General - Elbows Music Blog Community

Impact of Hypem Redesign: Data Analysis

jason@indieshuffle — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:10:10 -0400

Howdy y'all,

I thought I'd share a bit of analysis on the impact of the Hypem design around new year on my traffic. Couple interesting points -- would love to hear how yours compare!

Hypem's notable changes: combined tracks, removed "view original post" and replaced it with "posted x hours ago"

Pageviews per visit:
-- Before = 2.14
-- After = 1.88

Bounce rate:
-- Before = 52%
-- After = 72%

Visits: tricky, but I think I've had similar #s of tracks in Top 20
-- Before =
     July 2010 = 41k
     August 2010 = 44k
     November 2010 = 45k
-- After =
     January 2011 = 31k (-31%)
     March 2011 = 31k
     April 2011 = 35k

Pretty interesting! Assuming their traffic continues to grow, the result seems to be in favor of Hypem: I'd imagine their users are looking less at the posts on original blogs, instead quickly returning to Hypem after they download a track. Further, I'd be curious to see whether Hypem's outbound traffic has decreased given that it's now less obvious for a user to realize where to click to view the original blog post.

New Design for RTV: What do you think?

Jess@RemixTheVideo — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:08:01 -0400

Hey everyone,

We at RemixTheVideo just rolled out a new design and I was wondering what you guys (and gals) think of it. What do you like about? What do you dislike about? Is there any particular aspect of the site I should improve?

We went with a more minimalist design since the old site would take FOREVER to load. I also made an effort to maximize sharing via social media with each post (facebook comments, links to reddit, stumbleupon and tumblr). Overall, I think it is a huge step forward for RemixTheVideo and really excited to hear feedback from our readers regarding it. We are doing the "official" announcement tomorrow.

http://www.remixthevideo.com/

- Jess

Apps

apocketfullofseeds — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:46:12 -0400

So I got sucked in by Apple and now have an iPad. I was gonna do a little thread on how useful it is for a blogger but until then what killer apps are people using these days?

Im hooked on Flipboard and theres also Soundcloud, analytics etc. Any others worth adding to the arsenal?

M

Google Music

squashed — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:54:31 -0400

Anybody tried it yet? It promised automagic playlist generation....hmmmm.....I can finally stop blogging. (It better be not sucking Google. I am creating clean new Google account.)

Google also detailed its new product, http://music.google.com/music/listen Music Beta .

There’s no release date for Ice Cream Sandwich, which promises to work on all Android devices,
ending the OS split between tablets and smartphones. The update will
bring some features of Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb, such as the user
interface and multitasking features, to smartphones.

According to the Android Developers Blog,
a tweak to Honeycomb adds several user and developer features. The next
tweak adds features such as: support for USB devices, support for mice
and joysticks, integration with some musical and exercise equipment,
increased file management on external cameras and more development
options for VoIP and audio streaming.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/google-io-android-31-ice-cream-sandwich-music-beta/2011/05/10/AFXJ2FjG_blog.html

Metrojolt is thowing a party!

BenMetrojolt — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:53:10 -0400

Hey Everyone,

So several of the writers on Metrojolt and also DJs (go figure). We are throwing a House only music night at Rickshaw Stop in SF.

I'd LOVE for some fellow bloggers to promote and/or come to the event. Intersted? Email me at ben@metrojolt.com

What: "Club Metrojolt" (House music all night long)
When: June 13th from 9pm-2am. Doors open at 8pm.
Where: Downtown San Francisco at the Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell Street).
Flyer: www.metrojolt.com/flyer
Tickets: www.metrojolt.com/tickets
RSVP on Facebook: www.metrojolt.com/rsvp

8tracks

apocketfullofseeds — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:56:16 -0400

Is anyone using 8tracks as a blog/blogger?

I just started an account for the Monday Mixer but I think I might start posting mixes every so often of what we have been posting or anything really.

