Behold, our wonderful client map of Santa Barbara! Recently, a new local company called 805Connect featured Oniracom as a partner which summarizes our connection with the Santa Barbara community perfectly. You can read the full article here. Thanks for the support, Santa Barbara. Proud to call you our home.

Ello is a revolutionary social networking site unlike all the rest. Ello, is different from Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking giants in that it is completely add free. Ello’s manifesto reads, “We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product. Ello. This is what makes Ello unique from its forefathers.  To generate revenue, Ello allows for users to customize their pages with special feature tools which may be purchased for a small price according to Ello these features are not necessary, but do provide some financial support to the company, as well as allowing for users to continue to create and uniquely customize their social networking experience.

Ello is set up as like a mash between Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter, in which users may generate statuses, post pictures and gifs, find friends and comment on posts. Started by a small group of programmers and artists, Ello has sprung up quickly with rapid popularity. There are as many as 35,000 requests to join the social networking site per hour according to The Guardian , and Ello’s head team is working rapidly to keep up with their growing popularity. The site however is not new; Ello was launched in March and was intended to be a small, invite- only community between friends. Interest was recently sparked by the LGBT communities’ migration to other social networking sites after Facebook launched their real name policy, prohibiting users from using names other than their legal names. As interest increased, Ello became more public, but one must still obtain an invite to join the site. Some have even begun selling Ello invites on eBay ranging from 5-150 dollars according to Mashable ,but it is still unclear whether or not Ello will be a fad, or is here to stay. 

Apple is never far from the headlines these days, especially after their iPhone 6 and Apple Watch  launch that basically stopped time. Today, Apple released their first update to the iOS 8 operating system (which was released last week), that turned out to be an absolute nightmare.

A tidal wave of complaints and panicked rants on Twitter led Apple to immediately (and awkwardly) withdraw the update. The two largest issues were the alleged loss of service and the disabling of TouchID. The update was initially to fix a bug on HealthKit, but no word on if that got fixed since it was overshadowed by the other glaring issues.

Mashable has been keeping very close tabs on iOS 8, reviewing the good, the bad and the panicked scramble to downgrade after this disastrous update.

I myself have not yet downloaded the update (storage problems FOREVER/#regrets on not getting the 32GB in the first place) but for now, this setback just goes to show that as far as we’ve come in the technology of mobile phone softwares, mistakes are still made. Of course, no operating system is perfect and i’m looking forward to seeing how quickly Apple can fix this.

This morning at 10am PST, the whole world gathered for the unveiling of the highly anticipated iPhone 6 at the Apple Live event in Cupertino. However, Apple not only revealed the details of the next iPhone but also debuted their very first product in the world of wearable technology. The Apple Watch, described as “a smartwatch with inductive charging, a square face, sapphire glass, swappable bands, a heartbeat sensor and a rotating digital crown” by TechCrunch, is Apple’s sleekest new product proving their innovation in the advancement of technological development.

While Apple made it very clear that the watch is not simply an iPhone on your wrist (the watch is only compatible with iPhone 5 and 5s), the list of applications and functions available on the watch holds its own against its mobile counterpart. The design of the watch is classic Apple, with remarkably clean features and lines. All the watches use the innovative “digital crown”, aka the spinning thing on the side of the watch, to access the different interfaces and utilities.

A quick description of the aesthetic differences between the collections:
WATCH: The standard 38mm and 42mm watch faces with leather and stainless steel bands in a variety of loop designs and colors.
WATCH SPORT: Made to withstand sport-style use, these watch faces are made with a 60 percent stronger alloy case. This collection also includes a “sport band’ made of durable Fluoroelastomer in a variety of bright colors.
WATCH EDITION: This collection seems to be the high-end collection, with Rose and Yellow 18-karat Gold 38mm and 42mm watch faces and leather straps.

It’s that glorious time of year again- COMIC-CON 2014!!! The annual convention celebrating all things comics, television, films, art and culture begins today in San Diego. There are preview screenings, panel discussions, celeb sightings, book signings, and the of course the spectacular exhibition hall with different vendors showing off their displays and selling exclusive merch. The entire area of downtown San Diego turns into mass chaos when nerds from all corners of the earth descend upon the city for the convention. While I am sadly not there this year (*crying*), here’s a quick preview on some of the things we’re missing out on

exclusives available at SDCC this year.

