#I would actually make spotify playlists but my spotify account is connected to my facebook

[sign-from-god-complex]

The Side’s Music Playlists

Okay, I was initially going to post this as a reblog but I wanted to take a second to talk about this stuff cause headcanons are fun, so @residentanchor these are my song recommendations and although they're not specific to ALiP hopefully some of them might still be okay?

Alright, so what you prioritise in your music choice I think is very indicative of your general character--not always! But often. And when you're discussing it in relation to fictional characters it certainly can be. So here's my take on the side's music tastes, based entirely on my own personal feelings and also obviously on my own music tastes.

Patton likes emotional music. It’s easy to say that’s obvious, but at the same time, some people don’t really care about that.

Patton likes music that has a vibe, stuff with good imagery. Something you can picture listening to as you drive home in the dark, returning home after a long time away, or you something could imagine listening to in an absolute moment of peace, lying on your bed and you can hear the sounds of other’s moving around but only distantly.

Patton likes songs to have a place. There are sad-emotional songs and there are happy-emotional songs, but they all have a place. He does listen to upbeat songs too, he just prefers if they have something more to them than that.

Patton recommendations:

Let The Rain - Sara Bareilles

Tell Her You Love Her - Echosmith

New Year - Regina Spektor

Life’s For The Living - Passenger

Bring Me Down - Lenka

Sad - Maroon 5

Walking On Sunshine - Katrina and The Waves (a song Roman and Patton have in common, actually)

Trouble Sleeping - Corinne Bailey Rae

Wake Me Up - Ed Sheeran

Think Good Thoughts - Colbie Caillat (or quite honestly, anything by Colbie Caillat)

Roman likes music he can enjoy. Like, sure, emotional music is good sometimes, but if he wanted to sit around feeling sad he’d sit around feeling sad. (Roman actually has an entirely separate playlist for when he’s pitying himself and he wants to be an emotional mess, but that’s not what we’re talking about here).

A fair amount of music Roman listens to is chosen almost entirely based on the vocals and how fun/impressive it is to sing. If the song has a note that last an inordinate amount of time and Roman knows he can sing it and have everyone around him tell him how cool it was, then Roman is going to listen to that song.

On top of that, Roman likes music that would be described by some as “a bop” and is described by Logan as “trashy pop music”, usually from past decades though. There’s definitely a place for the occasional emotional song, especially if it’s fun to sing, but it’s not the staple of his music collection like Patton.

Roman recommendations:

Cheap Thrills - Sia

Lovefool - The Cardigans

Make Them Gold - CHVRCHES

Telephone - Lady Gaga, Beyonce

Dancing’s Not A Crime - Panic! At The Disco (but god forbid Virgil find out he doesn’t hate his “angsty” bands as much as he pretends to)

Drops of Jupiter - Train

OctaHate - Ryn Weaver

Shout Out To My Ex - Little Mix

Heartbreak Dream - Betty Who

I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston

Virgil’s songs are exactly as you would expect for the most part. He likes “emo” music because he feels like it gets where he’s coming from and it’s just enjoyable to feel righteous every once in a while. But not all of his music has to be “edgy” or whatever, mostly it’s anything that goes hard, but with some substance behind it. Of course, as far as the others know, MCR is the only band he’s Ever listened to and he will die before he lets them find out he actually doesn’t mind pop music.

If he can silently scream the lyrics of a song to himself at 3 in the morning and feel like he’s on top of the world, then that’s exactly the song he wants to listen to. Of course, on the reverse side of that, if he can silently scream the lyrics to himself at 3 am and then cry about it, it’s also good.

Virgil recommendations (skipping the obvious - MCR, Panic!, FOB, etc.):

The Haunting - Set It Off

U + Ur Hand - P!nk

Freak Like Me - Halestorm

Second Chance - Shinedown

It’s My Life - Bon Jovi

Running With The Wild Things - Against The Current

Two Hearts - The Birthday Massacre

Rock N Roll - Avril Lavigne

Mr Brightside - The Killers

Monster - Starset

Logan likes his music to serve a purpose. He doesn’t frequently listen to music recreationally, so if he’s listening to music he’s usually trying to block out unpleasant sounds, keep his mind occupied or something else to that extent.

As a result, he usually doesn’t want to be listening to music that’s very upbeat and loud, because he doesn’t find that enjoyable, he wants his music to be calming. However, a large majority of classical pieces are extremely emotional. Logan pretends not to notice this, but sometimes if he’s particularly stressed or overworked, he doesn’t quite hit the mark and ends up crying in his room. He definitely appreciates them from a purely technical standpoint as well though.

