Using Ableton Live and Max for Live, Warynski constructed Végétophone, an instrument and sound installation in his students’ classroom, featuring a number of variable controllers to play, adjust, and interact with new sounds and musical arrangements. The Végétophone, shaped like a tree, features three sections with different sound palettes, organized into apples, bananas, and limes.

The trunk of the tree controls global parameters, including including pitch, tempo, and time signature. The branches of the tree each have knobs that control volume, delay and reverb sends, and sound/kit selection. Each parameter on the tree is given its proper musical notation symbol, save for time signature, which Warynski adjusted into a more understandable beat and bar division than in the traditional fractional notation. 

As far the circuitry and patching of Végétophone goes, the whole setup is much simpler than the back of the installed board seems.

Everything is done in Live 9 and Max for Live running on a Mac Mini and controlled in MIDI with the help of a MIDIbox 128i/o and an Arduino board.

Let’s start with the easy part:
- Sound selection is made by moving a chain selector in Racks.
- Major and minor selection applies a scale midi effect on ‘bananas’ and ‘apples’.
- Global transpose applies a pitch midi effect on ‘bananas’ and ‘apples’.
- Tempo is controlling… well, the tempo.
- Effects are just two return busses.
- Arpeggios are made with the Arpeggiator midi effect.

All the sounds are made with samples played by Racks of Simplers and Drum Racks. A few instances of Operator are used as well.

Described as “nothing more than a gigantic MIDI controller,” Végétophone is a superb example of a very simple, yet functional music education device. And it looks super fun to use.

Check out the interview with Chapelier Fou on Ableton, and listen to his releases on SoundCloud.

The post Végétophone Brings Ableton Live to a Primary School appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Beats Music, a venture by Dr. Dre and FlashFWD nominee Jimmy Iovine,  hasn’t had an entirely successful start, mainly overshadowed by a wealth of other streaming engines, including the massive (and recently redesigned) Spotify. However, iTunes has suffered the inevitable decline of music downloads, so a brandable streaming model at its fingertips could mean a new entry point into the rapidly expanding market. But Apple rarely ventures into such high-profile acquisitions of widely known brands — the company is known for its brand integrity and razor-sharp focus on details, and the Beats acquisition could undermine this diligence if mishandled.

As an aside, the rumored deal has potential for Dr. Dre to become the first billionaire in hip-hop, due to his stake in the Beats Electronics company. A video selfie from the rapper/entrepreneur earlier this morning may have confirmed the deal.

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We’re already familiar with designer and developer Jono Brandel‘s exciting new work — the spritely, sample-based Patatap web instrument made in collaboration with Lullatone was one of the most unique music applications on the internet for quite some time. Now for a more focused application, Brandel has teamed up with UK electronic music duo Plaid to create “Tether,” a remixable, recodable, and reworkable interactive song.

While Patatap comprises multiple environments in which the user can play different sounds, Tether is more linear in arrangement, with identifiable melodic and chordal information. By “playing” Tether via the web app, you are effectively remixing the record with your mouse, clicking and dragging to trigger a series of visual and audible effects. Click and/or drag the mouse anywhere along the window, and Tether comes to life in responsive geometric shapes and patterns that accompany audio effects. The production has a recognizable arrangement and rhythm, but the user can augment the sounds with an infinite combination of delays, splices, and glitches.

Remixing Tether is hardly limited to using the interactive web song. Because Tether is coded, Brandel and Plaid offer the scripts and codes that run the song’s application. Savvy, musical (or non-musical) coders can download the codes and rework Tether from an entirely different foundational perspective.

For those producers with a more traditional workflow, Plaid has uploaded the Tether stems to SoundCloud. The entire remix contest, whether you’re a musician, developer, or simply a technology lover, is unique in that is open-source in the way the song is consumed and reimagined. Tether, like Patatap, is more than a fun way to promote a musical project; it’s an entirely new and hardly tapped method of releasing music, challenging artists of all disciplines to collaborate and fully use the power of the internet beyond playback.

Get the stems or code to remix Tether, and enter for a chance to win prizes from Warp records, including a QuNeo controller. Altertnatively, you can simply enjoy the multimedia composition by clicking anywhere below:

The post Remix, Recode, and Rework “Tether,” an Interactive Song by Plaid appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Launched on the App Store just last night, the social music network AAMPP is finally officially open to the music-loving masses. We’ve excitedly watched AAMPP leading up to this launch, and now it’s time to turn AAMPP over to you, with the newest update to their iOS mobile app.

After opening AAMPP®, a swipe-able banner features various artists on the site, followed by rows that reveal categories of artists and their albums. Clicking on an artist’s Music Identity™ brings up an album’s track list, along with a green follow button at the top, and a bar along the bottom for Music, Pulse™, and Account.

Following an artist’s Music Identity will populate your Pulse with posts from that artist. The Pulse collects social media updates from all of the artists you’re following; similar to a Twitter stream or Facebook Newsfeed.

In the Pulse, users can now Shout™ directly in the app, to post images, music and text in real time from their phones.  The ability to Shout Out™, or otherwise share Shouts from the Pulse is especially valuable source of music discovery for app users. If, by some chance, users should Shout something but then wish to remove it, a simple tap of the “X”  available on updates now brings up a prompt allowing the content to be deleted.

In addition to the Music Identity and Pulse screens, swiping to the right pulls up a list of  genres. Choosing a genre prompts a screen similar to the home page but is catered to the genre you have chosen. This makes browsing for new artists even easier, as artists are filtered by particular genres or moods.

The star at the top of every genre and artist page allows users to access their “Favorites” list, which also functions as a playlist of selected songs.

Browsing is enabled during playback, and a small player and transport panel is revealed with a simple swipe.

AAMPP has combined the best aspects of social media and online musician presence, into one user-friendly app. Their slogan, “Connecting the World to Music,” clarifies AAMPP’s mission: to interactively connect users, whether fan or professional in the industry, to both music and artists they love.

You can download AAMPP for free on the iTunes App Store.

The post AAMPP’s App Update Connects More Fans with More Music appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The music for the meditation sessions, which can last from 1 minute to an infinite duration, was created by past Red Bull Music Academy attendees, including Nightwave, Suzanne Kraft, and James Pants. Each track is tuned to the mystically hypnotic pitch of 432 Hz, the preferred tuning for the key of A for new age aficionados.

If you’re planning on catching the full marathon month of Red Bull’s festival, be sure to take a few relaxing breaks and sink into an image of a bearded man meditating beneath a waterfall.

The post Eternal Bliss™, The Internet’s Most Relaxing Website appeared first on SoundCtrl.

In philosophy, a first principle is a basic, foundational proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. In mathematics, first principles are referred to as axioms or postulates. In the mobile modular music processing app Audulus, first principles are the core of sound design.

