The “Questions Answered” Photo Gallery: Take Two
My good friend Taylor (amazing photographer, startup junkie, and BarsForUs star) is launching a new community-generated content photography project called "Questions, Answered".
It’s sort of a cross between a Magic 8-ball and Flickr. YOU submit a question, and he answers it with both words (sort of like that ephemeral buddhist monk residing on a mountain top) and photos (National Geographic can’t hold a candle to Taylor’s portfolio).
Check it out, submit a question. He adds:
[There will be] a little voting, a little participation, some exclusive content for people that submit questions, and a web and print combination. More on all this later. For right now, just focus on the questions.
Nuff said. Enjoy.
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Jumping On the Twitter Bandwagon
Are you on Twitter? So am I. Let’s connect so we can follow each other’s each and every move, 24/7:
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VH1 I Want to Work for Diddy = Hip Hop Apprentice
So, I’m watching a teaser for VH1’s I Want to Work for Diddy, where a cast of random "can do" "A" personality type folks will compete to be used and abused by the media mogul himself. It’s sort of like a "Hip Hop Apprentice".
Apparently, the reality show formula has worked wonders for his label, Bad Boy Records, especially for the launch of Danity Kane, Day 26, and Donnie J. The new show will give him the opportunity to pack in tons of product placement opportunities for his other brands and those of partners’…much like Trump did.
We here in the blogosphere accomplish some amazing things on shoe string budgets while leveraging web 2.0 goodness. But you still can’t underestimate the power of smart marketing and several gazillion dollars…
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New RSS Feed - Please Grab It!
I’m getting really close to launching the new Wordpress-powered GarageSpin.com, and one of the changes will be a switch to a Feedburner RSS feed.
We’re doing what we can to redirect existing feeds, however, the process isn’t full proof. I’d hate to lose you! If you have some time, please subscribe to my new RSS feed:
Thanks! I’m looking forward to taking a slightly different approach with this blog once the new site is launched. Hopefully, it’ll become more of a ‘resource’ going forward… More soon. Cheers!
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Take a Peak — the new WP-Powered GarageSpin
I can’t wait to launch the brand new, Web 2.0 saturated, Wordpress-powered GarageSpin.com. I’ve learned more than I ever intended to about RSS feed redirection, wireless router firewalls, PNG image transparency issues with Internet Exlporer 6, javascript naughtiness, and all sorts of other obstacles. But the new site is looking good, so it’s all worth it.
To the right is a small snapshot taken of the site (originally to illustrate PNG image rendering issues I was facing in IE6), which gives you a feel for the new color scheme. Basically "brown", apparently. Woo-hoo.
The new site will be using about 10 -15 plugins already being used in other WP sites I own, plus a bunchthat are new to me, including MyBlogLog, ShareThis, Relish Comments, Sphere, and more. Hopefully, nothing will expode.
Huge thanks go to Scott, Taylor, Ryan, Eric, and Tara for both moral and technical support. (Especially on Saturday, when I thought the world was falling. Long story short, unbeknowest to me, my router’s fire wall suddenly started blocking all access to my web hosting account. Yeesh.) Everything is more easily surmountable with friends around.
Oh, and my next song is 98% finished; it’s been on standby until this puppy is finished. …Actually, I’ve not yet decided whether to launch the site, then the song, or both simultaneously…
What do you think? Let both loose into the world simultaneously, or do more of a one-two punch?
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Audio Tutorials: Read ‘Em & Write ‘Em
The same gang of creative folks that created all the Rockstar sites, such as PSDTuts, a Photoshop tutorial site, and Audio Jungle, an audio loop and sound effect ecommerce site, has launched the new audio tutorial site, AudioTuts.
It only launched in June, but there are already a few cool tutorials such as "Create a Reverse Reverb Effect", which is one I’ve actually wondered about in the past. Check it out.
