Musician's Web Keeper

Still images? Slideshows? Boring, @ThingLink is way cooler

My first ThingLink interactive image, a feature for PLAYMA's website. Absolutely loving the deep integration with services like Topspin and Soundcloud.

Will see how it's accepted by PLAYMA fans, but so far I see this tool as a perfect replacement of featured images and slideshows on websites' home pages (plus there are way more other ways to use it).

PS: Turns out Posterous doesn't support ThingLink, which is kinda addnoying, so check out the image here.

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

PLAYMA photoshoot backstage: less words, more images with Webdoc

Playing with Webdoc today, which recieved quite some buzz on MIDEM this past weekend (a dedicated blog post is coming up today on Dotted Music).

Not fully convinced with how everything is organized there, but it is cool and very useful service without a doubt!

Check out a video my wife Katya did from a PLAYMA photo session in December 2011 (the photographer is Vika Konovalova).

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

Promoting the launch of a new website with QR #CaseStudy

Pretty much speaks for itself ;)

Tool used: http://qrnot.es/

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

Quickly creating announcements with Smore #CaseStudy

Another cool little app I discovered and tested this week is called Smore.

Currently in Alpha (yes, not even Beta), the service allows to instantly create simple pages and share them on social networks. This kind of a digital flyer is great for announcing events, and so I tried it out yesterday with a page dedicated to next week's premiere of PLAYMA's new music video for "Cuz We Are PLAYMA."

THE RESULT: Cuz We Are PLAYMA announcement on Smore

THE PROCESS:

1. Signed up with a Facebook account (the service is currently invitation-only, but check the end of the post if you want the access)
2. Created a new page
3. Edited the title, description, added text, few teaser photos from the video, a link to the PLAYMA YouTube channel. There are not too many formats available for instering into a page, but enough for what this tool was created for. Adding an event date was a bit confusing, since the widget also includes a location field that can't be removed (totally ok if you promote a real-world event like a party). That's why the primere will apparently happen in the SF YouTube office (need to inform the guys so they are not too shocked on Tuesday).
4. Changed the theme. I'm not sure who is the target audience of this service right now, but most of the themes are too... colorful.
5. Published and shared the URL! Very quick and simple.

Basic statistic are available, showing the admin how many views the page got (without any details at this point). I loved that each page goes with a Facebook comment plugin, which is very appropriate considering the social concept behind the service.

Overall a fun and handy tool, which of course needs to improve to become something that you can use on a regular basis (but it's alpha afer all). The two creators of the service have done a great work so far.

If you want an invite, let me know in the comments or Twitter @matterandrew and I'll try to get you one!

PS: For full disclosure, I am not affiliated with Smore, but do manage PLAYMA. Watch that video on Tuesday, it's awesome!

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

My face in Times Square? Would be nice!

About.me has launched a contest to find new faces for our fall promotion. Selected winners will see their about.me page featured across our campaign, including on a giant billboard in Times Square. In addition, three grand-prize winners will receive a trip to New York City to see their page in lights and attend an exclusive about.me event.

via about.me

Accidently, just by having an About.me profile, I participate in this promotion by the AOL-acquired company. If you haven't tried about.me yet, be sure to register for free here, and meanwhile - leave a vote for my page ;)

PS: The funny part is that I cannot win; only US residents are eligible to participate in the contest. But my page is in the top 15% currently, so why not to give a shot? This will be a cool little experiment.

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

'Get Your Music Featured On The Right Blogs' - Upcoming Webinar from MicControl

My friends at MicControl has just announced the launch of MicControl Consulting service, and I must say that what they offer sounds so damn compelling!

On August 2nd they are hosting a webinar, which is just $10 and covers the following:

What can you expect from signing up?

We're going to start things off with a 45 minute presentation showing you the ins and outs of the blogosphere.

• How do you find the right blogs to feature your music?
• What's the best way to approach a blogger about featuring your music?
• How can you increase the odds that you'll get featured again?
• How can you create a relationship with a blogger that is mutually beneficial for both you?

All these topics are covered as well as everything in between to make sure your music is getting heard.

Afterwards we will hold a half-hour Q&A session where you can ask us questions pertaining to all the material we covered.

Finally, we're including a PDF reference guide that will outline all the material covered in the webinar for your personal use as you take the blogosphere by storm.

To celebrate our first webinar, we've got two great offers for everyone as well!

1) 25% off any MicControl Consulting service to all attendees.

2) A Raffle! One Attendee will receive a FREE Q&A session (phone or Skype - winner's choice). The winner will be announced at the beginning of the webinar.

Be sure to read more about this in the full announcement. The deal is great.

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

Band Manchester Orchestra uses Turntable.FM to share new tracks with fans

From the press release:

Each member of the band took turns spinning some of their favorite music and chatted with their fans for nearly four hours. For the lucky fans that got into the session, the event was highlighted by the band sharing two unreleased and previously unheard demos that they recently recorded. The band announced the special session on Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday afternoon informing fans they would tweet the DJ room link out at 7:59 PM EST. The room immediately filled upon announcement and quickly became one of the highest trafficked rooms on the site. The band plans to hold additional DJ sessions on TurnTable.FM in the coming months.

Entertaining and timely, though Turntable.fm remains closed only to the US visitors (I must confess that I didn't see it coming using the service just two weeks ago).

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

Get "10 Truths" as bonus to Bob Baker's Music Marketing Mentorship Program

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

New Dotted Thoughts look, About.me directory feature

New Dotted Thoughts!

Over the weekend I finally updated the look and feel of this Posterous theme, originally called Helvetica and offered to all Posterous users by MetaLab (great job!). Starting today, the Dotted Thoughts blog will be updated more often than ever, so please subscribe and come back here for music industry insights, hot news, case studies and less relevant yet fun stuff.

Me in About.me directory

Aaand, on a side note, to my surpirse my About.me profile just got featured in the About.me directory! Screenshot below, you'll have to find me there though (silly me!).

If you didn't know, About.me is a simple and awesome free service for creating custom personal profiles (what I would call virtual business cards). There is a powerful analytics dashboard for tracking how many times your profile has been viewed and what links have been clicked.

Great tool, be sure to check it out and secure your name on it.

Posted by Andrew Apanov 

Gorillaz release 'Escape to Plastic Beach' online game

Simple, but so lovely - reminded me of old console games I had been playing when I was a kid. Try out the Escape to Plastic Beach game, and read more about it below:

"Parlophone has confirmed the release of "Escape to Plastic Beach" - a multi level, multi format game release that takes fans on the Gorillaz journey to their new headquarters on Plastic Beach. The game also includes an MP3 download of the band's new single 'Superfast Jellyfish' taken from their new album 'Plastic Beach'.

"Escape to Plastic Beach" is the first game of its type merging numerous levels of Flash and Unity formats along with a new single MP3 to create an audio, visual, graphical and gaming experience to expand fans' experience of an album. Increasing the experience beyond traditional album release - the game features original artwork, voiceovers from the band and numerous other tracks from the new Gorillaz album.

Gorillaz Bassist, Murdoc stars as the main protagonist in "Escape to Plastic Beach" but will also play the game along with fellow members Cyborg Noodle and 2D - posting scores which fans can view and compete against via a global high score table.  Fans who bought the "Experience" edition of the album had an exclusive preview of the 3D gliding game chapter as part of the extra content offered via the CD.  Experience buyers will also be able to access the entire game in full, for free via their copy of Plastic Beach. Fans can also save their high scores in the members area of www.Gorillaz.com."

Posted by Andrew Apanov