Digimpro - Unlock Music 2.0

IE Music / robbiewilliams.com and Digimpro Announce Strategic Partnership

2006-11-24T12:43:00.000Z

IE Music and Digimpro announce today that they have agreed a strategic partnership. The partnership focuses on incorporating Digimpro's interactive music technology into the activities of all IE Music's artists including robbiewilliams.com.

Digimpro's technology was successfully tested in a promotional campaign for Robbie Williams sponsored by VISA in Germany; proving exceptionally popular with the fans and satisfying the marketing objectives of robbiewilliams.com. Following on from this success IE Music and Digimpro will also apply the interactive music technology to bring new levels of engagement and a significant increase in value to Robbie Williams' activities with consumer brands.

Tim Clark, MD of IE Music said:

“We are always looking for new approaches and ways to make it fun for fans to discover the music of our artists in the digital and mobile worlds. Digimpro's technology is particularly interesting to us because, not only does it engage the fans in new ways, helping us to promote our artists, but it also opens up new revenue streams for Robbie Williams and our other artists, by selling personalised mixes, as downloads or ringtones.“

Rupert Evans, MD of Digimpro said:

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with one of the most innovative and respected management teams in the business. It is also very exciting to have IE Music's artists and their music on yourspins.com, our web 2.0 community. We will shortly be announcing some new strategic partners in Asia and we look forward to bring these to our relationship with IE Music. This will enable us to reach even more fans in Asia for all of IE Music's artists as well as directing them to Robbiewilliams.com“.

Contact Details:

Contact :Rupert Evans,Digimpro+44 20 7524 7820rupert.evans@digimpro.com, ,

Digimpro mixing with Robbie Williams

2006-07-07T12:48:00.000+01:00

This morning at 08:30 local time we sent out a global press release over the wires to announce the launch of a new advertising campaign in Germany by Saatchi & Saatchi. Why did we do this? Well, because the main feature of the campaign is an online remix competition of Robbie Williams' new track 'Sin Sin Sin' - featuring Digimpro's unique technology.

The campaign, put together by Saatchi & Saatchi for Visa Europe, is the first to feature Digimpro's technology as its primary focus. The fact that 3 of biggest names in music, advertising and commerce are all turning to Digimpro to help reach out to fans shows the great potential of the technology we have.

Read the press release in full on the YourSpins blog.

YourSpins - open for business

2006-06-27T11:12:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we put out a press release 'over the wires' - which always conjures up an image of someone sending a morse code message from an underground bunker for some reason! The general message in the press release was that YourSpins is open for business and that anyone can now register, listen to what is already on the site and start making their own mixes. However, we also announced the launch of diMaker.

diMaker is the software tool which allows artists and producers to create di files - these files being the 'creative masters' which allow people to interpret their compositions in their own way. The idea is that independent artists can now enjoy the benefits of having their tracks on YourSpins. We even provide free support for artists if it is the first time they have used this.

We hope that this will inspire many artists to make more di tracks and connect with a worldwide network of music fans.

diMaker available here.

Through the 1,000 mark

2006-06-08T14:27:00.000+01:00

Today we pushed on through past the 1,000 membership mark. This is a significant milestone for the community. A key part of this phase of development was to check that we could do all the bits we wanted to without crashed and disruption. It’s gone better than we expected, and although there are still a whole lot more features we want to develop and offer, we now know we can do that in a scalable way and without disrupting service. We’ve got to this point because of a lot of hard work by the team, but there is one thing that has really been encouraging for everyone and helped a lot, and that is the enthusiasm of people who have seen YourSpins and wanted to get involved. This includes artists, members, bloggers: so, a big thank you to you all – you know who you are. Let’s keep welcoming new people and keep making the site a great place to spend some time. We don’t want to look too far ahead, but there are some great acts coming…. the more music we get, the more members will come and the snowball will continue to gather momentum. So, for everyone whose enthusiasm has helped get this going, we will be aiming to please you by making a great site with a broad mix of great music…. Thanks

YourSpins nearly there

2006-05-19T13:19:00.000+01:00

We are getting ready to open up YourSpins to the public and at the same time start working on the Robbie Williams di track which will be available in early July. It will be a fully interactive version of his 'Sin Sin Sin' single, which will hold special interest for German fans. More news on this nearer the time.

One of the things we have done recently is to improve the blog players from YS. The blog players (or mini-players) are ways to allow the users to embed their mix, or anyone else's, straight into their own blog or website - including myspace. Here is an example, with the ringtone functionality added and also the mixer's name.

Quick update...

