Lifestreaming / Data Portability

Following on from my last post, here's a posting from The Financial Times today on lifestreaming There are shoutouts to Twitter and FriendFeed.

Following on from what Gerd Leonhard said at the Chinwag meet, this really opens questions up to who owns user generated data. Data portability seems to be a pretty hot topic write now. The best way to keep control of this at present seems to be control the data flow across a number of networks. It's just a shame Google's FriendConnect doesn't support Facebook's data.

Micro Media

This weekend I decided to pull my finger out and have another go at setting up my Friend Feed account. I initially tried this a couple of months ago but somehow my Twitter account got hacked in the process, and I had to start over.

So after having another bash today I synched my Last.FM, Twitter, and (newly opened) Flickr account. My new mobile phone is setup, so that as soon as I take a photo it gets published to Flickr. I've now got a feed comprising of all of these different sources coming through on my Facebook feed.

In turn, I've also synched my Twitter application on Facebook to integrate my Tweets as Facebook status updates.


All in all, I've now got my very own micro media channel, narrowcasting to around 500 people per day. Hell, at this rate I may even start taking advertising space, and make every tenth Tweet an advert for Reebok.

I decided to take these drastic steps after attending Chinwag's Micro Media debate in London last week. It was a bit pricey but there was complimentary finger good and a free bar, which did provide some sort of salvation. Read about it here (click)

How To Crack Hype Machine Part 2

I've been in Brighton for a few days at The Great Escape. I was hoping to upload an interview with Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine. However, my sound recorder died.

Anyway here's the spiel on how to crack Hype Machine.

This is ideally suited to artists within the "dance" genre.

1. Research the most blogged tracks on Hype Machine.
-Do this by click on the "Popular" tag, or ideally subscribing to the RSS feed directly. Some scant information on the most blogged artists is also featured on the front page.
Find a buzz track by a buzz band that hasn't been remixed yet.

2. Manipulate/remix the track by using music software like Garage Band.
-It doesn't matter if you have no musical ability whatsoever. Just play around. Supply and demand will ensure your remix gains traction through its scarcity.

3. Retitle your remix to make sure it has the name of you or the artist you are representing. Do this with the meta data too. This will help the track gain some "Google juice," and become more visible overall on search engines.

4. Use the Hype Machine to search for bloggers who posted the original version of the track.
-Email them directly with your new mix.

5. Sit back and wait for your "masterpiece" to race into the Hype Machine chart.



I tried this a couple of weeks ago with the "Nikolai Levey's Floating In Space Remix" of the new Coldplay song. Around three bloggers posted the track, it got a lot of comments and peaked in the Hype Machine chart at number 37.

It would have got a lot higher had it been any good but my friend John (who has no musical ability whatsoever) knocked it together in around three minutes. Props to my man over in NYC, David Rothblatt, for helping spread the word too.

This isn't rock science. I predict that in a very short period of time Hype Machine will be filled with a lot of unofficial remixes of varying quality.

How to crack Hype Machine

No time to write about this in depth right now so I will give a full account later.

I'm gonna show the world how to do what every music PR, marketeer and musician wants to do. How to crack the Hype Machine chart in 5 easy steps..

Online Stealth Marketing

This will be impossible to enforce. (click)

Advertising vs. Content: It's all getting a bit blurry

In the digital age, when everyone wants a free lunch it is inevitable that people are looking at advertising-supported business models to create revenue. In turn, it is common sense to assume that information we put out about ourselves online will result in more targetted advertising, and thus provide a better return on investment for the advertiser.

What is now hapenning is that the lines between advertising and content are increasingly becoming blurred.

Bacardi is in the process of signing up a number of artists to promote and market their music, but giving them full control over their recordings. Notable signings include Groove Armada and Beardyman. Read Cliff Jone's article about it in the Sunday Times here

In turn, Sir Martin Sorrell is pushing WPP to work more closely with television and movie production companies. click

In all likelihood all this is likely to cause outcry due to confusion over what is content and what is advertising. However, in a fast growing peer-production society this is one way for "professional" content producers to get one over on the "amateurs," and retain a competitive advantage.

The concept of "advertorial" isn't new at all. The term soap opera derived from an advertising campaign for washing powder presented in the form of a narrative. And this is what all advertisers aspire to do, to place their product in the context of their target audience's everyday life.

It's all about the narrative. If you want to win be a storyteller.

RIP The Shared Experience. Long Live The Shared Conversation.

One thing which the fragmentation of the media has done is kill the shared experience.

I'll cite the example of television. How often do you watch television with your entire family? Exactly.


Due to audience segmentation, watercooler moments in society still exist but they are in decline. The only time the viewing figures for television in the UK will hit 20 million plus is if there is a tragedy a la Princess Diana dying or a huge national sporting triumph like England reaching the world cup final.

Instead the notion of sharing continues to exist through conversations. This struck me today on Facebook with the number of friends updating their status updates with comments about the London mayoral elections. But what I just don't get is something like this would transfer so much better on Twitter, where it is possible to follow conversations with a common theme. One of the best applications for doing this is with Quotably That's just one to get you started with. As Twitter has opened up their API there are oodles of other amazing apps.


If you're watching next month's European Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United you can now have some friendly banter from your couch with
supportser of both your team and opposition.