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Not Your Typical Survey Tool: What a New Online Survey Tool Means for the DIY Survey Market

Azam Khan — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:40:07 +0000

Research plays a fundamental part in enabling businesses to make better decisions. Amidst a recession and continued budget cuts, small and medium sized businesses may no longer be able to afford outsourcing their research needs. Enter DIY surveys, do-it-your-self surveys that can afford businesses the research data they need without the help of a professional or third-party company. More after the jump.

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Kanye and Gaga Invest in Turntable.fm

Reid McCarter — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:00:22 +0000

Turntable.fm, you beautiful creature. So many of us thought that you had disappeared but here you are again, getting back to business and, reportedly, being funded by two of the biggest names in contemporary pop music: Lady Gaga and Kanye West.

Although the news is still only a well-founded rumour at this point, all signs point to an incoming sum of cash arriving from the (deep, deep) pockets of the Fame Monster and ‘Ye. As valulations of the social music/game company have skyrocketed, some $7.5 million has been drawn up by Union Square Ventures, West and Gaga. Neither musicians’ camps have officially commented on the deal but its validty seems extremely likely, given that Union Square Ventures has gone on record regarding their part in the business’ financing.

West and Gaga aren’t the only ones likely to become interested in Turntable.fm either. The recent financing round that drew the two artist’s attention has led to the service being valued at a formidable $37.5 million (surely more than enough to design a few more loudly coloured player avatars).

With licensing arrangements already having been made with industry giants, BMI and ASCAP, the future looks bright for Turntable.fm. An influx of cash and a solution to the site’s previous legal quagmires are probably all it will take to get the music giant into the right position to enjoy a massive, wide-scale launch.

Turntable.fm is currently in invite-only beta mode right now but, if you’d like to look through the window at what the cool kids are up to, you can go ahead and click on this link. We’ll be keeping a close watch on what happens next as Turntable.fm moves closer to public release.

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Has Music Become Social Enough? Sean Parker Thinks So

Reid McCarter — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:20:46 +0000

Listening to Sean Parker’s advice is a bit like trying to take life lessons from your parents seriously. Sure, they have experience and probably know what they’re talking about, but you always have the sneaking suspicion that their viewpoint may not be entirely relevant anymore. Just the same, let’s talk about the Napster founder’s recent decree that social music has finally reached its proper level of, umm, social-ness.

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Allow Radical.FM to, Like, Totally Introduce Itself

Reid McCarter — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:45:24 +0000

With the launch of Radical.FM‘s public beta I have rediscovered a long-lost love, fostered in the ’80s saturated cartoons and buddy-pics of my youth: ridiculous adjectives. Despite the fact that the new social music service is probably more notable for its committment to innovative features and interesting software, for me at least, it creates a more notable distinction for itself on name alone.

So what is Radical.FM? Well, we might as well do this right.

TUBULAR FEATURES!

Radical.FM looks to set itself apart from the pack through the inclusion of a suite of essential features, all integrated into a single service. Inspired by user-made “radio station” sites (like Slacker and Pandora) and the kind of on-demand playlist creation made popular by Rhapsody, Radical.FM looks to position itself as a sort of “catch-all” social music solution.

The application is presented well, coming complete with robust player controls and an interesting new take on song recommendation that shrugs off tricky algorithms in favor of user-chosen genre groupings. Being able to select from given genres (defined by personal takes on the nebulous term) allows for more intelligent blending of smaller playlists into a greater whole. Operating as a browser-based application (with mobile iterations to follow), Radical.FM combines a number of the most popular social music features into a single service in a way that could very well attract a devout fan following.

STOKED FOR NEW SOFTWARE?

