If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

blue_beetle on metafilter

I frequently think about the part before the semicolon but the part after is more important. (via @bryce)

(via mattlehrer)

8tracks: We just pushed a new homepage, which makes finding mixes much easier via 4 new or improved features: 1. TOGGLE.  You can choose to slice-and-dice all mixes on the network OR only those by people you follow.  We save your preferred starting point when you return. 2. FILTER.  The most-frequently applied tags now live on your homepage.  Click one — or 2 or more — to find the “intersection” of mixes with both or all of those tags. Try it out and, if you like, subscribe to the RSS feed to get exactly those mixes you’re likely to like delivered to your reader. 3. SORT.   Whether you’re starting from all mixes or your mix feed, and whichever permutation of tags you select, you can sort the results by New (aka Recent), Hot (most plays in last 7 days), or Popular (now defined as most plays in last 30 days rather than cumulative plays). 4. VIEW.  Some listeners like the “list” view (pictured here) because it provides more detail. Others prefer the “grid” view (as on our old, logged-out homepage) for visual impact and ready review of results. Pick the one you like best, and we’ll save your preference when you return. Enjoy. It’s now easier to (a) discover music and (b) create a mix. Nice work.
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8tracks:

We just pushed a new homepage, which makes finding mixes much easier via 4 new or improved features:

1. TOGGLE.  
You can choose to slice-and-dice all mixes on the network OR only those by people you follow.  We save your preferred starting point when you return.

2. FILTER.  
The most-frequently applied tags now live on your homepage.  Click one — or 2 or more — to find the “intersection” of mixes with both or all of those tags. Try it out and, if you like, subscribe to the RSS feed to get exactly those mixes you’re likely to like delivered to your reader.

3. SORT.  
Whether you’re starting from all mixes or your mix feed, and whichever permutation of tags you select, you can sort the results by New (aka Recent), Hot (most plays in last 7 days), or Popular (now defined as most plays in last 30 days rather than cumulative plays).

4. VIEW.  
Some listeners like the “list” view (pictured here) because it provides more detail. Others prefer the “grid” view (as on our old, logged-out homepage) for visual impact and ready review of results. Pick the one you like best, and we’ll save your preference when you return.

Enjoy.

It’s now easier to (a) discover music and (b) create a mix. Nice work.

knowyourmeme:

How To Challenge a Wrongful YouTube Takedown Through Fair Use

We’ve been tracking the Hitler Downfall meme and have become very concerned about the recent slate of YouTube takedowns by Constantin Films.

In talking to many of the creators of the Downfall meme videos, we discovered that many of them were unaware of their rights and protections under Fair Use.

To this end, we’ve created a short video that explains why we think that these videos are transformative works, why they should be protected under the Fair Use doctrine and what creators can do to challenge these unfair takedowns.

For additional information on Fair Use and your rights as content creator online, check out the following resources:

Big thanks to Pat Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media and Elizabeth Stark of the Open Video Alliance for their valuable assistance on this.

Warner Retreats From Free Music Streaming

Record label Warner Music has said it will stop licensing its songs to free music streaming services.

How much do they make as a cut of advertising on those services vs. paid pipes?

[via]

david-noel: Holodeck lets you create an artist web presence in no time, pulling your data from the services you already use, like Tumblr, SoundCloud, Last.fm and Songkick. This looks so cool. Created by the awesome Winston Design folks. Note: the app still has a few glitches so be sure to keep checking back. Now we’re talking.
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david-noel:

Holodeck lets you create an artist web presence in no time, pulling your data from the services you already use, like Tumblr, SoundCloud, Last.fm and Songkick.

This looks so cool. Created by the awesome Winston Design folks.

Note: the app still has a few glitches so be sure to keep checking back.

Now we’re talking.

When two web services love each other very much…

hypem:

Some great music blogs use Tumblr as their platform, and we aggregate those in The Hype Machine. But plenty of people have awesome insights on music, even if they post about everything else on their tumblelog, too. So now, you can submit your music posts to the Hype Tumblr. We’re also following some cool people and reblogging their stuff, so you can see all the videos/articles/photos/links that make up our music experience right now. And just like on our main site, you can stream all the music on this page. Follow us, visit us, submit your posts, and check out some Tumblrs you might not be following yet. Welcome to our newest experiment!

I love the experiment, but I don’t think they’ll see much action until the two are spliced more seamlessly.  A checkbox on audio posts to “submit to Hype Machine” would be siiiick.

hypem:

SoundCloud’s Alex talks about our beautiful new partnership.

Hype Machine now scoops up embedded SoundCloud tracks (not just linked MP3s) from blogs and serves them up using the SoundCloud streamer. This keeps all the stats in one place and moves that playback bandwidth over to SoundCloud.  Read more.

Hype Machine approached their 2009 Music Blog Zeitgeist with the same automation with personality approach that defines the larger site.

… Music Blog Zeitgeist was the most important music-focused year-end list to come out of 2009. Masquerading under the unassuming titles of Top Albums, Artists and Songs, it was, in it’s larger role, an encapsulated view of a year’s worth of digital music trends and a forecast for the continued intersection of technology, creative endeavors, copyright and commerce in the year ahead.

Mishka NYC’s blog has kind words on the Zeitgeist. (via fascinated)

david-noel:

Well said, agreed! Outstanding work, Anthony & team.

I was slow to warm to Hype Machine, but damn, this is the future, people.

Pitchfork Top 10 Albums, In US Sales

perpetua:

1. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 131k
2. Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 48k
3. the xx xx 35k
4. The Flaming Lips Embryonic 75k (estimate)
5. Raekwon Only Built For Cuban Linx Part II 141k
6. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 132k
7. Bat For Lashes Two Suns 36k
8. Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 205k
9. Fever Ray Fever Ray 23k
10. Girls Album 19k

Sales figures are from Soundscan through December 6th, 2009. I was hoping to get data for the entire Pitchfork top 50 and reshuffle the list to reflect sales, but that’s looking to be a tall order. Here are sales numbers for other albums on the list…

Those numbers are units (albums) sold, not revenue dollars, which also means this excludes singles sales.  [via Heather]

Reverse Engineering Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” in Ableton by Jim Pavloff

An incredible, step-by-step re-creation.  Merry Christmas!

[via waxylinks]