MySpace gives us Chinese Democracy

I’m back, I’ve been “sicky-woo” for the past week, but unlike our bumbling Facebook friend, I actually was ill with tonsillitis. Now, reviewing music is really not my thing, I tend to leave that to my mate Mat and his crew over at I’m with the band. Having said that, two things have led to this post, the first is my childhood infatuation with Guns N Roses and the second is the fact after 14 years in the making, their new album Chinese Democracy is now available and is streaming on their MySpace page. Another reason is the fact that the Chinese government is offended at the title and will probably block Chinese web users from logging on to listen, but anyway….

As I already mentioned, reviewing music is really not my thing as I tend to be somebody that hears something on radio and takes a liking to it – sorry Mat, I’ve let you down, I know. Having said that, I did have a listen to the album on the band’s MySpace page and thought I’d post up a little review. So here goes. Overall I thought that there was some really good stuff there and the Guns N Roses sound is still there, especially Axl’s vocals.



It’s a bit hard to pass judgment on an album that has been this long in the making after listening to it through a pair or PSP earphones via my PC (nothing wrong with PSP earphones or PCs – I love you both) but I will say that my favourites out of the bunch include: Better, Street of Dreams, Catcher in the Rye and Prostitute. One thing I thought it lacked though, was a kick-ass G’N’R anthem, you know the likes of Sweet Child O Mine, Paradise City, Live and Let Die or November Rain. But, having said that, maybe I just need to buy the album and listen to it really loud on a kick-ass stereo like the old days

MyTake – This is either going to be an act of genius by one of the most prolific song writers in the world, or it’s going to be an unfortunate foot note in an otherwise glittering career. I think that I am going to grow to love this album and like most average punters, as soon as I hear one of the tunes on the radio I’ll love it. Great move by the G’N’R boys for streaming it on their MySpace site, can’t wait for the promotional band wagon to role out the rest of the party

Ladies and gentlemen...The Trons!

We’ve had iBand, now here’s………The Trons! Who are they then, you ask? Well they are/it is a band of robots or automated musicians if you will. The brainchild of an electronic engineer from Hamilton NZ called Greg Locke, the band is actually made up of parts that his mates have given him, or stuff that he’s managed to scrounge together. 

The Trons consist of a keyboard player, a drummer, two guitarists and what can only be described as a “warbler”. Greg already has a MySpace page for the band and even uploaded a few tunes to YouTube, which is where he secured the band’s first international gig. Apparently, the PR firm for Mercedes-Benz got in touch with him and asked if The Trons would be interested in performing at the Paris Auto Show. But this wasn’t the first gig for the Kiwi bots, they have already toured New Zealand’s South Island. 

MyTake – Some men look at their garden and think, I’ll dig a flower bed…..some men look at their shed and think, I’ll build a tool rack…This bloke look at his bedroom and thought, I’ll build a band to entertain me. Greg Locke, we salute you. Yes, it’s an example of innovation at its purest, but it also demonstrates that technology and software is becoming more and more accessible and that we’re all only an idea (and maybe a few beers) away from our very own Robert band. Check out the video below.  

It pays to be social

I’m a bit biased when it comes to the U.S. elections as I’m very much an Obama fan. Even though I’m not American (and therefore have no say in the matter) I think that the election of the next President of the United Sates of America is pretty important to all of us. So, it’s with interest that I have been following the news on the election, occasionally posting a few stories here when it relates. Here is one such story that relates –Obama has more friends than McCain.

It’s official. According to a report by Pew Research Centre that looked at the respective candidate’s online presence, Obama is the man out in front.  With 1.7 million Facebook supporters and 510,000 MySpace friends, Obama out punches McCain with 309,000 Facebook supporters and 88,000 MySpace Friends. The report also revealed that Obama’s fan base on YouTube was 11 times the size of McCain’s. 

