Psonar Blog

Having ranted last week about the threat to 6 Music, I thought I ought to find something good to say about the BBC. Actually it wasn’t all that hard and I was torn between recommending Jen Long’s excellent series of blog posts on the key players in the music industry (agents, managers, press and publishers) and the BBC Introducing Upload page for new music:

I think it’s great that the BBC is prepared to solicit new music and give it a chance to be heard on local or national radio. One question – can anyone tell me about their experience of being picked and actually getting airtime?

The BBC announced this week that it’s planning to close 6 Music as part of its shake-up of services. It’s concerned to divert more money to programme-making and do less in the digital space – both digital radio (it’s planning to close the BBC Asian Network) and a large chunk of its web presence.

I can’t help feeling that these are the wrong priorities. The music industry is going through one of the toughest times it’s faced in years, with the labels cutting their artists rosters – especially among newer, emerging performers. These are precisely the kind of artists that benefit from exposure on 6 Music. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Radio 1 does a great job of promoting new music – but 6 Music has greater opportunity to give listeners exposure to those musical genres that are out of the mainstream and which need airtime to reach a larger audience. Is this worth sacrificing for yet another costume drama populated with the great and good of British acting or even the dreary ‘Waking the Dead’ which bears no comparison to great US TV police drama such as ‘The Wire’?

In the end, people who love music need to fight to keep 6 Music and its exploration of the eclectic and excellent in contemporary music, wherever that’s to be found: blog, tweet and join the Facebook Group – Save 6 Music.

I’ve spent the last week trying to patch together video clips from the Brits in order to see the full panoply of the talented, and not-so-talented, featured during the awards bash.

Rosie Swash of The Guardian did a good round-up which is still available on the paper’s website. Andrew Anthony of The Observer (aka Sunday Guardian) was less charitable than Rosie, especially about the unexpected re-appearance of Sam Fox in the 30th anniversary edition of the awards. Both were clear that US talent out-shone the locals on the night – though I thought this was a bit unfair to the Florence and the Machine/Dizzee Rascal mashup and even, dare I say it, to Robbie Williams’ louche but highly enjoyable finale.

But my enduring complaint is why, in an age where the music industry is struggling to keep fans focused on legimate acquisiton of music, hasn’t it been possible to watch the entire event after broadcast, either on the ITV player or on the Brits’ own site?

Martin Rigby

Everyone wants to touch their favourite artist. In the sixties, screaming fans queued for hours to lay hands on Bob Dylan, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones (see the end of this great film of Bob Dylan in concert in Newcastle in 1966). In this age of all-pervading security and paranoia about freak attacks, it’s almost impossible to get that close to celebrity artists today.

Maybe it’s blogging and especially tweeting that lets the modern fan “touch” their particular idol. I’ve been surpised how fast artists are at responding to tweets that mention them, especially if the comments are appreciative (we all like praise!). Recently I’ve had great responses from both The Red Bullets and even from Chipmunk. In both these cases, I’ve no doubt whatsoever that the responses were genuine and from the artists themselves, but one can’t help but wonder whether, in this age of 24/7 media pressure, some might succumb to the temptation to let an assistant do that tweeting or blogging.

So, how can you tell whether you’re talking to the real artist? Perhaps we need a new version of the Turing Test – which the 1940s computer pioneer used to test whether people could tell if they were talking to a machine or not!

I’ve spent the last few days at MIDEM – the world music congress in Cannes.

I wouldn’t recommend the Cote D’Azur for a winter holiday – it’s been raining on and off throughout and decidedly chilly. The conference is like all conferences – rush to meet, wait, rush to meet again and rarely that elusive big deal as artists, managers, labels, digital service providers et al talk and talk.

The bright spot, however, has been the Brits at MIDEM – I went to see Chipmunk on Monday night. He wowed the international audience with his virtuosity and and an attitude, according to Fraser McAlpine on the BBC Chart Blog, where “…he would never stoop to claiming to be the best rapper in the world ever, because that would be vulgar, and in any case, you already know it, right?”

I was won over and am subsequently grateful to Gregor Pryor for furthering my hiphop education. Mind you, despite being two Englishmen abroad, Chipmunk and I didn’t actually meet in Cannes – though he kindly responded to my direct tweet. I’ll have to buy ‘I am Chipmunk’, which just shows the power of social media.

The N97 is an awesome phone – and a worthy alternative to the iPhone which it beats on several fronts: synchronisation with PC, contacts management and the SMS interface to name but three. It’s also an ergonomically better phone, narrower but a little thicker and better suited to be carried everywhere at all times (and doesn’t cry out for one of those ugly latex sleeves that iPhone users seem compelled to sheath their phones in).

But I do have one gripe about the N97 – it lacks an effective music managment tool. While Nokia has shown commendable innovation in launching Comes With Music , it’s not about managing and listening to your own music – which is the one thing most people want to be able to do before they enjoy the benefits of CWM or even Spotify. The Ovi Player, Nokia’s app for music, is good but goes little further than iTunes.

In contrast, once I started using Psonar with my N97 I found that I have the best of all worlds – Psonar lets me manage all my music, including moving it to and from my N97, while knowing that my collection is also safe in “the Cloud” (i.e. Psonar’s internet servers). Unlike iTunes, if I leave home without some music that I wanted on my N97, I can access my collection via any internet connected PC, or directly off my N97 (better using Wi-Fi than 3G), and download or stream the tracks I want there and then. And I can do all this using an intuitive “drag and drop” interface.

I know that I’m testifying to “eating my own dogfood” but I find the combination of my N97 and Psonar seductively easy to use and they’ve launched me on a nostalgic journey to discover some of the great music I’ve missed over the years. So, I can’t wait for Rich and the dev team to launch Psonar’s music discovery tools (February, he tells me) – watch this space!

Its a dilemma everyone faces when planning their next travelling adventure – how are you going to take the tunes that will become the soundtrack for the trip?

You could opt for the expensive choice of a nice big
iPod or Zune. On the plus side, you’ll be able to fit most of your music collection into one of these but if you’re anything like my friend Cat, you’ll have had it nicked before you’ve left the airport! If that happens you’ve not only lost your player, but there’s no way to get your tunes back whilst on the road – they are stuck on your computer back at home.

The other choice is to go for something small, cheap and essentially disposable – you should be able to pick up a 1Gb mp3 player for under a tenner. Now you don’t have to worry about the device, but you do have to worry about how to choose which tracks to take as not all your collection will fit on it. One way to cram more tracks in is to reduce the bitrate which makes the music files smaller but reduces audio quality.

Psonar offers a free service that compliments either of these choices. Before you set off, you can upload your entire music collection to Psonar’s cloud. You’ve then got access to your music from any internet cafe in the world. Where ever you find an internet connection, you can stream your own music back over the web or download it to your portable device whether its an iPod or a cheap USB mp3 player. If your iPod gets nicked and you need to get your collection back on to its replacement, or just want to refresh the playlist on your small mp3 player Psonar can help simply and efficiently transfer your music to you – where ever you are!