Hey everyone - writing to you from good ole Austin Texas - SXSW style. Yup I’m drenched in booze, heat, musicians, labels and tech companies galor. Give me a day to get settled and I’ll get you the ooo soo fun music recap of what I’ve lost my hearing to so far. In the meantime - I wanted to mention some companies I’ve talked to that have sprouted from Silicon valley and give bloggers cool new ways to make your blogs more interactive and make some money off the top. (Me writing about them, doesn’t mean I endorse their success or think a huge media conglomerate will buy them out - i’m just saying they’re cool, so try them out while they’re kicking)

Mobile publishing from your phone to the web. Easy way for you to take videos and send them to your myspace, facebook or blogger accounts for instant live time video content straight to your blog. They’ve created a facebook application that also has chat functionalities - so your friends can comment on your video right away and you as the publisher has the ability to watch the conversation on your phone and reply back. To get the software just go to the kyte wap page on your phone and download the application - only set back is there’s only a few phones out their that can are completely compatible with the ability a)download the app and b)record and stream video…..sooooo good idea, but still a little too early - and only a cool feature to add on to your overall marketing campaigns (if you’re an artist or label), but not so much of a platform that will really help you launch and embrace any significant mobile marketing efforts (this is a whole other blog in it self - which I’ll save for a rainy day). Also their business model right now - is no business model, unless YOU bring in the advertisements and they aren’t planning on bringing in a sales team….which is a clear sign of disaster in the making, unless they have a cool make money making scheme up their sleeve that they aren’t unleashing until they get x number of users on their platform. Check it out.

Artist xite isn’t an omg, holy crap, you gotta but stop watching The Hills and come over - because this site is badass. BUT - I will say that it’s a cool way for bloggers to put music on their blogs, make them more interactive and POSSIBLY make money as an affiliate. Simple process - labels/artists sign up for the site, upload their catalog for bloggers to stream/offer downloads on their blogs. Pretty much if snocap still was alive and kicking and had an affiliate program for bloggers, this would be it. Rev share splits for bloggers/artistxite/musician - 10%/20%/70%. If you have a good blog with high traffic - I guess 10% ain’t that shabby.

Patty