Bringing fredwilson.fm Back To Life

Comments (Archived):

1. i was thinking about music yesterday. if i have a recording of a song but i can’t remember/ don’t know the artist or title is there a way on the web to get that information? a website that will ‘listen’ to it through my laptop microphone and then tell me what it is?from no avatar to 1:1 scale in 48 hrs.

   1. I use Shazam on the phone. …

      1. i’ll take a look at that one too. thx.

   2. Get the soundhound app on your phone. It does that

      1. i’ll take a look. thx.

   3. Have you heard of Shazam?

2. As a personal growth challenge, you must like a major pop hit.There has to be something mainstream you like!

   1. I like the Beyonce song where JayZ sings in it

      1. Name that tune, y’all!

      2. How about Adele?Or John Newman – grumpy trolls under mossy Norwegian bridges start tapping their 9″ nails when this gets rolling – http://www.youtube.com/watc…

         1. i don’t like Adele, Lorde, or any of those torch singersand i am not really a fan of Justin Timberlake or John Newman eitheri just don’t like pop musici need music to have an edge, it needs to be dirty, or funky, or electronic for me to like it

            1. u like nina simone or billie holliday?

            2. Etta James?

            3. this makes my skin crawl https://www.youtube.com/wat…poor Etta James

            4. I was never a fan and from what little I can tell of her, she puts herself in front of, as opposed to behind the music.Any nincompoop knows the difference between a careerist bent on self adulation and an artist with devotion to the craft.Sad tribute.

            5. Choose your favourite response:1) That’s why there is chocolate & vanilla.2) You are wrong (personal fave, when music heads get wound up).3) You just don’t understand why its so great (close 2nd personal fave).I don’t think JT holds a candle to a guy like Newman, musically (and I generally like JT, he’s sort of a Pro’s Pro celebrity – Fallon will work with him until they are both 60.)I get pop music in a very context free manner these days – listening to music my daughter likes. So, a lot of the time it is ‘that is good, who is that?’ discovery.Someone with pure, huge pipes still gives me the chills.Even sideshow examples are nerve tingling – for example (she tells them ‘opera singer’ @ 1:20 & starts singing @ 2:40): http://www.youtube.com/watc…Its a direct parallel to athletes (and maybe anyone who sees their occupation as applying a talent). Talent is one thing, but honed talent is another and someone who hones and then owns the talent is at a whole other level of art & expression.Talents that can paint or play anything in almost any style, but have no voice are, sadly, almost depressing.It requires not just a special natural talent but work, work, belief & more work.As for people with a ridiculous natural gift, who can also write & arrange – that’s the ‘owning your art’ trifecta right there.Near perfect artistic works are a reaffirmation of the potential for the alignment of a human spirit and the external world existing, perhaps fleetingly, but still, existing.I can’t think of a more visceral version of that than something like this – http://www.youtube.com/watc…But, hey – chocolate and vanilla.

            6. +1

            7. Haha! There we have it.

3. Band reco: not sure if you guys have checked out The Avett Brothers. Discovered them recently.. love what I’ve heard so far.

   1. I like em. Gotham Gal loves them

4. What are your thoughts re audio quality? We’ve got a whole generation growing up listening to MP3 file formats which contain a fraction of the sound quality of past analog formats. A younger co-worker didn’t even know what stereo separation was.I can’t remember the last time I listened to an LP, so don’t make me out to be a curmudgeon. Even with high quality amplifiers and speakers, the original content is diminished.

   1. I wrote a post about that six years agohttp://avc.com/a_vc/2008/06…

      1. Ah, the migrated archive of posts at work. Well done!Convenience does beat out quality in many respects and use cases. Clearly, I can convey my point of view in a mumbled tone with poor English. But when an art form is not heard (or seen) at sufficient quality levels, it takes away from the art, imho.

         1. Putting Google site search back on AVC is a game changer. I can find old posts in a nanosecond nowThis question we are discussing gets to the question of whether art is more impactful in its purest form or in the form that the most people can enjoy it and be impacted by itI lean toward the latter myself

            1. How does @falicon learn from this Google site search vs GrokIt experience? Wondering if he can improve his blog searcher.As for art quality, I see your point and agree re mass exposure. But still enjoy the high quality experience. #Canihavebestofbothworlds

            2. I think it is very hard to compete with Google unless you offer something they dont

            3. Hmm ….”Don’t”? How ’bout don’t know how? Why? It’s not on Wikipedia, in computer science departments, or in the research libraries. The software for it? Locked up inside a server farm and essentially impossible tofathom from a client device.

            4. One of my favorite topics Fred.I’m with you completely on the latter.But when I look at my own art collecting it is all hand hewn mechanical process–silk screen intaglio, giant wood prints, chrome plated photos.And I wonder whether the value of these, even at auction, is because of their scarcity or because of the honest expression of vision they capture being hand made.

