Image via CrunchBase

I recently started an unofficial MySpace boycott as a result of their decision to remove the ability to search by location. As a local music reviewer for my city, I turn to online resources when seeking new bands to write about. When MySpace launched their revamped site late last year, they altered their advanced search and omitted the special feature that allowed a searcher to navigate at a local level. Enraged with frustration, I emailed and asked what had happened to my beloved zip code search field, to which they simply replied “We’re sorry. That function no longer exists.”

This painful realization has given me no choice but to experiment with a new medium: Reverb Nation. The website has been around for a while, but it wasn’t until I needed to find new local bands that I decided to complete my profile and become an active member of their community. Since then, I’ve come to realize that the niche website actually provides more benefits to both the musician and the reporter than MySpace. Read on to see why.

General Search

As I mentioned, being able to find bands by location is essential for a blogger who only covers events local to their city. Furthermore, musicians who are seeking like-minded bands to schedule and play gigs with will want to be able to search by zip code. Reverb Nation sorts the returns of a general search query by artists, venues, and labels and then allows a deeper search of on-page content if you still can’t find what you’re looking for.
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So after loading my HootSuite interface for my Twitter feeds today I was confronted with an option to go Pro or keep with what I’m using at the moment, but at what price?

For starters, those of us that have used the marvellous HootSuite for free will have a reduced amount of social networks, RSS feeds and no Social insights.

Now while most of you may be saying but I only have one Twitter account and nothing else then maybe that is ok, but today people have not just a Twitter account but also FaceBook, FourSquare, MySpace, Linkedin and even Facbook pages, now that’s more that the allotted 5 Social Networks!

And you are only allowed 2 RSS feeds, looks like I’ll be going back to TwitterFeed for that then!

So what is it going to cost you to have what you now have with your HootSuite, well it’s going to cost you $5.99 (£3.77) a month, ok, it doesn’t sound much, but is you total up other costs that you may be spending over other things you may have such as your web hosting, then it soon total ups.

I’m not saying I’m a miser, ok I am really, but for me, I’ll be removing HootSuite from my computer and even from my BlackBerry and I’ll be using other Twitter apps over this one

Related articles

• HootSuite launches Pro plan and scales back on some Basic features (techvibes.com)
• It’s time to choose your HootSuite: Pro or Basic (thenextweb.com)

I just love it when I get an email saying “I have an album out, would you like to review it?” It’s one of the ways that I can discover new music and some new artists.

A little while back an email dropped in my inbox about an album called New Earth by 8-time international award-winning composer Sakis Gouzonis, so how could I miss the opportunity of getting his album and giving it the music review treatment here on my blog!

The first name that always springs to my mind when I hear the term “Greek Artist” is Vangelis and I’m a big fan of his, specially the Blade Runner soundtrack, so I was intrigued to hear what this album by Sakis sounded like, with a track record of awards won for his musical compositions, I just couldn’t wait to get his CD on my iTunes and get playing it.
Need to know more, then click here

Ever popular than ever I’m proud to bring you another interview in my series of “Who’s the Band” and this time I bring you an interview with Dysfunctional Kid, so I’m going to stop rambling on and get on with the interview..

Q: So how did you come upon the name of your band? Is it the first name you chose?
A: It was made up one night, I don’t remember when. Dysfunctional Kid was kind of
my solo project back in the day, now that we’ve grown to a full band we’re
stuck with the stupid name.

Q: Introduce each member and instrument played or role in the band?
A: Levi “Multiple Beards” Netto plays drums and does none of the singing. Marl
Bro plays bass and takes care of some background vocals. Erik B. plays guitar
and does half of the singing and I play guitar and sing the other half.

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It’s the, excuse the pun, BUZZ word that is racing around the internet at the moment, everywhere you look Google Buzz seems to popping up and a lot of people are going crazy over it, saying that it will fend off the likes of Twitter and become the new kid in town, but will it?

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Have you ever wondered how you could make adding your friends or accept friends on MySpace at the same time as promoting yourself?

Well it’s not really that hard, for some time now I’ve used MySpace with my humble music project Remergence and I use a handy bit of software that makes my MySpace usage that little be easier and somewhat quicker to control.

You can accept all your friend requests in one go and even add your own written comment to every acceptance automatically, now isn’t that great, imagine how easy it would be to promote yourself across thousands of MySpace friends with a couple of clicks. Read the rest of this entry »

So what’s it all about this weired title for my post, you may be thinking, well it’s a simple title for what I’ve been up to lately.

First of all many may know that I frequent FaceBook, not as much I would like to or used to but I still visit when I can and I do like to use my mobile phone for Tweeting over at Twitter.

So the other day I decided to change the tariff on my Orange phone, the network not the colour, to the Dolphin tariff, great I thought 300 free texts a month, that will save me a bit tweeting, well not exactly, I can text for free, but not to Twitter, I still get charged 20p to tweet with my mobile, shame that!

But I do have access to FaceBook, Bebo, MySpace and Twitter for free via my phones WAP, which I suppose does help, but it’s so annoying tweeting without predictive text, it’s like going back to the dark ages, pressing one key several times to get the desired letter!

So then I decided to stop by Facebook and use their mobile phone option, so I can update my facebook via my phone, no! Facebook will not let you use an Orange phone, what a complete pain in the bum!!!

What next, ah ha ping.fm, I’ll give that ago, so I did!  Awesome no charge!!!!!