracy, reactions, spotify, subscription model, top list | Leave a response