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I'm the CTO here at LP33.tv. I am very proud to be working with a team of talented and dedicated people to build this great exposure platform for emerging and established artists.
In developing the LP33 Tour Book, we aimed to design an interface that would be well suited for the iPad and other large multi-touch devices .
To illustrate, here’s a demo of the tour book on the iPad.
The demo highlights tour book pages for a recent Phil Collins concert along with a Genesis show in 2007 and an early 1973 performance.
You can set up the LP33 Tour Book as an iPad webapp using the instructions below.
For music fans, nothing compares to seeing a favorite act perform live. Consequently, I have always been interested in exploring new ways of capturing the visceral experience of being present at a live show. This task is daunting. Even a highly produced, feature rich DVD recording of a concert cannot thoroughly reproduce the feeling and energy of attending a great performance.
Approximately five years ago, I started to take note of the large number of people texting and taking photos before, during, and after performances. By 2010, this trend evolved to the point where all major concerts now generate a rich stream of fan tweets, photos, and videos. We discussed this phenomenon several months ago during a LP33 technology development team meeting. Afterwards, we began to design a system to capture these fan generated media streams and contextually present them for anyone unable to attend a show and for those who want to relive it. We call it the “LP33 Tour Book” which you can visit here.
LP33 Tour Book home page (click to view)
As an initial test we focused on eight major touring acts. For each act, you can select a tour date and view available online videos, photos, and tweets for that show. For example, click the thumbnail below to view the tour book page for a recent Phil Collins concert in New York City.
LP33 Tour Book page for the June 25, 2010 Phil Collins New York City concert (click to view)
When viewed together in context of the show date, the feeling of being at a live performance is communicated in a way that would not be possible when tweets, photos, and videos are viewed by themselves. As a result, a sense of presence or being there is delivered to the fan. The overall effect provides an outlet to encourage ticket, music, and video sales via convenient purchase links. Fans can and also share their favorite show dates using Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz buttons.
The system takes inspiration from concert tour books which artists occasionally publish and sell at shows. Tour books typically contain an array of images and notes, and they can act as a tour’s historical record or scrapbook. Our system adapts this concept to our current era of deep fan engagement and user generated content.
The LP33 Tour Book creates a living fan generated multimedia record of a music act’s career. A great example is seen in the tour book for Genesis which captures live show content spanning three decades. As you peruse the content of their show pages, you get the sense that you are traveling alongside the band throughout its entire history.
Click these links to get a snapshot of this legendary band’s performances spanning three decades.
It also captures these iconic acts performing at amazing venues.
We hope to work with emerging and established acts to use the LP33 Tour Book to encourage music purchases and drive ticket sales, an important revenue source in today’s fragmented music business.
We began development of the LP33 Tour Book in late January and continued work through August as time and priorities permitted. Edwin Guardado was the primary developer on the project over the course of this time period. Matt Stuart implemented the backend system to retrieve show tweets, photos, and video, and Patrick McDonald assisted in the database setup, server configuration, and application testing process. The initial system design emerged from collaborative discussions among the entire technology development team. I’d like to thank our interns Patrick Wemmer and Amanda Zaharchuk for their help in removing false positives from the content streams.
The tour book supports the latest versions of Firefox, Interner Explorer, and Safari. It is optimized for multi-touch devices and can be installed as an iPad web app. See a demo of the tour book on the iPad here. Feel free to provide feedback at support@lp33.tv.
Earlier this year, Ori Inbar invited me to present at Augmented Reality Event 2010, a conference he was organizing with Tish Shute and whurley. Held last week, it was an excellent event bringing together leaders in technology, entertainment, education, government, and other areas to discuss how augmented reality plays a role in their fields. For those interested, my presentation is below, “Augmented Reality in Music Entertainment: Then and Now.”
Last week we released a major upgrade to the LP33.tv site in response to feedback from our users and staff.
New features and enhancements include:
The LP33 development team spent several months on the design, development, and testing of this release.
