Updated with user review!
Music streaming service Spotify announced this morning that Android users can now download their app for free and use the radio service. Previously, mobile was only available to Premium users.
Keep reading for the details.
Many users are having trouble with apps crashing on their iPhones. According to this article, Apple is aware of the problem and trying to fix it.
Without apps, would you still have use for an iPhone?
If you’re an independent band heading to SXSW, you are obviously going to be networking and hopefully meeting lots of people who will be influential in your career. Meeteor will go through all of the attendees and let you know who you should really be looking to meet. Mashable has a profile.
Onesheet: Onesheet provides artists a simple, but visually appealing, website. The idea is that it can be a one-stop address where fans can find social media integration, tour info, and anything else the artist wants to provide.
45 Sound: Are there any cell-phone videos of your shows that your fans or friends took? They probably don’t have the best audio quality. 45 Sound wants to fix that.
Tastemate: I’m a big proponent of rewarding fans who go the extra mile by coming out to your shows and buying merchandise. Tastemate provides the ability to give special discounts and deals only available at shows and events. Fans are encouraged to participate and engage with the app throughout the concert.
Crowdstream: This app is another for use during concerts, but it connects you (the artist) directly with your fans.
[Source]
Are there any other apps that you think musicians should be using?
Buffer, the Tweet scheduling service that I’ve discussed before, has launched an iPhone app. The app allows users to schedule tweets, retweets and mentions for the times they are most likely to have engagement with their followers.
If you haven’t checked out the service yet, be sure to head over to bufferapp.com now. It will only help your Twitter campaign.
Source: StudentOnCampus.com
We’ve discussed in the past bands that have created unique apps for their music. We even know that companies like ReverbNation allow users to create their own apps. Even with the availability of creating something like this, most artists do not have their own app. You might think no one will download or use it. If it’s so simple to create, though, why wouldn’t you try? Maybe the five reasons below will help to convince you:
1. In the last week of 2011, mobile users downloaded 1.2 billion apps, setting a record (according to Flurry, a social analytics company). With the number of apps being downloaded growing so much, can you afford to not be available for your fans?
2. More and more users are accessing the Internet primarily from their mobile devices. If all they have to do to keep up to date with your music is tap an icon, that might make them more likely to do so. Additionally, even if they don’t open the app daily, they will see your band’s logo whenever they scroll through their apps.
3. We saw yesterday that mobile viewers are more patient and more likely to watch a complete video than desktop users. Why not make it easy for them and optimize your video content through an app?
4. Additional revenue through either app sales or integrating your merch store. This one may or may not be the case if you choose to make everything monetarily free. You will always be able to gain something through the download, though. Perhaps you can give the app away for free, in exchange for sharing it on Twitter, or in exchange for a mailing list sign up.
5. The ability to target your mobile demographic so specifically. You already know how many people are accessing your content through mobile devices. If that number is at all significant to you, an app can be invaluable. Mobile users can participate in message boards, stream exclusive content, and Tweet about what they just saw from you with the social media integration of smartphones and tablets. So easily being able to share your content can only help you.
Can you think of any other reasons to create a mobile music app for your band?
There are always new developments in technology and social media, and it is up to us, the music community, to look at all of the new opportunities and see how they could be used. David Hooper over at Music Marketing [dot] com did just this. He saw the above ad for an innovative Starbucks campaign and applied it to musicians. He suggests that instead of a coffee cup, artists use an image or an album (anything related to their music) and insert band members instead of the playful holiday characters.
After viewing the video with Hooper’s ideas in mind, have you come up with any of your own? Do you think this could be a viable idea? Tell me in the comments below!
In about fifteen minutes, the f8 conference will begin! It has been said that the highly anticipated event will reveal changes that will revolutionize not only Facebook, but social media as a whole. I will be live blogging the stream for those of you who cannot watch the stream embedded above. Be sure to leave your comments below so we can discuss during and after the event!
12:44
Kelly Winters and Keith Noise introduce the conference to us, explaining what it is. The conference is hoping to give developers the ability to work on their passions.
If you are viewing within the app, there are a number of things to you can do, including commenting, and they are planning on getting to some of the questions later in the day.
