Machine Shop: Hype Machine Team Blog

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:

Get this widget →

Any artist/search term:

Get this widget →

Any user’s recent loved tracks:

Get this widget →

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

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

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!

Thanks to everyone for the feedback you’ve given us over the past few weeks.

We’ve taken a close look at what was and wasn’t working and are excited to share this new update with you!

All Hype Machine pages are now using a new flash player (based on the JW MP3 Player, for those who want to know). It’s also active inside the popup windows on the site.

Here are a few of the things that have been fixed in this update:

– Volume and seeking controls in the player
– Issue where the player would mistakenly go to the next track when it would encounter buffering
– Issue where the player would not advance to the next track if in an inactive tab in Firefox/Windows. Note that this is still an issue in Safari

Just like with everything, would love to hear what you think, so feel free to write.

Del.icio.us user “taggedhype” (Careful, it’s a big list so may slow down your browser) has managed to take many items in our RSS feed and tag them by genre, name, location (ever visit “british_invasion” ?) or… you name it.

We are not big fans of genres but we do love other ways of sorting content. This is incredible.

We have a feeling this is someone we already know but we’d like to chat about this anyway.

Do you know taggedhype?

Email us if taggedhype is yours or you know who it is!

The Good

The new Hype Machine is brilliant, especially the way the whole page plays like a playlist.
http://hublog.hubmed.org

Anthony’s focusing on the right things and that’s why the new Hype Machine rocks.
I wrote a post recently saying that I don’t like favoriting music. But this is different. This is really bookmarking. It does something really useful.
http://avc.blogs.com/

Congrats to Anthony and his crew for making the best site on these internets even better.
http://www.fangbear.com/

povertyjetset: Hype Machine re-deux is freaking AMAZING!
Twitter update

This is totally sweet. The new Hype Machine kicks ultimate ass and takes many names. Hype Machine shows the open Internet is smarter than any one person, and those that use it as open are those that benefit entirely. Walled gardens SUCK. Please don’t parlay into them.
http://blackrimglasses.com/

The new Hypemachine interface is so approachable, that even the tail end of Generation Y will ‘get it.’
…
Hype Machine is way more historically significant than “In Rainbows.”
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/

The Bad:

Get your barf bag ready, this one is a clunky monkey to be sure and the new logo is atrocious, kind of like staring at a steaming turd that’s arrived on your plate at a swanky restaurant only to find a giant slice of undigested corn and a toenail sticking out of the gnarled gooey end. Who designs shit like this? Terrible.
http://www.jockohomo.com/datapanik/

New larger type is horrible. Actually, it’s all sort of horrible. Looks like a site aimed at idiot children.
Hype Machine Blog Comment

Now this site is useless. Completely useless. You aren’t my homepage any longer. You aren’t even bookmarked any longer. R.I.P
PS – have to say it again – YOU BLEW IT.
Hype Machine Blog Comment

Then, there are lots of constructive ones, and while those are less fun, they’ve been hugely useful while tuning the new site. Thank you all for the interest!

UPDATE: Carles offers an excellent “best of” list in comments below.