The primary effort was spearheaded by team members Travis Walter and Matt Antone. Using a set of specifications, Matt created the initial site comps and prototypes. From this starting point, he applied his extensive front end development and graphic design skills in conjunction with his mastery of jQuery to create a vastly enhanced user experience at all levels of the site. As one of our first employees, Travis has developed much of the site’s core functionality since its inception. He utilized his thorough knowledge of all layers of our software stack to expertly integrate, refine, and debug the site’s new features and interface elements. Chris Meszler, also one of LP33′s first employees, designed and developed our new media player. As the site’s most prominent new feature, it provides a large 640×360 display area with a 16:9 native aspect ratio. The media player’s UI graphics were created by Edwin Guardado. Edwin applied his Facebook Platform expertise to insure that the new site and our Facebook application maintained interoperability. Throughout the entire development cycle, our systems administrator Patrick McDonald, made sure our development, testing, and staging environments were performing properly, and he oversaw the process of deploying the site to our production servers.
The LP33 technology development team hopes that you enjoy the site’s enhancements, and we look forward to rolling out additional features and performance improvements in the coming months.
Today, we are glad to announce that we have released LP33.tv applications for Blackberry, Android, and Nokia handsets. These mobile apps are the culmination of a several month effort by our development team to bring LP33.tv’s music video content to all major 3G smartphone platforms. They join our existing apps for the Palm Pre and Pixi along with our iPhone webapp.
With these apps, mobile users can view all of LP33.tv’s music video channels. Blackberry, Android, Nokia, and Palm users can create their own playlist of favorite videos. Details on how to obtain each application are below.
Lp33.tv Blackberry App
LP33.tv for Nokia Devices
LP33.tv Android App
LP33.tv for Palm Pre and Pixi
Lp33.tv webapp for iPhone and iPod touch
If you have any comments, ideas, or questions regarding our mobile apps just contact us at support@lp33.tv.
We are now living in an attention economy where it is increasingly challenging to effectively engage consumers. In the music industry, advertising and promotion efforts are further complicated by a landscape in which fans are saturated with options for experiencing music, usually for free. These two factors make it critical for music promoters and marketers to seek innovative methods for engaging the consumer. One increasingly popular technique for capturing consumer attention involves the use of augmented reality technology. For the unfamiliar, augmented reality (AR) essentially overlays information on a live view of the real world, usually through a device’s camera.
Though the technology has been in research and development for decades, it has recently become mainstream largely due to the FLARToolkit which enables the development of web sites in which visitors can experience AR with a webcam. Over the past year, augmented reality has been featured in a number of high profile web campaigns for BMW, Doritos, and GE among many others. It was also used throughout a recent issue of Esquire magazine.
Considering this trend, I recently explored how AR could be used in the context of the music business by developing a series of demos. These experiments described below illustrate how AR can be utilized for both music marketing efforts and live streamed interviews and performances.
Currently, the most practical way to reach consumers with AR is through a webpage viewed on webcam equipped computers. The reach of AR marketing and promotion will expand as the number of AR capable mobile phones and retail kiosks increase. The Apple iPhone along with most Android devices and many Nokia phones are technically capable of running fiducial marker based AR applications similar to those created with the FLARtoolkit. Furthermore, the increasing use of in store digital signage should encourage the profileration of AR capable retail kiosks.
Undoubtedly, AR is an attention grabbing consumer engagement technique. However, to prevent being dismissed as a technical gimmick, it must be smartly utilized in a way which delivers consumer value in the form of unique content and compelling interactive experiences.
MySpace quickly grew in size after it launched in 2003, and in only three years it became the largest social network in the US. In parallel, it rapidly became an important tool for music artists to present their tracks, engage fans, and promote events. However, over time, MySpace became increasingly less popular largely due to spam proliferation and user interface issues. In 2008, Facebook overtook MySpace as the world’s most popular social network. Facebook currently has over 300 million active users, and it continues to grow. An increasing number of artists are now seeking to use Facebook for fan engagement and music promotion. Facebook differs significantly from MySpace in its functionality and architecture. By understanding these differences, artists can greatly enhance the value and reach of their promotional activities.
