Myna Music – Discover Music Through Music

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Myna Music
URL: http://www.mynamusic.com

The music recommendation services that we have today invariably revolve around one thing: metadata keywords. And one has to wonder, is it really so difficult to come up with something that little more intelligent? Something that doesn’t necessitate us type word after word describing what we are looking for, or individualizing several different songs for an automated system to produce results that might be completely off the target.

That is what this new service aims to revolutionize. It is named Myna, and it basically lets you discover new music to listen to by having songs that you like played and analyzed using a proprietary system.

In their own words:

“Myna listens to and comprehends music directly, making it possible to search based on mood, sound, or texture or autonomously generate highly-personalized music playlists — all without metatags.” Continue reading →

Fanity – Follow Your Favorite Artists

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Fanity
URL: http://www.fanity.com

The day we realized that social sites were a context in which proximity with celebrities and musicians was almost guaranteed, then that was the day they began being on the map for most of us.

The problem is that by now just too much takes place on Facebook. You might “like” your favorite artist, and still miss on his updates. If you have more than 150 friends (the number of friends that ensures full interactions with everybody according to social media experts) then you take for granted that there are things you are going to miss.

Or will you? Meet Fanity, a web service for subscribing to news by your favorite artists, and have them displayed on a stream of their own.

Using Fanity will free you from having to filter your news feed manually. Just by becoming a fan of the artist in question you will have his latest news presented in such an unpolluted stream. Continue reading →

Bandhack – Local Bands On Facebook

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Bandhack
URL: http://www.bandhack.com

Bandhack is a directory of local bands and shows on Facebook. Through this site, you will be able to know all about these bands that are coming together right where you live, and about the activity of the ones that are already well-established. You’ll get to know about their upcoming gigs, and you’ll also get your hands on their latest media (including videos and audio recordings)

To me, what gives Bandhack its edge is that the content is pulled directly from the pages of the bands in question. This means that the content is always up-to-date – if there’s any kind of change in schedules, for example, that will be reflected immediately on Bandhack.

And using the site is a piece of cake. You just log in with your Facebook account, and all the relevant local activity becomes accessible in a snap.

Crowdbands – A Record Label Run By The People

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Crowdbands
URL: http://www.crowdbands.com

Record labels as we have always known them are on their way to extinction. Well, that is what the team behind this startup seems to be screaming at the top of its voice.

Crowdbands is a collaborative platform that to all intents and purposes resembles a record label whose decisions are taken by the public. Which songs will be recorded by which band, when will any of the bands on the roster go on tour, what the artwork of albums and singles will look like, which late shows they should play… These are the kind of decisions that users of Crowdbands are allowed to take. We are talking about one of the clearest examples of crowdsourcing yet applied to the music industry.

The one and only drawback something like this has, now, is that it effectively puts an end to songs like the Sex Pistols’ “EMI” or XTC’s “I Bought Myself A Liarbird”. As Johnny Rotten himself once commented, lousy record companies make (and have always made) for terrific compositions since the dawn of time. Well, I guess composers now will have to do without one of the most devilish sources of inspiration ever. We’ll see if the tradeoff (IE, the sense of communion) will suffice. And say what you wish, but I think we are losing a certain dose of malice that has always kept the scene entertaining to begin with.

Radio Tuna – Find New Radio Stations To Listen To Based On Your Tastes

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Radio Tuna
URL: http://www.radiotuna.com

Do you remember Durocast? That was a site I reviewed in 2010 that let you find new music to listen to based on your geographical location. Well, Radio Tuna is a comparable site. It will let you find radio stations to tune into, but the one difference is that here the discovery process is artist-focused.

That is, on Radio Tuna the search process is initiated by specifying who you want to listen to. And it is also possible to pick a genre and center your whole search on that. Rock, blues, Latin, classical, electronic and dance are all supported genres.

In any case, you can always carry a search by station. This means that if you are traveling abroad you will always be able to find your best-loved station and listen to your favorite shows, even if you are further away from home than Jason and his ever-loyal argonauts.

Plus, if you have a music blog you will be able to get the provided widget and let your visitors listen to any song they like as they are going through your posts. Neat.

Bassicly – Listen To Dance/Bass Music From All Over The Web In The Same Place

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Bassicly
URL: http://www.bassicly.com

People who get their thrills from dance and bass-oriented music should definitely make a point of checking this site. Bassicly aggregates dubstep, grime and drumstep tracks found on sites like YouTube, and lets people listen to them using a handy interface.

All you have to do is launch a search and start singling out these songs that are up your street. And integration with Last.fm’s Scobbler service makes for creating a playlist in an even more resonant way.

Of course, you can also listen to these tracks that people have been “loving” (IE, favoriting) the most and pick the best sounds like that.

And Bassicly is a site that can be used without having to pay a penny, too. If your enthusiasm for any of the genres mentioned above can’t be rivaled, a visit to Bassicly will just make it stand stronger than ever.

Isle Of Tune – Where The Streets Have No Name, But Can Create Music

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Isle Of Tune
URL: http://www.isleoftune.com

This is as bizarre as it is endearing. Isle Of Tune is for all the people who love music but can’t even play the triangle. On this site, they will be able to come up with songs… by building a city! No kidding.

Isle Of Tune works by having you place elements such buildings, street lamps and trees that actually double as musical instruments (!). That is, once they are in position, these instruments will be played by all the cars that drive past them. Continue reading →

MTV Releases The Music Meter

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Presented By MTV, The Music Meter Is A Resource For The Discovery Of New Artists

The days in which the popularity of music was measured by how many albums were shifted are not just extinct, they are actually fossilized. Nowadays, the popularity of any piece is judged based on a plethora of factors. The number of views on YouTube is one of these, and so is how frequently the song is streamed on sites like Spotify and Last.fm.

MTV has just released a new site in which all these variables are taken into account, and used to create a chart in which the online buzz around musicians is fully reflected. This chart goes by the name of The Music Meter, and it is updated daily. And learning more about the artists who get featured there is really easy, since tweets and bios are accessed at a click. So, getting acquainted with any performer that you discover through the chart is simplified to no end. Continue reading →

Four Legal Ways To Find Music For Any Video You Upload To YouTube

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

illegal music

Putting a video together commemorating one of these once-in-a-lifetime occasions is lots of fun and a tearjerker for everybody… until YouTube takes it down because you used music you weren’t supposed to even get near to begin with.

If you want to ensure that isn’t ever happening to you, below you have four legal ways to find music you could use as part of your montage.

1- Creative Commons Licenses

A creative commons license denotes works that the artists have decided to share with the public, while keeping certain rights to themselves.

There are lots of free creative commons audio tracks on the Web. Check these sites out: Jamendo, Danodongs and Incompetech. The first is a repository with more than a quarter million tracks, and the other two are examples of sites created by individual artists.

2- Stock Audio

Much like stock photo libraries, stock audio libraries let people license music for specific purposes. Check iStockphoto to learn about the legalities at play, and to see all the different types of licenses that are available. Continue reading →

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