Schedule:
Key Notes begin in about 15 minutes, and interviews and presentations will be happening for the rest of the day following.
12:46
They are in SoMa in San Francisco. Showing a time-lapse video of how long it took to get everything together. Very impressive. Over 1700 people from all over the world are in attendance.
12:47
Sarah Sperling will be updating us on music, food, and the overall experience at f8.
12:52
They’re telling us it’s Key Note time!
1:09
Still waiting, but some introductions from the hosts we’ve already met:
Charles Porche
Kelly
Nicki Pollazo
They’re thanking the audience for waiting around. The announcers seem just an anxious for the key notes to start.
1:11
Sarah is with Obscura in a display. The company created a physical manifestation of people’s Facebook connections on the floor of the conference. Colorful circles connect and show photos of mutual friends on the floor.
1:15
Announced again that it’s Key Note time…taking it with a grain of salt! Next update will be the beginning of the first speaker.
1:16
Andy Samberg comes out to music and starts talking about being authentic, claiming to be Mark Zuckerberg. Great start!
1:21
Mark Zuckerberg comes out and “confronts” Andy. Awkwardness ensues.
1:24
Andy Samberg leaves the stage and we’re presumably starting the actual Key Note.
The last five years of social networking have been about getting people signed up and connected with the people in their lives. There has been a question of how long social networks would really last.
It seems now that everyone has realized it is becoming ubiquitous.
Last week they hit the milestone of having half a BILLION people use Facebook in one day.
The next era will be defined by the apps and the depth of connection that will be able to take place.
1:26
The Profile:
They want to make it the best way to allow us to share the best way.
The original profile was the first five minutes of your conversation: where you’re from, where you go to school, some interests, and one photo.
–It was still revolutionary because it was one place on the Internet that people felt the ability to display their true selves. People still wanted more ways to express themselves.
In 2008, the new profile shifted to the next 15 minutes of the conversation: all of the things you’re doing and sharing.
The problem? We are more than what we’ve done recently. To get to know someone, you have to wade through status updates.
What are they doing to do? The most important and unique moments will be in front of you, while the stream is still available.
What is next? The next few hours of a deep, engaging conversation. The heart of the Facebook experience is being rethought from the ground up.
TIMELINE. The story of your life.
1. All your stories
2. All your apps
3. A new way to express who you are
1:30
We see the new profile layout. VERY visual. Visual tiles to allow you access to apps, a cover photo, all of your stories. Everything to express who you are, with all of your content readily available.
As the Timeline scrolls down, it is very similar to Tumblr layout.
It scrolls all the way to the beginning: “Born 1984.”
Timeline tells the whole story of your life in one page.
1:35
Not EVERYTHING is right in front of you. Some content is hidden, but it is available. If you want to see it, you just hover over a grey dot and it shows up!
If you want to add a piece of content, like a photo from when you were little, all you do is click in the middle of the timeline and you can add it to the correct place in the timeline.
To filter what you see, you have Timeline views. For example: only photos.
Apps
Now you can use apps to express anything you want on your timeline.
What kinds of content can you include in your timeline?
- No activity is too big or too small to share.
- Example: What you’ve been cooking.
- All previous app activity will be included.
How do you add Apps to your timeline? You will most likely be finding them through your friends’ profiles, so you can add right from there.
They wanted to design a place that feels like your home. Where you tell your story is very personal. You link to it, create it, tell your friends to find you there. The point is to express who you really are.
Cover photo: basically a header image. NOT your profile photo. Mark’s is a photo of his dog. I can see this making some profiles look very cheap, though.
Featured Stories: Not only does it highlight the past events that are important for you, but it tells Facebook what is important to you as well.
Privacy: Can change the privacy of individual posts.
New Class of Apps
New open graph platform. Now you can connect to anything you want, in any way you want.
You don’t have to Like a book or a movie, you can Read and Watch. Listen to a song. Hike a trail. Cook a meal. The amount of new possible connections is incredible.
At the beginning, you could only express a few connections and likes. This year, you can express VERBS. How will this help you express yourself in new ways?
People have things that they want to share, but they don’t want to annoy their friends by having it in their newsfeed.
