I wrote a little while ago about mashups, and defined them as “two or more sources of information on the web ‘mashed’ together to make a new, useful tool.” As it turns out, mashups are actually much more encompassing than that. The two or more sources of “information” do not necessarily have to create a “tool”; indeed, the sources don’t have to be “information” in the traditional sense at all.
For example, there are music mashups — entirely new creations that consist of clips and samples of tracks already in existence. Remember The Grey Album, which spliced together Jay-Z and the Beatles? Mashup. There are also video mashups, which combine video and audio from different sources to make something completely new. There are countless examples of these, but one hilarious illustration that I’ve just happened upon called There Will Be Vader mixes audio from There Will Be Blood with clips from Star Wars.
So just as “utility” mashups are useful remixes of several sources of information, “creative” mashups are expressive remixes of several sources of inspiration. The tricky difference between the two is this: utility mashups generally make use of what are called APIs, or application programming interfaces, to obtain and manipulate data. The easiest way to think of it as a sort of Rosetta Stone that a company provides to developers to allow them to access and interpret the information in their products. For example, Google Maps and Twitter each have an API that, when correctly manipulated and designed by a developer, can become something like Twittervision.
Music and video, though, are not really the same.
Continue reading ‘Mashups and Conversational Media’
Welcome to a new weekly feature I’m calling “Questioning Things.” The first thing we’ll be questioning is the name of this feature. It’s the best I’ve got, but it’s kind of lame. ANYWAY.
Jarred and I feel like our readers are far more interesting than we are…and we want to hear your stories. So this is your turn: I’ll ask a few (hopefully provocative) questions, you’ll answer in the comments, and we’ll revel in our collective cleverness/hilarity/soul searching.
- What would it take for you to agree to watch two more minutes of commercials per hour of television (1 extra minute for a half-hour show)? Would it make a difference if every commercial caused you to laugh out loud? If every ad was personally targeted at your tastes and lifestyle?
- What line/phrase from a television show or movie do you use in real life? Is it common enough that people recognize the origin, or so obscure that it sounds to most people like your original phrase?
- If you could work a past summer job, but full-time and at your present salary, which job would you pick?
- Is there a musical instrument that–even with unlimited lessons–you don’t think you could master?
My answers after the break. Your answers in the comments (please?).
Continue reading ‘Questioning Things, Vol. I’
(For more, see my previous post What is the Future of Music?)
I’ve been using Last.fm for a while now. It started out as a plug-in for iTunes that recorded the details of the songs you listened to on your computer and iPod, and then sent that information to your online account so that you could see what were you truly favorite artists and songs. It has since evolved into one of the web’s most popular music-oriented social networks, where one connects with friends as well as strangers with similar musical tastes.
(On a side note, it had been a while since I had checked out some of my stats, and I was a little astounded by what I found tonight. Since May 2006, I have played 8,156 tracks. Damn. 1,681 of those tracks have been by Dave Matthews Band, with my second most-played artist being Béla Fleck and the Flecktones with 317 plays. That’s either a real display of dedication, or a real display of sadness. I’ll let you decide. I’ve added a “recenly played tracks” widget to my “about” page if you ever want to check in on what I’ve been listening to. Recently, it’s been a lot of Josh Ritter. If you haven’t heard him, check him out.)
Anyway. Last year, Last.fm was acquired by CBS for $280 million. I was a little sad at the time, thinking that what had once been a very useful and somewhat niche utility had now sold out to the Man and would cease to be both functional and classy. But given today’s news, I am pretty sure that Last.fm made a brilliant decision.
Continue reading ‘Are Ads and Subscriptions the Future of Music?’
The music industry, if you haven’t heard, is undergoing some big time transformations. Late last year, Radiohead decided to self-release their new album. Online. For whatever price people wanted to pay. Including nothing. WTF, you ask? Indeed.
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke says in an interview with Wired that it was their manager’s idea, and that the band thought he was nuts. But they later realized that it not only worked out OK, but it was a little freeing as well.
Continue reading ‘What is the Future of Music?’
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