The User

The User: Symphony No. 2 For Dot Matrix Printers

by Mark Sabbatini
February 20, 2005

Every now and then an album awes me with its artistry, even though I can't bear to listen to it in more than small doses. This might be the pinnacle of that group.

The title says it all. Two Canadians, Emmanuel Madan and Thomas McIntosh, composed Symphony No. 2 For Dot Matrix Printers"? on a dozen machines including two Epson LQ 1050s, a Citizen Swift and a Juki (whatever that is). The 12-part, 41-minute composition ranges from low-pitched ...

The User: Symphony #2 For Dot Matrix Printers

by Glenn Astarita
November 1, 2002

This Canadian aggregation’s previous effort had something to do with converting a Montreal grain silo into “an instrument of sound.” Hence, the band has purportedly qualified itself as a hi-tech entity. With this release, the artists have sampled the sounds of ancient dot-matrix printers via midi technologies, software engineering, sampling, and so forth. In addition, the press has announced that this venture will also be issued on 45 RPM 12” format in Europe only. Perhaps the gist behind this move ...

Pandora Just Shared User Stat No Streamer Ever Has

Source: HypeBot
February 23, 2018

As part of its quarterly report to investors yesterday, Pandora, shared a stat that no other music streamer has ever dared to share: the number of new paid subscribers not including current free trials. Competitors Spotify and Apple Music have a history of discounts and special promotions prior to announcing their user stats. Yesterday, Pandora reported a 63% increase in subscription revenue from 5.48 million subscribers. That's an increase of 25% year over year, but just 290,000 in the last ...
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Amazon Music Unlimited: Reverse Pricing And The Rise Of Zero User Interface [Mark Mulligan]

Source: HypeBot
October 14, 2016

Amazon launched Music Unlimited yesterday in a sector already dominated by Spotify, Apple Music and a handful of others. But there are some important differences. By Mark Mulligan of MIDiA Amazon’s announcement of its AYCE streaming service Amazon Music Unlimited should not come as a surprise to anyone whose been keeping even half an eye on the digital music market. Amazon are the sleeping giant / dark horse (select your preferred descriptive cliché) of digital music. With 60 million Prime ...
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Do Freemium Music Services Actually Offer Greater Revenue Per User Than Radio + Sales?

Source: HypeBot
June 12, 2016

Many in the music industry seem to long for a simpler time when free ad-supported radio was used as a mechanism for selling records, but was the revenue from that model that much greater than the freemium streaming which we see today?  Guest Post by David Touve on Rockonomic The purpose of this story is rather simple: First, let’s treat the music industry like a “freemium” music service with both paid and free components. And, using the data we gather, estimate the ...
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User Centric Licensing: Making Streaming Work For Everyone

Source: HypeBot
August 5, 2015

One of the greatest criticisms surrounding music streaming concerns the reduced income artists receive. This income, based on “airplay," is often miniscule and stretched over a lengthy period of time. Enter user centric licensing. Guest Post by Mark Mulligan on Music Industry Blog Artist income is one of the most pronounced growing pains of the streaming era.  While there are many contributory factors, such as transparency and non-distributable label payments, the most significant element by far is how much artists get paid.  There ...
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Average Spotify User Discovers 26 New Artists Every Month

Source: HypeBot
July 23, 2015

An official stat from Spotify buried in a press release announcing a partnership with SFX's Beatport and some basic math net a statistic that should make both independent artists and established record label executives smile. “Two billion times every month, our listeners discover an artist they’ve never heard of through a Spotify playlist" according to  Ken Parks, Chief Content Officer, Spotify. We already know that Spotify has 75 million users. Therefore, on average, a Spotify user discovers 26+ new artists every ...
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Is Apple Music Better Than Spotify Or Tidal? The User Experience Is Put To A Test

Source: HypeBot
July 15, 2015

This article offers a step-by-step breakdown of Apple Music's functionality, looking at its design, ease of use, and how the streaming service compares to its competitors like Spotify and Tidal. Guest Post by Jenny Cang on TryMyUI.com For music lovers around the world, Spotify has become the go-to for streaming and sharing music over the past few years. However, with its new music streaming service entering the ring last week, Apple has set out to challenge that market dominance. In April, we ...
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YouTube Playlists, The Other User Generated Content

Source: HypeBot
April 26, 2015

The mixtape has long been a part of music culture. Ever since the 8-track and the cassette, fans have spent countless hours compiling tracks into audible lists that vary from a simple top favorites to highly conceptual themes. So, what if you could track how many times your songs make it to a mixtape? Guest Post by Armando Crespo on The Daily Rind For some, mixtapes are creative outlets that can hold deep meaning. For others, they are simply a means to carry ...
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The User is the Story

Source: HypeBot
September 14, 2012

Guest post by Kyle Bylin of sidewinder.fm I have become convinced that one of the major voices missing from the conversation about the future of music is the user. We cite studies and various data points, but when it comes to talking about Spotify and Pandora, we concern ourselves only with the views of experts. This seems like an oversight to me, because experts, while frequently offering valuable insights into business models and competitive landscapes, don't typically get into what ...
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Raditaz: Location-Specific User-Created Radio Stations

Source: HypeBot
February 11, 2012

This week I spoke with Tom Brophy, Founder and CEO of Raditaz, a mobile and web-based radio service with a particularly interesting location-based aspect. Raditaz offers the option of creating your own station and listening to stations created by others along with some preprogrammed options. Given that streaming music and the radio metaphor have been explored quite a bit, I found the location elements of special interest.  Though, in all honesty, I have not been particularly drawn to location-based check-in ...
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Pandora Caught Transmitting Personal Info and User Location to Advertisers

Source: HypeBot
April 9, 2011

(Updated) After Pandora revealed in an IPO filing that it was subpoenaed by a grand jury investigating smartphone apps, the team at Veracode decided to do a little digging and found that both Pandora's Android and iPhone apps transmitted information about a user's age, gender, location, and unique identifiers for the phone to  advertisers.  Pandora gathers age and gender when a user register. As the number of apps grow, so will the information gathered. “In isolation some of this data ...
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