SoundCloud keeps adding on nice features to it’s pretty music sharing site. I was reading they now have a large paying user base and have received a few rounds of funding. I’m about ready to buy myself a Pro account. This weeks new feature that caught my eye is Groups. Anyone can create a Group around a subject. Here’s a few I joined:

Ableton Live Users – A group for users of Ableton Live.
Dj Mixes – Be sure to check out/comment on other mixes and upload your own. Keep it to 2-3 max please.
Field Recordings – Add your favorite field recordings.
Vocoder love – Group for artists who use vocoders.
Belgian New Beat – For anyone making music in this style or influenced by it.
Samplecloud – Put on the needles, plug in the cables, switch on the microphones and give us some food!
monome – small is beautiful
Samples – For sharing samples under the creative commons license. Samples and fragments only please!

I’d like to see an iPhone App for SoundCloud. You can already record audio on your iPhone and send it directly to SoundCloud using FiRe. I’d like to see how your using SoundCloud outside of the site itself. If you are posting your tracks into your own website or other social network send me a link to check it out.

“Groups are an entirely new feature on SoundCloud. They can be started by anybody and are a great way to bring people together around a specific theme or project. Want to start a remix contest? Make a group for it and let people send their remixes to that group. You’ll get a DropBox badge for the group that you can put on any page. And you’ll get a great player widget that will show all tracks that have been posted to the group. Groups can also be moderated to give you full control over its contents if required.” – soundcloud.com

Find me at SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/thingstocome

I’ve always complained to my Beatport rep that I really want to be able to customize the embedable player to fit my label’s website. I mean lime green and dark blue isn’t exacly what you would call a neutral color scheme. I still have not recieved my wish however today they released some nice looking banner generators.

Introducing the Beatport Banner Generator

Beatport has created a new tool to provide graphic assistance for the promotion of your new music. The dynamic banners created by the generator will update automatically with links to your current releases. Here’s the URL and easy instructions:

http://promote.beatport.com

Step 1. Pick whether you’d like to promote releases by Label or by Artist

Step 2. Choose one of four color schemes

Step 3. Choose from the eleven different banner sizes and get the code to embed to your website, Myspace, Facebook, email signature, or online newsletters.

You don’t have to be a Beatport label partner to access the generator so if you want to help your favorite artist out grab a banner and promote away.

I’ve been considering the ways to create an iPhone app for my own music as The Horrorist. iLike is has a limited time offer which will take all your content from your iLike artist page, turn it into an app and get it onto the iTunes app store. They charge a one time fee of $99 and after that they split the profits with you. The one time fee is a limited offer until next week. I can’t find anywhere what happens pricewise after that. “I like” the idea and may jump on it this weekend.

We just launched our turnkey service so you can create and distribute your own iPhone app. It’s simple to customize your app and program it with content using the iLike Artist Dashboard. Learn more by watching the video overview. Get started – customize and launch your app now. – iLike.com

What do you think? Is this a deal worth going for? Am I missing a better offer from a competitor? Is this an idea who’s time as past?

Related post: The Death Cab for Cutie iPhone application

SoundCloud has added volume control, a new info panel showing track stats, a download and buy panel, a share panel with support for direct sharing to your favorite social network, a handy switch to toggle comments on/off for faster navigation and threaded comments to it’s already sleek Player Widget.

To be honest I wish I didn’t love SoundCloud so much because I hate the idea of paying more than $50 a year on a web service. I also fear that if I upload 1000s of songs over the next five years and then SoundCloud goes out of business I’d feel majorly screwed. Imagine I use the above Player Widget in all my blog posts and then SoundCloud disappears. I know this is an issue with all cloud computing but I feel a bit more confident Google (and even Yahoo/Flickr) will be here in the long term or if they do cancel a service there will be good migration options. Now all that said, SoundCloud as a site is fantastic. In fact, it’s pretty much everything I want in a music storage and share online service. The guys in Berlin should really be congratulated for doing such a beautiful job.

I’m on SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/thingstocome

Related post: SoundCloud is a nice looking way to share music.

I met Ritche Hawtin a few times. I played a bowling alley with him in the early 90’s. We were set up inside the area that gives out the rental shoes. More recently in Berlin he moved into the studio next to me. Beyond being a friendly guy he’s got some great marketing tool ideas. I really like his latest move which sends Tweets of whatever track he’s playing directly from Native Instruments Traktor to Twitter. Here’s the copy:

“Pioneering techno DJ Richie Hawtin has announced the development of a new Twitter application that enables him to broadcast his Traktor tracklists in real time over the network. The custom Twitter application was developed in-house by Richie Hawtin’s label Minus, and it works by uploading song metadata through Traktor Pro’s inbuilt broadcasting functionality. Track details are automatically posted to Richie Hawtin’s Twitter account every 30 seconds (you can already see Traktor tracklist updates on his Twitter), giving anyone access to the tracklist of his performance, and providing exposure to the artists and labels whose music is being played.” – beatportal.com

Follow Ritchie on Twitter: click here and follow me (Oliver Chesler) too: click here

photo credit: cena carioca

Related post: Use Twitter as a promotion tool for your music.