Created and designed by software engineer W. Taylor Holliday, Audulus is a minimal, colorful, and downright attractive modular synthesis app for Mac, iPad, and now iPhone. 

Modularity is an age-old concept: combine two discrete elements to create a whole that is the sum of its parts. The functionality of a modular system is defined by the pieces that it comprises, and this concept need not be analog to be instilled with the same spirit that made such technologies so limitless and fun.

With Audulus on iPhone, modular audio is reinvented for musicians on the go, in an app that allows the user to create his or her sounds from the ground up. As with all technological innovations, especially those dealing with such “building block” structures, design is at the core of Audulus’s functionality. Easy to use and easier to look at, the app takes inspiration from the elements of programming applications such as Pure Data and Max, and outfits them to be quite appealing, even to an onlooker on the subway.

Audulus comes stocked with standard synth features, such as oscillators, ADSR, and filters; production tools including a 4-channel mixer, crossfade, and level meter; as well as MIDI control, preset saving, and integration with the new Audiobus 2. 

Audulus for iPhone and iPad is available on the iTunes store and an AudioUnit beta version has just been released for Mac.  

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Inspired by Alva Noto’s unitxt album, in which tracks are “generated from converting pure data of programs, jpgs or other digital files into sound material,” Leico’s ray.sniff~ converts the pure data of a network into signal data, which is encoded as audio. Essentially as infinite as your deepest Wikipedia session, all of the sonified data transmitted from an internet joyride is noisy, glitchy, and unsettling. ray.sniff~ seems to serve as a larger metaphor about our erratic and addictive online habits. 

Leico invites us “to [a] new relationship with the Web as [an] amazing sound source.” Be sure to open a new window. 

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“Licensing Made Easy.”

Though it seems too stark to believe, this statement sums up the appeal of music licensing marketplace SongLily.  Started last year by Les Borsai (CEO) and Jodi Chall, (COO), SongLily is aiming to fill a pair of often misfitting shoes. Music licensing is generally complicated, and when there are already other “no-frills” music request sites competing for the attention of programmers and producers, (such as Syncofy) one has to wonder, “How can SongLily possibly make easy any easier?

That question is answered quickly enough. On the home page for SongLily’s website, visitors and prospective licensees are greeted with a bright and colorful screen devoted to song titles, artist names, bottom line prices, a built-in music player, and a shopping cart. There’s no denying SongLily’s music marketplace wants to streamline customers to  “purchase and sync in media,” without inducing hassle and headaches in the process. Beyond permission acquisition efficiency, SongLily is also pouring energy into supporting a specific crowd that lies so close, and yet so far, from the inner workings of music industry: app developers.

As explained by COO and co-founder, Jodi Chall,

“Out of the 5 million apps created, at least 10% include music. …Most of those companies that use this music have the funds to license, but do not know where to start. The music licensing process can be confusing to companies that are not in the music business, and we wanted to simplify the process. [SongLily] work[s] with the major labels to provide access to their content, and in doing so, we have kept it simple.”

That is not to say the tried-and-true conventional music placement roles are not on SongLily’s radar. Their song database is divided into songs that are suitable as popular tracks or as tracks for production music, the latter of which contains much instrumental music. Additionally, SongLily is all about collaboration in its effort to bring maximum fluidity to music licensing. If SongLily’s specific company objective does not fit a licensee’s needs, SongLily will help put people on the right path to the kind of license they do want for their intended music uses.

Some of the core information to know when working with and shopping around SongLily includes:

• Licenses obtained through SongLily are synch licenses from the master holder and publisher.

• SongLily licenses are valid for one year from the time of flat fee payment.

• Game and app developers whose game or app sells more than 100,000 times will need to pay another flat fee.

• SongLily is intended for small to mid-sized businesses, with ≤200,000 unique site visitors per month.

• The flat fee paid by licensees is actually covering the license fee for the record label, the license fee for the publisher and SongLily’s distribution’s fee. (typically 20%)

To fully understand SongLily’s master plan for music licensing and offerings, I spoke with Jodi Chall and talked about why her company is the marketplace to watch:

SoundCTRL: I never get tired of seeing the energy of a new startup that wants to better the music business with their own special vision. But usually, it takes a bit of time for someone new on the block to get involved with big league players and yet,  here is SongLily already with a database of over 3,000 tracks. Many of them are well-known songs licensed to major labels and big name publishers — that’s certainly a good point of draw. How did you all make this happen?

Jodi Chall: I and my business partner, Les Borsai, he’s my co-founder, both have worked in music for a very long time. Les, even longer than me. He spent the last three or four years consulting for mobile app companies, helping them get music. He came to me and he said, “There’s got to be an easier way to do this.” You know, [acquiring music licenses] in a way that developers don’t have to wait six months to a year to even find out the terms of which they might be able license music for their games and their apps. Because we understand the music business deeply, we were able to identify early on what would not work, and we knew we had to come up with a way for labels and publishers to work together. We uncomplicated the process, allowing things to go from offline, online. We got everything done in advance so nobody has to wait for that process to play out.

As far as the music catalog is concerned, it wasn’t easy to do and it wouldn’t be easy for anybody to replicate. It is truly driven by Les’s relationships in music. He’s come up through the business, represented Jason Mraz, and a lot of other bands. He deeply understands, has socialized with, and has been engaged with the music industry.  And because I always was on the artist’s side, it gives the labels and publishers a lot more comfort and confidence working with us. We spent a lot of time talking with labels, asking, “Well, what kind of entries do you have?” and we figured out solutions to issues to take away their concerns about trying this very innovative, never-before-done thing.

In order to be compelling, we need to have recognizable music. It’s really well-known music, and it’s 80% of record labels’ catalogs. That 80% is not getting a ton of exposure because everyone is calling and wanting to license artists like Rihanna and Lady Gaga. It provides terrific opportunities for game and app developers to set a tone and a mood…We just knew that was required and that those catalogs weren’t being well marketed. Up until now, developers haven’t had the opportunity to act like a music supervisor would, for their games and apps.

SC: That said, is the opposing focus on small to mid-size app/game developer companies SongLily’s way of supporting “the little guy?” Many other services that aim to cut down on the red tape usually do this via devotion to independent material but it seems SongLily wants to help get eyeballs to app with the power of familiarty, so was this designation the best compromise?

JC: The small to mid-sized developer game/app community is definitely one of the most underserved of the markets. Electronic Arts knows how to go to the labels and license music and they have a whole team of lawyers that help them do that. The absence of any service providers to mid-level and smaller game and app developers on the music side was really important to this choice. But it was also just a requirement by the labels. They don’t know until after the fact, who the person is that’s licensing and what the app is. They rely on people to comply with the license terms like anybody else does in any other contract but they don’t get to approve it in advance. They’ve never done that before, and so, as a result, we are taking some baby steps, one of which was to consider that we’re already doing business with companies like EA. We don’t want to cannibalize that business because we already talk to them. We want to talk to the other 95% of the marketplace. Most mobile app developers are not the size of EA. Most can license through SongLily.

