Tubeify
This weekend’s time waster.
It’s a fad. A program to be superseded like spell checkers were incorporated into word processors, like Microsoft wrote its own browser to kill Netscape. But right now, IT FEELS SO GOOD!
Here’s the story. A guy wrote a program that searches YouTube and Last.fm and creates a Web-based Spotify. Free. Until the rights holders find some way to tear it town. Soon.
Unfortunately, you need an invitation. But if you had one you’d be e-mailing absolutely everybody you know, you wouldn’t be able to sign off, your significant other would be begging you come to bed, you’d be forgoing meals, SINCE IT’S SO DAMN COOL!
First level:Â Popular In The U.S.
Imagine a chart where you could see what everybody else is listening to and hear it immediately. The rights holders’ worst nightmare. They want you to WAIT! As if every time you clicked on a link in your browser you had to wade through a commercial. Better yet, if the Internet was not interactive at all, if you could only watch it, like television.
We live in a social, networked world. I ain’t gonna tune in your radio station and listen to your music, but I will fire up Tubeify and play a few snippets of what you’re listening to JUST TO BE CLUED IN, JUST TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON!
But that’s not the true attraction, that’s not why I’m writing this. The secret sauce is Time Travel.
Come on, you do this all the time in your mind. Into the past. And what do they say, music is the soundtrack to your life? What if you could instantly jet back to yesterday and listen to those songs you know so well from the radio.
Of course you can do this yourself.
You can buy a Joel Whitburn book, search "Billboard" charts online…and then surf to find the specific tracks. Which will take you fucking FOREVER, to the point where you won’t. That’s the key to Tubeify. By making it easy, by giving it context, it makes music FUN!
You remember FUN, right? That thing that puts a smile on your face? That makes you feel great about being alive?
So, after logging into Tubeify and clicking on "Top Charts With Time Travel" on the right-hand side of your browser window you’re confronted with…
Are you a Mac user?
Please, if you’re not, buy a machine, it’s pretty cheap, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Macs have a backup feature entitled "Time Machine". You hook up an extra hard drive and it automatically backs up your computer. Entirely. Hell, you can even do it wirelessly! Believe me, it pays, my Seagate crashed two months ago…
Anyway, when you launch Time Machine, on the right-hand side of the screen you see a timeline…Â The Tubeify timeline is identical. You navigate to the era you want to investigate.
Let me put it this way. Do you want to see/hear the top hits of any fucking era of your LIFETIME?
2010 is winding down. The days are short and in a winter mood I’m reflecting, and I go back to 1966 and…
I hear all the songs that were hits then.
Then 1965.
And the memories are flowing back. Songs I know but don’t think about. Jay & the Americans’ "Let’s Lock The Door (And Throw Away The Key)"? THAT WAS A HIT WHEN WE WERE AT THE CONCORD!
My parents were burned out on Vermont, when we went over Christmas the skiing got rained out. So they booked us into this Catskills venue with a piss-poor ski area and tons of other activities. Like a nightclub. Outside of which they played tunes, LIKE THIS ONE!
P.S. It rained and we lost a day of skiing anyway!
Better yet is "I’m A Believer". That was a hit at Christmastime 1966. I STILL HAVEN’T BURNED OUT ON IT!
Shit, I’m listening to Sam the Sham, Paul Revere’s "Good Thing", "Downtown", this is cooler than any movie, any TV show, IT’S FUCKING FANTASTIC!
You see we live in an era of chaos. And Tubeify makes it comprehensible.
The rights holders shouldn’t kill it, they should AUTHORIZE IT! Load it up with ads, make a killing during its brief lifetime, before it’s superseded by something else, like everything is online. Did you read that MySpace is for sale?
Warner complained that Activision was paying too little for "Guitar Hero" songs. And now "Guitar Hero" IS DEAD!
Online is not about saying no, it’s about saying YES!
I know, that’s hard to fathom for people who need order, who insist on control. But we lost control ten years ago, when everybody got a high speed connection and went in his own direction, willy-nilly. Embrace the new world. There’s nothing in any other art form to compete. You couldn’t have a Tubeify of movies or television, it just wouldn’t work, they’re long form art forms. Whereas music is BITE-SIZED!
It’ll spread like wildfire.
But the rights holders will kill it.
Spotify embraces Facebook. Everything’s coming together as opposed to falling apart.
I’m looking at a chart from 1965, week 6. Number 1 is "You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’". But number 2 is "Downtown"! I won’t pull it up independently, but in context, as a memory of junior high school, IT KILLS!
Ditto for Jewel Akens’ "The Birds And The Bees", number 40 this week.
"Goldfinger" is number 85. Remember lining up to see this movie? Remember when they flipped the pool table over to reveal a model of Fort Knox?
"He Was Really Sayin’ Something"…Â I haven’t heard this in DECADES!
And not only is there the chart numbers, but a popularity rating, so those who may not have been alive back then can see what really is the fan favorite, chart numbers don’t always tell the story. Number 1 is "I Feel Fine"! And you can see the YouTube clip RIGHT IN THE WINDOW!
It’s like I’m right back in Connecticut, in 7th Grade. I can see the halls of my junior high, family vacations, people who are dead have come back to life. THIS IS FANTASTIC!
Tubeify For Everyone!
Go to: http://www.tubeify.com/invitations/Enter your e-mail address and click on "Request Invitation".
You will get this message: "Thank you! We will send you an invite when more are available."
IGNORE IT!
Wait approximately 60 seconds and check your inbox (or spam folder) for a code and link and then sign up!
Tubeify also works as a regular jukebox, you can enter any act and play all of its material (at least all that Tubeify can find!)Â You can also search for individual songs.
Play now and SMILE!
P.S. As a little birdie e-mailed me, CONTEXT IS KING!
P.P.S. You can drag on the handle (the two diagonal black lines) in the upper right-hand corner of the video (at the edge of the white border, next to the title) in order to grow it big, as large as you want.
