So I’m sat talking via facebook with my son at the other end of the country about the track listings for his first two internet radio shows. At the same time I’m updating a Spotify list for him so listeners can listen anytime to the track played but also check out what else that band has by way of back catalogue.
And this reminds me how much music sharing and recommendations have changed since i-were-a-lad.
I’ve always loved music though I’m a way better listener than player. Music was my first love and it will be my last, music makes the people come together, Music is a world within itself in a language we all understand .. yeah, okay, enough with the obvious lyric-steals.
I like loads of different types of music and always have, so I used to tape stuff on the radio, make tapes and share, or buy shared albums (a couple or more of you would by the album from Our Price or Woollies and then one got to keep it and the others taped it.)
It’s much easier now to share music (either stuff you’ve found or music you made, or found and mashed up / remixed ..) and that’s led to grassroots and instantly shareable DJ sets, radio shows (as above) and savvy bands making the most of social technology to get their music out there and talked about.
I know I come across a bit ‘aint technlogy amazing’ in this post and I should be uber cool but c’mon, the social / sharing options for music nowadays is just awesome. [sat here rocking out and geeking out in combo].
Music Sharing and recommendations : Here’s are some examples I’ve got personal experience of:
Tha Gods
I wrote about The Gods before , a couple of real enthusiasts and DJs spreading the word (and now getting guest DJs) about old skool Hip Hop, House,Garage, Rap, Electro, Old School, Funk, Reggae, D&B, Hardcore,Electronic, Rare Groove and Breaks. It’s a ‘house’ party by invitation, with the word being spread via facebook invites. And with live streaming of the show webcam and an archive on soundcloud. A great way to hear new tracks you either have forgotten about or maybe are new to.
Extra Curricular
Extra Curricular are a Soul and HipHop act, all 9 members play, sing or MC really tightly and are a talented bunch. I know the Bass player Jack but I’m not being biased, they are just very good musicians and are now geting recognised as such. I think the way that they’ve built their following over the last couple of years is a great example of using social technology well, providing loads of ways to engage with them and having great content (the music of course, but also inside track info on tour news and a blog etc). All done by themselves (to date, though that’s just changed with with top notch DJ Doorly’s Pigeon Hole This! label taking them onboard).
Like most (all?) bands, they have a website (Just updated, nice graphics imho) but they spread the word and the content across the social graph with facebook, twitter and also myspace. Actually, there’s a couple of Facebook presences (a legacy of facebook’s ever changing page/ group functionality I think) : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Extra-Curricular/53626511643 and http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9889857621
They still use MySpace but I got the sense from Jack that they weren’t full-on with MySpace anymore .. like so many musicians the shine and usefulness has disappeared from it for them.
They’re also on soundcloud : http://soundcloud.com/extracurricularband
Tom and Joe’s radio show
Tom and Joe started a radio show to play new music essentially to each other.. e.g they air stuff the other may not have heard of etc. That enthusiasm to share draws others in.. kind of like Radcliffe and Maconi but younger and only 50% of them is from the north.
They also throw in some science / geek news which (to me anyway) has to be a bonus. The show goes out on university radio then a friend of thiers records from the live stream, then into Garageband and the exported mp3 gets served nice and fresh into soundcloud. The Facebook Page is here and SoundCloud is here: The Tom and Joe Show and a Spotify playlist :Spotify Playlist here.
Friends..
I can see in front of me (on Spotify) 32 Facebook friends who have created playlists on spotify and are sharing them. A massive mix of tastes (not all my bag but hey) and hundreds of songs , loads of which I won’t have heard before and that I could explore for days. Awesome.
it isn’t social in the sense of having a community / comment / discussions around tracks or playlists but its still social sharing. Actually, if you link Spotify to facebook you get some banter and discussion there.
Blogs and playlists
And last week I spotted that someone I was writing up in a blog post on social media has a music blog (Things That Make You Say Tune) and had also created an open list of her favourite tracks, on Spotify. Within a few seconds I was listening to said tracks on my Spotify account. Some of my faves were in there but some were new which I really liked and it meant I chased down some additional stuff I wouldn’t have probably heard. I don’t know Vicki but its cool that you get a real sense of her musical enthusiasm from not just her blog but the playlist itself.
Meta Blog/Shuffle :
Then there’s http://shuffler.fm/ that (cleverly) lets you shuffle through genres and individual songs from music blogs. So you get the context and write up to the song and feel some of the enthusiasm the blogger does for why they curated it. nice idea.
And not forgetting I can pick songs out of the air with my shazam app. That is amazing. no really, when you grow up with just vinyl and C90 tapes, pointing a device into the air to pickup a song you hear and then within 5 seconds being able to buy it and store it.. a-bloody-mazing. Again, I could be all cool about it – but .. awesome technology.
rock on.
Blogger disclaimer – I get zilch for mentioning any of the fine people in this post, I just like my music 
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