SC: Continuing somewhat in this vein of inquiry, while the small/medium focus is for developer companies, what is SongLily’s current position on musicians who may have highly visible music akin to other tracks in SongLily’s catalog but who are technically running independently and thus don’t have connections with a major label or publisher? Can they become part of SongLily’s database and reap the same benefits?

JC: Could we work with them? Absolutely. It is in our roadmap to create a do-it-yourself section of the site that can provide their music, information, and a contract because — just to emphasize — we really are a true marketplace. We don’t license anything other than a 30 second clip to play on the SongLily site. So every piece of music also has to come with a license agreement from the content owner, and we can help with that. But, at the end of the day, it’s their contracts. It was most important for us for this purpose to work with major labels. People like it. People really like music that they know. For an independent band though, yes, we can do it. I’m all about content. We just have a three person company though, so our efforts in obtaining music right now are directed at finishing up our major label deals rather than going out to everyone, because we have to have a focus. 

SC: Might you shed some more in-depth light on launch of SongLily’s new Affiliate Program and perhaps provide a few examples of third party music sites and services that have taken to applying?

JCl: So, the deal isn’t finished yet but we are finishing up the paperwork for Harry Fox Agency to be an affiliate of SongLily and to refer people who are looking to sync license. The Affiliate Program is actually pretty simple. It’s for companies that talk to or cater to game app developers in some fashion, to refer them to us to license the content and we give them a percentage of the SongLily fee — not of the total fee but, of the SongLily fee — in the event that there’s a sale.

SC: How do the policies of SongLily’s Affiliate Program fit in the picture where different international laws of content access is concerned? (e.g. music legally streamable in one country may be blocked in another, even if the file itself is 100% not bootlegged or pirated.)

JC: The affiliate program is not entirely automated. We have to approve affiliates that apply and that’s really because we don’t want to impact our terrific relationships with the labels and the publishers. So it is on a case-by-case basis and we have to look at applications. Our focus right now is the U.S. As long as the site is a U.S. company and the site it based in the U.S., that’s what matters. It’s not going to be this way permanently. There are going to be a lot of legal issues we have to navigate and solve. We intend to, just not yet.

SC: Aside from growing SongLily’s library and continuing work to spread the word, does the company have any aspirations for lateral (or other) service expansion — maybe considering support for independent/original short films or (animated) clip series that could get a boost from inclusion of a well-known song?

JC: Yes! We have a very busy roadmap! At the end of the day, what we’ve built is very cool for major label music. But the way we’ve constructed the site, any intellectual property that is owned by a computer company and is to be licensed under certain terms, for certain uses, and for a certain period of time, our site accommodates that.  We also are thinking about expanding in the future into other IP.  Art, for instance, would be the same way. And like I said, the major marketplace keeps the control in the hands of the IP owner, and allows them to offer it to our site.

SC: Ending on a fun note, why SongLily? Any story behind the name?

JC: Oh, I take total credit for that! We must have spent three weeks, trying to come up with names, and it’s so hard to do because everything’s taken and with my legal background, I have a background in IP and I know trademark. So there would be added frustrations from my co-founder, from every time we came up with a name and I would say,”Nope, it’s too close! No, we’ll end up with a trademark issue down the road…” My daughter’s middle name is Lily and we needed something that sounded like music. And I really like her middle name. That’s where it comes from.

If you think you might be interested in licensing a song from SongLily for your app or game or joining their Affiliate Program, you can start browsing and apply right now on SongLily’s official website.

You can also follow SongLily on Twitter @SongLilyLLC.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post [Interview] Jodi Chall, COO and Co-Founder of SongLily appeared first on SoundCtrl.

As part of a major restructuring of the magazine and brand, Billboard has appointed former executive editor of Hearst Magazines International, Tony Gervino, as editor-in-chief. Janice Min, the new co-president and chief creative officer of Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group which owns Billboard, has praised Gervino for his editorial vision and drive.

Billboard also recently named Mike Bruno (Entertainment Weekly) as VP of Digital Content & Programming and Shirley Halperin (Hollywood Reporter) as Music Editor. Current Billboard editor Joe Levy will become editor-at-large.

In addition to overseeing all editorial decisions for Hearst and its Home Design, Men’s Enthusiast, and Womens Network magazines, Tony Gervino has also contributed to New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and launched the award-winning Antenna Magazine. Gervino is poised to bring a bit of class to the charts.

The post Tony Gervino is Billboard’s New Editor-In-Chief appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Twitter is beginning to unveil a new redesign of user profiles. Much more similar to the profile pages of Facebook and Google+, the new design will include a large header image of the user’s choosing, as well as a left-oriented avatar image and information.

“Best Tweets,” which include your most relevant posts, will appear larger on your timeline, and you’ll have the option of pinning Tweets to the top. Users can filter others’ timelines to see Tweets with pictures, links, and replies.

Below are examples of some of the first redesigned profiles, featuring John Legend and Weezer. The redesign will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks.

The post Twitter Gets A Makeover appeared first on SoundCtrl.

If the financial and logistical cost of outfitting every audible alarm with a visual detector for the deaf (and vice versa for the blind) wasn’t somewhere beyond astronomical and impossible, the world would be doing right by our disabled brothers and sisters. But until that happens, we turn to apps that automatically lend a helping hand. The $0.99 app Deafalarm is meant to be kept active at all times, tuning in to sounds and alerting the user of alarms through vibration and an on-screen notification. The app also vibrates if it’s accidentally shut down, or if the iPhone’s battery is so low that it can’t function. According to some reviews, it also goes off all the freaking time, regardless of whether or not the sound is an alarm. Now, just for fun I’m going to list a few songs that have sirens in them, and keep in mind that none of these are even touching the genres of hip-hop or pop:

“Warning” by Green Day

“Paranoid” by Black Sabbath

“A Nightmare to Remember” by Dream Theater

“White Riot” by The Clash

Not far off from the features of Deafalarm is Shazam’s Auto-Shazam function for the iPad that’s always keeping an ear out for music, auto-grabbing music data and draining your battery like crazy in the process. Super cool, but just what are the implications of opt-in detection for personal space, environment and privacy? And would it be creepy for the guy with his windows down and the radio on if he knew your app was displaying information on his chosen track?

Know what’s even creepier? A San Francisco-based startup called Expect Labs is creating an app called MindMeld that listens to a phone conversation and interprets what is being said in real-time, coming up with what it believes is relevant information. It’s like asking Siri a question, except in this case Siri butts in before you even address her. Could be useful. Could be hilarious. Could become completely self-aware and destroy all of humanity. They call it ‘anticipatory computing.’ We call it T2: Judgment Day.

