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Soundcloud and HypeMachine partner up for audio integration
As someone who loves the world of music blogging (this blog has a music sister blog at tasteslikeplastic.com), and equally audio distribution solutions; this week’s announcement of Soundcloud and Hype Machine’s integration of audio came as a pleasant move. I’d learned of the announcement the week before as one of the projects i’m working on was to feature in the press release. Last week we (Lucid Online) serviced out the first official remix of Massive Attack’s new album ‘Heligoland’; the She Is Danger remix of ‘Girl I Love You’ had its first day of exclusive on rcrdlbl.com, before going out the the blogosphere the day after.
It’s been a few months now since we first adopted Soundcloud as our primary tool of music distribution to blogs, it offers a flexible and reliable download, streaming, community and commenting system; as well as versatile options for customising the player (see below). Hype Machine is the largest music blog aggregator around, and one of the best ways for us to see what bloggers are writing about, who’s writing about our artists and what music’s hot at the time; as well as being one of my favourite sites to discover new music and great blogs.
See below for the official explanation
The most important part of this is to tell you that The Hype Machine now detects SoundCloud players in the blogs that it aggregates. And as you probably know, the blog post and track are then sucked into the The Hype Machine. If you’re a blogger this means that you can use our players even more now and know that your post will show up on The Hype Machine. via Soundcloud blog
The integration its self is a rather minor development, but one which provides a solution to a lot of problems. It’s terribly hard to track how much a song is streamed or downloaded when placed on blogs, but the Soundcloud integration means labels and artists can distribute music via Soundcloud, and assuming blogs don’t re-host the media themselves, the stats are pulled back to the song owner.
Hype Machine’s detection of Soundcloud players in posts makes it easier for bloggers to embed and support media in their posts while still retaining compatibility with Hype Machine’s post listings and charts.
Bring on 2010! These two sites are worth watching
01
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Nexus One getting Ninja treatment.
The Google phone has had some fun virality put in to it, courtesy of Patrick Bolvin; whom Google have paid a healthy amount to for creating this short stop-start animation of 3 ninjas opening a Nexus One phone packaging.
It’s nice to see a bit of fun around a phone’s marketing deploy, this is certainly more fun than Apple’s “i’m a Mac and I shit all over PCs” ads.
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This week in Digital – w/c 11th January
Facebook launches e-mail replies
E-mail replying launched on Facebook last week, where users can do their normal response tasks on comments, wall posts and messages via e-mail. This opens up the platform’s usage even in environments where Facebook is banner (workplaces, schools etc). (Read full story…) via Readwriteweb
Real-time ads come to Google Street view
This is pretty cool stuff; Google was recently granted a patent for placing advertisements in 3D environments. Although nothing’s been confirmed, it makes sense to assume Google is spanning its advertisement in to Google Street view, to further recoup it’s investment in the project.
The theory is real time digital advertisements will replace the billboard ads found on Google Street view. It’s exciting, especially considering the future when the possibilities are furthered, with interactive advertisements becoming available. (Read full story…) via Mashable
Vitamin water Connect, the real Facebook collaborated product launch
Last September Vitamin Water announced a user collaboration campaign to decide a new flavour of the band solely on Facebook through their application. This March will see the release of the result, named ‘Vitaminwater Connect’; a black cherry-lime flavour made with caffeine. The winner and 4 finalists received $5,000.
This is one of the biggest retail launches of what is essentially a user generated form of product R&D, bringing UGC methodology to a real process. Yum! (Read full story…) via All Facebook
Tweetdeck infiltrates newsrooms; user flagged news becomes a source reality
Sky News, one of the largest news sources in the UK has started rolling out Tweetdeck accross the company, as an operational tool for sourcing news from Twitter. User referred news has been on of Twitter’s shouting points, and many independent journalists and users already use the platform in that way.
