http://blog.spotdj.com Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:00:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en According to appaholic, SpotDJ is currently the fastest growing app on Facebook! We also believe we're the only Facebook app that lets you build a musical cupcake. You can quote me on that. If you're a Facebook user, Hear More about SpotDJ for Facebook here or if you're not a Facebook ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/07/24/spotdj-is-the-fastest-growing-application-on-facebook/ Today we are proud to introduce a totally revamped SpotDJ. Based on your feedback, the trends we've seen from how people are using SpotDJ, and some prescient dreams we had, we've redesigned SpotDJ around creating and sharing customized online mixes. That means that in addition to creating and listening to voice ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/07/12/the-new-spotdj-is-icing-on-the-cupcake/ Congrats to the winners of the Cary Brothers spot contest. The winners receiving a signed Cary Brothers CD are: * Godofpathos * Marie * BelAirDaniel * Aureliusroot * Bigrigtig Thanks to everyone who participated! Stay tuned for more exciting news coming later this week from SpotDJ http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/07/09/congrats-to-the-winners-of-the-cary-brothers-contest/ Congratulations to the winners of the Relient K Spot Contest! DarDarDar DynamicStarfire HellowThere Lizzers Tenshi You rock! Thanks to the dozens of others who entered the contest, and the thousands of you that come to listen to the spots! http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/04/25/relient-k-spot-contest-winners-announced/ Here's a clip with Loco dancing with The Flaming Lip's Wayne Coyne on Thursday's Tonight Show with Jay Leno- http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/03/27/loco-the-spotdj-cactus-dances-with-wayne-coyne/ Part 1 - "Something to Say" When I was approached by SpotDJ to be their representative at South by Southwest, I thought that it must be some sort of joke. Sure I've been in a few movies, mostly Westerns, but I've never had a speaking role. In fact, I've ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/03/22/loco-the-spotdj-cactus-summarizes-sxsw/ The second half of SXSW was even crazier than the first. Loco was a hit on Austin's Sixth Street - many thanks to Sam, Matthew, and Jess, our awesome Austin-based street team. Loco and the crew attracted attention from all walks of life on Sixth Street - to see photos ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/03/19/sxsw-update-ii-loco-on-the-tonight-show-with-jay-leno/ Howdy from Austin, Texas! SXSW is great this year. Candeelion, one of SpotDJ's first DJ's, picked me up at the airport late Tuesday night. It was really exciting to meet one of our prolific spotters in person. Thanks Candee!!! Yesterday was a fun-filled day. The early ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/03/15/sxsw-update-i-loco-wins/ Do you like SpotDJ? Are you passionate about talking about music and enhancing the way people listen to music? We're always looking for top-notch people to join our team in San Francisco. If you're interested, please send us an email, or record a spot about why you'd ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/03/08/spotdj-is-always-looking-for-great-people/ The kind folks at CNET had some excellent things to say about SpotDJ: "...the premise is very original and also addictive. I only recorded one spot to test out the service, but I've already been thinking about all sorts of jokes, commentary, and background information that I'd like to record for ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/02/27/spotdj-featured-in-cnets-downloadcom/ Oh no, this could get ugly - the Podcast Pickle could be turned to relish! Watch what Loco has to say about the Podcast Pickle: http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/02/27/loco-the-spotdj-cactus-and-the-podcast-pickle-to-duel-at-sxsw/ You may have noticed that when we launched the new cool homepage on Monday, we did so with a new featured artist - Taylor Hicks!  We're really excited Taylor spoke with us about his music, Daughtry and McPhee, Ray Charles, his other influences, and what he's listening to these days. Soul ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/02/21/taylor-hicks-talks-to-his-fans-on-spotdj/ SpotDJ uses the song and artist information from iTunes to determine which spots to send you. In general, the more accurate your iTunes library is, the better the chance that your spots will be heard. Our matching technology is able to correct some basic differences. For example, if you record ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/02/01/will-people-hear-my-spot-if-they-spell-the-artist-name-differently/ Last week I had the pleasure of presenting SpotDJ at Christian Perry's SF Beta. What a fantastic crowd - over 200 folks packed into 111 Minna to meet and mingle. For those unfamiliar with SF Beta, presenting companies not only give short descriptions of the business but also present a ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/31/spotdj-presents-at-sf-beta/ Sometimes you upload a spot then decide that you could do a better job with one more chance. Or, you record a spot talking about how Green Day's latest single is an allegory for Social Darwinism and Malthusian Ideals and then later that day you find out that it's really ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/24/how-do-i-delete-a-spot/ SpotDJ needs to use your network connection so that you can hear the latest spots as you listen to music. We also use the web to show you information about songs and spots, to allow you to contact us with questions, and to check for updates. SpotDJ does not contain ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/22/why-does-my-firewall-show-a-warning-for-spotdj/ We've been adding great new stuff to SpotDJ with such rapid fervor that we almost forgot to blog about all the new features! This isn't an exhaustive list of all the new stuff, but here are some of the highlights: Record Your Spots Through the Web If you've ever woken up on ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/20/new-features-astound-and-amaze/ If you download SpotDJ, you can hear spots while you listen to music in iTunes, or create spotted playlists that you can sync with your iPod. So you really oughta download SpotDJ! However, if you just want to record a spot quickly and don't have time to download and install SpotDJ, ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/20/can-i-record-a-spot-without-downloading-spotdj/ For you? Sure! SpotDJ has a (currently experimental) feature that lets you take spots to go. Simply click the small iPod button near the top of the SpotDJ window. It looks like this: Now you're in iPod mode. You'll see a drop down menu with a list of your current iTunes ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/20/can-i-listen-to-spots-on-my-ipod/ We've recently begun hosting Bay area bands in our offices on Friday afternoons for some drinks and to record spots about their music. This past Friday the hot band Scissors for Lefty dropped by (have you seen their Billboard and Spin write-ups?). Check out this spot they recorded about their ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/14/spots-n-shots-at-spotdj/ You, the SpotDJ community, have spoken and awarded Carlson grand prize in SpotDJ's first Hot Spot contest with his "dildo" spot on Steely Dan's "Cousin Dupree." Hear it for yourself here: Spot: Cousin Dupree Other ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/11/spotdjs-hot-spot-contest-winners-announced-and-theyre-smokin/ Good news SpotDJ fans - the famous SpotDJ cactus (known for his darting looks and "Crazy!" interjections) made his public debut at MacWorld yesterday. Take a look at how handsome he is! SpotDJ's cactus mascot, who we've named Loco (after his eyes and favorite English word), will continue to make ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2007/01/11/a-cactus-is-born-please-welcome-loco-to-the-spotdj-family/ SpotDJ was on the top of yesterday's NBC TechNow! We led the half-hour segment with a solid 3 minute product tour of SpotDJ. Featured in the show are SpotDJ's Ben Fong-Torres with this spot about U2 and Scott Parent with this spot from Fall Out Boy. Watch ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/12/18/spotdj-makes-its-television-debut-on-nbc-technow/ Grant is disappointed that there's no hedcut of him in today's Wall Street Journal article. However, you will find him quoted in today's front page story about our building, saying: "On this floor, companies have pretty sane business ideas," says Grant Goodale, a product architect at SpotDJ, a 10-month-old business ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/12/12/no-hedcut-but-spotdj-is-in-todays-wall-street-journal/ SpotDJ was mentioned in today's Rolling Stone magazine! We're in the December 14, 2006 issue along with Snoop Dogg, My Chemical Romance, and Tenacios D. Rolling Stone covers our launch, in which writer Nicole Frehsee describes the service as well as highlights this spot by Ben Fong-Torres where Iggy Pop ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/12/04/spotdj-in-rolling-stone-magazine/ I spent the last 3 days in Vancouver at the Transmission music conference, showcase and festival. This was the first year for the event, which is the brainchild of Tyl van Toorn and Brad Josling and was chaired by Laura Foti Cohen and Ted Cohen (who sits on ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/12/04/transmitting-from-transmission-in-vancouver/ Oh boy! New stuff from SpotDJ! Here are a few of the latest features you'll see: Send a spot - Sometimes you hear a spot that you just know your best friend should hear. A story they'd find funny, a recommendation they should check out, or maybe you just recorded the ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/11/29/show-someone-you-care-send-them-a-spot/ SpotDJ has been mentioned in several articles since we launched, but I wanted to highlight this one in particular. The article, which appeared in the UCLA Daily Bruin, talks about how radio and radio-like services are adapting to match shifts in the way that people obtain and enjoy music. Of course, ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/11/14/the-changing-landscape-of-radio/ (That's Post-Halloween, by the by.) Well, the candy may just barely be disappearing from the American palate, but SpotDJ is hard at work rolling out new features for your enjoyment. This week's updates are focused around making your listening experience even more customizable and letting you share your Spots with ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/11/07/spotdj-poha-update/ SpotDJ is a service that adds a something new and, frankly, !