The post Automatic Apps Could Save Lives, But Are Still Kind of Creepy appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The New York edition of Unsound will bring a week of experimentation, interactivity, and a good bit of dancing to the city, with several events that promise to be intriguing for musicians and music-lovers alike. The festival unofficially began last night with the premiere of Ephemera, an installation merging the scent artistry of Geza Schoen with the music of Ben Frost, Tim Hecker, and Steve Goodman (aka Kode9). Issue Project Room, the art research and performance institution, will host the official opening event tomorrow April 2nd with performances by sound art duo Evol and composer Oren Ambarchi.

On Thursday, American electronic music innovator Suzanne Ciani will perform with Neonantrik at Lincoln Center’s Rubenstein Atrium. On Friday, UK duo Demdike Stare will present their commissioned project Concealed alongside minimalism pioneer Phill Niblock and Polish artist Stara Rzeka, performing his unique sound of “magical brutalism.” On Saturday, Unsound meets the infamous Bunker of New York, bringing together Porter Ricks, Vladislav Delay, Ital & Halal, Miles (of Demdike Stare), and Leisure Muffin, whose newest EP was released on The Bunker’s own label.  Sunday’s closing events will feature Kapital, Paal Nilssen-Love, and James Rushford & Joe Talia, from Poland’s experimental Bocian label.

These are just a few highlights from the week’s performances, many of which are free of charge to attend. However, space is typically limited as several events are at intimate smaller venues (especially helpful to controlling acoustics), so arrive early and stay late. Check out the full schedule and artist listing here.

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BandPage, the online presence management platform for musicians, has announced another successful investment series. Now up to $28 million in funding, BandPage will use the capital to continue fostering relationships with the foremost music services, while creating and solidifying new revenue streams for musicians.

BandPage is used by more than 500,000 musicians to reach billions of fans worldwide, and is popular with managers for its social media and brand partnership integration. Though the landing page of the site displays links to the profiles of major pop acts, the platform is praised by many of the most innovative, independent artists as well.  Brian Message, manager of PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, and co-manager of Radiohead” says BandPage is playing a critical role in empowering musicians to further their careers in the digital age.”

Check out BandPage’s site to learn more about the company and its services.

The post BandPage Is on Its Way to Being the Largest Musician’s Platform appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Billboard and Twitter have joined forces to create “Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts.”  The ranking system will join Billboard’s 200+ Official Billboard Charts to track the top Tweeted songs and artists.  Though there’s no solid release date, the charts are due to launch within the coming weeks on Billboard.com.

Twitter’s blog announcement provides some insight on their aim: “Our goal with these efforts is to give artists who share songs and engage with their audience on Twitter a way to get noticed by even more fans, other musicians, and industry decision-makers in real time.”  But will trending data really support the discovery of up-and-coming artists in a meaningful way, or will it just bolster already successful artists?  Is the data really for music fans, or is it consolidated into neatly packaged charts for record executives to peruse as they search for the next artist who proves to be a lucrative investment?

Lyor Cohen’s new “300” label will be using similar algorithms to find new artists on Twitter as well, supplanting talent scouting at clubs, hearing the music live, and seeing the fan base first-hand.  The music industry may have chosen to learn from its mistakes and embrace new technologies, but possibly at the cost of a more organic method of finding talent and doing business.

Data mining seems to be the preferred method of gauging, conglomerating, and analyzing the technological and musical ephemera of the age.  So, one last question: is there any use resisting it?

The post Billboard and Twitter Join Forces appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Not long into the Music Tech Fest’s final day in Cambridge, all serious work came to a temporary standstill with a single presentation, and not just due to sound cutting through a silent room.

“Thicket,” an interactive app for iPod, iPhone, and iPad, is the brainchild of “creative technologist and artist,” Joshue Ott. This app, which is part of a family of apps that are promoted through his web development company, Interval Studios, not only makes music, but is also an enthralling audio-visual creation that lets users make original creations of their own. During the presentation, Ott invited fellow MTF presenter and classically trained violinist Dr. Anthony De Ritis, to spontaneously take a crack at making some catchy beats, loops and blends of visual patterns with the app. (Check the Music Tech Fest website for eventual upload of video from this presentation.)

Beyond Thicket’s ability to generate colors, lines, repeating and morphing shapes, there is little definitive structure behind the use of the app. Despite performance art being one of the first associations brought to Ott’s attention, he very clearly explained that Thicket is not so much about concentrating on the audience as it is about the user.

This isn’t to say that an artist wouldn’t be inspired to use Thicket in a live application. Nevertheless, from Ott’s point of view, Thicket is about the connection and reaction of, the person actively tinkering with the app. An audience watching and enjoying Thicket in action (like all of us watching De Ritis’s inaugural trial) is more of a positive by-product. This personal experience also has implications in industries in which a self-directed app like Thicket could be helpful, such as music or chromotherapy.

Thicket contains a variety of modes that depict different primary sets of colors, shapes and sounds. The modes’ titles, such as “love,” “scary ugly” and “grass,” pair with the designated sets, and, do predispose users to some associations, like color/mood and color/object.  (All except the first mode, “sinemorph,” are acquired through separate, in-app purchase) However, as an app also described as “an audiovisual playground,” the only confinement is one’s own ingenuity with tactile composition.

Thicket is free for download and available from the iTunes App Store. Thicket is also compatible with Audiobus, the inter-app audio routing hub, previously covered here.

Below is a video showing Thicket being explored in “Cathedral” mode:

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Thicket Transforms Your Apple Device into an Abstract Instrument and Visualizer appeared first on SoundCtrl.

We like instructions like this, but little did we know the next 15 minutes would be a captivating sensory overload of sound, color, and graphics. Patatap is a visual music browser application controlled by pressing alphabetical characters on a computer keyboard, which trigger audio samples and corresponding graphics. In various combinations, the the keys trigger chopped samples of drums, vocals, synths, and glitches, while creating an array of minimal graphic lines, dots, shapes, strobing colors, and other visual effects. It’s simply fun to use, and a perfect distraction from the stresses of a tiresome workday.

Patatap is a collaboration between designer and programmer Jono Brandel and musician duo Lullatone. The project is an innovative take on visual music applications, and is functional on computers, tablets, and mobile devices. Patatap evokes the sensations of synesthesia, a condition in which the brain interprets one sensory input as another, like “hearing” colors. There are several sound and color palettes that comprise Patatap, which can be toggled by pressing the space bar.

Give Patatap a try with the embed above, you’ll certainly want to blow this up to full screen. Disclaimer: your boss and coworkers may be leery of your digital respite; be sure to send them the link as well.