This is first time the use of a Twitter specific application has been rolled out as a operational policy. (Read full story…) via Mashable
Twitter’s answer to Facebook Connect coming soon
Exiting vibes came via a rumour last week from TechCrunch that Twitter was preparing their version of Facebook Connect for imminent release. Twitter already has a powerful API with it’s oAuth developer tool for intergrating Twitter login and feeds to a platform, but reflecting on the depth and compatibility of Facebook Connect, you can’t help but get excited that this roll out from Twitter will make integration much more enriched, streamlined and easier to incorporate.
There is also the speculations of Twitter’s 2010 approach to consider, although the micro blogging cool cat remains simple enough today, developments like the Contributors feature, and other potential enhancements of the service remind us that at some time either OAuth will have to improve and robust alongside those changes, or as we’re seeing here, a new development solution has to fill the role. (Read full story…) via TechCrunch
Facebook Devs prepare to tuck in to user e-mails
One of the biggest changes to the Facebook developer platform since it launched 3 years ago will drop this week, from Wednesday 20th Jan, Facebook developers will be allowed to offer opt in permissions for users e-mails. This mainly derived from the removal of application notifications from the Facebook experience recently, so the e-mail function will offer an alternative of user notice. (Read full story…) via All Facebook
Facebook launches ‘via’ feature, the network’s equivalent to the retweet.
Most people are labelling this and the continuation of the ‘twitterfication‘ of Facebook, in this case the launch of it’s ‘via’ feature for shared posted items. Twitter’s Retweet function has been popular from the very start of the platforms growth, and was officially incorporated in the site towards the end of last year when users could ‘retweet’ tweets, and applications could use the new API strand to replicate. (Read full story…) via Download Squad
Other great articles worth a read
- Google Brings Friend Connect, Social Features to Drupal & Joomla via ReadWriteWeb
- The Twitter Flatline, Why Doesn’t Twitter grow? via Masahable
- Social Media in 2010 via We Are Social
- The Evolution between Social Media and Business via PR 2.0
- Announcing First Soundcloud Integrations With Audio Software at NAMM via Soundcloud
- Social Media Marketing: You Fear, You Fail via ReadWriteWeb (Good read!)
Read more of my reccommended posts on my shared Google reader here.
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This week in Digital – w/c 14th December
Facebook & Google release URL shorteners
URL shorteners weren’t such a big deal until Twitter’s 140 characters came along, now it’s big business. Google and Facebook have just released their versions of the service: goo.gl and fb.me respectively.
For now the 2 services are pretty limited in availability. Fb.me is only currently rolled out for mobile link publishing, and goo.gl is only currently active on the toolbar and Feedburner.
Bit.ly is currently running the show when it comes to link shorteners, with a powerful analytics service and wide integration with web platforms and apps. Fb.me and Goo.gl will both find their feet in the arena, and while Bit.ly may be safe for now, the potential for Google to fully integrate it’s already outstanding analytics service with its URL shortener, and Facebook using Fb.me as an automatic link conversion asset on it’s sharing portals; Bit.ly will grow nervous. (Read full story…) via Search Engine Land
Twitter Launches ‘Contributors’ feature.
Twitter made its first move this week of its intention to segment user and business accounts with its new ‘Contributors’ feature. This basically involves the ability for a business, corporate or artist Twitter account to have a number of ‘contributors’ attached to it, who are able to Tweet on the Twitter account but using their normal identity.
Access is controlled by a new top dashboard which allows users to switch between profiles. Two different permissions can be set – ‘Enhanced’ and ‘Partial’ access.
This is a nice new development, it adds a personal flare to a company’s Tweets, something Twitter is all about – putting a face behind a message to enrich trust, conversation and identity on Twitter. With brands and corporations being a fundamental element of the micro blogging giant’s 2010 revenue model, this is one of many additions Twitter will be rolling out for Beta testing in the coming months. (Read full story…) via Twitter Blog
Facebook’s redesign
Screenshots leaked last month of a Facebook redesign, and the tech community braced it’s self for either a change which could see community uproar, or another feature duplicate of Twitter.
