Matt Kiser

We like to talk about “social music” as it pertains to music shared with our friends across social networks. Spotify and Rdio’s integration into Facebook being the obvious example of social music. But, that’s not social music. Nor is Facebook’s “Listen with” feature. Even Turntable.fm for all its interestingness is close, but not an actual social experience. 

This is social music:

Imagine a venn diagram. In one circle is music I like. In the other circle is music a friend likes. The overlap is the sweet spot where music crosses over from being an individual experience, to music as a social one. In the vastness of the canon of recorded music, this is the spot at which the two of us intersect — this is where our musical compatibility and relationship begins. That’s powerful knowledge. Now take that concept further and extend it to music recommendations: music you like that your friend might also like. 

Think about it for a second: we don’t actually know what our friends will like. Do you really have a good answer to “what should I listen to?” for every single one of your friends? I’m an outlier and spend an extraordinary amount of time listening to music, and as good as I am at recommending it, my success rate is pitifully low. A “normal” person would have an even lower success rate. 

The ability to make recommendations “smart” and personalized on a person-to-person level is what I love about working at the intersection of music, media, and technology. 

If we could take this concept of social music and apply it to entire friend circles, the results would be incredibly interesting since it would highlight the natural affinity groups centered around particular artists and genres. Further, it would reveal the sub-sub-groups we form when we listen to music communally. Which, in reality, is what being social is about. 

Fantastic read by Joe Kraus on the culture of distraction we’ve created for ourselves with new technologies.

Gaps used to happen all the time. Now they’re disappearing. You’re eating lunch with a friend and they excuse themselves to the restroom. A gap. Now, you pull our your phone because being unstimulated makes you feel anxious. Waiting time in a line at the bank? Used to be a gap. Now it’s an opportunity to send an email or a text.

We didn’t think gap time and “boredom” were valuable. Now that we’re losing it, we get a sense of just how valuable it was.

Simply put, at the heart of creativity, insight, imagination and humaneness is an ability to pay attention to ANYTHING – our ideas, our line of thinking, each other. And that is what’s most threatened.

(via Joe Kraus)

1. Be Aggressive 
2. Be More Aggressive
3. Never Be Satisfied

(via Here Now)

On Friday, the Society of Publication Designers honored SPIN Play for iPad with the tablet app of the year award at the 47th annual SPD’s. Marisa Gallagher, VP/ECD of CNN Mobile, said “SPIN got me back into wanting to listen to music.”

For those keeping score at home, this is the fourth major award that SPIN Play has won. Previously, we’ve won awards and honors for being inducted into the Apple iTunes App Store Hall of Fame, winning a 2011 Media Vanguard Award and a 2011 HOW Interactive Design Award. SPIN Play was also recognized by the American Society of Magazine Editors as a Digital Ellies finalist in February. 

Here’s the quick, weekly roundup of links you need to read. It’s interesting that this week all but one link centers around the evolution of digital publishers, from The Atlantic downplaying SEO, to audience development trumpeting content, to former Huffington Post members starting a new kind of journalism incubator. Go forth and create awesome!

1. Why ‘The Atlantic’ No Longer Cares About SEO
2. The 9 Realities of Building a Sustainable Model for Journalism
3. Do One Emotionally Difficult Thing Every Day
4. Content Is No Longer King
5. In a SoHo Lab, HuffPo Mafia rekindles the old magic

We just won a 2012 HOW Interactive Design award for SPIN Play for iPad, which is a design competition that recognizes awesome interaction design, blog design, app design, and amazing interactive projects as well as inspiring website design. 

SPIN Play has previously won a 2011 Media Vanguard Award, as well as being inducted into the iTunes App Store iPad Hall of Fame. Wee!

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers … If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” –Steve Jobs, 2005

One of my all-time favorite blog posts by Zen Habits is the post “The Five Things You Need to Know About Finding the Work You Love.”

When you have respect and admiration for what you do professionally, you will do great things. When you lack that respect and belief in what you do, you’re easily frustrated and annoyed. Tap into why you do what you do, and adjust accordingly. 

Watch: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005

At SPIN, we believe that magazine-grade music journalism on the Web is the future of our business; premium content pays in other words. If that sounds scary in a world of Demand Media and SEO wizardry, just look at what Bill Simmons has done with Grantland. 

This post is inspired by a recent article in the Columbia Journalism Review about how the Huffington Post came to dominate the media industry, just as much as Eric Ries’ book The Lean Startup, which details a methodology for rapid and continuous product development. And, it’s hard to talk about the future of media without mentioning this Charlie Rose interview with BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti.

Taken together it’s clear that media companies need to evolve. And, love it or hate it, but HuffPo is awe-inspiring. It shows us both as much the way forward as it does the major pitfalls to avoid. BuzzFeed in many cases is the amplification of the successful tactics HuffPo has used. I strongly believe content companies need to place the five points detailed below at the heart of their mission if they are to survive the ever-evolving digital media landscape.

1. Connected

Everything you do, you must believe in. Make authentic connections with your audience and appreciate the time they invest in you. Strive to only add value. Empower your audience and turn weak relationships into strong ones. You and your audience are a participatory, symbiotic family. Don’t betray them.

2. Sticky

You must be able to explain what you do in a single sentence. Find your core idea and unexpectedly surprise your audience with it. They need to easily grasp, believe, and remember that idea later. Stickiness is about emotional stories. It’s what gets shared. 

3. Contagious

A contagion puts the emphasis on being very infectious, easily transmitted, and severely communicable — this is different than “going viral.” People sculpt their personas online through the sharing of content they believe defines them. It’s human nature to seek out and find enjoyment through mutual, shared emotional experiences with friends. Don’t be fooled: social has replaced search as the starting point.

4. Disruptive

The business model must change. The editorial imperative must change. We need to see editorial teams intimately aware of the business implications of content decisions and be empowered to iterate as needed to create sustainable content. The same goes for the business teams and their respect for the editorial process as editorial and branded content become more tightly integrated. There is no more important place to affect change at a media company than to marry the Lean methodologies of build-measure-learn to the editorial workflow. Understanding what works, why it works, and how to repeat those successes is the key to how you stay in business. Remember: build-measure-learn-iterate.

5. Voracious

Media companies must stop looking to their past in an attempt to preserve their future. We need media to be innovative and to think of the value they can provide beyond the article. Turning content into a service-orientated product is the greatest missed opportunity for media companies. It’s how we make media useful again.

Now you can listen to SPIN.com. Literally. 

I’m incredibly excited to announce that we just soft launched the new SPIN.com streaming audio player. It’s a persistent, “toolbar” that puts the music first, sitting at the very top of SPIN.com and allows you to literally flip your experience from a read-first to a listen-first one. 

Right now you’ll find a tightly curated list of new music (albums, tracks, and playlists) you can stream for free, and more importantly legally. This follows our recent Spotify integration where you can now listen to more than 7,000 of our music reviews.

This is the way a music blog should be: combining magazine-grade editorial content with the ability to seamlessly and simultaneously listen to what you’re reading about. Zero friction. Zero interruptions.

I think TechCrunch said it best in their video demo of the player:

…SPIN is finally treating its website like a product instead of just another music news site. It will be a place to go to not just to learn about music, but to experience it.

We hope you like it as much as we do. There’s plenty more to come. Stay tuned.