Music Trends: From Social Media to Streaming Video December 8th, 2009
Portia Krebs

With iPods and MP3 players now mainstream, broadband music is expanding in other exciting directions – and connecting music lovers in new and innovative ways.

Thanks to social media, sharing music has taken on a new life online.  New apps invite Facebook users to customize their profiles to showcase their music interests.  MixPod enables music lovers to create playlists and embed them on their Facebook profiles. The Music Video Jukebox app links an individual’s profile with YouTube music videos of their own choosing.  Or for musicians, self promotion is as easy as uploading the My Band app – featuring everything from gig schedules to ticket sales, as well as insight into who is listening to and sharing your music.  And, how about a virtual game of “name that tune”?  Music Challenge connects 3.4 million monthly active users with a music trivia game that encourages players to guess the song and artist associated with a short music sample.

The desire for music countdowns is still alive as well.  Building on the days of American Bandstand and the Billboard charts, MySpace Music Charts offers a ranking system for artists, songs, albums, and music videos according to genre.  The collections draw on MySpace’s massive collection of music engagement data to identify top music trends.  And, the charts are interactive too – inviting users to play tracks, create playlists, view songs friends are playing, and buy favorite tunes.

The MTV and VH1 music video models are finding homes online as well.  In addition to YouTube and MySpace’s extensive music video collections, Hulu recently entered the music video sphere.  Partnering with the major music label EMI, Hulu kicked off this new capability by giving Norah Jones a channel to debut her new album “The Fall” and post concerts, videos, and interviews.  In this way, Hulu aims to create a more immersive experience for music fans.

Exploring the world of music and sharing your favorite finds online is growing more dynamic, thanks to broadband-driven social media and video sites.  For music aficionados or those who simply want to learn more, the Internet offers virtually endless possibilities.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Benefits of Broadband. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.