This time round the changes are more subtle, and the core feed remains the same; with notification areas moving being the main difference. Search will be a more focused function as Facebook’s dependency on the area is increased after the privacy and search inclusion announced the other week. (Read full story…) via Mashable
Wordpress release 2.9 ‘Carmen’
It’s been just over 6 months since Wordpress released it’s major upgrade, and over the hundreds of improvements made since then; 2.9 includes features which makes posting and development much easier on one of the world’s favourite open source CMS.
Read more on the Wordpress Blog, and check out the video below. (Read full story…) via Wordpress
Google announce new phone – ‘Nexus One’
After months of speculation, and tweets and leaks last week of Google employees rockin’ something new; Google’s new Nexus One.
Being the big daddy in web won’t be enough to make the NO an automatic success though, and although mobile is becoming more and more online engrossed, so is user’s expectations of what makes a great handset. Google will no doubt have the phone’s function-ability set well, but if the phone’s going to succeed as an arch enemy of something as solid as iPhone, it will have to get it right, first time.
Details and pictures are leaking gradually about the device, we already know it will be sold online and unlocked, running the latest Andriod, fast and sleek, thin, but with no multitouch.
It’s still questionable if this will start to pick away at iPhone’s market, especially when the device still reigns king in so many ways; and Apple will no doubt respond with a new mobile offering sometime in 2010. (Read full story…) via Tech Crunch
Amazon MP3 heading in the coulds with iTunes?
Speculation rose last week that upon Apple’s purchase of online music streamer LaLa, the digital retail giant was going to ‘cloudify’ its service towards what would essentially be having your iTunes online.
Amazon seems to have the tools to follow suit, read Bruce Houghton’s article on Hypebot to see how. This to me seems to fall in line with Amazon’s new approach to product delivery, especially with it’s launch of ‘Disc+’ earlier this month, shifting it’s film purchases to both physical delivery and on demand playing. (Read full story…) via Hypebot
Google’s new website display analyser
Google released a neat little tool this week as part of Google Labs. Google Browser Size shows how much of your web site a visitor seems in respect to their browser size. This is handy for web developers to see what content shows above the fold, an important asset for determining Ad and key visual placements.
Other articles worth weekend reading:
- 10 ways Social Media will change in 2010. via ReadWriteWeb
- Google’s all for making the web faster. via Accuracast
- Facebook brings fans in to focus. via PR 2.0
- Facebook preparing to post Status Updates to Twitter? via AllFacebook
- What does goo.gl and fb.me mean for bit.ly? via Mashable
- Music 2.0 – gerd Leonhard’s presentation from Feira Musica. via Media Futurist
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This week in Digital – Top Stories: w/c 7th Dec
Apple buys LaLa, potential model shift for the digital Music retail giant.
LaLa’s model differs from Apple in the sense that purchased music was available to stream online in the ‘cloud’. Apple frequently purchases smaller tech companies, so its acquisition of LaLa for a reported $85m (although it’s rumoured that it’s more like $17m..) is not a surprise. Apple have now confirmed that iTunes will start to detach from a OS platform application model, giving way to online streaming in line with what’s become popular. Users will be able to purchase online, and stream music via devices and the web, making the iTunes program potentially redundant for a number of consumers. (Read full story…) via Mashable
Alicia Keys streams new album on Facebook (Exclusively)
Alicia is the first major artist to use Facebook to release her new album ‘The Element Of Freedom‘ exclusively on the platform. It makes sense for artists to shift attention towards Facebook as a central arena for high profile campaign elements like this.
