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    Facebook hearts Spotify

    Facebook has partnered with Spotify on a music-streaming service that could be launched in as little as a couple of weeks, according to Forbes.

    The integrated service is going through testing at the moment, but when launched, Facebook users will see a Spotify icon appear on the left side of their newsfeed, along with the usual icons for photos and events. Clicking on the Spotify icon will install the service on the desktop, and also allow users to play music directly from Spotify’s music library through Facebook. The service will further include a function that lets Facebook users listen to music simultaneously with their friends over the social network.

    Read more on Forbes.

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    Lenny Kravitz rocks the Jeep Wrangler brand

    Chrysler has Eminem and recently its sister brand Jeep Wrangler got Lenny Kravitz, who stars in a new advertising campaign cross-promoting the 2011 Jeep Wrangler and Kravitz’s upcoming album, Black and White America, in the U.S.

    The first ad in the series, Extraordinary Adventure Swamp, features rock star Kravitz sitting on the hood of a Wrangler, driving through a swamp with the sound from his new track, Rock Star City Life.

    “Not only is Kravitz an outstanding singer, songwriter and performer, he is a long-time Jeep owner and fan of the brand,” says Mike Manley, Jeep brand president and CEO, Chrysler Group. “Kravitz shares and understands the core values of the Jeep brand that include an authentic style, a no-holds-barred adventurous approach to life, as well as mastering the ability to withstand the test of time.”

    Kravitz called the partnership a perfect fit. “The Jeep Wrangler is a rugged classic. I’ve been driving the same one for 16 years and I refuse to get rid of it – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

    Reading the statements above, Jeep Wrangler and artist Lenny Kravitz most definitely could be friends in real life - a pretty good brand and artist match, don’t you think?

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    Exclusive survey on what impact music has on businesses in public places (in English) – Yours for a tweet or Facebook share

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    To better understand the impact of music on consumers and to learn more about the attitudes towards music being played in businesses in public places*, as well as music played in the workplace, Heartbeats International has conducted a survey on 1000 Swedes between the ages of 16-64. We asked them questions about the impact of music on their everyday lives, public places and at work.

    The survey results are published in the report, Uncovering a musical myth: A survey on music’s impact in public spaces. It is your for a tweet or Facebook share:



    Interested in the Swedish version of the report:
    Download your copy

    * Public places has been used as a generic term for businesses such as shops, shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, transportation services, sports stadiums, gyms and workplaces.

     

    TOPICS COVERED IN THE REPORT INCLUDE:

    • The importance of music for people in their everyday lives
    • The impact music has on businesses in public places
    • The impact music has on employees and workplaces

    Five truths about the impact of music:

    • People rank music as more difficult to live without than sports, movies and newspapers
    • Playing the right music in your business makes customers stay longer
    • Music played in your business affects your customers’ opinion about your brand
    • Music enhances wellbeing amongst employees in workplaces
    • People think it is important that artists, musicians and songwriters get paid for music being played in public places
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    The Creators Project at Coachella

    Financed and produced by Intel and Vice, The Creator’s Project has been amongst the most ambitious and creative marketing initiatives in America since it’s launch in 2010. In a similar capacity to Scion’s Audio Visual, the new Levi’s Film Workshops, and Converse’s coming recording studio Rubber Tracks, it attempts to give unique user experiences by aligning with the forefront of the creative industry.

    So far, it has done very well. Constructed as a multi-year program and working across multiple platforms of technology and interactive media, The Creator’s Project is a program that is truly dedicated to showcasing creativity at the highest level. It doesn’t just identify leading artists across various media and formats, but also enables them to showcase their works in a way that is truly inspiring and appealing to a wide range of people.

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    One good example of this was seen at this year’s Coachella, where the presence of The Creators Project literally couldn’t be missed. Amongst many projects, some of their most significant installations included Interpol Under Surveillance for Interpol’s concert on the festival’s first night. Here, The Creators Project brought together a collaboration between the band, David Lynch, Andi Watson, HPX, and Wieden+Kennedy to present a “visual juxtaposition of the seen and unseen”. Through live manipulation by HPX and animation of Lynch’s “I Touch a Red Button” and track “Lights”, the audience was given an incredible live experience.

    Another one of my favorite works was the light and sound installation Untitled by Jonathan Glazer and J. Spaceman, which was created as a physical manifestation for Spiritualized’s legendary track Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space. Throughout the festival, the anonymous looking tent had gathered queues of several hundred metres long, of people who actually no idea of what was waiting them. Curious to see what it was, I asked one visitor who said it was ‘like taking a journey through the unknown´. Intrigued, I wanted to see what was inside this massive tent and arranged to meet up with the installation’s architects, Bryan Flaig and Alejandra Lillo of Undisclosable on the festval’s last day. They explained “The sound of the installation centers around Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space, which has been broken into five different tracks. Some are vocally driven, some are instrumentally driven. As the tracks go through the narrow dispersion speakers, the sound is focused into these beams of light.”

