Do-Re-Mi: Each label on a Tuned Pale Ale bottle depicts a musical scale – the more you drink, the higher note the bottle will produce when blown into. And the packaging turns into a drumming box – we’re predicting this will be a competitor to Rock Band.
Between the Covers: Word Bookstore in Greenpoint has introduced a dating service for book lovas – the store put up a billboard and visitors are encouraged to list their must-reads and contact information. (cc: @elisehelene)
Unhear it: Need to get J.Lo’s “My Love Don’t Cost a Thing” out of your head? I sure do. Using the latest advancements in “reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification” technology, Unhear It claims to make you forget the catchy tune you have stuck it your head by replacing it with a new one.
TEAL: Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson traveled through 33 states – not to eat at the best places or visit the grand ole sites, but to see how many typos they could find. So the two friends started the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) and took a 2 1/2-month journey around the country to call attention to typos in signs and attempt to fix them.
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Reverse Branding:Jersey Shore’s Snooki was always seen toting around a Coach bag on season one - but on the second season and recently while out on the town, she’s been photographed carrying various designers. According to the New York Observer, many designers are sending her free swag - but not their own brands. The fashion houses think the reality TV star(?) disgusts fans and anything she touches won’t sell, so by sending her competitor’s products, their product will do better.
Picture Poll: When trying to take a group picture in front of a landmark, you always face two difficult options: 1) One person has to take the picture and therefore is left out or 2) Ask a stranger to take the picture with the possibility of him running away with your new Canon SLR. Enter fotopol - a camera mount in tourist spots, one freestanding, and one made for balconies, so everyone can be in the pic.
Cloudy With a Chance of Music Video: Upon entering singer/songwriter Lissie’s website, you’ll be prompted to enter your ZIP code. Then, the first thing you’ll see, will be her music video for her song “Cuckoo” and the weather in the video is determined by the weather at your current location. You can also zoom in on any part of the world and the video’s weather will change accordingly.
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Starting on June 29, YouTube and music licensing store RumbleFish will partner to allow YouTube users to purchase “copy-protected music tracks for use in YouTube videos for $1.99 each” via an online music store called Friendly Music.
According to an article by Laurie Sullivan in MediaPost’s Online Media Daily, YouTube and RumbleFish created the site to “support music artists and assist people uploading videos to YouTube to replace blocked songs” with the goal of “serving the average YouTube video maker.”
This idea of Friendly Music is extremely smart, as it provides musicians and amateur producers a way to collaborate to create spreadable content in an extremely accessible way and at an affordable price, while also giving musicians an outlet to make money on their music in the digital age.
Out of the 51,714,400 plus people who viewed “JK Wedding Entrance Dance,” you better believe that Sony’s copyright staff viewed it a few times.
And they were faced with a tough decision… Pull the video because it violates copyright infringement policies or embrace the video and use it to reinvigorate a song that wasn’t as popular as it once was.
Sony chose the latter and instead of blocking the video, monetized it, leading to a re-emergence of “Forever,” an “18-months old song” that “went back to #4 on the iTunes chart.”
So for brands out there, don’t be so fast to yank user generated content. Make a strategic decision based on the spread-a-bility of the content and what will work best for your brand in the long run.
YouTube monitors for copyright infringement using a “identification tool to ensure that the video, or even the audio portion of the video, doesn’t infringe someone else’s copyright,” so if you are a brand with copy written material out there, you are in good hands.
When I don’t Twitter for a while (“a while” meaning, like, 12 hours), I usually just get a worried text message from my mom. But can you imagine being arrested for not Twittering? Well, that’s what happened to a VP from Island Def Jam Records this weekend.
Let’s start at the beginning — apparently, there’s a hot new 15-year-old singer called Justin Bieber who’s giving the Jonas Brothers a run for their money. When Justin (who kind of looks like Miley Cyrus with a haircut) was scheduled to appear at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island this weekend, over 3,000 tweens and their moms showed up. People started getting rowdy two hours before Justin was even supposed to arrive, and some fans and moms got trampled and had to go to the hospital.
