Just dribbles and drabs of news in the world of social media radio this week. Here are a few items:
Michigan’s The Morning Sun reports that a recent high school graduate of that state has developed an application called “Selocial.” The app allows you to take a picture and then attach 15 minutes of music to it.
“It’s what we call Instagram meets Spotify with on the fly news,” David Baird told the Sun. “Customers can have a learning experience about the music they’re listening to.”
Baird says he has access to a very large music database. I went over to his application’s beta web site and signed up. A message arrived in my email browser moments later: “This is a confirmation that your request for an account at Selocial was received.” Nothing beyond that has happened yet, but I look forward to further developments and will report on them.
Meanwhile, the celebrity gossip website Oh No The Didn’t notes that synthpop producer and techno radio DJ William Orbit has uploaded a new mix titled Alien Insurrection to SoundCloud. God help anybody whose music is mentioned at ONTD; the comments couldn’t be cattier. Some representative snarls: “this is honestly awful. this sounds like the intro music to a 90s teen show,” “but…why does it sound country?,” “orbit is the definition of a one trick pony,” and “it’s kind of like a Ray of Light outtake with really bad vocals. :\ .”
At the risk of being shot at sunrise, I confess that rather like the piece. Here it is.
Speaking of SoundCloud, the service appears to be clobbering the music app scene in Indonesia. In a new survey, 31 percent of Indonesians say they use it, followed by 21 percent using MelOn and 12 percent using Shazam. SoundCloud is also popular in Vietnam and Philippines, albeit not as widely used as domestic applications, such as Vietnam Radio.
SoundCloud doesn’t get near the top three in India, however. That country’s winners: Songs PK, Saavn, and Hungama.
Finally, station XRAY-FM in Portland, Oregon has put out a notice announcing that its website now features lots of on demand content. You can listen to local progressive talker Carl Wolfson’s programs, plus Death Metal aficionados DJ Skull and DJ Bones’ Strike of Death show and a bunch of other neat stuff.
The station is looking for supporters, of course, the first 1,000 of which “will be immortalized as our Founding Members,” the announcement says. “You will be the ones who made XRAY.fm a sustainable part of the Portland radio landscape.” So Portlanders and others seeking immortality should check out XRAY’s contribution page.
We cover social music sharing communities every Monday in our Internet DJ feature.
