By Ryan Van Etten on 07/26/2010
10 seconds to engage someone. 10 seconds to impress them. In his research for Futurehit.DNA, Jay Frank discovered an impressive trend: Shorter song intros lead to better sales. “2/3 of bestselling songs have an intro that’s less than 7 seconds.” The average intro length for Top 25 songs is 6.6 seconds. “You really have 10 seconds to engage people.”
Posted in Music, Music Flux, News, Popular | Tagged 7 seconds, Ariel Hyatt, attention, attention span, business, consumption, culture, don't make obstacles, engagement, Eric Garland, first impressions, Futurehit.DNA, Google, Gwen Lipsky, impact, Jay Frank, marketing, Mike Doernberg, monetization, MusicBiz, New Music Seminar, NMS NYC 2010, obscurity, people, Ralph Simon, ReverbNation, SEO, song intros, tips, What I Learned at NMS10
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
By Ryan Van Etten on 04/21/2010
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.
Posted in Activism, Education, Gaming, Infoculture | Tagged collaboration, counterculture, creativity, culture, game design, gaming culture, innovation, Jane McGonigal, mindset, MMO, MMORPG, motivation, problem-solving, psychology, social gaming, social intelligence, TED, trust, urgent evoke, video, videogame, virtual worlds, WoW
![Music Photography: Quality vs. Memory [Poll]](http://img.virtualmusic.tv/thumbs/paramore-by-apartmentlife.jpg)
By Ryan Van Etten on 04/16/2010
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.
Posted in Editorial, Infoculture, Media/Journalism, Music | Tagged culture, flickr, Internet Generation, live music, media, mobile, motivation, music photography, paramore, photojournalism, poll, quality, sentimental value, tips, youth, YouTube
By Ryan Van Etten on 02/21/2010
These people are awesome: South African rap-ravers Die Antwoord (translation: The Answer) have dazzled the interwebs in a matter of weeks with their latest music video Enter The Ninja. A literal butterfly effect is happening here—Die Antwoord is rippling the music world with Zef flow.
Posted in Editorial, Music, News, Reviews | Tagged arts, awesomeness, butterfly effect, counterculture, culture, Die Antwoord, diversity, enter the ninja, hip hop, music review, next level, rap, south africa, video, zef
By Ryan Van Etten on 02/02/2010
Piano music is as popular in Second Life as it is in real life. The setting is a virtual world—the music is real, interactive, and on key. This vivid photoset features pianos and players (avatars) in Second Life. 11 photos and 1 video.
Posted in Gaming, Music, News, Photo Journal | Tagged avatars, culture, music gaming, nightlife, photos, piano, pianos, Second Life, videogame, virtual piano, virtual worlds, virtuality
By Ryan Van Etten on 01/24/2010
Bill Burton: “Sometimes we limit ourselves by what we believe we can do. We don’t even start. We don’t even try.” Burton delivered this powerful point in his TEDx talk last week, called How To Have A Christmas Number One Single, where, citing RATM’s rise to UK Xmas no. 1, he exemplified the boundless force of social media, and, through a storytelling memorization activity, he demonstrated the limitless—but often unrealized—potential of the human mind.
Posted in Boundless, Editorial, Interviews, Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged belief, Bill Burton, christmas number one, counterculture, culture, defiance, empowerment, facebook, fans, interview, jon morter, killing in the name, memorization, MusicBiz, no limits, nu metal, number one, people, pop, pop charts, psychology, radio, RATM, ratm4xmas, Simon Cowell, social media, social music, storytelling, TED, tracy morter, UK, X Factor, xmas