Sometimes one of Patton’s songs find it’s way into Logan’s playlist and he’ll pretend he doesn’t know how.

Logan recommendations:

Salvation - Gabrielle Aplin 

Theme From Schindler’s List - John Williams, Itzhak Perlman & The Boston Symphony Orchestra

Notos - Jean-Michel Blais

High Hopes - Kodaline

To The Sky (Moderate) - Dirk Maassen

Nuvole Bianche - Ludovico Einaudi (if you’ve never heard this I highly recommend it; it’s my favourite piano piece ever)

Début - Mélanie Laurent

The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel

Ambre - Nils Frahm

Comptine d'un autre été : L'après-midi - Yann Tiersen

Home - Daughter 

And that’s my take on it! I would love to hear if you think differently though and I’m always open to new music recommendations if you wanted to throw some songs at me that you think one of them would listen to or something!!!

[twopoppies]

hey gina! so i'm thinking about making a playlist for a fic. idk if you've done this before at all, but i was just wondering if you know of a way i could make the playlist and link it to my fic without the playlist itself showing that i'm the creator? like would the best way to just be making a new account under a fake name? because i don't really want my spotify (which is technically connected to my facebook and therefore has my real name) to be public like that? i suppose i could also just list the songs in the authors notes and let people decide which ones to listen to, but i was really wanting to have an actual playlist made so they can just click it and listen without having to do all the work. hope this made some sense lol and ty! x

Hi love. I’d make a new Spotify account that’s a fandom account, if I were you. People really like playlists, but they’re much less likely to listen to it if it’s a bunch of single links. And definitely do not add anything with your real name/Facebook etc!

[blackreesemajic]

Social Distancing with a New Flame

         ✨💕 You just met a new boo and just when the vibes started flowing boom* 💥 💥 the world shuts down and quarantine is turned on. The honeymoon phase should be the time you and your person are going on dates, boo’d up in public, holding hands, and sucking each other's face every second of the day.  😘😘😘

Your mind is filled with a plethora of in-person activities y’all can be doing during this time to make the butterflies in your stomach flutter like they just popped a perk.

If your situation is anything like mine, You may feel like your coochie was just put on 90-day probation without your consent. Thank you to the reviews of Steve Harvey’s, “Act like a Lady, Think like a man.” And his toxic masculinity perpetuated in his book,  I would have read it and MAYBE had been better prepared for THIS situation. 

Remember, although times are hard right now it’s not always about sex! Your peach  🍑 may be yearning for that eggplant  🍆 but 30-90 days is not. that. long... of a wait to be intimate with someone. 

You could be like one of those people who wait until marriage…

No shade, but I am not one of those people.  

I’m the, “Bring that ass here boi!” type of people. 

The CDC recommends that we “Stay Calm” during this time quarantine.

 It sounds unrealistic to me.  😒

 How can we stay calm when our sexual desires are all over the place. 

There are three things we are ALL doing during this time if we are not daydreaming about the outside land. 

We spend all day bouncing that ass from Insta to Facebook, Twitter to Tumblr then back to Insta again…

 Log on to our ex’s Netflix account and be entertained by the white Trashery of Tiger King and then see the same trashery in the White House to remind us the world has gone straight to SHITS... 

Lastly, switching to Private mode on our phones and visiting pornhub.com or xvideos.com to see who is offering the best free subscription. 

 Trust me, I’m right there with you! 

 Just because social distancing is in effect does not mean you have to distance your heart. 

Let’s use this time to get to know each other on a personal level. 

Isolation could be causing your energies to yearn for one another louder than ever. You may even have a heightened craving of intimacy during this time. This time in quarantine can be beneficial to your dating life if you consider yourself someone who is, “Shy or Introverted” or are attracted to people who are. Many people with introverted personalities would prefer getting to know each other over the phone or on a virtual date. This is the time to bring back genuine connections, open and honest conversations, and my ALL TIME FAVORITE… Falling asleep on the phone. 

[[Pieces of Reese: If he in quarantine at “his crib” but can only talk to you during certain hours or when he steps outside… He in quarantine with someone else, sis. LET HIM GO! ]]   🔑 😒

Here are some tips to keep the flame lit, tea hot, and coffee dripping down your lips. So that when you and your new boo do get back together the connection is stronger than ever!

