BBC Radio 1 Musicubes
Posted by Chris @ 8:55 pm
Have you ever been asked what music you're in to, and you've just said "a bit of everything". Well now you can help define which bits of everything you actually mean thanks to a groovy new tool from BBC Radio 1, the Musicube.
It is all flash based and simple to use. They present various cubes, and you choose which cubes (genres) make up your Musicube. Sample beats are played as you hover over a cube, just in case you aren't quite sure if you like "dirty house", "soulful house", or just "house" music! You get to pick 10 cubes (each cube is 10% of your Musicube) and once you are done you can put it on your web site, or send it you your friends.
You may have spotted my Musicube in the right column of my website, and it is going to stay there for the foreseeable future. As you can see I'm pretty much a dance person, but I dabble in all flavours of music. And the BBC say when they add new cube genres they'll tell you via an announcement in the cube, which I think is pretty cool.
Obviously this isn't just something the BBC has developed because people were struggling to define their musical tastes - its clearly plugging the "listen again" feature on the website. But, I love the listen again feature, and clicking on each cube to tell me which shows specialise in that genre of music is a great idea. Obviously you need to get your speakers plugged in for the full effect, but I've got to say, hats off to the BBC, job well done.
5 Comments
Sunday, April 02, 2006 11:02:00 am
Wow. I just listened to this musicube thing! Do they do classical ones?This comment posted by Anonymous
Sunday, April 02, 2006 11:09:00 am
Sadly, I don't think so - it seems to be limited to Radio 1 and the genres of music they play. But I guess if enough people pester them they might expand it for other radio stations and genres....This comment posted by Chris
Monday, April 03, 2006 12:49:00 pm
Im disappointed already. I've clicked one link on the site (to view the comments) and the animation grabbed my attention for the 2nd time. It shouldnt fire after I've seen the 1st time. They are clearly just using you for ad space.This comment posted by Anthony Main
Monday, April 03, 2006 1:19:00 pm
It is a bit annoying, but still, it is advertising a service I really like, and for the styles of music I really like, so whilst its an advert, its also a service, for me. (In fact after putting it on my site its encouaged me to listen to the Essential Mix and Fergie - top banana)This comment posted by Chris
Wednesday, April 12, 2006 11:24:00 am
Hello.My name's Dil, and I was the designer of the Radio 1 Musicubes... and yes you are all right, it is just advertising in disguise, but very clever advertising, because the people who it's aimed at are the people who create the 'ads'.
The good thing is people are talking about it, which is a lot better than a banner ad.
Also, Chris, the idea was that you didn't have to just create 10 blocks of different genres, it's percentages, so you could be 60% soul, 20% rock & 20% house.
Enjoy.
Dil
This comment posted by Anonymous
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