2006-05-02T16:50:00.000+01:00

You may be wondering why the postings on here seem to have dried up of late. Well, the answer can be found on our blog at http://yourspins.blogspot.com

Yes, we have 2 blogs now. This one will remain the focus of all general Digimpro news, and the other will have specific updates and news related to the online community YourSpins.

Although there is much happening over there (we are nearly through with the redesign and will invite beta people in a matter of days) there are also great things happening over here. Not least of which is an exciting project with Saatchi & Saatchi and Robbie Williams. More news to come here very shortly, but this is a big one!

In other news, the BBC have launched something called a Musicube. Here is mine. it seems to me that this novel way of navigating around their audio archives could be applied to other sites too.

MySpacecide

2006-04-25T12:23:00.000+01:00

Another glum story about MySpace. It seems that not all the members on there are as active as others. In an article about people killing-off their MySpace personas and pages, there is a story about a weblog which lists MySpace members as they die. Makes for morbidly compelling reading.

Tom, again!

2006-04-21T16:45:00.000+01:00

After last week's T-shirts having a go at myspace Tom - a more forlorn T-shirt, also related to Tom's auto-friendship on myspace.

YS Server Outage tonight

2006-04-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

We will have a scheduled outage of the YourSpins server tonight from 20:00 GMT. This will hopefully be only for a couple of hours while we change servers.

The reason we are moving servers is so that YS users will have greater bandwidth, speed and reliability. The daily traffic to our poor, little steam-powered server is way too much now that Microsoft and others are sending large numbers of visitors our way.

We are upgrading to a super server with flashing lights and fans and everything. This should see us through the next surge in usage when we open for beta too.

Have a good weekend!

AOL's Myspace killer?

2006-04-20T14:47:00.000+01:00

When you spend enough time reading about social networks and online communities, you will eventually come across someone proclaiming a 'Myspace killer'. However, if anyone were to do this, then why not AOL?

AOL may be preparing to launch a Myspace-type social network called “Head On” sometime in the next few weeks, says Dave Winer.

This went from rumor to “confirmed likely” in posts and comments by Jason Calacanis and Jordan Running (also here) (both now at AOL). A comment in the last link suggests that the new service will be open to non AOL members.

Keep an eye on this, and MSN's promise to open up their Messenger service to allow some kind of social networking too.

Great paper on music communities.

2006-04-18T18:00:00.000+01:00

Not sure how long this link will be active for, but there is a good paper on Online Music Collaboration Communities which I happened across whilst kind of browsing through Google. Seems to be up-to-date too, worth a read:

This paper will explore online music collaboration communities, and the social interactions that happen within them. Collaboration is the act of working jointly with others on a common project, and is inherently a social act. For collaboration to occur there must be some type of communication channel set up to handle the shared information.

Easter holidays

2006-04-13T17:13:00.000+01:00

We've been allowed to bring our games into class today as it is the last day of term. Tomorrow we will be out of office and will return on Tuesday, after the Easter celebrations. But don't worry, we haven't really gone away, and when we come back we should have some good news for you people signed-up to beta testing.

Until Tuesday!

Plugging-in to Microsoft.

2006-04-12T17:46:00.000+01:00

A few hours ago the Digimpro Windows Media Player plug-in went live on Microsoft's wmplugins site. We are also a featured plugin on their homepage as I write this.

This is tremondously exciting for us as a whole raft of people are going to be able to discover us from here. Once they have downloaded the plug-in, they can also download free tracks in the di format and create their own personalized versions of these tunes.

Downloads seem to be coming through at the rate of 1 a minute. Sounds good, but at this rate the entire population of the planet won't have a copy until 2200! Not 10'o'clock, but nearly 200 years. Clearly if we are bent on world domination, we need to be quicker ;-)

Seriously though, it is a nice filip to have before we open YourSpins to the world.

Sasha/Spooky Winners!!

2006-04-11T12:27:00.000+01:00

Yes, at last! After many missed deadlines we have listened and re-listened to all of the entries for the Sasha/Spooky remix competition for 'Strange Addiction'. Apart from being surprised at the diversity of styles and even composition in all the entries - the overall feeling was how uniformally high the standard of entries was. It was truly difficult to pick a winner - but we have!

A shortlist was sent to Sasha for him to pick the winners, and the winners are:

First Prize:
Gilberto Cornejo Ramirez for his Gcr Remix

Second Prize:
Santiago Rionda for his Sasha vs. Lifeform Electro Rmx.

Third Prize:
Zack Dell for his MuZack Mix

All the winning entries are available as mp3s here.

