Sellaband is a new website that bypasses the record labels and exposes musicians and their work to web savvy music lovers. Site registrants vote for the artists they love, would like to see succeed in music or who they believe have commercial potential. This voting is done with hard cash to give it extra weight and even more to create a stash of cash for the artist: once the amount reaches $50000 the artist is sent into a studio to record his music professionally. Proceeds of this recording is split between the artist and the supporters, who have now transformed from 'believers' (in Sellaband speak) into investors. This whole site is a wonderful example of how to use the web as a distributed filter for quality, and create a worldwide marketplace for even the longest tail. Of course not everybody is a music expert - it seems as if at least some voting is done on the bands already on the rise just because they are. A surprising number of bands is still exactly $50000 away from fame and fortune. However, some good bands have already been recording, and overall the system appears to work. I'm a believer! Just put $40 on my account and am judging artists as we speak!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Sellaband
Sellaband is a new website that bypasses the record labels and exposes musicians and their work to web savvy music lovers. Site registrants vote for the artists they love, would like to see succeed in music or who they believe have commercial potential. This voting is done with hard cash to give it extra weight and even more to create a stash of cash for the artist: once the amount reaches $50000 the artist is sent into a studio to record his music professionally. Proceeds of this recording is split between the artist and the supporters, who have now transformed from 'believers' (in Sellaband speak) into investors. This whole site is a wonderful example of how to use the web as a distributed filter for quality, and create a worldwide marketplace for even the longest tail. Of course not everybody is a music expert - it seems as if at least some voting is done on the bands already on the rise just because they are. A surprising number of bands is still exactly $50000 away from fame and fortune. However, some good bands have already been recording, and overall the system appears to work. I'm a believer! Just put $40 on my account and am judging artists as we speak!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Free online Dutch megadictionary
The Dutch recordbreaking "Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal", the largest dictionary in the world, goes online this Saturday. The dictionary is the work of 134 years – started in 1864 only to be finished in 1998. The work covers 5 centuries of Dutch language history and has been released digitally on CD-ROM in 2000, but has never seen the light of the Net before. The dictionary will be available here (in Dutch only) for registrants (free).
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Map data wants to be free!
There is this saying from the Free Software community that software wants to be free. Soon some people scanted that Data Wants To Be Free too! So, many volunteers brought us valuable reference knowledge such as Wikipedia and classic books as in the Gutenberg Project. Now a massive fortress of paid data is under siege: Map data. The Open Street Data project has volunteers driving with GPS and camera through the country to collect the data - while at the same time having a lot of fun. I should say driving through many countries, although it seems as if The Netherlands is still a works in progress... hmmm, tempting!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
PowerPizza laptop sleeve
Disguise your valuable laptop in one of these... Ordered from this page, but also easily made DIY although it might take a while to get a pizza box delivered that is not full of grease... (the scent might make the disguise more genuine though!).
Saturday, January 13, 2007
iPhone
Yikes! I never thought I would post about Apple's new iPhone - that is, until I saw this clip which shows the phone's user interface. How cool! Now if it will keep that responsiveness when it's used a while (and bloated with data) I might be tempted...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)