Here’s one that I happened upon about a year ago. I don’t know much about the artists, but I think their names are Oleg Kharkov and Igor Zakharov. There’s not a lot of info floating around, and most of it is written in Russian, but his music is very good. Really good industrial sound. Check out his free album, Liquid Time Zero. I was very impressed.
Very cool IDM album over here, which is a free download. Give it a listen! It’s ambient, unique, and at times sort of jazzy. My favorite track is ‘The Glass Full of Lead”
Lately I have noticed that video ads on the web are becoming more obtrusive. A 30 second ad every two minutes is just unacceptable, and often makes me leave the website in frustration. Instead, I propose more interactive web ads. Before or after watching a video, why not show a picture of your product and allow the user to prompt for more information? The most effective ads that I have found required me to prompt for more info, and the ads that are crammed down my throat just get largely ignored. I turn down my computer volume and do something else for 30 seconds.
Take, for example, the ‘wasting water is weird’ campaign. While it still employed the 30 second video method, it still sticks out in my mind as being a little less intrusive (if I recall correctly, this was one out of three total advertisements in a half-hour episode on Hulu). A video prompted me to learn more about this weird person and why he is weird; and you know what? When I go looking for plumbing products, I’ll probably look for the WaterSense logo.
What I am really talking about would be a little different though. Instead of showing us a video, why not just a picture, some text, and some sliders to view more information? Sort of like an interactive billboard on your monitor, one that you can skip if you don’t like.
The most effective part of the advertisement, in my opinion, is the ability for the potential customer to feel he/she is in control. Nobody likes to be told what to buy, but being provided with the information and requiring the user to want to know more will make the advertisements themselves improve in quality, creativeness, and likeability. The end result would ideally be a harmony of company pushed ads and user prompted media, allowing the user to skip over anything they aren’t interested in. If the user isn’t interested in a product, it’s the advertiser’s job to give them a quick reason to be interested, and if they still aren’t then to get out of the way.
First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts. I have been very busy with college, as I am trying to earn myself a computer science degree. I don’t think I’ll have a lot more free time this summer, but I promise to try and be more attentive to the site. So without further ado, another featured artist!
This week’s featured artist is Aebeloe! Recently having released a track on the danish mix album Rekompileret No. 4 is Danish producer Natal Zaks pumping out some of the chillest grooves and beats I’ve ever come across. Check out his latest album!
Pretty good stuff, huh? Best of all, you can download it for free (and follow a delicious paper trail to more neat-o albums) at the Farver bandcamp page! Also consider leaving a donation on his page, I’m sure he’d appreciate it
Don’t be scared away by their name! This Deutsche Duo have put out a kick ass album, mixing 8-bit style synth, creative lyrics, and other neat instrumentation. Check out their website here, or listen with the embedded player!