Using Social Networks to Find the Best New Music

Using Social Networks to Find the Best New Music

by Christopher Benton

It is very easy to get music online. Legal or illegal, there are hundreds of means to download entire artist’s catalogs from the superobscure to the superstar. But with more decision comes indecision, and the question for the music fan becomes: what should I play?

Like the music industry itself, social networking has revolutionized the way in which consumers experience new music. Here’s some of the best social networks to discover your new favorite band.

MYSPACE MUSIC

In blogyears, Myspace Music is a dinosaur, but it is still one of the best sites for music lovers. Practically every artist has a Myspace page that allows fans to stream a couple songs, find out about tour dates, and even contact their favorite artists.

LAST FM

Like Pandora, but much more powerful, Last.fm allows users to build their own customizable radio station based on artist, song, or genre. Based on the characteristics of your radio station, the site will recommend other artists to you. Last.fm can even plug into your iTunes so you can play your library remotely. Access to iTunes also means that you can make friends with Last.fm profile and make recommendations to them, while Last.fm determines how “music compatible” you are based on similarities in taste. It’ll even tell you the last thing your friends have listened to.

RATE YOUR MUSIC

Rateyourmusic is a music critic’s social network, no credentials necessary. After you make a profile, you can rate millions of artist’s albums and even write your own review if you wish. This seemingly simple setup has many implications. From the rating system, RYM compiles lists, so you can easily search through the highest rated albums by year, artist, and genre, as constantly updated. The whole idea is very democratic and the best music gets pushed to the top. These are real music fans here, so anything in the yearly top 100 is always awesome and frequently on the fringes of mainstream. Users can also make their own lists, friend others, and recommend music to these friends.

DROWNED IN SOUND

Drowned in Sound is music criticism at its finest, or at least at it’s most Web 2.0. The British website posts reviews, features, and interviews like any other online reprint music publication but also contains a strong community component. For instance, users can post comments on any article or review, so listeners get in their own “two cents.” There is also a discussion board where readers can compose articles, look for band mates, sell equipments, host music forums, and debate the merits of staff-made articles.

HYPEMACHINE

Hypemachine is MP3 blog aggregator. Better than your RSS feed, Hypemachine is a constantly updating site that reposts streamable MP3s from all over the web. Hypemachine probably puts it best when they write: “To put it simply, the Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We handpick a set of kickass music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery. This way, your odds of stumbling into awesome music or awesome blogs are high.”

BLIP.FM

Twitter meets Last.fm with Blip. The whole service hinges on the question: “What song do you want to Blip?” With millions of songs in its catalog, you can type any song you want (be it a MP3 or its accompanying music video) and then push it online. You can either play the song you Blip or play any song someone else Blips. The site is basically a series of user song recommendations.

Captions for Future Photographs of Food Bank Stories

Food Faceoff: Dexter Adams, Director of the Physical Plant-Grounds Department at UGA, is faced with thousands of pounds of wasted food after football games. “It’s Saturday in Athens” hopes to take this food and distribute it to hungry citizens of Athens-Clarke County.

Winning Means More This Thanksgiving: Nicole Foo, member of the Student Government Association of UGA, is working with the Food Bank of Georgia to achieve UGA’s goal of raising 50,000 pounds of food for the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game.

Rivalry Brings Schools Together: In August of 2008, Taylor Burnham and Keegan Keel founded Conscious Alliance UGA hoping to feed hungry citizens of Athens-Clarke County. Conscious Alliance UGA is one organization contributing to the goal of raising 50,000 pounds of food for the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech.

Food Bank of NE Georgia: Zachary Burgess, kitchen supervisor for Our Daily Bread, works with Food Bank of Northeast Georgia to provide meals to hungry citizens. Burgess observed a change in the populace coming in and out of the kitchen; people are not necessarily homeless but hungry.

A Quick Guide to Social Media

Ali Rosenberger

Twitter: Users start by creating a free account by completing a profile, including uploading a picture. Users can even link their account to a cell phone, which allows the user to receive and send messages to and from others no matter where they are. An update that is sent to friends is called a “tweet." These tweets are limited to 140 characters, and are on the same level as Facebook’s “status updates”.

Facebook: Another free social networking site that allows users to keep in touch with people they know, or make “friends” by searching the database. Users can upload photos, information about themselves, join groups with other members, and even download applications and games. Facebook has also recently added Facebook Chat, which is an instant messaging service accessed through the site.

