blip.fm

What’s it all about?

• A music enhanced Twitter
• A playlist maker, by listening to the public channel, and blipping(adding to favourite list)
• A lazy playlist, by listening to your favourite DJ

Daniel Appelquist (2006) identified services rapidly maturing at an amazing rate which knitting together Web 2.0 with the mobile platform to create something new: “a new class of services that leverage mobility but are as easy to use and ubiquitous as the Web is today”.  Traditionally music was accessed in the car or at home.  Now services such as Blip.fm offer limitless amounts of data, customised for personal use, from virtually any location.

Blip.fm has expanded upon the three-tier model suggested by O’rielly (2007) with

• the PC providing management and configuration of the service and acting as a control station with all the features
• the internet providing connectivity and access
• the web site (server) providing the application and data access

While the core component of the service is available from portable media and mobile devices,  the expanded tier involves the actual storage and distribution details, which are not described in detail but “Songs are hosted all over the internet by different servers and websites”.   Unlike iTunes which uses shared server farms, Blip uses multiple sources, some of which may ultimately infringe copyright.

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO (De Waele 2006) identified mobile as the next big internet phenomenon, with greater access to everyone and all the benefits that this entails.  Blip’s mobile option allows access to the internet and personal data, listening to your playlist or favourite DJ.  The rich experience is enhanced with from the pc, with integration into other social media, manipulation of play lists, and communication with other DJ’s.

Blip.fm socialises music more efficiently (and with a cleaner interface) than Last.fm and Pandora (currently experiencing copyright issues), with the immediacy of music and comments the transportable features which enhance multiple platform effectiveness.  Best practice is adopted with one click  search, or play, clean simple interface, and subtle purchase options.

One negative of Blip.fm is that it uses mp3 files (or positive if you look at download speed), which ultimately don’t offer the same audio quality as cd’s or vinyl, but to many current users this is the norm.  Whether the music industry challenges this “Shared Data” format, will determine future success of this site.  PirateBay.com’s recent court decision indicates that the model may need to change.

A blip on the music radar…I don’t think so.