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This past weekend, on a single floor of the Microsoft New England Research and Development Labs, the Music Tech Fest, Boston edition, crammed in three full and continuous days of presentations, demos, questions and answers. One of many laudable presentations from the festival was Roundware, presented by sound artist and musician Halsey Burgund.

An idea conceived back in 2009, Halsey Burgund told stories; not only of Roundware’s origins but of many different geographic places that were also being used as locations for things like sound installations, art exhibitions or just for everyday exploration. Burgund described Roundware as “a flexible, geographically sensitive, distributed framework, which collects, stores, organizes and re-presents audio content.”This open source platform lets its users collect audio from anyone with an iOS or Android smartphone or web access, upload the audio to a central repository along with chosen metadata, and then filter it and play it back collectively, in continuous audio streams within a designated space. Imagine a large, open park full of temporary sculptures highlighting a local artist.

Users are given headsets and walk around the area looking at the various pieces. Music plays back while you’re walking through the space and at any moment, spoken word from previous viewers comes in through the headset, layered over the musical components. The audio often describes what the speaker is seeing, what they are reminded of when viewing the sculpture, and their general sentiments about the art. The commentary and musical elements play back simultaneously, helping the current explorers experience someone else’s perspective and frame of mind from a past moment.

This “past moment” can denote another user’s descriptions from a few minutes prior, should multiple people be wandering in close proximity and observing the same set of objects, or, it can span longer periods of time, depending on how long the collective repository of audio data is kept active. One poignant example shown during Burgund’s presentation was audio of a heavy rainstorm that someone recorded and uploaded, that was then heard in the headset while wandering in that same area -on a beautiful, non-rainy day.

One of the first applications of Roundware, called the “Scapes” installation, created by Burgund for the Massachusetts deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, is outlined the video below, from Burgund’s point of view. Playing the video will reveal what he’s hearing through Roundware, from the first-person perspective. Burgund also highlights some of the supplemental intrigue of hearing about past observations. For example, he hears about a chipmunk someone saw and mentions that it’s interesting to think where that chipmunk might be now. Keeping track of from who, what, and where audio is derived in the video can be mildly confusing but, is undoubtedly fascinating.

As mentioned before, Roundware has more than sound art applications, and has been eyed by museums and schools for unconventional learning experiences. The Smithsonian is even interested in how Roundware might be used to benefit visually impaired attendees, who could glean descriptions of exhibitions through the eyes of patrons who have visited prior, giving thorough and widely imaginative ideas beyond a single, limited explanation. In addition to this application, during Q&A, it was proposed that Roundware could have great potential for something mimicking geocaching but in an audio-centric format. Plans are in the works for Roundware to eventually support other forms of media, including text, photos and video, which will be part of a Version 2.0 release coming soon.

If you are interested in including Roundware in a work or project of your own, a first version of the platform’s code can be downloaded here.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Roundware: Connecting Spaces, People, and Sensory Experiences appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Fortunately, protected Tweets aren’t included in the birthday gag, so your discretion is honored.

The post Happy Birthday, Twitter! Oops. appeared first on SoundCtrl.

With a plethora of digital devices and music players perforating modern life, you’d think that the relationship between music and technology would be a more widely discussed topic. Despite the many startups that merge tech and music, a dedicated platform that brings together the growing, lucrative music technology sector is still quite rare.

This is where London’s Music Tech Fest swoops in and fills an oddly under-attended void, at least as far as an indsutry-specialized crowd is concerned. Founded in April 2012 by Michela Magas, co-founder of design research lab Stromatolite,  Music Tech Fest is just that: a gathering devoted to the convergence of music and tech, regardless of the industry sector. Researchers, performers, hackers, business innovators, and technology aficionados — any angle of industry profession steeped in music tech can be found at this event. During the nascent two years of the event, Music Tech Fest has already garnered the time and attention of many companies and influencers alike. (We’ve previously featured Synesthesia, an app which was developed by Stromatolite and is a sort of signature to Music Tech Fest.)

Coming into its third year, Music Tech Fest is going strong,  expanding the event to new locations outside of London and even outside of the EU. In late February, a branch of Music Tech Fest was hosted in Wellington, New Zealand at the local Microsoft Research Labs, and its next stop will be hosted this weekend at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Labs (referred to as the NERD labs!) in Boston, MA. Following Boston, the flagship festival will be held in London in May, with other “tour stops” scheduled for Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris and Brazil.

Thus far, Music Tech Fest: Boston is already shaping up to host an impressive lineup. Some confirmed attendees include:

Dave Haynes (fmr. SoundCloud)

Paul Lamere (Echo Nest)

Berklee’s Rethink Music Initiative

Paris’s IRCAM-Centre Pompidou

The Music Technology Group of UPF Barcelona

…with many more companies, as well as newly developed instruments and digital projects set for presenting demonstrations. A live link-up with the British Library is also on the agenda, along with the expectedly exciting hackathon, hosted by Jonathan Marmor (also of The Echo Nest).

You can follow along with all the Music Tech Fest activities on Twitter and get involved with the conversation with the hastag, #mtfboston.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post London’s Music Tech Fest Comes to Boston appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The exhibition encourages musicians and non-musicians alike to explore the hands-on possibilities of modular synthesis, opening up a world of production and engineering that seems very complex from afar. Fortunately, the reps from Moog and Main Drag music are always on hand to provide instruction and insight on how the machines work for any eager enthusiasts. The sounds generated by these modules are other-wordly, ethereal, and often spooky, but the real weight is in how tactile the controls are. For example, slowly turning the dial of a filter’s cutoff frequency opens up a waveform’s character and grit, and when implemented on an electronic drum kit (connected via MIDI hub) the possibilities for adding expression to rhythmic compositions is infinite. The same goes for guitars, keyboards, and the standalone mounted modules.

In addition to the open installation, the Moog Room will host a live performance tomorrow, March 20th, on the analog systems featuring Kiran Gandhi, Suzi Analogue, Léah Lazonick, FonLin Nyeu, and more.  Hosted in collaboration with Tom Tom Magazine, the event will go from 8-11PM.

RSVP to attend at [email protected] to attend, and enter a chance to win tickets to Moogfest 2014 in Asheville, NC, home of the Moog Factory.

The post Inside The Moog Room at Rough Trade NYC appeared first on SoundCtrl.

You might wonder why a widely successful mobile-only app would expand to the stationary side of the technologic border. That’s what Soundwave has done with their most recent update, now available in the iTunes App and Google Play stores. However, the tagline for the update, “Soundwave moves to capture desktop music,” is assuredly exciting because of what it means for the reach of the app’s ever-growing community.