Gilberto wins an iPod loaded with a Sasha back catalogue.

Future competitions will be held on YourSpins. Make sure you are signed up for when we go live!

Tom is NOT my friend

2006-04-11T11:10:00.000+01:00

Funny piece in this Wired News article about companies piggy-backing on MySpace's success. I particularly liked the end about the $18 T-shirts stating 'Tom is NOT my friend'. Order one here!

5-star award for Motel***

2006-04-06T10:27:00.000+01:00

Congratualtions to long-time friends of Digimpro, Motel***. They have just won the Quartz Electronic Music Award for best Electronic Track with 'Sofa'.

You can listen to Sofa here, and also check out the official website and blog.

If you want to make some of your own remixes of Motel***'s work, go to YourSpins and download the free di track and Window Media Player plug-in.

Félicitations!

Digital music tops the charts

2006-04-03T17:14:00.000+01:00

In the UK, the current number 1 is Crazy by US duo Gnarls Barkley. This hit the top spot in the charts on the strength of digital sales alone.

Maybe not so surprising, but this figure in the BBC news story brings home where the future of singles sales are. From a peak in 1997 of around 75m sales of physical singles, in 2005 that figure came down to just over 20m. However, digital downloads are showing very strong growth in the short period they have been counted by the charts' compilers, now overtaking physical sales for singles in the UK, at least.

Whither the CD single? It can't be long before those shiny discs are looked upon with the same fondness we show for 7" vinyl and cassingles.

People want their music instantly & they want it mobile. That means digital, baby! The next move seems to be from dedicated mp3 players to mobile phones that can do it all...

Optimizing music for sport

2006-04-03T12:36:00.000+01:00

The world of sport & fitness has long had its links with music. But it seems that this is attracting the interest of scientists now as well. Why not have a personalized music system that optimizs your workout? Indeed, why not make the tracks you like into more pumping versions for the gym and more chilled-out versions for when you get home.

It's another application of DI's proprietary technology that we can't wait to offer you!

Great mix on YourSpins

2006-03-29T15:49:00.000+01:00

'Lena' has made a great mix of Amb's Romeo which I have included here as it deserves a wider audience. Enjoy!

Argh! Deadlines...

2006-03-28T17:26:00.000+01:00

Why do we do it to ourselves? We won't make any rash promises again about specific dates for things happening! The Sasha and Spooky remix competition will be more of a remix saga by the time we announce the winners - but they will come. Patience, young grasshopper!

We are busy tying up the ends of various interesting deals which should massively increase our profile in the world. Obviously we can't say anything right now, but when we can, you'll hear about it first on this blog!

Due to spending a few days away from the office to relax in the Devon countryside, I have missed a few days of posting - but I'll make up for that now with some links which have really proved to be worth subscribing to recently:

Marc Canter's blog - never short of an opinion about the world of the web and social media!
Yahoo! Music blog - having fun and building a great user experience.
Digital Music Weblog - picks up great stories often not covered elsewhere.

Quick Update

2006-03-22T10:32:00.000Z

OK - just a quick update to let you all know whats happening on various fronts:

1 - YourSpins: We have conducted some internal testing and have also invited some specially-selected external people to give us their views. Further development is happening as a result - we expect an open beta in the next few weeks.

2 - Sasha/Spooky Remix competition: A shortlist of mixes is being listened to by Sasha and Spooky. Winners announced on Friday!

3 - Digimpro.com - our corporate website is about to undergo the first of a series of changes, related to YourSpins going live. Some community features and di track downloads will move from digimpro.com to YourSpins.com.

Thats it for now. More news when it happens. Back to the grindstone!

Sasha/Spooky Remix Competition Winners!

2006-03-16T14:49:00.000Z

Today's the day we announce the winners for the Sasha/Spooky remix competition. Or rather it was supposed to be. We were so inundated with submissions at the last minute that we are still listening and re-listening to mixes pretty much all day. Because of this we have moved the date for announcing the winners back another week to 24th March.

Sorry for the delay - but if you win, you won't mind!

Sneaky peak

2006-03-15T18:42:00.000Z

So, I've been having enormous fun playing with the site. I'm going to post some of the best remixes up here soon. But in the meantime I thought I'd give you a quick peak at how things look in beta right now. These are actual screenshots - but of course things can change and probably will by the time we open up to the beta-testing public. Just to give you a flavour of where we are heading...

Blog this mix

2006-03-14T13:22:00.000Z

A mix from a member of YourSpins of Roots Manuva's 'Too Cold'. You could be making mixes like these for yourself and your blogs soon too! Click the player to register for YourSpins now!

