Targeted towards music industry collaborators from any field, genre and in any stage of professional or artistic development, Dotted Music offers a wide range of services that will help artists and other collaborators connect to newer audiences and to continually expand their following. Music industry contributors that are looking to expand their online presence can get a customized quote by filling out a short form on the website.

Dotted Music Agency

Some of the services include: website design and maintenance, social media integration and design, copywriting services, press release preparation, advertising, electronic music distribution, logo design, direct-to-fan (D2F) services and many more. For a full list of services offered, visit s.dottedmusic.com.

Dotted Music recently launched the website for one of its first clients: French-Russian dubstep trio PLAYMA. The trio is signed to Audioporn Records, one of the top dubstep and drum & bass labels in the UK. In less than two months, Dotted Music established a solid online presence for the band, using powerful D2F services such as Topspin.

Andrew Apanov, founder and CEO of Dotted Music stated, “I am very proud of this next big step in Dotted Music’s development and also very excited about all the things we are going to deliver to the world this year.”

About Dotted Music LLC

Dotted Music was founded by Andrew Apanov. He has worked as a project manager in mobile development and editor-in-chief at Ultimate-Guitar.com. Andrew has years of experience in the music industry, specifically in social media marketing. Dotted Music is based in the United States, but is composed of a worldwide network of talented music marketing consultants delivering 24/7 well-tailored services with a trustworthy international expertise. Dotted Music is on its way to becoming a leader in online music marketing.

Stay tuned for more news about the Dotted Music agency!

Soundcloud

To celebrate the milestone, SoundCloud has created ‘Story Wheel’, a new SoundCloud Labs project that allows anyone to record their own narrative around a series of images to tell a personal story. Co-founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss have today launched this new feature by sharing an intimate conversation with the SoundCloud community, reflecting on their journey to date.

Launched in October 2008, SoundCloud was born of the realization that sound is an untapped territory on the Web compared to images, video, and text. The key to SoundCloud’s rapid growth has been the understanding of the simplicity, breadth and potential of sound:

• Sound is mobile: Over five million official SoundCloud apps have been downloaded.
• Sound is developing: Over 10,000 apps being developed on SoundCloud’s open platform. Recent additions include integrations with professional music creation software Pro Tools and Cakewalk.
• Sound is more than music: Over 3.3 million different tags show the breadth of sounds on the platform, which now includes everything from journalists & bloggers (Robert Scoble), to publishing (Penguin Books UK), to education (Stanford).

SoundCloud’s Storywheel showcase can be viewed at this location.

A common thought on the view of Spotify is that is it great for the consumer, and bad for the artist. Valid point. Considering that record labels are getting about a third of a penny per play, leaving artists with even less. So for instance, every 15 tracks you play, which is an average track number for CD’s, is going to cost you around 5 cents. Well, when it is put like that it certainly seems like stealing. Great for the consumer, considering that an average CD usually runs about $12.99. So how can this not be labelled stealing from the artists.

Spotify iPhone app's Playlists screen

To take a deeper look into the music industry, you should start by looking at the numbers. Since the late 1990′s the music industry has fallen from a 45 billion dollar industry to a 12 billion dollar industry. This is largely due to the increase in piracy, and internet distribution of media – in this case, music. Therefore artists simply are not making as much money as they did. People don’t buy CD’s because distribution of music has been made so convenient. Even things like Pandora radio station give us another alternative to buying CD’s. Spotify is the latest alternative to buying music. And just like Pandora, you do not physically own the track with Spotify.

This brings the question of how much is each track play worth to an artist. Are artist entitled to make large sums of money because of their work? I think not. As a technicality an artist is only an employee of a Record Label. Very few artists make it big without being signed to a record company. If any artist choses to go independent, more than likely they will see less success then they ever would as a signed artist. Record companies are striking up deals with Spotify obviously because there are some profits to be made. The profits may be less than they like, but without Spotify or any other music service, songs will just be pirated. Piracy is wrong, and it is unfortunate that it exists, but the problem doesn’t necessarily have to do with piracy as much as it has to do with distribution.

