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 ArtistServer  Monday, Jul 18, 2005 10:35:08 AM
The Status of this Web Apparatus If you've stopped by ArtistServer lately, you probably noticed a few things are different as I've recently launched several new site features/tools. In order to help you get up to speed on these new additions, I'll introduce you to each one below:Ringtones: For Artists, this means each song you upload on the site can also have a 'related' mp3 ringtone. We now have a ringtone transfer tool which helps site visitors get the ringtone on their phone. For those looking for mp3 ringtones, you'll find we currently do not have very many to offer you, but this will change by the end of the year. If you find a song you like on the site - email the artist and ask them to make a ringtone from the song and that ArtistServer.com has info on how to do it. Tags and Tag Clouds: Tags, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, are basically keywords. This in iteself isn't very cool. What is cool, is how we can use tags to find new content - think of it as a 'discovery system' and you'll start seeing how tags and 'tag clouds' can serve your needs. Tags and tag clouds provide an organic method of finding new and related content. As we progress with the tag concept, we will eventually evolve to offer the ability to subscribe to tags or tag clusters. Stations, Playlists and Podcasting: This set of tools isn't currently available, but it's basically done. I can't open the site up for playlists and podcasts right now due to server load. There's just no way our single server could handle the increase in traffic. So expect these tools to become available in the next two months. For now, you can check the stations area out on the site, just visit http://www.artistserver.com/stations to take a look. Why don't I go over each of these three items so you understand how this all fits together. Stations are at the top level, they retain a name, a location on the site, a feed URL for all your playlists and bascially, they serve as a point of presence if you want one - otherwise, you'll mainly be interacting with playlists. Below stations are playlists - where each station can have multiple playlists. You could consider each of your playlists a show if you wanted, as we do tag each playlist with a date. Or, you could treat your playlists as nothing more than collections of your favorite songs on the site - whatever - it's up to you. Playlists also offer you the option of adding comments below each song and adding your own content to the side of the site - where you could add your own graphics, links, etc. Now for the podcasts! You won't have to do anything to create a podcast - as soon as you finish creating your playlist - it's also available as a podcast. Bam! The only thing to consider, is that not all the songs on the site are 'podcast compatible.' What this means, is that music by Freeware members is not available for podcasts - on music by artists who support the site by upgrading their account. In order to get this all started, there will most likely be a trial period where all music will be available for podcasting. I hope to open the stations/playlist/podcasting tools and area by the end of September 2005. Mobile Website: I won't say much about the mobile version of the site just yet, as it's still very much in beta and I haven't been able to work on it for a few weeks. You can check it out if your mobile phone supports WAP 2 - which is basically xHTML. Just pop open your phone's browser and go to artistserver.com and you'll get routed to mobile.artistserver.com. If you have any feedback about the mobile site, please let me know. Copyright and Creative Commons Licensing: Every song on the site now carries either a copyright graphic or a Creative Commons graphic with a link to the license. This is the first step in our integration of licensing, the next step will be adding this information to our RSS feeds, then eventually, we will embed the license in your content for you (if the format supports it). ======= How does ArtistServer Compare to the Competition? If you click around and check out my competition, you'll find that they: - don't support Tags - don't have a mobile site - don't provide RSS feeds of their content - don't prodive music fans with their own site and blog for free - and don't offer or support ringtones You would also find that only 2-3 have license integration and maybe 4-5 have stations support, while only 1 has Podcasting support and maybe 2-3 provide blogs. What this says to me, is that the competition isn't evolving, that they aren't embracing new technology and distribution methods - and that ArtistServer will leapfrog it's competitors in 2006. For more information on what has been developed here and what is coming up, please view the "Release Log" at this address: http://www.artistserver.com/releaselog.cfm 
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ArtistServer Tuesday, Jul 12, 2005 9:17:42 AM
ArtistServer.com now supporting "Tags" What Are Tags: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TagsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Tags are pieces of information separate from, but related to, an object. In the practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords, tags are descriptors that individuals assign to objects. ================= ArtistServer now supports "Tags" - which are basically 'keywords' - but there's more to it than that - or at least there will be :) Content that can be Tagged: - songs - blog posts - news/articles - playlists Content that will be Taggable: - links (providing a social linking system like del.icio.us) to do this, I'll have to overhaul the link tables, code, etc - photos - once photos are added - video - same deal, once it's added - and possibly your own 'favorites', there may be some benefit in this, although I'm not sure people would enter in the tags, we'll have to see when we get there ================= How to Tag your content: - it's best to leave out things like punctuation - only use single words - if you must use multiple, wrap them in "quotes like this" - only use descriptive words that have to do with the content - people use Tags to find content, keep this in mind when creating new Tags To see how Tags are used on the site - visit the Music page: http://www.artistserver.com/music.cfm ================ Why you should Tag your content: - tags provide another way for people to find your content - tags give you your own method of organizing - tags align your content with similar content, which increases the chances of people finding your content - tags will also get placed in our RSS feeds, this will increase the the searchability of the content and making it more attractive to RSS indexing sites - tags are fun - I know that sounds odd, but you may find them fun - tags are on the rise - if you haven't heard about them, you will - tags are cool ================ Tag Clouds: A Tag Cloud is a cluster of Tags which illustrate popularity/frequency based on font size. So if you look at a Tag Cloud, you'll see all kinds of words in ABC order - all different sizes usually linked to a search on that specific word. We have Tag Clouds on: - the Music Page - the Blogs page - Artist Blogs - the News/Articles page They are currently set to pull the Top 100 and will retain the sizes you see on the screens - overflow content will cause a scrollbar to display within the DIV. ================= If this doesn't make any sense :) This scenario might help... Once all the tagging takes off, and users tag their photos, blogs, songs, links, etc., I'll have this fairly large collection of relational data which can then be used in very interesting ways. The most basic, would be content subscriptions via RSS feeds. Let's say you are interested in "New York" and "dark." By taking these keywords, you'd be able to set up a content feed that would pull down to your computer anything tagged on the site with those Tags/keywords. On a more complex level, this large collection of relational data would also allow for the development of a 'suggestion engine' that would be able to find content on the site that you might be interested in. The more you tag things - the more you use the site - the more reviews you give, etc, would all go into a process that would compare your data to the whole collection and locate: artists, friends, songs, images, links, etc that you could be interested in. As you can see, this is the begining of "intelligent agents" for ArtistServer. This concept will evolve to where you could even converse with the site - where your 'agent' could take on an avatar and personality, etc - you own personal site host.
