Technology News

July 13, 1937: Gibson Plugs in the Electric Guitar

Source: All About Jazz
July 13, 2011

1937: Guy Hart, general manager of the Gibson guitar company, is awarded the first patent for an electric guitar pickup. The instrument that defines popular music in the second half of the 20th century is born.

Gibsons electric guitar wasnt the first to market, but its pickup design was superior to competing models especially after guitar-makers begin dropping them into their new, innovative designs over a decade later.

Guitarists have a reputation for coaxing as much volume as possible out ...

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Shoutomatic's Upgrades Include Great Tools for Music Marketing

Source: HypeBot
July 13, 2011

ShoutOmatic is a free audible status update service that allows you to create short messages or “shouts" that can be linked from Twitter, played on Facebook or heard on your ShoutOmatic page. In an interesting approach to monetization, ShoutOmatic offers celebrities the opportunity to sell shouts to individuals or brands. Though the celebrity accounts on ShoutOmatic look a bit underutilized, they have a high percentage of musicians involved and are continuing to develop new services of interest to musicians. The ...

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Fanbridge Launches New Fan-Targeting Technology

Source: HypeBot
July 12, 2011

Fan management and marketing platform FanBridge has just launched a new music centered fan-targeting platform called FanFinder Suite. Using the suite, musicians can connect with targeted fans that frequent highly trafficked social networks, music blogs, lifestyle sites, and other relevant destinations. The suite is comprised of two main offerings: FanFinder Interactive Ads - Ensures that only viewers who are likely to appreciate the content in each custom-built ad will ever see them. The interactive interface has the capacity to stream audio, ...

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Artistdata Founder Launches Musician Site Creator onesheet.com

Source: HypeBot
July 8, 2011

ArtistData founder Brenden Mulligan today launched Onesheet.com. Still in beta, the free site allows musicians to connect their existing social networks and services to create a basic but graphically interesting website including music, videos, photos, concert dates, social streams, mailing list signups and online stores. Details & A Onesheet Video Tour: Onesheet pulls info from sites that many musicians are already using including ArtistData, Bandcamp, BandsInTown, Bandzoogle, Facebook, FanBridge, NextBigSound, Posterous, ReverbNation, Songkick, Sonicbids, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, Wordpress, and ...

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Share Your Tour Stories with Intersect

Source: HypeBot
July 8, 2011

Intersect is yet another social network with some interesting distinctions that make it worth considering for documenting a tour or special musical event. You create entries which are marked by date and place. Entries can include one video and a group of photos. These entries are organized in both an individual timeline and map. Public entries are also included on combined timelines and maps which is one way entries are shared. Maps with timelines can then be embedded on other ...

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Bre.ad Offers Promotional URL Shortening

Source: HypeBot
July 7, 2011

If you follow all things Lady Gaga, you may have heard about her investment in social networking platform called the Backplane. It's a project spearheaded by her business manager Troy Carter who's also involved in url shortener Bre.ad that displays a 5 second “billboard" between clicking the link and going to the intended site. As with Visibli, another service that adds an additional dimension to url shorteners, Bre.ad has potential as a music marketing device. First, a video overview: What ...

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Twitter Changes Direct Message Rules. Now Easier for Bands to Tweet with Fans

Source: HypeBot
July 6, 2011

Twitter has changed its direct messaging policies for Verified Accounts of bands, brands and celebrities to allow them to receive Direct Messages without having to follow the sender. Twitter has not officially announced the feature or when it will rolled out to all verified users. Verified account users can disable the feature on Twitter.  But for those who can handle a rush of incoming messages, Twitter has just created a private fan to artists communication tool without having to first ...

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Artists and Social Networking: Is It About Me or We?

Source: HypeBot
July 6, 2011

Much has been written about the need for musicians to be “authentic“ when social networking. But little attention has been given to the Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr highway as a two way street. “When we lose sight of the 'we,' we lose site of the purpose we came together in the first place," writes Pam Moore in an essay on social network group dynamics. “Part of being 'we' is respecting the 'me.'“  “It's respecting we all have busy schedules. We have ...

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