In 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.html – Former 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
Several months ago I realized that the iTunes on my MBP was no longer updating the podcasts to which I subscribe and, well, I could no longer connect to the iTunes Music store. As a lifelong skeptic of the iTunes product (and a devoutly stubborn consumer of only non-Apple mp3 and portable media players and phones) I immediately looked elsewhere instead of seeking some ass-backward solution that likely would have required me to download one of the hundreds of iTunes “upgrades” released each year. 