Just because at one point in time the only way you could buy CD’s was to go to the local store and buy one, doesn’t mean that model will always be sustainable. The music industry was making record profits during this time. Music was harder to produce, and there was only a select few who had the opportunity. Now, during our internet age, music can be delivered to your computer over the span of just a few minutes, and there are many more opportunities for artists to be successful. You can buy professional recording equipment for under $500 dollars with Pro Tools. You can broadcast yourself on YouTube. You can distribute your music on Myspace. There are endless ways to get seen these days, and the costs to produce music have gone down considerably. Artists, more than anyone else are ignoring this. Just like any other business, you are not guaranteed to make “x” amount of dollars because you or someone else has in the past.

The record companies do understand this. That is why they are making deals to be a part of it. It may not be the most beneficial to the artists, but as an artist, you cannot expect to make a large sum of money off of a market that doesn’t exist. A CD that sold for 16 dollars at one point after creation, production, packaging, shipping, and finally retail markup does not equate in today’s standards. You want to send the CD directly to someones PC in minutes, with decreased production costs and charge the same $16? Um, I don’t think so.

The music industry should look at Spotify as essentially free advertisement, that you can actually make a little bit of money from. This is especially true for artists who are under the radar, and need exposure that can be done through direct pays or from word of mouth through Spotify’s social aspect. Artists need to think about the live performance at its rawest as their main income. There is no market to sell $16 CD’s anymore, so don’t expect to make hand over fist with each CD you release.

Spotify

With all of that being said, Spotify does have one downfall. For popular artists who are dominating the number of plays, they should receive a little bit more of the profits since it is because of them that Spotify is able to have a successful business. There is no reason that a band who has just gotten off the ground should be paid the same percentage, when comparing to artists like Lady Gaga who attract millions of plays. Without the big names, many people would not be signing up to listen. For the smaller bands, it is better to look at this as an opportunity to be seen.

Spotify has definitely been generating some controversy over the inexpensive, seemingly all inclusive service of music. It is ultimately better for the consumer, than it is for the artist – but a better alternative than piracy. The music industry isn’t what it once was. Consumers can now have music faster, cheaper, and in large quantities. This isn’t exactly what musicians want to hear, but that is the reality. The internet has made things easier, and more affordable. Music is not independent from this, and therefore Spotify has made attempt to fix the problem of distribution and theft. Some people may think this is stealing, but the Record companies are making deals with Spotify. The artists are employees of the Record companies. Right now Spotify has the best business model. Our technology driven business era may change that fast, but everyone needs to understand that the same technology driven era has created Spotify out of necessity.

This article was written by Thomas Randall. Thomas likes to blog on the internet about music, web design, and other various internet related topics. He knows what it takes to get some buzz on the internet and helps to provide the best white hat SEO services.

With consumer expenditure on Latin-based music on the rise, RhymbaLatino aims to target the demographic behind the increase.

According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States in 2010 – an increase of 43 percent since the millennium.

RhymbaLatino is perhaps not the most subtle attempt to target this demographic, but it represents the influence the web is having upon proceedings in the music industry.

Digital music’s ubiquity – primarily in the form of mp3s – has coincided with a corresponding demand for increasingly accurate search engine optimisation.

The hustle and bustle of the web, alongside increasing demand for ease of access, means that the days of tireless searching for music are numbered.

This trend is hardly a recent deveopment– it has been years since we could hunt down artists by searching through genres on Amazon; it has been longer, still, since we were first able to identify a song merely by typing a few of its words into Google.

What RhymbaLatino represents is confirmation of the way we hear about music online. As opposed to searching for music, Pandora recommends a new artist based on our previous listening; Amazon boosts sales by similar means, and iTunes’ Ping service has similar goals.

RhymbaLatino’s significance is in its effort to bring the music to the listener; with so much music out there, the marketing companies are seeking new ways to target markets – is RhymbaLatino too obvious?

