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f8 Returns: Facebook Developer Conference Set for Sept. 22

August 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment


After months of speculation, Facebook has finally announced the date of its annual developer conference, f8.

The fourth edition of the conference will take place Sept. 22 in San Francisco. “This all day event with Facebook engineers and product teams will feature keynotes and session tracks that highlight our new tools along with best practices for developers and partners building the next generation of social experiences,” the company said in its email invitation.

The all-day conference is where Facebook typically launches its biggest products and initiatives. It launched the Facebook Platform at its first f8 in 2007, unveiled Facebook Connect in 2008 and launched the Like button and the Facebook Open Graph in 2010.

What will Facebook announce at this year’s f8? Mashable will be there to cover the major news from the world’s largest social network.

More About: f8, f8 2011, facebook, facebook platform

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Facebook Gets Music Via Chrome Plugin

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment


We’ve been holding out for some kind of partnership that would bring music to Facebook for a while now. Well, no dice on that, kids. However, a recently launched Chrome plugin called Music+ is sure to tide you over until that glorious day comes.

Music+ is a plugin that was developed during the Echo Nest Social Music App Challenge. It uses the music intelligence service’s API (as well as Facebook’s API) to make it easy to find and listen to music while surfing the web.

Simply install the plugin in Chrome, and start discovering music. At its simplest, you can pull up a toolbar in which you can search for playable music to listen to while browsing (courtesy of Rdio and MP3s on blogs). Those songs can be shared with friends on Facebook via message, or they can be posted as a playable stream on your wall.

Start surfing, and the app gets interesting. If you go to a blog and highlight a band name and right-click, you can listen to songs by that artist instantly. However, the app really shines when used with Facebook. You’ll have to disable secure browsing in order for it to work (which is a pain), but once you do, every artist on the site will have a “Play” button next to their name, allowing you to listen to tracks by that artist right within Facebook. You can then surf around the site as usual, without having to stay on the page to continue listening (as seen with Facebook Page apps like Bandpage).

The app also adds a column to the left of any band Page containing similar artists, an awesome addition when it comes to music discovery. It also allows you to add artists to your queue for later listening.

All in all, this is an awesome app when it comes to facilitating music discovery. No more toggling over to YouTube or a music subscription service to check out a band while reading. It’s all woven into the Facebook browsing experience.

More About: Echo Nest, facebook, music, social media

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook Gets Music Via Chrome Plugin

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment


We’ve been holding out for some kind of partnership that would bring music to Facebook for a while now. Well, no dice on that, kids. However, a recently launched Chrome plugin called Music+ is sure to tide you over until that glorious day comes.

Music+ is a plugin that was developed during the Echo Nest Social Music App Challenge. It uses the music intelligence service’s API (as well as Facebook’s API) to make it easy to find and listen to music while surfing the web.

Simply install the plugin in Chrome, and start discovering music. At its simplest, you can pull up a toolbar in which you can search for playable music to listen to while browsing (courtesy of Rdio and MP3s on blogs). Those songs can be shared with friends on Facebook via message, or they can be posted as a playable stream on your wall.

Start surfing, and the app gets interesting. If you go to a blog and highlight a band name and right-click, you can listen to songs by that artist instantly. However, the app really shines when used with Facebook. You’ll have to disable secure browsing in order for it to work (which is a pain), but once you do, every artist on the site will have a “Play” button next to their name, allowing you to listen to tracks by that artist right within Facebook. You can then surf around the site as usual, without having to stay on the page to continue listening (as seen with Facebook Page apps like Bandpage).

The app also adds a column to the left of any band Page containing similar artists, an awesome addition when it comes to music discovery. It also allows you to add artists to your queue for later listening.

All in all, this is an awesome app when it comes to facilitating music discovery. No more toggling over to YouTube or a music subscription service to check out a band while reading. It’s all woven into the Facebook browsing experience.

More About: Echo Nest, facebook, music, social media

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook Gets Music Via Chrome Plugin

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment


We’ve been holding out for some kind of partnership that would bring music to Facebook for a while now. Well, no dice on that, kids. However, a recently launched Chrome plugin called Music+ is sure to tide you over until that glorious day comes.

Music+ is a plugin that was developed during the Echo Nest Social Music App Challenge. It uses the music intelligence service’s API (as well as Facebook’s API) to make it easy to find and listen to music while surfing the web.

Simply install the plugin in Chrome, and start discovering music. At its simplest, you can pull up a toolbar in which you can search for playable music to listen to while browsing (courtesy of Rdio and MP3s on blogs). Those songs can be shared with friends on Facebook via message, or they can be posted as a playable stream on your wall.

