Machine Shop: Hype Machine Team Blog

As you’ve discovered more and more music on Hype Machine, you’ve probably wished there was a way to categorize your finds. A way to revisit the dancey things while planning a party mix,  just hear the slower tracks, or find that spoken-word piece again. Now you finally can!

When favoriting a track, you can add it to one of three playlists—Up, Down, and Weird. These are the categories we use, but you can rename them (long-press the title, Emoji welcome!). You can also put your existing favorites into these categories. Just swipe across each track and pick the list that fits best. The tracks in each list show up in the same order as in your favorites.

This is among the most requested Hype Machine features, so we’ve put a ton of thought into making it fit the experience. Our goal since 2005 has been helping you find new music to fall in love with. You can stumble into all kinds of different stuff here, and these playlists will help you remember everything great you’ve found, in any category.

But really, I just can’t wait for you to try this out. Let us know what you think!

It’s hard to believe it has been 9 years since people started using Hype Machine. In this time, they’ve been able to graduate high school and college, complete their dissertations, start families, sell companies, and so much more.

And along the way, over a million and a half of them have found new music. I am really proud we could make this possible.

During this year, we’ve been busy! We:

• made our service available on Sonos and BlackBerry
• helped our friends make Plug, an OS X client for Hype Machine
• premiered dozens of albums on the best-looking pages on the web.
• made the Blog Recommender. It does exactly what you think.
• wrapped up the music of the year with our Zeitgeist, andBBC’s 6 Music.
• put on another amazing Hype Hotel, presented by Taco Bell at SXSW.
• helped throw an unusual show at Silent Barn in Brooklyn. It was magical.
• had bloggers and artists DJ at Firefly, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands and Bumbershoot. It was kinda like this.

Of course, we are never done. We are still working to find ways to delight you that are different, refreshing, and offer you an experience you can’t get anywhere else.

Thanks for listening!

We’re back! For the third year in a row, Hype Hotel, presented by Taco Bell’s Feed The Beat program, will be bringing blogger-curated music showcases to Austin.

Hype Machine tracks music that bloggers all around the world are talking about and presents it all in one place for easy discovery. That’s also what we do at Hype Hotel. This year’s lineups have been selected by the terrific Consequence of Sound, I Guess I’m Floating, #MEGABLAAG, Gorilla Vs. Bear, Yours Truly, Crack In The Road, Disco Naïveté, Cruel Rhythm, ISO50, and No Fear of Pop, along with the Hype Machine team and Conflict of Interest. If you love listening to music they write about on your laptop, you’ll really love hearing it live.

We’ll have the usual great stuff—drinks, tacos, Austin’s busiest photobooth, and plenty of giveaways. New this year: the Vengo Vending Machine, dispensing awesome prizes to Hotel guests. Try it out!

Hype Hotel would not be possible without our presenting sponsor, Taco Bell, and their Feed The Beat program. Dedicated to fostering music discovery, Feed The Beat selects 100 artists every year to receive $500 in Taco Bell gift cards. Submissions are now open at feedthebeat.com.

Big thanks to our sponsors:  Miller, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Jakprints, Orange Amps,  High End Systems, and Eventbrite for powering our RSVP

Hype Machine’s Hype Hotel:  505 East 7th Street (between Neches/Red River), March 11-16.

RSVP is now open for free day shows.  SXSW badges/wristbands have priority, but a very limited number of Day wristbands may be admitted.

All shows are 21+

 
A few weeks back we shared our annual Zeitgeist. One of its features is Top 50 Artists, which counts down the most-blogged acts of the year. The list is always telling of our times, both as a music blog community and an industry at large. What becomes popular on blogs no doubt informs and reflects what is, or will be, popular elsewhere. Each year when approaching this project, we see the distance between what is and will be, getting a little smaller, or perhaps that area a little grayer. Credit this to things moving faster, and that blogs, while still ever-ahead of the curve, are now also an established piece of the overall infrastructure in which new music is discussed. So it makes sense that when an established act like Daft Punk or Phoenix release an album, they are going to make the list. It’s awesome that our data shows this. But, as nerds here ourselves, and in the founding spirit of HM, we got curious. Bloggers still dig daily for the next will be’s. And we thought: how can those findings be better highlighted?

Enter: Ones To Watch 2014

We revisited the list of most-blogged artists and removed any name that has appeared on a previous Zeitgeist or has already released a full-length LP. What remained were the extra-emerging acts—the ones who made a name for themselves last year (and likely no year prior), on the strength of a few tracks, maybe an EP, etc. The ones to keep an eye on. Hope you find this as fun as we did.

It’s here! Since 2007, the Hype Machine Music Blog Zeitgeist is our annual roundup of the year’s most exciting music. Here’s what we have for you this time:

Top 50 Artists: We analyzed all posts in 2013 to find the 50 most-discussed artists, and asked Séamus Gallagher to illustrate. Listen to a track from each of the artists while you scroll, and click through to their latest release.

Top 50 Tracks: We compiled a list of tracks favorited the most on the site throughout the year, and asked some of the year’s top artists to make a mix. The first one up is from HAIM, and we’ve got more coming every day this week. You can also see the full track list here.

Enjoy this look back at the music of 2013! And if you’re looking for more best-of music lists, Largehearted Boy has the ultimate resource.

As an extra bonus, we’ve also compiled the list of album premieres that we have had in 2013, and restored the older Zeitgeist releases from 2007-2012 to their former glory. Let the archivist in you dive in!

Thank you for being with us this year.

UPDATE: As if it wasn’t enough, we also wrapped up 2013 in UK blogs along with BBC6 Music. Give it a listen!