SOMEWHAT FRANK

Crush It Music Video For Charity (I Have A Cameo)

Today is the big day for my friend Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV, or GaryVee as many of you know him on Twitter, as he published his first business book Crush It: Why NOW Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion. This is Gary's second book overall, as his first book was about wine. I look forward to reading it. While Gary was writing it I sent him examples to use for various sections and feedback so I am interested to see how it turned out. Congrats and best of luck to Gary, I hope he sells lots of books! I bought it today.

It's great to see Gary come so far so quickly. I first met Gary via email when he wanted to send wine and sponsor our first TECH cocktail DC event, which we are very thankful for. Then we spoke together on a panel discussing social media at the New New Internet Conference in DC. We shared good times and joy by pulling together a flash mob wine party at SXSW in a matter of minutes. I even had Gary visit my hometown to speak in Woodstock, Illinois at the historic Opera House last year. There are many additional memories over the last few years but I don't want to bore you. All I can say is, It's been fun.

ELEW: Innovating Jazz Music Like A Startup

I have covered a number of start-up companies in my day as I offer my somewhat frank opinion, insight and candid perspective in my quest for new products and services or "shiny objects" as I like to call them. Two weekends ago, I got a chance to take another look at a different kind of start-up, one that goes by the name of ELEW (or ELEWW on Twitter). ELEW is powered by the thunderous energy of jazz pianist Eric Lewis as he has been innovating on jazz as we know it. Eric Lewis has created a new niche which takes alternative rock hits and brings them to the piano. But what makes Eric unique is that when he plays these tunes they sound like he is being accompanied by an orchestra.

So why is Eric Lewis so interesting? Eric's approach to jazz is an innovative one that reminds me of a start-up. Eric's disrupts the traditional jazz system in a way that could fuel some heated debates, similar to how start-ups can disrupt the flow of business as usual. Eric has also created a recognizable set-list which helps ensure people can relate to it. This is similar to the way successful startups often have a clear story that is easy to relate to. Eric has carved out a niche that did not previously exist, which reminds me of the way Twitter and other start-ups have created a need that users did not even know they had.

Blip.fm: Twitter For Your Music

Blip.fm is "Twitter for music" as it offers a microblog platform for users with the ability to search, upload and share music. Your blip.fm stream is then playable. You can also discover music from other Blip.fm users and give them props if you like a song they played. 

Video: AOL Radio iPhone App & Listen Anywhere

The Apple iPhone application was opened last week and AOL launched the AOL Radio application. The application is free and worth giving a try and a listen. It allows users to connect to both XM and local radio stations. It even is able to connect users with popular stations in larger markets. For example, I might want to listen to a popular Chicago station sports talk radio station like AM 670 the Score while in Washington, DC and AOL makes this possible.

I gave it a try and was shocked at the utility. I also now understand why the AOL Radio application was awarded by Apple for its superior design. I demonstrate some of the value the AOL Radio application adds to the iPhone as episode 33 of the SOMEWHAT FRANK TV video podcast.

NIN Challenges Music Business Model, Biofuels Compared, Widget Format, Google Reader Sharing Notes, Twitter Tools & Avatars

Photo of the Week: This photo of tulips taken by Melissa Goodman would somewhat frankly make a nice gift for mom as I wish all the moms out there Happy Mother's Day.

SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits: 5.11.2008

blippr Simple Social Recommendations

Looking for something new to read, watch or play? blippr, a startup created by Tag Team Interactive, offers a social utility which aims to facility social recommendations about books, games, movies, music, and (soon) TV from your friends. With blippr users can compile lists of things that they love and "blip" them which is similar to voting for an item (i.e. digg). blippr enables users to discover, recommend, and organize media and share it with their network of friends.

A blippr lifestream view enables users to see the rest of the recently added items thus offering up social recommendations. These recommendations can be be tagged, rated and commented on thus added to the conversation. Users can also purchase a recommended book, movie or video via likes to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders. blippr also leverages classic Web 2.0 features like tags, comments and ratings from the rest of the community.

JiwaMusic Relaunches Social Music Network

JiwaMusic, a Paris, France based music site built on Ruby on Rails by Jiwa SARL that I previously covered, launched into beta in May 2007 to offer users the ability to search, create, share and embed music playlists.

Last week, Jiwa launched a new version of its product to offer more songs (more than 400,000 songs as thousands are added every day), a new design and a brand new player and new ways to share your musical tastes among other things.

I have 20 beta invites so if you are interested in giving the new JiwaMusic a try please drop a comment on this post and I will send one to you.

OUTSHOUTS Makes The Music Go Round

OUTSHOUTS, a Palo Alto, California based three employee startup, takes 'making music going round' seriously. OUTSHOUTS enables anyone to act as a DJ to create and send their own mixes of your recorded voice and pre-recorded music or other content over email and text message directly to your mobile phone.

Tjoon For Split-Screen Webcam Video Jams

Looking to record split-screen multi-user videos via your web camera? I am. While there are a number of video platforms that offer single web cam video recording, I recently set forth on a quest for find the ultimate online video product for recording multi-user web camera videos. I came across a site called Tjoon. Tjoon, a startup created by Suite75, offers an easy way to record split-screen multi-user videos via a web camera. 

Songza Music Search Soon To Launch

Songza, a Chicago-based music startup, will soon launch to offer a new way to search, play and share music online. This free music search offers an extremely minimalist and slick interface to create and play playlists online. Songza's interface was designed by Chicago-based Humanized. Songza is so fresh, they have not even officially launched yet but if you are in the Chicago-land area this week you might want to attend the official Songza launch party on Thurday night.

Video Valve Recommends Music Videos

Video Value, a music recommendation site, offers up music video suggestions that you might like. Video Valve gets smarter as you play and rate additional videos. Though Video Valve's low profile layout and branding resembles that of a startup when in reality it is a Viacom product.

Music Shake: Create Music & Ringtones

Music Shake, a Korean born startup, captivated the audience at TechCrunch40 last week in San Francisco. Music Shake makes is easy to create music with its easy to use application. I gave Music Shake a whirl last night to if creating a song was as easy as it looked on the stage of TechCrunch40. 

BlueString Media Aggregator Launches

Imagine if you wanted to pull in photos, videos and music from both your desktop and multiple photo services on the Web into one place - with BlueString, now you can. BlueString, a new AOL product, has just launched at TechCrunch40 to offer a rich media aggregator for storing and sharing your memories.

Ruckus Aims Free Music At College Kids

Ruckus Networks, a Herndon,Virginia-based startup, has been making some noise on college campuses across the US. Ruckus is a college-only multimedia service offering free ad-supported downloads to college students.  After some initial bad reviews, Ruckus seems to be making moves and gaining traction. Ruckus has over 3 million music tracks available and just recently launched a Facebook application, extensive social networking capabilities, and an improved video service just in time for the new school year.

Free Online Video Guitar Lessons

Strumming a six-string guitar can be a very relaxing exercise but it is not something you can learn to do well overnight. It takes time to practice and perfect your skills. Read/Write Web recently wrote an article listing a number of web 2.0 sites and services for musicians. I recently found one that was not mentioned but is worth mentioning called JustinGuitar.com (no this is not Justin.tv).