    At the end of the interview, Bryan took me for a short walk through the tent, which you can see here. When watching, try to note how the noise of the festival calmly transcends into silence, before the sound of the installation takes over and the music then changes as you enter the different areas of light.

    In addition to that, the Creators Project consisted of collaborations between between Animal Collective and legendary noise rock band Black Dice, booking the festival’s first ever bands from China, Brazil and Korea, and a special Creator’s Project Tent with works by Feng Mengbo, Mark Essen, Hujong Song, Lumpens, Miles Regis, Brian Quandt, and Aldebaran Robtotics. Besides the work at Coachella, the program has included The Studio, an international event series, a TV documentary series, multi-disciplinary collaborative projects and the video website, TheCreatorsProject.com

    By Eric Welles Nyström

    Links

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    Google Launches Music Beta Cloud Player

    Google has announced the soft launch of its beta cloud player ‘Music Beta by Google’, offering enhanced functionality in comparison to other music players. With Google Music, which is now undergoing its beta-testing in the U.S., a user may upload music to a user-created Google library and listen to it from any computer or Android device. Playlists created in the cloud will automatically sync to devices owned by a user. Once a playlist has been played, it will be available even offline.

    The service will be available by U.S. residents and by invitation only, free of charge while it is being tested.

    For more information, check out ‘Music Beta by Google’.

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    The impact of music on businesses in public places #2

    The report, Myten om musik besannad: En undersökning om musikens betydelse för verksamheter i offentlig miljö (Uncovering a musical myth: A survey on music’s impact in public spaces) clearly shows that ’the right music’ has a positive impact on businesses in public places such as shops and restaurants. ’The right music’, being music that fits the brand or business profile, played at the right volume, making people stay longer, consume more and recommend your business to others. But what happens if a business plays music that is ’wrong’?

    When we conducted our survey on 1000 Swedes, we did not only ask about the positive impact of music but about the negative impact as well. We wanted to know the effect of ‘the wrong music’ being played and asked the respondents if music could make them leave a place, not come back, recommend others not to visit, or buy less, and why.

    We also asked people if they have ever been inspired by the music being played when visiting a business in a public place, and if this has introduced them to new music and artists. Some of the results are shown below.

    WRONG MUSIC PLAYED TOO LOUDLY MAKES CONSUMERS LEAVE

    We wanted to know if music can have a negative impact on businesses in public places. The results from our survey reveal that ‘the wrong music’ makes 44% of consumers and visitors leave a business and 38% won’t come back. And almost 4 out of 10 also say that ‘the wrong music’ makes them buy less.

    As many as 44% (almost every second person!) say that the music being played can, to a high or very high extent, cause them to leave. The important question to us was why? The answer being that people can leave a place if the music there is played at a too loud volume and is blocking the conversation or if the music being played is noisy and irritating.

    ‘The wrong music’ can make me…

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    The ones who leave a place do so because the music is…

    • 1  Played too loud / Blocking the conversation 52%
    • 2  Noisy / Irritating 44%

    What would happen if it was totally quiet in a business?

    32-41% of the respondents say they would react negatively or very negatively to silence, or more precisely the absence of music in a business such as a shop, restaurant, hairdresser or at the shopping mall. And more than 6 out of 10 of 16-24 year olds would react negatively or very negatively if a gym didn’t play music.

    This, together with some of the previous results we’ve published here, shows the importance for businesses not only to play music, but to play it right. That means looking over the music they play – with ‘the right music’ being music that is played at the right volume, matching the brand or business profile.

    Businesses as inspirational music sources

    We also wanted to know how much people notice the music being played in public. The survey reveals that public places work as a source of inspiration for many! More than half of 16-24 year olds have discovered new music as well as new artists when they have visited a business in a public place.

    More than half of 16-24 year olds have discovered new music in a shop or another business in a public place

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    And many also notice what artist or track it is that is being played. Almost 4 out of 10 16-24 year olds notice the artist or track categorically, and 13% even rate their experience of a business by the music that is played.

    How well do people notice the music that is played in public?

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    You find more results here.

    Download full report

    (Note: the full report is in Swedish but will soon be published in English)

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    Favorite New Products: May 2011

    Amongst the most interesting new music products we have seen so far in 2011, is the Playbutton, which is basically just what it says - a button that plays music.

    Practically, the Playbutton combines the concept of the album with the admiration for the artist’s visual artwork and design. Its functionality is similar to the iPod Shuffle, but its contents cannot be altered, downloaded or separated from it’s original cover - all in the format of a button that can be worn on your shirt, bag or wherever you like. In short, “It’s a record that plays itself”, as the inventor Nick Dangerfield explained when I met with him earlier this year.

    After working on a few ideas for a new way to “put records into a physical form”, the company began releasing full length albums with a few of their friends in early 2011. As the first 500 buttons sold out quickly at New York’s Opening Ceremony and London’s Rough Trade shops, a wide range of tech and trend sites started spreading the word about the product online.