Today's the day

2006-03-14T11:12:00.000Z

So, keeping my fingers crossed and touching all wooden objects within arms reach, today we will launch YourSpins beta to an internal audience to check what is working and what needs to be fine-tuned. It has been a long journey, and we are by no means finished, but just getting to this first hurdle feels great.

I'm pretty sure that what we have now will be great in itself, but when we add the next raft of features, then we'll have one of the hottest music sites on the web, in my humble opinion!!

So, if you have signed-up for beta-testing, I expect that we will be inviting you to the closed beta next week at some point. And if you haven't signed up, get your email address into the appropriate box on this page.

No news is good news!

2006-03-09T17:14:00.000Z

So - I've been a bit lax with updating you on developments behind the scenes here at Digimpro - but thats only because we have been busy doing things. YourSpins is about to launch to the lucky few who have signed-up for beta-testing. We have recently added a lot of features and are looking forward to unleashing it on the world!

There is a strange balance to strike between launching something which is fully-featured and getting something basic out of the doors as early as possible and building up on that. Due to the wait for the beta-launch, you know we haven't done the latter, but we are still looking to add in more features after the beta-launch. What those features will be depend on the feedback we get from you - the users. Maybe it is imperative to have an online radio, maybe you want to see podcasting implemented immediately. Whatever you say, we'll be listening.

The imminent launch of YourSpins also means a change for the main Digimpro website. We'll soon be moving all the music and community features from www.digimpro.com to the new YourSpins site. Then we are ready to rock'n'roll - literally.

Bustin' makes me feel good.

2006-03-01T16:19:00.001Z

I saw this ages ago and I'm so glad I found another link to it. Song lyrics in bullet-point form. There were only a handful of pages when I first saw this, now there are 35. The original Ghostbusters one is still my favourite though!

Legal remixing - let's make it even easier!

2006-02-27T14:16:00.000Z

You can imagine why this story on CNet caught my eye:
'Copyright criminals' look to remix the noise - legally

While it is very laudable that these guys give their permission to use voices and samples for remix competitions - but it is only a small proportion of the public who posess enough knowledge and software to be able to take an audio sample and create a track from it.
However, I can't help thinking that it is better to do this with a simple interface, no special software and just an ear for what sounds good. Step forward the Digimpro eCards. I can promise you that you will see a lot more of these before too long, especially if you are signed up to the beta of YourSpins.

Soul G & Tony Match - Remix Smash!

2006-02-24T11:27:00.000Z

Long-time friends of Digimpro, Soul G & Tony Match, have scored a massive hit with their remix of The Sushi Club's "Tsuki". The 'Soul G & Tony Match Remix' has gone to number 1 in the Electronica section of the iTunes Music Store in France.

Featuring the laidback vocal talents of Kaori Kaneko, this production is just the start of a collaboration project between Kaori and the French house maestros. Soul G & Tony Match are also putting the finishing touches to Kaori's debut album, full of soulful, downtempo beats.
Stay tuned!

London - the streets are mean.

2006-02-23T14:29:00.001Z

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I was burgled on Monday during the day and it has taken a few days to sort everything out again. If you see someone walking around Fulham with a 26" Philips LCD TV, let me know. I'd like to have a quiet word with them.

In other news, the UK's 'grime' scene seems to coming of age with hot, new artists such as Plan B (check out his Sick2Def track) and great websites such as Road Royalty. RR is the official site of Road Royalty Records and they kindly supply 'mixtapes' for download from their site. If you want to get a feeling for whats hot on the streets of London right now (apart from my TV) - then give it a try.

Also, we are very close to going into beta for yourspins.com. If you have signed up for an invitation to beta-test phase, you'll be hearing from us very soon.

How to remix with .di files

2006-02-20T16:03:00.000Z

If you are new to Digimpro and the concept of interactive music, you may feel a little bewildered sometimes at all the options that are open to you with the .di format. So, by way of an introduction, I have decided to highlight two links from the Digimpro site that explain in some detail how the Windows Media Player Plug-in works.

The first link is to this nice graphically-descriptive help file.

The second is to the downloads page, which describe what to do when installing the plug-in. Also available as pdf.

So, first download the plug-in and install it, then read the help files at the first link to get the most out of the free .di tracks on our homepage.

You could also use the dedicated diPlayer - also available from the Downloads page.

Soon we will also have a plug-in for Quicktime on the Mac and a whole host of songs in the Flash-based diOnline Mixer. Keep checking back for more details.

