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Headliner.fm

The 404 911: Where we put our ear to the cloud (podcast)

Welcome to the bigger and beefier 404 Podcast! With Buzz Out Loud going weekly, we're taking the reins and reporting all the daily tech news headlines in addition all the discussion topics, voice mails, and jokes at Wilson's expense you've come to expect from our show.

We're also superexcited to have SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung in the studio for the second part of today's episode. SoundCloud.com is a music-streaming service that allows anyone to upload and share music across multiple platforms--blogs, direct links, and even cross-platform properties like Outloud.fm and Headliner.fm.

Alexander tells us all about how the company started with just a few musicians playing songs for one another, then slowly grew into a service with over 5 million active users uploading, playing, and sharing music. We'll also talk to him about SoundCloud's partnership with Facebook announced last week at the company's F8 Developers Conference, and what you can expect from the Web service in the coming months.

Stay tuned after the break for more discussion topics about this weekend's Facebook paid-services hoax, more Facebook privacy flaws, and more!

The 404 Digest for Episode 911

Amazon is set to announce a tablet on Wednesday. Amazon Instant adds FOX movies and TV shows. Netflix gets DreamWorks movies. More Motorola Xoom 2 leaks: Two models? Apple slashes fourth-quarter iPad orders, report says. Yes, Google Drive is coming. For real this time. Hoax! Fake Facebook fees. "Read" in Facebook--it's not a button, so be careful what you click! SoundCloud opens its first U.S. office in San Francisco. Outloud.fm lets you share tracks from SoundCloud. Follow Alexander Ljung on Twitter. Bathroom-break videos of the day: Boston Terrier dog likes his belly tickled and a cat's first day of exercise.

Episode 911 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Headliner.fm + SoundCloud = artists reaching new fans

American rock singer Rob Thomas needed a new way to promote his single, "Someday." His agent, Nick Lippman, used Headliner.fm to promote a campaign around the new song. Headliner.fm gives artists like Thomas a way to connect with other musicians, and gives those other musicians an incentive to recommend new music to their own fans.

Lippman, a vice president at Lippman Entertainment, said Thomas' fans were asked to create a cover image for the single, with the winner's design being chosen. "The contest was a success. We used it to target people who would be interested, because we knew hip-hop guys weren't going to care about his single," Lippman told CNET.

Headliner.fm can be used to help new bands find and book similar unknown, rising stars. Lippman said he uses reports from Headliner.fm to see which bands are talking about one of his up-and-coming bands, New Kingdom. "Finding similar acts that dig New Kingdom outside of their hometown helps us book tours with them," he said.

New Kingdom and Rob Thomas are two of the 78,000 artists using Headliner.fm's service. Headliner.fm's founder, Mike More, says the service is based on musician recommendations: "If you ask another artist to market for you, it's much more powerful than when the recommendation comes from a fan."

I spoke to More on Monday at the MusicTech Summit in San Francisco, where it seemed the tension between old-school music industry folks and digital media geeks softened. Even though many artists use Facebook fan pages and Twitter for their social-media presence, there's still a lot of noise to sort through, for musicians and listeners. Who has time to watch every tweet sent out by Rob Thomas? Existing social-media tools are also limited by the number of fans the artist has. Headliner.fm expands the social network to fans of other artists.

Last week, Headliner.fm partnered with SoundCloud, a start-up that allows artists to upload and share their music. For instance, a band can ask fellow artists to send out messages that link to an iTunes song download page, promote free songs to download, or steer new fans to their YouTube and Facebook pages. … Read more