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Mflow: Pushing the music industry forward on the web

Tomorrow sees the public launch of the previously invitation only www.mflow.com, an online music store which is best described as a mixture of Twitter, iTunes and Myspace. How it works is, you click on tracks or albums you like, add a 140 character message (yes just like you’re used to doing with Twitter) and ‘flow’ them to your followers. Music from artists and other users you are following is flowed into your inbox which you can listen to once in full rather than just a 30 second preview, and then if you choose to, buy it. An added incentive for users is 20% revenue, in the form of credit to purchase music from Mflow, which they receive each time one of their followers buys a track from their profile page or from tracks they have flowed. Just like Twitter, the more interesting your flows, the more followers you will attract, and the more chance you have to be featured in a list of top recommenders. As a listener it has the passivity of the radio, minus the adverts, and you get to choose the DJ depending on your mood. It’s great for discovering new music without a time consuming search of the internet. Try the users we like at the moment: Shell Zenner, NME, Mistajam and Ben Watt.

Foursquare utilises GPS to combat fraudulent check-ins

Foursquare users rejoice, the company has rolled out the first version of ‘cheater code’ to clamp down on fraudulent check-ins. Although fast-becoming one of the most popular social location services, its Achilles Heel has always been the ease with which the system can be cheated. Up until now, users were able to check into any location, from wherever they are in the world, even if that happens to be the comfort of their own living room (to earn points, mayorships and badges). Thanks to a new ‘cheater code’ that uses GPS and ‘a few different tricks’ for non- GPS handsets, the company can now verify the user is genuinely in the location they claim to be. Despite a few teething problems, for example not being able to check-in into a location with low network coverage, this can only be a smart move for Foursquare as they gain traction with commercial brands already using the service to pushing vouchers, content and offers that reach the customer just as they ‘check-in’ to their stores taking targeted, timely communication to the next level.

Spotify doesn’t kill rappers, Labels do

Are music download sites really killing the music industry? Bob Dylan has recently removed his music from Spotify and other streaming services, and Jack White of The White Stripes spoke out to NME last week of his contempt for the internet saying he thinks it’s a “nuisance” and that it detracts from the “art of music”.

Such reactions will always score headlines but let’s not forget that the same fuss was made when cassettes, CD’s and mp3’s first came to the forefront, but the music industry has survived and we still have great, unique artists emerging.

We’re supporting Music Matters in their attempts to combat illegal downloading. Sites such as Mflow, iTunes and Spotify are amongst the sites registered to Music Matters approved list.

Google Search Rankings Now Consider Site Speed

Patience is not our virtue, so websites that are slow make us cranky and generally contribute to a miserable user experience (as well as increase operating costs!). Google, by their own admission, are also obsessed with speed and as such are factoring website speed into their ranking algorithm.

Google say “Speeding up websites is important — not just to site owners, but to all Internet users. Faster sites create happy users and we’ve seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there.”
Fewer than 1% of search queries performed are currently being affected by this change and site speed won’t carry as much weight, as say, page relevance but in the highly-competitive world of SEO there’s advantage to be gained from even the smallest of opportunities. Talk to us, if you’d like to find out how.