In honour of creativity, music and technology, Digital presents its top 10 indispensable music apps for Apple iOs (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), Google Android and as other smart devices.
1. LaDiDa – A fun app which uses a reverse karaoke concept. Sing into your device, choose a style and LaDiDa will match your vocals to a tune. You can then share it on Facebook, Twitter or send it via email. (iOs, €2.39)
2. Soundhound – Find out what song is playing anywhere. A close rival to Shazam, Soundhound’s extra feature is the ability to sing or hum into the microphone and get a match. (iPhone, Android, Ovi), Free / €3.99 for unlimited matches)
3. Bloom – Developed with Brian Eno’s help, Bloom is a musical instrument and a piece of art that enables anyone to create musical patterns and melodies by just touching the screen. See also Air and Trope by the same team. (iOs, €2.99)
4. I Am T-Pain – Perhaps the most hilarious app on the market, this app that allows you to sing along to some T-Pain hits or any tune on your iPhone. The more off-key you sing, the more the app autocorrects your voice, making the result an amazing live autotuned concert. (iOs, €0.79)
5. Tunein Radio – Choose from 40,000 radio stations in the world to listen to. For a compatible app for Android, Blackberry and Windows Phones try WunderRadio. It’s more expensive at €5.49 but does the same job. (iOs, €0.79)
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No matter what happens in real life, the internet keeps on truckin’, gifting us random videos for us all to laugh at. They might be funny but they also are a peek into our humanity and society at large (Ahem). Here are ten of the best LOLs of the year:
– Early in January, with the country in the grip of the aftermath of snow, one intrepid Dublin city explorer was caught falling on camera by RTE News. The sound of his body hitting the pavement became a sound heard around the world with over 1.5 million views.
– The comedic South African rave-rap group went all the way to a major label deal after their videos ‘Zef Side’ and ‘Enter the Ninja’ freaked the bejaysis out of everyone who saw them.
In these times of uncertainty in the music industry, illegal downloads, print media reshuffling and an ever-changing media landscape, the answer to the question – “How are musicians, artists and content creators going to make a living?” is as perplexing as ever.
One possible solution to the conundrum has come from an extremely unlikely source. Peter Sunde, the co-founder of The Pirate Bay – the most notorious Bittorrent site that is often-pointed as an example of blatant copyright infringement, has turned his attention to something much more noble. Imagine if paying your favourite artists was as easy as pressing a “Like” button.
Flattr is Sunde’s latest idea is just that, a social microdonation system which is aimed at rewarding content creators for the work they are producing. The idea is simple enough. Musicians, writers, film-makers, creatives and anyone making original content can install a Flattr button on their site. If the consumer of an article, a piece of music or any other media likes what they are engaging with, then a quick click of the Flattr button marks that person as a recipient of a percentage of the monthly credit that the person has committed to Flattr per month.
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It’s been nearly 11 months since ChatRoulette, the webcam chat site started by then 17 year-old Russian Andrey Ternovskiy exploded into popular consciousness. The site, which connected random anonymous strangers in a private chatroom with webcams soon became over-run with voyeurs and flashers. The desire to communicate with complete strangers was rejuvenated however and the popularity of video chat sites amongst internet denizens has risen.
The result has been a glut of new chat-based multimedia services. Here are five of the best contenders, all with awful names:
vChatter.com – Taking the Chatroulette concept and refining it, vChatter removes the anonymous aspect of random video chat by requiring users to log on with their Facebook accounts, thus encouraging civility. From there, you can call your Facebook friends or the site can connect you to a random stranger. Those seeking the serendipity involved with Chatroulette may not want to know who they are talking to however. The site claims to have 2 million users.
VYou.com – Billing itself as a “conversational video site”, vYou is all about video personas (as opposed to showing your true personality perhaps?). Visitors to the homepage will see a fascinating panel of live video streams from some interesting people like a professional athlete, a minor internet celebrity, a TV writer and a guitar-wielding man looking for a challenging song request. If you prefer to chat about something in particular, then you can browse profiles by interest. You might actually learn something through the site’s encouraged Q&A format.
