Yeah Bwoy! We’re on a retro kick today, and revisiting the kind of tracks that were the soundtrack to many a high school adventure. There’s nothing quite like the early days of hip-hop. From the emergence of sample-based early mash-ups, to the storytelling greats of NYC, ‘old skool’ hip-hop shaped a generation and influenced many a modern musician.

So, dig out your Adidas track suits and clock-on-a-chain and kick it with some of the legends of the scene. Some of these guys are still producing and touring, some were a (prominent) flash in the pan of musical history. All of them left a mark on many a cool youth.

Click the image below or check out http://open.spotify.com/user/leejarvis/playlist/5Tl4lJ5cVX212cgTpbDybv

Tracklist
A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita Applebum
Public Enemy – Bring The Noise
KRS One – Sound of Da Police
Beastie Boys – No Sleep Til Brooklyn
Run DMC – It’s Tricky
Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike
De La Soul – Eye Know
Eric B & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – The Message
The Sugarhill Gang – Rappers Delight

Enjoy!

by The Music Jobs Team.

Who?

Spotify is a team of developers led by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon (pictured above). They now have a headquarters in London, as well as an R&D team in Sweden.

What?

As a music playing desktop application, Spotify offers a ‘Free‘ account, with a limited amount of streaming of music, an ‘Unlimited‘ account, in other words, all-you-can-eat streaming, and also a ‘Premium‘ account where you can listen to music on any of your mobile devices, completely unrestricted. Music is easily searchable, and users can also browse by artist name, genre and other factors. Playlists can also be created and shared easily with other users and across the web.

When?

Whilst development started in 2006, Spotify first launched in 2008. After years of deliberating, negotiating, and rump-shaking (probably?), several territories can now dive into one of the most infamous and hyped instruments of the new music industry. As of July 2011, Spotify has officially hit the US shores.

Where?

Having originated in Sweden, Spotify went on to take Europe by storm, making deals and giving access to music lovers in the UK, France, Finland, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands, before landing in the USA.

Why?

Well, for a start, they host literally millions of tracks. Over 15 million, in fact. The interface is simple and user-friendly, making it a joy to locate the sounds you currently crave, as well as explore new and interesting music.

How?

Firstly, head here to select which account you would enjoy (Free, Unlimited, or Premium, as explained above).

Once setup, you have various features to experiment with. Looking for a place to start? Perhaps check out my Spotify profile…

…then perhaps subscribe to some of the Music Jobs playlists that I have compiled…

…from there it is easy to click on artist names, and discover new albums and related artists…

…making playlists yourself is simply a matter of dragging and dropping tracks…

…and sharing with friends is also as easy as a drag and drop…

Hopefully this post will enlighten you and give you a brief insight to their service. I’m not paid by or affiliated with them, it’s just, you know, kinda groovy

Enjoy!


by Lee Jarvis.

With that said, I thought I’d make a shortlist of several artists that I’d love to see perform live in 2010, with a little help from Lala. Having received a lot of coverage with their recent buy out from Apple, I thought I’d compile a streaming playlist from their site, and must say I found the process simpler and more fluent than I remember from last using their system. Here’s to hoping that Apple help make the brand profitable and they continue providing a useful service.

And so, onto my rockin playlist – featuring music from Kings of Leon, Jet, Kasabian, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Silversun Pickups, Muse, The Prodigy, Foo Fighters and Soulwax.

Enjoy!

Lee Jarvis.

To Play All the tracks in full, click here:

Music Jobs Team playlist 001: US Office December 2009 (Compiled by Lee Jarvis)

Enjoy!

The Music Jobs Team.

Muxtape was one of the most exciting ‘music 2.0’, forward-thinking companies to emerge in 2008. The website allowed users to upload their own mp3 playlists as virtual ‘mixtapes’, and to listen to other users’ playlists. The site became immensely popular fro day one – with 8,685 users registered in its first day and 97,748 in its first month (stats from Wikipedia). Creator Justin Ouellette explains that the important part of a mixtape, which he tried to preserve on his site, is about discovering new music instead of someone finding music they are already familiar with. He therefore purposefully made the site unable to search for tracks in playlists.

Differing from Napster in the way that users would stream playlists, and then hopefully move on to purchase (with the help of Muxtape links to Amazon) new music, many musicians, consumers, labels and web enthusiasts alike hoped for a bright future for Muxtape. Alas, the RIAA had other ideas, and in August last year the Muxtape homepage displayed the grim message “Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA”.

September last year brought a new message, explaining that the site is being re-formatted to create a platform for independent artists to distribute their music. Yesterday, the website appeared in a new ‘preview’ mode, with a selection of artists that Muxtape had asked to trial the new platform. Other bands will be able to sign up themselves in the coming weeks, and users will once again be able to create playlists and share around the web.

Will the new version of Muxtape work? I really hope so. The death of the original version was a real shame, and yet another indicator of major labels and governing bodies failing to realise the potential and future direction of digital music. Fresh start-up companies such as Muxtape are driving the music industry forward, and I am glad they are not letting the previous issues keep them down. It will be interesting to see what emerges of the new site and how users react / interact over the next few weeks. If nothing else, just by visiting the new homepage I have discovered 12 new bands, some of which I really enjoyed listening to, and will be likely to purchase music from them or see them on tour as soon as possible. Oh, wow, look at that…. free streaming = potential future revenue….

Lee Jarvis.