The global music tracker and more recently, buzzing social platform (thanks to their last update bringing in comments and hashtags), decided to develop and release this evolution as a means of directly responding to ground level input from users worldwide, as well as inferences drawn from user analytics and behavior. It is worth noting that while Soundwave continues to grow, their discernment of that growth has never involved letting go of contact and cohesion with their user base, despite its widely cast net and server-stretching volume. While capturing plays from outside mobile devices is not completely new to Soundwave (YouTube integration bestowed Soundwave’s app with the ability to track plays), maximizing inclusion of desktop plays to better match the adopted music players linkable through mobile gives Soundwave a bigger, more natural picture of what, where, and when their users are listening to songs.  Now there will be even fewer “steps” necessary to ensure song plays accumulate in your Soundwave activity feed.

Although expansion from mobile to desktop might seem strange, Soundwave’s team is trying to assemble a full and organic impression of one’s listening habits/preferences, and have found that many people still turn to their desktops often. University students are a global, perpetual, and active portion of the music-curating population who stand to provide Soundwave with much of its behavioral data, and Soundwave’s Chrome extension provides them a less awkward way to frequent the app. After all, would a student immersed in their studies reach for their phone to play music, or just pull up Spotify/SoundCloud/YouTube/Songza/etc. in their browser?

In addition to desktop inclusion, a fresh round of standalone players are now part of Soundwave’s world as well. The mobile side now takes plays from Pandora and SoundCloud, while the desktop-oriented full list now includes Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, 8tracks, Google Play Music, Gaana, VK, Songza, MySpace, Deezer, and Grooveshark. The only, very minor downside is that this upgrade will take just a bit more work on top of tapping the update button on the mobile app. Just follow these directions and accruing and sharing plays with people all over the world will be much easier!

1. Enter the settings menu in the Soundwave app and select “Connect music players”

2. Retrieve and record your unique seven digit pin from the app on your Android or iOS device

3. Click on the link on the Soundwave website to begin installation

4. Insert your unique seven digit pin and the install will start

5. Installation finished!

Soundwave is based in Dublin, Ireland and is backed by venture capitalist, Mark Cuban, as well as Apple Founder, Steve Wozniak. You can keep up with future developments and extra community chatter by following them on Twitter @Soundwave.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

The post Soundwave Doubles Down with Desktop Music Capture Update appeared first on SoundCtrl.

“Notice the sea of screens at concerts? Live music events are the number one usage occasion of smartphones, and yet there is no go-to concert app,” said Encore CEO Nicholas Klimchuk in a recent press release. “We’re trying to change that with Encore.”

You probably noticed it at the last live show you went to—smartphones have replaced lighters in the concert space, and whether you use them or hate them, the trend is here to stay. But the concert-centered app Encore, backed by Next 36, aims to revolutionize the live concert experience for those both able and unable to attend. And what’s the best way to encapsulate memories and share the experience with those who couldn’t be there? Photos, videos, set lists—you name it, Encore has it.

Simple and fun to use, Encore connects users with not only the concerts they’re waiting to see, like most other concert apps, but it also puts an emphasis on shows of the past—shows, in fact, that date as far back as the 1960s. The app takes an innovative approach to tapping into the passions of a concertgoer by integrating photos and videos from social media and concert and set list information from other dedicated services and more.

To share more about the app, its capabilities, and its bright future, Klimchuk took the time to talk to SoundCtrl about all that Encore has to offer.

SoundCtrl: How did you come up with the idea for Encore? Was there a specific moment in time where the concept just clicked?

Nicholas Klimchuk:  Our cofounder [Michael Warshafsky] goes to lots of concerts, and he realized that almost everyone was on their phones taking photos and videos, and he also was unsatisfied with some of the other concert apps that were out there. He thought that he could design something better, and what better way of building a successful concert app than around consumer behavior that everyone’s exhibiting, which is on their phone? So we leverage that and give them a better experience to help them find upcoming events.

How does Encore create these concert time capsules?

We go through a database of Last.fm. We know when and where shows were, so we bring in geo-tagged photos, any Flickr photos that have a number of tags related to the event, and YouTube videos, which are typically well-documented. In the future, we’re going to be bringing in photos and videos from Instagram video, Vine, and Twitter.

How does the app determine which are the best photos and videos to include in a time capsule?

As of now, we don’t do any filtering, but in an upcoming version of Encore, we’re going to let users favorite photos kind of like they do on Instagram. Right now, users just have a profile where they can see the shows they’ve been to, but in a future version, they’ll be able to see which of their friends are on Encore, what shows they’ve been to, their favorited photos as well as favorite artists.

Right now, the app just brings in a lot of data, and it can be overwhelming — there are a lot of selfies that people might not care for. But in the future, you’ll be able to see just your friends’ photos, your photos from the event, and the top-rated photos and videos will be at the top of the time capsule. And in the future we’ve also thought about letting people customize their time capsule so they can easily remove things that they don’t want—it can just be their experience.

Where do you source information for the hundreds of thousands of shows in the future included on the app?

We partner with Last.fm. They have quite an extensive concert database, so the images, the lineup, the location of the show, the start time, everything comes from that database, and then users add on things like news, or you can invite your friends, grab tickets and have the ability to type in your friends to see who’s coming.

How do you think Encore will change the concert experience?

There’s a lot of debate about phones at concerts. On one hand, Encore reduces the need for you to be taking all those photos and videos. Lots of times people take photos and videos at concerts to prove that they were there, for the vanity of sharing on social media to make their friends jealous, or because of nostalgia and wanting to be able to hold on to this lifetime experience.

So what Encore will let people do is, say you’re at the back of the concert, and you take a really dark, blurry photo, you’d prefer to just trade up to the photo that someone took in front of the stage, and that has equal impact. It’s interesting because I can show you photos from Lady Gaga’s concerts from her last tour, and trying to tell you which concert it’s from, you’d think it was your concert because they all look the same. But people subscribe a much higher value knowing that that photo was taken at the concert they went to two years ago, even though the photos can look almost alike.

So in the short term, we’re just trying to make a better concert app so that people can experience live music more and hold on to their memories. But in the long term, whoever wins this race to build the leading concert event app will be able to do a lot more for before, during and after shows. We’re just going to be starting early with the data that people provide on the shows they went to and the people they went with, which is very valuable to promoters, and then slowly move from there adding more functionality.

What kind of feedback have you gotten so far from Encore users?

So over time, people who have used the beta version, the original version of Encore just did photos and videos so there was a lot of demand for, “I want to be able to do something with these upcoming listings,” which we’ve added in the form of buying tickets and sharing with friends. People still want to do more with the photos and videos, which we recognize, so we’re going to be adding the ability to upload your own photos.

Generally the feedback has been that people really like the feel of the app design, they like how we focus on the past as much as on the future. Most concert apps don’t do anything with past shows other than maybe if you bought tickets, they’ll keep them somewhere on the app. We want people to find every single show they went to, even if it’s 1960s Woodstock, which Encore has on the platform.