MySpace communication is centered upon mass messaging to as many friends as possible while Facebook relies upon the propagation of information through a fan’s network of friends. In MySpace, artists communicate with friends through information bulletins, event notifications, mail messages, and profile comments. Unfortunately, MySpace messages are often lost in the wave of spam that fills member inboxes. Facebook has most of MySpace’s messaging capabilities, but the most effective form of Facebook communication involves distributing information to a fan’s news feed and enabling them to post it to their walls and share it with their friends. With this approach, Facebook provides a method for artists to actively encourage word of mouth endorsement of their work. Historically, word of mouth advocacy has proven to be one of the most powerful forms of music promotion.
On MySpace, an artist can become a friend of any member of the network. Artists often seek to have as many friends as possible for promotional purposes. On Facebook, a fan page cannot become a friend of a Facebook user. Instead, a member must choose to become a fan of an artist’s page. As a result, an artist usually has fewer fans of their Facebook page than they do friends of their MySpace profile. However, a single Facebook page fan can be worth more than dozens or even hundreds of MySpace friends. Whenever a fan posts content from an artist page to their personal profile walls, a link is propagated to the feeds of all friends of that fan. Consider that the average Facebook user has around 130 friends. If an artist has 100 dedicated fans that regularly post an artist’s content to their profile walls, those fans can potentially generate over 10,000 impressions. If the friends of these hardcore fans post the shared news feed item to their own walls, the possible impressions increases to over 1.5 million.
Artists on MySpace create profiles which at a minimum include a music player, biographical information, a friends list, and a comment area. MySpace allows users to modify their profiles with customized designs, alternate layouts, and embeddable widgets. This functionality has unintentionally encouraged the creation of cluttered profiles which can be very difficult to navigate and use.
Facebook has taken a different approach by requiring artists to create pages which are separate from a personal Facebook profile. This arrangement provides a level of privacy protection allowing artists to easily separate their personal Facebook interactions from those related to their music careers. Unlike MySpace profiles, multiple administrators can be assigned to a page allowing multiple band members or a band’s management to edit the page as needed. All artist pages have a consistent design and layout which can be extended with tabs, badges, and applications without disrupting the layout. This design feature prevents the creation of the visually confusing and unusable profiles that are prevalent on MySpace. MySpace profiles are largely static documents in which most content is not frequently updated. Because Facebook artist pages are built around a stream of news feed posts, a page can be a dynamic, living online space. With a Facebook page, artists can engage in an ongoing conversation with fans by commenting on their current activities, posting behind the scenes footage, and describing the experience of being on tour or producing an album. When properly managed, a Facebook artist page is a powerful tool for communicating personality and brand image while developing enduring fan relationships.
To help artists use Facebook more effectively, LP33.tv has developed an application for promoting, distributing, and monetizing video and music content among the network’s 300 million active users.
After creating a profile on LP33.tv, artists can install a “My LP33” tab (Figure 1) on a Facebook fan page which presents much of what one would find on a MySpace profile including a media player, biography, news, and comments. Links to purchase music are presented prominently providing a path to convert fan visits into sales. Buttons to encourage fan wall posts and sharing are also included.
Nine:Fifteen is an indie hip hop duo based in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. They have a catalog of singles and EP’s, released under the Candlewax Records imprint. “Electric Blanket” (Fall 2009) is their first full length album release. This duo chose the LP33.tv Facebook application as a platform for promoting their new album. They began by creating a fan page and installing the “My LP33” tab. The page was populated with information about the group and a playlist of previously released tracks. Next, they began a highly targeted ad campaign to encourage members to become fans of their page. Their fan count quickly rose from 10 to over 250. As the album was being produced, the duo posted informal comments and videos which shed light on their personalities and their creative process (Figure 2). Using the LP33.tv application they also posted links to tracks from their back catalog which were presented alongside purchase links. This effort revived back catalog content by essentially converting tracks from previous albums into “single” releases.
These posts were very effective in building a sense of anticipation for their new album. After the albums debut, Nine:Fifteen’s stream of wall posts acted as an album bonus feature similar to DVD commentary providing deep insight into the band and how the release was created.
The day the album was released (Figure 3), Nine:Fifteen immediately rose to become one of LP33’s top 10 most viewed artists.
Facebook’s massive community of over 300 million active users provides artists with an unprecedented opportunity to engage existing fans while attracting new ones they would not otherwise reach. By utilizing the Facebook page news feed in conjunction with the LP33.tv application, artists have a powerful new way to take charge of their careers and improve their chances for success.