The current inclusion of — and I swear I’m not making this name up — RadCast, Radical.FM’s patent-pending music streaming software, and plans for the release of DeeJay (technology that allows users to speak to their RadCast subscribers) also serve to make the service a unique one. While these two features alone create a great opportunity for amateur DJs, Radical.FM is also working on the launch of a sister site, Radical Indie — something that would help to bolster support for fledging artists while simultaneously creating a community where discovering new bands is simple. The current (and future software) that act as Radical.FM’s foundation provide fantastic possibilities for users interested in the social side of web-based listening.

And that brings us to:

GNARLY NETWORKING!

Social networking has been given its dues with Radical.FM as well. Aside from the standard inclusion of Facebook invitations, the most community-centered aspect of the app comes from its ability to be used as a free personal radio station, as touched on above. Radical.FM provides every member with their own station and is working on offering Play On Demand services to premium subscribers. Regardless of whether a user chooses to pony up money or not, the social aspect made possible through radio functionality is a fantastic way to share and discover music with friends and strangers alike.

Personal music streams can be shared by both amateur enthusiasts and professional recording artists. In Radical.FM’s press information, the app’s creators even posit the (corporate daydream) of ” . . . Lady Gaga . . . [having] millions of fans tune-in to her station”. The fact that Radical.FM’s infrastructure is composed of legal files makes this actually possible — and a pretty excited prospect.

Interested in checking out the (actually not in any way 80′s-culture related) Radical.FM for yourself? Do a click on these words and sign up for the free public beta to take it for a spin. It’s fresh enough that, even in beta, I’m willing to give it a tenative four out of a possible five cowabungas.

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Google Music, the Future of Cloud and You

Reid McCarter — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:20:37 +0000

Since the dawn of our species we’ve looked at the stars to determine our future. Now it seems that everyone is more interested in clouds; not least of all our friends at Google. A lot of record label bigwigs and iTunes stalwarts are sure to be wringing their hands and exhaling comically oversized sighs over the debut of Google Music but the question is whether or not they actually have anything to worry about. Music lovers and industry observers alike have been waiting a long, long time for the release of Music and now, with the launch of a beta iteration, we’re able to make better predictions about the future trajectory of the much anticipated service than ever before.

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Play at Being a Pop Star with BreakoutBand

Reid McCarter — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:10:12 +0000

Playing music is fun but, boy, it sure does take a lot of time and energy to learn how to sing or play an instrument. BreakoutBand, a new social music website, looks to rectify this by giving everyone the tools they need to become a pop star.

BreakoutBand is a social music game/creation tool that’s meant to let anyone write their own songs through a little mix and match magic. The system is ridiculously simple to use, offering pitch-shifting and drop-down sample selection for even the most amateur vocalists and musicians. Full Facebook and Twitter sharing has been integrated alongside “star-maker” type features like weekly charts and artist bio pages.

Probably the biggest hook for users considering spending their time creating at BreakoutBand is the site’s current promotion with Old Navy. The site has just kicked off a contest wherein creators can try their hand at writing a new “theme song” for the clothing giant. Winners will be rewarded by having their BreakoutBand-based tune played in nationwide stores and linked through Old Navy’s Twitter.

I’m all for making music easier for non-musicians to explore but there’s something a little off about BreakoutBand that’ll be quickly apparent to many users. The system is so basic that there’s little room for actual creativity and the process is automated to the point where substantial interactivity has taken a backseat to immediate satisfaction.

If you’re into that sort of empowerment then take a look-see for yourself by swinging by BreakoutBand’s official website. If not then it’s back to work at becoming a pop star the hard way.

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Discover New Music with Rexly Social Music App

Reid McCarter — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:15:57 +0000

One of the best aspects of social music is that it’s able to help listeners find new artists that they may never have discovered otherwise. And while most of the best apps and software choices have incorporated recommendation features, many of them haven’t been able to do so in a truly useful way (except for, in a more abstract sense, my beloved 8tracks).

Enter Rexly, an app specially designed with music tastemaking as its focus.