Btw, you can also submit a tutorial of your own and score $150 (assuming it’s accepted). Rockstar Sites apparently has a model that’s working for them — pay the massive public to create great content, do some PR, and sell advertising to monetize the incoming traffic. Commercialized crowdsourcing….well, not really, since it’s selective. Not too shabby. I can’t complain about commercialism as long as the content is solid, and so far, it’s off to a good start. 
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From Movable Type to Wordpress..?
So, I’ve been thinking about switching GarageSpin from Movable Type to the latest version of Wordpress for a long time. Mostly for the amazing plugin support WP has, and because of the many, many, many free WP templates/themes that have populated the ‘net.
The biggest challenges (to me, anyway), are moving all my content, posts, pages, images, links, feeds, etc over to the new platform without breaking anything. But Scott Andrew and Taylor Davidson seem to think that’s the easy part. I’ll also need to either pick a free theme, or have one custom built. Of course, that requires a wallet with actual money in it, so hm. But something are some amazing designers out there that I know could knock my socks off. We’ll see.
I’ve already launched several microsites using WP, and am pretty happy with it. (One actually made over $1000 over a couple months…crazy!) It’s the whole I-don’t-want-to-break-GarageSpin that scares me.
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Another Band Name Poll, Yeesh…
I stink. It’s amazing I get anything accomplished (oh wait, I don’t — I’ve only finished recording one song so far) with the degree of indecisiveness I’m plagued with. I’ve posted a new band name brainstorm poll — does anything appeal to you?
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WellMixed Masters ProTools and GarageBand Projects
Isn’t it awesome to be part of digital audio world where home recordnig is a reality? As a musician or band, it’s fantastic. It can also be great for audio pros with good ideas that can adapt to the new recording landscape.
WellMixed is a company on the verge of launching an internet-based mastering service catering to bands with GarageSpin (or ProTools) song projects looking to achieve a professional sound for their music. Not a bad idea considering the huge number of Mac users that have GarageBand, but not much else. (A Cakewalk user, for example, is probably more invested in the equipment, etc., but GarageBand is included free on Macs.) But…not that I’m one to talk..but hopefully they’ll whip together a better logo…
I’m sure this is only the beginning…keep an eye out for more. (Thanks, Taylor)
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Songza - Music Search Engine & Band Self Promotion
Dude, Songza is great. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should. It’s basically a very clean, a very easy-to-use "Google-meets-jukebox". Search for any band or song, listen, get recommendations, etc.
For kicks, I even tried my own interim band name, DreamSpin, and my song "Spinning Daydream" showed up. How? I’m not sure, but i’m assuming they’re somehow cataloging all bands that have some kind of social network presence. Whatever their method, it’s clearly very deep if they’ve even indexed bands with only one song in the market..!
But here’s the latest brilliance: Songza has launched a Band Self-Promotion Beta Program where bands can promote their own music by having it featured in the "Recommended" section of Songza’s search engine results. Though it’s in beta now, Songza is opening doors to do what Google already does — charge bands (i.e. advertisers) to target relevant audiences by making their music appear when related music is searched for.
It might work like this — you (the band/label) create an account with Songza. Your band sounds like Coldplay and Keane. So, you bid some amount per click/display/play/purchase/share, perhaps $0.01/$0.10/whatever, to have your song recommended when someone searches for a Coldplay song. It’s good for bands/labels, ’cause it’s a relevant, targeted audience.
Google makes 90%+ of its revenue from search engine advertising. Songza could move towards that model, and could eventually launch an advertising platform similar to Google’s Adsense program, which enables ads to appear on other websites via contextually-driven widgets. Perhaps we’ll see them on Last.fm, Jigg.com, Hype Machine, or GarageSpin some day.
Definitely keep an eye on Songza, it may be one of the few online music startups that has a viable business model in the works. AND, it could become a great channel through which to promote your music. Be sure to sign up for the beta and try it out.
(Thanks, Taylor)
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