How to stop hotlinking?! HELP

LuisPMA — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:04:02 -0400

Hey guys

I know that some of you have figured out a way to stop hotlinking of your .mp3 files. I need to do that! One file in particular is being hotlinked the fuck out -- an average of 15GIGABYTES A DAY. Needless to say, I need this to stop asap!

I know that its some sort of mod rewrite on the .htaccess file. But I run wordpress on my server. Unfortunately I suck at .htaccess files, so any tips would be GREAT!

I don't use cPanel (I'm hosted at mediatemple.net if that helps any?); I think cPanel has a one-two-click feature to stop hotlinking -- I cant find ANY hotlinking articles on MediaTemple's support files. So I'm stuck with the old fashioned way.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Nadia...

Give Quiche A Chance — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:15:45 -0400

This dropped in my inbox today (and yes its legit!) ... i may have chuckled... just a bit ;)

Thoughts??? Personally my favourite line is "the girls they call me london.... cus i am based in london" - inspiring.

Have you ever been blocked from following someone on Twitter?

Jess@RemixTheVideo — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:54:55 -0400

Just found I was blocked by someone and I don't know why... I don't remember tweeting the person.. ever. I feel.. well.. I don't know what to think.

Give me some support here. :(

COCOBASS FREE RELEASES

flyback — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:16:13 -0400

Hey, you can download now the last ep from Jairomendez (Venezuela) here:

Jairomendez - Puñalada Dance

http://www.archive.org/download/JAIROMENDEZ-PUNALADADANCE/Cbr007Jairomendez-PuadaDance.zip

more info: http://cocobass.tk

cocobassrecs@gmail.com

thanks,

fly.

Best adverstising?

BenMetrojolt — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:14:46 -0400

Hey all,

I know-I know, advertising is a heartless greedy thing to do (so save me from the negative responses, and just click backspace), but as a student funds are tight. I didn't start my website as a money making venture, but if it can pay its own fees, I'd be happy.

I have been using MOG to advertise (set $.50 min on CPM) but the fill rate is super low. Only get paid for about 150-300 (that's 75-150 pageviews with 2 adspaces) impressions daily. To compensate for the very low level of fill due to MOG I opened a google adsense account and have my MOG set to redirect whenever there isn't an add to display. Since then, my MOG revenues have basically cut in half. That should be coincidental, but it's peculiar non the less. Also the Google Adsense CMP is so low I basically earn nothings from that.

I know there are a lot of blogs out there with MUCH higher viewing rates than me, but I feel like a blog that gets around 1,000 pageviews a day (according to Sitemeter and Google Analytics), with two ad spaces, I should be getting paid more than 50 cents a day (and it looks like that has even dropped off).

Is there a trick I am missing? Should I use a different company? Or am I just F'ed because in the scheme of things my blogs is (monetarily) worthless?

Dailymail.co.uk is Bitching and Moaning for Big Labels

squashed — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:54:17 -0400

OMG people, the dinosaurs sure are making a lot of noise before going down in bad economy. They are trying to defend EMI (aka.Citibank record aka.been bailed out by public money outfit)

My quickie:
1. why are they crying about a business based on dead media? vinyl album. as if it's the pinnacle of civilization. (It's dead bo' move on. get 24bit digital player already.)
2. Defending WMG? Really? the bastard should close up shop right after EMI.
3. their music sucks ass. Plenty of UK Indie labels offer better music
4. Who the fuck is Adele? (UK, are you guys about to bestow the world with another train wreck? Is this a revenge for Beiber and Timberlake? I thought we are even because of the spice girls.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375093/Google-threatens-destroy-pop-sensation-Adele-Britains-film-music-industries.html

The music and books retailer HMV and the music giant EMI are two of
the grand old dames of Britain’s music industry. But the future of both
these historic enterprises, with a pedigree of recording talent going
back almost a century, is in doubt.

Together with other UK-based
creative champions such as Warner Music as well as a host of
imaginative, independent record producers, they are in danger of
extinction — as is this country’s extraordinarily successful music
business.

