Category: Blog

NASA’s Stunningly Beautiful Space Now on Instagram!

Kelli Richards October 28, 2013

InstagramEarly last month NASA announced its decision to enter the social media game, creating and maintaining a presence on Instagram. While such a decision may not have monumental significance to either NASA’s space programs or the every day lives of the majority of people, it is definitely an awesome decision with various benefits that may brighten all of our days.

Instagram created a pretty ingenious niche in the social media industry, by basically combining key features of its two largest predecessors: Twitter and Facebook. By taking the best of both worlds, Instagram is an incredible social media magnet (and entertaining time waster.) Twitter thrives on the idea of short, to the point, messages, almost trains of thought, being shared across the web, while Facebook focuses more on longevity, providing easy to scroll timelines of the “social life” of users, for the most part documented through images and pictures.

Well Instagram does both. Bringing quick, thought “process-esque,” sharing to photographs (of course with pretty cool, retro picture effects.) And while Facebook focuses on connecting “friends,” we can probably generalize that statement to “acquaintances,” and Twitter connects friends but most importantly celebrities and athletes to the average Joe, Instagram once again does both, which  brings us back to NASA.

Beyond seeing what your friend’s eating in the “Valencia” color effect, or a squirrel searching for a nut, you can see the New York Knicks pre game workouts, Snoop Dogg, or Lion, smoking, and now beautiful images of space, courtesy of NASA.  NASA’s public visibility has shrunken over the years as the Space Shuttle program is no more. So, what better way to keep the public informed about the amazing space exploration that is still going on than to share amazingly stunning photos from space? “We’re constantly looking to expand our social media portfolio to include tools that will best tell NASA’s story of exploration and discovery,” NASA Press Secretary Lauren Worley said in the statement announcing the new initiative.

So next time you’re waiting for a train or standing in line for coffee, check out NASA’s Instagram, stare at some star formations, some nebulas, comets, cool stuff; and it may spark your interest. This may be a genius way to increase interest in space exploration, especially amongst the younger crowd who’s on social media 24/7.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, President & CEO of the All Access Group, LLC

iTunes Radio: Have They Hit It Out of The Park?

Kelli Richards October 7, 2013

radio_1xCustomizable, user integrated, radio stations have become the norm on music playing services, from Pandora to Spotify to fm.Radio; so it was just a matter of time before Apple’s iTunes developed and released a radio application of its own. And in classic Apple style, the iTunes Radio (accessible directly through iTunes, after downloading the new software) hits it out of the park.

Similar to its competitors, iTunes Radio, allows the user to create personal radio stations based on a specific artist, song, or genre. But where iTunes Radio differs from other learn-on-the-fly radio stations is the option to listen to 250, DJ created and genre organized stations. Featured stations range from The Beatles Radio, to the Voice, to “Miley Cyrus Bangerz,” Diplo tracks, and of course iTunes Top 100. In this way iTunes Radio reminded me of Sirius Satellite and other satellite car stations, offering unique, specific music.

But in exploring iTunes Radio, I picked several categories to study in comparing it with its competitors; the categories being: price, and music recommendations. In terms of price you can listen to iTunes Radio for free if you’re okay with listening to advertisements. However if you own an iTunes Match account, $25 a year, which allows you to store all your music in the iCloud and access it on any device, you can listen to iTunes Radio ad-free. Such a deal. Pay for music accessibility and the absence of ads is offered through Spotify as well; Spotify offers free use, with ads, uninterrupted music on a laptop or desktop for $4.99 a month, or uninterrupted music anywhere on all devices for $9.99 a month.

Pandora also offers a free service with advertisements, or an upgrade with similar deals to iTunes Radio and Spotify for either $36 a year, or $3.99 a month. Another great feature of iTunes Radio that can’t really be matched by its competitors is the ability to purchase a song you have recently discovered, again through iTunes Radio, and have it available in your music library. And you own this song, its not just saved in a queue!

Now on to what I think is obviously the most important aspect of iTunes Radio: the music. In this field, at least at the moment, I don’t quite see iTunes Radio competing with Pandora, in that Pandora offers more than 500 genre-based stations, and more than a million songs from more than 100,000 artists. (iTunes claims they have the most, but haven’t put a number on the “most”). It may be this extensive music catalog that Pandora has acquired that makes its music recommendations not only more accurate but more fun.

I can’t tell you how many new songs and artists I have discovered listening to Pandora radio, and in the few hours that I experimented with iTunes Radio I didn’t come across one “new” artist that I hadn’t heard of. This may just be a result of Pandora being in business longer and perfecting the art of recommending music, but to me they clearly had the advantage in this area. In addition, Pandora’s option to learn more about the playing artist and song lyrics is just a nice touch, aiding in your ability to “discover” new musicians.

