Hype Machine is attempting to build a ‘real life’ extension of their internet brand by holding organic meetups in relevant cities. Their latest New York City party was an opportunity for people to ’swap’ used CDs. It seems like this might have just been an ironic slap in the face of the industry that they are killing. While the spirit of CD swapping seems to be ‘fun’, we can’t help but think this is some sort of

Just hangin out, swapping CDs.  Not sure if these bros still buy CDs or if they still ‘cherry pick’ off hypemachine.

Drinkin 4 a cause.  Does that mean I should get something more expensive than PBR?

Gettin my nametag on.  Running game.

We also listened to live music instead of just streaming borderline illegal mp3s on hypemachine.

Wonder if the Morning Benders are more authentic ‘live’ or in mp3/vimeo format

Glad I finally swapped my Dookie CD for the Blues Brothers 2000 soundtrack.

Does this party seem chill, or would u rather stay in and download mp3 blogs all day?
Is the hypemachine encouraging the free spirit of music, or were they just trying to make the CD seem more ‘dated’ than ever?
Have u ever swapped used CDs, or do u just sell them back 2 a Used Records Store?
Have u ever attended a meetup of a thriving internet community? Did u make new friends or feel more alone+insecure than evr?

Is it the altbro in the front of a DJ set wearing a sweat drenched hypemachine tshirt with his hand raised and his messenger bag over his shoulder full of vinyl records & a white Macbook?

Do u check the hypemachine more than u check myspace/fb? Does that make u authentic/ an authentic music fan?

Or is a better picture that captures the essence of altBro 2 altBros who brought overt indicators of having merged their personal brands with Girl Talk AT a Girl Talk concert?

[lastnitesaltbro]

Did yall read about Girl Talk in the New Yorke Times?
Are Mashups ‘art’? Does something automatically become ‘not art’ after 2 many inauthentic people like it? (a.k.a. the HRO in 2k9 theory)

Can some1 build a timeline that documents the mainstreamization of Girl Talk so that we can study how things go from ‘authentic buzzworthy viral’ to ‘maltsream’ to ‘mnstrm’ to ‘xx(main)streme)’ [a mix of X-treme+Mainstream].

[Photo by GaraceDore]

Sometimes I wonder what I will do when I grow up. I ‘don’t want to end up’ ‘working’ in a ‘cubicle’ and feeling meaningless, kinda like the movie ‘The Office Spaces.’ I am going to design school/liberal arts school to get a better perspective on the world. I want to be able to share this perspective with others who need help making decisions. I understand the world and/or people and/or humanity and/or ‘business.’

I am a coolhunter without even trying 2 b. Even though I do not realize it, I am on the cutting edge of ‘what’s NOW‘ in society.

I’ve read that employers like google have free buffet-style food and dry cleaning for their employees.

Should I work at google? Do they have vegan options? What can I do if I work 4 google? Can I be the guy who finds what people r looking for when they search?
Does n e other place have a progressive/zany [CUSTOMIZABLE] environment in which 2 work?

I just want an authentic place where I can work.
I want 2 work 4 a firm where I can contribute 2 humanity.
I don’t want to b ‘just another alternativeBrick in the wall.
I want to authentically bond with my coWorkers.
I want to have a lava lamp.
I want to have a progressive poster in my office that wouldn’t be allowed in most workplaces.
I want to have a starting salary of $60K per year and be able to waste half of my day on the internet.
I want to eat lunch at kute restaurants with healthy options every day.
I want to be respected within my office.
I want to have authentic conversation with my coWorkers, and not just talk abt ‘the weather’ or how my local sports team is ‘in the playoffs’ and ‘has a good shot.’
I want a workplace where I can have a sweet speaker system in my office, and blast Popular Songs from The HypeMachine which inspire coWorkers to come into my office so I can tell them about the band, then spend 15 minutes telling them about how it is authentic to find MP3s from the hypemachine because it is the ‘most authentic form of buzz’ which can be associated with a band.

///Searching 4 my dream job///

Previous Alternative Career Help coverage

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2008/10/what-is-the-most-authentic-alt-job.html

////help///
///need 2 grow up & make money, but still stay youthful & authentic //// \\

(Is it acceptable to wear American Appy as Business Casual?)

Will we ever find out what ‘indie’ means?
Are blogs bad 4 music?
Are bloggers dummies?
Are traditional music journalists going to be executed in public?
Will Pitchfork purchase the Hype Machine?
Is the Hype Machine the only authentic ‘music service’ on the internet?
Did the Hype Machine create a terrible place for artists to lose money, and crappy bloggers to get more hits than they deserve per day?
Do artists deserve 2 make money?
Are bands just memes?
Is the guy who made Pitchfork more of an altBro, a cool dad, an AuthenticAlt (altPro), or a mainstreamer capitalizing off alts, or just ‘a guy who likes music a lot’?
Do people want a music service like ‘muxtapey’ or are they satisfied with myspace music?
Should the government deregulate the music industry kinda like the airline industry?
When will we get tired of remixes and take artists seriously if they ‘think remixes are bad for their product’?