From Dame Vera Lynn to Tom Jones and The Beatles,
Britain has long had the knack of producing music superstars capable of
conquering the world. Indeed, we are still the world’s second- largest
exporters of music.

------

Artists like Adele, together with ground-breaking television production
and gaming companies, have made the creative industries an important and
growing sector of the British economy, accounting for seven per cent of
total national wealth.

-------

This would allow for genuine price competition on the web rather than
an unfair war between the pirates and the legitimate outlets.

None
of this might be enough to save HMV, or for that matter EMI or Warner
Music. The latter two big record producers, the bedrock of British rock
and classical recordings, are currently owned by the big banks after
their private equity owners failed to make loan repayments.

(What no mention of Apple? Maybe Google should drop EMI & WMG from their next web store. ahahahaaa..... please of please....)

Best Author Pages

jason@indieshuffle — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:57:54 -0400

So, I'm looking to revamp the way we credit our authors. There are two ways to do this:
1) An authors page that lists all of them out, with their posts
2) An author box within the actual post, with an about the author

I will likely use both of these options, but was wondering -- what are some of the best examples/implementations you've seen?

Bloggers Unite! (MoveOn petition to preserve Net Neutrality)

wendy williams — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:14:54 -0400

Hiya folks, just wanted to let you know about some political/lobbying by large telecom companies that threatens not only the blogosphere, but the internet as we know it... I am including some information below for those who are interested.

Basically, the issue boils down to this: Large telecom companies are trying to turn internet use into a revenue stream for themselves by limiting access to bandwidth to those who pay...think "cable company" and you will get my drift. In any event, to familiarize yourself with this topic, I have included some links below, so you can find out more about the subject without my listing it all here.

If anyone is interested in contacting their congress person, don't do it by email, take the time to make a quick call, as that is much more meaningful to them. They are considering the Markey amendment this week.

-w

Info from MoveOn:

You can help protect Internet freedom by taking 3 actions in the blogosphere today. Sign up here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?t=5

Your Representative will vote on a key Internet freedom bill this week in committeeâ€”and they should support the "Markey Amendment" protecting Net Neutrality.

Here are the 3 actions you can take to draw attention to this issue, all located through the link above:

1) Pur our handy "Save The Internet" coalition logo on your blog.

2) Join our SavetheInternet.com blogger teamâ€”get breaking news and/or sign our coalition blogroll.

3) Post on your blog today about this issueâ€”letting people know about this week's vote and urging them to sign MoveOn's petition and call Congress. Background facts and lots of fun links are located on our blogger sign-up page. Please include a link to our petitionâ€”everyone who signs will get updates on what they can do to keep the heat on Congress.

Can you sign up to take these 3 steps on the blogosphere today?

http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/?t=4

Included in this link is a comment box where you can share your ideas on how thousands of MoveOn blog owners and blog users can work together to maximize our effectiveness in the blogosphere. Your advice will truly be the first draft of MoveOn blogosphere history.

Thanks for all you do, and for sharing your advice on how we can maximize this exciting new blogger project.

Exerpt box locked shut in wordpress

BenMetrojolt — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:13:39 -0400

Hey all,

Interesting issue here: I'm not sure when it arose because I have never utilized the excerpt box before. Now that I am planning on creating hand crafted experts, I need to use the box, but it is locked shut. A few Google searches later... and nothing.

Any idea how to get the expert box to open up?

How to leave GoDaddy

Sean R — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:42:45 -0400

http://www.good.is/post/how-to-leave-godaddy-com/

This week, GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons caused a stir by posting a video of himself killing an elephant in Zimbabwe. Previously, Parsons had upset feminists with his ultra-sexist advertising. It seems like perhaps Parsons and his company aren't necessarily the type of people with whom we'd like to do business, which is why GOOD has decided to pull all of its sites from GoDaddy.com. If you'd like to join us and let Parsons know you don't give money to colonialist misogynists, follow these 10 simple steps.

