Machine Shop

Author: taylor

  • Improved Badges/Widgets Launch!

    Last night we launched our improved badge page. We think you’ll dig it because now you can take literally anything from our site and show it off on your own blog or Myspace page. You can even customize the color schemes.

    Here are just a few image-based examples that are compatible with sites like MySpace but definitely check out our Javascript versions for your blog that let you click through on each link too. You can see them in action on our blogs.

    From the Spy page:
    Hype Machine Music Widget MP3 Blogs
    Get this widget →
    Any artist/search term:
    Hype Machine Music Widget MP3 Blogs
    Get this widget →
    Any user’s recent loved tracks:
    Hype Machine Music Widget MP3 Blogs
    Get this widget →



    As always, we are always tweaking and improving, so let us know what you think!

  • We’re Nominated For A Plug Award!!

    And we need your help to win! Read below to see how to vote for us.

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    The PLUG Independent Music Awards have been going on for a few years now. Each fall, an advisory board of ~300 people select nominees in over 30 categories like best Americana Album, Best Record Label, Best Album Packaging, Best Live Act and more. Then the nominees are set loose for the public to pick the winners!

    This year we’ve been nominated for the best Music Website Of The Year, which is very exciting. Past winners for this award have gone to the musical juggernauts Pitchfork Media (’05 and ’07) and Myspace (’06). We’ve made a great deal of progress and improvements to our little website over this year and think we have a shot! (Biased? Us?)

    So if you enjoy using Hype Machine, please click and vote for us!
    You can find us in: Media Categories » General Music » Website Of The Year
    ** You don’t need to fill out the whole thing, but need to vote in at least 5 categories before submitting your ballot.

    Voting is open till February ’08 so you have plenty of time to meet new people, become their friends and then introduce them to Hype! 🙂 If we win, we plan to get drunk, party rockstar style, convince Anthony to wear the cat equivalent of this to the ceremony in March… and document the whole thing!

  • Symbaloo: Start Simple

    symbaloo.jpg

    Symbaloo‘s premise is simple. Create a customized homepage with drag-n-drop search modules and shortcuts. Sure there are at least a dozen other sites competing for your homepage spot with news headlines, rss feeds, weather modules and more. The thing that caught my eye about Symbaloo is it’s clean and unique design approach.

    I also really like that you can customize everything before even signing up for an account (like we do with Hype accounts). This is a growing trend I really enjoy; giving every visitor to your site full features to experience and fall in love with, before making them commit to sticking around (and signing up).

    Symbaloo were nice enough to add us to their music search module. If you head to their front page you will see a red Music box in the top right corner. Click it and then you can customize your default search to HypeM by clicking the small down arrow in the grey search area.

  • We’re Listening

    Anthony, Zoya, Scott and I are reading everything you are saying. We definitely appreciate all the constructive feedback regarding the music player. Don’t worry, we love and use Hype as much as all of you so we totally understand how you feel.

    We will post updates as often as we can while we work on the feedback you all are giving us. In the meantime, you guys should check out some of the new user features. We want to hear what you think about stuff like favoriting songs and creating a custom stream of new music (aka Love Feed) updated constantly. Both are on your profile page that you can take advantage of even as a guest.

    We’ve blocked lolcatz on all our machines till the new Hype is setup just the way you want it. If you know us personally, you will know this won’t be easy 🙂

  • Hype Survey Results: Describe Hype Machine To Your Friends

    One of the best ways I’ve found to see what purpose your site is serving is to ask people how they would describe it to their friends. Often this is different than how a CEO or marketing guy will describe their company. Here’s a sampling of some of the descriptions our respondents gave:

    * A site that gives you a quick indication of what other people are currently listening to and an easy approach to online music blogs.
    * The Hype Machine is a great site for finding new music and listening to music from artists you might have heard of but haven’t actually heard yet. And since it’s coming from the best music blogs, you can find out about new artists much quicker than via traditional methods. You can also find b-sides, rare tracks, and live cuts that you might not find anywhere else.
    * It’s an awesome place to find music that doesn’t suck.
    * The Hype Machine is the best way to discover new music as opposed to radio and music television stations. Whereas those two areas are now interested in telling their audience what to listen to, the Hype Machine lets you decide.
    * The ultimate means of finding music by independent artists posted in the blogosphere.
    * It’s like quality radio used to be, with an awesome request line.

    My personal favorite (and winner of best metaphor):
    * Looking for music on Hype Machine is like walking through a field of mixed berry bushes. They compile all the songs featured on blogs and lay them all out for you to pick through. Sometimes you can stroll through and find something delicious. And if you’re looking for a specific song or artist, chances are someone’s blogged about them, and it’s there. It’s awesome.

    Some of the ones that made us laugh (and maybe a little confused):
    * The Pot Of Gold At The End Of A Rainbow
    * It is where the music is born, so if you want a first glimpse, you know where I am.
    * A cornucopia of LOVE for the adventurous.
    * Pirate ship with jet engines… In a Robin Hood kinda way.

    Awesome CYHSY photo by Flickr user Tonie.

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