In a world where there are so many different ways and outlets to communicate, one system has stood out above the others: EMOJIS.

These little pictographs you see on their separate keyboard on your iPhone or iPad are relatively new, appearing in the last couple years or so, with origins in late 1990s Japanese cell phone usage (which explains much of the appearance of some of the emojis). Emojis were encoded into Unicode Standard in 2010, with over 700 characters currently in existence.

Emojis are there when words don’t or can’t say enough, to provide a visual example to a message, and for all those moments in communication and life when you just want to include a cute little relevant emoji. With each younger, tech-savvier generation, emojis have permeated to the furthest depths of the internet: Twitter supports them in a remarkably clean 2D style (see this article), you can track the use of emoji on twitter in realtime on emojitracker.com and there’s even a Wikipedia-esque website dedicated to explaining different emoji, Emojipedia.

Renowned music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine’s new project is almost ready to be released to the public. It is a new, online, subscription based music service. Now that in itself is nothing new as we already have Spotify amongst other streaming services. So what’s different this time around? What will make this successful?? Take a look as I attempt to break down several different features of this new service recently named: Beats Music.

The CEO & co-founder of Beats Electronics, Jimmy Iovine, plans to launch his new online music streaming service Beats Music (formally known as project Daisy) in the next couple of months. Noticing the lack of context and emotional connection in music streaming today, he has recently hired an expert team of curators to give the online music streamer a more personalized experience. If you want to find out who the curators are just click here.

After announcing at WWDC 2013 a month ago, Apple has already released two Beta versions of iOS 7. The latest version, Beta 3, was just released to developers and has a few tweaks to the design and functionality. Here are some pictures and screenshots of how iOS 7 will look like and some of the highlights of the new system (iOS Beta 2 on left, iOS Beta 3 on right):

We are happy to present our brand new site, built using responsive design and features 12 slides or “tarot cards” (as our staff calls them) outlining our most popular services.

Click on a card to find out more about that service and to see portfolio examples!

The “Web Production” slide refreshes the page with a featured slideshow at the bottom, showcasing our work. What happens when you click on “The Gaslight Anthem?”

Last night, Oniracom and StartupSB came together for a night of creativity and inspiration! StartUp Creativity was a success, and Oniracom would like to thank everyone who made last night possible. Thanks to CreatorUp, an awesome organization that offers web series tutorials online for presenting, Rusty’s Pizza for providing us with delicious food, StartupSB for letting us host this event in honor of Startup Weekend, and of course to everyone else who made it out to our office!

Oniracom will play host to StartupSB and an event entitled Startup Creativity. The event, organized and moderated by StartupSB, a 600+ member meetup group of startup entrepreneurs, will focus on inspiring creativity by highlighting creative local startup endeavors, the local Santa Barbara startup community and the upcoming Startup Weekend Santa Barbara.  Startup Weekend Santa Barbara will be held November 2, 3 and 4 at Citrix Online.

Startup Creativity will take place on October 25th at 6pm at our office (720 East Haley Street Santa Barbara, CA). Food will be supplied by one of our awesome clients Rusty’s Pizza, as well as libations from Telegraph Brewery. All of Santa Barbara’s favorites!

On October 25, you’ll hear from Jacob Tell and Mike Wald about their current creative projects that will be sure to excite the development community. You’ll also hear from CreatorUp, a Startup Weekend Santa Barbara #1 team, who will discuss their online web series school.

Our very own Justin Davis has been featured as Chill’s Curator of the Week! Chill is a social networking website that makes it easier for you to discover and share videos. You can post videos, follow other users, and more!

At this year’s Social Good Summit, Doctor Deepak Chopra discussed the inevitable power of social media, and why and how this technological accomplishment will be the next phase of humanity. Mashable featured a video of Dr. Chopra’s speech and discussion at their Social Good Summit. In his speech, he explains that social media has made humanity more connected than ever. He states, “At the most fundamental level, we are not just connected, we are inseparable.”

