Tag Archive for 'iphone'Page 2 of 3

Music Discovery in 2010

published
on January 18, 2010
by
Sandra
in fans, future of music, music, music business, social media, technology, and tools for musicians
. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

A year and a half ago I wrote a post about the Top 5 Music Discovery Sites. A lot has happened since then: MySpace acquired iLike, MySpace acquired (and buried) iMeem (and then brought back their users’ playlists), Google Music Search was born, and the mobile music space exploded all over us thanks to the iPhone and the whole new world of opportunities now open to iPhone app developers… to name just a few things.

So, what are the best options available for music discovery right now? Here is my updated list:

Pandora
The customizable internet radio station that knows your musical taste so well it’s just plain creepy. Assuming you use Pandora somewhat actively, i.e. click the thumbs up/thumbs down buttons or suggest songs, the service is shockingly adept at playing music you will dig. Cool features like station gifting and the ability to share songs via email, Twitter, or Facebook give it a social slant. Links to iTunes and Amazon let you quickly purchase songs for your personal collection. And of course, if you’re striving for musical snobbery, Pandora not only tells you all sorts of fun facts about the artist, the album, or the song, but also explains (in terms probably only the serious musicologists among us would understand) exactly why it recommended a particular song. Oh, and Pandora is coming soon to a car near you.
Mobile Status: Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Windows and more.

thesixtyone
Our current favorite place to discover sick ass new music is thesixtyone, which purports to make music more democratic: “artists upload their work for review, but, rather than allow a stuffy suit in a boardroom to decide what’s good, thousands of listeners do.” The site also rewards listeners who are active participants by allowing them to “earn reputation, level up [their] influence, and collect badges,” making it almost like a Yelp culture for music fans. You can connect your account to Facebook, share what you’re listening to etc. If you’re an artist planning to put your music on t61, here’s what you should know.
Mobile Status: Nothing yet, but fans are chomping at the bit (check out the comments on their Facebook note.)

Midomi and Shazaam
I’m grouping these two together because they are different versions of the same thing. While Shazaam seems to have the most traction (likely due to its simplicity and clean look and feel), Midomi has more features. It can recognize not only that song playing on your car radio, but also singing, whistling, and humming. Although it’s very gratifying to instantly identify a song you hear, the real power in this technology lies in the actionable options presented along with the search result. Once you’ve identified the song, you can buy it, share it, watch the video etc.
Mobile Status (Midomi): Android, iPhone, Nokia, Windows.
Mobile Status (Shazaam): Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia.

Grooveshark
First of all, let me just say that I am not a fan of the current design. Specifically, it’s the sidebar on the left that I find very aesthetically displeasing. Besides that, however, Grooveshark is a very cool service. You can upload your own music collection and stream it from wherever. Or search for music and stream it instantly. Of course it has all the social goodies as well, including embeddable widgets for your blog.
Mobile Status: Android, Blackberry.

Hype Machine
This clever little site is a music blog aggregator. As they say, “every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up here.” Go ahead. Nerd out. Worth mentioning, also, is RCRD LBL, which is a “network of ad supported online record labels and blogs offering completely free music and multimedia content from emerging and established artists.” Yes, free mp3s.
Mobile Status: iPhone app in the works?

Honorable Mentions:

Blip.fm
Blip.fm is essentially Twitter for music, allowing you to share tracks (along with brief comments and messages) with other users in a real-time stream. Naturally, it’s also integrated with Twitter and Facebook, so you can showcase your awesome musical taste by becoming the DJ and showing off your skillz. Or, you can use the service as a music discovery tool by listening to other DJs.
Mobile Status: iPhone (“Boombox Pro”)

Amazon Music
Amazon created a lot of buzz early on with their recommendation engine for books and things. Why shouldn’t it work just as well for music? Turns out it does… In fact, it’s a pretty solid option. You can listen to samples, plus do all the usual nifty Amazon-y things.
Mobile Status: iPhone

JamLegend
While JamLegend (the computer nerd’s answer to Guitar Hero & Rock Band) is first and foremost a game, it’s also a totally viable place for music discovery. As you sort through featured or new artists and songs, you might just stumble upon some great new stuff… You might also get sucked in and spend 12 hours pressing the 1, 2, and 3 keys on your keyboard. Consider yourself warned.
Mobile Status: JamLegend hasn’t gone mobile, but RockBand has an iPhone app, and of course there is Tap Tap Revenge (the Guitar Hero-style game).

How will YOU discover new music in 2010?