The first lesson of music marketing is clear for all to see: know your audience.

Vervedeck does just that, paying close attention to the United States Census Bureau’s statistics, even noting them in press releases.

In fact, RhymbaLatino’s appeal to the Hispanic community is supported by Thom Russo, the winner of 11 Latin Grammys for his work in Latin music.

His role as ‘curator’ of RhymbaLatino’s song collection is a well-intentioned marketing ploy by a music marketing company.

Samuel Agini is the editor of Andrew Apanov’s Dotted Music.

Be the first to contact us and claim your Spotify code, if you don’t have one yet. Be quick!

Today, the company announced that over 10,000 artists/musicians/DJs had signed up for the service in the first month. The company attributes the explosive growth to its simple value proposition which has been heavily embraced by the artist community.

“I’m blown away by how quickly word is spreading throughout the industry,” says Onesheet creator Brenden Mulligan. “I’ve never seen early growth like this before for an artist focused product.”

Musicians of all sizes have set up Onesheets, including artists from all the major labels, such as Paramore, Owl City, and Mat Kearney.

Up to this point the site has been in private beta, but as of today, anyone can sign up to create a Onesheet.

The service has been rapidly rolling out enhancements over the past month (details can be found at blog.onesheet.com):

• Added support for additional services such as Beatport, CD Baby, Eventful, iTunes, Topspin, and Ustream.
• Additional customization options such as changing the colors of the navigation bar, removing social network icons, etc…
• Buy/Store links now be placed directly under the media player.
• A video from YouTube, Vimeo, or Vevo can be featured
• Onesheets can be assigned a custom domain name
• Most Onesheet branding can be removed from the web page
• All traffic data can be accessed through a user’s Google Analytics account
• Like and Follow buttons can be added underneath the media player
• When a user saves a Onesheet on their mobile device or tablet, a custom icon is created

Many of the above features are part of the “Pro Preview”, which allows current users free access to use some of the features that will eventually be part of the premium service. No credit card is required to be a part of the preview.

The premium tier is promised to roll out over the next few months, as well as continual feature enhancements.

Many labels and PR agencies have been switching over to HAULIX because it’s at the top of the class right now. I did a quick Q&A with HAULIX Founder/CEO Matt Brown, and with his creativity, experience, and marketing, read on to see why HAULIX is one of those unique companies that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Alex Gilbert (Dotted Music): How did the idea of Haulix come about, and what were your initial goals?

Matt Brown (HAULIX): I had been running the webzine MetalReview.com since 2001. After our popularity increased, our mailbox started to overflow with promotional discs; literally getting hundreds of packages per month. As a computer science graduate, we’re taught how to solve problems with technology – so my gears were always turning, trying to think of new ideas. After a couple years of experiencing the overflowing mailbox and learning the music promotion process as a whole, I knew there could be a better way of doing it. I think it was some time in 2007, I thought of building a digital promo service. Piracy was a big deal already and so I knew security would be an important component of the business, not to mention a huge selling point. I threw the idea around with a software developer buddy at the consulting firm I worked at and I purchased the domain name “LeakSecure.com.” As with countless other ventures that I started in the past, this one lost its steam and died after a week or so, and that was that.

Two years later in February 2009, when the economy tanked, I lost my job as a software developer. Suddenly being dropped in the jungle of the unemployed was kind of scary and a little liberating at the same time. The digital promo service idea resurfaced and I figured there would be no better time than now to dive in head first. I ditched “Leak Secure,” took about thirty minutes of brainstorming and came up with “Haulix.” I put a Craigslist ad out for a software developer/business partner. Next day, I found out my ad was taken down due to some restriction. But in the previous day, one guy’s email made it through. We met up for happy hour, discussed my vision of how this digital promo service should run and we decided to partner up and run with it.

Our initial goal was to keep it simple and easy to use. We wanted it to do a few things really well, rather than a lot of things half-assed. Haulix was to become a tool used for managing media contacts, creating digital promos, security to deter leaking and reporting to track progress. Those core features are still at the center of what it performs today.