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    Now, every major and independent label have contacted them about new releases while a number of major brands and advertising agencies are knocking on their door for collaborations as well. Cautious to not engage in any risky partnership too quickly, and still secret about who they will be working in the future and how, Nick confirmed that a few of their coming releases include a re-issue of The XX’s debut album, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s latest album, ‘Belong’. Not bad for a product that has only been physically around for a few months.

    While the life of Playbutton is still somewhat uncertain and highly dependent on a good number of sales and investments, it’s definitely something we hope will stay alive for a while. It may not revolutionize the music industry or become the next major distribution model. However, that is probably not what they are trying to do either, whatever Wired magazine says. Playbutton is simply a more tangible way of sharing, experiencing and showing the music you love, and hopefully something that will help bring a little more money into music again.

     
    5 Playbuttons we would like to see in the future…

    • David Byrne reading his Bicycle Stories, with interludes of music and anecdotes from around the world. For any biker world wide, this would be your ultimate sound companion.
    • A collection of not-yet-released live and studio recordings, with all the small talk, re-takes and intimacy of ‘being there’ live. This could make the perfect one-time gift or piece of memorabilia.
    • A D.I.Y. edition for anyone who wants to make recordings and artwork by themselves, to give to friends and loved ones.
    • A fan-created and solely fan-invested Playbutton, where an artist signs up to release or make a new recording of whatever the fans vote for. Besides the intriguing result of the voting, the process leading up to the recording would make the perfect kick-start and social media campaign.
    • If James Murphy ever wants to make another epic piece of music like LCD Soundsystem’s 45:33 collaboration with Nike, then this would be the perfect format.

     
    Technical Features

    • 2GB of memory space
    • 5 hour lithium battery that is re-chargeable through a USB cable
    • On/off through connecting and disconnecting the headphones
    • Controls for volume, play, pause and skip are on the back

     
    By: Eric Welles Nyström

    Note: the first album releases on a Playbutton started in March, with the first bands being The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Oval, Mark Borthwick, Javelin, Bubbles, Mount Eerie and more.

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    The impact of music on businesses in public places #1

    Music is important for businesses in public places such as shops, restaurants and more. However, it’s not only important to play music. It’s important to play ‘the right music’, i.e. music that fits the brand or business profile, at the right volume. Then consumers will stay longer, re-visit, recommend your business to others as well as buy more from you. But music is not only of value for businesses in public places, it has a positive impact on workplaces as well; it makes workplaces more relaxed and your employees more productive.

    These are some of the results our survey reveals, conducted on 1000 Swedes between the ages of 16-64. The respondents in the survey have been asked questions about the impact of music on their everyday lives, public places and at work (public places is used as a generic term for businesses such as shops, shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, transportation services, sports stadiums, gym and workplaces).

    The results from the survey are published in a report in Swedish, Myten om musik besannad: En undersökning om musikens betydelse för verksamheter i offentlig miljö (Uncovering a musical myth: A survey on music’s impact in public spaces). Below are some of the results.

    The importance of music for people in their everyday lives

    As regards the importance of music to people, music is ranked as more difficult to live without in everyday life than sports, movies and newspapers. Music also beats TV, radio, arts and literature. Only Internet and mobile phones are ranked higher.

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    More than 6 out of 10 say that music is important or very important to them in their lives. As for 16-24 year olds, that figure rises to 74%.

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    The impact music has on businesses in public places

    As regards businesses, the survey reveals that ‘the right music’ makes almost 4 out of 10 stay longer in a business in a public place. That figure rises to 50% when it comes to 16-24 year olds. Further, 31% of all people return to a business in a public place which plays music that is appreciated by the visitor, or consumer. 21% recommend the business to others and 14% also say they buy more.

    What music is it that is appreciated then? Which music is ‘right’, from the consumers’ point of view?

    First and foremost, the music that is played in a shop or a restaurant for example, has to have the right volume. Secondly, it has to match the business’ profile, or brand. It is less important that the music corresponds to the consumers’ personal taste or that it hits the radio charts and they recognise it.

    It’s important or very important that the music played in a shop or at a restaurant…

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    The survey further reveals that ‘the wrong music’, as in noisy or irritating, makes 44% of consumers and visitors leave a business and 38% wont come back. Almost 4 out of 10 also say that ‘the wrong music’ makes them buy less.

    The impact music has on employees and workplaces

    As regards music in workplaces, more than 6 out of 10 people and as many as 8 out of 10 16-24 year olds listen to music everyday, or at least once a week when they’re at work.

    66% of those who listen to music everyday, or at least once a week, think that music affects them in a positive or very positive way at work. Almost 50% of the 16-24 years olds say they love to listen to music at work, and just as many say that music makes them more productive while they’re working. Further, 43% of all people say that music makes the work environment more relaxed. As regards 16-24 year olds, that figure rises to 56%.

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    You find more results here.

    Download full report

    (Note: the full report is in Swedish)

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