Sounds like music and networking

Wizzit Magazine interviewed me about Blogging and Social Networking. I have to thank Matti Mattila, the reviewer and open networker. If you remember, Matti wrote A musician story. Here is a short excerpt from the magazine article that you can download here in pdf format.

Sounds like music and networking

Matti Mattila: About blogging, you have an active blog, when did you start writing it?

Manuel Marino: I started ManuelMarino.com in October 2007.

What inspired you to first start blogging?

First of all the idea to freely surf and read everything about anything always fascinated me. I think this is why people love to have many blog feeds to read daily.

Next to this idea is the one to freely write interesting articles for the Internet community. Both gives a kind of freedom that I never felt before.

What is your blog about?

ManuelMarino.com is about music, arts, philosophy, poetry, independent artists, humanities and freedom. I invite experts and sincere professionals and artists to write articles.

I believe very much in freedom, honesty, sincerity and I’m able to feel these when I meet people. There are many good persons in the world, but sometimes we are too much obsessed by everyday life to understand this and find this.

How much time do you spend blogging every week?

Probably I spend too much. I love blogging, read other people’s blogs, surf and find interesting news.

What inspires you to write an entry to your blog?

Usually my ideas about news, culture and art, sometimes my intuition. We need more intuition, people tend to forget the importance of it and uses too much their left brain.

How do you spread a word about your blog?

Well, word of mouth, mainly backlinks, more than 30,000 on Yahoo. But a tracker gave me also a global number of 70,000 so I can say between 30,000 and 70,000.

Posted in Arts, Reviews, Technology | 3 Comments »

A new year ahead, and Arts win

First day of the New Year… what can we say about the old one? Many problems we faced, worldwide. The crisis is still ahead, but all the Countries are working to solve it soon. I feel a new atmosphere today. People are more relaxed, the New Year brings fresh air of positive energy.

A new year ahead, and Arts win

When economy, pragmatism, materialism and left brain methods fail, Arts help and right brain can give you what you need: love, hope, creation, imagination, a change.

Museums record higher than expected attendance in all the world.

But it is not only a kind of healing salve. Arts help you understand better the world, yourself, the others and the society.

Many of you will say: but we just need to be Rational, Analytical, Objective. Wrong! you are not a machine!

Arts will teach you that problems can have more than one solution, that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.

Small differences can have large effects.

You don’t live to work, you work to live, and you live to be happy and to love.

We just need to grab the intuition we lost with all the materialism in the world. I know it’s not an easy task :) but 2009 will be an year of change for everyone, and for the best. I wish you all the best, my friends, and Happy New Year!

Posted in Arts, Culture, Ideas | 7 Comments »

Amie Street, share music of every genre

I was surfing the net, trying to find a good website to discover and share music of every genre. I was tired of the common names, so I found this website that, well, seems really new and innovative.

Amie Street, share music of every genre

Amie Street is a place to discover, download and share music of every genre, from all over the world.

It is innovative: it uses a new approach to selling music. On Amie Street, the community determines the price. Every song starts free, or very cheap, and increases in price, up to 98 cents, as more and more people purchase it.

This variable pricing system ensures that the public gets music at a fair, community-driven price point, and makes it easy for you to find the type of music you want. It’s literally free to download new music on Amie Street, and you know when you pay 98 cents for a song a lot of people think it’s really good.

It’s a social music store, as it’s no secret that friends are one of the best ways to find out about new artists. To encourage members to share and talk about the music they love, Amie Street gives you money to spend on more music when you recommend your favorite songs.

On Amie Street, you are rewarded with cash for more music downloads when you recommend a song that continues to rise in price. For example, if you find a great new song when it’s free and recommend it to your friends, and that song eventually increases to 98 cents, you get that difference of 98 cents back into your account to spend on more music.

Posted in Ideas, Music | No Comments »

Global Financial Crisis and Books

While the entire world is facing the global financial crisis, publishers rush to get crisis books out. Not exactly a complaining, there are some interesting writings to check out. But I would like to know your ideas about this rush. Anyway, here are my suggestions for these months:

Global Financial Crisis and Books

The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It. In this trenchant book, best-selling economist Robert Shiller reveals the origins of the crisis and puts forward bold measures to solve it. He calls for an aggressive response, a restructuring of the institutional foundations of the financial system that will not only allow people once again to buy and sell homes with confidence, but will create the conditions for greater prosperity in America and throughout the deeply interconnected world economy.