Ticker: a lightweight stream of everything that is going on. This is where activity will go (and your Timeline).
The next version of open graph is all about lightweight sharing. Simple, but really, really powerful. They believe a whole new class of apps will be available. 
Different types of apps: communication, games, media, and lifestyle.
Today, they are making it possible to create new types of apps and open up to new industries.
What do apps help you do? Add to your timeline, and discover new things through your friends.
1:55
Frictionless Experiences
No longer do you have to have a popup prompt, which interrupts your experience. You can still publish to your stream, but if you’re just adding lightweight activity, you don’t need to do anything.
New Permissions Dialogue. Tells you exactly what it will add to your Timeline, shows exactly what you will see visually. After the initial dialogue, you will never see it again. (But you can obviously go in and change any settings later.)
Real Time Serendipity
Seeing what your friends are listening to with Spotify. Your friend is listening to a song, click on it, and it opens in your computer, in Spotify. Listening can spread very quickly through the graph, because it is then shown to your friends.
It’s amazing how much music you can discover through your friends.
Music Timeline View
- Top artists, songs, etc.
- Anything you like, you can click and listen to with whatever you have.
2:00
When you see a friend listening to music, hover over the song, and you are immediately listening WITH them. This gives you the opportunity to have a group listening experience, and talk about it at the same time.
One of the coolest features: You can see when someone discovers something from you.
2:04
In order to make the new model of the music industry (sharing and streaming music) work, we need to discover a LOT of music.
2:05
CEO of Spotify takes the stage.
Today is a big day for Facebook, and big day for Spotify, and a big day for fans of music.
People discover music through their friends. Music has to be free (to draw away from Piracy) and inherently social. What better platform than Facebook?
After Napster, Spotify aimed at using a similar strategy, but legal and helping the music industry.
Spotify users who connect through Facebook listen to more music, and their libraries are far more diverse than non-social users. Social users are also far more likely to purchase music.
Let’s light up the world with music.
2:09
Mark thanks all of the developers making music apps and allowing them to make music more social.
TV and Movies
- You can see what friends are watching on Hulu, hover over it, click and watch it within the Hulu Facebook app.
2:11
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO
Talking about how he watched a show because of Facebook, not because of the Netflix algorithm of suggestions.
Netflix is in 44 countries, and once a bill is passed in Congress, it will be in 45/45.
2:15
Mark: It’s not just Netflix and Hulu, it’s all of the companies.
Can use a social news app to discover what friends are reading. Will show you all of the articles friends are reading through Washington Post Social Reader, Yahoo News, etc.
What about real time news? Look to your ticker.
Social Games: not interrupted, as discussed before. Also, when you see games in your ticker, you see actually what they are doing.
“Mark is playing Words With Friends with Carl.” Not only can you see this, you can hover and see the board!
Goes along with frictionless experiences.
Lifestyle Apps
Walking, running, cooking, eating.
Mark thinks this will really take off. (I am assuming because of the success of a little thing called Twitter.)
Eating/Cooking? Foodspotting.
Your Apps. Now with Friends.
2:25 That’s the end of the new features! Check back regularly to see how we start to use them as they start rolling out.
Postcard On The Run is a startup and iOS app that allows users to take photos of whatever they want and send them as actual postcards through the US Mail. Even more unique, the app allows you to only select the contact and does not require you to add in their address. The receiver is then contacted to either provide or confirm their address. The idea is that vacationers can send friends and family postcards without taking time out of their trip.
What I immediately thought when reading about the app, though, was how it could be used by musicians. One idea is to use the app as a reward for a contest. Create any sort of requirement to enter that you would like, and the reward can be sending a postcard from wherever you are traveling (on tour, presumably) to the fan who wins.
What do you think of this idea and app?
It was only a matter of time. With all of the legal issues Turntable.fm has been having, I thought it would be a little more time, though. According to TechCrunch, next week the social music site will be launching its iOS app to the public. (No Android app has been mentioned, but that’s to be expected.)
As for how great the app will be? According to the those who have been testing it out, it’s had pretty solid results over WiFi, but can be spotty on 3G.
Head over to the original article to check out the screen shots they managed to get their hands on!
