"Vox already makes it easy to add photos and videos to liven up your posts, but what about adding a song too? By using the new embed feature, you can add a song to a post or put a song widget in your sidebar to create a theme song for your blog.
One service we've found pretty easy to use is Sonific's SongSpot. Just sign up, search for songs, and then click to create a free music widget that will stream the song of your choice from their catalog. They're still in beta and are adding to their catalog every day, so you're not going to find top 40 songs in their selections just yet. They do have music from some popular artists like Barenaked Ladies, but we're most impressed with all the genres of music that they have available...."
We just released this, today... a major step forward for Sonific!
Music widget firm Sonific adds 125.000 songs; major name artists now available to use with free ‘SongSpots’ widget for blogs, social networks and Web2.0 applications
San Francisco, California, June 26, 2007
Sonific LLC, a leading provider of licensed music applications and widgets to social media platforms, blogs and online communities, today announced the addition of 125.000 new songs.
Sonific’s users can select any song from its library of over 200.000 fully licensed tracks, generate the code for an embeddable music player – a widget called a ‘SongSpot’ - adapt it for the desired destination site, and then copy & paste the code into their pages to instantly create a music player that will stream the entire song, for free. Similar ‘add music to your profile’ functionalities have been offered by various social networks, now, Sonific is taking music widgets to the next level by making all songs available to all users on all platforms, anywhere, and not just for on-portal use.
The newly expanded catalog now includes the works of over 41.000 record labels and artists, and over 65.000 albums. The new additions are due to a myriad of licensing deals that Sonific has recently inked with partners such as IRIS, IODA, DRA / DMGI, CDBaby, Big Fish Media, Cooking Vinyl Records, Uploader, Nettwerk Music Group, and V2 Records.
From Nettwerk Music Group come The Submarines, The Barenaked Ladies, Leigh Nash and Josh Rouse. Via Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA), Sonific has sourced the works of artists such as Sean Hayes, American Music Club, David Byrne, Betty Davis, Sun Ra and Echo & The Bunnymen. Via the Digital Rights Agency (DRA) & DMGI, Sonific is now able to offer Krokus, Lee Scratch Perry, Billie Holliday, Bing Crosby, Django Reinhardt, Charles Mingus, Frank Sinatra, Larry Coryell, Gloria Gaynor, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Mikis Teodorakis, Dizzie Gillespie, Muddy Waters, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Thelonius Monk, as well as Chamillionaire, The Fall, My Morning Jacket, Deerhoof, Elliott Smith and The Plain White T’s. Via Independent Record Industry Solutions (IRIS), Sonific has added the likes of Roots Manuva, David Arkenstone, Ninja Tune’s Coldcut, Kid Koala and Amon Tobin, and Palmetto Jazz’s Fred Hersch Trio and Dr. Lonnie Smith. LA-based Big Fish Media provides Sonific with the sounds of Will Milar, Jai Uttal, Nawang Khechog, Cory Lee, Alessi Brothers and Calvin Owens. V2 Music’s new additions such as Duke Special and Little Man Tate will be added shortly, as well.
In addition to adding the new repertoire Sonific has also launched the Sonific Music Network at www.Sonific.net, which enables any interested record label, producer or artist to instantly add their own music to Sonific’s catalog.
Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder and CEO, comments: “Music2.0 - a new music ecosystem based on ubiquity not scarcity – is quickly becoming a reality just like so-called Web2.0 applications are starting to change the way that everyone uses the web. Now, rapid music syndication via widgets is becoming a crucial marketing tool that promises great returns with almost zero investment. Sonific is gearing up to build a library of several Million licensed songs; based on our innovative ‘Attention & Revenue Sharing’ model this will include many ‘Longtail’ artists and music from the leading independent labels as well as repertoire provided by some major record labels.”
The company will roll out a multitude of innovations in the next few months, including widget-based playlists and interactive playlist-sharing, podcast support and various mashup tools, as well as various ad-supported premium content services.
About Sonific Sonific's SongSpots(TM) music widget provides free music for use in blogs, personal homepages, photo sites and social networks, currently supporting over 40 platforms including Typepad, Google, Blogger, Friendster, Wordpress, Slideroll, Xanga, Yahoo360, Piczo, Vox.com, Smugmug, and Squarespace. The company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and was founded by Gerd Leonhard (Digital Music Entrepreneur, Media Futurist and Co-author of "The Future of Music") and Gunnar Ostergren (CTO), in 2005. Sonific LLC is funded by a group of well-known angel investors.
Forbes coverage here. Google Blogsearch mentions here Technorati Search here
And here is a new submission that comes from Columbia Records UK, via Sonific.net - a great band from the UK, GoodBooks.
This has got to be a world premiere: a KARAOKE Music Widget! Sonific now has several 100 cool tracks like this.... (if you like Karaoke, that is ;))) search away.
Check this out - Here is an artist (Geoff Lapp from Montreal) that signed up at www.sonific.net yesterday, made his music available as a songspot widget, and then embedded it on his myspace profile. The cool thing is that his visitors can now get their own widgets with his music, too - and they won't just work on myspace!
Good going Geoff (and .. great track, too!)
Link: www.myspace.com/geofflapptrio.
Sonific now offers all content producers (music & audio) a no-strings-attached home for their productions if they want to provide free widgets. I am using the new service, Sonific.net, to put up my own podcasts and allow people to embed them on their own web pages - this seems like a great way to spread the word. Here are a few SongSpot 'PodWidgets' (hey... this is a world premiere!).