Musicians & their mobiles

2006-02-17T12:42:00.000Z

Part one of a very occasional series:

Interesting to read how British RnB star Craig David is eulogising about his mobile phone. Not only as an end-user and purchaser of ringtones (hey Craig - check out our eCards!) - but also as a musician when he uses it to capture inspiration as it hits him...

近义词

2006-02-15T16:47:00.000Z

That says 'welcome' (I hope!) to our new readers in China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Our man in Taipei, Monbaza, is translating this blog into two varients of Chinese. Check them out here:

http://digimpro-cn.blogspot.com/
http://digimpro-tw.blogspot.com/

Also, we hope to have some exciting news from China soon regarding the Sasha remix competition. Stay tuned, wherever you are!

DI Gets Operatic

2006-02-13T11:40:00.000Z

More news from Sandor Mester on a possible operatic link-up for Digimpro:

"I've just had a meeting with Vera Kovacs, vice president of label G7
Music' in Milan. Vera Kovacs and her husband (technical expert of the label)
were very enthusiastic about DI. They have 300 opera arias recorded - with music and voice recorded separately. We were talking about how we can co-operate in the
long term. They are interested in new ways of publishing and digitally
distrubuting classical music. I'm interested in 'DI-ing' opera music coming from
Milan. They have other classical music recorded as well but the most interesting thing would be to release their whole Italian opera catalogue in DI format.
As a first step I will prepare the production plan. Then we negotiate how to 'DI' the
catalogue. Will be nice, but hard work and we finally will have quality Italian
opera arias in DI format!

Then we had a 2 hour long lunch in a traditional Italian restaurant close the a
canal outside of Milan. Nice atmosphere, great seafood, special Mozarella
Buffala, shrimps and mussels - which I love. Great time and sunny weather in Italia."

Track 5: Michael Dierks - Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude

2006-02-13T10:10:00.000Z

Explanation of Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude (download it here)

N.B: This track requires the latest version (1.2 beta) of the Windows Media Player Plug-In or version 5.1 of diPlayer. Please update your player from the Digimpro Downloads page.

This Bach choral, improvised by Michael Dierks, is a unique Digimpro production and experiment. We have 16 different structured versions (identified in the Player, A to P) and seven parts. We have two unique objectives with this song. The first is the ability to create interpretations; the reason that classical music aficionados buy music that is public domain and hundreds of years old is to hear how various world-class orchestras, halls, amphitheatres and conductors interpret and influence the original music. The second is to emulate the artistic nature of the baroque period, itself.

With this track, you can make intros before the choral. You can also make melody improvisations and choral improvisations. You can listen to this file for hours to find uniqueness in the versions that are hidden within the 16 different structures. It's like a baroque edifice or church: You should sit and watch and take in the contours for an entire day. The more you relax, the more you will find ornaments within and around the paintings, statues, etc. You will find hidden pockets of light or shadow. There are only two modern variations only. Good luck in finding them!

The sound quality is also unique. With headphones or speakers you can hear the breathing and airflow of the giant cathedral pipes. We have less parallel channels than in modern music, but more versions per channel.

The Seven Parts

Intro
1 trackgroup
Intro 1, 2, 4, 6 and 11 (.wav)

Choral
3 trackgroups

Choral 1-10 (.wav)
Melody 1-10 (.wav)
Bass Pedal 1-4 (.wav + mute)

Improvisation
3 trackgroups

Choral Impro 1-11 (.wav)
Melody Impro 1-10 (.wav)
Bass Pedal 1-4 (.wav)

Improvisation All
4 trackgroups

Melody Improvisation 1-10 (.wav)
Choral 1-10 (.wav)
Bass Pedal 1-4 (.wav)
Melody 1-10 (.wav)

Improvisation Melody
Melody Improvisation 1-10 (.wav)
Melody 1-10 (.wav)
Melody Impro 1-10 (.wav)

Long Intro
1 trackgroup

Intro 15, 16, 17 and 18 (.wav) - varying lengths beginning at various points in time.

Medium Intro
Intro 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14 (.wav) - varying lengths beginning at various points in time.