Every big brand started as an idea. A single person had to put pen to paper and begin figuring out what it was they wanted to accomplish with their brand. Creating strategy crucial to making any brand successful and in some cases it can be easily overlooked…

Late last month, the unveiling of Google+ prompted the world over reconsider the future of social media and online networking, and many began to wonder if The Goog’s latest product would boast enough innovative features to dethrone Facebook, king of the social networking realm. Speculation has run rampant as the search giant’s latest foray into new media gains momentum, much of which attempts to size up Google+ against Facebook. Many in the tech world are projecting whether or not + will be successful both in stealing existing social network users and attracting new ones. But here at Oniracom, my compadres and I have been interested in how Google+ will integrate into the larger scheme of social media marketing and brand growth strategies. While wishful thinking would allow Google+, Facebook and others to harmoniously coincide with each other in the virtual world, it is becoming ever-more clear (as is obvious with Facebook’s Skype contract retaliation) that there really may only be room for one. It’s impossible to know which network, if any, will prevail, but Google+ is making a strong attempt by promising features and upgrades not available on Facebook or other social networking sites.

This infographic is quite staggering!  A huge thanks to Mashable and @Sasha_em for creating this graphic.

We are proud to present our updated Solutions Page on the Oniracom website.  We like using the filter by Solutions on the upper left.  Click on any Solution in the grid or alphabetical listing along the left column to launch a litebox overlay with details about our offerings.

The switch from the old profile to the new profile that Facebook pulled on its users in late December/early January anticipated some other alterations to occur. Alas, the new Pages on Facebook is here! The new Pages redesign resembles and operates like a user’s regular profile. However, there are multiple differences in regards to the Page’s and their admins.

The new Pages consists of all the features of the new profile more or less. For example, the menu bar is on the left-hand column with links to the wall, photo albums, videos, tour dates, etc., which also eliminates the information box that was a component of the old profile and old pages of Facebook. The edit tab option has therefore also switched to the very top of the page. Admins can now click up top to edit their pages, which directs them to editing the info, apps, profile picture, marketing, etc.

A huge shout out to social media guru & analyst Brian Solis and data visualization specialist JESS3 as they have again teamed up for this powerful info-graphic “The Twitterverse.”  In an attempt to decode the universe of services and apps leveraging Twitter, this info-graphic sections the apps into 19 rings.  How quickly will this become outdated?  That is dependent upon the innovators.

Feel free to click around on each icon to learn more about these Twitter applications:

Crowd fundraising—often referred to as crowd funding or crowd sourcing, is a method to raising money for new projects and/or businesses by inquiring micro donations from a large number of supporters and sponsors. Though this is currently becoming more and more popular, for years charities and non-profits have used this approach to gain public responsiveness. Nowadays, with the excessive shift in social media, crowd funding has developed into a sustainable fundraising mechanism for all new music, artists, films, creative ideas and projects, in addition to charities and nonprofit organizations.

There are a few drawbacks to this new web-based phenomena - the lack of quality, confidentiality, and the reliance of crowd sourcing. When you open the doors, anyone and anything can be posted on these sites without digression, which leads to inconsistency and trying to deal with matters out of your control. Another caution is to be careful not to give away competitive information. Intellectual property theft is a concern, so anyone who has an idea through a crowdsourcing platform has to be careful not to hand over a great idea on a public forum and never get credit for it.

Long gone are the days of records, tapes, and compact discs. But what is in store for music storage? Music streaming services are surfacing, making it possible to not only listen to music on computers, but also in cars, on TVs, throughout home sound systems, and on mobile devices. Countless services allow users to access thousands of albums and millions of songs instantly on the device of their choice. Users can create libraries of their favorite songs, listen to pre-made or personally created playlists, share songs with friends, purchase songs and so much more. While these services allow users to sync their created libraries and playlists, many music fanatics are looking for what’s next.

Facebook introduced the new profile to its users this past December, and hoped to upgrade all users from the old profile to the new profile early during the new year. Gradually reeling its users towards the new profile allowed users to sample the new profile before it officially became mandatory, which stirred up different types of discussions between almost all Facebook users. Not only did the new layout get users talking, but the new features such as exposing all users to individual friendships and connecting interests between them, caused much debate between whether the old profile or the new profile was viewed as “better.”

