Friday, October 10, 2008

BandOfMe - YouTube mashup

Posted by Jon in • Guitar Sites

BandOfMe.com
Bandofme.com is an interesting YouTube mashup that I came across a couple of weeks ago thanks to commenter Ben Stewart who pointed me to this video of himself doing a very clever piece of music using a loop of acoustic guitar and then he swaps to his G&L electric. So I checked out the site to see just what was on offer and it found that it used YouTube videos to create a categorised rating system. So for us guitarists head over to the guitar section where you will see a list of videos of all different styles that are positioned by number of votes and the ratings they received. These videos can be filtered either by sub category, such as blues, jazz, metal or by week, month, most discussed, most viewed etc. The only problem at the moment is the voting system is flawed as a single vote can propel you to the top of the chart, I think a Bayesian rating system needs to be implemented or a similar algorithm where videos need a minimum number of votes before their rating average is calculated and included in the top videos. As it is I think the site is too new for this system to work properly so I presume that Ben just wants people to see how the site works and how you can promote yourself.

As a musicians community I think that the site is a little short of features, especially if you compare it to BandFind Social which I reviewed last week, and there is no way of stopping people share videos that aren’t their own as it uses YouTube videos but maybe as the site develops and grows the problems I have encountered will be fixed. As it stands it is a kind of another avenue to promote yourself aside from a YouTube Channel but I’m not sure that it offers any significant difference to be a real success. I do like the name though, very clever and catchy.

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Tennyson Williams on 10/10 at 10:24 AM

I’ve been experimenting with bandofme a little and I have yet to give a final verdict on it, but you mentioned BandFind Social, which is news to me. If you find any other great sites for musicians to expose their music on, be sure to let the cat out of the bag. Take care.

Jon on 10/10 at 11:24 AM

Hi Tennyson, thanks for the comment. I think that if you are looking for exposure you aren’t going to put all your eggs in one basket so at the end of the day it is another promotional tool. Also guitarists love showing what they can do on youtube and getting rated so it will probably pick up a bit of momentum once the word gets out.

Col on 10/10 at 06:58 PM

Hey Jon - off topic I know but this is all the demo you need for Pitchblack. It’s so good I bought one. Lock on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnosoyhQaHs&eurl=http://theaxevictim.blogspot.com/

Jon on 10/10 at 09:43 PM

Hi Col thanks for the link, in a way I’m glad I bought a cheap tuner because I would end up playing with all the different modes rather than playing music! I think mode 4 looks like the most useful to view from a distance, or is the strobe easier?

teak furniture on 10/10 at 10:14 PM

Thanks for the information.

Mike AGOS on 10/11 at 02:33 AM

Hey guys

Heres a tip for your youtube videos to help get you more exposure.  Some of you might know this but then again not everyone is web-savvy.

After you make your music movie import it into Windows Movie Maker… it comes with Windows free! At least XP and Vista that I know of.

Anyways, in Windows Movie Maker its really really easy to add text to your video, so add your domain name!  The viewer will not be able to click on it but they definitely visit, it works!  You can be as creative as you want with colors, fonts etc but please at least put your domain name in there.

There are tons of cheap domain name stores that include basic hosting for cheap.  Domain prices just went up across the board a little bit but you can still find $7.99 .com names or any names.  Places like Catchsite.com still have them.  You might want to shop around.

If you want exposure you gotta have your own domain name with some info up at least, so people can know you and if you are making Youtube movies and not putting in your domain name then you are losing a receptive audience that could follow you beyond just one video.

For pennies a day investment this is one of the best tips… dont forget social bookmarking your site too.

Sorry I know this turned into a web lesson but with so much Youtube action happening and some great great talent out there… this is a great tip and it works!

Tennyson Williams on 10/11 at 03:31 AM

Thanks Mike,

I employ all of these tactics for all of my content, but you explained a good deal of information on self marketing for anyone new to this, and you did it so eloquently too! I thank you good sir.

Col on 10/11 at 04:17 AM

Hey Jon,
Ive not bothered to try any of the others out! No point when the first one is the simplest. My problem is that thee things become ‘toys to play with’ rather than ‘tools to use’ so I like everyting to be vanilla simple.
Col

Jon on 10/11 at 08:20 AM

Hi Mike thanks for the tips but did you know you can actually add urls as annotations in youtube now? Once you upload your video click on the annotations link and follow the instructions. Hope that helps.

Mike AGOS on 10/11 at 12:58 PM

Yes Jon, totally right.  The annotations are cool and attention grabbing, or annoying depending on how theyre done.

Thing is, as far I know, theyre not embedded and if someone is hoping that their video does land up being the content of a mashup script site or an individual link external to youtube that they wont work.

Again, if Im wrong please let me know.

Cheers
Mike

on 10/11 at 03:34 PM

Hi Mike thanks for the info I had no idea that they weren’t embedded sorry, that’s annoying isn’t it?

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