Machine Shop: Hype Machine Team Blog

Our Android app is finally out and you can get it here. It is very nice to use, has all the major features of the site, and does not have ads or monthly fees.

Thank you to all the Android users for your patience; this is the fastest we could build something well-made given our constraints.

It’s almost CMJ week in NYC. There’s a lot to navigate, officially and unofficially, on both sides of the bridge. And like anything with music, it’s generally a good idea to see what the blogs are up to. So we built a thing that highlights shows in the music blog community. Have a listen/look at the lineups here.

Last Friday Living Spaces #2 took place in Baltimore, and it was special. We’re thrilled to have helped the Portals crew bring such a good mix of music, art, and people together under one roof. Much thanks goes out to all the artists involved (that’s Soft Cat pictured above) and to the nice folks at The Crown.

Portals has a lush photo recap up on their site. They also shot our “Habitat” the other day, click through to see where we work.

Recently we teamed up with BBC Radio 6 Music to once again present a special half-year Music Blog Zeitgeist, looking at the most-blogged artists of 2014 thus far. Listen to BBC’s Tom Robinson countdown the top 20 here.

In addition to the overall list, we refreshed our Ones To Watch feature for the second half of the year. As before, this uses Zeitgeist data to pinpoint newly-emerging artists by applying two simple qualifiers: it’s their first time on the most-blogged list, and they’ve yet to release a full-length LP. Tracks from those artists can heard paired with words from the very blogs that posted them, here.

 
We’ve always been fans of the Portals community—what they do both on and offline. This led to supporting a rather adventurous balloon-filled night last October (that’s Emily Reo pictured above). And now we’re happy to help them continue their traveling showcase series called Living Spaces. The first event happened earlier this month in Brooklyn, and the next will take place in Baltimore on August 8th.

In their words, what it’s all about:

“Reaching out to old and new friends, we’ll move from city to city, occupying a unique independent space in each one. For each event, we’ll collaborate with local visual and multidisciplinary artists to construct large-scale spatial installations. Our overarching intent is to create inhabitable space for live performance–space where everyone can engage wholeheartedly with the present experience. We hope to include both more familiar and less familiar visual artists, musicians, audiences, and places.”

Explore the sights and sounds of each artist (and RSVP if near Baltimore) here.