Socializing the Music Industry: Online Tools

social media clubIn brainstorming for tomorrow’s panel on Social Media and Music tomorrow tonight (Sept. 11) at Kleiner Perkins in LA (I’m co-moderating with Jackie Peters), I came up with the below list of concepts, products, and applications that peer into the future of music and the Web. More info on the panel is here. Please feel free to add more context / suggestions in the comment section below:

DIY LICENSING & DISTRIBUTION PLATFORMS

— SNOCAP — http://snocap.com
— RouteNote — http://www.routenote.com/
— ArtistShare – http://artistshare.com/home/default.aspx
http://cashmusic.org/
http://youlicense.com
http://licensequote.com
http://severedfifth.com
http://www.fina-music.com/

SOCIAL PLATFORMS for FANS and ARTISTS:

— Buzznet — http://buzznet.com
— ArtistDIRECT — http://artistdirect.com
— TunesBag — http://www.tunesbag.com/
— HobNox — http://hobnox.com
— Eventful — http://eventful.com
— Gruvr — http://www.gruvr.com
— Jambase — http://jambase.com
— AnywhereFM — http://www.anywhere.fm/player/
— MySpace Music (whenever it *really* launches)
— Seeqpod, MusicBrainz, iLike, iMeem, etc.
even more tools (the Mashable list)

DISCOVERY:

The New Zune firmware / Marketplace (FM click to purchase and recommends) — http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/default.mspx
http://www.archannel.tv/
http://www.deezer.com/
http://amalgamdigital.com/
http://alterhit.com/
http://www.soundflavor.com/
http://www.jogli.com/
http://www.songza.com/

http://www.signalpatterns.com/

WIDGETS & APIs

Y! Media Player — http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/
MusIcon — http://www.muzicons.com/
FineTune — http://finetune.com
MixWit — http://www.mixwit.com/
Music-related APIs — http://www.programmableweb.com/music
Y! Audio Search API — http://developer.yahoo.com/search/audio/
Music DNS API — http://www.musicip.com/dns/
MusicBrainz API — http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/XMLWebService
Seeqpod API — http://www.seeqpod.com/api.php?music_discovery#Disco_Rex
Gruvr API — http://gruvr.com/developers/

FILESHARING & MP3 DIRECTORIES

— Dropbox — http://getdropbox.com
— Media Master — http://mediamaster.com/
— HypeMachine — http://hypem.com

FINANCING / LICENSING MUSIC w/ SOCIAL Media:

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/could-payola-save-online-radio
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/major-label-see.htmlFormer Label Exec Sees Future Outside Music Distribution
— Monetizing / Licensing music via Creative Commons: http://ccmixter.org/, http://freesound.com, http://www.podsafeaudio.com/, http://opsound.org/
— Free vs. ad-supported vs. Subscription models. Subscription tied to Hardware (Nokia, Lenovo, GM, etc) or to Operating system / software (Zune, iTunes)
— Pairing bands with advertisers based on social demographics

Google Goes Open Source & CC for Radiohead’s ‘House of Cards’

Google is hosting open source and Creative Commons-licensed code for everyone to remix Radiohead’s latest video from In Rainbows, “House of Cards.”

“In Radiohead’s new video for ‘House of Cards,’ no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects,” according to the band’s YouTube channel.

After hearing about Radiohead’s first-of-its kind video, Google:

[A]greed with the band that it would be great to give you a deeper look into how all of this was done, and even a chance to play with the data yourself, under a license that allows remixing… You can view the video, watch a short documentary about how it was made, interact with the video in 3D, download some of the data, and download an iGoogle theme and gadget – all at http://code.google.com/radiohead.

Radiohead – ‘House of Cards’

Watch The Making of ‘House of Cards” below:
Continue reading “Google Goes Open Source & CC for Radiohead’s ‘House of Cards’”

I Shot the Photo for a Nuveen Ad at Wrigley Field

The Art Director of Nuveen Investment’s PR company (Fallon) contacted me a few months ago via e-mail asking if I’d be willing to let Nuveen use a photo I took at Wrigley Field last August for a print ad.

cubs wrigley field ad nuveen

The photo was uploaded into my Flickr account and was well-tagged. I license all of my photos with a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial license, meaning that anyone is free to use the image with attribution, except for commercial purposes (I since changed this particular photo to all-rights-reserved to make it even more clear that I wasn’t willing to give it away to Nuveen).

Although I suspect the photo has been on display since the beginning of the season (I’m told it is one of eight on display in the entry way of the skybox area near the ticket booth) I was finally notified today of its use and agreed to terms to license it for the rest of the season. I must say I’m very happy to report that the Creative Commons system works, I’ve made money from shooting a photo that was discovered on Flickr and never expected to, and even though the ad is pretty stupid, at least it’s not above the communal urinal in the men’s room.

An interesting aside, the original photo was in color and was taken during the Chicago Air & Water Show. The jet pictured in the original was rubbed out for the ad.

Recent Videos on Copyright Reform

An interesting request appeared on my desk this morning to put the 2007, Danish-produced video Good Copy, Bad Copy onto DVD. I was surprised I haden’t seen it yet — it’s quite good, and includes interviews with Girl Talk and Danger Mouse, music by RJD2, Santogold and more. Entertaining! Check it. Oddly, it doesn’t appear to explicitly be Creative Commons licensed or otherwise (which under U.S. law indicates that it is “all rights reserved” by default) however it is available for download in multiple formats via Blip.tv.

Also check out the most recent (I think) Creative Commons vid on CC and Commerce from November 2007: Continue reading “Recent Videos on Copyright Reform”