I know all of yall read a lot of music blogs, so u like feeling important when people talk about u being on the cutting edge of culture.

/////THE FUTURE OF MUSIC JOURNALISM//////
Part 1

Part 2

Music blogs are okay, but at this point, they aren’t terribly important on their own. The Hype Machine is important. However, each individual crappy blog isn’t THAT important, unless they have been blogging for 2+ years, then you can make a case. I think the point of ‘ur personal mp3 blog’ is to create an authentic content stream without any sort of outside influence.

All bloggers get the same emails from the same marketing companies who are getting paid to let me know about krappy new indie bands. I think the difficult part about ‘creating a good blog’ is a blogger being able to ask himself ‘Do I REALLY care about this band/newsbit/mp3 or do I feel pressure to blog about it because I think it’s what people want to hear about?’

You can call this theory the ‘Popular Artists on HypeMachine’ theory. When entry level bloggers see that ‘a lot of people are downloading radiohead’, they think that their blog becomes a more valuable resource if they reBlog a popular song to increase their traffic. At the same time, entry level alts see that Radiohead is #1 and feel like ‘I am supposed to appreciate this band/music because a lot of other people are appreciating it.’ Is Radiohead GENUINELY buzzworthy, or is it just too many content sources caught in a cycle of ‘letting people know about news that they thought they were supposed to know about but didn’t know why.’

While I think blogging about ‘what you think uninteresting people need to hear about’ is good for news source type blogs, I think the best blogs for ‘pure tastemaking’ are just ‘authentic content streams’ that people can cultivate their personality from [via MP3s]. There is a traffic ceiling for these types of blogs ‘but at least u get 2 b respected/perceived as authentic.’

Another issue is that ‘mp3 blogs’ turn into mp3 blogs because they derive their value from ‘posting mp3s.’ This doesn’t always make your blog more valuable. It usually just makes the hypemachine more valuable. If u really ‘care about music’, I think more bloggers should focus on creating ‘music blogs’ instead of ‘mp3 blogs.’ Does n e 1 else hate those crappy blogs that post a video/picture and only an mp3? I guess I’m just a [HIGHLY SKILLED] blurber, so maybe I should try 2 b a little bit more compassionate.

I also wonder what my blogging goals should be? How authentic can HRO be? Should I just try to drive traffic and report news even if ‘it’s not that interesting’/capitalizing on the demographic of ‘people who feel like they are supposed to know about stuff like Kanye being arrested.’

Yall! Blogs are gonna die after they invent _________.

I read on a tech blog that Hypemachine is gonna start aggregating MP3s from my local radio station, since they started playing indie music like “Paper Planes.”

*****************
Watch more panels with important people in the altMusic Industry (various cool Dads)
http://www.ifc.com/video/music/music-panels/1791637224
Topics include “Entrepreneurial Sites” (like the hypemachine & muxtapey), “The Music Video bein’ killed by websites/TV”, and answering the question “What is Indie Music?”

If I were an artist or rcrd lbl who was in the process of formulating a marketing strategy, I would ask myself, “How could I get a bunch of shitty mp3 blogs to blog about my artist to have a perpetual presence on hype machine?” The key would be getting either the endorsement from a top tier blog, or just having your artist remixed by an artist who is in the HypeMachine Top 20.

I think Ladyhawke has a good opportunity to be more than just ‘another artist on electro blog.’ She can be a relevant artist who even makes her way to the long tail of crappy music blogs that post things for the sake of ‘reporting news’, ‘posting popular mp3s to get hits’, and ‘reBlogging what the most respected blogs blog about.’ When it comes to getting to the top of hypemachine, you need to do more than just get blurbed about on 5 electro blogs. The key to the hypemachine is getting blogged about on as many crappy blogs as possible (the ones that post radiohead on a weekly basis).

Or you can just get blurbed about in Pitchfork.

Another interesting issue with HypeMachine is the fact that women don’t really dominate the hypemachine Charts. Other than Madonna, Feist, M.I.A., and Santogold, I can’t remember too many women who topped the charts (which are usually reserved for meaningful-core bands & bands that r kute+sound interesting). I just picture a lot of alt bros who use hype machine to search for women only when they need to make a playlist for a mainstream girl who they are trying to seduce.

Anyways, I think Ladyhawke has only had quality remixes done of “Paris Is Burning,” as opposed to just a bunch of shitty remixes. Utilizing Cut Copy & Peaches is definitely a brand-strengthener.

I wonder if Modular makes their signed artists remix their other artists. Is there a REMIX CLAUSE on the record contract that says “You have to rmx at least 2 of our other artists.” I hope so, cuz that’s ‘good business’/excellent forced cross-branding.