The way we like to think about this is in the past, people kept ticket stubs as mementos of shows, while people of our generation walk out of concerts and just throw away their ticket stubs, and our promoter partners and board of directors still have their tickets saved from the Beatles concert and the first concerts they went to. So Encore’s trying to create the digital equivalent of that, like the digital ticket stub of these concerts.

What kind of upgrades or evolution do you see for Encore in the future?

The past is a huge differentiator for the Encore app. It’s a way that we expect to keep people engaged. So for example, even if you don’t go to the Arcade Fire show that’s happening in Toronto tonight, you can turn on Encore, and you can see the photos and videos coming in live. Right now, we don’t provide that functionality, but the next day you can see the photos and videos. But it’s a very simple thing where on the Today page, we’re just going to have an indicator blinking, so whether it’s a concert going on locally or a festival that your friends are at, it’s kind of cool to just be able to open the app and see what’s happening with your friends and what’s going on at the concerts on the app.

So that’s one area. And then another thing we’ll be implementing is we’re going to be integrating setlist.fm into all the past shows. It’s owned by LiveNation, and that way, and again with shows going back to the 60s, people can, when they add their shows, see their friends that attended, they’ll see the set list, they’ll see the photos and videos, and again, it’s a nostalgic feel that people have from seeing that information. And also, as soon as the show’s over, we’ll be pushing notifications of what the set list was. So there’s an opener, and you really liked that one song, you’ll have it with you when you leave. So there’s some small adjustments on the past.

As I also mentioned, the profile will be bolstered where we’ll do what most concert apps do right now. We’ll scan your library, we’ll find your favorite artists and then we’ll send you notifications when people go on tour, and then you’ll be able to see which of your friends—it’ll be like a social network for concertgoers—you’ll get to see your friends on Facebook who are also using Encore and see the concerts they’re going to and have been to.

We’re trying to start small and prove that an anchor of past shows is something that can get people onto a platform and then considering upcoming events and then go from there and listen to our users’ feedback.

Check out Encore, recently released from beta onto iTunes, and get started enjoying an encore of all the shows of the past while preparing for shows in the future.

The post [Interview] Nick Klimchuk, CEO of Encore appeared first on SoundCtrl.

Total bummer you couldn’t make it to SXSW this year, right? All of the amazing concerts with tons of big-name and up-and-coming artists to discover, just out of your reach this time around. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall and catch all the action from afar?

Now, with “The Heart of Austin” showcase from Sony Entertainment Network, you can, all from the comfort of your own home. And all you need is your PlayStation 3 (where admittedly you were spending that missed concert time anyway, yes?) Using the Live Events Viewer app on your PS3, you’ll be able to enjoy The Heart of Austin showcase’s broadcasts for three days of the expansive SXSW lineup, from March 12^th through 14^th, for free through the app or an online stream.

Through a partnership with ‘stache media, Entercom Communications, Lively, and King’s Hawaiian, Sony has taken over two downtown, next-door-neighbor venues, The Market and Hangar Lounge. From Wednesday through Friday of this week, Sony will bring you a heavy helping of some of the excellent live performances you thought you’d miss out on. Plus, according to Sony, “Music Unlimited & Video Unlimited will also have a setup within Hangar Lounge to experience the service between sets.” Sets begin around 4 to 5 p.m. and end around 12 to 2 a.m. each evening.

Lineup

The lineup includes a total of 54 bands and musicians from across the country. On Wednesday, you can catch The Revivalists, UME, The Grahams, and Oh No Fiasco at The Market and Rev Gusto, The Architects, Nightmare The Cat, and Nothing More at Hangar Lounge. Thursday features Nicole Atkins, KKDO Local, Black Cadillacs, and Lucius at The Market and Crobot, Wild Party, Johnnyswim and Samsaya at Hangar Lounge. And on Friday you can catch Los Lonely Boys, Ingrid Michaelson, The Orwells and Magic Man at The Market and Travis Scott, The Bots, Kreesha Turner and Wonder Broz at Hangar Lounge.

Any of these sound familiar? This is just a sampling of the wide range of talent performing at this one-of-a-kind showcase. You can view the full line-up on Sony’s blog or below. You can also check out a playlist for The Heart of Austin showcase on Sony’s website.

The Potential of Live Concert Showcases

Live concert streams are nothing new, but the fact that a company as large as Sony has jumped on the bandwagon is a great sign for music lovers who are often distraught over missing their favorite bands and artists perform around the world. Being able to stream the shows to your television via PS3, rather than your computer or mobile device, is a bonus as well.

As the market for live streaming concerts grows, a unique opportunity extends far beyond venue walls. Global music sharing will no longer be limited to streaming music and videos, which are typically seen post-event, even when recorded live.

Now, all of the excitement of a live shows will be universally available from the comfort of home. Granted, streaming live shows can never replace actually being present in a venue or at the foot of a festival stage, but it’s the next best thing for live music lovers.

Bands unable to tour and travel will be able to share their performances with fans and potential fans around the world, earning more of a following without ever having to leave their hometown — which is a limitation many bands and musicians throughout the world face. Live performance streaming is yet another unique outlet offered by the Internet that can increase band exposure on a wider scale, with relatively minimal effort for the band itself, aside from the videography setup.

SXSW is an exciting showcase for the music industry, and you can still get a taste of what the festival has to offer thanks to Sony and its partnerships. Tune in this evening with the Live Events Viewer app on your PS3!

The post Stream The Heart of Austin SXSW Showcase This Week on Your PS3 appeared first on SoundCtrl.

The newly launched Bop.fm isn’t the next new music streaming service — it’s every streaming service in one place.  In an age when every new startup seems to have the final answer in the business of something as abstract as music, Bop is leveraging the larger interests of the fan-pleasing platforms to streamline and personalize the music discovery and listening experience. Bop aggregates the most popular music streaming services — Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, Rdio, Deezer, Beats — under a single roof. With no need for an account, Bop.fm functions like an internet radio, curating playlists based on songs of your choosing. Unlike other internet radio applications that limit your choices or number of skips, users can pick songs or let Bop curate for them, sourcing the highest quality tracks from all of the major streaming services for free.

Bop’s platform also offers an interesting content management solution for artists and managers driving traffic to new music: with a single bop.fm link, users are directed toward all instances of a song, no matter where they exist on the internet, creating a consolidated source for a track. With the ability to aggregate all of the media sources and direct traffic, Bop may very well be the preferred platform for labels looking to keep fans engaged and in one place.

We caught up with Bop CEO Shehzad Daredia to talk about how Bop’s forward-thinking functionality creates a new model for music listening and discovery.

SoundCtrl: Is Bop.fm account based? How do you sign in?

