It seems that the 2.0 label is being thrown on almost anything these days that has been affected or related to web 2.0. However, music most definitely is worthy of a 2.0 label with changes dramatically occurring, especially with music discovery and distribution. If you don’t know what web 2.0 is, then please seek help. If you don’t know what music 2.0 then go ahead and read through these slides provided by MediaFuturist’s Gerd Leonhard. It sums up the challenges and mistakes that traditional record labels have made and continues to outline the growth and evolution of how we receive, interact and listen (not consume) to music. It’s not the prettiest slide show I have ever seen, but it gets the point across.
Here at Groovetap we tend to highly admire any work that helps indie or unsigned artists get more recognition. I recently wrote an article about HearYa.com, which has been around for a while and continue to pump out great content. There are many blogs and podcasts out there focusing on indie music. One would be surprised where you would find them. For this post I’d like to focus on a more home grown, small international and promising podcast………from Bulgaria.
The Music is Power Podcast has been around for about a year now and has posted 54 podcasts. It’s run by Dimitar Klaturov and Maria Mihneva. What makes this podcast unique is their diverse taste in music. Once every Friday they upload an hour long podcast consisting of a playlist of songs and interviews from the likes of The Joy Bus, The Drawers, DelukaandLau Nau.
I had a chance to chat with Dimitar through gchat to ask him a couple questions about the podcast and his thoughts and opinions on music today. Here is a link to the interview.
They currently have a little over 1,174 subscribers and have an ambitious, but I think achievable goal of reaching 10,000 subscribers. This podcast is definitely a good listen, especially on a slow Friday at the office or at home. Here is their subscription button for your shear convenience.
One question that I asked myself as I read this list - is indie music separate from local music, are they synonymous or are there just alot of overlaps? Indie music at its root is a term used to describe independence from a major commercial label and a do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. But I feel that indie music usually gets labeled as an extension of rock/alternative music which this list definitely seems to agree with. Case in point, cities like Memphis or Miami and Im sure tons of other cities around the world with amazing local music scenes have been left out of this list. And because I spent my college years in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (or the Triangle as it is also known) I’ve got to give some major props to that area for an amazing indie music scene. Bens Folds Five and James Taylor (and maybe not so awesomely Clay Aiken) have all called this area home at one point (thanks Indie-Scene.com). The Triangle area is bustling with a hip music scene, thanks in part I’m sure to the dozens of colleges and universities in the area. I definitely miss the Cat’s Cradle where I saw many an amazing show.. DJ Shadow show back in 2002 was definitely one of my favs.
And as a quick shout out, Indie-Music.com has down a great job with the “On the Scene” articles profiling different indie music scenes around the country. I came across this site doing my research for this blog post. Check ‘em out. The website does a good job profiling all kinds of indie music, and not just rock.
I think any list that calls itself the top ten anything of the world is inevitably going to be met with some kind of reaction. I know that I myself would never attempt to make such a list myself because I feel like there’s good music to be found everywhere. That’s exactly what Groovetap is about. Stay tuned to find out when the beta site launches later this year….
I was browsing the web the other day to see if there are any lists out there on the best indie music scenes. I came across a list posted by TripAdvisor, a travel guide and research website that offers reviews from other fellow travelers to help you plan your vacation. Back in 2006, TripAdvisor posted a review of the “Top Ten Alternative/Indie Music Cities in the World.” The list was put together by Guzzle a music journalist based in Vancouver who apparently loves to travel. He’s been to 117 destinations. Guzzle based this list on the “cities with the best indie music scenes, birthplaces of top indie bands and best places to catch an alternative band.”
And here are the top 10 cities…
1. Glasgow 2. Austin 3. Seattle 4. New York 5. London 6. San Fran 7. Dublin 8. Portland 9. LA 10. Chi-town
(it’s unclear whether these are ranked but I have a feeling since the author is a self-identified Belle & Sebastian fan that this list is from his most favorite on down..)
Although I can’t speak from personal experience about many of these cities, the list seems pretty comprehensive to me, even though it seems to be biased to cities west of the GMT time zone. But I guess that is mostly because the indie music scene has its roots in the US and Great Britain. I can’t say I can speak to the indie music scenes of Barcelona, Paris, Dubai or Shanghai. I’ll be traveling to Dublin later this summer as part of my much needed vacation to Europe. I’ll be sure to write a follow-up post on my thoughts of the Dublin music scene.
One thing I can’t stand more than being excited it’s Friday, thinking the weekend is around the corner only to be reminded its still Thursday, is being in a rut. Particularly a food rut, or even worse a music rut. Not finding anything new and exciting to listen to?