I've decided to go this route as well. I've had issues with GoDaddy in the past and certainly no company is perfect, but Parsons really seems to go out of his way to be a huge asshole.

Hypem taking FOREVER to pick up my posts

LOOSELIPSmik — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:40:37 -0400

I know there was a discussion on this before, but the search on this new forum is pretty hard to navigate, and is only showing me options from the past few months... *coughcmonbrandoncough* so I'm asking again. Sorry.

Hypem has been taking ages to pick up my posts the past week or so. I'm used to it taking at least an hour and a half (that's more or less my average time), but now it's taking upwards of 5 hours. Additionally, before, when they got picked up with a delay, at least when they showed up on the site they had the correct post time (for example, if it showed up on Hypem an hour and a half after I posted it, it would still say 'posted 84 minutes ago' when it finally showed up). Now, when it's showing up 4 hours late, it's saying that I only posted it a few minutes before.

Is anyone else having this problem?

If not, is there something I can do (some embed or something) that can help this? Pinging, or whatever it is? (So bad at this internet lingo...)

Thanks cool cats.

Thom Yorke, Four Tet, and Burial. (This is crazy)

squashed — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:11:05 -0400

London what have you done?

Just because I keep mixing these artists together in a list and yelling how much I wish they collaborate, doesn't mean you actually do it.
Cause now what am I suppose to do with my wild wishes. The one I want the most actually happens...

Ok. so anybody actually know what's the story with this crazy electro IDM voice collab? I am googling right now but not much out there.

(and I like to claim that whispery trip hop is my type of mix and nobody has imagine it before....hah. okay. maybe not. enjoying all this immensely )

-----------------------

http://pitchfork.com/news/41892-hear-one-of-the-thom-yorkefour-tetburial-collaborations/

As we reported this morning, three titans of experimental music have teamed up for a new 12" single. Thom Yorke, Four Tet, and Burial collaborated on the new tracks "Ego" and "Mirror" for a release on Four Tet's Text imprint. Four Tet played the songs earlier this afternoon on the UK radio station Rinse FM during his session with Floating Points, and of course it didn't take long for the A-side, "Ego", to hit the Internet. Listen to radio rips of the track above. UPDATE: "Mirror" has hit the Internet as well; you can check that track out as well.

Hypem is owned by Buzz Media? W00t?

squashed — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:54:05 -0400

Hey wait a minute. Is all blogs owned by Buzz media now? (or everybody in Brooklyn that is)

I just hope HuffingtonPost won't eat BuzzMedia too... LOL.

http://www.buzz-media.com/properties/

SXSW 2011?

kobestarr — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:04:47 -0400

I dunno - is this WAY TOO early?

Im hoping to go next year for the first time ever and will be travelling from UK so looking at flights now to keep costs down! The festival is on 12th to 21st March next year with the music side of things being 16th - 20th.

Any of you guys - especially those travelling from the UK - have any definate do's and donts?

Is it worth going and will you be going again?
Should i plan to be there for the whole week?
how many times does each band play?
should we book accomodation now?
how much does the festival cost?
What is press pass availability like?

all these questions and more!!

K*

UMG owes Eminem a lot of money

squashed — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:12:25 -0400

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review
an earlier ruling that found that producers of rapper Eminem's early recordings
were owed a greater share of royalties from digital sales of his songs and
ringtones. The case centered on whether a digital song should be considered a
physical product, like a CD, or treated as a "license" to a
third-party distributor like the iTunes Store.

Under their original deal with
Universal Music Group's Aftermath Records, FBT Productions and Em2M had been receiving 12%-20% of digital
sales, the same cut as they did from sales of CDs -- but argued they were actually due a 50-50 split, since the
songs in question were being "licensed" to the iTunes Store.

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2011/03/21/scotus-declines-eminem-royalties-case-may-affect-older-deals

uh oh, everybody now is looking at their contract and see how much iTune is selling. This gonna hurt major labels a lot. Good.