Unless Myspace Music manages to spark traffic and interest back in to the site, using Facebook as the priority social network for exclusives just makes sense, especially with such a versatile API like Facebook Connect, and an excellent application and developer rig which enables enriched, interactive and intelligent engagement with users; just like the developer Involver did with this one. (Read full story…) via TechCrunch
Google Chrome launches on Mac, extensions released
If browsers were cars, Chrome would be a very sleek, very fast Lamborghini. Safari would be a pretty nice Audi, but not being able to add modifications, rims, paint and bodywork lets it down. Firefox is a bit like Ford Focus, it’ll get you where you need to go and you can go crazy with pimping it out. Internet Explorer isn’t even a car in Mac land, it’s this piece of crap which only exists in ‘Microsoft Land’ which breaks down every 10 minuets and is hated by everyone.
Anyway, what was i talking about before i tried to be clever? Yes – Chrome has finally come to Mac! (and Linux). It had been available in a developer pool for a while now, but the official Beta was released this week. I’ve given it a test drive, and speed wise its comparable to Safari, and feels just as stable. Chrome also boasted over 500 extentions this week, which will apparently roll out on the Mac version by the weekend.
Personally I haven’t made my mind up if to make the switch to Chrome, i really like my ‘Audi’ Safari, it’s robust, reliable, everything looks great on it, and unless the extension offerings tempt me over, i can’t see my self getting my Chrome on.
Download Google Chrome Here. (Read full story…) via ReadWriteWeb
Myspace and Twitter release new sets of APIs
Myspace and Twitter have both announced new APIs this week. Mike Jones (Myspace COO) announced at Le Web earlier in the week that there will be a set of APIs made available to developers, with the most interesting being the Real-Time stream API, which will pull live data in to various applications. Google, along with it’s RealTime search partner OneRiot will be using this API for inclusion in search results.
50,000 Apps currently live in the Twitter mansion, and Le Web staged another announcement with Twitter confirming they will be unleashing the Firehose stream as part of a new API for developers, opening up live Twitter streams for applications and platforms. A sign up API was also released and currently being implemented with City Search. To treat developers even more, a new Twitter site will be launching for developers shortly, along with a developer conference called Chirp for developers. (Read full story…)
Amazon to launch ‘Disc+’ for on demand streaming of movies.
A positive move from Amazon came this week in the announcement of ‘Disc+’, an online streaming option for consumers who purchase both standard and blu-ray titles from the site. This means that when you buy a film on the site, you’ll immediately be able to stream or download it online.
from Amazon: “When you purchase select DVD and Blu-ray titles from Amazon.com you will also receive an Amazon Video On Demand standard definition version as a gift with purchase. You’ll be able to instantly enjoy the video on demand version on your Mac, PC, compatible device or compatible TV when it is available.”
For me I’d rather Amazon just didn’t bother sending the disc, unless it’s something i want to watch over and over again. This shift is significant, although (not surprisingly) still not a full change to a purely on demand offering from a retail giant who still relies on physical distribution. The move is temporary for now, but will become a permanent feature if it proves success. (Read full story…) via Mashable
Google launches Real Time search
At long last, Google has rolled out its real time search, which I previously mentioned was partnered with OneRiot. This means search results will yield live data updated data pulled from around the Web. Specifically the system mainly incorporates Tweets from Twitter, Yahoo Answers, Friend Feed, Jaiku, Identi.ca and more recently announced; Myspace streams and information from Facebook public profiles.
Check out the video below, which worryingly carries a soundtrack similar to something you’d hear in a Disney film :/
This is strong move by Google, who in terms of real time search earlier in the year was trailing behind Twitter and even Bing, who had deals inked early on . This launch means Google has not only matched those criteria, but exceeded them from the deals with Facebook and Myspace.