*#$@ing awesome to your music listening experience. You listen to your music just like normal, but every once in a while, SpotDJ will play a "spot" between songs. A spot is simply a short snippet of audio about the song ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/11/06/who-or-what-is-spotdj/ A spot is a short audio clip that you hear between songs. While you're listening to music, SpotDJ checks to see if there are spots that are relevant to the song you're listening to. When the song is over, you hear the spot! A spot can be just about anything. A ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/11/05/what-is-a-spot/ If you're having trouble logging into SpotDJ, keep in mind that there are two components to SpotDJ that both require logins -- the SpotDJ application that you download and install, and the SpotDJ web site, where you can browse spots and customize your DJ page. Here are some hints for logging ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/11/02/why-cant-i-log-in/ Hey, will you be at CMJ Music Marathon next week? If you'll be in NYC drop me an email at kb -at- spotdj -dot- com and we can meet up. I'm there all week. http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/27/who-is-going-to-cmj/ We're pleased as heck to announce that SpotDJ is now in open beta! We were featured in TechCrunch this morning, which generally makes such things official. You no longer need a secret code to sign up so tell your friends! For our dedicated alpha users, and curious others, here's a quick ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/16/spotdj-goes-beta-gets-in-techcrunch-hasnt-crashed-yet/ Well, you've come to the right place! SpotDJ is the only place where you say something about a song and have your comments inserted right into an iTunes listener's playlist! Here's how to record a spot: Sign up for SpotDJ, if you haven't done so already. Download the SpotDJ app and install it. ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/12/how-do-i-record-a-spot/ The spots you hear are determined based on a number of factors. We build a list of potential spots based on the title and artist of the song you're listening to. Then we refine the list based on what you've already heard, your list of faves, the ratings of the ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/12/how-does-spotdj-decide-which-spots-to-play/ You bet! We encourage that. People tend to listen to the same songs over and over (according to iTunes, I've played Lindsay Buckingham's "Holiday Road" 213 times!) so they'll want to hear different spots each time. So, even if a spot already exists for your song, go ahead and add something ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/12/can-i-spot-a-song-that-has-already-been-spotted/ Don't have a microphone? We'll send you one! Just sign up for SpotDJ, or log in if you're already signed up and request a microphone. Make sure to include your name and address and we'll send out an official SpotDJ microphone ASAP*. Or, if you prefer, you can call in your ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/12/can-i-record-spots-without-a-microphone/ SpotDJ is separate from iTunes, so changing the volume of iTunes doesn't affect the volume of spots. If spots sound too quiet, increase your System Volume (from the Sound control panel) and lower the volume in iTunes. Vice versa if spots are too loud. Sometimes spots sound too loud or soft ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/11/why-do-spots-sound-so-loudquiet/ When you're listening to a spot, or looking at another DJ's page, you can add that DJ as one of your faves. Faves are a great way to connect with other people while using SpotDJ. Your list of faves will show up on your DJ page (when other users look ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/11/what-are-fans-and-faves/ It seems that a small number of users encounter a problem when installing SpotDJ that results in this message. Luckily, we have a temporary fix you can use until we are able to track down the root cause and modify the installer. To fix the problem manually, you get to enjoy ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/10/09/when-i-run-spotdj-i-get-an-quotunhandled-exceptionquot-error/ SpotDJ got some press on Sunday, and we haven't even launched yet! In the "Radio Waves" column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Ben Fong-Torres said: “When I was a kid wanting to be on the radio, I got an album called "You Be a DJ" and pretended that I was on ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/09/28/spotdj-in-the-san-francisco-chronicle/ Some of our most productive DJs and most eager listeners have written in with their opinions on what makes a good spot. Here are some tips from the pros: #1) Write Ideas, Not a Script We know that talking into a mic can make you nervous. A lot of people write stuff ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/09/23/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-spotdjs/ Some time in 2005, I was riding CalTrain to work and listening to my iPod. Again. Hearing music that I liked -- stuff that I had rated 5 stars. But I wasn't really listening. I was flipping through tracks rapidly because I was getting sick of just listening to music. ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/09/17/the-spotdj-story/ The Mac version of SpotDJ will use whichever microphone you select through the Sound System Preferences Panel. To change your microphone settings, select "System Preferences" from the Apple menu on the top-left of your screen. Select the "Sound" item (it's listed under hardware) to select your input device. Under the "Input" ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/09/15/why-doesnt-my-microphone-work-mac/ At SpotDJ, we love getting user feedback. And you, our users, have told us in no uncertain terms that you prefer audio that can be heard by both of your ears. For that reason, we decided to launch an updated version of our Mac client that no longer restricts new ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/09/12/new-mac-version/ Yesterday, we launched some updates to the SpotDJ web site and new versions of the Mac and Windows clients. Here are some of the highlights: Back and Forward in the Client Many users told us that they wanted to rate or comment on a spot after the spot played, but by that ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/09/06/fresh-batch-of-new-features/ So you’ve downloaded SpotDJ. You’ve fired up SpotDJ and iTunes and started playing your favorite music. And yet for some reason, you haven’t heard a spot yet! Well, hang in there. A couple of things have to happen for you to hear a spot: SpotDJ needs to check if ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/08/15/im-not-hearing-any-spots/ I'm extremely pleased to announce the availability of SpotDJ for Mac OS! I've been a Mac user all my life. When my family got our first Mac in 1984, I'd spend hours just playing with MacPaint and MacDraw (and swapping floppies). By High School, I was writing Mac shareware and ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/08/10/spotdj-for-mac-os/ Welcome to SpotDJ! My name is Grant Goodale, and I represent the other half of the technical team behind SpotDJ. Over the next few months I hope we can give you, the reader, some insight into what SpotDJ is all about; in return, I hope you’ll tell us how to ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/31/hi/ As soon as you upload a new spot, we'll start distributing it to people listening to the song you spotted. If you continue to listen to the song after you record the spot, we'll play your new spot so you get to hear it first. If you're not hearing your ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/28/why-dont-i-hear-the-spot-i-just-recorded/ Welcome to SpotDJ! We’re so excited you have come to see what we’ve been working on for the last few months. Thanks for taking the time to explore what we’ve accomplished so far, and we look forward to hearing your feedback. We're announcing some great features today and have even ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/28/welcome-to-spotdj/ Hi there. I'm Scott J. Kleper, one of the co-founders of SpotDJ. I started working on this project in late 2005, after realizing that merely listening to back-to-back music tracks was too passive and repetitive. I was looking for a way to add an element of community, serendipity, and context ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/27/introducing-dj-klep/ Hey, this is Kevin, SpotDJ co-founder and DJ Bosco. I started SpotDJ so people can talk about music and share their thoughts with their friends. I’ve been amazed with the innovative ways people interact with each other around content through the web browser and want to see similar ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/26/howdy-from-bosco/ Don't worry, Spot Shyness is treatable. We've found that a lot of people really want to record spots, and have a lot of knowledge about music, but don't always know what to talk about. Here are some suggestions for how to get started recording spots: What do you know about your favorite ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/21/i-dont-know-what-to-say/ If the spot you recorded sounds like it was recorded using last-century technology from deep inside a cave, there are a few things you can try: Increase the distance between your mouth and the microphone. If you're too close, your breathing will negatively influence the recording. Experiment with adjusting the three ... http://blog.spotdj.com/articles/2006/07/21/the-audio-quality-of-a-spot-i-recorded-is-poor-what-am-i-doing-wrong/