Category Archives: Resources For Musicians & Music Lovers

SpotMeUp – Upload Your Music To Spotify

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Name: SpotMeUp
URL: http://www.spotmeup.com

The war between Spotify and Google Music rages on, and (by the looks of it) the European startup is the one that holds the upper hand. It’s not that Spotify has become a household name, but the last year’s been pretty spiffy for the music streaming service, what with a brilliant American launch and a partnership with Facebook. And web tools like SpotMeUp do nothing but keep the momentum going.

This new website has come along to answer the question of “How do I get my music on Spotify?” in the most direct way of all. SpotMeUp is an easy-to-use service that lets you upload your music to Spotify in the blink of an eye. Singles, EPs and full albums can all be uploaded equally fast. Upon creating a (free) account, you’ll be able to upload the files from your computer, one by one. Continue reading →

PumpYouUp – Free Indie Electronic Music

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Name: PumpYouUp
URL: http://www.pumpyouup.com

Visit PumpYouUp.com when you’re in the mood for some music to rock your body to. This new site’s devoted to free electronica, trance, dubstep and techno. In all cases, we’re talking about quality selections, handpicked by the site’s creators. The idea is to include songs that aren’t too long for their own good, and which aren’t that weird either.

So, songs can be searched used a dead-simple interface. This lets you have songs found without having to sign up for an account or anything like that. It’s all done on the fly. Continue reading →

GarageBand Comes To The iPhone And iPod Touch

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iPhone and iPod Touch Users Can Now Run GarageBand On Their iDevices

After having been introduced on the iPad earlier this year, Apple’s GarageBand has become available on the screens of iPhone and iPod Touch users everywhere. It costs $4.99 (iTunes link), and much like its iPad counterpart it lets you plug in your electric guitar and mic to record yourself playing. Plus, the app comes with touch instruments like keyboards, drums and basses. And tons of sound effects are also included, along with a sampler and more than 250 professional loops you can use as backing for any song of yours.

These are the full features of GarageBand, as listed by Apple itself.

• Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
• Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
• Reset song key without transposing original recordings
• Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
• Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
• New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
• Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
• Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
• Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options

Myxer – A New Social Radio Emerges

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Name: Myxer
URL: http://www.myxer.fm

If Marconi were around today, he would be decidedly proud to see what’s becoming of his beloved creation. Spending some time with Myxer alone would make him stand ten feet tall. Myxer is a site that takes online radio as we’ve always known it, and puts a marked social element on it.

Myxer is a desktop and mobile service that lets you listen to music with all of your friends online. You listen to songs with all of them, and you get to discuss what’s being played by using a live chat.

Moreover, a tool named “Song Stories” is provided. This lets you do something which is quite novel in itself: creating a video where you can explain what any song means to you, and have that video shared with all of your contacts.

As a service, Myxer is totally free. You can use both the web application and any of the mobile apps without having to start pinching your pennies. Both iPhones and Droids are supported to the same extent.

This is Myxer’s promotional video, as featured on YouTube:

Veenue – Collaborate With Musicians From All Over The World

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Name: Veenue
URL: http://www.veenue.com

Do you remember the video I posted earlier this year that brought together 100 different musicians playing Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”? If you watched it back in the day, then I’m sure you do. That video was certainly impressive. The effort made by the folks who put it together was nothing short of titanic. I’m sure that many of you felt like being involved in something like that. And who could have guessed that you would be able to do it this soon?

Veenue is a music collaboration platform. It lets you connect with artists from every corner of the world, and create songs together. You do that by shooting and uploading videos of you performing. These are then used to create a “full” clip.

And just to add a little spice to how the site works, on Veenue you can become part of competitions which are sponsored by world-renowned brands. The first contest will start on the 3rd of October, and it will close on the 31st of March. Sponsored by Volkswagen, its winners are going to be invited to a studio in Berlin to record the song they have made together. And they’ll also get to produce a music video for the song.

Obviously, it’s still to soon to know how far this platform can go. We can’t know just yet if it will become the kind of social service people such as David Fincher end up making movies about. But the site is surely original, and you can use it without having to read a manual that would take half the Amazonia to make. And that’s just about the rightest way to kick things off, really.

PlaylistHQ – Create Playlists For Upcoming Concerts

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Name: PlaylistHQ
URL: http://www.playlisthq.com

PlaylistHQ is a simple but slick web tool that lets you create playlists for any concert that’s coming up soon, and that you plan to attend. You can create them, and then you can have them shared with all the music nuts that you’ve befriended on Facebook. What better way to convince them that missing any upcoming concert would be a mistake they’ll live to regret forever and ever? What better way to ensure you won’t have to attend a concert on your own, and be unable to go to the bathroom because someone will take your place?