The RT search isn’t available to everyone yet, but will slowly roll out to all users eventually; opening the gates to full live search on both publications and user sentiment. (Read full story…)
Facebook Priviacy changes
This week Facebook changed their privacy policy, to mostly fall in line with the Google RT search deal. Public profiles will now be ’searchable’, and there are now much more privacy options available to what content users want to display, such as user filters on status updates, individual profile elements (photos, videos, wall posts etc)
Yesterday all users were asked to update their Privicy options, which sparked off a lot of controversy with users having their content going public. This move and the addition of the Google deal is one to bring Facebook on the same green as Twitter when it comes to open availability of user content. (Read full story…)
Linkedin redesign
Last month Linkedin updated that they’ll be redesigning the site, and we are now seeing it go live. The business orientated social network has invested a lot in enhancing the platform’s capabilities this year, especially with Twitter integrations, opening Linkedin specific streams to programs like Tweetdeck.
This is so welcome! Linkedin (used to be) one of the ugliest social sites around, and although it is business and corporate central, that’s no reason to ignore intelligent design and user interface.
Other articles worth weekend reading:
- Media reading in the future – tablet displays. via Media Futurist
- Will Twitter face the same fate as Netscape? via Social Media.biz
- Brightcove teams up with Tubemogul to power analytics via TechCrunch
- ‘In Social Media its not just business, its business-to-business‘ via PR2.0
- Why Simple Still Wins via Chris Brogan
- So Who Killed Imeem anyway? Executives blame the Orchard… via Digital Music news
- The future of the Embargo via via PR 2.0
12
09
API releases from Myspace and Twitter
With every death comes a birth: As well as axing it’s new child Imeem’s API system after the official acquisition, Myspace today announced a new set of APIs to open more data channels for developers to reach in to the wealth of data on the Social Network. COO of Myspace Mike Jones announced this morning at Le Web. The Real Time Stream API is probably the most impressive, allowing a full feed of Myspace activity to be filtered by developers and used.
Status and Mood Commenting API
Enables third-party devs to suck in MySpace status and mood updates and allows people to comment on and interact with the stream from those sites without the need to leave.Open Search API
Allows third-party sites to include public MySpace profile information in search results. Users will be able to search for people by name, profile type or e-mail address and filter search results by gender, age and location.Photo Upload API
Enables users to upload photos to MySpace from third-party sites or MySpace Apps. The API enables creation of public or private photo albums.Updated Version of Post To/Share on MySpace
Facilitates the sharing of content from third-party sites with a MySpace user’s friends. When a user posts content from another site, it goes directly to his/her MySpace activity stream, creating a link back to the third-party site.via Tech Crunch
This release comes after Google’s announcement earlier this week of its real time search, which will ’soon’ include Myspace data from public profiles, rumoured to go live next month. This is welcome progress by Myspace in terms of opening up to developers, which was no doubt influenced by the success of the vast array of Twitter services and applications, one of the strongest contributors towards it’s growth and usage.
See the Myspace Developer wiki here for more info, and more specifically the API catalogue.
The second announcement came from this year’s favourite social platform Twitter, who’s platform director Ryan Sarver today assured that early 2010 would see access to the Firehose feed for developers. He also agreed that the future success of Twitter would partly rely on their developers, and the already 50,000 strong library of Twitter apps which are responsible for over 50% of Twitter’s traffic.
The roll out of Firehose availability is really exciting in terms of releasing even richer Twitter applications. Real time tweet data will see a host of new opportunities to enhance user experience on exterior Twitter platforms.
He also announced that a developer specific web site will launch to supplement their existing API reference, joining the already knowledge rich Myspace and Facebook wikis.
12
09
140conf – The State of Now
The other week i went to 140conf with @MrSlyvester, a colleague at Lucid Online where i work. This had been the first ’social media’ conference i’d been to for a long time, and my first ever dedicated Twitter specific one. I love these kind of things, and to be fair I don’t go to enough – something i’m going to change.
For a start it’s good to spend a day out of a work routine, while still doing something which is going to greatly contribute to the way you operate within it. Although trawling my RSS, news feeds and Twitter is a daily routine, and helps me stay on top of what’s going on; it doesn’t always sink in and push you to audit your operational strategy. It’s only when your around hundreds of like minded people, listening to some of the best industry thinkers that you start to analyse in perspective, and truly consider changes.
via James Poulter
140conf took place at the Indigo at O2, organised and presented by Jeff Pulver. The occasion showcased a diverse array of Twitter users, be it individuals, brands or collectives; all talking about their attitude and usage towards this years most hyped social platform.