LinkedIn: Also free to join, LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Much like Facebook, LinkedIn allows users to keep in touch with old acquaintances, and also make useful business connections. Users create a profile based around their professional background with information like schools attended, previous employers, and current employment. It can then be used to find jobs, people, and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network. Employers can also list jobs and search for potential candidates.

SpiffBox: Another free-to-join social networking site, SpiffBox is the newest social networking site that actually “pays you to be social.” SpiffBox combines many different features of social networking and photo sharing sites, like email, friending, chat, updates and photo sharing. SpiffBox uses a points system as incentive for communication between members. Users can even earn real money by responding to emails, chats, friend invites and sharing photos.

Silver Alt Budget

KLPOLIALT
The story: What prominent politicians are on social media.
Format type (Q&A, bio, etc.): Q&A
Reporter/editor: Kristen Luca, Megan Niager
Text length: 261 words

MNTWITALT
The story: Finding a job using Twitter.
Format type (Q&A, bio, etc.): Glossary
Reporter/editor: Megan Niager, Kristen Luca
Text length: 257

ARSMALT
The Story: Quick guide to some of the popular social media sites; what they are and how to use them
Format Type: Glossary
Reporter/Editor: Ali Rosenberger/Chris Benton
Text Length: Between 200-300

USNTFBNM
The Story: Pictorial guide explaining how to use social networks to discover new music.
Format Type: Picture essay
Reporter/Editor: Christopher Benton/Ali Rosenberger
Text Length: 600 words

The Life and Times of Auto-Tune (rough)

1990: Dr. Harold Hildegard founds Jupiter Systems, eventually Antares Audio Technologies

1997: Antares introduces Auto-Tune, a pitch-correcting software program

1998:
-Cher releases her hit song “Believe," which uses Auto-Tune to construct its distinctive bridge

-The song’s producers claim the Auto-tune effects are actually a vocoder, trying to protect a trade secret

2000: Gigi D’Agostino releases the Auto-Tuned “La Pasion,” which becomes number 1 in Belgium

2001: Janet Jackson releases the Auto-Tuned “All For You,” remaining on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks

2004: T-Pain rises to fame with his Auto-Tune-based “Hard & B” style, which takes on imitators

2008: T-Pain claims a right to royalties from any artist using Auto-Tune

2009:
-Death Cab for Cutie protests the widespread use of Auto-Tune at the 51st Grammy Awards with blue ribbons

-Jay-Z releases “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”

MNTWITALT

The Twitterverse:

Twitter? What the heck is that? Twitter lingo has become a second language to thousands of teens, adults, celebrities, businesses and beyond. Here’s the breakdown:

Tweet: A tweet is a post or status update on Twitter, a microblogging service. Because Twitter only allows messages of 140 characters or less, "tweet" is as much a play on the size of the message as it is on the audible similarity to Twitter.

At Reply: A direct message donated with @ before a specific user name that is sent only to the Tweeter that was mentioned.

Direct Message: DM is used to send a private message to someone that the rest of the Twitterverse cannot see.

TwitPic: A Web site for users to post pictures to the Twitter service via tweet by uploading pics from mobile devices onto the site. Primarily used to capture moments as they are taking place in real-time.

Blog: A blog is a form of online writing, picture-taking, journaling, etc. for people to implement as a means of expressing thoughts, ideas, job opening, whatever! While a blog is not exclusive to Twitter, many users will add links to blogs as a means of sharing and distributing information to followers.

So that’s it! There are hundreds of other definitions within the social media world but these are a few you will hear the most of within this article and when first starting out with Twitter. If you don’t have a Twitter account already, jump on the Twitter bandwagon and go set one up at twitter.com!

Elephants

Did You Know…

• Elephants are the largest living land mammal.
  
• They are characterized by their long trunks, thick, round legs, and large heads with big, flat ears.
  
• An elephant’s trunk is a combination of the animal’s upper lip and nose (the nostrils are found in the tip). The trunk weighs about 290 pounds in adult males and can lift about 250 kg.
  
• The trunk is essential for daily functions such as breathing, eating and drinking.
  
• Elephant tusks are made of ivory and are considered enlarged incisor teeth. Tusks protect the trunk and are also used for activities like defense, digging, lifting objects and collecting food.
  
• Elephants’ colors vary from gray to brown. They have coarse and sparse hair covering their bodies.
  
• Elephants are most likely to be found in savannas, grasslands and forests.

Edited by Katie Weise