Find Live Music on the Go

published
on November 5, 2009
by
Sandra
in fans, music, music business, technology, and tools for musicians
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

For a while now, there have been websites out there that help you find live shows, such as GigLocator. Naturally, given the rampant growth in the mobile application space, there are iPhone apps popping up that do the same. Let’s have a look.

There is JamBase, one of the leading sources of live music and concert information. They’ve been around since 1998 and were quick to jump on the iPhone opportunity. Currently they are on V2 of their app. With their app you can find live shows in your area (with the built in GPS, of course), obsess over your favorite musicians on their artist pages, and get totally dialed in by checking out the event pages that are equipped with maps, ticket info, and lineups.

GigMap, a free service that helps both musicians and music venues communicate their upcoming gigs, is actually a “mashup of Google Maps, Twitter and music community Tribe of Noise, which they launched together with Layar. Read more here. Though not the sleekest looking website in the world, the features are pretty sweet. Their mobile app is both iPhone and Android compatible.

And then there’s Beck’s (yes, the beer) GigFinder. Similar to the above example (why reinvent the wheel when you can just make a mashup using existing applications or services…) GigFinder uses Last.fm‘s database along with Google Maps. Watch the video below for more info:

iLike has entered the race with their aptly named Local Concerts app. One advantage here, for current iLike members, is that you can browse local concerts personalized to your music library. You can also buy tickets directly in the app or get directions to the show.

Lastly, we have onseeker music, with a lot of the same features as the apps listed above including GPS-based search, directions, etc. You can give feedback to the artists and venues, which is cool. For the anti-iPhone crowd, they’ve got versions coming for Android, WebOS, Blackberry, and more.

So, there you have it. Pick an app that works for you, fire up your GPS and never again wander the streets wondering where to find live music.

Music Production Goes Mobile with IK Multimedia’s GrooveMaker

published
on October 16, 2009
by
Lucy
in future of music, music, music production, remixing, technology, and tools for musicians
. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

hands

It is well known that over the last 10 years the barriers to making music have been shattered by highly effective, and cheap, music making software. Musicians now have many great resources when it comes to digital studio software and online collaboration and production tools. And, as music making technology continues to spread and becomes easier to use, even fans have entered the music making process by remixing and collaborating with their favorite artists.

The next step in the evolution of music production very well may be mobile music making, and while many mobile music tools have been released in the last several years, IK Multimedia’s GrooveMaker may be the most effective. After the success of their first four applications released last August, IK Multimedia has put out two new versions of their GrooveMaker music production apps. The new GrooveMaker Techno and GrooveMaker Trance add to IKM’s existing genre collection of House, Hip-Hop, and Club. If you get the itch to make some beats on-the-go, these apps allow users to create and share full length, non-stop tracks in real-time, perfect for DJing, remixing, or creating multimedia soundtracks. Pretty sweet, eh?

The GrooveMaker apps contain advanced remixing software that allows for control over eight stereo loop tracks. Users can pull from GrooveMaker’s extensive library of high sound-quality drum, bass, bass drums, lines, pads, percussion and effects loops, and loops are easily arranged by dragging and dropping. GrooveMaker’s randomization feature lets users create millions of possible grooves with just one touch. Once a user is done with their jam, tracks can be saved, previewed, recalled, and exported as .WAV files to a computer through a Wi-Fi network.

groovemaker2

While GrooveMaker Techno and GrooveMaker Trance are available in the iTunes App Store for $9.99, IK Multimedia has given us a few copies to give out for free! The first four people to tweet out “I dig the GrooveMaker iPhone app and @EvolvingMusic!” will get a free copy of the GrooveMaker app. Or check out GrooveMaker’s fully functional basic version, available for free on iTunes. And to check out audio demos, visit GrooveMaker’s website.

Curious to learn more about music making on the iPhone? Read this.

iPhone Instrumentals

published
on August 19, 2009
by
Lucy
in music production, technology, and tools for musicians
. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Thanks to the multitude of applications available from Apple’s App Store, creating music through your phone has come a long way since Towelie’s “Funky Town.”

In fact, some, like rising YouTube sensation The Mentalists, are taking these applications quite seriously. Check out this band’s covers of MGMT’s “Kids” or Estelle’s “American Boy”.

Stanford University even has its own iPhone ensemble, called the Mobile Phone Orchestra, or MoPhO. MoPhoO director, Ge Wang, developed his own application for the group, called Ocarina, which turns the iPhone into a woodwind-like instrument sensitive to touch, movement, or breath.