MyTake – They’re going to call this the Facebook election the rate this is going. It’s amazing to see the emphasis that is being placed on each candidate’s online presence and activities. With such a large geographic area to cover, online does offer the best solution to interact with your audience on a continuous basis, but it's the effort that's being put into the space that is quite amazing. I can’t wait for election day on Facebook -  “Barack Obama is……the President of the United Sates of America”

iWorship

Recent cut-backs have seen many rural churches close with services cancelled. But in a small Australian town, morning worship has just taken a new twist. Thanks to the use of 3G technology, Glen Waverley Uniting Church is broadcasting its morning worship to a number of smaller rural churches, including one in the small town of Beeac.

Although religion is no stranger to the web and mobile technology, this kind of innovation among rural church communities is pretty rare. At the moment, there is no interaction between the churches due to bandwidth capacity, but they are targeting this as the next hurdle to overcome.

MyTake – I really, really wanted to say that God works in mysterious ways, damn it, I’ve said it! There’s no questioning the passion of these Church-goers, this is clearly a part of their lives that they believe in and are willing to fight for. The question I’d ask – where to next? Facebook, Myspace? Why not, it would be a very cost effective way for them to interact and share content.

To vote for Corey......

Big Brother, love it or hate it, it’s still here…and it just won’t go away. I don’t want to use the word enduring (manly because I can’t stand the show) but as one of the first reality TV shows, it kind of is. I remember the first series when I was living in London - it was new and everyone loved it – the pubs even had to start showing it because customers where leaving to get home to watch it.

The point of this post is the “rumour” that Corey Worthington is going to be a housemate in the upcoming series of Australia Big Brother. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Corey have a look at some of my earlier posts here and here. But, as a quick recap, he posted details of a party he was having on his MySpace page and invited all his MySpace friends to come. The result was 500 teenagers in a small Melbourne street, a police response unit and a rather embarrassing interview on ACA (for Leila McKinnon, not Corey)

MyTake – This is a great way to reinvigorate a boring, boring show. I have a friend that works in TV production, so I know how hard it can be to come up with new concepts for a show, and this is probably one of the best ideas yet. The interesting thing is that kids such as Corey can launch TV careers using MySpace and that virtual stars are becoming mainstream stars. In a show that is quite literally all about TV, it’s funny that a web star is needed to save it.

MySpace goes retro with shows

MySpace has announced a deal to put its web-based shows on TV. Thanks to a deal with the Shine Group, you’ll be able to see MySpace shows such as Quarterlife, Roommates and Special Delivery on your TV. According to MySpace, it’s developing local versions of its current shows with plans to develop some new concepts. However, reports from NBC in the US, who broadcast "Quarterlife", reveal that the show ranked last among all shows aired in that slot – not very encouraging numbers.

MyTake – Isn’t this supposed to happen the other way around? It seems a bit odd to have shows that are web-based moved to TV – you’re going fro a highly flexible and accessible medium to a very rigid and closed medium. Surely the appeal of these shows is partly to do with the accessibility of them – you don’t need to make an appointment to see it. With more and more content shifting from the TV to the net, this can only be move to get big TV money, but the figures (as our pals at NBC found) don’t lie.

MySpace pokes Apple in the iTunes

So, MySpace comes out and tells the world that it’s set to take on iTunes and Apple does the cultural equivalent of bending down and patting it on the head. The men in white wasted no time in telling the world that Apple iTunes sales have now exceeded that of Wal-Mart stores, putting them in the number one spot in the US – some of you may have read my last post on the Apple Vs Wal-Mart battle where Apple came off in second spot.

Back to the MySpace offering - MySpace Music is a partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music and although they aren’t talking money, they did say that it would be ad-supported to some extent. In terms of making money, they were quite forthcoming with that detail, stating that they would be selling digital music downloads, ring tones, concert tickets and t-shirts.