            5. Same with me. Those who can afford the high quality version usually opt for it but a mass version that is lower quality seems essential

            6. Yup…I also watch the rise of the mid art market through innovations like 20 x 200.Appreciation is being driven by low end availability and tiered markets are being built to match economic levels. As it should be.

            7. the gotham gal is an investor in 20×200. i suspect you know that

            8. I saw the announcement when Jen relaunched a while back. I’m a big supporter of Gotham Gal’s non tech investments.I blogged on 20 x 200 original funding while still living in LA back in 09. Was stuck by the potential of this and that a west coast VC was funding a NY based online gallery. http://awe.sm/fJEko

            9. that marriage between the west coast vc and the NYC art gallery owner proved problematic

            10. Don’t know the inside but when it went dark for awhile figured something was amiss.Still a great idea that I believe can find a market.

            11. Love 20×200. I’m a customer from way back.

      2. “Convenience trumps quality” for the masses because the masses, certainly on the young end of the age spectrum, are wed to MP3 and have never fully experienced high end fidelity. Neil Young, prob the harshest critic of today’s overly compressed audio, is developing Pono, a download service where digital audio files will be transferred from the original masters at 192kHz/24 bit, w/ a dedicated player that can play those files at their intended res. Prob a niche biz, but it def will have resonance with audiophiles.I actually still have over 300 LPs (a few amusingly I discovered w/ remnants from a far bygone era….seeds!) Vinyl today is more a fad than not. I rarely listen to LPs today cause w/ mobile and streaming services convenience does indeed trump quality. Sadly, w/ digital compression I do hear considerable sound degradation when I listen w/earbuds, to head phones to my high end audio system. Today’s artists can’t address audio quality cause they aren’t empowered or have control ….perhaps many don’t care…the infrastructure and delivery systems rule.

         1. Neil Harvest Young? One of my top ten albums. Pono sounds sharp.

      3. Funny how you can still upvote or downvote those old comments. Seems like that would shut down when the comments close.

   2. No doubt you remember blasting the stereo when the parents weren’t home. So loud sometimes that it knocked the Playboys out that were hidden under the mattress.Anyway agree with the diminished content. I’ve been meaning to burn cd’s because the ipod hookup in the car isn’t as good as playing cd’s but it is so convenient.That said my ears can definitely tell the difference. But Fred has alluded to the fact that he might have damaged his hearing so I wonder if he can. (I know my wife can’t she was into the music scene and even did some band roadie stuff (which is really wild to me the way I am).

      1. Young has been increasingly vocal about what he perceives as the poor quality of current digital music offerings, and trademark applications back in April hinted at his plans for Pono. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea got a first-hand demonstration of the service in Young’s car, and told Rolling Stone that “it’s not like some vague thing that you need dogs’ ears to hear. It’s a drastic difference.”http://www.theverge.com/201…

         1. Surprisingly, not only are bugs tasty as a meal but they can hear as well:http://bugshear.com/

5. SoundCloud is eating the sound world.

6. I follow fredwilson.fm through the still excellent ex.fm. You daily tracks somehow stopped updating a couple of months back.

   1. Yup. For the same reason

7. I have been trying to get into SoundCloud for the past year but this track list should provide a major boost to my efforts. My main struggle with SoundCloud has been with whom to follow and how to best discover the best tracks. I have no problems discovering people on Twitter and following them but SoundCloud just seems not as adept at that process.

   1. twitter is hard to get into for similar reasons. all the user growth issues at twitter right now boil down to this same issue

8. Welcome back to life fredwilson.fm. Now If only we could get these soundcloud streams into Rdio (and Sonos)!

   1. sonos will happen. not soon enough for me

9. Speaking of audio… did you decide to drop VoiceBunny?

   1. let’s call it a breakup of sortsi wanted to put the voicebunny player behind a link like comments and tweets at the bottom of the postthey told me i would have to pay for the voiceovers if we don’t show their player prominently on the pageit’s $10k per year for me to pay for the voiceoversi am not sure its worth itwhat do you think?

      1. I’m guessing from the responses I got over at USV on this topic that not that many of your regulars use the VB feature. If so, it’s prob not worth it. I’ll miss it, but it’s not a show stopper for me.Did VB provide stats?

         1. yes, we got a ton of listens on the old soundcloud player that used to be on AVCwe don’t get many listens on voicebunny’s player, itunes, soundcloud, or stitcheri may decide to pay the $10k, but i’m having a hard time pulling the trigger on it because i just don’t know if its useful to a ton of people

            1. Seems like you could pay a local actor to just record it and post to SoundCloud every day for a fraction of the price 😉 It would be great exposure for that talent.

