Freddy Clarke
Renowned Flamenco Guitarist & Singer with Wobbly World
HITLAB – Reinventing Music Discovery and Distribution, One Artist at a Time?
What’s new in the world of Music and Technology? The world-renowned multi-platinum artist Akon and a key Canadian Internet Company have joined to create something new and very interesting: HITLAB.com. Hitlab is a new media company focused on reinventing the way music is discovered, produced, marketed and distributed.
Using their proprietary DHS (Dynamic Hit Scoring) technology algorithms to mine data from patterns existing music, and comparing these patterns to that of hit songs in the US (Billboard 100 Top Hits) from the past 6 years (using 76 variables including pitch, tempo, etc.), Hitlab measures the song’s “hit” potential. A score of over 70% means that the song is widely appealing because it demonstrates similar mathematical patterns to recent chart-topping hits by the industry’s biggest musicians.
For the unsigned artist joining the site there will be 5 stages to hit it big. Stage one is to upload their demo track. At stage two, they submit the demo track for DHS analysis for a fee of $30. Next, they submit the final demo track to the Online Audition. If the artist is selected for the Live Showcase, the winner will perform live in front of Akon and possibly be signed to one of his labels (Konlive or Konvict).
There are several advantages to the artist having his/her songs analyzed. To begin with it helps them to get a feel of the potential the song has to become a chart-topper. Second, the artist can use DHS as a learning tool to see what works and what doesn’t in an effort to improve their songs. The artist can also find out which of the songs stand the greater chance at becoming hits using DHS’s analysis and detecting comparisons. Lastly, getting a higher score can lead to a higher site ranking, which gives the artist a better chance at earning a spot in the HITLAB Live Showcase and getting a record deal with Akon!
Akon’s HITLAB also stores hits of inspiring artists for anyone to listen to for free or to purchase. What a wonderful way to support unsigned artists waiting to be discovered!
If you’re a musician looking for record contracts, you’ve come to the right place. If you want a part in the music business, you can join to be a Top Promoter (which creates your own web site and music store).
The Latest News is that HITLAB recently partnered with ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in the Emerging Artist Competition. The Recording Academy (www.grammy.com) agreed to give the winning unsigned upcoming artist or band a chance to perform at the 3rd Annual Social Media Rock Stars summit, an official Grammy® week event!
While there are many sources out there for new artists and bands, Hitlab is devoted to helping artists find their way to the biggest audience and to becoming the biggest hit possible simply by creating an easy-to-use algorithm for success.
Until next time,
Kelli Richards, CEO of the All Access Group, LLC
The Cupertino Connection: iTunes 11 and iCloud
iTunes may be one of the best products that Apple ever developed, or at the very least, one of the smartest. Just a few weeks ago Apple released iTunes 11 with a myriad of visual and technical changes and improvements. iTunes will turn 12 years old in January, and in those years Apple has found a way to streamline, connect, condense, and centralize a user’s content and multimedia experience. With that in mind, I think it’s worth looking at a few of the existing features, the new ones in iTunes 11, and the future ones planned for next year to see just how they’ll continue to do that.
First let’s look at how Apple already connects users and their content across multiple devices. One of the earliest features that did this was the “Library Sharing” feature that enables users to share their library across 5 devices connected to the same network using the same Apple ID. This was great because a user could have a whole collection on their desktop computer and access that same collection on their laptop. With this feature, users can also share content with other people on their WiFi network.
A similar feature that’s been out for a few years is AirPlay. AirPlay allows users to stream media from one device across multiple devices on their WiFi network. For example, a user can start listening to an album or playlist in one room and stream it to their home stereo in their living room. Users can even adjust which devices are playing at what time and the volume of those individual devices. Apple TV even lets users stream a movie from their computer on their Apple TV. Of course, all of these devices are controllable with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad.
Finally, with iTunes 11 and the updated iTunes store, all of a user’s downloads are automatically synced to the iCloud and accessible by any other iCloud capable device. This means a song downloaded in the iTunes store on your computer will be available on your iPod or iPhone. A similar service, iTunes Match, was released last year and allows users to pay an annual fee to have any of their music in their library uploaded to the iCloud, whether it was purchased or available in the iTunes store or not. These services could prove to be interesting competitors for Spotify, Rhapsody, Amazon, and other streaming/cloud based music delivery services.
Lastly, Apple recently announced that it will launch its own streaming radio service to compete with Pandora in the first few months of 2013. Like the aforementioned services, it will be available across iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macs, and PC’s as part of iTunes.
With all of these developments that have made Apple products so seamlessly integrated into a person’s life, it seems Tim Cook is moving forward to fulfill Steve Jobs’ goal of having an Apple device in every home. Cloud storage and online streaming is all the rage right now, and Apple’s solutions could prove to be big problems for its competitors. With so many solutions to a user’s content needs, why would they bother going elsewhere?
Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group
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