As a freelancer, I’ve seen many labels and PR agencies switch over to the Haulix platform, because it’s extremely user friendly, ALL of your promos are under one roof (instead of logging in and out from one ipool to another), and I also think the method of downloading both the music and hi res pics is better than anything else out there right now. You must be pretty proud of how far Haulix has gone so far?

Matt Brown

A lot of the web-startup experts preach that if you aren’t embarrassed by your first version of your software, then you waited too long to launch. I’m glad we took that advice and launched quickly. Our first version was absolutely horrible. But being a two-man team, we were lean and we could make changes really fast. One by one, we started to get new customers. They would use our system and give us feedback. We would then quickly add enhancements. Repeat, repeat and repeat. After a year or so, we had a fairly solid platform and a handful of happy customers.

In regards to the competition, we periodically glance over to see what they are up to, but we definitely don’t analyze what they do with a microscope. Doing so would corrupt our own vision of how things should work. With that said, having all promos magically show up in one spot was definitely a strategic move to relieve having to have ten different logins/passwords. While we concentrate on an easy toolset for our customers, the journalist’s experience is equally important to us.

Any new developments in the works for Haulix that you’d like to share?

In the next 6-8 months, we will be releasing new versions of our promo platform along with a fresh new public website. Even more exciting though, is a partnership with The Orchard. I just did a web-demo for their marketing team in New York last week. For those that don’t know, The Orchard is sort of a one-stop-shop for tools for music industry professionals. That includes marketing, distribution, promotion, etc. They are going to be opening an app marketplace and Haulix was invited to be one of the first 20 apps in that marketplace. The Orchard will be introducing us to their huge list of clients. We’re honored and flattered at the same time.

It seems like there are too many bands right now. A freelancer + his/her team can only cover so much, given there are only 24 hours in one day. A few years back it was much easier. It seems like there were way less bands, physical (promotional) product was still fairly standard, and while I know many journalists prefer physical copies, digital can still fly. I spend a good chunk of my day driving around, so at least being able to burn a CD to listen to in the car is the best way for me so soak in the music I need to review. The times surely change fast. What are your thoughts?

It’s very ironic, MetalReview.com is in its 10th year and I see firsthand a dramatic decrease in the number of packages that come in the mail. We used to have a locker for packages and now we get by with a little 12″ x 5″ mailbox. A few years back, journalists totally turned their back on digital promos and I could understand why – it was a change and they were used to getting physical “prizes” in the mail each week. Fast forward to now and digital is quickly becoming the standard and journalists are beginning to accept them. Like you mentioned, I think a new issue, is the sheer number of releases hitting the market each month. There’s no way for journalists to keep up and as a result, they cherry pick what they want to review. Regardless of how a journalist prefers to consume their music, I think it’s important for a writer to write consistently for a couple months and then take a week or so off. Otherwise, they are bound to get burnt out by music-overload. On the other side of the coin, if you are a band, fishing your new album out to websites and magazines, and you want to get noticed, don’t slop your album into a YouSendIt file and then send mass emails out to the press. All bias aside, there’s a huge difference between downloading a promo from a page with no advertisements, that’s branded to the album, versus hitting YouSendIt and enduring Viagra popup ads and a hidden download link.

Leading into my next quick question. You are also very tech saavy. Out of all Haulix users, do you think more people stream the music directly from Haulix or download from Haulix then do what they do (ex. burn cd, stream via Windows Media Player, itunes, etc.)? From an analytic standpoint, what do you think?

We keep detailed statistics on resource consumption. Most journalists download the entire album and then listen to it on their own terms. Many stream a few tracks (as they cherry pick), to see if they like it. If they like it, they download. And lastly, many stream the album as they download it.

Thanks for your time, and thanks so much for making a journalist’s job much easier. Cheers! Any last words for our readers over at Dotted Music?