Shehzad Daredia: You don’t need an account at all — we don’t like imposing these walls on you that everyone else does. So if I were to send you a Bop link to a song, you could play it right away. Now, if you wanted to create a playlist and save it, you’d have to create an account. We’ll probably have additional features like favoriting that will require an account, but to use the basic core functionality, we don’t impose registration.

You could sign up with Facebook or email, though we don’t currently have the ability to let you connect your individual accounts for say, Spotify or SoundCloud. That’s because we don’t really need you to do that. You can play through your existing Spotify account without you having to login, same for Rdio and Deezer. We do allow you to connect your Beats account, but you don’t have to connect all of your accounts to play through them. We can automatically detect if you’re a Spotify user, Rdio user, etc.

So if you’re a premium user of a streaming service, it wouldn’t change your access to Bop. 

Right, it doesn’t matter if you’re a premium user or not, Bop can stream through your Spotify account and you won’t have to do anything in advance to make that work.

Does playback come from online or an app? 

Bop right now is web and mobile web, we don’t have a native app yet.

What’s the prioritization of playback services used by Bop? 

The vast majority of users out there don’t subscribe to more than one of these services, so they’ve never heard of Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, or Beats. Most people will be playing on SoundCloud or YouTube, depending on a number of factors, including availability of that song on those services, as well as availability of that service in that country. So if you’re in Germany, maybe the Vevo video wouldn’t available on YouTube, in which case we’d fall back to SoundCloud. Usually we’ll prefer YouTube, since YouTube monetizes for the industry, whereas SoundCloud will not. That’s the case for the majority of users, since most of them haven’t heard of the other services, much less have accounts.

Now for the ones that do, the next most common is that users have an account with one of these services. We automatically detect if they have a Spotify account, if that song is available on their device in their country, and then we would play back through that account. It’s very, very rare that the user has access to more than one of these services, like Spotify and Deezer, or Spotify and Rdio, so we don’t put a lot of thought or effort into which one we prioritize first. It’s somewhat arbitrary to focus on it, as .1% of the population has more than one music subscription account.

YouTube and SoundCloud stream at pretty low quality — is that cause for concern? 

Quality is a factor we consider. It’s the reason why we’ll play from YouTube over SoundCloud, with others being equal if a song is available in both of those services. But we consider quality when we do our matching. If the only thing available on YouTube is a low quality UGC video, we’ll give preference to the higher quality file uploaded by the creator on SoundCloud. But generally speaking, we give preference to the official music video through Vevo or the creator’s channel on YouTube over UGC uploads.

Are you working only with files and content that have been appropriately licensed? 

We give preference to music that’s been officially licensed.  That said, YouTube is trying to change the model now. So it used to be a place where people would upload a bunch of UGC stuff and YouTube would tell the creators, “Tell us where people are infringing, and we’ll take it down.”  And so license holders had to play “whack-a-mole.” But now, not only are they playing “whack-a-mole,” they’re playing “monetize-a-mole,” if you will. So now YouTube will monetize your content that is uploaded by other users, they’ll claim that content and share the revenue. They’ll also flag it as premium content with premium ads and rates. We can effectively infer, by looking at YouTube videos, which ones are being monetized for that artist, even if the artist or the rights holders were not the ones that uploaded it. So we give preference to the official channels, but we include the ones from other channels if we need to play through them.

So it’s opening Bop to as much music as possible while not infringing on any rights itself. 

We’re basically linking to a song that’s on YouTube. We’re a DMCA-registered agent, so if  we get a complaint that we’re pointing to a song that’s infringing content, then we’ll gladly take it down promptly. To this date, we haven’t received a single complaint. Part of that is because we don’t actually host the content ourselves; so if there was a problem, it would go to YouTube or SoundCloud directly.

Part of it is that even if it was infringing content, rights holders understand what we’re doing. We’re doing something that YouTube and SoundCloud don’t do in a scalable way, which is putting a giant buy button next to that content and pass ads through that content. And we’re pushing people towards the paid streams for that content, whether it be Spotify, Deezer, etc.

Do you have any recommendation engines that you’re running on Bop through the hosted services? 

So we have recommendation in the app, you’ll see it in a few different ways. First, whenever you play a song on Bop through clicking a Facebook link or Twitter, when the song ends, recommended songs will start playing automatically. You’re effectively creating a radio station by playing any song on Bop. Secondly, on any song page, we’ll show you recommended songs, so you can navigate and see what else you might like. Finally, on our homepage, we have new songs and popular songs, and we’ll be expanding upon that to provide something tailored to your listening history.

How are you planning to grow your company and monetize your methodology for aggregating music? 

Today, monetization isn’t the core focus. Today the focus is the growth of the product, focusing on the best user experience possible, and exposing Bop to an ever-growing number of people. That said, we have a short-term business model in place, and a path toward a long-term one. So the short-term model is an affiliate model where we  drive subscriptions and upgrades to the music services and attract album sales to download stores, and getting a cut of the revenue that’s generated. So Rdio will payout about $5-$10 per user, per year for any newly referred subscriber. And then iTunes would give a standard 5-10% commission for a download.

In the long-term we’re a data play. We’ve already done 35 million song plays cumulatively since inception, and we’re doing over 100,000 song plays per day.  So that’s 35 million play points growing at 100,000 data points per day. We’re releasing data not only on what’s popular and trending, but what people like at the individual level. We’ll be able to utilize that data to market to them accordingly, make ads, or sell that data back to the labels to help them understand who their customers are.

Lately, because of the fact that we provide the ability to share simple, universal links, regardless of country device and music service, we’re getting a lot of artists and managers utilizing us for their social media efforts. For example when Maroon 5 drops a new track and wants to promote it to their fan base, what link do they use? Do they use iTunes? That won’t work for Android users, and iTunes isn’t always where a song is first available, plus it’s 2014 and people don’t download at the same rate with streaming picking up.

So by using a single Bop link, a song only available on SoundCloud will play through SoundCloud. If a YouTube link is available tomorrow, it’ll play from that, and start monetizing for the artist. And next when it’s on iTunes, the buy button lights up, and when it’s available on Spotify and Rdio, we’ll start defaulting to those services. All the while, the artist and manager don’t have to touch that link, while Bop picks the best monetizing source for the user to play from. Then we consolidate the analytics for streaming, watching, and buying into one place broken down by things like country, device, browser, and time of day. So we’ve already gotten Jason Mraz, Hot Chelle Ray, Switchfoot, The GRAMMYS, using this with test campaigns, and we’re seeing momentum from this feature.

Be sure to check out the beta version Bop.fm online, and sign up for free for tailored playlists and recommendations.

The post [Interview] Shehzad Daredia, CEO of Bop.fm appeared first on SoundCtrl.