Epitonic's original site is back temporarily — with all the mp3s in place!

buzzgrinder — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:04:46 -0400

don't know if any of you folks were as obsessed with epitonic as i was back in the day, but the original site is back up and running for an undisclosed amount of time. and all of the mp3s are there for the perusing, too.

i can't even begin to think about how many awesome bands i found out about because of epitonic back in the day. when the site changed hands and basically stopped working circa 2003-2004 or so, it was like a part of me died. but now that part of me is alive again...for a little while, anyway.

DJ Rap & Brian Matrix - The Fire EP [Impropa Talent]

Impropa Talent — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:26:31 -0400

DJ Rap & Brian Matrix - The Fire EP

1. You Got Me (Original Mix)

2. Fire Feat. Chris James (Original Mix)

3. New Years Day vs U2 (Original Mix)

The talented Brian Matrix joins ranks with Dj Rap once again to bring you "The Fire EP"... consisting of 3 killer cuts "You Got Me," "Fire feat Chris James" and a cover of U2's classic "New Years Day".... dont miss this!!!

Luv & Bass,

Propa Talent

You Can Listen Here:

http://www.djrap.com/music.php#music-latest.html

Echo Inada- Story Ends EP

Impropa Talent — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:27:02 -0400

Echo Inada- Story Ends EP

1. Dream (Original Mix)

2. Miss You (Original Mix)

This is the final chapter of Echo Inadas epic journey The Story, now ending.... "Dream" and "Miss You" provide us a breathtaking soundtrack to his wonderful world.

Luv & Bass,

Propa Talent

[b]You Can Listen Here:[/b]

http://www.djrap.com/music.php#music-latest.html

Gossip

songsillinois — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:39:34 -0400

Really the only thing the internet is good for is gossip. So what's the deal with Strangers in Stereo? What went down with The Music Slut? And where is Gerard when we really need him?

Simple Wordpress pages question

forwardslashdublin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:20:25 -0500

Using wordpress.com, and want to do something quite simple but I can't figure out how.

Basically, I want to set up 2 pages to link to categories I already have organized, which I just realised would be a lot simpler than what I have now.

Basically this is what I want to set up:

http://chemicaljump.com/category/charts/

But, firstly, I can't figure out how to link the page name to the category, I tried just linking to it within the page name, but that doesn't work.

Secondly, when I go to the category link all the posts come up in shortened form, and I'd like them to be in their full form.

Any help appreciated!

New Forum Software

brandon — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 21:34:50 -0500

Hey everyone. The old software was starting to get incredibly slow. I'm hoping this new version fixes that. Sorry that it looks a lot different.

Also, if you need to know what email you used to register, shoot me an email.

Thank for your patience!!!

Led Zeppelin

Spiritinthesky — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:27:41 -0500

EN-US">Any fans? New iPhone / iPad app just out.

EN-US">

EN-US">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePjWNYesGQ

EN-US">

Music apps for iPhone & iPad

Spiritinthesky — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:55:31 -0500

There are now over 350,000 apps on the app store. Finding new and old apps is tough!

Recommend music apps you like here.

This Day in Led Zeppelin

Shazam

Rock Landmarks of London

Verdana;color:#323232;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">

Wordpress.com deleting music blogs?

saamFG — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:37:13 -0500

I was just looking for a track earlier and discovered that Eclectic Eavesdropping (who admittedly, I'd never heard of until just now) had been deleted by Wordpress.com. The guy who runs the site said on his Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119335231420468&v=wall - that what killed the blog was posting a couple of streams for some Adele songs. And he also mentioned it's the second time it's happened on three years - but I'm not sure whether both deletions were on Wordpress.

Obviously there was that massive uproar last year when Google deleted a string of music blogs on Blogger but I hadn't heard about Wordpress deleting music blogs until today. The emphasis there being on "music" blogs. Is it a common occurence?