How Mobile Phones Are Changing Social Media

Here's a great infographic from Mashable that was sponsored by Ben & Jerry's (which seems kind of strange).

A couple of statistics that are not in this graphic are:

1) Mobile users are twice as active on Facebook as non-mobile users.

2) 18 to 34 year olds account for 50% of mobile social networking usage.

3) Female usage of mobile social networking is higher than male.

I haven't drawn any major conclusions from this info except that it confirms that the phone is for more and more day to day business and pleasure, and it sure looks like that trend will continue.

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What Recent Hit Songs Have In Common

The Future Hit DNA website just did a great summary of the characteristics that make up the recent 2010 hits. Jay Frank does an excellent job of looking at the Top 50 biggest selling downloads, which amounts to 75 million download sales and over $100 million in revenue. He's also written a great book on the subject called FutureHit.DNA.

I'm not suggesting that you write a song like you'll find outlined below, because that's just going to take a tired genre and make it even more so. But it is interesting to look at what makes up a hit these days. You can read the article for yourself, but allow me to summarize.

• The average intro length is 7.76 seconds. It's always been about getting to the point, and that never seems to change.

• The average song length is 3 minutes 47 seconds. This is a lot longer than it used to be, when 3 minute songs were the norm.

• Most songs have an ending. In fact only 10% of the songs have a traditional fade. Now that's refreshing, and apparently practical. According to the article, hard endings play better in the digital world, where a fade is more likely to make the listener skip on to the next song.

• Most songs are upbeat. In fact, only one song was a ballad. There were some songs with slower tempos, but for the most part, higher bpm songs played better with the listener.

• More songs by each artist. Most top artists now release more songs more often. Lady Gaga had 4 titles, Black Eyed Peas and Ke$ha had 3 and B.O.B had two in the top 10.

• The song's about "me." Where once upon a time, most songs were about "you," that's changed in today's hits. You see a lot more "I," "I'm," and "me" lyrics than "you' and "you're." Today's songwriters are a selfish bunch, it seems.

Check out this article and website. It focus on songs in a way that you won't find anywhere else.

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Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Prince Says "The Internet Is Over"

By now everyone has heard about the exclusive interview that Prince gave to the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper where he was quoted as saying, "The Internet Is Over," among other things that seemed pretty out-of-touch.

Haven't heard? Ok, some more quotes:
"The Internet is like MTV. Once it was hip and then suddenly it was outdated."

“The Internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it, and then they get angry when they can’t get it.”

"Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."


Prince has shut down his official website, and he's never been on any social network, so it appears his online presence is nil. But are we being manipulated here?

Could it be that he knows very well what he's saying, and just saying it to get the maximum exposure for his new album, 20TEN? If so, wouldn't it be better that we were discussing how great his music is rather than a controversy?

Prince's new album will again be distributed as a CD inside the Daily Mirror, and he may even have a distribution deal Warner Brothers again, despite the major falling out they had some years ago. When the album comes out, let's see what the comments are then.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Apple Ads That Launched Careers

I saw this article on Mashable recently and thought it would be good for a repost. Apple has had a great effect on a number of music careers thanks to the artist's songs being included in their television advertising. Let's look at a few.

• Jet - "Are Your Gonna Be My Girl." Used for the iPod campaign of 2003 and 2004, the band went from unknowns to selling more than 3.5 million copies of their Get Born album thanks to this commercial.

• Feist - "1, 2, 3, 4." Part of the iPod Nano campaign of 2007, over a half-million people searched Google to find out what the song was after it first aired. Her YouTube plays also jumped 1000%, and her digital downloads doubled. Here's the link to the music video.

• CSS - "Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex." Talk about the ultimate in user generated content, British student Nick Haley made a fan-boy video for the iPod that caught the attention of some Apple execs. They then flew him out to the States to do the official version with their ad agency. Funny thing is that Microsoft used the same tune for a Zune commercial a year previous that did absolutely nothing. Of course, Google searches for the song and band were over the top as soon as it aired.

• The Ting Tings - "Shut Up And Let Me Go." Used for the iPod 2008 campaign, the band had already had some success in the UK, but the commercial was their breakthrough in the States. The song eventually hit #1 on Billboard's Hot Dance club chart.

There's a school of thought that says that exposure on television doesn't necessarily help your career, but these artists have found otherwise. Of course, the musical landscape is far different in 2010 than it was in 2003 or even 2008.

For more examples see the full Mashable article.

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Social Sites And How They've Boomed

Here's an interesting graphic that shows how social media networks continue to thrive and grow. The lower the circle, the older the network.

While everyone knows Facebook, Myspace and Flickr, there are a number that you might not be familiar with that have big numbers.

Orkut.com is owned and operated by Google and is big in India and Brazil.

Wayn.com is a network for travelers and is an acronym for Where Are You Now.

HI5.com is the third largest social networking site in terms of unique visitors, but bigger in Latin America than in the US.

Netlog.com is a Belgium network aimed primarily at European youth.

Viadeo.com is a French network that's a competitor to Linkedin.

Draugiem.lv is a Latvian social network.

Multiply.com is a network with an emphasis on shared media and aims to be a one-stop shop for their users Web 2.0 experience. They have some major financial backing.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.