As a result of a licensing deal with the Digital Rights Agency (DRA), I am delighted to announce that Sonific now has 1000s of tracks by well-known Jazz & Blues artists (see a partial list below). We also have added some some great stuff from IRIS, including many Ninja Tune artists. Check it out - just use the SongSpot search., or browse the complete library. And let me know how you like it.
New Sonific Jazz & Blues arrivals: Count Basie Billie Holiday Bing Crosby Chubby Checker Cole Porter & Arthur Freed Django Reinhardt Fats Waller Big Joe Turner Buddy Rich Charles Mingus Frank Sinatra Gene Kelly Gene Krupa George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin Glenn Miller Harry James Larry Coryell Lester Young Lionel Hampton Bessie Smith Gloria Gaynor Horace Silver Louis Armstron Milt Jackson Modern Jazz Quartet Oscar Petersen Robert Johnson Charlie Parker Mikis Teodorakis Sonny Boy Williamson Dizzie Gillespie Memphis Slim McCoy Tyner / Ahmad Jamal Sonny Rollins Stan Getz Thelonius Monk Woody Herman Jelly Roll Morton Judy Garland Muddy Waters
Newly added via IRIS Big Dada:TTC, Spank Rock, Wiley, Roots Manuva Brassland: The National, Baby Dayliner Gemini Sun Records: Nicholas Gunn, David Arkenstone Ghostly International: Matthew Dear, Dabrye, Mobius Band K Records:The Blow, Mira, Kranky: Godspeed You Black Emperor, Stars of the Lid, Deerhunter Megaforce: Bad Brains, S.O.D Ninja Tune: Coldcut, Kid Koala, Amon Tobin Palmetto Jazz: Fred Hersch Trio, Dr. Lonnie Smith Projekt: Black Tape for a Blue Girl Ten12 Records: Skull Snaps TSR Records: Nils
Here is the press release I am publishing with Sonific tomorrow. This is something that literally 1000s of emails from labels and artists have asked for - I think it's a big step into Music2.0 (if I may say so myself;). What do you think? Send your comments and / or questions !
San Francisco / California, Basel / Switzerland, June 13, 2007 Sonific LLC, a leading provider of licensed music widgets and free music applications for social media, today announced the launch of the Sonific Music Network (SMN) at www.sonific.net. SMN allows any record label or artist to instantly, and at zero cost, add their music to Sonific.com's catalog and make their own streaming music widgets available for any non-commercial use on blogs, social networks, photo-sharing sites, personal web-pages, web2.0 applications and online portals.
Web widgets are cut & paste flash-players that can deliver streaming media content to almost any webpage or web property. The use of widgets – in particular, those that offer music and video - has recently emerged as a very popular trend, and the viral syndication of media content via widgets is quickly becoming a crucial marketing tool. With today’s launch of Sonific.net the tools of syndication are now available to any and all music / audio rights owners and creators.
Once approved by the Sonific team, all SMN submissions will be instantly available on Sonific.com, in addition to Sonific's already existing catalog of over 150.000 titles which include music provided by CDBaby, IRIS, IODA, DRA / DMGI, Big Fish Media, State51, Cooking Vinyl, V2 Records, KillRock Stars, Delicious Vinyl, Ninja Tune, Phonefile.dk, Nettwerk Music Group and many others.
Sonific’s SongSpots(TM) music widget currently works on, and supports, 42 platforms, such as Google Gadgets and Google Pages, Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, Friendster, SmugMug, Slideroll, AIM Pages, Facebook, Xanga, Piczo, Ning, FreeWebs, Myspace and many others, allowing any user to instantly add a music component to their personal web presence.
Sonific does not charge for joining SMN, nor does an artist or label transfer any rights to Sonific; any song or album can be activated or removed any time. Using Sonific, any content owner can now provide free promotional streams to any non-commercial website, worldwide, and find new audiences by letting the users themselves do the marketing for them. Sonific's SongSpots can already be found on over 30.000 websites, generating 100s of 1000s of impressions per day, exposing Sonific's content providers to new audiences and driving sales of digital music products and services. Sonific generates revenues from affiliate commissions such as from iTunes, Emusic, and Amazon; in addition the company will roll out advertising supported premium content widgets shortly.
Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder and CEO of Sonific, comments: “Music production and music distribution have already become democratized because of new, disruptive technologies, and now Sonific.net democratizes music promotion, as well. Just like any visual content creator can already virally distribute his videos via YouTube, Revver or VideoEgg, a record label or artist can now use Sonific’s SongSpots platform to make their music widely available as a full-length audio stream that can be embedded into any website. A fan can now instantly promote any artist's music on their own web-site – the power of content syndication is finally available at a click of the mouse. Sonific’s business model is based on the fact that the future of music marketing clearly is in a ‘Pull Not Push’ approach, in spreading the word via the users, and in making your music available as widely as possible - and then lead back to multiple points of transactions.”
About Sonific Sonific’s SongSpots (TM) music widget provides free music for use in blogs, personal homepages, photo sites and social networks. The company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and was founded by Gerd Leonhard (Music-Futurist, Co-author of “The Future of Music” and noted Digital Music Visionary) and Gunnar Ostergren (CTO), in 2005. Sonific is funded by a group of well-known angel investors. For more details visit www.sonific.com and www.sonificblog.com.
Vox is a pretty cool blogging platform, and now Sonific's SongSpots actually work on it - check it out!
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