1.     Self Healing and Reflecting: I know. I know. You were so excited because you feel like you could have finally met your “PERSON”. And now, You can’t even see them in-person. Your mind starts to ponder so many “What the fucking Ifs!” “What if they get bored with me?” “What if they lose interest?” “What if they have multiple quarantine boo’s”  “What if they catch corona and die?!!!” I know it sounds fucking crazy but its a real fucking fear.  You must remember that FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real!

I NEED YOU TO IMMEDIATELY; Reset your mind and Refocus yourself. 

Now is the time you must remind yourself that “YOU ARE THAT BITCH!” Use this time to get to know you. Get healthy Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally... If being in a relationship/ situationship is what you desire at the end of all of this. Use the time to make yourself WHOLE. Thou can’t pick up broken glass without cutting the hand that is trying to put the pieces back together.  

[[ “We don’t fear being alone. We fear getting to know the parts of ourselves we didn’t know before.” - Pieces of Reese ]]

 Pick up a pen and paper and write: Write a letter to yourself. Write in your diary. Write to your person. Write your feelings. Write yourself daily affirmations and post them on your bathroom mirror so that you see them every day. Get connected with the feelings behind your everyday thoughts.

Set a routine; Whatever the routine looks like to you, set it! There is no amount of work you need to force yourself to meet society’s sense of productivity. The routine is only in place to keep your body prepared for what the universe has to offer you once this is all done.

2.       Virtual Dates: It seems crazy but having a virtual date can be romantic and is also cost-efficient. If you or your partner want to be extravagant you can rotate turns ordering the other person a meal (Be sure to leave your delivery person a decent tip for working through these hard times). You can both go into your own kitchens and cook each other your favorite meal. Make something you will want your person to try when you are in one space. Try describing the taste of the meal, who taught you how to make it, and why it is your favorite. Adding wine or alcohol loosens things up and being alone could make you more comfortable with being yourself on the date. A great website to get the conversation going: www.goalcast.com/2018/04/19/deep-questions-to-ask-your-partner/amp/ 

3.   Share what you see: If you are a lover of music, videos, Memes, or GIFs, Do NOT be afraid to share it with your person. With everything that is happening in the world currently, Now is the perfect time to make someone smile and laugh. Remember that MENTAL HEALTH is real! For people who suffer from Mental Health Illness, forced isolation calls for undesired thoughts of not being wanted. Show your person they are the first person you thought of when you have seen or heard something. Make them feel like, you couldn’t wait to send it to them. Let them know they are not alone during this time. You are their person   

4. If you are adventurous: Video or Phone sex has never got anyone left on READ. It actually gets you a callback.

 It's safe, sexy, and Kinky AS FUCK! Call your friends who love BDSM to teach you a thing or two. Virtual sex allows you to push the boundaries between you and your partner. It makes each person excited for what's to come when you are in one space. 

You can set the mood for your virtual hook up by lighting candles, having your space neat, camera angles must be on point,  and start off with a striptease to get the eggplant ripe and keep the peach juicy. 

Playing a ”If I miss, I Strip. If you miss, You strip.” [if you know, you know ❤️ + 🏀 ] type of game may relax you and your partner. Of course, Make it specific to you and yours. Don’t forget to have your #BlackReeseMajic music playlist ready. If you don’t have a music playlist visit my apple music/ Spotify to follow any of mine  

5.    Lastly, Optional, and specific for my Spiritual Souls who believe in the power of Manifestation: ✨💕✨💕✨💕

[You do not have to have a person already to do this step. If you are someone hoping to find your quarantine boo or keep the one you have then this is for you]

 Step One: is to start by writing out everything you want in your person. Qualities, Attributes, Values, and Looks (if you believe in detail). Remember to write out how you want to be treated by your person. If you want to go the extra step. You can write what ‘You’ will be able to offer to your person. Once you have produced the person you desire in the concrete sense,

 Step Two: is to call on your spirits guides, ancestors, and higher power to bring forth your ask. Some things you may need to connect with the spiritual realm but are not required are 1.Pink Candle (Pink candles personify the purest form of love, a love without selfishness with selfless emotions, are ideal for the beginning of a relationship), 2. Herbs or Essential oils [if you have] have a centuries-long history of symbolizing love and devotion (Lavender, Rose, Basil, Calendula...etc). 3. Sage: “Sage is known to have healing properties and with the power of intention and spiritual connection with the source of all existence, the burning of Sage assists with healing and clearing.” 4. Offering: Clean and freshwater is the simplest form of offering. You can also offer coins, jewelry, fruits, anything appealing to the spirits. 5. Bell or anything that makes noise (can be your voice) 

