Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Flowd is a Helsinki-based mobile service that looks to connect popular music acts with their fanbase. Users can check news, look up tours, send messages, and even check-in via the iOS app. Armin van Buuren and Markus Shulz, two of the world's most influential DJs, are already touting the service.

From Armin van Buuren's website:

Besides enjoying the benefits of Twitter and Facebook, [Armin] finds that Flowd makes it easier to stay in touch with his fans. “There are many social media, but I’m always looking for new ways to connect with my fans, to keep them up to date with the latest news of what I’m doing and where I’m playing. Flowd is the perfect app for that, connecting with my loyal fans while I’m on the road. Some exciting features will be added in the near future,” explained van Buuren.

Because people can create places for concerts and check-in to them, captured updates and photos are automatically filtered for post-show viewing. It reminds us of Superglued or RecreateMyNight, both services aggregate social media around place-based events. The concert experience is ripe for new interactions using mobile technology. Tweaking the way people interact with the artist and each other through space and time can make the night more memorable.

In an effort to rethink music, developers at this year's Music Hack Day in London spent 24 hours mashing up APIs and designing new applications. Of the many interesting projects, one that turned heads was called Trackdropper, an Android app that turns music piracy into a location based service.

According to CNET:

Trackdropper is an Android app that lets users "drop" songs from their phone's music collection in physical locations. Then, other users can go on treasure hunts to find and play the dropped songs. The idea is to use geocaching to make music piracy more like old-fashioned nautical piracy--a hunt for booty.

Trackdropper has situated digital music in the real world, giving it certain properties of physical media. Gowalla does the same thing by limiting virtual items to being either at a single location or on a specific device. Scolu is another example; the interactive installation at LIFT 2010 let people transfer digital fish onto their phone screens from a virtual tank. Because mobile devices bridge the physical and the digital, these types of interactions will become more common and even more believable.

See Trackdropper demoed here:

The entertainment industry has many reasons to resent digital technology. Why buy music when you can download via P2P for free? Why go to a game when you have an HD (or even 3D) TV at home? Technology, however, can also be its savior. When used to enhance live entertainment events, mobile can provide a unique, unreproducible experience that people are willing to pay for.

We've seen a number of instances of this. For example, the New Meadowlands Stadium just announced they will soon have an app that lets fans see video replays, updated statistics and live video from other games (and it only works in the stadium).

Augmented reality also has great potential for the constructed and controlled environments of live events. For the upcoming Mysteryland dance festival, ID&T is teaming up with Layar to "augment" the experience through mobile, reports intomobile.

Those attending will be able to start Layar on their iPhone or Android device and do some cool things from the palm of their hand. For instance, there are information on all 150 DJs performing on the 16 stages along with instructions how to get there. Moreover, if you like what you hear, you can directly download the music to your phone via Dance Tunes.

This recalls Zehnder Communications' work for the Voodoo Experience music festival in Louisiana, also done using Layar. Sporting events are another example, see: Junaio superimposing stats on the soccer field.

With iOS 4, developers were presented with over 1500 new APIs, many of which Steve Jobs did not take the time to explain. One of these opens up full access to the user's iTunes library, a big deal for DJs and digital artists.

Create Digital Music explains:

You can now, for instance, scratch audio from songs uploaded from iTunes on a Mac or PC to the device. That is likely to mean a coming flood of DJing on the iPhone and iPod touch, soon to be followed by the iPad whenever the 4.0 OS becomes available for Apple’s tablet.

That flood is coming, but so far, the first app to actually ship with support for the feature is Flare Scratch, a simple simulation of a turntable with touch scratch support. You can scratch any song in your iTunes library.

Many in the DJ community have been playing around with mobile devices as part of their performance. Richie Hawtin has been using an iPad during his Plastikman shows. Opening up access to iTunes is a development that could unlock change and provide artists with new tools.

See Flare Scratch in action here:

This Internet Week, we're working with SoundCtrl to host a Fire-Side Chat between Avner Ronen from Boxee and Tommy Silverman from Tommy Boy Records - they'll square off to debate the hottest issues facing the music industry today. Come early for the open bar and stay late for musical performances by Jared Evan, Free Sol and DJ GETLIVE.

Time:
Thursday, June 10^th @ 7:00 PM

Location:
DROM
85 Avenue A (Between 5^th and 6^th Streets)
New York, NY 10009

Check out the invitation for all the details and RSVP here.

Also, if you can't make it out, the event will be streaming live on the website www.SoundCtrl.com thanks to Watchitoo

From Hong Kong's pill & pillow, Squiggle is an iPad application that presents users with a personalized futuristic string instrument.

Squiggle is an iPad application currently in development that allows you to draw lines on the screen which turn into strings and can be played like guitar. Keeping the device flat, you can draw and modify existing ones. Tilting the device will turn the screen black, allowing you to play them. Turning the device over will clear the screen.

The larger form factor and open nature of the iPad's touchscreen gives musicians creative flexibility. There are piano apps and turntables,  then there are applications like Touch OSC which give the user complete control over what buttons, sliders, and dials are brought up on screen.

See Squiggle demonstrated here.

For those who don't feel like they have enough control over their house party soundtrack, djay Remote is here to help.

djay Remote completely changes the dynamic for DJs at any level – from the party host who can now socialize and mix from her iTunes library at the same time, to the club pro that wants to move from the front of the house and into the audience without missing a beat.

Like the Apple iTunes remote, dJay uses WiFi to control music from a distance. On top of that, users can tweak the EQ, sync BPM, and create smooth transitions between tracks.

[via intomobile]