Start surfing, and the app gets interesting. If you go to a blog and highlight a band name and right-click, you can listen to songs by that artist instantly. However, the app really shines when used with Facebook. You’ll have to disable secure browsing in order for it to work (which is a pain), but once you do, every artist on the site will have a “Play” button next to their name, allowing you to listen to tracks by that artist right within Facebook. You can then surf around the site as usual, without having to stay on the page to continue listening (as seen with Facebook Page apps like Bandpage).

The app also adds a column to the left of any band Page containing similar artists, an awesome addition when it comes to music discovery. It also allows you to add artists to your queue for later listening.

All in all, this is an awesome app when it comes to facilitating music discovery. No more toggling over to YouTube or a music subscription service to check out a band while reading. It’s all woven into the Facebook browsing experience.

More About: Echo Nest, facebook, music, social media

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook Gets Music Via Chrome Plugin

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment


We’ve been holding out for some kind of partnership that would bring music to Facebook for a while now. Well, no dice on that, kids. However, a recently launched Chrome plugin called Music+ is sure to tide you over until that glorious day comes.

Music+ is a plugin that was developed during the Echo Nest Social Music App Challenge. It uses the music intelligence service’s API (as well as Facebook’s API) to make it easy to find and listen to music while surfing the web.

Simply install the plugin in Chrome, and start discovering music. At its simplest, you can pull up a toolbar in which you can search for playable music to listen to while browsing (courtesy of Rdio and MP3s on blogs). Those songs can be shared with friends on Facebook via message, or they can be posted as a playable stream on your wall.

Start surfing, and the app gets interesting. If you go to a blog and highlight a band name and right-click, you can listen to songs by that artist instantly. However, the app really shines when used with Facebook. You’ll have to disable secure browsing in order for it to work (which is a pain), but once you do, every artist on the site will have a “Play” button next to their name, allowing you to listen to tracks by that artist right within Facebook. You can then surf around the site as usual, without having to stay on the page to continue listening (as seen with Facebook Page apps like Bandpage).

The app also adds a column to the left of any band Page containing similar artists, an awesome addition when it comes to music discovery. It also allows you to add artists to your queue for later listening.

All in all, this is an awesome app when it comes to facilitating music discovery. No more toggling over to YouTube or a music subscription service to check out a band while reading. It’s all woven into the Facebook browsing experience.

More About: Echo Nest, facebook, music, social media

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Facebook App Suggests Concerts Based on Bands You & Your Friends Like

August 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Trying to figure out what shows are going on this weekend, but too lazy to click through all of your favorite bands’ Fan Pages? ConcertCrowd aims to alleviate the onset of carpel tunnel by offering you suggestions based on your and your friends’ favorite bands.

ConcertCrowd is a Facebook app that launched Tuesday to make it easier to figure out what concerts to hit up. Simply install the app, and you’ll be presented with a dashboard that depicts all the upcoming shows in your area. You can click on “Your Artists” to see when bands that you’ve “Liked” on Facebook are playing, or “Recommended Artists” to see when your friends’ faves are slated to go on. You can also check out recently posted shows, as well as all shows in your geographic area.

The app also allows you to add concerts to your calendar, post events to your wall, email them to a friend and buy tickets. Click on a band’s name to access its Facebook Page.

Granted, there are a ton of apps out there that make it easy to find shows (I personally like Songkick‘s mobile app, which scans your iTunes to serve up suggestions), but Facebook surfers will definitely find ConcertCrowd useful when planning their weekends.

More About: concertcrowd, facebook, facebook apps, music

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Measuring Clout: 4 Music Charts Powered By Social Media

August 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

music image

Fifty-three years ago this week, Billboard launched its “Hot 100 Chart,” which at the time tracked top singles based on radio play and sales. A lot has changed since 1958 when it comes to measuring the popularity of tunes. Namely, now there’s this thing called the Internet all up in the music business’s business.

Granted, the “Hot 100 Chart” has been anything but stagnant over the years. Since it proclaimed Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” tops on August 4, 1958, it has introduced alterations such as the addition of streamed and on-demand music to the chart’s forumla. The chart ranks the week’s most popular songs across genres based on radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and streaming activity data provided by online music sources.

Although the chart is still a major indicator of musical success, there’s now a bevy of other tools that take into account the social aspect of a song’s popularity. Read on for four ways you can track musical success based on social media clout.


Next Big Sound




Next Big Sound launched back in March 2010. It gauges the popularity of bands and artists via fan activity on a variety of social networking sites, as well as traditional sales data, radio plays, traffic to an artist's website and P2P activity.