I would like to just say, that we are all in this industry together. Artists and labels need journalists to write about their releases. Journalists need promos so that they have something to write about, which adds content to their websites or magazines. We depend on each other. Change can be hard to handle sometimes, but if we are open-minded and continue to do things for the good of the music, we can survive through these hard economic times and have a loud future.

Thanks for the interview and support!

To grasp an idea about the impact of Google+ among the social media domination that is Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, we can briefly take a look at Wordstream’s case study on incoming traffic from Google+. While Facebook remains the majority referrer of traffic to Wordstream’s blog, in the month that Google+ has been open for beta invites, Wordstream was surprised to learn that Google+ had overtaken Linkedin and trailed right behind Twitter. More specifically:

• 1st Place: Facebook with 47.26% of visitors
• 2nd Place: Twitter with 27.51% of visitors
• 3rd Place: Google+ with 15.42% of visitors
• 4th Place: LinkedIn with 9.81% of visitors

While Google Plus is showing signs of life, the functionalities that will rival Facebook pages have yet to take effect. For those companies and bands antsy to jump onto the social media platform, Google is slated to release an enterprise app (a competitor to Facebook Pages) for Google+ by the end of 2011. But don’t sign on with your band name just yet. Google will shut down accounts without your own real name.

In the meantime, while we’re waiting on Google Plus’s version of Facebook Pages, here are ten ways you can take advantage of Google+ under your own name, and as the face of your band.

1. Organize Your Circles

The first suggestion is a simple one. You’re given the opportunity to aggregate your fans into groups, called Google Circles. When you set up your account, set aside circles for your band mates, fans, publicity contacts, and business contacts. Remember to set the privacy parameters when creating a new status update, whether it’s intended for your friends and family or your fans.

(Strategy) VIP Circles: There are various benefits to interacting with your top fans, the very people that have gotten you to where you are today. You can find these fans by using Openbook and Social Mention as I outlined in an earlier Dotted post. To leverage this concept with Google+, I would suggest that you invite an inner circle of “VIPs” who would receive exclusive updates and offerings, that your non-VIP fans would otherwise not receive. You can limit this exclusive invite to an X number of fans, and publicize this with a contest or any strategy of your choosing. To take it a step further, you can sell your VIP slots as a subscription fee.

2. Twitter+Facebook=Google Plus Circles

The way I see the psychology behind adding users to your circles is best described as the marriage of Twitter and Facebook. Twitter is a community wherein following people you may not necessarily know is encouraged, while on the other hand, most people would only add a Facebook friend, if that individual is at the least, acquaintances. Google+ borrows from Twitter in enabling you to view news feeds from those you add to your circle (even if the users you add do not necessarily follow you back), while maintaining the security of keeping your private life from your business contacts, as you do with Facebook, by permitting you to specify the circles you’re willing to publicize an update or link to.

Those LOL Cats photos you like to share with your friends don’t necessarily have to reach your business contacts. So feel free to add the A&R that you met the other night or follow your favorite musician. They don’t have to see those crazy antics that you’d rather hide behind closed doors.

3. Extended Reach

While you’re reveling in the ability to share information with specific circles, you should know that Google+ offers criteria that allow you to post updates and links in your “Stream” to those that have you in their circles, even if you haven’t added them in your circle (called “Public”) plus your circle’s circles (called “Extended Circles”).

Google Plus Stream

4. Cold Commenting

The benefit of Twitter is that you’re able to reach out to just about anyone. Cold Tweeting is an accepted practice, which leads to forming impromptu professional relationships. Likewise, if you’ve added someone to your circle that you admire or would love to talk to, but they haven’t returned the favor, don’t fret. You’re able to comment on the updates and comments that they have made available to the public. Maybe one day with the right comment, you’ll finally be able to grab their attention.

Cold Tweet

5. Your “About” Page is SEO Friendly

You’ll notice something entitled, “Search Visibility” in the “About” tab of your profile. What this means is that your “About” page is search engine friendly. Fill out your profiles as descriptively as possible with keywords that will get you noticed by Google and ranked higher on their search results page. For example, in your “Introduction,” you may want to refer to your band as being similar to X and Y, or specify your genre. In turn, your Google Plus profile may appear in the search results for those queries that people search, which in this case would be bands X & Y, or your genre.