And Step Three: Have a table or space specific for intentions or manifestation. With a clear mind, body, and soul begin my thanking creation for all that you already have. I like to place my “person desires” list under my pink candle. I sprinkle my herbs around and inside my candle. I  use a couple of drops of my essential oils for fragrance (Spirits love good smelling things). I make my spiritual space as pretty as possible (Glitter is enticing to spirits and crystals deepens the vibrations). I give the offering (usually freshwater, money, or coins). I chant (Chanting is specific to you. If you need help with a chant I usually say, “All praises to the most high. God, Spirits, Creation, and Ancestors, I thank you for everything you have done and everything you continue to do. I offer you my purest self and this alter to bring forth my ask…”  I burn my sage (smell, clarity, and guidance to myself and spirits), and finally, I light my pink love candle.

 I let my candle burn for a whole day or I light it every day for a few hours then blow it out.   

I hope this tea has filled your soul the way writing it has filled mine. Stay at home if you can and stay safe during this time. 

If you are someone who lost a loved one from complications of COVID19, I pray for healing and peace over your life. I am sending EACH and every one of you Light and Love from the depths of my soul. 

Spread Light and Love Every day! ✨💕

PEACE & Be The.      

    Sincerely, Pieces of Reese

Sources: 

https://www.miracleswithinus.com/the-spiritual-side-of-sage.html

https://dontmesswithmama.com/essential-oils-for-romance-love/

https://www.thespruce.com/herb-meanings-in-love-and-romance-1761964

https://www.sisterlove.org/post/keeping-it-safe-and-sexy-covid19

[beccasafan]

Had these messages waiting for me this morning. Since I actually got up this morning without hitting the snooze button a bunch, I have a few extra minutes, so...

These came to me via Tumblr chat message, not an anon ask. The account doesn’t follow me, I don’t follow them, and if you search Louis on their blog there are a grand total of 0 results. Maybe a side blog, but pro tip I have anon asks on so you didn’t need to go to that extra effort. 😊

Why are u posting that thing about VNP's?

Instead just recc another one thats not Hola

We need to encourage people to buy Louis' music not put fear on them

Facebook and Twitter also use your data for bots and political projects

Oh yeah you are a larrie all of you want to sabotage Louis career and his life

Why am I posting about VPNs? Well, because the one a lot of people in the fandom use and recommend is very unsafe to use, and I wouldn’t want someone to be hacked or their computer used for cyber crimes.

Instead just rec another one that’s not Hola. Sure, so happy you asked for a recommendation! So the thing is, Hola isn’t actually a VPN. It’s more of a proxy. So to start, use something that is an actual VPN. I’d recommend checking out a list like this one, but there are others you can pull up via searching as well. For whatever you want to use, I recommend searching for things like “Is <X> safe?” or “<X> security privacy” etc and seeing what’s out there.

Facebook and Twitter also use your data. Yes, they do track lots of data. Maybe it’s just me, but I consider Facebook knowing that I’ve been shopping for cat food slightly different than my computer/internet being used for cyber crimes. 🤷‍♀️

I’m a Larrie... Well, I am a Larrie, so I’ll give you the point for that one. Here’s the thing though. You have to go back to the over a month before you get to a post that would indicate that though. Was it the link in my header that gave me away? 😂

... and we all want to sabotage Louis. Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I certainly don’t want to sabotage Louis. I’ve been streaming the hell out of Kill My Mind on spotify and youtube and google music since it came out! I put it on the playlist we have going on the speakers at work, so all 50 people in the office heard it a few times that day. (It’s only a Friday thing.) I’ve purchased 6 copies of the song myself. Yesterday at work, someone came up and asked me what I was listening to, because it looked like I was having fun. Yeah, I had headphones on and was dancing while sitting in my chair and working, teehee!

In addition to what I’ve done at the personal level, I’ve also created and work with others on several fan projects. Bear with me for a minute while I toot my own horn, eh? 😜

Radio Request Database: An entire website I built (with lots of volunteers helping with the data, y’all are the true heros!) that has hundreds of stations/djs/shows from across the world so that it’s sooooo much easier for people to request not just Kill My Mind, but every single that Louis has! This has replaced my previous Twitter and Mediabase request generators, and between these have taken hours and hours and hours over the years. Mediabase requesting isn’t a thing anymore, and the Radio Request Database does Twitter requests, but also gives you contact info for IG, Facebook, text, phone, email, etc. Bit of an improvement over just Twitter, eh? Check out the RRD and make a few requests?