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets. George Soros argues that the current crisis differs from the various financial crises that preceded it. He bases that assertion on the hypothesis that the explosion of the US housing bubble acted as the detonator for a much larger “super-bubble” that has been developing since the 1980s. The underlying trend in the super-bubble has been the ever-increasing use of credit and leverage.

The Finance Crisis and Rescue: What Went Wrong? Why? What Lessons Can Be Learned?. It features thought leaders from the Rotman School explaining the financial crisis and rescue from a variety of perspectives.

Posted in Business, Culture | 1 Comment »

Videos everywhere with Spotzer

Today we interview Dennis Brouwer. Dennis company, Spotzer, offers an online library of creative, ready-to-air commercials produced by industry-leading professionals from around the world. They also help you plan and buy spots across multiple advertising media, including television and the web.

Videos everywhere with Spotzer

Manuel Marino: Ciao Dennis! First of all, what is your role in Spotzer?

Dennis Brouwer: Hi Manuel, my role is VP Video Productions.

MM: What do you think about internet videographers community? seems there is a big community out there!

DB: As you can imagine I believe strongly in the internet videographers community, at the end of the day that’s the future or the biggest part of the production of video for internet and in later instances the television.

Both you and I have been growing up in a world were the television was always superior above the internet for were it came to the quality and the importance.

When I now look at my children what they (5 and 7) do with the internet and how school is moving them into that direction. And look at how the world of the production has changed I think with the constant renewing internet technologies and the production possibilities its inevitable to conclude that the world changed and is changing still.

MM: So what all of this will lead to?

DB: Where we move to eventually is not crystal clear but what even a blind man can see is that the classical production is a dead end street. At least were it comes to mass productions. There will always be an urge for Oscar winning productions but the mass will do with the ones that are not winning the prices. And therefore be happy with the current quality. This off course is arbitrary because what is quality in general, but that’s a total different discussion.

Some 15year old do not even recognize the 4k film images and are not aware if they look at SD, HD or BluRay. And I dare to say that thats because they got used to the “crappy” youtube image quality.

Having this said it opens up the discussion that I raised before; what is quality? Again its arbitrary. But what we as creative professional people can see is that the method of the production is changing rapidly.

MM: What about the short videos industry? Spotzer is really doing well in this area.

DB: We here at Spotzer believe that the market for the short promotional video is only just beginning. There are a lot differentiators that make the short video successful or not. We do acknowledge that there need to be a sales proposition in every video for every customer. We also believe that every video needs to be more or less tailor made for as far as we can achieve that for the incredible low budgets that we work with.

A very good personalisation tool off-course is the music that goes with every video, that is one of the items we make a video personal with. Obviously there is also video and voiceover to show the personal touch in the video. But a consumer could interpret-ate the video also as being stock material, the voiceover in contrary is very much personal because we let the customers name come back a few times always.

MM: When we first met you told me that Spotzer was going to expand to all Europe.

DB: We have started up our productions in Austria, Finland, Sweden and will shortly start in Poland and Czech / Slovakia. And we have found out that the customers are very happy with the end-result. Specially the quality that we deliver is very highly appreciated.

MM: What did you produce, beside the promotional videos?

DB: Beside the promotional videos we have also produced a big library of what we call “Ready to Air” videos. We have been delivering those RTA’s to Hearst and Merchant Circle in the USA and they offer these video ads to their customer base.

This is a very different product because every second of video is already produced and edit in the video, the changeable items in the video are: slogan, call for action and end-card.

And again we sell them at remarkable low prices!

MM: After this very interesting interview I just suggest to check Spotzer website at once! Thank you Dennis!

Posted in Business, People, Technology | 1 Comment »

E-commerce, a cultural fact?

E-commerce, online marketing, shopping, globalization, innovation are all linked together. It is becoming a real huge cultural fact, to be studied, to be understood to comprehend our world and where this world is going to in the near future.

E-commerce, a cultural fact?

Global E-Commerce and Online Marketing: Watching the Evolution By Nikhilesh Dholakia is a great book that explains all of this.

Specialists from business and academia present a meticulously researched, compelling examination of the effect that globalization, innovation, and relentless technological competition are having on the development of e-commerce and marketing. The editors offer practical managerial insights, important empirical findings, and new ways to comprehend the intricacies of the fast-morphing world of electronic business.

Another book that really catched me is Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture by Sidney Eve Matrix.

Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture is an analysis of cyberculture and its popular cultural productions. Each chapter focus on a particular cyberfiguration, including Hollywood films (GATTACA, The Matrix), popular literature (William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Scott Westerfeld’s Polymorph), advertising for digital products and services (AT&T’s “mLife” campaign), video games (Tomb Raider). Each close reading illustrates the ways in which representations of digital lifestyles and identities which typically fetishize computers and celebrate a “high tech” aesthetic encourage participation in digital capitalism and commodity cyberculture.

What I’m seeing on Internet and around me is an impressive and crazy explosion of virtual shops, like StreetWear-And-Red.com (also StreetWearAndRed.com). Goal of the shop is providing cool designs for the urban and street fashion along with elegant ideas for the modern gentlemen.

In the same explosion I can put my ebook and also my new CD with Rock and Metal Guitar Solos for Multimedia.

I’ve got just a fear, that all of this is going to result in a soap bubble in the future. How much will we be fascinated by the virtual world and how much can we stay far from reality? (Or virtuality is going to be our new reality?).

Posted in Business, Culture | 1 Comment »

Very Simple Audio Mastering Guide

I’ve just released my ebook (PDF document) about Audio Mastering. I wrote it after receiving hundreds requests from my musicians friends. You can find many guides on the net and at your preferred bookstore. But what beginners really need are few tips, to understand the basics, not huge tomes with neverending technical data.

Very Simple Audio Mastering Guide

So I had this idea to write a “very simple” guide, and, I must say, it is really simple, anyone can begin mastering with some success after reading it. I give also a couple of “tricks” so you can begin really soon to obtain a professional quality master. Of course this will not make you a mastering wizard, I’m in this field since 1998 and I continue to study… (yes, those famous tomes! heh). But I’m sure your music tracks will be much better and I really hope you’ll send me positive emails about the book!

The price of this document is 2 dollars only, this is why the main purpose of writing it was helping my friends and of course helping you, the new musicians with their first audio tools.

I know impressive musicians, talented pianists and guitarists that consider Digital Audio Workstations like monsters. They had mainly classical academical education and it is difficult to explain them how a compressor works. Now with my ebook they’ll finally understand the basics about compressors and dynamics, and maybe won’t see anymore the DAWs like monsters! :)

Posted in Music, Reviews, Technology | 1 Comment »

The B52’s, London Roundhouse

Wade Crawley is back with a great B52 concert review! If you remember, Wade wrote for us Punk music in the late seventies. Now read his new exclusive article for ManuelMarino.com!

The B52’s, London Roundhouse

It was on a hot and very sweaty summer night in London’s trendy Camden and a packed audience of all ages and types gathered at the re-opened Roundhouse. They were all there to see that perennial party band, still together for over 30 years, the B52’s. It was ridiculously hot with many people standing and sweating profusely, but this didn’t diminish the anticipation of the crowd one bit. This became evident before the band even came out with many of them singing along vociferously to Talking Head’s ‘Psycho Killer’ when played by the club’s DJ. Then the lights went down and the words “Hello London, we’re the B52’s” was greeted by a loud roar as the band walked out onto the stage.

Touring to promote their first album in 16 years Funplex, the B52’s showed the sell-out crowd they still have the ability to turn out superbly crafted pop songs. The line up of Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson and Keith Strickland have proved over the years they are masters of the art of catchy, pop songwriting and they treated the crowd to all of their hits and more in their uniquely frivolous and eccentric manner. The B52’s have crafted and honed their electro-beat, new wave, dance sound over 30 years and it’s still impossible to categorise.

Backed up by three backing musicians, the B52’s were in fine form. The soaring harmonies of Wilson and Pierson sounded as good as ever, while the wonderfully camp interjections of Schneider made sure everybody in the audience had a smile on their face for the duration. Along with the more humorous and wacky songs like ‘Private Idaho’ and ‘Party Out Of Bounds,’ with ‘Give Me Back My Man’ and current single ‘Juliet Of The Spirits,’ the B52’s proved they can also do serious and soulful. Their set consisted of the obligatory songs from the current album such as ‘Funplex’ and ‘Pump,’ interspersed with many of the old favourites like ‘Strobe Light,’ and ‘Mesopotamia.’

Judging by the enthusiastic reaction to the older material, it was obvious that the audience consisted of many of their older, long-term fans but there was also a surprising amount of young fans, many of whom were perched up high on their father’s shoulders. To the audience’s delight, the hits came thick and fast with Wilson and Pierson’s sixties style dance routines, Schneider’s deadpan but camp delivery and Strickland’s choppy and distorted ‘rock style’ guitar. What with their wild and wacky image it’s easy to overlook, but make no mistake, these guys are all excellent musicians in their own right.