The App Store has music applications for everything from digital drum pads to mash-up machines to kazoos. Some of the most popular include Jumpei Wada’s Mini Piano, Curious Brain Inc.’s TouchCords, and Magnus Larsson’s DigiDrummer Lite, all free. These apps are very user friendly, allowing even the least music-tech savvy people try their hand at a little music production.

Just another way technology is allowing a more hands-on experience for enjoying music, much like MixMatchMusic’s Remix Wizard allows artists to bring fans into the mix through remix promotions. For an Evolving Music list of other cool music related apps check out this earlier post.

Musical Musings

published
on January 13, 2009
by
ACtual
in collaboration, culture, future of music, genres, interview, music, music business, politics, and remixing
. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

With 2008 and all the music that came with it steadily speeding away in our rear view, I got to thinking a lot about what we did and didn’t see last year in the musical world, and what’s coming. When it comes down to it, 2008 was largely defined by some of the musical trends we saw, the continuing struggle over DRM and the ever growing attempts to market, brand and distribute music in ways that utilize multiple media and social platforms.

Musically, there was a greater push towards mash-ups (AmpLive Interview) and punk fueled Indie rock. Bands like Fall Out Boy and Bloc Party among many others kept driving guitars, sometimes melancholy lyrics and music that’s in your face in terms of pace at the forefront of the radio mainstream. Hip-Hop continued its usual pond-like trend: scum on the surface, beautiful water underneath with “artists” like T.I., T-Pain and Flo-rida topping the charts while rappers like Akrobatik, eLZhi and Black Milk continued struggling to boost their word of mouth. The line between Hip-Hop and Pop was continually blurred as radio Rap brought in more Rock and World music sounds into their songs.

We saw Kanye West rebound from a personally disastrous year to re-vamp his sound with 808s and Heartbreak, and we saw Guns ‘N Roses dig themselves out of a nearly 20 year grave to release the much anticipated Chinese Democracy album, something that many fans thought they’d never hear. Of course, most fans expected to hear either a new Eminem album (Relapse) or the long awaited and highly anticipated Detox album from Dr. Dre, and they got neither.

The DRM battle raged on in 2008, and in even just the beginning weeks of ’09 we’ve seen a nice movement in the area. For most of 2008, the IFPI (2) and the RIAA battled downloaders, both large and small, in court. Looking for lost compensation, they took to trial serial filesharers and spent massive amounts of time and money scaring college kids into settling out of court for fear of an expensive and punitive sentence against them. In the end, these efforts were largely useless, and in my mind, a joke, as they claimed to be fighting for the artists, while we all pretty much know how little the labels show the artists from individual song downloads.

The record industry spent months wringing their hands over lost profits and ways to control music that they long ago lost almost all control over. You have to wonder if, looking back now, they aren’t thinking of all their recent efforts as merely shutting the barn door after all the animals already escaped. And the change in tune has been brisk… Now, just two weeks into ’09, Apple has announced one of the broadest and most accessible withdrawals of DRM and price restructuring of MP3s in years. The four major labels have helped produce this movement, and it shows the increasing power of the consumers in the music marketplace. Once tied to hard copy formats like CDs with an average price table, consumers this year found diverse and creative ways to obtain their music, forcing the hand of the labels to recognize that DRM is not what the people want. How this lack of DRM will effect iPod sales or iTunes downloads remains to be seen. The launch of the App Store on iTunes also took music mobile with an incredible number of music related apps (and a few apps that are just plain incredible) designed for the iPhone.

The idea of Take Away shows and having artists perform live in unconventional venues took off. Nine Inch Nails picked up on Radiohead’s experiment with a free download format of an album, but they’ve taken it a step further now by offering over 400 GB of HD video footage from their concert tours up on torrent streams for fans to remix and create DVDs. This fan interaction has become tantamount to bands in the last year with MySpace including music, and a large number of acts going from conventional websites to social networking platforms.

And while these social networking sites and the bands that use them were beginning to become increasingly entwined, musicians were getting in the mix as well, literally. Late in 2008, MixMatchMusic officially opened its doors to musicians from all over the world to create, upload, collaborate and work with stems to broaden the ways people approach making music. With the DemoGod award at Demo ’08, a write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle and the ever-popular RemixSarahPalin.com, this vision of worldwide musical collaboration and the power of mixing and matching steps closer to being a full-fledged reality. (MixMatchMusic)

So what’s next? With the DRM barriers falling, the new foundations of band and fan interaction being laid and Web 2.0 casting a wider net over the ‘net, music in 2009 could be anyone’s game. Personally, I’m just waiting for The Detox… And now a moment for the outstanding musicians we lost this year, Bo Diddley and LeRoi Moore, among others.