ploked.com

If you’ve always dreamt about rocking out alongside some of your favorite artists, you may have the chance via The Public Record. The Public Record is a music project unlike any other, where YOU can supply the music for some of your favorite artists. The project overall is still relatively new, but drummer Tommy Lee is just finishing up his latest album through the site, and country musician Shooter Jennings has just come on board to start work on his album.

How does it work? According the site, “Simply log in, download those work-in-progress tracks into your digital audio workstation (ProTools, Logic, Garageband, etc.), record all your best ideas, and then upload them to www.ThePublicRecord.com.”

In a nutshell, The Public Record is a crowdsourcing tool. The artists upload their tracks and fans get to manipulate them as they see fit. If the artist likes your version of their work, they may add it to their album. In return, you’ll get a credit in the liner notes for the chosen track.

There is one major advantage to this, should you attract the attention of the artist with your skillz.         You get to tell everyone, “I laid the guitar down on Tommy Lee’s album!” Unfortunately, that’s as good as it gets.

First, The Public Record only features established artists, and the chance you’ll get your big break is limited. Through this site, you really aren’t even making original music. It’s more like you’re doing Tommy Lee’s homework while he’s the one getting to perform onstage, bringing home the fat paycheck, and living the party lifestyle. Secondly, while I understand the website is new, it’s not going to win a Webby in any layout or design category. Quite honestly, the site is hideous looking.  So much so, I’d say “Yo momma so ugly she looks like The Public Record homepage,” if provoked. Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that we won’t be seeing any post-Superbowl hijinks from the class clown of the net, 4chan, tonight. According to 4chan Status, it appears that Verizon has blocked access to the site for the time being. Upon calling Verizon’s Network Repair Bureau and speaking to a technician, the reason for the suspension of access to the site is unknown to Verizon employees as well, as their work computers are normally blocked from the site due to content. In related news, 12chan.org is also down.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available, as long as it seems halfway interesting or involves Scientologists.

UPDATE: My attempt to access the site at 12:12am EST proved fruitful. 4chan.org is currently operational.

Without a doubt, social media is the biggest thing to hit the advertising industry since television, the huge difference between the two mediums being that TV was a one-way conversation, advertisers hawking their wares. Social media, on the other hand, has brought two words into the relationship not previously uttered – conversation and content. Social media has also given the consumer a voice – a powerful voice – and a means to use that voice. The conventional advertiser/consumer relationship is dead, never to be resurrected.

This is not to say that traditional advertising is dead. Rather, television, radio, magazines, and newspapers have transformed their businesses to take advantage of the synergies available between the various platforms. But, you already know all of this…

However, this new space has also opened up deep legal issues in the areas of privacy, intellectual property, identity theft, defamation, and self-incrimination. While privacy has long been the online community’s main watch word, identity theft is surpassing privacy due to the fact that it stems from a users lack of privacy online. Most online users are aware of the trade-offs brought about by online shopping, social media sites, and the costs associated with free content; it’s pay to play, and your privacy is the currency of choice. Buy a book from Amazon? Name, address, telephone number, email address, and a record of your purchases are all stored. Facebook account? Whatever you write in your profile will be utilized by marketers to target you with advertising; it’s the cost of admission. So, if you list one of your interests as “playing guitar,” you’ll see ads for local and national guitar retailers, music vendors, recording studios, and the like. Additionally, they know your demographic, geographic, and psychographic information, and probably the web-surfing habits associated with your IP address. Read the rest of this entry »