The website is basically a tool for fans, artists, music industry professionals and journalists to track the popularity of an artist across sites like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, Soundcloud, ReverbNation, Pure Volume, etc. Casual users can sign up to get weekly stats about their favorite bands sent to their inboxes and even compare bands' social clout on the site. More hardcore users -- like bands and labels -- can sign up for the premiere service for even deeper data mining.

NBS also recently partnered with Billboard, in order to bring you the second entry on on our list ...


Social 50




The "Social 50" is Billboard's newly minted chart. It measures an artist’s popularity every week based on social networking activity mined from Next Big Sound.

Like NBS, the Social 50 ranks artists using such metrics such as weekly additions of friends, fans and followers, artist page views and weekly song plays. Rankings are also influenced by measuring the ratio of pageviews to fans. if you're more of a curious fan than a hardcore music head, this is likely the chart for you. It's also usually packed with more mainstream acts, so if you're looking for more esoteric fare, you might want to check out ...


We Are Hunted




We Are Hunted is both a music chart and a community. At its core, the site features a chart that tracks songs' popularity every day based on blog activity, mentions on social networks, buzz on message board and forums, Twitter talk and movement on P2P networks.

It also features the ability to build your own charts, which you can share with friends and other music lovers, and a “Discover” tool, which helps you find new music based on what you like and dislike on the site.

Recently, We Are Hunted has been rolling out a bevy of apps, including an iPad app for music discovery and a number of offerings that integrate music intelligence company The Echo Nest's API, including the appropriately blasé Pocket Hipster.


MTV Music Meter




As part of MTV's quest to put the "music" back into "MTV," the network recently released its Music Meter, which seeks to highlight up-and-coming artists by ranking them based on their social media status.

MTV worked with music intelligence company the Echo Nest to develop an algorithm that combs through blogs, social media, video and more traditional metrics (like radio plays and sales) to determine which bands are receiving the most attention on any given day.

MTV also rolled out an app for iOS and Android iteration, letting users go mobile with their music discovery.

Image courtesy of Flickr, craigCloutier

More About: Billboard, billboard-hot-100, mtv-music-meter, music, music charts, next-big-sound, social media, social-50, wearehunted

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45 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

August 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment


At this point of the week, you know the features roundup is headed your way! The only difference this time around is that our tech features involve things like beer and Shark Week!

Okay, now that we’ve gotten your attention, tune in for the latest in social media obervations, startup tips and geeky gadgetry galore. Pack your brain with fascinating facts about the history of mobile phones. Satisfy your curiosity by discovering where those darn-cute Google Doodles come from. And tap into the best LinkedIn apps for sales teams. It’s your world — we just write for it.

Editors’ Picks

Social Media

Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

38 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

July 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment


Aaaaand…we’re back! The list might seem intimidating, but this week’s roundup of top Mashable features will ultimately save you loads of time otherwise spent scouring the web for tech resources.

We’ve compiled the past week’s features, how-tos and insights into a handy little package — and it’s just for you. Presenting everything from geeky galleries to thoughtful think pieces, this handy guide is here to help.

Editors’ Picks

Social Media

For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Business & Marketing

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

 

Image courtesy of Flickr, webtreats.

More About: business, List, Lists, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0, social media, tech, technology

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Universal Music Group Partners With Social Crowdsourcing Platform

July 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment


Universal Music Group partnered with social crowdsourcing platform Talenthouse Wednesday to create collaborative campaigns that it hopes will benefit both UMG artists and up-and-comers.

Talenthouse.com is an online community for artists founded in 2009 that creates competitions hosted by celebs and brands in order to jumpstart the careers of lesser-known artists in a variety of disciplines. (Lady Gaga and the Paul Taylor Dance Company are alums of the service, among many others.)

A few months ago, musician deadmau5, a.k.a. Joel Zimmerman, used the platform to crowdsource a design for a new mouse head to wear on stage — Zimmerman is famous for making like a rodent during shows.

Now, the service will become even more ingrained in the music world, as it will work with UMG artists and labels to launch their own “Creative Invites” (or crowdsourcing contests). Talenthouse says that this partnership will not only garner more fans and attention for UMG artists (the voting process is Facebook-based), but will also allow unknowns to collaborate with big names.

Online collaboration with known artists is becoming more and more common, with platforms like Indaba Music offering remix competitions and opps to work with musicians such as Rivers Cuomo, and services like Blazetrak giving artists access to the likes of Rubin Studdard.

image courtesy of Flickr, philman

More About: music, talenthouse, umg, Univeral-Music-Group

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