Structure Versions of Jesus Bleibet Meine Freude

A - Choral
B - Intro + Choral
C - Intro + Improvisation
D - Intro + Improvisation_All
E - Intro + Improvisation Melodies
F - Improvisation + Melodies
G - Improvisation_ + All
H - Improvisation
I - Long Intro + Choral
J - Long Intro + Improvisation Melodies
K - Long Intro + Improvisation_All
L - Intro Medium + Choral
M - Intro Medium + Improvisation Melodies
N - Intro Medium + Improvisation_All
O - Intro Medium + Improvisation
P - Intro Long + Improvisation

Track 4: Olàh Szabolcs Quartet

2006-02-10T12:18:00.000Z

The fourth track of this week sees us take a jazzy turn with a saxophone-led track from Hungarian group Olàh Szabolcs Quartet. 'Monday' is a 3 minute experience loaded with possibilities from the .di format. In particular, if you like your jazz more minimalist, you can choose to mute some channels to give the track a different feel. Incidentally, the alternative versions in each channel have great names like 'Keeping it hip', 'Holding it down' and 'Stirring the soup'!

The improvise button comes in for much use when I play this track - and you may want your Windows Media Player on repeat, as 3 minutes is just not enough. Download it here.

Track 3: AMB - Urchin

2006-02-09T10:34:00.000Z

For those of you who like your house music more laid-back, AMB's Urchin offers the perfect way to experience the .di format. It's melodic, swirling grooves will put you in mind of that Balearic classic, Hoomba Hoomba - by Voices of Africa. Get downloading now!

Track 2: Chateau Lamotte

2006-02-08T13:31:00.000Z

Track 2 in our week of giveaways is a track to banish the winter blues away. Chateau Lamotte's feel-good slice of the summer is 'Shining' - a string-laden composition of house beats and breathy vocals to transport you to an altogether sunnier place. If you like the sounds of Bran Van 3000 and Crazy Penis, you'll love this.

Track 1: AMB - Romeo

2006-02-07T08:55:00.000Z

The first of our free tracks this week is available from the Digimpro.com homepage - AMB's Romeo. It is an epic 7 minute workout of breaks and bleeps from the innermost parts of a 303. Don't worry about the quiet start - it doesn't stay that way for long!

Chinese New Year Remix Ecards

2006-02-06T11:53:00.000Z

This is the Chinese year of the Dog - and if you didn't already wish your friends a Happy New Chinese Year, you can do so now with your own remix of 'Strange Addiction'. The original ecard has been given a new look to commemorate this occasion. Big thanks to our man in Taiwan for this, Monbaza.

A track a day

2006-02-03T18:12:00.000Z

Next week we will be releasing one new, free di track each day. That's right, 5 new tracks for you to play with next week. There is a very wide spectrum of music in this collection - from drum'n'bass to Bach - so don't miss out. Keep checking the homepage each day and let us know what you think of each release.

Have a good weekend folks.

Opera - di style

2006-02-03T13:37:00.000Z

Sandor Mester, founder of Digimpro, writes to give a little more background to the forthcoming di opera track.

"When I was Stockholm weeks ago doing the first DI baroque project with Michael Dierks, I was reading a great book written by Stendhal about life of Rossini the great opera composer. He worked in Milan, since Milan was one the cradles of opera. After reading this this book I was dreaming a lot about Italian opera as well as having DI releases in Italian opera style. And then a perfect partner comes to us saying lets try to work together. Isn't it nice, eh?:)

I'll have a meeting in Milan next Friday with the Vice President of G7 Music & Co. Her name is Vera Kovacs, mostly-used Hungarian family name. Her grand-father was Hungarian. The connection is from Midem where we had lots interest from every musical style. I didn't go there, but I can feel the results."
http://www.cantolopera.com

New di tracks

2006-02-02T11:03:00.000Z

More new tracks coming to the di format this week and next include:

Mentor Kolektiv - Broke
Mentor Kolektiv - Pasand
Lotek Hi-fi - Move Your Thing
Lotek Hi-fi - Showdown
Chateau Lamotte - Shining
Chateau Lamotte - Boogie On You
MS3 - Bach Choral - Gott Lebet Noch
Michael Dierks - Jesu Bleibet
AMB - Wisp
AMB - Romeo
Olah Szablocs Quartet - Monday

See the forthcoming artists page of Digimpro.com for descriptions of these hot tracks.

Plus, another string to the di format's bow will be the world's first classical opera track in our interactive format. Sandor Mester (MS3) is about to embark on a project with Cantalopera - the Virtual Opera House, to bring opera to the masses. Get your dickie-bows and ballgowns ready.

Beta soon

2006-01-30T22:55:00.000Z

So, after a hectic week in Cannes it was inevitable that I fell prey to the Midem bug that seemed to knock most people down for a few days. Unfortuantely for me this happened over the weekend, but I soldiered on and even managed to build an Ikea wardrobe on Sunday.