We have compiled a list of what we find to be the most interesting and informative music blogs on the web. The list amounts to 21 music blogs, but is divided into four categories; Music Blogs (general reviews of up-and-coming music), International Blogs (reviews up-and-coming music from specific countries and around the world), Entertainment Blogs (covers news and reviews of a variety of art forms), and Music Industry Blogs (covers the latest happenings of what is moving and shaking in the music industry).

“Wow” is all I could say after stumbling upon Pomplamoose (thanks Taylor).  Not only is the band’s sound appealing to my ears, but the band’s video editing works seamlessly alongside my brain’s interpretation of each layer of sound.  I’ve included three of their videos for you to check out, but of course you can see them all on the Pomplamoose YouTube Channel.

The band’s sense of marketing is spot on with today’s new media / self-promotion techniques.  They cover two popular songs but with their very unique style—Lady Gaga’s “Telephhone” and Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” (both embedded in this post if you click “Read More”).  Of course covers of current pop songs help an emerging (super talented) artist spread virally/quickly (anyone up for a Susan Boyle cover?). 

And for their holiday track “Always in the Season,” Pomplamoose offers a cool direct-to-fan trade at the end of the video: donate an animal to a friend through World Vision and get 2 free mp3 downloads in return.  Fans mail their proof of purchase to the band, and in turn get their download links.

Pomplamoose - “Always in the Season”

InsideFacebook.com published an article “How Top Musicians Are Utilizing Their Facebook Pages” showing how bands now leverage Facebook more heavily as they turn from artists into brands.  With many of Facebook’s tools (old and new), artists are able to form lasting relationships with their fans, rather than selling them the occasional album, EP or single.  Oniracom shares this philosophy—in fact all of our websites, microsites, widgets and social media destinations facilitate direct to fan marketing, fan-oriented growth tactics and lasting relationship building.

By collecting additional contact information from their fans through a sign-up form, musicians can augment their Facebook campaigns with mass e-mails and mobile promotions. Mozes, a leading service providing mobile engagement tools such as mass promotional text messaging, powers the mobile sign-up of many leading musician pages such as Rihanna and Kings of Leon. Email sign-ups are predominantly handled through an integration of a widget, often developed by an artist’s record label. Jack Johnson, in a tab powered by Oniracom, baits users with a free mp3 but then requires an email address to which to send the file.

Tabs which offer downloads, especially of rare b-sides or live recordings, in exchange for contact information are a great choice for musicians because they entice both hardcore and new listeners with something exclusive, and help establish the artist on the fan’s hard drive, not just their web browser.

Read the Article Here

Direct-to-Fan (D2F) marketing is essentially creating a relationship with your fans through a marketing outlet, fans help you and in return you help them. D2F marketing is a creative business model that allows artists to eliminate the need for a middle man by delivering music directly to fans.  Which means, artists keep a higher percentage of their own sales, compared to the current business model where major labels, distributors or even iTunes take 30% or more away from the artist! D2F is most easily identified by free content give-aways in exchange for a tweet, Facebook shout-out, or e-mail sign up, reference MattCosta.com.

However, D2F marketing is evolving to include custom storefronts and marketing analytics that enable you to better grasp your audience and sell directly from your website and various social profiles. After researching the following sites; Bandbox, Nimbit and Topspin, I have outlined a detailed explanation of the costs, benefits, similarities, and differences between each platform. 

Read More…

The following post was written by reknown producer and industry thinker Sjoerd (Sjoko) Koppert.  Besides working with bands such as The Who, Pink Floyd, ABBA, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, Beach Boys, Yes, and Lynyrd Skynrd, he also orchestrated the launch of FedEx in Europe and the Middle East in 1986 while on a personal break from the music industry.  He is well-known for being an insightful and forward thinker for the music industry, as he has constantly adapted his strategies to maintain success in an ever-changing business.