There are quite a few tools out there to help you out from Last.fm to pandora but I want to step back here and pay attention and credit to a certain blog that has been a musical gate keeper for me in the past two months. hearya.com’s stated goal in their about section reads as follows:
“…Find emerging indie music artists. Give those artists more exposure. Give readers a more intimate connection with the bands by providing raw, stripped down versions of the music.”
Those three lines are the antithesis of big music today. So you can say that their intentions are present and so is a quality of their website, which provides independent music reviews. Best of all, they have music right there on the page in a yahoo player/playlist that can be listened to while you read through their articles. They also provide live recorded session of several different bands.
My only complaint is that the page can be a little busy with the placement of their ads, but its not that bad. If you are suffering from a lack fresh music, I suggest you make your way to this website and check it out. Now…..if they could only suggest a new restaurant to try in the DC area.
Steve Jobs will probably be unveiling the second generation iPhone in just a few hours today. The changes are being kept top secret, in typical Apple fashion but we do know that the new phone will address internet connectivity issues by updating to a faster 3G mobile internet network. This may open the window to mobile audio streaming, a market that has been steadily growing in the last few years. Pandora announced in May that it began streaming audio on Sprint networks. For $3 a month users will have access to Pandora’s streaming audio catalog. Sirius is already streaming to Sprint customers while AT&T customers have had MobiRadio for years. Other companies like Melodeo have products like Nutsie that let you download iTunes to your Blackberry and stream audio directly from your iTunes. Phones compatible with Melodeo’s Mobilcast have access to 150,000 podcasts covering music and news and streamed directly to your mobile phone
Streaming audio can only become more attractive not only as mobile data speeds improve but also as mobile phones themselves become more useful devices through improvements in mobile phone technology by adding more audio and video file formats, storage capacity and stereo capacity. The current iPhone has paved the way for mobile phones in some of these aspects but mobile phone technology still has a ways to go before audio streaming, especially podcasts which require high network speeds because of the large file sizes, become more user friendly.
Let’s see what Steve Jobs will unveil this week with his new iPhone. Will we continue to be impressed? The new 3G mobile internet technology which the second generation iPhones will be equipped with does sound promising. Also, Apple opening up the new iPhone to developers could also deliver very promising new developments in mobile phone technology that reach even further than mobile audio streaming.
Napster climbed back into the ring by launching the worlds largest mp3 catalogue, challenging Apple’s iTunes store. Did I mention the catalogue consists of 6 million DRM free mp3s?
Even though Steve Jobs did take the initiative to address the need for DRM free music in a letter in February of 2007. The iTunes store has lagged in living up to the DRM free expectations Jobs set. Apple’s iTunes currently only sells an estimated 2 million DRM free songs in the itunes plus section. Amazon has made a successful effort in providing 5.2 million DRM free mp3’s. Napster just beat them by a hair. I do have to say I am an avid fan of Apple and their products, they just work for the you. However, I have noticed a reemerging trend by Apple to neglect consumer freedom.
Forget that they have done a less than average job of providing DRM free songs, they also expect you to pay again to unlock the DRM songs previously purchased on iTunes. Apples neglect for consumer freedom spans past the walls of the iTunes store.
Their iPhone as innovative as it is, ultimately confines the user to a limited phone experience by locking them in to one carrier. They could have just as easily supplied a GSM unlocked phone, but they would miss out on the shared subscription fees they get from providers such as AT&T in the US. The phone also has many limitations, such as not being able to store your contacts on the SIM card and having to pay an extra $0.99 to make a ring-tone from songs solely purchased on iTunes.
On the flip side, Apple continues to grow its market share in the iPod, phone and PC markets. Don’t get me wrong, I think Apple is one of the most innovative companies out there, but they should start thinking more about the consumers needs for freedom and flexibility. I have an iphone and think its the best phone I have ever had, even with the flaws. I guess some people are willing to sacrifice a little freedom for some things, but how much freedom?
If you’re a music-lover, interested in the dynamics of the rapidly changing music industry and want to be a part of an exciting music-based website, read on.
Groovetap is part social networking and part music discovery tool. It’s currently in the development and testing phase. We are ramping up our marketing and blogging efforts and are looking for two summer interns to join us for a minimum of 4 weeks this summer. Tasks will mostly be providing support in our blogging and marketing efforts as well QA testing and other miscellaneous tasks including research assignments. Depending on your motivation level and what kind of writing skills you have, there is also an opportunity to help us write blogs posts on music reviews, up and coming music releases, local shows, artist interviews and industry developments.
This will be an unpaid internship, but a great learning opportunity for someone interested in web 2.0 and the dynamics of an industry that is rapidly changing.
*Preferred Degree programs: English, Communications, Marketing, IT
*Flexible weekly time commitment (20 hours or so) to fit your schedule
*Flexible start and end date (with minimum of 4 week time commitment)
*Work anywhere you’d like - from home, a coffee house or while traveling.
