Spotify launched amid a flurry of PR , including a spot of the BBC’s main news. Heralded as the new “new model” that will save music for the price of an audio advert you can listen to tracks, create playlists. It currently only allows streaming and no downloads. It is a curious hybrid between an Itunes and Last.fm.
Whereas Last. Fm has led me into whole new realms of music and artists. In one of those slightly bizarre “How did I end up here” moments I have become quite obsessed with minimalism , Terry Riley , Morton Feldman, John Cage etc. Spotify requires a touch more work. You need to search for artists and genres from which you can create your own playlists. It does have a radio, with an ability to limit by genre and year which is quite a nice touch, however the music was pretty banal.
What I am not sure is how I would use Spotify? Apart from the home page with new tracks and artists you may like you need to decide what you want to listen to. What it does give you in return is more control than Last.fm, letting you select artists etc. You can also use Shuffle.
On the music front Spotify is quite mainstream with last.fm you get much more obscure tracks but with that comes a few duffers. The adverts were not too obtrusive and the interface is a good clone of iTunes easy to use
What it comes down to is do you want a more lean in controlled or lean back take the ride experience ?For the moment I quite like Spotify but not as much as last.fm
Popped down to Internet world last week as I fancied a little unfocused trawl. My expectations were fairly low which were completely met. Discriminating between the various offerings was near on impossible. Hosting companies, SEO etc tend to differentiate on cost, infrastructure and other commodified attributes. Admittedly Internet World is not Under the Radar but still.
Incrementalism seems to be the zeitgeist at the moment. Read More »
Saw this chart on Blyk . Now while there is definitely some puff and bias, namely it reflects early adoption interest inevitably response rates will fall, it does at least raise the bar in terms of expected ROI from an advertising campaign. Read More »
At the risk of encouraging disparaging remarks on my choice of subjects, I think we all suffer from “video is next Internet wave” fatigue two sites have “launched” recently that deserve some attention. Hulu NBC and Fox’s collaboration, which due to territorial restraints I can only watch on Youtube, and Blinkbox ( co-founded by an old colleague Adrian Letts). Both encourage the consumer to engage with the content Read More »
Clip above is from Medium Cool by Haskell Wexler. The title is a play on the notion of film being a Hot Medium as defined by Marshall McLuhan. That is that it only engages one sense, is overwhelming and immersive not requiring much viewer particpation to extract meaning. Read More »
Convergence has been bandied about for quite a number of years without anyone really nailing down a key definition. The government through BERR and DCMS have set up a “convergence think tank” to examine the effects of convergence on the consumer landscape and the wider creative economy. There has always been something about teh word that has never quite fitted. Convergence in its own way brings about divergence. Read More »
Demand for content has grown fuelled by Martini media (I know the phrase is a tad out of date but I just love Leonard Rossiter) or “anywhere, anytime, anyplace” (or if you prefer personalised, multi device, place and time shifted) media consumption. Add in the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, which created a proliferation of new channels as the cost of a television channel has fallen dramatically,and the liberalisation of media in emerging markets demand for content has never been so strong. So where are all the new licensing models and platforms ? Read More »