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ArtistServer Sunday, Jul 10, 2005 4:42:39 AM
You know you're a Webpreneur when... You know you're a Webpreneur when it's 4:30 AM on Sunday and you've been working since midnight Satuday... and no one is even paying you. :)I'm about to fall asleep - but I just finished the adding the "tagging tool" and the "tag cloud output with search" to: music, news, blogs and the new stations/playlist section (which is still in beta). Be sure to TAG everything you post on the site - and please, go back to your older songs, news postings, and blog posts, and add TAGS to them. What's a tag? It's like a keyword - but more, actually, it's just a keyword - the cool part about "tags" is how we work with them - how we can use them to find content and discover relationships within all the content on the site, and the Web in general. RSS, feeds, tags - these are soon to become common terms to most people's vocabulary - so get into it now, take advantage of the tools on the site - and PLEASE... give me some feedback :) If something is confusing - let me know - if it's too difficult to use - let me know - if you really like how something works, let me know. The only way you can get what you want, is to start taking action - speak up - this site is for you! ok - now it's 4:45 AM - i'm beat.
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ArtistServer Saturday, Jun 25, 2005 2:46:30 PM
ArtistServer - Stations, Playlists, Feeds and Tags Development of the stations/playlist tools:=========================== Development of the stations/playlist tools is nearing completion. Everything is basically done, but I want to go in and try to break it to make sure I have all the holes filled. What are stations and playlists? =========================== You probably already know what a playlist is - but in terms of using and creating them on ArtistServer.com, we are about to step into an explosion of music distribution and discovery. Our stations will be created and managed by the artists and members on the site - you name it, give it an icon, and a description. Next - you create a playlist - you add songs, resort them, write notes/comments next to each song, assign an icon to your playlist, add tags (keywords)... click and listen. If you want to create another playlist - no problem - make as many as you like. What about Podcasting/Audio Feeds? =========================== Each Station and Playlist will have a feed URL to subscribe to for both RSS feeds (For Podcasting) and XSPF (XML Sharable Playlist Format). BUT - not every song in a playlist will be served in these feeds - ONLY songs by artists with upgraded accounts will be tagged as 'PodCast compatible.' To make the process of creating playlists for Podcasting easy, the playlist builder tools allow you to filter out all songs that are not 'PodCast compatible.' Currently, all artists who were previously paying members are available for Podcasting/Audio Feeds. Current Development Status =========================== Right now I'm working on the pages that display the stations, playlists and provide a listing/search page for all playlists. Once those are done, I'll modify the current .m3u generator on the site so it will generate streaming files from the playlists. Then... I'll add in the RSS feeds with 'enclosures' - which is another way to say "Podcast" or "music feed" or "audio feed" - it's basically a way for people to 'subscribe' to your playlists. Tags - the 'proper' way to categorize content =========================== If you have some time, read this: http://shirky.com/writings/ontology_overrated.html We're going to start using 'tags' as a means of organizing content on the site. A tag is just a modern term for 'keyword' :) If you've used sites like http://www.technorati.com or http://del.icio.us or http://www.flickr.com - then you've probably seen how 'tags' work. If you dont' know what I'm talking about, go http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ - that's a 'tag cloud' - then read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tags This doesn't mean 'genres' are going to be removed - not at all. It just means that we'll also have an alternate way of organizing and searching for content across the site. Tags will most likely be applied to playlists first. After this, I hope to apply the newly developed 'tag manager'to Songs, Images, Artists, Articles, links, and all future content on the site. Then - maybe later down the road, you'll simiply define how 'you' want to consume ArtistServer. For example... let's say you are a massage therapist, and you are always looking for music that is: "quite instrumental mellow." What you would do, is search on this - then add the generated feed URL to your feed program (like FeedDemon - or when Longhorn comes out, your feed reader will be embeded in Windows, or iPodder, etc.). Once you are subscribing to the feed, your software will download any songs that are tagged with these keywords. Another example... let's say you want to be aware of Hip Hop in New York. No problem - you would search on, "New York Hip Hop" - then save the link to your feed reader - and there you go. Yes - the future will be served to you in feeds. :)
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