I’ve been using Spotify since its arrival on the Belgian market in November 2011, I’m a huge music consumer and let’s face it, somehow, I’m a geek so when it arrived in Belgium I tried it right away. At first I was happy to test something new and soon I was happy to rediscover a feature I had been missing on most music app since Pandora stopped to be available in Belgium: radios based on some criterions such as an artist, a song, or a music style.

I was also soon annoyed by the commercial of the free version but as they had the generous idea to offer a month of free premium service that negative points soon vanished. But still I was happy because I was fed up with the radio stations program even if we have some good radios in Belgium.

Being musician myself I never had any problem to pay for the music I’m listening, I’m buying most of my music on the iTunes Music Store (I’ll come back to that in a future post) but still I was not totally comfortable with paying to rent music. Anyway, once the trial period was over for my premium account I decided to pay the 9 € a month fee for the service. Two reasons for that : I don’t any problem with commercials but if you offer me a way to avoid them for a reasonable fee, fine for me; and the off-line mode : that is probably the main reason I’m paying and also the main reason I’m using Spotify. I use the “Star” function a lot : I listen to a radio and when I like a song I star it then synchronize it with my iPhone to listen to that playlist without consuming data that remain highly expensive in Belgium or France where I live now, or simply when I’m in the metro without data.

Radio mode and stations built upon an artist or a single are the reason I came to Spotify, off-line mode and Star function the reason I stayed (and paid). It allow me to discover a lot of music, groups I had never heard of, explore their discography add some songs to my Star playlist, test if I like it on the long run and maybe then buy some songs. 

The discovery part is really important for me, listening to new music all the time is something could not live without. Before Spotify I was hearing new songs on the radio , searching what it was and listening to previews on the ITMS before buying a song or two from time to time but my playlist was evolving much slower. Now when I hear something I could like, in a TV show for instance, my first reflex is Spotify (ok the first is Shazam but that’s not the point) then if I like the full song adding it to my playlist. Whether it remains in it for 2 days or 3 months is not important : it’s new, it’s instantly on my iPhone to go out and that’s exactly what I was searching for.

Now everything is not perfect, some changes have been done in the app and there are some missing features I’d like to see. The main regret I have is that they have removed the possibility to compose a radio station with different style. I was listening to a station that had Indie Rock, Alternative and Electro; and now I’m forced to choose one or the other which in the end make me stay 90% of the time on the Indie one. This is really something I’d like to see back.

When you buy songs on Spotify the price is a bit higher than the ITMS price and your credits are limited in time! Sorry guys but that’s a real blocker for me. For what reason in the world should I loose some of my 10 € after one month because I haven’t spent it all. Okay I know the reason, you want me to buy more so you make money but hey … I’m already paying to use your app. So, suggestion : why not make these credit indefinitely available for those with a premium account and with a time limit for free users ? A simple way to ensure cash-flow both ways.

A feature I’d really like to see is the Nike+ integration : being able to use my Spotify playlist would simply rock my world (literally) !

I admit haven’t tried the app store a lot, so maybe I’ll talk about it later if I use some of them (who knows, maybe Fellody which allows you to find “New friends, Flirt around or meet up for concert.”, or not.) 

In the end, I believe Spotify modified the way we’re consuming music and in a good way : it’s a source of discovery, it brings variety in our playlists and I believe this is one of the first steps towards a system that could more fair with artists retribution than it is now with radio stations. There is still work to do for the app to be perfect, there is still work to do with the pricing model, and there is still progress to be made by the music industry in general but it is so far the best alternative to radio station and to music distribution I’ve found.

Some songs I’ve discovered using Spotify that haven’t left my playlist since then :
Ladyhawke – My Delirium
The Joy Formidable – Whirring
Biffy Clyro – Bubbles
Explosions In The Sky – Postcard From 1952
Katie Herzig – Lost And Found
Silversun Pickups – Skin Graph
And the link to my Starred list that is frequently changing. 

Cette année, même si je n’habite plus notre belle capitale belge et que mes foulées se font plus fréquemment du côté du jardin des tuileries, je vais de nouveau courir les 20KM de Bruxelles. J’aurais du vous en parler plus tôt mais visiblement mon dossard, et donc l’assurance de ma participation, sont venus à pied de Bruxelles et je n’ai fini par le recevoir qu’aujourd’hui.

Ce sera le 27 mai prochain et je courrai au sein de la « Belgian RedCross Team », l’équipe mise en place par la Croix-Rouge de Belgique. Sur la ligne de départ, les 606 coureurs de la Belgian RedCross Team relèveront un défi non seulement sportif mais aussi humanitaire :le développement du système d’approvisionnement en eau potable dans une région du Rwanda où près de 45% de la population n’a toujours pas accès à l’eau propre.

Pourquoi ce projet ?

Parce que l’absence d’eau potable dans un village entraine des maladies diarrhéiques ou la déshydratation de ses habitants, et qu’au Rwanda c’est encore un luxe que d’avoir accès à un système d’approvisionnement en eau. Alors cette année l’objectif est de récolter 45000 euros pour donner de l’eau à 45000 personnes.  

Nous avions atteint notre objectif l’année passée, nous comptons bien sur sur vous pour y arriver cette année encore.

