The Next Web

» Beware of the European music revolution

   
Win Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard by inspiring us with some smashing art work!
Find out more!

Beware of the European music revolution

Ernst-Jan Written on January 25, 2008 – 12:27 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

The world’s music market will gather in Cannes this weekend. The Palais des Festivals is the decor for Midem, a five-day conference (if you include the forum). The program has some interesting web aspects. One of those is organized by London-based MusicAlly, ‘the world’s leading digital music research and strategy company’. They will present six finalists in the first ever Music Ally/MidemNet New Business Showcase. That basically comes down to six great music technology ideas that will change the way we listen to music.

musicThe Next Web Blog actually shares an office with Twones, one of the nominees. Next to playing soccer in the hallway with us, they’re also developing a ‘fresh way to find & discover music via trusted connections’. Diederik Martens en Tim Heineke are looking forward to the ‘fun, exposure and all the new contacts’. “We never had so many appointments as we have this weekend”, says Heineke. Martens: “Plus, we’ll be chilling in a beach bar, of which I actually forgot the name”.

Four of the six nominees are from Europe. Together they’re shaping a new European revolution in music technology. This is how the future in music looks:

The Music Drop from Germany.
An earpiece with only one song on it that can be played only once to ‘emphasize the value of the product and the meaning of giving’. Well it’s an original gift, hope it won’t leave some people frustrated to hear the song again. The inventor of the award-winning idea, student Noa Lerner, is looking for investors now.

Musiclink from Sweden
Musiclink draws a good picture of the popularity of an artist or cd by collecting on-line data from social networks, blogs, file sharing services and web radio. Billboard Chart 2.0 that uses API’s and web scraping services. Does it also counts the number of sold Music Drops?

Twones from Holland
Tim and Diederik are working on a service that’s monitoring the music you play, anywhere. From your iPod to music web services as Last.fm. The data is collected in a music timeline. Friends, foes or fans can subscribe to your time line - follow you Twitter-style - and will receive updates of new music you’re listening. Talking about good recommendations! Another cool thing is that your music timeline is a music library at the same time. So you can play your music wherever you want, as long as you hook up to the Internet.

ReacTable from Spain
Imagine making music by moving weird shapes on top of a science fiction-like table. With ReacTable you can and it creates an original electric sound. Rolling Stone magazine voted it as Hot Instrument of the Year 2007! Bjork loves it! Need more arguments? Have a look at the video:

By the way, the American nominees are pretty cool as well. Read more about Recombinant and Voxonic on Wired.

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!
Add to Google Add to netvibes Subscribe in Bloglines
About the author: Ernst-Jan is a blogger and journalist, who previously worked in New York to cover news at the United Nations. Next to writing, he's also a singer in the band Christina Five.

3 comments/trackbacks to “Beware of the European music revolution”

  1. Jan 31, 2008: Music service Qtrax: many promises, no music

    [...] week we told you that our office pals Tim Heineke and Diederik Martens from Twones would show up at Midem to pitch [...]

  1. By Nick - Kookin on Jan 25, 2008 | Reply

    Cool article and very cool demo video

    Nick
    Kookin Music

  2. By Vancouver Music on Jan 27, 2008 | Reply

    It sounds really interesting! At the distance of 10 years time I think that we would get a completely new sound of music due to new technologies. The enthusiasm of people creating new radically changed music is so amazing! If you are fond of hearing about the history of music of a different culture I could suggest the Vancouver music website I`ve found recently.
    You can find so interesting alterations from the European music. Enjoy it!

Post a Comment

Subscribe to:

 RSS feed   Comments  Email update Email

Add to Google   Add to netvibes   Subscribe in Bloglines

Giga Sponsors:

eBuddy
E.Factor

Accenture Innovation Awards
Netlog

Wakoopa
Spill Group

This blog is currently sponsored by Accenture, E.Factor, Netlog, Spill Group, eBuddy and Wakoopa. Interested in becoming a sponsor too? Check our advertising opportunities for more information.



Mega Sponsors:

Fleck Intermediads
myplaylist thenextweb
thenextweb thenextweb


Copyright 2006-2008 © The Next Web - Entries (RSS) / Comments (RSS)