That being said, iTunes Radio claims the more you use it, the better the recommendations. (Would you expect them to say anything different?). But for now it reminds me of iTunes “Genius recommendations on steroids.” But they have room to grow and most likely will.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

An Interview with Paul Myers, Canadian Author, Musician & Journalist

Kelli Richards September 26, 2013

Paul MyersMy recent Blog Talk Radio guest was Paul Myers. Paul is a Canadian author, journalist, musician, and songwriter, and the brother of comedic actor, Mike Myers. After a brief stint as songwriter and frontman for indie rock band, The Gravelberrys -which enjoyed a moment of fame with their alternative hit “Wonder Where You Are Tonight”- Paul began devoting most of his time to music journalism.

Paul’s first book was the authorized biography of the Bare Naked Ladies, called “Public Stunts, Private Stories,” which was published back in 2001. He wrote his second biography in 2007, “It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of the British Blues.” He later wrote the script for John Orchards film of the same name, which lead to Myers’ nomination for a 2008 Gemini award for best writing in a documentary program or series.

You can hear our full interview on my website at https://allaccessgroup.com under the Resources Tab/BlogTalkRadio

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

 

Discover Your Next Favorite Artist With Set.fm

Kelli Richards September 16, 2013

set-fm-logo-july-24-with-tag-reversedIn this age of digitalization, everything we once did, read, learned, heard, saw, a mere decade ago, has been coded, miniaturized (handheld accessible) or blown up to the big screen, putting a whole meaning to the Disney “it’s a small world after all,” jam.

In this ‘small’ world we can find receipts or reservations, read books, watch movies, and yes listen to music, without putting one device down. And as new ideas, inventions, applications surface one has to begin to wonder where the next advancement will come from? How revolutionary will it be? Who will think of it?

But the reality of the situation is that when most new inventions are described, they don’t seem that revolutionary, that incredible, rather pretty basic, intuitive notions. Everyone can admit the iPod and iTunes were groundbreaking inventions, being able to store and access your whole music library in one place. Being able to share this music? Seems like a pretty simple idea. So now that there is a seemingly never-ending advancement in the finding, sharing, and producing of music from iTunes to Spotify to Pandora to last.Fm, it seems difficult to imagine the next big step in the music industry.

Well, once again, that revolutionary idea may not be so crazy, so out of left field, instead it’s probably right in front of your face resulting in the proverbial: “why didn’t I think of that?” And it appears that set.fm has come up with an idea to share, almost immediately, live music performances. Now when I first read this, I didn’t quite see the scope of the idea, nor its implications.

The scope and implications of this advent both revolve around the new popular musical sounds of the generation and the festivals and live concerts that they foster. Bass, synthetic, and hi-hat heavy sounds have taken over the music industry in the form of “Trap” and “House Music.” But where is the connection between Trap music and set.fm‘s attempt to bring live shows to your home?

Well what sets House and Trap music apart from other genre’s is the live show artists put on. No longer does a musician stand idle in the middle of the stage eloquently annunciating, or pace back and forth across stage slamming guitars against the floor and kicking over amplifiers. Instead, concerts have turned into light shows- manipulating lights and laser to coordinate with bass heavy music, attempting to form a bridge between the visuals and acoustics.

Imagine basic star gazing, sitting in an open field with a telescope, admiring stars light years away; versus sitting in a massive planetarium, watching the light years fly by your face, feeling the heat emitted from the stars, and the massive empty space in front and behind you. Suc concerts have in turn fostered countless large music festivals all over the world- from England to Spain, Australia to Germany, and Los Angeles to New York. The set.fm will give you access to all these venues from the comfort of your home, minus the grossly expensive weekend pass…. I wish I thought of that.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

 

Tim Quirk, Head of Global Content Programming for Google Play

Kelli Richards September 12, 2013

Tim Quirk is the Head of global Content Programming. Tim spent more than 10 years as the singer and lyricist for the punk-pop band Too Much Joy before easing his way into music journalism, contributing regularly to publications such as Raygun and The San Francisco Chronicle. His critical essays have been published by the Oxford University Press and the academic journal Popular Music.

Tim helped build the joint digital music venture Rhapsody in 2001, serving for many years as the VP of Music Programming as establishing himself as a pioneer in the digital music industry. In 2010 he left Rhapsody to help launch Google Play, where he is currently breathing musical life into the technology giant as the Head of Global Content Programming for Google Play. He leads the team responsible for music, books, apps, and video merchandising.

I recently welcomed Tim on my BlogTalkRadio show, All Access Radio. Visit my website to hear the entire interview https://allaccessgroup.comunder the Resources Tab/ Blog Talk Radio.

Until next time,

Kelli Richards, CEO of The All Access Group, LLC

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