Je vous propose de soutenir ce double défi, sportif et humanitaire, en me parrainant. Si comme moi, vous partagez la volonté d’aider très concrètement ces familles qui n’ont pas accès à l’eau, faites un don sur le compte de la Croix-Rouge : IBAN BE72 0000 0000 1616 (BIC : BPOTBEB1) avec la communication «20 KM PARRAINAGE + Jérémie LANNOY». Même une petite somme compte !

N’hésitez donc pas à nous donner un coup de pouce afin que nous puissions atteindre l’objectif fixé. (et et à diffuser cette note pour que je trouve assez de parrains, ce serait gentil aussi)

Merci d’avance à tous !

(Pour rappel, à partir de 2011, si vous faites des dons pour 40€ ou plus par année civile cela vous donne donne droit à la déduction fiscale. Si c’est le cas, vous recevrez en mars 2012 une attestation fiscale.)

thisadvertisinglife:

Past weeks I heard about a new letter. Well there are still 26 letters in my alphabet but visibly one letter has been given more importance than others recently : the letter C.
This particular letter has been given the right to enter the (in)famous club of the letters who represent a generation, along with the oh so famous X and Y. 

But what are they supposed to represent, who are the folks in these generations supposed to be ?
When you search a bit you’ll find out that :

• GenX is supposed to be people born between 1960 and 1979 : they’re the children of the baby-boomers, they have lived with the fear of the cold war apocalypse and they’ve lived enough through financial crises to know a job is not something that falls from the sky.
• GenY are supposed to be born between 1980 and 2000 : they don’t remember the cold war, social changes of the 60 and 70 are way too old for them to remember there was a time when things were different, AIDS has been there all their life, so are the video games and the ecology. They won’t agree with everything you say because you say it, they’ll want to know why.
• GenC (or Z, or M) now ? Here comes troubles, some say they come after the GenY some say they begin in 1996 (don’t ask why). They’re the connected generation, they’re taking for themselves the “Digital natives” title, they’re the children of Facebook and Mysapce …

Now wait a minute, I’m supposed to believe that some guy born in 61 has the same mind set than a guy born in 79, that this GenX is the lost generation because they haven’t succeeded in opposing themselves to the baby-boomer who now ruled the world during their life and that somehow all these “new technologies” arrived just a bit too late for them to be comfortable with them. 
I’m supposed to believe that the GenY is the generation that opposes itself to everything, who will fight the establishment, who will ask why instead of obeying and will take over the world!
Then I’m supposed to believe that the GenC are little geniuses to be who’ve been raised with all the perfect tools to be secure in their life! They know, theses little bastards, how the internet works because they’re born with a mouse as their first baby toy, because they master intuitively all these new technologies that we old people cannot master so well as we weren’t born with …
Woooow wow wow, have you seen that one coming ?
So the older ones are the less prepared and the less able to understand the world we live in, the middle aged ones are fighting and questioning the establishment and the younger ones they know everything already and they will be just fine with all these new “stuffs”.

And just like that we’ve put letters on something that’s as old as the world is : conflict of generations ! Cool but not totally understanding parents are GenX, angry teenagers who will change the world are GenY and cute babies who master so well everything naturally are GenC.

Beside the fact that I bet this scheme will slide with the next generation, I can’t agree less.

I’m supposed to be a Xer, born in 76 I’ve known the cold war, I remember the Wall and the East/West division; I know that ecological preoccupation arrived during my childhood and that there was a time when we were not talking about AIDS.
But I’ve also been raised with video games (seriously pong has been created in early 70s), my parents already thought I was being spoiled by television, there were the same debates over the danger of the television than you had later with the dangers of the internet (you had the same with the free radios), my grand parents were already amazed because I could master so well the … remote control. But I wrote my first line of code in the late 80s, I’ve had electronic devices all my life, … first thing I did this morning was writing a blog post and no I did not had to serve in the army when I was 18.

I believe these so-called generations are just a way for the generation before them to call a group of people they can’t fully understand. I believe there can’t be something more wrong than grouping together people born in 20 years time just because it is easy to oppose them to the group before. I believe some people are old at 20 and some other are teenagers at 50, I believe some stay hungry babies all their life … I believe you can stay hungry, you can stay foolish no matter what the generation you’re supposed to be born into.

I believe Patrick McGoohan would scream now “I’m not a letter, I am a free man” because what is worse than being a number in a group, is being just a part of a group and nobody for yourself, not even a number.

minimalmac:

Recently, while on vacation in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and visiting family, we stayed at my sister’s house. She was kind enough to let us have her place while she found accommodations elsewhere. She moved in to this place herself not too long ago and was proud to point out to us the brand new,…

folyo:

Ever wondered which country has the best designers? Well I did, and I decided to find out with the help of Dribbble’s designers directory.

DISCLAIMER: please don’t take this too seriously (especially if your country lost!). I realize very well that there’s no such thing as “the best…

So … What are you doing New Years Eve ?

(I’m quite ok spending it with Zoe Deschannel if possible)

alaingerlache:

Cette fois, le cap a été franchi: les américains passent plus de temps à consulter leur téléphone multimédia ou leur tablette qu’à lire des journaux ou des magazines imprimés.En 2009, les médias imprimés étaient encore en tête face aux écrans mobiles, 55 minutes par personne contre 39….