We are pleased to announce the our Palm Pre application was released this past Friday. With this application, Pre users can view videos and create playlists from all of LP33.tv’s curated music channels. Channels and content are navigated using the Pre’s touch screen interface. Screenshots are below.
The development of this application was led by team member Matt Stuart along with Edwin Guardado and Patrick McDonald. We have been receiving great feedback from the Palm Pre user community, and if you are a Pre owner we encourage you to visit the app catalog and download “LP33 Mobile” .
The iGoogle home page is a popular online starting points for internet users. iGoogle has extensive customization options including the ability to add new features with gadgets. The LP33 development team has just created a gadget which allows iGoogle users to access all of our featured content channels.
To install it, follow these steps.
1. Log into your Google account.
2. Go to your iGoogle home page.
3. In the upper right of your iGoogle home page, click “Add Stuff“. You can also go straight to the gadget directory here.
4. On the “Add Stuff” page, enter “LP33″ in the “Search for gadgets” form.
5. The search results will return the LP33 application icon along with an “Add it now” button. If you have trouble finding it, try this link.
6. Click “Add it now”, and the LP33 gadget will appear on your homepage providing access to our latest music content.
Here’s a screenshot.
If you have any ideas or thoughts about our gadget, just contact us!
For over a decade, consumers and businesses have anticipated the widespread use of mobile devices to access the internet. Mobile internet access has been possible since the 1990′s when early devices such as the Apple Newton and certain Palm handhelds could access the internet using CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) networks. At that time mass market use of the mobile internet was stifled by low speeds, restricted coverage, expensive rates, and a lack of content rich web sites optimized for mobile delivery. Since then growth continued but at a frustratingly slow pace. Now in 2009 there are indications that we have finally reached a turning point in the adoption of mobile devices to access the internet. In late July, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a report describing dramatic growth in the use of mobile internet connected devices. The report stated that the number of Americans who used a mobile device to access the internet daily jumped 73 percent from 11 percent in December 2007 to 19 percent in April 2009. Additionally, Americans reporting that they had connected to the internet with a mobile device at least once rose 33 percent over the same time period.
This growth is fueled by the availability of 3G and 802.11 high speed wireless networks along with powerful multimedia smartphones such as the Apple iPhone, the Palm Pre, and the Android G1 to name a few.
Acknowledging this trend, the technology development team at LP33 has created a site optimized for multimedia smartphones with high speed internet access. Mobile device users accessing LP33.tv are directed to m.lp33.tv which delivers all of our content channels within an interface designed for contemporary 3G smartphones. We developed an optimized version of the mobile site for the iPhone and Pre which leverages the iUI: iPhone User Interface Framework. The iUI facilitates the development of webapps which behave as native mobile applications rather than web sites. Video content is delivered as 408×230 .mp4 files on the iPhone and Pre and as 176×144 .3gp files for all other video capable 3G handsets.
Lp33.tv on the Apple iPhone
LP33.tv on the Palm Pre
Our future mobile plans include the development of full fledged applications for the Pre and iPhone featuring user playlisting capabilities.
As always, you can send us your thoughts and suggestions to support@lp33.tv.
Many of us on the LP33 development team are avid Boxee fans. Boxee is a very popular open source media center platform. It allows you to view content from both the internet and your personal file library using an interface that can be easily navigated with a handheld remote. Optimized for HDTV’s, it’s a great way for bringing the internet’s best music and videos into your living room. As a bonus, you can control it with an iPhone!
We’ve recently developed a custom LP33 Boxee application. With it, you can view and listen to all of the music videos and content on LP33.tv. Here are some screenshots. Click the images to to enlarge.
Application Home Screen
Selecting the LP33 Lollapalooza Channel
Selecting a video to view
Video playing fullscreen
Boxee is currently in alpha. Versions are available for Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, Apple TV, and Microsoft Windows. To get it, just go to Boxee.tv, register, and download the version you need.
Once you have Boxee installed, follow these simple instructions to install the LP33 application found in the App Box.
We have a number of new features planned as Boxee continues to develop. We’d love to hear any feedback or ideas you have. Feel free to contact us at support@lp33.tv.
Now you can login using your Facebook account!