[MP3s (STREAM ONLY)]
Ladyhawke – Paris is Burning (Cut Copy Remix)

Ladyhawke – Paris is Burning (Peaches Remix)

Myspaces
http://www.myspace.com/ladyhawkerock
http://www.myspace.com/cutcopy
http://www.myspace.com/peaches

XX BONUS PEACHES MUSINGS XX
I wonder how Peaches’ career would have gone if she didn’t write that song about fucking away pain/sucking on her titties.

Did u know Peaches was Feist’s roommate when they lived in Canada?
Do u remember Feist? She was in that CD player thingy commercial.

Is Peaches the Karl Rove of women in music?

XX BONUS XX
INTERVIEW WITH LADYHAWKE

I think the most important part about Radiohead giving away their “In Rainbows” for free is that they avoid being every other major band that will look bad when they only give away one track for free.

That being said, I can’t believe Coldplay only gave away 1 single for free. They only care about making money. I wish they’d get back to their roots, and write songs more like “Yellow,” or maybe experiment with bangers.

What’s ur fave Coldplay video? The one where the sun comes up? Or the one where Chris Martin’s GF flies through a windshield in reverse slow motion?

What do the following popular artists have in common?

a) They are all having remix contests
b) They all have recently released albums
c) Their record companies deposited an undisclosed sum in the creator of HypeMachine’s off shore bank account.

HIPSTER RUNOFF: The World’s Only Source for Hype Machine Analysis

It’s sort of like the rejected Justice FabricLive mix… except with a tshirt… except it’s not being given away for free as ‘a Christmas gift.’ It’s also a chance for you to start wearing something other than that colourful tshirt with a snake thingy on it.

Figure out how to order it here.

I’m sure the designer will even autograph it for you, kind of like the Cobrasnake guy.

Check out some of the best Crank Dat Remixes here:
http://pandatoes.blogspot.com/2007/12/top-10-1-best-crank-dat-remixes.html
In a way, this list is more important to mainstream America than any blogger’s Top 10 albums of 2007.

(This picture has nothing to do with this post).

One of my faves on that list is the Bag Raiders Blend by Luminfire. It takes you on a pretty modern journey. It might make some people feel like such a sweet track was wasted on a Crank Dat remix, but it’s still pretty RAD.

[MP3]
Soulja Boy Crank That (Bag Raiders Blend by Luminfire)

I think this is Luminfire’s Myspace
www.myspace.com/luminfiremusic

HIPSTER RUNOFF is definitely another blog lost in the shit storm of new MP3 blogs (AKA “Music blogs”) that are interested in cultivating readership by reposting popular songs from hypemachine. Hopefully our differentiation strategies are evident.

Here are some good quotes from it:

MP3 blogs – fan-run sites offering free downloadable music MP3s, typically operating without the consent of artist or label – are pretty popular right now. One blog is no big deal. When brought together by something like The Hype Machine – a central hub that tracks and conglomerates activity on hundreds upon hundreds of MP3 blogs – the situation looks pretty different. It is, in short, an HMV store’s worth of music, offered up for absolutely nothing, every day.

and on how blog searching compares to torrent searching:

Blogs, by comparison, are quite a comfy affair: a bit of purple prose, a nice picture rustled up on Google Images – hey, you could probably read that ‘Please support the artists’ disclaimer at the side, pass the link onto a friend and fool yourself into thinking you’re spreading the good word. You’re not, of course. You’re just cementing the idea in your own mind that it’s acceptable to take music for nothing.

It’s a pretty good article.

If you’re a ‘music blogger’ it definitely makes you look inside of yourself. Am I trying to accumulate readership, or am I trying to generate traffic? Does being a Top 20 blog on HypeMachine mean that I am a Top 20 blog in terms of tastemaking ability? Is it REALLY necessary to have a post with more than 2.5 MP3s? Why do I even bother writing a stupid blurb about the artist I posted? Do I even like the artists that I blog about?

Why do I blog? Do I have good taste in music, or do I just know how to use HypeMachine really well? How long do I need to wait before I ‘rip off’ hot tracks from other blogs? Am I going to go to jail in 1.5 years?

I try to focus on new artists and new songs, staying a step ahead of what most of the blogosphere is blogging about. Here’s an awesome song by a new French band called Justice. I haven’t really researched them much, but I think they’re going to be big in 2008.

[MP3]
Justice D.A.N.C.E

CFCF says about his show:

Basically, I’ll play anything I’ve been enjoying over the past several years, from soft rock to italo to rap, hardcore punk, soul, noise, dance, electro…all that jazz (but no jazz)

CFCF’s Show is Friday 3pm-4pm Eastern Standard Time. However, you can listen to archived shows whenever you want.
Viva Radio might be a good option for people at work, or people who are trying to find a one day per week Hype Machine substitute. The Viva-Radio interface is actually pretty functional, and probably a model for ‘the future of radio.’

[MP3s]
CFCF Raining Patterns
CFCF Explorers

CFCF’s Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/cfcf

Viva Radio
http://www.viva-radio.com/