What I learnt today 23//01//09

That the Candid Cafe is a great place for a cosy drink. That Last.fm has launched on Android. The extent of the worldwide buzz surrounding Obama's inauguration on Twitter. That if you spread the word of Barcardi's new content sharing platform you can download Groove Armada's new album for FREE. That my cupcakes are tasty. That E4 has created a bespoke Skins MSN Messenger to engage with the youth audience, share content + information on the series. That Cadbury has launched the next 'cup and a half of joy' ad this time using kids with unnaturally wiggly eyebrows. That you can find out who the biggest brands in social media are here. That Howies has a great sale on. That Time Out is celebrating 40 years of fitness by running a free evening of fitness through the decades Leg Warmers + Lycra at the Central YMCA - I'll be there. That if you find a horseshoe you should hang it on a door with the points pointing up for good luck. That I like The Phantom Band.

Spread the word to download the new Groove Armada album FREE

Can't work this out. It seems that if you join Bacardi BLive's new content sharing platform, you can download the new Groove Armada album for free. But only if you help spread word about the site by writing blog posts, emailing friends, posting on your networks etc. Each time you share, you can download a track. I think.

Hmm and if that is the case it feels a bit weird to me. Will see what happens + write some more.

The Riff Raff attracts 47,156 Bebo fans

Quick update on The Riff Raff Bebo campaign launched by our friends at Hideous Productions. When I originally wrote about this (here), the guys had 5 fans..basically us, them + the band!

..but since then they've managed to attract an astonishing 47,156 Bebo fans with large numbers of them interacting with the page on a daily basis by leaving comments on the wall, posting pictures, responding to the polls + inviting their friends to join. Hideous is now looking for a brand to sponsor the full campaign which should roll out towards the end of the year. So watch this space..

The Reverend goes all green

Reverend + The Makers Guitarist, Tom Jarvis performed their last song on the John Peel tent at Glastonbury using a guitar made from recycled materials.

Endangered hardwood is often used to make guitars, but these bad boys, found at the Ethical Superstore are made from a variety of different recycled materials. You can choose from the ‘Espresso’ – made from vending machine coffee cups, the ‘Chilli’ – made from off-cuts from industrial pipes, the ‘Pirate’ – sparkling fragments of crushed CDs suspended in translucent blue from office water cooler bottles. There are loads of others to choose from too.

The Riff Raff Make Tracks on Bebo

Our friends at Hideous Productions have been working with unsigned band, The Riff Raff to help them raise their profile among music-loving teens.

In a unique + innovative campaign, The Riff Raff is asking Bebo users to help them launch their debut album in a way that's never been done before!

The Riff Raff Make Tracks page asks Bebo users to join them on a journey which will take them to some of the coolest + unusual locations across the world. Each week they'll visit a different destination decided by the Bebo community through online polls, where they'll perform at gigs, meet some famous faces + generally have a lot of fun. All of their performances + antics will be documented via video posts, blog entries + more on Bebo. And as they go, they'll introduce a different track from the album to their Bebo community, which can then be downloaded via the Bebo site. So by the end of the tour not only will the fans have collected the entire debut album, they'll have been taken on, and contributed to an unforgettable journey with the band as well.

We think this is going to be a HUGE hit with the Bebo crowd..potentially changing the way music is released FOREVER! Support the band + join them on their journey by becoming a fan here..we have.

Coldplay preview new album on MySpace

Coldplay is to stream its new album exclusively to MySpace users ahead of its official release.

MySpace members will be able to listen to ‘Viva la Vida’ from 6pm today, before it goes on worldwide release on 17 June.

Full tracks from the band’s fourth album will be streamed through its profile page, which also features tour dates and a blog. The profile currently has more than 415,000 friends, making it one of the most popular on MySpace Music.

This is the third time the British band has streamed content on MySpace. T-Pain and Timbaland are among previous acts to use the social network to launch albums.

Source: nma.co.uk

Samsung Supports Wannabe Musicians

Remember the days when budding musicians could only be heard by the masses once they had gone through the blood, sweat and tears of securing a record deal, getting airplay and finally appearing on Top of The Pops?

When social networking sites came along, it was like a fairy godmother had waved a magic wand. Suddenly up-and-coming artists had an outlet for their music and a direct way to communicate with their growing fan bases.

Now Samsung has gone one step further by teaming up with Facebook, MySpace and Bebo to offer four bands the chance to have their music featured in an ad campaign for its F400 handset. In an app created by Techlightenment - which launched simultaneously across the three sites as well as at www.f400share.com - hopefuls can upload a short clip of music for others to listen to and vote for their favourite. The winning clip will become the sound-track on the F400’s radio and online ad campaign, which launches in the summer.

This strategy short-circuits the usual way in which soundtracks are chosen for ads which has traditionally involved agencies and record companies. For instance, London Calling founder and former director of music, TV and advertising at Universal Music, Tracie London-Rowell, was behind some legendary link-ups, including Leftfield’s (then unreleased track) Phat Planet on Guinness ‘surfer’. And BBH catapulted Make Luv, a track by Room 5 featuring Oliver Cheetham, into the number one spot after putting it at the heart of an integrated campaign for Lynx Pulse. By leaving it up to the consumers to vote for their favourite track, Samsung is entrusting them with a key decision in their advertising that could infuse the brand with kudos (think what The Dandy Warhols did for Vodafone - and vice versa - when Bohemian Like You became ‘the Vodafone song’). What’s more, in a summer

Where mobile operators and handset brands are all over an ever-chronic epidemic of music festivals, Samsung deserves a definite thumbs-up for trying something different www.f400share.com

Source: Contagious