David Emery OnlineNIN Edition of Tap Tap Revenge
In what may well stand as a defining moment in the maturation of Apple’s App Store, Tapulous has announced that it has partnered with the band Nine Inch Nails to release a premium version of its popular game Tap Tap Revenge some time in October.
I find it quite interesting that this NIN version of Tap Tap Revenge will be a premium version, considering that the normal version is free (and has been very successful).
I’ve been thinking a lot about the pricing models of music related iPhone apps recently – it’s the traditional ‘free, but with promotional value’ versus ‘monetized, but with less promotional value’ debate that music videos also have to face. My general conclusion is that the ‘free with promo’ option is probably the best to go for – if the game you are in is selling music then the surrounding content you generate that isn’t part of the body of work (like you could argue a music video is) should be seen as promotional value only, there to increase music sales.
That being said, if the content you create is compelling enough in its own right then it seems reasonable to think about charging for it, but then is that worth the development time and resources? This NIN/Tapulous deal seems like a nice bridge between the two, although I think it would have made far more sense to have the NIN version free – with the value being in increased music sales – and the normal version for-pay.
Visit ➔Mixtape
As can be seen on the comments of my last post, it turns out that a lot of you really do like albums.
In all honesty, this doesn’t really surprise me. It seems slightly foolish to argue with the form that the vast majority of great music takes; musicians like it – believe me, I’ve asked – and the apparent alternative that is periodic single track consumption seems quite vulgar in comparison.
However, as one last stand against the preserved wisdom I present the age old equivalent of ‘shuffle’:
The mixtape.
Mixtapes – with the rise of sites like the now defunct Muxtape – seem to be on the rise recently, another side benefit I guess of the free sharing of tracks on the internet; being composed of a mix of single songs maybe seems slightly fairer then posting up a whole album.
I love a good mixtape – unsurprisingly, considering they’re the equivalent of how I listen to music but utilising someone else’s ears. They’re such a great way of discovering music, if you can find one curated by someone on the same wavelength; I remember discovering Sonic Youth, Franz Ferdinand and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs all through mixtapes (as an aside, what’s...
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YouTube - experiencewii's Channel
To explain it would be to ruin it, but this is a masterful piece of online advertising for the new Wii Wario game (which sadly I’ve heard isn’t that good).
Visit ➔Radiohead Reckoner Remix
We’ve just launched the second Radiohead Remix project, this time with Reckoner (which I think will be a hell of a lot easier to remix then Nude was).
Visit ➔Bandcamp - A free hosted CMS for bands that (hopefully) doesn't suck
Most of the time, these products are poorly built, poorly customizeable and then want to charge artists money (for these amazing services). Bandcamp seems simple, easy to use and free, though they do have some plans to make money.
It’s amazing how many of these type of products there are out there, and still not one I’d choose to use. Bandcamp seems better then most, but only does the ‘music’ bit (playing/downloading/purchasing) for the time being and in all honesty ecommerce from a small band’s site generally isn’t worth the time and effort (not enough sales and you have to do all the promotion yourself).
Visit ➔Collections of tracks
Do you listen to albums any more?
For me, the answer is (almost, and I’ll come to that later) no.
In fact, are albums really all that relevant any more?
Now don’t get me wrong, I am very much not trying to push for the single track mentality that we were all supposed to gravitate to thanks to digital music. No, I think getting an artists’ output in roughly 10-15 track chucks works and makes sense; you can’t get a true sense for what an artist is trying to achieve with much less then that.
Singles can so easily be just a one-off, flash in the pan moment of brilliance or conversely an oddity that doesn’t represent the full body of work justly. EPs on the hand can give you much more of the full picture, but still leave you wanting so much more (for example, the 5 track sampler for ‘Twenty One’ by Mystery Jets was by no means representative of the best bits of the full album).
Albums as a collection of tracks, then, is still relevant. However, does the concept of an album make sense?
It’s all about the ubiquitous ‘shuffle’ of course. When iPods and the iTunes Store first came along I...
Read more ➔CrossOver Chromium
CrossOver Chromium is a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser. CrossOver Chromium is available for download from CodeWeavers, free of charge.
Seems to work surprisingly well – good enough at least to do a double check that everything that works ok in Safari works in Chrome.
Visit ➔Best Buy eyes Apple, Microsoft with Napster purchase
Today, electronics retailer Best Buy announced that it would buy Napster for a total of $121 million, a significant premium over the company’s value based on either stock price or assets.
“Hi there! We’re Best Buy.
We know nothing about digital music.
No, seriously – absolutely nothing. Not a clue.”
It’s almost like they’re trying to prove how stupid they are – Napster is a company loosing customers hand-over-fist as its main subscription business has unsurprisingly turned out to be a failure. The brand only has recognition from its illustrious illegal past and subsequent appalling advertising.
I don’t get it.
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