Booktunes HTML5 player

From now on Booktunes uses a HTML5 player. All visitors using an iPad or iPhone – and our futuristic friends at P-Edge HQ who threw out Flash a long time ago – can now listen to our online audio content without any problems.

Good, since we plan to make all Booktunes Soundtracks available for online listening. Check our new player on the Inspired by Murakami Page and listen the complete After Dark soundtrack here.

Booktunes & Spotify?

‘As of today, Spotify is making it possible for everyone to take their playlists with them in one lean, green music machine.’ So what’s the big difference with iTunes, apart from the free listening possibilies (+) and the not as large library (-)? Seems like the service is becoming a serious thread for Apple’s iTunes now – not just because we@booktunes are finally taking some time to sort out the pros and cons of this revolutionary green tool.

I remember when people first pointed out this service to me. I was too busy embedding iTunes iMixes into the Booktunes site to pay ome proper attention to the free service with a small library broadcasting adds between songs. Now, getting tired of the ever changing iTunes terms, Apple narrowing down the iMix possibilities, the growing possibilities offered by Spotify and the expanding of the service itself lead me to this question:

Should we move from iTunes to a combination of Spotify (EU) and, for the time being, Grooveshark (US)?

Through Gizmodo, Kat Hannaford tells me this:

‘I’ve shared the playlist with dozens of people by sending the URL to them, which then opens their desktop program and loads it there for their listening pleasure. They can contribute to it, if you’ve created a collaborative playlist, or if you’d prefer people not tinker with your choons you can set them as so too.’

Perfect, isn’t it?

Booktunes US – serious business – €1200 short

Easter Sunday I was happy to meet up with my good friend John Ayres aka JSTAR. He was in town managing Diplo on tour, so I checked them out at Amsterdam venue Melkweg… wicked! Today we met again to update each other with some bad planning: he already arranged to move to the EU mainland in June, while I set the 1st of August as a final date to move to the UK… Schade!

Always good to share your thoughts with like minds. Moombahton, Malcolm Gladwell, John’s girls, my wife, his beats, my beats, his laptop, mine – all good subjects. When I told him about the challenges I am facing according to the Booktunes project, John came up with a perfect solution.

For the past two years I have put a lot of work in Booktunes. The site is up, warmly welcomed as a promising next thing, we have a huge network of Booktunes contributors (writers, editors, designers, photographers, translators, tech wizards) ready to give it a go, and finally our plans reached some serious heavyweights in the business. This last thing is of vital importance because I am really willing to make Booktunes into a venture we all can gain from. You, the reader, me and my crew.

Because I registered ‘Booktunes’ in the Benelux 5.75 months ago, I now have one week left to register it in the US with retroactive effect. Because this week has only 4 working days, I have to register Booktunes in the US within 96 hours. That leaves 72 hours to get the first 1200 euros needed for the initial costs. If I fail to register… well maybe we should let the sleeping dogs lie.

John’s solution: ’Put a message on your blog, your Facebook page, my Facebook page, any Facebook page, tell m! You should not let this pass, not at this point!!’
My thoughts: ’Yeah I was four days away from letting it go, tired of trying to convince people Booktunes is a diamond in the ruff, feeling too proud to rely on my close friends and family (again)’.

Your thoughts? I am beggin’ here.. prideless with 72 hours counting down. We need €1200.

Booktunes says THANKS to all people helping us out on this one. I will keep you posted on the developments and any news regarding your donation. All supporters will receive a present. For questions about Booktunes or registering a product please feel free to send an email or give me a ring (+31614515496).

Thanks again!

Erik

Booktunes DJ gigs

When starting this new venture it never occurred to me that I would probably end up at the same spot I tried to move away from: Behind the decks. With vinyl. At the party.

I am not too worried about it though. Always thought it was cool, it pays some bills, plus I am good at it. And when I get hired as ‘that Booktunes guy’ people expect me to play tunes completely different from the ones I used to play (and of course still do). Not that I could battle with Jules Deelder, but nowadays I play some decent jazz – a pretty new genre to me. Dirk Diggler backs me up when pop or rock songs fit better.

Last week Booktunes played music at Selexyz Scheltema during the Amsterdam Book Night, this week I will represent at the Nerd Nite in CREA. Since there is no real book & music connection here I am at a loss here and don’t know what tunes to play!

