I recently wrote a piece for Billboard in which I analyzed the first week of airplay for Beats 1, Apple Music’s 24/7 worldwide radio station. While Apple provides playlists (through Apple Music’s Connect feature) for the programs curated by hosts like Zane Lowe and specials like St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service and Q-Tip’s Abstract Radio, there is no native way to see a list of everything on Beats 1’s airwaves.
Continue reading “How to view, search, and analyze the Beats 1 playlist”
music
While many people flocked south to Austin, Texas last week for this year’s South By Southwest festival, which showcases more than two thousand artist performances alongside label presentations, technology reveals, and discussion panels, some of us had to settle for attending Couch By Couchwest from home. I spent the past week digging through a spreadsheet of 2,121 artists who were slated to play during SXSW 2015, and after whittling down the list and listening to 622 of them, I have selected 76 independent acts that warrant further attention now that the festivities have ended. Read a short blurb on each artist below along with a prime track among their discography, or skip ahead to the full playlist on SoundCloud by clicking here. Continue reading “76 independent artists to watch following SXSW 2015”
I’ve been thinking lately about popular social media apps like Vine and Tinder that emphasize a brief snapshot of content and allow you to move quickly through a brief feed or stack, and how their technologies could inspire new ideas for the music industry. Continue reading “Using ideas from Tinder and Vine to power music discovery”
As the music industry wakes up from its holiday slumber and begins the new year, attention shifts to developing new artists whose careers are beginning to build. Below are forty hand-picked artists of varying genres and current levels of success. Some are completely independent, while others have already topped charts. Regardless, all of them show potential to be even bigger names, particularly in America, in the coming year. Listen to the artists through this SoundCloud playlist, and check back later in the year to see how these predictions turned out. Continue reading “Class Of 2015: 40 promising artists to watch this year”
As the largest part of a series of updates to multiple digital platforms to help promote the band’s independently-released sophomore album, The Bridge, I redesigned the WordPress website for Graffiti6’s official website. The site is responsive for both tablet and mobile displays and focuses on Graffiti6’s discography, with custom post types used to build a discography of music releases and a lyrics section. The two sections are connected to link each song on a release to its lyrics, and in order to provide interactivity, I used Livefyre’s Sidenotes plugin to allow fans to share and comment on their favorite lyrics. (Read more on my implementation of Livefyre Sidenotes here.)
While working with Graffiti6’s TommyD to provide updates across digital platforms to help promote the band’s independently-released sophomore album, The Bridge, I had the opportunity to create a lyric video for the album’s second single and title track, “The Bridge.” Inspired by the band’s kaleidoscopic style, both graphically and musically, I created the lyric video in Adobe After Effects, using preset effects to allow the song’s lyrics to pop out from swirling graphic background imagery.
Facebook cover photos created to help promote MSU jazz professor Michael Dease’s big band album and Posi-Tone Records debut, Relentless.
Pop Unmuted is a pop music podcast on which I act as a co-host along with host Scott Interrante. I created a logo that encapsulated the bright, expressive sound of pop music while also containing an air of sophistication and authority to match the podcast’s goals for intelligent, theory-based discussion of the genre. I also launched a Tumblr-powered website to house podcast episodes and related content. Using Tumblr’s default theme Optica as a base, I edited the theme to suit our branding ideas, including muted colors, the “-x-” design featured in the logo, and a web font that mimics the logo. Logo and social media images are .svg files to ensure clarity on tablets and smartphones.
As part of a website redesign to market Graffiti6’s independently-released sophomore album, The Bridge, I created social media graphics to help promote the album release, as well as of that of single “U Got The Sunshine,” which was promoted in international markets. These graphics were posted as cover photos on the band’s Twitter and Facebook pages and as banners on the existing Graffiti6 website in the interim while the redesign was being completed. On Facebook and the website, they were accompanied by smartURL links to help track clicks and monetize purchases.
After being asked to assist one of my jazz professors at Michigan State University, Etienne Charles, with social media promotion surrounding the release of his album Creole Soul, I created several graphics for social media promotion. These images, based around the style of the Creole Soul album cover and existing accompanying graphics, were used on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as within email newsletters.
