Where is the fun ?

IS FREE THE RIGHT PRICE FOR NEW DIGITAL MUSIC ?

The temperature is rising in the world of action sports web edits. Joe Rich and Odyssey BMX just released what might be the best edit so far this year. And having also Mike AItken back on bike after a very bad crash few years ago is clearly inspiring too. Amazing.

ODSY VISION: TRAVEL LOG – IDAHO / MONTANA from ODYSSEYBMX.COM

Summer pics … Straight out my Blackberry …

Few weeks ago, a website had brought back the fun into the music discovering process. This week was also interesting for the future of music consumption. While Bjork is working on a music school project for very young kids as well as a highly anticipated set of apps, our favourite belgian djs uncovered their record collection by releasing an awesome new music app :

Long gone are the days where most apps were purely promotional without any kind of interactivities. If you want to have an interesting product for your fans today, it would be better to work directly with developers, interactive designers and visual artists.

try it HERE, if you are like me, you might having a hard time listening to it while not watching it. For some of us, artworks are parts of our strongest music memories …

– This is FUN: Remember the ipod battles with your friends ? Remember how cool it is to do ping-pong DJ sets with your mates ?
Well , this is basically the same feeling that you will get when first trying out turntable.fm

- In less than one hour, I Discovered new music and (maybe) new buddies: How ? well i ended up for example in a Bhangra room curated by … dj’s from Bangalore. Well you can’t do better than that if you wanna keep up with the latest hits popping from an ever growing list of new music niches.

You can argue what about Spotify, Rdio etc ? well i never lived in a country where it was available. I sure did played a bit with those but i ended rapidly frustrated by the lack of catalog, especially when it comes to offer the highly diverse new music popping out everyday. Yes, music production is also becoming a real time world.

This is why i would love to see an easy copy/paste URL integration on Turntable.fm. Yes most of today’s production is being first released on D.I.Y services like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, youtube , official.fm….

Beside the fact that this new website is offering tons of marketing ideas (contests, virtual parties for venues, brands, labels …), you can also manage to use it in a passive way (à la Pandora). Although there is no value derived by a passive user in the system (yet), you still can join a crowd in a room that fits your current mood and needs, turn up the volume, and open a new window on your machine.

turntable.fm is growing fast while still very basic. Imagine when new features will included : Mobile Apps, Ipad aps, Geolocation, Facebook integration …

And even if Turntable.fm should stop tomorrow, there will be a before and an after. The game has changed, Music is Fun again.

Discloser: I am consulting for Bands and Brands, Founder at Fairtilizer.com and Official.fm.
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Living in the mountains can be awesome. I spent the whole winter in Verbier, Switzerland working and riding. I wasn’t sure i was ready to stay up there for the whole season but thanks to a fast internet connection and friends visiting, it was actually more productive than i first thought. Even a daily snowboard session proved to be helpful for better concentration.

I will take a plane this weekend for a 1 year world trip … My goal will be to explore the best tech hubs and music scenes. My first stop will be Berlin for a while. Self proclaimed audio software and startup European capital, this should be an awesome time. As i don’t know the city that well, i am still a bit worried about food. (food was incredible in the swiss alps). Fortunately the Highsnobiety HQ is there and i trust my friend David that he will show me the right spots.

Great and simple presentation about our future – including social media, relationships, sustainability, sharing, new forms of currency and content.

If you have a spare hour, then feast your eyes on Geoff McGhee’s video documentary “Journalism in the Age of Data,” which explores the exciting potential and occasional pitfalls of modern data visualization.