I recently read an article about how the Internet has made millions of MP3’s available for us with a click of a button and that it at the same time, paradoxically, also has made it harder to discover new music. Being the music enthusiast that I am I felt as if I had to write a little something on this issue. Yes, it’s true that the Internet has made millions of songs available for us but I don’t agree that it at the same time has made it more difficult to discover new music. I am stumbling upon new artists/groups that I like as good as every single day. The article mentions four different approaches to finding new music: Pandora, Mufin, Lala and eMusic. All of these seem to have some kind of technical mumbo-jumbo techniques of analyzing music and your taste in music.

The Hype Machine

How about The Hype Machine? I use it every day and it’s more of a “human” way of getting your hands on great music. Simply type in an artist or a song that you like and you’ll get a list of all the music blogs that have written a post about it. Most of these blogs will also provide an MP3 with whatever is was that you were searching for. A blog posting something about a song/artist that you like will probably also have other posts about something that you’ve never heard before and still could like. Just take a quick look at the blog and you’ll notice quite quickly if they have a similar taste in music as you. Music blogs tend to be quite “niched” so if you visit a blog operating in your favorite genre from time to time you’ll for sure discover something new. I mean – it doesn’t have to be all that difficult…

A list of blogs that’s posting MP3’s

When searching for a song or artist (in this case Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen) you’ll get a list of all the blogs writing about it. Click “Read Full Post” and you’ll be redirected to the blog. You can also listen to the music directly from The Hype Machine.

I’ve already written posts about how you can improve the look of your website through using the proper typography and by taking a good look at the details. Hope that it helped you somewhat and that you maybe at least got inspired to look at things from another angle. I know that it’s not easy to break ones normal pattern but it could be good.

Well, now I’m back to tell you about how to improve the performance of your website. Yes, I know that there’s a lot written about on the web but I thought that it might be a good idea summing the best tips up. What it’s much about is scaling your site down so that your visitors won’t have to wait forever for your pages to load. Actually, I’m not going to talk so much about it here but I’ve written an article on the topic so please check it out here!

As many things in life is web design much about the details. Paying attention to all those small little things might take your website from ok to brilliant. When you rough out the first idea of a site/page you obviously won’t be able to make it a 100%. Half of the work will probably remain to be done. Start thinking critically and start looking at various different ways of fixing the design.

Even though you might be under pressure of getting the design done you shouldn’t rush this moment through. There might be some late nights but it will be well worth it. Start polishing the site’s design and when you start having trouble focusing it might be time for a short break. When you come back you’ll probably be able to watch at things in a new angle.

Experimenting a bit (it’s better to have tried something and rejected it than never have tested it out) might be a good idea but remember to still keep it consistent. If for example the pixels don’t match on a site you risk the chance of creating something very messy looking.

My last advice would be completing everything. If you intend to leave something semi-good you might as well not do anything at all. And whatever you do – don’t forget to take a look at the details!

Cheers!

Hi all,

I’m back again from a long, and much appreciated, vacation filled with skiing in the snowy mountains. Anyways, that’s not what I’m here to talk about – if it only was that simple. No, I want to start the New Year with discussing the different typography that’s being used on the web. Obviously this is what will set the tone of a/your site which makes it a crucial part of our online existence (do you think I’m taking it a bit far? .

If I am to start with a general rule – minimalistic and simple will always be the best alternative. It will be easy for the visitors to read as it’s simple and clean in its style. But of course are there ways of keeping a minimalistic style and at the same time giving it a bit of an edge. One of my absolute favorites is “The New Yorker” website. They have kept their trademark font on the web which is not only clean and simple – it’s also a way enhancing their brand name. The best of two worlds I guess…

Another site that really has managed to create an extremely appealing website much due to its typography is “A List Apart”. Yet again – simple design and easy on the eyes for us as visitors. Of course is it also important to be able to combine the typography with the rest of graphics on the site but start out with a clean style and you’ll have much of your work done…