Rexly uses recommendation algorithms similar to those found in Facebook and iTunes to make discovering new tunes easy. Normal digital listening patterns culled from iTunes actions (like when I play MOP’s Ante Up seventeen times in a row each morning) are gathered and used as a suggestion barometre that can then be passed on to others that are “following” your musical activities.

Where Rexly differs from its competitiors is in its designer’s understanding that too much content can diminish a service’s usefulness, drowning out good suggestions by offering up too many all at once. Rexly combats this by making its users choose only six people who are able to provide recommendations.

By receiving new suggestions from only those the user trusts most, Rexly hopes to refine the process and offer up content advice in a more palatable form. There’s no chance of hurt feelings either since the app makes this list invisible, a feature that is part of Rexly’s overall decision to emphasis user privacy with their service.

Check out (or sign up for) Rexly through by using the technological miracle of this hyperlink.

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Apple Patent Suggests their Cloud Will be the Fluffiest of All

Richard Howard — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:45:42 +0000

In a recent article on the status of the could music battle between Amazon, Google and Apple, I tendered my opinion that victory wouldn’t be based on chronological order, but on a litany of factors. I also touched on the fact that Apple has a storied history of entering the market later than competitors with a superior product and almost immediately leaving said competitors to fight for a very distant second place. Well I’m not one who revels in saying ‘I told you so’ (that’s an absolute lie, I love it) but a recently unearthed patent application strongly suggests that Apple’s cloud-based music service could be a game changer.

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RockYou and John Romero’s LootDrop Pursue Second Game

Azam Khan — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:30:46 +0000

LootDrop and RockYou have announced plans to develop a second game, with aims to launch their first game entitled Cloudforest Expedition around summer time. Both companies see the partnership as lucrative and are bullish on their future growth. More after the jump. continued…

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Are You Ready for Foursquare Day?

Kenna McHugh — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:33:06 +0000

Get ready to party and celebrate with other social media users because Foursquare Day (4 squared = 16, hence 4/16) is coming this weekend on Saturday, April 16, 2011. If you are not familiar with the social networking holiday, it’s centered on the use of a location-based smartphone app.

Last year was the first Foursquare Day as a grassroots social media platform movement. During that day in 2010, 550k check-ins (9 check-ins/sec at peak) and 20k new user sign ups happened worldwide.
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New Social Platform Helps Organize, Demand and Take Action

Kenna McHugh — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:20:58 +0000

Askforit is a new platform combining consumer demand with advocacy to accomplish change. Users can now share what they want, then find other people to rally around the idea and create enough visible demand to make a difference.
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The Smithsonian Knows This App Won’t Go Extinct

Katie Kindelan — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:10:12 +0000

Ever find yourself fiddling on your iPhone wishing there was a way to turn back time? Or staring in your “Mirror” app on your Android wondering if you look like your prehistoric relatives? Wonder no more.

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Bill Clinton Helps Students Get College Funding… By Launching New Facebook App

Kenna McHugh — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:22:11 +0000

At the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), President Bill Clinton announced that MTV and the College Board, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will develop a first of its kind social media tool to help students find money for college.
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BabbleOn Lets You Sing Happy Birthday and Post It To Your Friend's Facebook Wall

Kenna McHugh — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:30:48 +0000

Have you ever want to sing Happy Birthday to your sister who lives across the country? Even record your baby’s first words and share the sounds with your family and friends on Facebook?

BabbleOn is a social media app for smartphones that records messages to post on Facebook and the BabbleOn Community. The application was created by President Michael Mills, Vice-President Tommy Mills and Raster Media. The free App can be found at any App store for Babbleon.
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GoLiveCampus.com Gives Schools Safe Access to YouTube Content

Kenna McHugh — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:08:23 +0000

For parents or teachers, YouTube and other social networking sites can be a double-edged sword. Though they are rich with educational content, they also contain explicit videos, inappropriate comments and ads. But now, there is a way for users to safely access educational content on YouTube and Web 2.0. They can use a filtering program called GoLiveCampus.com by iBoss Web Filters.
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