DISCLAIMER: Music files shared here are for sampling purposes only and are intended to bring joy to music lovers. I strongly believe that music-sharing results in more awareness for artists and as a result, more revenue. If your music is featured in a Share Me Sunday post and you are opposed to this sharing philosophy, please email me at info@shinydotbulletin.com and I will take the file down right away. Respect.
Ahhh, the mixtape. In the olden days, if you were ever the recipient of a mixtape, you knew you were much loved. Just as Morrissey danced his legs down to the knees, you played your symbol of love down to it’s last rewind.
Times have changed and so has the mixtape. With so many formats and options to choose from, it’s hard to get a handle on how to impress your honey - burned cd, emailed mp3s, USB key, iMix ???
Favtape, the Seeqpod-powered counterpart to the still-shut-down Muxtape, has upgraded with a wealth of user-friendly features since we last looked at it. The simple layout remains the same, but now it’s easier to arrange your playlist, share your “tapes” with a static URL, embed a playlist with album art, and connect and listen from an iPhone. Because Favtape relies on Seeqpod’s web-based MP3 searching, there’s still somewhat of a hit-or-miss factor with song playback, but that also makes it less likely to come down when the RIAA gets sufficiently annoyed. Favtape is a free service, requires a sign-up to save playlists.
What album from 2007 was the least-reviewed and most-underrated?
The Charm and the Strange by Simon Wilcox. Even Larry LeBlanc thinks so:
“Simon Wilcox is an astounding find. On the first listen to her third release I had the same reaction to when I first head the recorded debuts of Kate Bush and Mary Margaret O’Hara as well as to hearing any Van Morrison album in the ’70s. She has recorded a classic work.”
Metallica Album Preview Cover-up?
By blindedbythehype
Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:38:28 GMT
Yesterday UK bloggers The Quietus posted a preview of the new Metallica album after hearing it at an invite-only session in London. Their coverage — which you can still find here — is a relatively fair piece that discusses the hardship of being a Metallica fan some twenty years after their epic, “…And Justice for All.”
The Quietus contributor “Bob Mulhouse” is circumspect about the album’s prospects, saying, “This album could be good, or it could be mediocre – too much depends on the other four songs to make a call at this point.” Nothing out of the ordinary for a record review after a one-time listen.
It came as something of a surprise then to find that the internet had been expunged of any coverage of the event. We emailed The Quietus editor Luke Turner about what happened. He gave this response:
If I pretend the term “viral marketing” is not present in this press release, I might be persuaded to believe this is a step in the right direction. Kudos to EMI. Finally…
EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA
ORGANIZATIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Kat Lourenco
Social Media Manager
Toronto, ON (Tuesday, June 3, 2008) EMI Music Publishing Canada is pleased to announce that Kat Lourenco has joined their team in the position of Social Media Manager.
Kat will utilize Web 2.0 tools such as social networks and viral marketing to help EMI’s new and developing artists effectively build their own real and virtual communities. Her related responsibilities include managing their extensive library of audio and video digital media.
Prior to EMI, Kat was simultaneously juggling responsibilities as an Online Marketing Rep at Universal Music Canada, a Marketing Intern at Wind-up Records Canada, and a part time sales person at HMV. She is a graduate of the Communication Studies program at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, as well as the Recording Arts Management program at Harris Institute for the Arts, Toronto.
“Our business is all about discovering Canadian talent and helping to bring it to the world market. These are exciting, changing times in the music business, and hiring Kat as our very first Social Media Manager shows how we are evolving our all-consuming efforts to help our songwriters and artists achieve their goals. With Kat?s feel for the digital world, as well as her passion for music,
we are confident she will play a key role in our future success.”
Michael McCarty, President EMI Music Publishing Canada.
At Guitarati, each song has a color. The color of a song is what the majority feels it is. When you want to get to a perfect song, you just have to reach out to your emotions and click a color that comes to your mind. And you’ll find the right music that resonates with your feelings! And while you are at it, go ahead and add your color to the music too.
Obvious omissions include singers-songwriters such as Elliott Smith, but according to EW’s own rules, band really means *band*.
Radiohead’s In Rainbows makes the list which seems like part of some weird affirmative action program for major label refugees - it’s just not their best album, “indie” or not. (see EW’s reasoning here)
Damn is it good to see Neutral Milk Hotel on the list and Spoon and the Shins and The Smiths and and and… but one day soon, can we forget about Bright Eyes and Interpol? I honestly don’t think history will be kind to these two.
BoingBoing picked up on this about a month ago and I ignored it. What can I say? I’m absolutely inundated with crappy music sites which falsely claim to be about social networking and the latest in web 2.0 tools. So I ignore ‘em.
Well, today I saw thesixtyone popping up all over Digg! so I caved and decided to give it a try with one of my artists and well, it’s totally fucking rad.
Pete over at “We’ll Write” describes what it is rather succinctly:
“The Sixtyone is a sort of Last FM/Fantasy Football League hybrid, and it looks pretty awesome. Points are earned by listening to music on the site and inviting other users to join. Points are spent “bumping” songs you like. Bumped songs work their way up the “rack” and may even earn a place on the front page. You can also earn points off songs you bumped early on that receive more bumps as the songs gain popularity.”
Technically, it’s amazing - gotta love that Ajax. Plus, the site boasts the best music player I’ve ever used. AND when I went to add videos to accompany my songs, lo and behold they were ALREADY THERE courtesy of the YouTube. Small complaint tho… 9 times out of 10 the vids were right, but that one time the wrong vid would appear, it was really wrong. Like in one case it was some lame-ass Disney shit that made me want to puke. I’d like an option to exclude irrelevant vids please.
A bigger complaint: from a social-networking pov, it’s lacking - we need at least some sharing/promo tools and Facebook/MySpace/[insert social networking site here] integration is a MUST.
I’d also like to see a few more fields in the profile section and maybe the option to choose buy links which are alternative to Amazon - being in Canada, many of the artists I work are indie enough that they don’t have Amazon US links or they like to sell from their own digital download shop.
The good thing, there’s lots of room to grow here. It’s a tremendous start and I seriously can’t wait to see how this site evolves in 2008.
2008 |