This weekend’s time waster.<\/p>\n
It’s a fad.\u00c2\u00a0 A program to be superseded like spell checkers were incorporated into word processors, like Microsoft wrote its own browser to kill Netscape.\u00c2\u00a0 But right now, IT FEELS SO GOOD!<\/p>\n
Here’s the story.\u00c2\u00a0 A guy wrote a program that searches YouTube and Last.fm and creates a Web-based Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 Free.\u00c2\u00a0 Until the rights holders find some way to tear it town.\u00c2\u00a0 Soon.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, you need an invitation.\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
First level:\u00c2\u00a0 Popular In The U.S.<\/p>\n
Imagine a chart where you could see what everybody else is listening to and hear it immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 The rights holders’ worst nightmare. They want you to WAIT!\u00c2\u00a0 As if every time you clicked on a link in your browser you had to wade through a commercial.\u00c2\u00a0 Better yet, if the Internet was not interactive at all, if you could only watch it, like television.<\/p>\n
We live in a social, networked world.\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
But that’s not the true attraction, that’s not why I’m writing this.\u00c2\u00a0 The secret sauce is Time Travel.<\/p>\n
Come on, you do this all the time in your mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Into the past.\u00c2\u00a0 And what do they say, music is the soundtrack to your life?\u00c2\u00a0 What if you could instantly jet back to yesterday and listen to those songs you know so well from the radio.<\/p>\n
Of course you can do this yourself.<\/p>\n
You can buy a Joel Whitburn book, search "Billboard" charts online…and then surf to find the specific tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Which will take you fucking FOREVER, to the point where you won’t.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the key to Tubeify.\u00c2\u00a0 By making it easy, by giving it context, it makes music FUN!<\/p>\n
You remember FUN, right?\u00c2\u00a0 That thing that puts a smile on your face?\u00c2\u00a0 That makes you feel great about being alive?<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n
Are you a Mac user?<\/p>\n
Please, if you’re not, buy a machine, it’s pretty cheap, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n
Macs have a backup feature entitled "Time Machine".\u00c2\u00a0 You hook up an extra hard drive and it automatically backs up your computer. Entirely.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you can even do it wirelessly!\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me, it pays, my Seagate crashed two months ago…<\/p>\n
Anyway, when you launch Time Machine, on the right-hand side of the screen you see a timeline…\u00c2\u00a0 The Tubeify timeline is identical. You navigate to the era you want to investigate.<\/p>\n
Let me put it this way.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you want to see\/hear the top hits of any fucking era of your LIFETIME?<\/p>\n
2010 is winding down.\u00c2\u00a0 The days are short and in a winter mood I’m reflecting, and I go back to 1966 and…<\/p>\n
I hear all the songs that were hits then.<\/p>\n
Then 1965.<\/p>\n
And the memories are flowing back.\u00c2\u00a0 Songs I know but don’t think about.\u00c2\u00a0 Jay & the Americans’ "Let’s Lock The Door (And Throw Away The Key)"?\u00c2\u00a0 THAT WAS A HIT WHEN WE WERE AT THE CONCORD!<\/p>\n
My parents were burned out on Vermont, when we went over Christmas the skiing got rained out.\u00c2\u00a0 So they booked us into this Catskills venue with a piss-poor ski area and tons of other activities.\u00c2\u00a0 Like a nightclub.\u00c2\u00a0 Outside of which they played tunes, LIKE THIS ONE!<\/p>\n
P.S. It rained and we lost a day of skiing anyway!<\/p>\n
Better yet is "I’m A Believer".\u00c2\u00a0 That was a hit at Christmastime 1966. I STILL HAVEN’T BURNED OUT ON IT!<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
You see we live in an era of chaos.\u00c2\u00a0 And Tubeify makes it comprehensible.<\/p>\n
The rights holders shouldn’t kill it, they should AUTHORIZE IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Load it up with ads, make a killing during its brief lifetime, before it’s superseded by something else, like everything is online.\u00c2\u00a0 Did you read that MySpace is for sale?<\/p>\n
Warner complained that Activision was paying too little for "Guitar Hero" songs.\u00c2\u00a0 And now "Guitar Hero" IS DEAD!<\/p>\n
Online is not about saying no, it’s about saying YES!<\/p>\n
I know, that’s hard to fathom for people who need order, who insist on control.\u00c2\u00a0 But we lost control ten years ago, when everybody got a high speed connection and went in his own direction, willy-nilly.\u00c2\u00a0 Embrace the new world.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s nothing in any other art form to compete.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t have a Tubeify of movies or television, it just wouldn’t work, they’re long form art forms.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas music is BITE-SIZED!<\/p>\n
It’ll spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n
But the rights holders will kill it.<\/p>\n
Spotify embraces Facebook.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything’s coming together as opposed to falling apart.<\/p>\n
I’m looking at a chart from 1965, week 6.\u00c2\u00a0 Number 1 is "You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’".\u00c2\u00a0 But number 2 is "Downtown"!\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t pull\u00c2\u00a0 it up independently, but in context, as a memory of junior high school, IT KILLS!<\/p>\n
Ditto for Jewel Akens’ "The Birds And The Bees", number 40 this week.<\/p>\n
"Goldfinger" is number 85.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember lining up to see this movie?\u00c2\u00a0 Remember when they flipped the pool table over to reveal a model of Fort Knox?<\/p>\n
"He Was Really Sayin’ Something"…\u00c2\u00a0 I haven’t heard this in DECADES!<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 Number 1 is "I Feel Fine"!\u00c2\u00a0 And you can see the YouTube clip RIGHT IN THE WINDOW!<\/p>\n
It’s like I’m right back in Connecticut, in 7th Grade.\u00c2\u00a0 I can see the halls of my junior high, family vacations, people who are dead have come back to life.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS IS FANTASTIC!<\/p>\n
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