Google Empire

Is Google becoming the real life incarnate of the super computer? You know, the one that becomes smart and cocky and powerful and outsmarts all of us humans? Or are the Google-ites just really smart people? What do you think?

A recent addition to Google, one in which you can see service updates for NYC subways on Maps, had me thinking about this question more and more. Everybody uses Google. If you've ever used a computer, you've probably used Google. In fact, I can't even name someone who hasn't used Google. Bing? No good. Ask.com? No good. Google, ladies and gentlemen, is the king of the Internet castle. So what does all this mean? With a healthy dose of cynicism and just the right amount of paranoia, maybe we'll find out.

Google, in fact, is not a product. It is a service and one that, in all honesty, merely points you in the right direction. It is a giant map of the web, as well as the world (see what I did there!). Think about how many times, daily, you turn to Google to help you: settle an argument! or find a band you like, or find a video you saw at a friend's house, or find a resource for work or school, and on and on and on. It is a (almost) limitless engine, one to which the human population is now forever bound. With the advent of Google glasses, this could be even more true in the coming years. You will never be able to leave your house without Google in your head (think about that) because it is just such a useful service. So is Google outsmarting us? or are the Google employees the ones that are really smart?

Because Google is such an innovative company, they are always pushing the limits of their services and aren't afraid to try something different. They've competed well in the mobile industry with Android, and obviously online they are almost everybody's first stop. With the amount of services Google offers (think YouTube, Google+, maps, books, news, calendar, docs, syncing with your phone) does this mean that Google is going to outsmart us? Is Google smarter than us? Or do we give the smarts to the creators and curators of these great services?In my opinion, no, Google is not necessarily outsmarting us. Google is still a service first. The services it provides are useful, innovative, and engaging. I like to give the people working on these great initiatives more credit than Google because they are the brains of the operation so to speak, and Google is just the vehicle for their visions.

Brains are shrinking as Google is growing.

In another direction, though, I do think Google (among other things) is making human beings very tech-reliant. While not necessarily a bad thing - these new technologies and innovations make things that were once fairly time consuming take almost no time at all - this great reliance on technology to solve everything is not good for the human psyche. While humans are the ones providing the answers behind the scenes, the fact that we rely on Google for a good wealth of our information is disconcerting.

The Age of the Internet encourages less personal interaction, the thing that makes us human. Call me old school, but it's kind of fun, challenging, and interesting to figure things out yourself or find something new yourself, or even read a map to find your directions instead of using a GPS. Google allows us to NOT use our brains, something we are lucky to have (or unlucky depending on your view of evolution). Let's keep the world our own, in all its beauty and not let Google become our brains.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Playlistism

Okay, so this is a blog written by someone who is working in the music industry right? Yes, so shouldn't there be some kind of MUSIC on this blog? YES! Every once in a while I'll shoot out some playlists and depending on the type of day, or what I'm feeling that day, and that's the direction the music will take. It's also an opportunity to take some music I like and that I've been listening to - spread it to the masses. Today I'll start with five songs, but how many do you think I should do per post? Let me know in the comments below! Happy listening.

It's a rainy Thursday in New York and I'm feeling the vibe that people need a pick me up, so I'm gonna do my best here and give you some rainy day music that'll fit the vibe of the dark skies but still give you some energy to keep on keepin' on.

Click HERE to listen on YouTube.

Will also be expanding this to Spotify in the near future for any Spotifiers out there!

Leave me a note in the comments and let me know what you think!

1. The White Stripes - "Black Math"

2. Grouplove - "Chloe"

3. Led Zeppelin - "What Is And What Should Never Be"

4. The Lumineers - "Ho Hey"

5. Bruce Springsteen - "So Young And In Love"

BONUS! Fool's Gold - "Surprise Hotel"

Smart Trash

Smartphones, smartcomputers, smart people, smart... trash? Imagine the possibilities! Never have you friends say you suck at basketball again! Check it out on Mashable HERE. It's pretty cool because it's also a hack of Microsoft's Xbox Kinect. It uses motion sensing technology to figure out where you're going to shoot and then the motor moves the bin to the location of the shot! Brilliant!!

No Sleep Till (Rock Is Back)

Exciting day for fans of rock in New York City yesterday. The death toll rang for a station that, well, no one listened to. The rock format will finally be back in New York. As a former intern at 101.9 WRXP (and one who was at the station the day the sale to Merlin Media was announced) I feel compelled to say that this is clearly a victory for rock in NYC. Everyone at RXP that day knew that news would never last on FM, especially as the RXP was gaining listeners in 2011. As the only station in New York City playing contemporary rock, the station was not only a personal favorite, but was loved by many.

The station became New Rock 101.9 yesterday, cutting off the failed experiment that was FM News. I've listened to the station a bit and I have to say, it's close to what RXP was when it first started. In the first hour I listened to the station I heard the Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys, Third Eye Blind, and Pearl Jam.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think it's time to put 101.9 back in your radio presets.

Listen live HERE.