MyTake – MySpace is a massive network and the different content flying around is amazing and obviously very appealing to its audience. As for taking on iTunes, I reckon that’s a bit of a stretch. iTunes can be anything to anyone and the important thing is that it acts as your library and your music store. If you think about the demographic for MySpace and then the penetration of iTunes, I think you’ll agree, it’s a bit of a redundant debate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome that MySpace is doing this, the more interesting and appealing content the better. As time goes on, I think we’ll see more and more individual ways of searching, finding and consuming content.

I hope you like Jammin' too

Welcome to the next generation of jamming! Since the dawn of time, mankind has been using everything and anything to make music and that's not set to change any time soon. A bunch of guys have taken two iPhones and a Nintendo DS and created the "iBand". Check out the video below.

MyTake - Music is becoming more and more accessible, letting more people get involved and make music. I wonder how many great artists were never discovered because they couldn't get in a studio, or couldn't afford a guitar. The idea that people could sit around jamming on their iPhones then share the result with pals via Facebook or MySpace is one I think will happen sooner than we think. It's all about content, and sharing that content - the more personal that content gets, the more it’s worth sharing.

The Book beats the Space in Aus

Alright - so I'm a bit late posting on this.  But the news is that it's all about the book and not the space.  What I mean is that Aussies prefer Facebook to MySpace, at least that's what a new survey commissioned by B&T says.  According to the results, 23 per cent of respondents favored Facebook compared to just 11.5 per cent for MySpace, while YouTube came in with 11.5 per cent and Bebo at 2.6 per cent.  Perhaps the more interesting figure from the study is that over 40 per cent of respondents stated that they didn't visit any social networking sites - which basically means there's a hell of a lot of room for growth.  

My Take - Facebook has struck a chord with users offering them a unique blend of functionality, flexibility, privacy and....fun. Build it and they will come, put on a party, and they'll stay.   

No Wikipedia love for Corey

Corey's at it again - and he didn't actually do anything! This time he's managed to upset the good folk at Wikipedia , where there has been heated debate as to whether or not he deserves his own entry.

An entry for the most notorious MySpacer to date was created by a user called Fosnez and was online for a whopping 35 minutes before being deleted by other users. The deletion sparked a huge debate that Corey supporters eventually lost.

Run for PM, then you might get an entry....

If I were a Myspacer, i'd be....

A new report commissioned by MySpace called “MySpace 08: People. Content. Culture.” has identified some emerging trends and groups using the network. The most interesting part of the report is the different types of people that they say are using the network - which one are you ;-)


Netrepreneurs:People who accessed the sites for the sole purpose of making money (4%)

Connectors:People who revel in passing on information and links whenever they come across something they find interesting (10%)

Transumers:People who follow the lead of others and join groups connected to their hobbies (28%)

Collaborators:People who use social networking sites to create events (5%)

Essentialists:People who use social networking sites to stay in touch with friends and family (38%)

Scene Breaking:People who hunt down new bands and talent online and share that through the site (5%)

My(Parents)Space

A Melbourne teen by the name of Corey who has an unhealthy obsession with his sunglasses (and a pink doona with fairies on it!) held a party at his parents place, using the open invite function on MySpace. The invite saw more than 500 teenagers descend on the quiet street to attend the party which resulted in the police being called.

"It was just an open house party and a lot of people came and it overflowed on to the street," Corey said. "The cops came and told all the people to quiet down and get inside. It just kept getting bigger and bigger. There were people bottling cars and the whole streets were flooded with people. We knew we'd get about 200 but there was probably about 300, 400 easily."

Corey's parents, who were on holiday, have cut short their trip to head home and deal with situation. But Corey doesn't care - he can't quite see what all the fuss is about and when interviewed on Channel 9's A Current Affair, he refused to say sorry and refused to take off his colourful glasses. When asked what his advice would be for other would-be party organises using MySpace, he said he'd be happy to organise a party for others.

Outtake - kids have been doing this for years, it's nothing new. What it does show is the power of Social Networks and their validity among this age group - not that I am condoning what he did...I never did anything stupid when I was a kid....never......