Featured speeches are:
Weekend Heroes – about role-playing games
How do you weigh a neutron star using a clock?

My contribution:
A book geek playing tunes with a laptop and controller only. No vinyl or CD’s.

Which reminds my Jahtarian friend Jan aka Disrupt… hey I could play his tunes for geeks who liked this previous post! But do let me know if you have any nerdy suggestions.

See you at CREA!
April 21
Nerd Nite

Friends with Records – DJ’s with Books

Last week saw the NL release of the Serge Gainsbourg biography by Sylvie Simmons. Of course DJ Guuzbourg – known for playing French tunes and making great compilations – was playing at the release party. To my surprise he also wrote the foreword to the Dutch edition of the book. Très cool.

The week before I was eating at Damir’s family home. We had delicious pasta and shared our thoughts on his club called Stalker and my Booktunes project. Later his wife DJ Kriz joined the table to confess she would love to write a piece on some musical Penguin Classics!

This week it will be a round the table with Mark Soest aka Mataklap. Intended as a soirée de dj’s to exchange the latest ruffest choons I guess we will be talking books too: Mark already sent me a link to this promising title and promised to write an article!

I am a DJ myself and, after a year of full time booktuning, I must say I am happy to be back behind the decks! According to myself I guess one thing can’t go without the other. According to all of us I guess we know what a good friend really is: a friendly person with records, laptop, books and a boombox.

Facebook Suicide notes 2

A lot of people seem to share the same questions on how to profile your business on Facebook. Being a small start up or a one-man business doesn’t make it any easier. ‘How to promote an honest and interesting venture without bothering your friends while maintaining a private life without scaring away business partners?’ is one question. ‘What account to choose for which needs?’ is another.

After a lot of helpful advice and a hot post-flu shower I made my decision on how to post what where. After brushing my teeth I said thanks to Robert van der Wolk, Thijs at Baskerville, Mina Witteman & Danny at Bataleon for their insights.

A few things I’ve learned:

1. Although it is much easier to make friends instead of fans, one should realize that Google indexes fanpages only. Sharing info in a closed community on the World Wide Web doesn’t make any sense if you are trying to really reach out to the masses.

2. Because it is much easier to make friends instead of fans, maxing out your friends to 5000 might be a good option to start with.  Just don’t worry about Google if their crawlers already index your website and RSS feeds you want to share on Facebook.  As soon as you hit 5000, ask people to become a fan and haul over your activity to the fanpage.

3. It would be great if every one just ‘liked’ the fan page we put our effort in and if every one just stopped making friends just because. It would be great if we would not spam friends with promo talk but in stead just wait for fans to show up and have a look on our wall.

And taking in account Erik’s & Booktunes’ Facebook needs:

I want to share the Booktunes news on Facebook.
I want to post Booktunes related things & comments on Facebook.
I want to have an indexed Booktunes Facebook page available for everyone.
I don’t want to bother people with double or triple posts.
I don’t want to bother friends with Booktnes talk – unless they are fans.
I don’t want to bother business relations with private ish.

Brings me the freshest thoughts:

The Booktunes Fanpage will mirror the Booktunes news section, and function as the Booktunes road sign on this over crowded highway.

The Booktunes Net account will be used to actively post Booktunes info along this road, visit other people, comment to posts and like things.  The Booktunes Net wall will display Booktunes related links and info such as this blog post, and inform you on our whereabouts.

Erik de Loor will dump some business friends and start a digital search for his real life family.

Of which I hope you all can profit or add to your own thoughts.

Any cons?

Booktunes & Penguin – Classic!

While I desperately ran out of shelves some months ago, Booktunes still welcomes more books! Well-known publisher Penguin is willing to send some classics for the upcoming Booktunes Classics.

Long before I started this project, Kerouac’s On the Road was already one of my favorite music related books. It is amazing how the music Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty enjoy empowers the pace of their story and the restlessness of their youthful chase from east to west and again and back and south. From the emotional moments supported by classical music to the nightly outbursts with the hard bopping sounds to the Latin vibes at the ending of the race.. beautiful! Soon on Booktunes.

We all realize much more Penguin titles should end up as a Booktunes Classic. What classic would you like to see on our website, musically unraveled and accompanied by a playlist?

Tolstoy’s Kreuzer Sonata – check.
Eduard Morike’s Mozart’s Journey to Prague – check.
John Dos Passos’ Manhattan Transfer - wishfully checking.