*Need to have access to the internet and capable of working through e-mail and IM.
Clear Channel is getting ready to expand its online presence with several interesting new services including a personalized radio player, lyrics page and widget applications. Although they have not provided details about the radio player, according to Billboard, Clear Channel will be partnering with Pandora offering the Pandora radio service across its Web sites.
Pandora is an internet radio station of sorts that allows users to build customized stations based off of an artist the user chooses. Based on this artist, the Pandora system recommends songs that sound similar based on a catalog of about 500,000 songs.
With options constantly increasing online for music entertainment, Clear Channel and other radio stations are realizing that if they do not expand their presence online, listeners will turn elsewhere. CBS Radio announced plans earlier this month that it will be partnering with Last.FM, its sister company, for a similar DJ/radio feature called Play.It. Both of these announcements indicate that traditional radio stations are responding to their listeners’ desires for a customized listening experience, one where they are in control of who and what they listen to.
Clear Channel also announced that it will be introducing a nationwide Internet radio station called erockster. This will be Clear Channel’s first radio station that isn’t simply a local station broadcasting on the Internet. Clear Channel has also added a lyrics service being provided by Gracenote. The service adds a lyrics link to each song profile streamed online as well as artist pages. The lyrics link takes the listener directly to a page with the lyrics for that song. Finally, Clear Channel also announced it is creating widgets, provided by Clearspring, allowing fans to stream member stations from social networking profiles.
All of these changes are necessary for Clear Channel to remain competitive at a time when users are increasingly turning away from radio stations which dictate their listening experience. Listeners are instead turning to the Internet, where their listening experience is highly customizable. The variety of music and genres available to listeners on the Internet does not even compare to the short playlist of songs most traditional radio stations rotate through.
How will other radio stations continue to respond, especially the smaller radio stations that aren’t owned by a big media company like Clear Channel? The implications this can have for the music industry as a whole will also be interesting to see. Record companies, for example, will increasingly have more and more options to distribute their artists’ music, rather than just relying on radio stations and TV music channels such as MTV.
The past two weeks have been quite eventful in digital music distribution. Last week we were given Coldplay’s free single “Violet Hill“, which was covered in the last post. This week has opened up to the ever generous Trent Reznor giving NIN’s nails new album titled“The Slip” away entirely for free. It is a 10 song album offered in various audio formats. It also comes complete with a PDF file of artwork and lyrics. The album will go on sale in stores on July. You can download the full album for free here http://theslip.nin.com/.
Here at Groovetap we tend to highly admire any work that helps indie or unsigned artists get more recognition. I recently wrote an article about 
One question that I asked myself as I read this list - is indie music separate from local music, are they synonymous or are there just alot of overlaps? Indie music at its root is a term used to describe independence from a major commercial label and a do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. But I feel that indie music usually gets labeled as an extension of rock/alternative music which this list definitely seems to agree with. Case in point, cities like Memphis or Miami and Im sure tons of other cities around the world with amazing local music scenes have been left out of this list. And because I spent my college years in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (or the Triangle as it is also known) I’ve got to give some major props to that area for an amazing indie music scene. Bens Folds Five and James Taylor (and maybe not so awesomely Clay Aiken) have all called this area home at one point (thanks Indie-Scene.com). The Triangle area is bustling with a hip music scene, thanks in part I’m sure to the dozens of colleges and universities in the area. I definitely miss the Cat’s Cradle where I saw many an amazing show.. DJ Shadow show back in 2002 was definitely one of my favs. 
I was browsing the web the other day to see if there are any lists out there on the best indie music scenes. I came across a list posted by TripAdvisor, a travel guide and research website that offers reviews from other fellow travelers to help you plan your vacation. Back in 2006, TripAdvisor posted a review of the “
Steve Jobs will probably be unveiling the second generation iPhone in just a few hours today. The changes are being kept top secret, in typical Apple fashion but we do know that the new phone will address internet connectivity issues by updating to a faster 3G mobile internet network. This may open the window to mobile audio streaming, a market that has been steadily growing in the last few years. Pandora announced in May that it began streaming audio on Sprint networks. For $3 a month users will have access to Pandora’s streaming audio catalog. Sirius is already streaming to Sprint customers while AT&T customers have had MobiRadio for years. Other companies like Melodeo have products like Nutsie that let you download iTunes to your Blackberry and stream audio directly from your iTunes. Phones compatible with Melodeo’s Mobilcast have access to 150,000 podcasts covering music and news and streamed directly to your mobile phone
Napster climbed back into the ring by launching the 
Clear Channel is getting ready to expand its online presence with several interesting new services including a personalized radio player, lyrics page and widget applications. Although they have not provided details about the radio player, according to Billboard, Clear Channel will be partnering with Pandora offering the Pandora radio service across its Web sites.