YourSpins.com is getting a lot of requests for beta-invites. We are hoping to open this up later in the week, so if you have applied, standby for your username and password.

We will be doing the beta-testing in the old-fashioned way. It seems to be the rage these days to have things in an almost complete state for years and call it beta testing. We will have around 4-6 weeks of beta testing, then it will be opened up to everyone. In that time we hpe our beta testers will give us feedback, comments and suggestions on how we can improve YourSpins.com.

So, we have a busy week ahead of us to make sure we can launch to a select few. Early adopters will also get preferential treatment for future events and will also get get free stuff. You can't beat that! So if you haven't already, sign up at YourSpins today. You won't regret it!

Not just dance music

2006-01-27T13:12:00.000Z

Although we have quite a few pop and dance tracks in the .di format, there is no restriction on the kind of music that can be presented in this interactive format. To illustrate the point we have forthcoming releases in heavy metal and indie rock genres, but also an world-first development in classical music publishing.

Michael Dierks (left) and Sandor Mester (founder of Digimpro) recently recorded a .di track with many variations on the same JS Bach choral. The recording, in a 500-year old church in Stockholm, allows users to manipulate the music as it is being played - offering a unique insight into the mind of the ancient composer and modern organist. Check the Digimpro homepage for news of when this track will be available.

Midem - all over!

2006-01-27T12:00:00.000Z

Midem is all over and I am back in chilly old London reflecting on what was a very successful week for Digimpro. We really raised our profile with some of the major players in the industry and they liked what they saw. We will see in the next few weeks what concrete developments take place, but we are optimistic that something major will happen soon. You'll be able to read all about it on here, whenever it happens.

Some highlights and memories of Midem for us:

UK politician Huw Irranca-Davis visits the Digimpro stand and meets Andreas Kemi, Tom Gilchrist and Thomas Hedstrom.

The beach outside the Palais de Congres, which looks much warmer than it actually was!

Midem Day 5

2006-01-25T10:45:00.000Z

Last night, after dinner in the Carlton Hotel, we were entertained by an impromptu jazz performance by a very talented pianist, harmonica player and singer. They commandeered the hotel piano and performed a fantastic version of 'Route 66' for a very select audience of a handful of people who wandered past and were so transfixed they had to stay and listen.

People who walk past the Digimpro stand are similarly transfixed and have to stay and listen to us and the tracks that we show them!

I went to a session yesterday called 'Get A Buzz Started - Reach Your Community!'. It was scheduled to last for 45 minutes, but really could have been summarised in 2 sentences. Embrace the web and strive to build up an email list of fans, remembering to email them with valuable (free) content regularly. Oh, and put a forum on your website so fans can interact with each other.

I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but it was a little more than this. What about weblogs, rss feeds, bluetooth/rfid enabled ads, guerilla marketing, media2.0 and new ways to interact with fans?

Tonight is the closing party for this 40th Midem conference. I am really looking forward to rounding off a good week by hearing Satoshi Tomii (sp?) and David Morales play at the closing party. Can't wait!

Midem Day 4

2006-01-24T12:19:00.000Z

Much excitement at the Digimpro stand yesterday, as superstar producer 'Jellybean' Benitez and UK politician Huw Irranca-Davis were on the stand at the same time.

Huw is the personal private secretary to UK Culture Minister Tessa Jowell and his visit conincided with a demo of DI's eCard to Mr Benitez - causing some crowding around the stand, not for the first time on the day.

Many people have been very complimentary about our technology and there are many promising, high-profile leads to follow-up when we come back to the office. I have a feeling that we are in the right place - physically and metaphorically - at the right time.

In other news, *many* people are going down with food poisioning which puts them out of action for a day or two. I don't know what's causing it, but if I was to place a paranoid guess, I'd say the champagne had been poisoned!

Midem Day 3

2006-01-23T09:29:00.000Z

Our stand early in the morning. The calm before the storm.

Midem Day 2

2006-01-22T22:36:00.000Z

No post yesterday - we were very busy preparing for the press conference today. It all went well as we demonstrated RemixRingTones and YourSpins.com - to an enthusiastic audience. Full details on both of these products will be available in our press releases on digimpro.com tomorrow, but we are - to borrow an Americanism - 'really psyched' about this.

The Digimpro booth didn't really have a quiet moment all day, and we were especially busy in the afternoon. Tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be the busiest days, so we'll see how they go. More details tomorrow! Exciting huh?

As we left the Palais this evening, there was a massive and impressive fireworks display. The rockets lit up in Cannes in a magical way. It is a real privilege to be here at times like this.

