I’ve been brewing some ideas on how to better improve the social media world.
Using Last.fm for shopping, band sites, and pausing music , all sound like good applications for what I consider to be my favorite social-media site, and well as one of the largest, most popular, and most diverse sites on the web. Seriously, I’ve spoken very highly of Last.fm for a long time now, and have *personally logged over one hundred thousand plays. But when I look at how many different applications utilize the Twitter API, it makes me realize how grossly underused the Last.fm API is.
* (Check me out here, and don’t be afraid to throw a friend request my way)
One for instance I would find particularly awesome, would be the use of more websites like Amazon or Ebay to access a user’s last.fm charts to show more relevant searches and recommendations. I figure, web ads are already starting to tailor their content to user-specific parameters, so why stop there? Hot Topic’s website -for instance- gives a large dropdown menu displaying the various band apparel available for purchase, but it seems like typing in my Last.fm username would provide a much more efficient and custom shopping experience, all free to the vendor to use.
But why stop there? because Last.fm has also updated their servers to show if you’re listening to a track right now. That means that there is a free, relativity easy to use way to find out if a person is listening to music: which would be wonderfully applied to sites with audio or video, and could be turned on or off conditionally. I mean, few things piss me off more than a band’s Myspace playing music over my music, or trying to find the one tab I opened with the stupid video ad.
It all seems like a complete waste for vendors to ignore the fact the the community of last.fm is doing their work for them, by labeling trends and groups of charts with data tags. If I were to get on a site, they could look at my top ten artists: to which a simple algorithm can determine the predominate genre I listen to is metal. From there, they now know what music I most commonly listen to: which can tell a lot about a person. My recommendations can now be more relevant based on a multitude of information about the artists I like. Where they’re from, how old they are, what genres they fall into, how often I’m listening to music: it’s all there for the taking. Especially what events I’m attending, a list that I keep updated.
Exclusive Tour Content – now everyone knows that these days things are digital. Music fans no longer keep a shelf full of LPs, but instead an external full of FLACs. So now more than ever, people are starting to customize their own playlists and mix their own tracks. Which means even the music industry, which seems to be perpetually ten years behind has to realize that by now, a tracklist is unimportant: everything’s got its own playlist. So if you’re like me, you do keep a lot of playlists around, for different moods and for when you’re jogging: things like that.
My thoughts are, the artists should embrace this way of listening to music, by releasing filler content through their website. If you’ve seen a band live, then you know how much “Hello Cincinnati, we fucking love you guys” kind of stuff goes on. So why not record those small audience interactions, and put ‘em on the web for people to use in a playlist? I would love having a copy of Randy Blythe saying “you might’ve heard this song played by a bunch of HACK musicians on a video game” before introducing Laid to Rest. That would be SO awesome and easy to do. For people who saw that show live, it takes on a whole new level being able to create the playlist of the show you were at: or give people who missed it a chance to hear the in-between stuff.
For the Zune Social not to suck, would be also be super nice. If you haven’t already been, take a look around, and just wallow in its horrible, horrible lack of application with the data it collects. It requires the downloading of Silverlight, which I’ve never fucking heard of, and offers little other than reaffirmation that yes, that person exists.
What bothers me most, is that the data on Zune’s social goes nowhere. I mean, Zune is already the laughingstock of the mp3 world: so don’t invite even more embarrassment by trying to set your brand up as being ultra-urban, when you have the least compatible site I’ve seen in a long, long time. You’re given the chance to make a profile: which is worthless unless you download the Zune software, which is again worthless, unless you have a Zune.
On top of that, your profile has the option to display a “status” which seems like an easy port to bring in Twitter: and custom information on each artists, including mis-labeled album information, and out-of-date tour information. On top of that, most areas aren’t public run, which means you’re at the mercy of Microsoft to make sure your favorite artists have information.
A sad, sad world we live in, when a multi-billion dollar company can’t label music correctly.
Alright people, hop-to, these ideas aren’t going to materialize into usable programs by themselves.
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Tags: content, Last.fm, music, Social Media, Twitter, Zune, Zune Social
Cincinnati Sites
The way I see it, you have to follow to get followed. Like twitter has taught me, be engaging, and be diverse: and you’ll find yourself in among friends. In fact, Twitter has taught me if you’re diverse, engaging, and just a tad bit humorous, you can find yourself in a bar in Chicago on a Saturday night chatting up old M*A*S*H* episodes with the Twitterverse elite.
I’m pretty sure I’ve already done this, and I know for a fact I’ve done this with podcasts, but I’d like to share a small few blogs (that all happen to deal with Porkopolis) that I subscribe to, for one reason or another. If not to only share great content, but to return the love these sites have shown me.
Yo, cut it.
Cincinnati Re-Adventure
This is where I start my list: with a blog created by my sister, and her boyfriend to reignite their love for the city of Cincinnati, by visiting the places they never knew where there. They do some awesome posts about all kinds of events, like quest to find all of the flying pigs, review local food, and keep you informed on some of the major political and social events of the season. Plus with regular trips to comic book stores, music venues and museums, they have everything you need to be awesome. And of course, feedback is always appreciated.
Cincy Streetcar Blog
A progressive blog about one of Cincinnati’s biggest hot-button issues right now. The blog is pretty straight forward, and cuts through the bullshit and bureaucracy surrounding things like issue nine, and funding for transportation projects.
(which, you should vote no on)
CAAST
Another forward-thinking, Cincinnati based, no-on-nine blog dedicated to tackling the stupid ideas that threaten Greater Cincinnati by dispelling myths, calling people out on their words, and bringing to light some great content about what goes on in the Queen city. Very political.
One Man Crime Wave
I am totally gay for the guys over at OMCW, ever since I found them on Twitter. They were super nice, very engaging, and really know their stuff about football. Always a step ahead of other Bengals sites, they cover what’s most important: sprinkling on a wealth of statistics, insight, and humor. A total must-read for anyone interested in the orange and black, and a follow you won’t regret.
Ken Broo (with the Broo View)
Not only is there a high amount of Broo puns available (Brooniverse, Broony-Toons, Broost Mobile) this guy serves up local sports news as an anchor for Channel Five. But on top of his news coverage, he delivers a damn fine podcast dedicated to Bengals coverage, regularly dissects college football, and hosts weekly interviews of top sports names. You just can’t go wrong with Ken Broo. (Who, even left a comment on my blog when I mentioned him last time. What an awesome guy.)
Bonus: Mountain Broo, Hawaiian Brooau, Broo-Broo-Broodio, and Oklahoma Brooners
Also, I wanted to make a quick mention of Happn In Cincinnati which delivers local trending topics via Twitter, which is a great way to see what’s popular in the city. And if you’re a fan of local music, vote for your favorite bands. (like Freekbass and Bad Veins) So that’s just a few, and as always, I’d love to hear what everyone’s favorite blogs are: Cincinnati or not.
And maybe Ken Broo will leave us a few links.
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Tags: Bengals, CAAST, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati Re-Adventure, Cincy Streetcar Blog, issue 9, Ken Broo, OneManCrimeWave