I took a number of realisations, lessons and reminders away from 140conf:
Conference organiser @jeffpulver introduced the event, and talked a lot about its tagline; ‘The State Of Now’. He is certainly a Twitter enthusiast and shared a lot of love for it. He highlighted that the whole of 140conf had no marketing budget, and was purely orientated around what Twitter’s all about – conversation. Next speaking was Stephen Fry, i was probably the only person in the room who wasn’t following him at the time; mainly down to the kind of user i am. I wasn’t expecting much but i he delivered what was probably the most inspiring speech of the day, you could tell he’s done it before. He concentrated on exploring how Twitter shouldn’t ‘abandon humanity, but embrace personality‘, and how businesses must change their language accordingly. It was true words which most businesses could take something from. I recommend catching up on this as it’s a very approachable insight which was brilliantly delivered. (click here to watch Stephen Fry at 140conf)
Jeffery Hayzlett was my next favourite speaker, another bubbly American this time representing Kodak’s marketing department. He spoke a lot about their CRM strategy, incorporating what he describes as Engagement, Education, Excitement and Evangelising. Hayzlett made a good point – “1/3 of people will get Twitter, 1/3 will come around to it, and 1/3 will never touch it.”
The day followed with numerous other presentations from various ventures and brands, large and small; too many good ones for me to write about here.
The Music panel was another notable one, and with my position in the music industry is was a personal interest. I work with artists and Twitter every day, so was aware of the barriers and opportunities involved with working with the platform. Ebony Rhiney-James, Digital Marketing manager at Warner was very honest about the label’s attitude towards communication via Twitter; saying that for presence purposes not all the Artists controlled their Twitter account or ‘tweeted’ their Tweets. I was watching the twitter conversation after this and a lot of people were unsporting of this conduct, and to an extent i agreed in theory; but in practicality terms it’s an understandable scenario.
The truth is Twitter is a too good, and too hyped platform to ignore in a digital marketing strategy; and although the messages should be personal, it’s often just unrealistic for an Artist to dedicate a large amount of time to Twitter. Considering this, we see artists like Britney Spears (@britneyspears), one of the most popular Artists on Twitter but who’s Tweets are almost entirely PR published, and on the other end of the spectrum @calvinharris who writes his own.
In a way the popularity of Britney’s success on Twitter goes against a lot of what the ‘be personal, be real, be you’ etiquette 140conf (rightly so) seemed to promote, which to me suggested a lot of grey areas and misconception still about the platform. There are the ‘Britney fan’ kind of users who will follow and engage with a user, even though their authenticity is questionable; and then there are the ideal Twitter users who value the qualities in Twitter 140conf was endorsing.
Moving on, there were various presentations from start ups, the Police, and an education panel; all discussing how Twitter plays a part in their operations. Towards the end of the day i managed to catch Gerd Leonhard’s take on Twitter – ‘The future of content in 140 characters’. I was excited for this, although it was only 10 minuets; Gerd has been an author i’ve followed for years, and i’m familiar with the majority of his work via his inspiration on my degree dissertation. He suggests things which if you know his work, and concepts on the monetization of access to content over ownership; and the future dominance of the fluid mobile industry – it wouldn’t be anything new to you; but none the less it was still great to hear it. Catch up with it here
Anyway, this was my (very) brief take on 140conf, i had a great experience and took away a lot of insight. It goes without saying for all marketeers, operating in social media is about talking with your consumers, in their environment, in their language; always ensuring your relevance and tone. The marketing spectrum has shifted in the digital age, it’s about listening and engaging; not shouting and ignoring.
A big thank you to Jeff Pulver for bringing 140conf together, and being a perfect host.