The harmonies of the two ladies are as good as you’ll find anywhere in popular music, whereas one time drummer Strickland now stands at the front of the stage, giving us all the classic ‘rock’ guitar style poses. Schneider isn’t as animated as he used to be but the B52’s wouldn’t be the same without his perfectly timed ‘camp as they come’ vocals.

To the crowd’s delight, they inevitably get to their most well loved song ‘Love Shack.’ It is one of those songs that always gets everybody dancing at parties and wedding receptions. Where everybody from the youngest children to the oldest grannies knows the words and the Roundhouse crowd were no different. “The whole shack shimmied” barks Schneider and the crowd sing along as one. Personally, I was surprised they didn’t save ‘Love Shack’ for the encore but the crowd didn’t seem to care.

We eventually got two encores. ‘Rock Lobster’ which was the first B52’s song I ever heard as a teenager in 1980 and ‘Planet Claire’ with it’s 1960’s secret agent movie vibe. The sweat soaked crowd were on their last legs by then. The Roundhouse management obviously thought that the English summer wasn’t long enough to justify installing air conditioning, but many were ready to feint at the end. This wasn’t enough, however, to stop most of the crowd from leaving with large grins on their faces. It left many of us feeling that the world is a more fun place with the B52’s in it.

Posted in Arts, Music, Reviews | No Comments »

Stop jogging and listen to some new music

I’m a big fan of 80s music. Yes, the decade that gave the world the sound of pop, the memorable 80s! I’m talking about Madonna, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael and many others. Well, let’s focus on Madonna, eleven albums, an impressive career.

Stop jogging and listen to some new music

Madonna, the world’s tastiest sweetheart, has announced more non-stop treats for her legions of legendary and devoted fans. Following the latest news that “Hard Candy” has debuted at Number 1 around the globe, it has been confirmed that Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet Tour” will begin (hip) hopping around the world on August 23rd in Cardiff, Wales with stops in major European markets through September including London (11-September) and Paris (20-September).

Hard Candy features collaborations with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. The main themes are love, music and sex and sometimes seems that Madonna repeats herself. Not bad, considering that this album is a great example of the best american pop music.

To be more clear, we can define it unforgettable pop with wonderful choruses. The style is more urban-oriented, than the past disco tracks, and Madonna’s best eighties are back, creating a unique cocktail of different genres.

This is Madonna eleventh and final album for longtime label Warner Bros and it surely represents another mark on current pop culture.

About the Tour, it will feature a lot of past favorites as well as focusing on Madonna’s Hard Candy. She will be supported onstage by different famous artists, as example Paul Oakenfold in London, and Bob Sinclair in Paris.

More than one million tickets have been sold, means about 90% of the total, so better to run as soon as possible to get your ticket!

At the same time, I would recommend to check also Coldplay events. Chris Martin is taking his band back on the road for what promises to be their biggest tour to date to celebrate their hugely anticipated new album ‘Viva la Vida’ and hit single ‘Violet Hill’.

- Madonna Tickets
- Coldplay Tickets

Posted in Music, Reviews | No Comments »

Mobile Games and Technologies

Federico Elinger, owner of Pocketsol Games, wrote this exclusive article for us. Pocketsol Games creates high quality mobile games for the mobile phone based java platform (J2ME). The development studio is in Argentina where fun and addictive games are created for most of the actual mobile phones.

Mobile Games and Technologies

Currently, we can forget the keys of our house when we leave, but not the mobile phone. People are everywhere with their phones talking, chatting, the phone has a very important place in our life. Mobile phones are not only a communication device, are computer themselves, with a cpu, ram memory, persistence storage.

Games in this context are very important because you can get full advantages of the capabilities of a modern mobile phone that becomes this way a game console. Today, people of all ages play with their phones. They get fun and share multiplayer games over Bluetooth or Internet.

The technologies that involve games development are: Java (J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux, Brew). Each one has different capabilities depending on which device are installed.

An important issue is about the technological limits of the devices. Each one has different limits of memory, cpu, color depth, resolution. That push us to do a porting solution of every game to reach the greatest number of mobile devices. This limit obliges us to be more creative, makes us seek how to entertain people with simple games with a few levels. We must create images simply using the old technique of pixel art.

Mobile games are experimenting a constant evolution. In few years, most of the mobile phones will have 3D graphics accelerators such as Nokia N95 phone. The future is very promising, we will find devices that can compete with Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

Posted in Games, Technology | No Comments »