By Ryan Van Etten on 02/18/2010
Bandcamp added artist/song tagging to its slew of features yesterday, and hopes are high that more social music features are in store. As a self-professed tag-a-holic I’m pretty stoked about the news, and especially so because I had emailed them suggesting a tagging feature. Bandcamp artists can now list themselves in up to five genres, they can add their location, and they can add specific traits to individual tracks in the form of tags.
Posted in Design, Discussion, Editorial, Music Flux, News | Tagged Amie Street, bandcamp, behavior, community, crowdsourcing, data, Delicious, geotagging, ideas, last.fm, location, music discovery, music intelligence, new features, recommendation engine, search, social bookmarking, social media, social music, tagging, thesixtyone
By Ryan Van Etten on 02/01/2010
Terry McBride—CEO of Nettwerk—talks here about imagination. He argues that with music, context trumps content because music creates emotional bookmarks in our mind. Simply, the song is an emotion. These emotional bookmarks are significant because they enable us to travel backwards in our memories to when we experienced the music. Consumers are in control of the music industry, and access rules.
Posted in Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged access, app stores, Apple, artist-fan relationship, arts, behavior, business, cloud, consumption, content, context, copyright law, crowdsourcing, digital, digital valets, downloads, emotion, emotional attachment, imagination, industry, iPhone, ipod, live music, music ventures, MusicBiz, Nettwerk, ownership, p2p, positivity, psychology, pull, recession, revenue, smartphones, social music, spotify, streaming, TED, TEDx, TEDxVancouver, Terry McBride, venture capital, video
By Ryan Van Etten on 12/01/2009
The interviews below featuring Terry McBride—CEO of Nettwerk—offer terrific insight to the digital era of music. Terry points out that the ways in which we consume music are changing rapidly—largely due to smartphones—and that the “emotional glue” between fans and musicians is the essence of music business.
Posted in Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged access, app stores, Apps, artist labels, behavior, brands, business, cloud, cloud computing, consumers, consumption, content, context, copyright law, culture, digital, direct-to-fan, DIY, entertainment, fans, future, industry, interview, iPhone, kids, marketplace, media, mobile, mobility, MusicBiz, musicians, Nettwerk, p2p, partnerships, positivity, service, smartphones, social music, streaming, TED, Terry McBride, trends, video, virtuality
By Ryan Van Etten on 11/24/2009
Musicians (artists) are driven by a fundamental need to create. Music is their art and their expression. Even in a world without money there would be music, and arguably there would be even more music (and other art) than there is today. In his 2009 TED talk, Daniel Pink makes a strong case relating the science of motivation to creativity and business.
Posted in Editorial, Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged artwork, behavior, business, change, consumers, creativity, Daniel Ek, Daniel Pink, direct-to-fan, empowerment, engagement, entertainment, fans, human, idea, industry, money, motivation, MusicBiz, musicians, p2p, Pink Floyd, platform, positivity, psychology, purpose, research, revenue, science, social media, sociology, spotify, streaming, TED
By Ryan Van Etten on 11/21/2009
The internet has leveled the playing field. It has proven that content is king, and that those who work hard at delivering content can build a following. Artists have channels with live streaming video content and direct connection with their fans through mobile applications. The same opportunities exist for everyone, and they’re almost all free. You may think that endorsements and partnerships are only for megastars—but I don’t.
Posted in Editorial, Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged adaptation, bands, behavior, brands, business, clothing, consumers, content, Design, direct-to-fan, DIY, endorsements, engagement, entertainment, facebook, fashion, IMVU, iPhone, justintv, Mariah Carey, MusicBiz, musicians, MySpace, partnerships, products, revenue, Second Life, social media, social music, sponsorships, stickam, streaming, ustream, webcam, YouTube
By Ryan Van Etten on 10/15/2009
Moral values—are they learned or are they built into our genetic makeup? Are our brains hard-wired to draw a line between right and wrong? Different cultures might vary on specific issues—there are social activities you can do freely in Amsterdam that you would be arrested for doing in New York for example—but generally most current cultures make similar separations between right and wrong. In essence morals transcend culture, right? But why exactly do we feel the need to separate right and wrong—what is it that makes our moral clock tick?
Posted in Discussion, Editorial, Education, Gaming, News | Tagged behavior, culture, evolution, future, human, interaction, modern, moral values, psychology, right vs wrong, series, sociology
By Ryan Van Etten on 09/24/2009
It’s 2009. Why are people are still paying for mp3 downloads when there is an abundance of awesome music available for free? Digital music is becoming more free by the minute. There is music that you can download for free—legally or illegally—and there is music that you can stream for free. I support bands that are giving their tracks away for free.
Posted in Discussion, Editorial, Music, Music Flux | Tagged Amie Street, bandcamp, bands, behavior, downloads, fans, industry, issues, iTunes, listeners, MusicBiz, p2p, revenue, social music, streaming, why?
By Ryan Van Etten on 07/20/2009
Music and videogames were made for each other. Here’s a videogame concept that’s been virtually bouncing my mind, called either VirtualBouncer, or VirtualVenue. There would be two main player types—bouncers and club-goers—and there would be character options for each.
Posted in Editorial, Education, Gaming, Music, News | Tagged behavior, concept, crowdsourcing, data, Gaming, idea, ideas, information, interaction, licensing, mashups, revenue, robots, social intelligence, venue, videogame, virtualization