YouTube has an API — that is to say, an application programming interface. Those let people build stuff on top of big databases, such as YouTube. Many people have done this, which is why we are loathe to point out yet another tiny barnacle on the YouTube behemoth, which we’re going to do anyway, below. For…
The following is a small departure from our regular music app coverage that we cannot resist reposting, because it contains valuable, easy to understand information about how to shoot a music (or any other) video that doesn’t suck. The ubiquity of video cameras is great. It would be even better if the skills to shoot…
Remember Paint — as in Microsoft Paint, the ultra-basic graphics program that has shipped with every Windows operating system since 1985? As it turns out, people are still using this program, the “Comic Sans” of graphic design, in one case to make what we’re pretty sure is the most bare-bones music visualization app ever. Even weirder, it apparently…
It’s no secret that DJs trigger samples made by other people. So why keep it a secret by only playing audio? Video DJs bring a new level of transparency to the DJ craft by including video in the mix, usually depicting the source of the audio sample (although really, they can attach any video to…
The default ringtones on cellphones are among the most-heard melodies of our time. Like them or not, they are embedded in our collective consciousness, just like the dulcet tones of a dial-up modem used to be. As more proof that the internet has yet to meet a sow’s ear it cannot turn into a silk purse, here’s…
We ran into an interesting character at the NYC MusicTechnology Meetup last night: one Julian Cole, who specializes in the melding of digital and physical objects. Cole pinged Evolver.fm today to alert us to a list he created of “physical digital products in music.” We’d already heard of Spotify Box, which perversely turns digital music (specifically Spotify)…
Everybody’s wondering what Spotify pays artists, but we already know the figures, based in part on a leaked report: Spotify pays out somewhere between .6 and .9 of a cent every time a song is played. Whether that money actually makes it through middlemen to artists is as tricky a question as it has ever been,…
This is a guest post from regular Evolver.fm contributor James Martin of midemblog. This morning, Kylie Minogue‘s new video was unlocked by her fans, who had been asked to generate 25,000 #KylieTimeBomb tweets in order to access her new song, “Timebomb.” They did so in less than an hour. At the campaign’s peak, it reached 10 tweets per second, making…
Most of the loyal users of Starmaker Karaoke for iOS are 11-16-year-old girls, college girls, and “young mothers” who have made it the top karaoke app in the iTunes app store, although they’re not karaoke enthusiasts, per se. Instead, according to Starmaker product manager Reed Kavner, they love pop music from the radio and want to sing…
What an original idea: A bunch of rooms where cute little avatars can DJ music to each other! That’s what we said last May, before breaking the news (we think) about Turntable.fm, after surprising its cofounder Billy Chasen with a call to his cellphone. If you’ve tried the social DJ web or iOS app Turntable.fm,…
Madonna’s half-time show at the Super Bowl drew mixed reviews, but one thing everyone seems to agree on is that M.I.A. managed to sneak an obscene gesture into Sunday’s broadcast, which drew a record-setting 111.3 million viewers. M.I.A.’s attention-grabbing moment appears to have had the desired effect, at least where music blogs are concerned. According…
Have you ever wondered what goes on at a Music Hack Day? We’ve covered plenty of them — including some of the stunning variety of music apps created at these events — but this video from Eric Steinhardt of The Echo Nest will give you an idea of what they’re all about far more quickly: Disclosure:…
Google’s generous policy towards its YouTube API (application programming interface) lets app developers build all kinds of neat music apps out of the music videos found there. Most recently, we came across Cull TV at a recent NYC MusicTechnology meetup. It’s something like the 50th app we’ve seen to date that applies a filter to YouTube…
We’re working on another music app story right now, and it’s going to be good, but for now, we just can’t resist sharing this video of kid trying to operate a magazine as if it were an iPad. If you doubt that technology is changing our minds’ operating systems, this might convince you otherwise: (via…
Ten years ago this month, in a small-ish theater at Apple Computer headquarters at One Infinite Loop, I saw Steve Jobs unveil the iPod. On November 2, 2001, I wrote, “The iPod is revolutionary in a number of ways, and its descendants will replace the PC.” I think I was right, as we’re starting to see now with…