"Hey, hey, my, my. Rock and roll can never die." - Neil Young

Intern Insights

For those of you wondering, I actually DO have an internship. It's with Nettwerk Music Group (home to the likes of fun. and personal favorites Dispatch) and it's primarily focused on artist management, though I do have a fair amount of interaction with publicity, licensing, and distribution as well. Pretty cool stuff and hopefully will help me to reach my goal of working somewhere in the music industry some day. Can't give enough thanks to my internship supervisor Mike Dunn. Mike, if you're out there somewhere reading this (because I know you are the least busy person in the world), thanks!

So, what do I do you ask? Well that's easy! I sit around all day and get everyone in the office coffee, chat at the watercooler, and every other office cliche you could imagine. NOT! I actually have a good amount of work that makes me feel very involved in the company and like I'm actually a part of the company. I work with Mike on a lot of different projects, and lately I've gotten very involved in digital media marketing.

The Internet can be a confusing world.

Digital media marketing, according to Wikipedia, is basically using internet connected devices and social media to promote and engage consumers. That's a decent description, but not completely what I'm doing. A project I'm working on right now - we're calling it the digital spectrum - basically takes insights from all the popular social networks, or all the networks particular artists are on and analyzes that data. For instance, I have one spreadsheet analyzing the time of day of all the posts. The data from that chart helps management to understand when people are responding the best to posts and what posts get the most engagement (i.e. likes shares, retweets etc.) The more engagement the better. Another spreadsheet analyzes what type of post gets the most engagement, and yet another analyzes which networks are the strongest engagers in comparison to the others. It's pretty interesting stuff and really lets you in on some interesting human psychology. It also tells you what's working and what's not working. If your posts aren't interesting as an artist, then who is going to want to follow and interact with you on social networks.

Bringing me to my last point - how does an artist and a label maintain their authentic voice on a social network, yet still use the network to promote the music and the "brand" so to speak? This is a tough question. Honestly, who wants to be bombarded on their personal social feed with "New album - Get it now" etc. etc.? Yet, there is a way to make your page engaging, exciting and fun. A really good example of this can be seen in marketing madman Seth Godin's blog. He talks about building trust and engagement with your audience, or your consumers - and this is a useful approach to social media as well.

Post things you think are funny, interesting or just plain awesome. Don't be afraid to share what goes on behind the scenes. Yes, you can promote a little bit because obviously people are interested in your "brand," but don't just promote it in the same old fashion as everyone else. Tell the people how excited you are for them to hear your new single. Let them know that you want their opinion. Tell them you can't wait to play in their city. There's a million ways to do it, so go out and do it!

DIY Tour: New Era of Ticket Sales?

Have you ever bought tickets for an event and thought "Man, cut me some slack on these prices"? Well, prices may not be going down, but certainly there may be some major changes in coming years to the way event ticketing is handled. In the era of the markup and the (somehow) legal online scalper, a change would be welcomed by fans and artists alike.

Louis CK: For The Fans

Recently, Louis C.K. announced a tour in which he bypassed traditional ticket outlet Ticketmaster in favor of selling his own tickets directly to his fans. LouisCK.net is offering the tickets exclusively. Every seat is $45. Pretty awesome.

There are real implications as a result of this that could change the industry. Rolling Stone reported that the tour had already sold $4.5 million worth of tickets in just under 2 days. Obviously Louis CK is a big act, but the thing that impresses me the most about this is that it has not come under fire from any major ticket agencies, nor has it failed. If a smaller artist were to attempt this (let's talk music, not comedy), I'm not sure it would completely work. The die-hards of course would support the show, but how would you get the people on the fringe? An obvious answer seems to be publicity and social media, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

Nathan Hubbard, CEO of Ticketmaster, even went as far as embracing the ticket movement on Twitter saying "We love what Louis C.K. is doing and support it - wish more people had the stones to do all-in ticketing." A later tweet also said "We have been a huge champion of protecting what he is trying to do - delivering a great seat at a fair price to an actual fan." While this is comforting to hear that someone at Ticketmaster has a soul, despite many consumer opinions that would indicate otherwise, the whole concept of ticketing includes more than just a fee.

The way ticketing is broken down is that the artist gets a major majority of the ticket price. The fees are not just a Ticketmaster surcharge, but a way for the promoters and the credit card companies and, yes, Ticketmaster to make some kind of profit off their service. If they weren't making profit, then how could their service be worth anything? It's a double edged sword.

While I agree that sometimes the fees are ridiculous, you can't fault the companies for trying to make a profit because, after all, that's what a business is about. The thing I love about what Louis CK is doing is he is making it more accessible for a fan to attend his show without that fan feeling like he paid a fortune to see an act that may not be his favorite, but one he wanted to see. While you may not get to see CK at a venue that is more popular, you will still get to see his act. As a fan, do I really care specifically where I'm seeing the act? Not usually. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction for getting fans, the artists and the industry to work together on a system that is fair to all.

What do you think of Louis CK's approach to ticketing? Leave a comment and let me know!