Blog: Elbows Music Blog News

As SoundCloud recently hit 5 million users , blogger's pleas for us to support the service grew too strong to ignore and we've added support for detecting embeds. The info will show up as a track under the post in the same way as a music file. There is a caveat: SoundCloud still doesn't support artist meta info. What does this mean to you? If the SoundCloud account doesn't belong to the artists, themselves, the "title" of the track should be Artist Name - Track Title. One space is required on either [...]

We often get questions about how to let elbows know when you've updated rather than waiting for the bot to crawl. While the bot should check your feed a few times per hour (for regular posters), it's always possible that we miss an update. How to add http://elbo.ws/ping/ to your 'Update Services' area: Movable Type - Log in to your account and go to the 'Configuration' section and click on 'Preferences'. Scroll down to the area where you can find: 'Publicity / Remote Interfaces / TrackBack'. Add [...]

It's been a long time coming (probably too long), but we've finally added support for Vimeo videos today. Whenever you embed a Vimeo video going forward, it will show up with your post the same way Youtube videos have: They will also count towards the Hot Video list. In fact, the Erykah Badu video in the example above is currently #3 on the Hot Video list .

I just wanted to post a quick note to say we've changed the way the bot will be crawling. If you're using either the manual or automatic pings, this will not affect you - we will still crawl these as they come in. Otherwise, here are a few things to take note of: Unapproved blogs get crawled at night. If you submit a new blog, you're going to have to wait at least a day for it to be approved ( but probably longer ). Crawling has been [...]

We are pleased to announce our first Wordpress plugin. By installing this plugin and adding a bit of code to your single page template, you have the ability to give your readers access to additional related posts from the Elbows archive. The latest version of the plugin will always be available here . Simply unzip it into your wp-content/plugins directory and activate via the admin panel. Once installed, you can edit your settings here  and add a bit of code to your wordpress theme (usually on your single post page): [...]

While Elbows can be an easy way to get all of your music news in one convenient location, some people may appreciate up to the minute tips, notes and news. For this, we turn to Twitter. This is, of course, not a complete list. If your favorite blog is not listed, check their site or search for them on Twitter. If you're a blogger and not listed, post in the comments and I'll try to update accordingly. http://puddlegum.net - @puddlegum http://www.eachnotesecure.com - @eachnotesecure [...]

Tomorrow is election day in the US and bloggers are urging people to find their local voting locations in order to cast their ballots. Here are some posts from around the music blogosphere: Vague Space's 50 Songs for 50 States Leading with five election-related tunes from the likes of Sufjan , Radiohead and Death Cab , Vague Space did their homework coming up with a song for each of the 50 states. [...]

My Old Kentucky Blog founder, Craig "Dodge" Lile, has launched a new site featuring exclusive performances from groups such as Dr Dog, The Spinto Band and Bon Iver. After recording audio from more than 80 performances at Pendleton Heights High School, Dodge and high school radio station general manager and teacher, Jeff DuPont, with the video expertise of Tim Wilsbach began recording both audio and video. A few weeks back, they started making it available via LaundroMatinee.com . It has a very personal feel to it and is definitely worth checking out. Their Bon Iver session can be seen here [...]

Over the past week, music bloggers using Google's Blogger.com have been complaining that their posts are being removed without their consent. While Blogger allows users to quickly toss up a site, seasoned writers often graduate to a more robust software package such WordPress. It seems as though this recent censorship is convincing more and more Blogger users to jump ship. This week, veteran music bloggers, Quick Before it Melts and The Music Slut have made the jump, not only to WordPress, but to their own domain names. (congrats to them) With Blogger [...]

Kanye West has been hogging the Elbows' Hot Artist chart since shortly after the MTV VMA's when tracks from his upcoming album, 808s & Heartbreak , started leaking like Valerie Plame's whereabouts. As much as we love us some Kanye, there's got to be more, right? The fact is, the entire list has stood somewhat stagnant with Radiohead and MGMT occupying their assumed positions in the top five. The new Oasis release,  Dig Out Your Soul , has secured them a top spot as did the Department of [...]

Welcome to the reincarnation of the Elbows Blog. This time, we're going to attempt to focus on what's happening in the music blog community with a little chatter about new features on Elbows mixed in. Our posts here will be at our discretion. If you wish to follow every word of the Music Blogosphere, see the Elbows main page here or visit the Elbows Music Blogger Community for discussions. We hope you enjoy and, as always, if you have tips or feedback, please message us at info@elbo.ws