Oniracom is currently working with Sjoko on two original music series, produced in high quality to be premiered on the web before moving to television and film.  (More on that soon!)  Here’s a snippet on some of Sjoko’s thoughts for YouTube future in their fast maturing market. Enjoy:

Points for thought

After launching FedEx in Europe in ‘86 I attended my first “official” FedEx board meeting in Memphis and caused a lot of consternation. When asked my opinion about the state of the corporation my response was: “Dangerous. You are a single product company in a fast maturing market.” To say this remark caused consternation would be a severe understatement. After all, I was addressing a board that had only ever experienced and accommodated growth. But my statement was truth based on fact and before long they recognized that they had to take serious action in order to preserve their market position.

Today I see a very similar situation with YouTube. They are a single product (delivery platform) company, a market leader in a maturing market. Alternative delivery platforms are developing and growing. Just in recent weeks we have seen developments. Hulu is moving from being just another delivery platform to content development (Article). AOL is moving from content provider to include delivery platform (Article). Shifts have also been spotted from companies such as Yahoo (Article) and MSN/Bing (Article). History has shown that this market movement is to accelerate. As such, a company like YouTube will have to make strategic moves in order to preserve and built its market position.

Currently, we are awaiting YouTube’s response to a request for a more “fixed rate” schedule of advertisements for two original series. This is a move away from their Google based advertising platform. Our request to YouTube is based on our concept research, our proven capability to deliver and the interest in the shows from corporate sponsors. 

Our contact with sponsors is due to my history with marketing / advertising / sponsorships, but our core activity is content development. I am a producer first and foremost and a marketing / development person as a necessity. No question YouTube can handle sponsorship / product placement and have the people in place to do so. The latter is one of the reasons I requested for a YouTube person to be part of our “closing team” when finalizing major sponsorship deals. It helps us and comforts our corporate sponsors.

And here comes today’s key question:

YouTube is considering a strategic decision in changing their manner of advertising. Should they perhaps consider a different strategy and partner in the production of shows?

Personally I think of YouTube as a partner anyway, be it an “initial delivery partner” only. I would not have any objections to them becoming involved financially. Yes we would forego a percentage of our long-term revenue, but I do think they have much to offer to counterbalance that. I would value your opinions. 

In evaluating the above, please consider that currently our production entity owns both shows and YouTube is the initial delivery platform. After YouTube the shows will go to television and after that other alternative platforms (DVD etc.). In other words, there will be a large ongoing residual value. Naturally we would have to share the revenue with YouTube should they partner us in producing the content.

Do you think this would benefit both parties? Or do you think YouTube should stay away from production and revenue share? I welcome your opinions!

Sjoerd Koppert

Author Bobby Owsinski’s “Music 3.0: A Survival Guide for Making Music in the Internet Age” features an interview with me (Jacob Tell) about Web 2.0, new media and social marketing. 

The paradigm has shifted and everything you knew about the music business has completely changed. Who are the new players in the music business? Why are traditional record labels, television, and radio no longer factors in an artist’s success? How do you market and distribute your music in the new music world - and how do you make money?

Intro to Jacob Tell’s Interview:

Jacob Tell’s Oniracom is a new breed of company that provides a full line of digital services to artists, labels, and management.  Starting his career running the computer systems on the road and coordinating the merch for Jack Johnson, Tell put the big picture into context by watching the interaction between artist, management, and promoter in different venues around the world.  Helping artists in the digital space before there was a YouTube, MySpace, or Facebook, Jacob has watched the development of Web 2.0 and learned how an artist can best take advantage of it along the way.

Pick up a copy at Amazon today!

New Noise Santa Barbara was a great success.  Being their first year, nobody was certain how heavily attended the concert component or conference component would be.  Both turned out to be a success!  People raved about Michael Franti’s Arlington Theatre performance, Jack Johnson’s film screening with last minute acoustic performance as well as many of the sold out club shows. 

The New Noise Panels were also well attended and talked and tweeted about all weekend.  I was asked to speak on two panels, “The Future Is Unwritten” and “The Green Musician.”  Below I’ve written a list of 5 items from each panel that I learned from other panelists.

What I learned from other panelists on “The Future is Unwritten:”

(click “Read More…” below)

What I learned from other panelists on “The Green Musician:”

(click “Read More…” below)