In an effort to break up the crowd, local police ordered Island Def Jam VP James Roppo to Twitter that the event had been canceled, but he refused. They subsequently arrested him for endangering the welfare of children and obstructing governmental administration, and even threatened to throw little Justin in the slammer too, if he came near the mall. The moral of the story? If the cops tell you to Twitter, you should probably just do it.
Kanye West’s MTV Video Music Awardsshenanigans last night caused a twitterstorm of controversy, with Trendrrreporting that Twitter users sent nearly 300,000 tweets in the moments following his onstage outburst. The celebrities in attendance even got in on the action, with some of them Twittering during the show. Some especially outraged Taylor Swift fans even made a concerted effort to make the hashtag #boycottkanye a trending topic.
Either way, props to MTV for realizing that awards shows have been completely revitalized by Twitter and the real-time web, and catering to the platform. MTV created its own Twitter widget called the Tweet Tracker, powered by Radian6, and hired iJustine to be the VMAs’ “Twitter correspondent.” To be honest, I didn’t even technically watch the VMAs because I don’t have a TV. However, between following along on Twitter and MTV.com posting videos online just minutes after it happened live, I felt like I did!
DMB Generates WOM with Listener Parties Using Facebook
Dave Matthews Band! I used to live and die for them, in some ways I still do! Especially when they’re coming up with interesting, social media-fueled ways to promote their new album.
To support the release of their newest album “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King” DMB asked fans to host advanced listening parties using Facebook. To qualify for an advanced listening party, participants had to be one of the 100 entrants with the most Facebook members attending their party. Although the listening parties had to occur at a physical location, the parties were facilitated through each entrants Facebook event page. One of these hosts would win the chance to meet the band and score front row tickets.
Not bad for an 18-year-old band! You’ve got to give them praise for continually finding ways to tap into the college-age crowd in ways that are relevant to that demographic.
Fulfilling its promise to make its songs DRM-free, iTunesraised the prices on some of its songs today. Although certain songs still cost $0.99 to download, other popular hits now cost $1.29. Thirty cents might not seem like a lot, but for music junkies who are always downloading new songs, those cents can add up.
So it’s understandable that a recent survey found that teenagers are buying less music these days — teens between ages 13 and 17 bought 19% less online music in 2008 than they did in 2007. However, the tradeoff is that the new DRM-free iTunes songs will make it even easier for cash-strapped kids to share music with their friends, instead of having to buy it themselves.
I’ve never been a huge fan of MySpace. What can I say; I’m just a Facebook girl! I have used the platform for managing my music interests but found the set up to be user-unfriendly and rarely logged on.
Today while on Digg I noticed that TechCrunch recently posted a story on MySpace’s recent improvements to its music section. It makes sense that MySpace would want to tout its music offerings as it seems to be the social network’s bread and butter.
I took some time to play around with the new offerings and I must say that I’m impressed. It’s much more user friendly, although some of it is still leaves something to be desired aesthetically. The improvements include the capacity for multiple playlists, multiple songs posting on user profiles and more. Check it out! The coolest feature I will never use (I really don’t need help embarrassing myself) is their karaoke feature.
Music lovers, enjoy your Friday fun. Friday playlist on!
According to TechCrunch, Twitter was abuzz this morning with people who thought the sound on their computers was broken. The problem was not individuals’ computers; it was that YouTube squashed the music. To indemnify themselves against copyright infringement woes, the videosharing giant muted all videos with copyrighted soundtracks. The hilariously depressing music video embedded here is courtesy of the nice folks at TechCrunch.
“ The music industry (1.0) is dead and being reborn in 2.0. To get ahead and find your place as a PR or marketing person, you must adjust.
MC Hammer, giving PR advice on Twitter
“ Twenty years ago, the thought of encouraging advertising with music would be like offering your daughter to the devil.
Peter Gabriel (yes, that Peter Gabriel), on his ad-supported free music serviceWe7