(FYI) Hyperlinks and URLs are a NO NO: When writing your “introduction” don’t use hyperlinks and .com URLs. Google ignores them in their search engine results page. For example:

Do not use links in intro (click image to enlarge)

6. Hangout With Fans

Facebook has attempted video chat, but it’s limited to a face to face interaction. On the other hand, Google+ encourages video chat with up to ten individuals at a time. “Hangout” is an opportunity for you spend time on chatting via webcam with nine of your fans (Google Hangout supports only ten individuals at a time). A perk to this application is Google’s utilization of Google Translate to allow for multi-language communication, which means that you can use this functionality to diversify your fan base internationally.

(Strategy) Win the Chance to Hangout: Leverage “Hangout” by holding contests. For example, the top nine fans who publicize your upcoming gig win thirty minutes of your time to “Hangout” with you and ask you anything you’d like.

7. Be Mindful of Your Top 3 Links

You’re able to add links to your “About” page. But before you add links and forget about them, stack what you believe are your best three links that exemplify your work, whether it’s your Facebook page, blog, Bandcamp or Myspace page. When your Google Plus profile shows up in Google’s search engine results page, only the links that you place at the top will appear under the excerpted introduction.

Top 3 links Google (click image to enlarge)

(Strategy) How to Choose Your Top 3 Links: As a gesture of love for those fans, bloggers, or A&aR scouts that stumble on your Google Plus profile, make your top three links the following:

1. Your personality (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
2. Your music (Bandcamp, Myspace, etc.)
3. Your website (Blog, your own domain, Facebook, etc.)

8. Build a Discussion around Your Photos

Create discussions around photos, and make sure to upload them often. Google+ has its own photo page that aggregates all photos from your circles onto what resembles Google Images. A clean and user friendly interface for Google Photos, which sets comments off in its own chat bar to the right, encourages frequent commenting.

(Strategy) Marketing Your Gig via Google Photos: If you have an upcoming gig, share it on Google Photos by uploading a poster of the event, and build a discussion around that image. Google Photos is grounds for bored fans browsing their circles’ uploaded photos, which can result in them stumbling onto your poster.

Google Plus discussion via poster

9. Cross posting

It’s a pain to copy and paste your Google Plus posts onto Twitter and Facebook. Luckily, the guys over at Survival Guide for Idiots have written a comprehensive article on cross posting from G+.

10. Vanity URLs

Google doesn’t directly support vanity URLs just yet, but of course someone out there had the free time to be creating an entire app around this. Vanity URL providers are third party providers and have not been endorsed by Google. Really, it’s just a matter of time before vanity URLs will be offered for Google+. But if you can’t wait, you can jump aboard the bandwagon and show off your shiny new Google vanity URL, in a few quick and easy steps using these providers:

• http://dirpl.us/
• http://gplusnick.com/
• http://gplus.to/
• http://plus.ly/
• http://topl.us/

I personally prefer gplus.to or plus.ly for simplicity’s sake. I find it easier to remember plus.ly/francisybea than gplusnick.com/francisybea.

If You’re Not Seeing the Value in Google Plus…

With the potential for this new social media platform, it’s just a matter of time before Google+ becomes an essential tool in your social media marketing box. If you’re wondering about the potential, hop over to Chris Brogan’s article, “The Google Plus 50,” which should open your eyes to Google+’s benefits. On a final note, don’t forget to add a Google+ button to your blog.

You can find me on Google+ via plus.ly/francisybea and gplus.to/francisybea. Feel free to add me, and I will return the favor. If you don’t have invites yet, send me your email address via DM to @musefy or shoot me an email at francis@musefy.com.

Francis Bea is a New Yorker turned Chicago co-founder of Musefy.com (in development) and writes Musefy’s blog Musebox.