            2. Seems like you could pay a local actorBusy people don’t have time to find a local actor. They want turnkey solutions. They either like the price or they don’t.I had a guy over this morning at the house to give me a price on the hardwood floor that my wife is hocking me to replace. He is the same guy that did the floor before. I won’t negotiate with him (I don’t take money out of the pockets of local craftsmen types only companies (and with gusto)) and I won’t get any other prices to compare (he has already done work for me before). Either I like the price and will do it or I won’t. I want a good job (which I know he will do) and I don’t have time to meet with other people.

            3. It was meant to be mostly tongue-in-cheek.On the other hand, this is NYC, and we all know at least one aspiring actor who could use the cash. All Fred has to do is ask the next barista he meets. Better than a 50% chance the person is an actor.

            4. My almost 19 y.o. son is local and could do it. He has an amazing voice. At one point he was looking into ways to monetize it.Always a hustler. (me)

            5. Spoken word automated voice is highly over-rated as a medium. Seems like it should be a big deal, but it is a very clumsy UX. Music you can have in background, but voice requires the attention of reading, while giving you 10% of the speed of reading.Won’t be missed.

            6. Offer to give them $10k for 2 years. Or pay $5k for 1 year and then you will re-evaluate.I’m not seeing anything like that price clearly on their site. So it sounds similar to a price pulled out of thin air. To bad this is all public now. I would have loved to get in between that one (once again assumes they haven’t quoted you any discount already).

            7. $10K – I would give it to charity #DonorsChoose

      2. Not worth it.If you want to hear it that badly, turn on the accessibility features of your computer and have them read the web page to you.

      3. it’s $10k per year for me to pay for the voiceoversThat sounds like a “list” price. MSRP. Amazing that they weren’t willing to give you a better deal for that [1]. Shows a disconnect between whoever is quoting prices (end of the elephant) and anyone with any business sense.It’s not worth $10,000.[1] I’m assuming they didn’t say “normally $20k but for you 10k” obviously.

      4. $10k – that’s much too much as personally i never use it.perhaps a quick poll post – ‘to bunny or not to bunny, that is the question’

      5. Pass on Voice Bunny, I like the page – much cleaner

10. I wish SoundCloud would make it easier for me to identify what and who I’m listening to. I tried mousing over different elements of the player to get the track and artist, but I never found it. Mousing over the album cover art should definitely reveal that info to me.

    1. great suggestionit’s way easier in the app and on their web appthe embed is a more challenging place for them to put a ton of stuff

11. Thank you Fred! I look forward to your SoundCloud feed being housed at FredWilson.fm…. It would be great to have a shuffle feature that would go all the back in your long list of daily music posts… Thank you for making this happen.

12. Inspired by this post, I just made this. http://brianwatson.me/music^ has my likes + the monthly playlists I’ve been making

    1. Nice! You can also drop whole soundcloud mixes right into the comments – https://soundcloud.com/gold…

13. Buster – fyi I had no idea how to find your loved tracks on SC until this post. Good to know this exists. I still find SC hard to navigate.

14. Low comment total today, and I presume it’s because it’s been nearly impossible today to access disqus on avc.com. Through a link to a link to a link, I just stumbled upon this @fredwilson comment from four (4!) years ago: Sorry, disqus sucks and won’t allow me to cut and paste an old comment to a new comment. But the post from which Fred discusses disqus’s inability to deal with mobile is from his post from march 15, 2010.disqus bed-shitting continues almost four years later (?!?!).

15. Fred – I always liked the .fm avatar with the radio/antenna coming off your head.I use to like coming to FW.fm….but have not been there for a while

16. Great to see fredwilson.fm back. SoundCloud certainly offers great features for hosting and sharing with the community. If you don’t mind, a quick plug. We were wondering if you tried Swell Radio iOS App (www.swell.am), attempts to provide a delightful spoken word listening experience inspired by Pandora. Thank you!

17. So you have 3 main web properties? avc.com, fredwilson.fm and fredwilson.vc? Any others? Just curious.

    1. those are the main ones

18. Working in it. Nathan and I are noodling on it

19. Second.No hate for the bunnies. But it was a disconnect hearing someone else reading Fred’s words.

20. I don’t care for their promo

21. I had a brainstorm the other day about a sort of DuoLingo meets VoiceBunny. Crowd-sourced reading of blog posts.I ran a mini poll on USV, and for the most part no one cares much about having blog posts read to them. I do, but I’m just a pathetic multitasker. I want to listen to blog posts while I put on my eyeliner 😉

22. same

23. Hey John. Good to see you.

24. Ditto – good to see you as well!

25. I just love the way you do your eyeliner. Worth every minute.