Comments on: Harnessing the swarm

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 01:02:09 +0000

I am in a state of terrible conflict about this, but I think it boils down to:

Social networking service – bloody appalling

Music discovery service – much better than anything else out there.

With the disclaimer that what is already out there is pretty awful so being much better doesn’t really mean much.

By: Lawrenson, M

Lawrenson, M — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 00:20:49 +0000

I thought MySpace was evil, or is that, like soooo last August?

By: Jez

Jez — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 23:07:17 +0000

Surprisingly, we weren’t …

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 00:31:34 +0000

Were we drunk?

I can see something coming together along those lines…

By: Jez

Jez — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 18:06:45 +0000

Pete, do you remember my “whole new podcast” concept I mentioned a while back. Tom’s pretty much described what I was/am thinking. Called Coffee Time (see what I did there), it’d be three, maybe four, tracks and between 10 and 15 minutes long. Because it would take less time to listen to, you’d be more likely too, and because it would take less time to put together, I’d be more likely too.

That was the theory, anyway …

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 17:49:15 +0000

Tom: I’m with you there – don’t think I’ve listened to a whole podcast in the last week or so though I do tend to save them for a rainy day.

I think, however, that putting up barriers makes the feedback more valid. If you’ve got a half hour show with no-one intoducing the tracks meaning they’ve got to seek out listings and then be bothered to email / comment, that feedback has a real value. Of course, that’s assuming you actually get any.

With MySpace, and other instant feedback systems, you get plenty of comments but the investment needed to make them in slight so it doesn’t mean as much long term.

Both have their advantages of course…

By: Pete Ashton

Pete Ashton — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 16:57:56 +0000

I explain Anti-folk. Wikipedia

By: Dave C

Dave C — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 14:30:37 +0000

Okay, WTF is ‘anti-folk’????

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:20:26 +0000

As with all podcasts there is a limit to the amount I can listen too in a week, say if you did a 10 minute slot featuring say four bands. To get any sort of feedback you would need more than a few people to download it, listen to it, form an opinion and then be arsed enough to give feedback.

In contrast a Flash music player like on myspace gives a musical snippet and a form for instant reply.