The Hype Machine
Encyclopedia
History
The Hype Machine was created in 2005 by Anthony Volodkin, a sophomore computer scienceComputer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
major at Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
. The site was born out of Volodkin's frustration with music magazines and radio stations. He said, "I discovered MP3 blogs like Stereogum and Music for Robots. I couldn't believe there were people spending their time writing about music, putting up tracks so you could hear them. And I thought, there has to be a way to bring this all together." In 2005, Volodkin sent his site address to pioneers in the online music domain, including Lucas Gonze of Webjay
Webjay
- History :Webjay was a web-based playlist service launched in early 2004. Playlists consisted of links to Vorbis, MP3, WMA, RealAudio and/or other audio files on the web. Webjay users could create new playlists by copying from existing playlists, or by web scraping audio file links from external...
, in order to gain feedback. Instead of sending a response, Gonze and others posted the link online. Volodkin observed, "[Hype Machine] got launched without ever being launched."
Site structure
Hype Machine's structure has been described as an "amalgamation of Pandora Radio and Pitchfork MediaPitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
". It aggregates the most recently posted songs from a selection of music blogs (about 1,500) and lists them on the website's main page. Users have the ability to "love" songs, which saves the song to their Loved List. Additionally, Hype Machine maintains a Popular List for the last three days and the previous week, both of which are determined by the number of "loves" given to each song by users. In 2007, the site added Zeitgeist, which aggregates music bloggers' "Best of 2007" lists, as well as using their own data to create lists of the top 50 artists, albums, and songs for the year. In March 2008, the site added a Listening History section, which allows users to see what songs their friends have recently listened to.
Above each song are provided links to online music retailers such as eMusic
EMusic
eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. It is headquartered in New York City with an office in London and owned by Dimensional Associates. As of September 2008 eMusic has over 400,000 subscribers....
, Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, and iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, allowing users to purchase the track. The commission from each sale serves as one of the main revenue streams for The Hype Machine.
Future plans
In January 2010, The Hype Machine partnered with SoundCloudSoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform which allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings.-History:SoundCloud was originally started in Stockholm, Sweden, but was established in Berlin, Germany in August, 2007 by sound designer Alex Ljung and artist Eric Wahlforss...
, allowing labels to provide music bloggers with new and pre-released tracks. The Hype Machine also released an iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
application on May 11, 2011.
Reception
The Hype Machine's traffic has grown steadily since its launch in 2005. It has been profiled by CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. It was named to The Guardians list of 100 essential websites of 2009, one of four music-oriented sites to receive mention. Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson (financier)
Fred Wilson is a New York-based venture capitalist and a prominent blogger. Due to his successful investment track record and community involvement, he is recognized as a leading voice of the venture capital finance community in New York...
called the site "the best thing to happen to music since the Rolling Stones" and the "Technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
for music". Gawker Media
Gawker Media
Gawker Media is an American online media company and blog network, founded and owned by Nick Denton based in New York City. It is considered to be one of the most visible and successful blog-oriented media companies. , it is the parent company for 11 different weblogs: Gawker.com, Fleshbot,...
founder Nick Denton
Nick Denton
Nick Denton, born August 24, 1966, is a British journalist and internet entrepreneur, the founder and proprietor of the blog collective Gawker Media, and the managing editor of the New York-based Gawker.com...
called the site "the future of all media".