The answer to this question, is that CD duplication and CD replication are two separate processes which achieve essentially the same end, though the two finished products are in fact slightly different from each other, with replicated CD’s being the more superior in terms of the quality of the disc and printing – this is because duplication involves making a copy onto an existing blank disc whereas replication involves stamping out a whole new disc from scratch.

If you think of the process involved when you want to make a copy of a disc on your home computer, you’re basically thinking of the process of duplication, though of course on a much larger scale, with high quality blank media and multi-disc duplicators that ensure fast burning speeds. After burning, the discs are then printed, sometimes with an inkjet but preferably with a thermal printer, and packaged.

The following video demonstrates the duplication process:

In a completely different process, replication uses an original glass master disc as its original product from which to stamp out and create finished discs. This far more involved process has better playback and results in a disc with a silver bottom, whereas duplicated discs have a more blue/green tint. Replicated CD’s are generally printed with offset or silkscreen printing which results in a better print quality than thermal or inkjet printing. It’s a lot more complicated and takes more time but replication equals a more professional product.

The following video demonstrates the replication process:

Duplication has a faster turnaround and is a lot better for a smaller run, so if your band needs 200 copies of your disc made for a couple shows you have coming up, then duplication is probably the best route for you, whereas replication can take slightly longer and is better for larger orders, the product comes out slightly better quality (though duplication by a professional company such as Mixonic ensures the highest quality duplication possible) and is a much better option if you are looking to order a couple thousand CD’s to take out on tour or self-release.

This is a guest post by Pandie Suicide) of Mixonic, a CD duplication service based in San Francisco.

In 2007, online radio revenues stood at a reported $500 million. Such figures surely convinced Spreaker’s co-founder and CEO — Francesco Baschieri — that there is a demand for the live broadcast of user-generated live radio streams before they are stored as downloadable podcasts.

Spreaker Logo

According to Baschieri he was “driving while listening to this great podcast,” before thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice if these guys were able to broadcast this live.” His love of user generated content saw the conception of Spreaker.

The website’s rising popularity is evidenced by the increase of 170 per cent in the number of internet users who have visited Spreaker.com over the past three months. Spreaker plays host to several live broadcasts at once, and if the live broadcasts aren’t to one’s taste, there are countless podcasts stored on Spreaker, covering topics as diverse as Finance, Music, and Sport.

In spite of Spreaker’s strengths, some users have expressed concerns regarding the songs that are available via the website’s own database, with one user telling Dotted Music that, “it [Spreaker] doesn’t have any pre-loaded well known songs”. The user was also disappointed with upload speeds, but Dotted Music had no trouble uploading songs.

Spreaker would arguably benefit from some sort of access to Spotify’s song database, but whether the website can negotiate some agreement with Spotify remains to be seen. Another cumbersome aspect of the service is the thirty-second advertisement that preludes the broadcasts – thirty seconds seems a long time for a thirty-minute radio show, while the fact that the advertisement (spoken in a voice eerily reminiscent of Spotify) is usually, if not always, the same.

Similarly to Spotify, Spreaker offers the options of a basic or premium account. At the moment the premium account doesn’t seem to offer enough to encourage the user to sign up, but perhaps offering a greater music database or more front-page coverage to premium account holders will change that.

Spreaker DJ Console

Spreaker use of social media to boost its profile is also a vital factor to its growth since its inception in Bologna, Italy in 2009. With a quick connection to facebook, podcasts can be immediately shared with facebook friends online. Spreaker’s iPhone application also ensures its services can be accessed anywhere at any time.

The website also scores highly in terms of its functional design, and its video tutorials make the whole process an easy one. Spreaker’s development over the coming months will be exciting to watch.

I tip the Italian-American project to shine in the coming months, even if there are concerns over how Spreaker regulates the upload of illegally accessed content for use in one’s radio broadcast. How Spreaker will be affected by the increasingly stringent laws regarding the distribution of digital content remains to be seen, but in Spreaker we have perhaps one of the most promising amalgamations of social networking and music media the web has yet played host to.

- Samuel Agini