PlaylistHQ uses the Spotify API to get all its data, and once they’ve been created playlists can be searched both by location and by Songkick username.

When having concerts displayed by location, the site lets you view a calendar with all the concerts that will be held right where you live. Or where you would love to live. If you have got an incurable fixation with London, you can see all the shows to be played there as the month runs its course. And then go cry in the corner for having been born on the bayou.

If there’s something to be said about the site, is that it’s decidedly minimalist.
But not that such a thing is a bad thing, of course. Just look at Andy Summers. See how far he got? The guy’s the embodiment of success! Revered by guitarist young and old! A paragon of musical expressivity! (Checks the “Synchronicity” album)... shit, he was the one who wrote and sang “Mother”. Dammit. Next time, I’ll be more careful with the examples I choose…

LyricStatus – Get Lyrics On Facebook Right

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Name: LyricStatus
URL: http://www.lyricstatus.com

A person who has never posted a song lyric to Facebook to convey the way he’s feeling is like a kid who has never watched “The Lion King”. That doesn’t happen, not even in another universe. Songs lyrics are tailor made for something like Facebook, a site that redefines how one presents himself to the world. The mere fact of interacting on a social network means that one’s exposing a lot about himself, so that anything that can sort of depersonalize the experience without sacrificing expressivity is just perfect. And song lyrics fall squarely in that category. Song lyrics can be used to tell someone he/she makes you feel special in front of the whole world without having to address him/her directly. They can be used to wind somebody up. And they also come in handy when you simply want to slag others off.

And in all cases, there’s nothing more embarrassing than getting the lyrics you’re quoting wrong. When you post lyrics on Facebook, the last thing you want is people commenting that you got them all mixed up. You want them to think about what they might mean to you and other, not to pick on words that you might have got wrong. That throws everything out of the window, as discussions will revolve around these words you messed up, and not what you actually meant to convey when posting them.

Such a thing is certainly frustrating, but (thankfully) you can prevent that from happening by using a site like this one. LyricStatus is a search engine for lyrics. This site lets you find lyrics both by artist and by song, and the idea is that once you’ve found what you are looking for you can have it posted to Facebook straightaway. Continue reading →

WildChords, An iPad Game That Lets You Become A Guitar Player

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Learn To Play The Guitar With WildChords

The hardest bit when trying to learn an instrument is finding the time to practice. You show someone who hasn’t picked a guitar in his life how to play an E chord and he will get it. And he will retain it, even if he’s got a memory like a sieve. No doubt about it. But being able to concatenate different chords together harmoniously is something which only comes with practice, and the kind of perseverance that lies beyond most people’s grasp. Progress is always slow at first, and while few do a Pete Townshend and put their feet through their instruments most call it a day before too long.

Well, that’s what this emerging company is trying to remedy. Ovelin is a Finnish startup that is about to release an iPad app that turns practicing the guitar into nothing short of a game. Continue reading →

ListnPlay – A Better Way To Watch Music Videos Online

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Name: ListnPlay
URL: http://www.listnplay.com

As far as watching music videos online goes, YouTube is the port of call for many for many of us. But that’s mainly because there’s nothing better around. The amount of filtering one must do just to get to these clips he wants to watch and move past content which has got nothing to do with music is certainly infuriating. And VEVO (the one platform that was touted as the YouTube for the music industry) has been derided from day one, with users scoffing at this “Very Evil Video Organization”, visibly irked by the constant video ads that plague it.

Well, that’s exactly what ListnPlay intends to fix. A free-to-use service, it presents users with a simple search interface for music videos, and it also lets them create playlists that they can share with all of their friends. Those who think Debby Harry is the sexiest frontwoman in the history of music will be able to bring all these videos that have her commanding the stage, and create a playlist to support their point of view. They won’t manage to convince people like me (who wouldn’t change Emmylou Harris for anyone in the world), but they’ll be able to rest their case that little more easily. Continue reading →

MyDjSpace – Where DJs Promote Their Mixes

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Name: MyDjSpace
URL: http://www.mydjspace.com

A niche social service, you can guess exactly what kind of public MyDjSpace is aiming at. Yes, that’s right: DJs, and people who consume electronic music regularly. The former are given a splendid chance to promote their own work online, while the latter are enabled to catch wind of the latest sounds well before they become part of the mainstream.

The music that is featured on this website is split in three main categories: “DJ Mix Charts”, “Track Charts” and “Remix Charts”. And there’s also a section in which featured artists are spotlighted, one by one.

That is, those who want to promote their music right on the homepage of MyDjSpace can do so by buying credits, and have their mixes placed right where everybody can see them. If your profile hits seem to be falling like leaves in autumn, this feature should be all you need in order to start setting thing to right. Continue reading →