Proper Criminals » Music

Google Music search gets exclusive songs… needs UI tweak…

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:57:30 +0000

Not only is Google partnering with MySpace and Lala to bring music listening and purchase results front and center on search results but now they are offering exclusive tracks and free downloads from both services. This is great in theory but in execution it is lacking one small touch that would make it brilliant.

One of the exclusive and free downloads is from the hip indie french band of the moment Phoenix who are offering the track “Lasso (2 Door Cinema Club RMX)” free at Lala.com. Take a look at the image of the first result when searching for Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Remix Collection):

Do you know which one is the exclusive track? Do you know which one is the free one? If a user could know at a glance which tracks are free downloads or exclusive to Google it would improve the user experience and click conversion immensely.

This does not discount the amazing value and no small feat for Google to provide these free and exclusive tracks but it would be a small UI tweak to let the user know there how amazing the value is in using Google to search for music.

Now if someone were to create a product to aggregate these free downloads and exclusive results and allow users to search/filter… hmm…

Read full article here: Venture Beat

MySpace Music + MSN = New New Hotness?

austin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:57:56 +0000

In the growing news trend of MySpace engaging in large partnerships over the last few days here is another exciting piece: MySpace Music and Microsoft together in bed to create a better music experience on MSN?

“Sources said Microsoft execs don’t think they can do as good a job as MySpace is doing and don’t see the point in striking needed but complex deals with music labels, which the News Corp. (NWS) property already has.”

MySpace + Facebook = New Hotness

austin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:39:30 +0000

hmm… what do you get when you take the biggest place on the interweb for connecting people and sharing activity with the best place for discovering new music content and such? well that is what a Facebook and MySpace plan on doing.

it seemed that major media companies rarely ever do large partnerships with equals or companies they consider “competitors”. frienemy “coopertition” is nothing new but more often than not it is usually nominal and on the surface only. but with MySpace and Facebook negotiating terms to share content: finally a partnership that really makes sense.

why reinvent the wheel when you can partner with a place that already has 4 wheel drive? Bringing MySpace content to Facebook is a no brainer for FB especially with MySpace’s new focus on the MySpace Music as a platform for discovery and artist tools. and for MySpace it is the shift (or a realization of their denial) from trying to compete to be the largest online community to embracing what they do best.

WMG wakes up and smells the video inventory…

austin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:12:00 +0000

After pulling the plug in December WMG has finally agreed to put their music back on YouTube. The deal include all original content as well as content in user generated clips. Wonder what it took to get them to flip flop so quickly…

Official Press Release here

The Phoenix drummer is rockin …

austin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:26:28 +0000

The Phoenix drummer is rockin like he is Neal Peart at a Rush concert…! #phoenix