Ah well - time for bed. Another full day ahead of us in the morning...

Ministry of Sound profile Sasha/Spooky

2006-01-19T19:23:00.000Z

Clubbing giant Ministry of Sound has profiled the Digimpro/Sasha/Spooky remix competition in a recent article on their website. Great to hear some positive feedback already.

No posts from us tomorrow - we're flying to Midem. See you there!

YourSpins.com - download/remix/share

2006-01-18T17:58:00.000Z

It's all over the wires, so it's about time we spoke about it! In a few weeks time, we will be launching the beta version of YourSpins.com - something which has been us keeping us busy for some time now.

YourSpins will be a new kind of music community. Using Digimpro's technology, members will be able to go beyond the download and remix songs in the .di format, share them online with the commuity, export the mixes to other devices, such as ringtones on mobile phones - and also meet and chat to other music fans.

We will be sticking to the old-fashioned beta-release ethos, by inviting a few hundred people to test the community thoroughly before we open it up to everyone and take it out of beta. However, visitors to Midem will get a sneak peak at how the site will look and operate on Sunday 22nd January at 15:00 on the Digimpro stand.

We are looking forward to this immensely!

UK Minister to visit Digimpro

2006-01-17T18:28:00.000Z

If you still haven't made your mind up to come and visit us at Midem - take a lead from the UK government's Minister for Creative Industries, James Purnell. The minister will be coming to the Digimpro stand on Monday to discuss how the music industry, government and technology companies can work better together.

The Young Knives

2006-01-17T11:56:00.000Z

Great news from our friends at Transgressive Records. The next release from up-and-coming stars of 2006, The Young Knives , will be available in .di format.

The track, 'Here Comes The Rumour Mill', is set to storm the indie scene when it is released in February. Fans will be invited to sharpen their remix skills in a special tie-in with the band's official site. Keep checking this blog and the band's website for news on how to get hold of this very hot track.
In the meantime, you can sign up for the raffle on their site to win some meat and a set of steak knives.

Midem Press Conference

2006-01-17T10:57:00.000Z

We have just been playing with something very cool in the office which we would like to share with everyone at the forthcoming Midem conference in Cannes. Please come along to our stand (R34.08) on Sunday at 15:00 for a world first demonstration of this technology. We'll even have champagne too - so come along for that if nothing else!

This is something which we believe will be fascinating for music fans of all ages. Come at get a sneak preview on Sunday. We will be demo-ing the technology throughout the rest of the week as well. Don't forget to bring your phone.

Remix the remix

2006-01-16T14:41:00.000Z

So, if you have visited the main Digimpro website recently you will see that we have officially launched the DJ Sasha/Spooky remix competition!

This is exciting for us as it gives the world a first look at our di Online Player - but also becasue we are working with 2 of the biggest names in dance music.

The idea is for the listener to become involved in the music and remix the track to their own specific taste. Once they have done this, they can mail their mix into us and we will put the latest mixes up on the page for everyone to hear. At the end of the competition, Sasha and Spooky will select the best mix themselves and the winner will receive and iPod loaded with a massive back catlogue of work from both artists.

Can't be bad for free eh?

So, get remixing Sasha's remix and immerse yourself in a new world of music. We will be releasing more tracks in this way very soon. Stay tuned for more developments.

Exciting news!

2006-01-13T15:51:00.000Z

We here at Digimpro are all big Baywatch fans, so the latest piece of news to reach our office was greeted particularly warmly. Again, we can't say too much yet - but watch this space for news next week.

Everything seems to be shaping up to be a greet Midem meeting. We will be launching many new products and collaborations - the only way to keep up with them all is to come along to stand R34.08 and have a chat with us. "I'll be there....".

Sasha & Spooky

2006-01-11T16:54:00.000Z

We've been busy in the last few days putting the finishing touches to something exciting which we will tell the world about at the end of the week. Needless to say, we are looking forward to it as much as the fans of Sasha and Spooky should be! Can't say anymore now, but come back and check the blog on Friday - or see the news section on www.digimpro.com

Spooky have already worked with Digimpro on their 'No Return' track, which was enthusiastically welcomed by fans when it was made available via the DI site.

Hello World!

2006-01-10T17:31:00.000Z

Hi. This is the first posting on the official Digimpro blog to keep everyone up-to-date on what's happening behind the scenes, when new releases are coming out and what we will be up to at Midem. There's a lot to talk about and we really appreciate any feedback on all the topics we blog about, so don't be shy on using the comment button on any of the postings.