Bandcamp Download Codes Screencast from Ethan Diamond on Vimeo.

Bandcamp added a great new feature to its service this week called Download Codes. It’s a great way for artists selling music on Bandcamp to offer freebies. To take the concept over the “Web 2.0″ top they integrated Moo cards into the fold. I love Moo cards and Ethan from Bandcamp says this is one of the first integrations of the new Moo API. I like the idea of taking a Moo card with a Bandcamp promo code on it and then attaching it as a label on a T-Shirt your band could sell at a show.

Have any of you guys been using Bandcamp?

Related post: Bandcamp and SoundCloud screencasts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNM-3QFq9fA

Tom Cosm always gave his music away for free. When his life went online he gave his music away and also started giving away free sounds and tutorials. When Tom’s computer died many of the people who enjoyed all the free gifts from Tom helped him out. I really liked the video above. I’m sitting in the center of Manahatan as a write this so seeing a nice New Zealand landscape is going down well with my coffee. Also quite cool is to see a few N.Z. techno parties. It’s a nice feel good story and it’s well needed in the music “business”. Tom printed all his contributors names in a tag cloud on the cover of his new Macbook.

“In the last 24 hours, Well over 1000 USD was raised to help get me a new Macbook. I am both amazed and overwhelmed with gratitude. Thankyou thankyou thankyou to those who chipped in to make this possible. I’ve had to stop accepting money for the Mac… I now have enough to not only purchase it, but upgrade it to it’s highest specs! (and probably get a nice carry bag) How exciting.” – www.cosm.co.nz

Tom Cosm – Making a bassline sit well with a Kick from Tom Cosm on Vimeo.

If your looking for a few tips, tricks, sounds or tunes why not stop off at Tom Cosm’s place: www.cosm.co.nz

The American indie-rock band Death Cab for Cutie made some waves in the geek world last week by releasing an iPhone app. The application’s release was well covered in the blogosphere and a reoccurring theme was, “Every band should have their own app!”. So today’s post is a question to you. As a self described iPhone junkie I want an app for my own band… but is there a way? I see two barriers to make this happen. First, unless there is a white box way to make iPhone apps (is there?) then I would need to hire a programmer. Second, even if I had an official app I would have to have it cleared by Apple before it enters the store.

With those two barriers in mind I think the best way forward would be a web app/interface. So if you know any bands who created web interfaces for the iPhone send me the links in the comments please. I wonder if there is a service like sites.google.com or Rapid Weaver specifically for iPhone web interfaces. By the way, the next version of Wire to the Ear will include an iPhone optimized site.

Take a closer look at the Death Cab for Cutie iPhone app: click here

Here’s a great idea worth mentioning. I received an email this morning letting me know “AbletonTweets” was following me on Twitter. With a name like that I had to click over and see what they tweet about. Happily it’s “Unofficial Ableton Tips and Updates”. So like peanut butter and chocolate, Ableton and Twitter go great together so why not follow too: http://twitter.com/AbletonTweets

Don’t forget to follow me too: http://twitter.com/thingstocome

Related posts:
Use Twitter as a promotion tool for your music.
Follow amazonmp3 on Twitter for daily deals.

Today is my birthday but today I have a gift for you. It’s one of my new songs that will appear on my next album. Feel free to copy and share it. In fact, I hope you help me spread it around. The song is called “Born this Way”. Here’s the official stuff:

Born this Way – The Horrorist  Download Mirror Mirror 2

Written & Produced by Oliver Chesler. Published by Things to Come Records/Basart Music Publishing B.V./Strengholt Music Group. Out of Line Music, www.outofline.de, Masterhit Recordings, www.masterhit.com, Things to Come Records, www.thingstocome.com

Photography: Silent-View, www.silent-view.com, Hair: René Hilbert, Graphic Design: Maurice Roy. Location: Tresor, Berlin. www.tresorberlin.de Special thanks to Peter Entjes.

The song was recorded in Berlin, Germany. Sequenced using Ableton Live. Synthesizers: Electrocomp-101, Roland SH3, Yamaha CS5 and many software synthesizers. Vocals: Shure KSM-32, TC Electronic Voice Modeler and many software effects.