Really looking forward to receiving your advice. If you have ambition to both recommend and discuss a particular classic, let me order it for you. I might ask Penguin to throw in Jack’s Original Scroll for Erik, since this one would only distract him.

Facebook Suicide notes

I don’t want to discuss about whether or not we all should commit Facebook suicide only because it is far by the largest commercial database of personal data. For once I  join my wife’s motto ‘if you aint got nothing to hide, you aint got nothing to fear my dear’. She goes by the name of Rosalie van der Meulen (Den Haag, 19-06-1983), lives in Amsterdam NL, has a twin sister called Elize and is notably the only person I know that does not have one, two or three  Facebook accounts.

How many accounts do you have? When I started this Booktunes thing I decided to enter the social network, really to be more social and promote my new venture. I also created a Booktunes fanpage so we could share the Booktunes newsfeeds, twit a bit, post some pics etc. It only took me a few days to get confused and make, as I see it now, a mistake…

Soon publishers popped up and wanted become friends with me, Erik de Loor. Quite amusing, a company as a friend… who to address to if you want to ask your friend over for a drink? Nijgh himself? A.W. Bruna? So we at Booktunes decided to become a person too: Net, Booktunes is the name.

A good way to promote a start up. As long as you don’t have more then 5000 friends there are little limits, plus you can approach your public directly, post things on their wall, direct them here and there, tell them what to like. We only had our 205th Booktunes comrade added today but I already start to regret the fact that we are your fiend.

Me and Burdell, and probably a whole (facebook)group, think these ‘persons’ ultimately will kill the network. Facebook as a dating site won’t hurt nobody, but as a big market place with merchants singing the praises of long gone products will really piss people off. Are you getting tired of the impersonal Booktunes updates you get from this friend? You are lucky it is still only a one-man business! Apart from that, as a sole propietor it is quite laborious to keep up with yourselves.

Preferably I would like to:
1. inform people about Booktunes. – Let’s call them fans.

2. contact people that know me through Booktunes with al kinds of matters like this blogpost, work-related questions, work-related appointments. – Let’s call them collegues. Semi-fans. Semi-friends?

3. see my family and friends online, and not bother them with Booktunes spam. And of course let people tag me semi-naked and post party pics on my wall. – Let’s call them family.

Wich leads me to three options:
A. maintain a Booktunes Fanpage.

B. have one ‘at Booktunes, Erik is the name’ persona account.

C. have one true and only Erik de Loor Facebook account.

That will result in having three acounts that need a fix:
X. Haul over all ‘Booktunes Net’-friends to the Booktunes Fanpage and commit suicide for that account.

Y. Set up an ‘Erik at Booktunes’ account. Or adjust the ‘Booktunes Net’ account and kick out some ‘friends’ I really don’t know.

Z*. Kick out some business friends of Erik de Loor, search for more family and un-un-tag some late night flashes.

*note: I could skip option Z and commit one more suicide because friends are always welcome for dinner – no need for a digital invitation, Christmas is on it’s way so I will speak to my family soon, and if I do find out I have something to hide then at least Facebook won’t.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you run a business or promote yourselve in a way? Are you a person? What do real persons think of this question?

Time to start blogging. Properly.

Almost done with Sex, Blogs & Rock-’n'-Roll by Dutch Pro Blogger Ernst-Jan Pfauth. I met him at Manuscripta a few weeks back, quite an inspirator. Today seems to be a good day to start blogging. And I mean properly.

I am already slightly familiar with blogging because I used to drop beats on Sirkus Recordings, post the short movies I am involved with at Harlem Jungle, share free loosely illegal or disco or kinky things at the nightly Readers Disco and, more serious, take care of the news items on the Booktunes website.

Here I will mainly share my thoughts and ask questions regarding the Booktunes project, the subjects on it, and discuss the things I encounter in the process of turning this idea in to a fruitful venture. This blog will also serve as a place where I can put info & news that does not fit the Booktunes site immediately. Expect to find some reviews on book and music gear as well.

Last week I had dinner at Brix with two big names in the internet industry. It looks like these men are willing to help me further in my way up… muchos inspiring. Advice no.1: Start blogging. And they meant seriously.

Please feel free to comment & ask questions. All welcome!
Looking forward to seeing you here.

Regards,

Erik