Gogelmogel

Pissed from Odeo...going to try Splashcast

Odeo's servers are bringing me the nerves. What's going with this Obvious guys - they have great ideas and UI, but always problems with the performance.

So going to migrate the "Blog Sonics" things to Splashcast, something I wanted to check since heard about it. Played with it today a bit and it looks very cool.

(Tags: odeo, poor performance, podcasting, blog music, blog soundtrack, splashcast, obvious corp)

MoS new site misses on usability

I'm a great fan of the shows on the Ministry of Sound radio. They got some great dj's there (and some are good friends), a versatile line up of shows and quality music.

We were lucky to get some heavy rotation there to couple of our productions, and I even think we were the first to be hosted twice at the same week in 2 of the most popular shows (Fuf was visiting MoS Express and Funktional).

But their revamped web site really brings the nerve.

Not that the graphics are bad, it's actually cool. But two decisions made a long scratch on my usability experience:

• You must sign in to listen. What? are you trying to be totally silly? It's your best front-end to listeners, and you force them to register. Such a big no-no.
• Tracklisings and shows from the past archive are gone! Now that's a big frustration for me. 2 weeks ago I listened in great pleasure to one of the latest "Ministry of Sound Chill Out" sessions. And I had the tracklisting. Now - niether the show, nor the playlist. Very dissapointing.

And if I needed another proof for the bits of carelessness behind this new site design, there's a terrific flash advertiment to none else than...BBC Radio 1 (MoS biggest competitor) - on the front page!

(Spare me the explanations etc. I know the current status of radio in the UK. Radio 1 at least preserves tracklisting).

Ok - there's a good point - their podcast. But again they don't provide a direct link to d/l.

(Tags: ministry of sound, internet radio, user interface, radio 1, tracklisting )

The return of the PodCoupons

So I finally decided to wrap up all my wierd mockups (usually created during various mind situations) into a category and use a nice button to form the Mockups Zone.

Yeah there's not much now - but I hope I can find the time to upload more concept that currently just lie on my Onenote tabs.

But anyway, let's first give light to one of the oldies, which was first posted on SkypeJournal a year  ago...(thanks again for posting it, Stuart).

It's the PodCoupon trick:

• Subscribe to Podcoupons channels (audio coupond, 30 sec like jingles).
• Load them to your iPod or mobile skype (when...?)
• Play to the seller and redeem your discount :)
• Ah, share with friends of course.

 

It's a fun-thing, don't think I assume people would adopt it. But anyway, I was thinking maybe it could inject some freshness to both sides of the equation.

Advertisers might gain a wider distribution for coupons, relying on the viral effect that Skype, RSS and posdcasts have, stirring them from the old boring concept of paper image.

Consumers might just find it as a cool new trendy digital lifestyle "see me" stuff. Who knows...but it does take something from the experience of ringtones - as people express themselves through sounds and music, while getting the public attention.

Can anyone think of specific retail segments where it might be cool? Probably anything with brands I guess (clothing, perfumes, underwear).

Drop your ideas :)

(Tags: podcoupon, podcast, skype, digital lifestyle, mockups )