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Easter track smackdown: So, what have we learned?
Four days. Twelve tracks. A bunch of points. But what have we discovered?
Amazon, it turns out, would have been the victor had their management decided to throw away any claims to a moral victory.
As someone pointed out in the comments, 'grey' material thrives on user-generated services - although even with this advantage, Imeem didn't do particularly well.
YouTube could probably save a fortune (and crush Imeem, actually) if it offered an option for people to upload just audio. Seriously, how much bandwidth and storage space are Google paying for to hold and transfer images of record labels and sleeves that people are only making in the first place because there needs to be something for the visual part of the video. Make an mp3 YouTube, Google. You'll save yourself a bundle.
The PRS' doomy claims that music is being switched off from YouTube is a little bit overstating the case - some good stuff is missing, but it's nowhere near as silent as you might think.
iTunes has pretty good coverage for a legal service.
Spotify might just have been unlucky, but to only hit one track out of twelve suggests that it might have more gaps in its memory than Sam Beckett that time he jumped into the hospital and got electroshock therapy.
We7 haven't ever claimed to be a home for obscure stuff, which is quite wise, but their people are lovely.
Bernard Cribbins' back catalogue has survived more successfully than most 1980s-90s indie.
It might be a good idea - we7, you can have this for free - if searches which turn up empty had a box saying "sorry we don't have what you're looking for, can you tell us about the song and we'll see if we can get it for you"?
Some people will do anything to fill their blogs over a bank holiday weekend.
And that, then, concludes the first ever Easter Track Smackdown, with Amazon hiding children from the gays; YouTube punching the air in triumph while humming Eye Of The Tiger, videoing itself doing so and then pulling its own video after complaints from Survivor's record label; iTunes trying to somehow create a Genius playlist out of the events of the last four days and hanging forever; and Spotify looking a little bit like the smart kid from sixth form who's just done his first university seminar and realised that things have just got a little harder.
5 comments:
"As someone pointed out in the comments, 'grey' material thrives on user-generated services - although even with this advantage, Imeem didn't do particularly well."
It's only an advantage if you actually include 'gray' material in your test, which you admitted you didn't.
So, why don't we just do a quick test for the suggested track - 'Creep' as performed by Prince. I'll tell you right now that this is on imeem & youtube. (no spotify where I am).
So that would switch the top 3 to
Youtube, Amazon and Imeem.
You're right on about youtube offering mp3 only uploads, or maybe someone just needs to let the blinkerd people uploading these things that there's a place called imeem which lets them upload music without faffing around with fake videos. I suspect that if youtube ever did allow audio only uploads it would cause them a whole lot more legal trouble, but it would also render imeem redundant in the process.
It's always puzzled me that Imeem never quite took off as an audio YouTube - I don't think it helped itself when it added video capability, which reduced it from being a clear proposition to looking more like a YouTube clone.
Actually, imeem had video uploads before it had audio uploads.
It's odd for sure, imeem even launched in 2004, before youtube was even founded.
Most rare tracks on imeem have also been uploaded to youtube, the only exception is where the tracks exceed the limits imposed by youtube.
In particular, imeem has a crazy number of complete DJ mixes and radio shows uploaded by fans. You can find complete live gigs, John Peel shows and boring 4 hour minimal techno journeys (if that's your thing).
Thought this was great fun, would have loved to have won but it shows despite doing loads of work building a giant free on-line jukebox we still have more to do.
Anyway cant wait till your next test, brilliant.
Cheers
Steve
CEO, We7
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