TechCrunch
MavenSay's New Standalone App Rithm Is Snapchat For Music
MavenSay is an app focused around personal recommendations, but today the company is launching a brand new standalone app called Rithm.
Seeing that users of MavenSay were spending a lot of time recommending music, and even communicating through music, MavenSay thought it would be a good idea to develop an app all around music messaging. Music messaging? Yes, music messaging. Think of it kind of like Snapchat for music.
No, it doesn’t auto-destroy the musical message after ten seconds, but there is a certain creative quality to it that reminds me quite a bit of Snapchat. See, Snapchat developed a new way to message. It’s not just about the self-destructing bit, it’s about the fact that you can’t send a message on Snapchat without sending a picture along with it.
In the same way, Rithm asks users to think outside the box and attach a song to each message. Not only is the process of creating a “rithm” fun and interesting, compared to other social networks and messaging apps, but receiving one is equally engaging.
Here’s how it works:
You download the Rithm app from the Apple App Store, and with the help of APIs from Spotify, iTunes, Rdio, and SoundCloud, Rithm will let you pull up the preview and/or full track for any song you can think of. Once you’ve chosen a song, you can then add a picture, a video, or choose from one of Rithm’s preset animated characters. You can even draw on your own pictures, Snapchat-style.
Then, simply write a message at the bottom, and send it to the intended recipient.
The interesting thing here is that Rithm can be used for a whole slew of reasons. Perhaps you want to recommend a song to someone, just because you think they’ll like it. However, Rithm can also be a really cute way to reach out to a friend and make them laugh, touch their heart, or tell them you want to be more than a friend.
That’s the power of music.
In terms of revenue, MavenSay itself is not yet profitable, rather powered by investment funds. Rithm will operate under the same business model for now, but MavenSay founder Mike Wagman believes there is a huge opportunity here with in-app purchases for more dancing characters and other creative expressions.
I’ve been playing with Rithm for the past few days, and it’s slowly becoming one of my favorite apps. Used with the right, clever people, Rithm isn’t only a powerful way to communicate with others, but a fun and interesting way to combine visual content with audio in a creative way.
The app is available now on the Apple App Store.
England's Adviser on the Commercialization and Sexualisation of Childhood Finds Website Hacked, Blames Everyone
Claire Perry [SFW] is England’s Net Nanny who, over the past few months, has pushed that country’s disastrous bid to censor the Internet through to the highest levels. Hackers defaced her primitive website, adding some racy photos alongside her smiling mug.
A blogger named Paul Staines – who goes by Guido Fawkes, and who is, in his own way, somewhat odious – took a bit of pleasure in the defacement and so Perry, not understanding the Internet, plead the Sol Rosenberg defense and began threatening to sue everybody and get Staines sacked from the Sun. Now Staines is about to warn Perry for defaming him publicly. The Ministry Of Truth has collected the exchange in this Storify.
What we see here is trolling to the nth degree and, more important, an MP with little understanding of the Internet. She calls a screen capture a link, blames Staines for hacking her when she had an insecure website (it looks to be an ImageManager hack), and generally Barbra Streisands all over the place. That Staines comes out looking like the good guy in this case is a marvel.
The intrinsic problem here isn’t Perry’s goal to prevent the “Commercialization and Sexualisation of Childhood.” That is the intrinsic goal of all sane men and women. The problem is her methodology and clear lack of technical experience. Anyone with a modicum of understanding would see that web filtering is, in short, a form of censorship “for the children” and that proper parenting is the only answer to the call to keep porn out of our hard drives. It’s sad that she must be made the fool in this case, but it shows glaring gaps in experience and knowledge and exposes just how silly this entire effort really is.
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