Visitorscafe.com – Describing itself as Chatroulette meets eHarmony (an online dating site), Visitors Café narrows the field somewhat by offering its services to online communities which exist on blogs, message boards and popular sites. A good example of possible usage is guitar enthusiasts showing each other techniques. The idea is that, with established shared interests, the one on one connections will become more meaningful and focused. The site is currently invitation-only however.
Textslide.com – Dispensing with the video idea altogether, Textslide takes it back to the basics of a good-old fashioned SMS. Like Chatroulette, the connections are anonymous and the ability to move on to another stranger is a key feature. No phone numbers are displayed so personal information is kept private. You can start a conversation by sending the Textslide number a #start tag and if the interaction is not interesting, send #next tag to try again. The mobile-ready concept may just be too close to Twitter in theory to succeed however.
Chatfe.com – Taking some of the concepts above and mixing them together, Chatfé has come up with an audio-only mobile chat which connects two unfamiliar people with each other on a phone call. Like Vyou, Chatfé is based around topics, so it can be used to offer friendly advice, share information and knowledge on a hobby, issue or interest (a la VisitorsCafé). Recent homepage topics included traveling, music, philosophy, equal rights and design so it’s reasonable to assume the service lacks inappropriate behaviour. Chatfé will launch a browser-based tool in the near future.
In December last year, a mysterious video appeared on Youtube from iamamiwhoami that sparked rumours of an exciting new musical project. Featuring foreboding electronica and lots of curious symbolism, the video and its proceeding series of clips, which appeared at irregular intervals over the course of the last 11 months, led wishful pop fans to believe it was the work of an established act. Christina Aguilera, Goldfrapp, Fever Ray, Lady Gaga and Little Boots were mentioned by fans as hopeful guesses as to the creator of the viral videos. As those artists’ own releases came and went, only the name of Jonna Lee, a singer-songwriter from Sweden and a co-operative of unknown multimedia artists remained.
Last Monday night, a promised live concert was streamed for six hours only via the towhomitmayconcern.cc website and intrigued fans got their most ambitious viewing yet of the project. The resulting 63 minute film may just be the most elaborate production from a little-known artist in the last five years.
It went down like this. Leading up to the date of the concert, iamamiwhoami posted short clips following a chosen Youtuber making his way to the concert site at the invitation of the group. He is picked up at his hotel and after a ten minute drive, the performance begins. At first, Jonna Lee sings and plays instruments strapped onto the car. Then, playing the siren, Lee summons our protagonist into a forest where increasingly more elaborate sets and lighting provide the backdrop for the performance of the iamamiwhoami songs. There are synchronised flashing lights, a huge cardboard structure at the base of a gothic tree, freaky costume changes, forest dances, men in balaclavas and white underpants outside their clothes, cardboard box funeral pyres and our protagonist meets a nasty end. Continue Reading..»
A followup post to this week’s feature:
There is no doubt that Irish music is in a fruitful age at the moment. The country’s musicians are producing massive amounts of high-quality music. No longer is it left up to a troop of unimaginative troubadours to serenade us gently into our twilight years. The country is teeming with innovative musicians performing in all genres ambient instrumentals, cutting-edge electronica, DIY hip-hop, adrenalin-soaked rock, folk, lo-fi indie and guitar pop.
The last time this country was in a recession, we were missing something called the internet. Musicians, whether they have a full-time job or not, now have the advantage of a completely independent path. Computer music software has made it easier than ever to make music and modern music technology on the web makes it easier to share that music with potential fans. There are a huge amount of Irish artists sharing their music online for free using services like Bandcamp and getting the word out via bloggers. Here are some of the most recent artists gaining attention.
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A few months ago, Arcade Fire debuted an interactive video (thewildernessdowntown.com) for the band’s song We Used To Wait. Using Google Maps, Street View and the latest in web language HTML5, the video was tailored to each viewer as it asked for the “home address where you grew up”. The idea fits perfectly with the Canadian band’s dominant themes on their latest album The Suburbs: nostalgia and childhood dwellings.
The video was the brainchild of Chris Milk who has directed videos for Gnarls Barkley, U2 and Kanye West. His latest video project is just as ambitious in scope. The Johnny Cash Project (thejohnnycashproject.com) is a global collective art experiment in which anyone can get involved.
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