@ltcharts: People were talking about wanting to track chart status, and I knew that I could automate that instead of people manually checking charts all the time. Want to know when a song is on a chart / when that position is updated? @ltcharts will automatically post about it! Give @ltcharts a follow!!

@1dsponsorships: iTunes gifting doesn’t count towards charting, and I wasn’t involved in helping with the first fandom sponsorship effort, but I did volunteer my time to create an automated system for it. Why? I wanted to help fans that weren’t able to purchase the music connect with fans that were willing to gift them a copy. I wanted to help Louis’ music get exposed to more people.

...so no, sabotaging Louis’ career is definitely not something I want. I have been loving the promo we’ve been getting and I am so excited to see it continue. The latest interviews and articles with him talking about music? Yes please more of this!! Expanding his audience by going on the Indie show and articles that reach different people? Yes please more of this!!

And for anybody who’d like to interpret this as me hating Harry or Niall or Liam, everything I said about what I want for Louis and a successful career? Yup, want that for the others too!! Every project I do is for all the guys. RRD and sponsorships are for all of them. And @ltcharts also goes with @hscharts, @nhcharts, and @lpcharts.

[markbaratto-blog1]

Take your blog posts Viral

I just an a great back-and-forth this morning on twitter (@l6now) over the discussion on K-Factor calculation with Jorge, a friend of the Launch6 Team.  For those of you that never heard of a “K-Factor,” it’s basically a formula one uses to calculate a viral sharing number.  The K-factor can be used to describe the growth rate of websites, apps, or a customer base.  The formula is roughly as follows:

i = number of invites sent by each customer c = percent conversion of each invite k = i * c

Before we get into how to measure viral distribution, let’s find out some reasons why your content is NOT going viral.

Everyone wants their content to go viral, right? Why else would we spend hours and hours working on blog posts, creating infographics, and crafting engaging messages on your social media accounts? We want people to read it.There is a big difference between creating content and creating engaging content that people want to read and share with their friends online. If you are not getting the results you want from your content development plan and failing to get the far reaching exposure that will expand your brands online presence, then you need to make a change.

Unfortunately, creating great content does not necessarily mean that it will go viral. There are a number of key reasons why your content is not going viral.

The following points bring to light some of the most common mistakes that professional and novice content creators make when creating online content:

Your content lacks an emotional connection: Tapping into your readers emotions is essential. People love content that appeals to their emotions, especially when you tap into problem areas and offer viable solutions. Start by using emotional words and phrases in the title of your blog post or video and try using a basic problem/solution style in the body of your post.

Your content in not inherently shareable: One of the biggest mistakes that people make that prevents their content from going viral is that they create non-sharable content. This is why it’s viral to understand your audience and tap into their interests. Write about topics they want to read about, be current, tell a story, and provide the information your audience is searching for online.

Your timing is off: Timing is everything. For example, no one cares about romantic date ideas to sweep your sweetheart off their feet on Valentine’s Day if it’s posted on February 15th. This is important for everything you post. When you post is also very important – look into the times and days of the week when your content is most likely to shared and create a timeline that will help you maximize the impact of your content.

Your content is not visually appealing: Looks matter! Your content need to look the part. The design needs to look professional, have attention grabbing elements, and be visually appealing to your audience.

You are not sharing on the right social channels: If you want your content to go viral, you need to not only share it on the correct social channels online, you also need to tap into the audience that is interested in reading and sharing your content. Think about your connections. Do you know any friends, family, or colleagues that have influence in topic area? Is there a particular social media channel that is intuitive for the type of content you want to share?

Rectifying these issues to better position your content will help you reach a wider audience – an audience that is looking for and actually wants to read your content.

Article by Nolan Wilson

One thing I would add to the above is having the right Viral Sharing Tools.  With the right sharing links, you can add unique URLs to specific parts of your website that your users / subscribers can share.  Luckily we provide all of these tools for free for our members, so we have you covered here.  Launch6 has trackable social sharing that is able to set up conversion pages to track social media ROI.

Not, let’s dive into the measurement goodies.

Below is a fantastic post by Des Trainer – the cofounder of Intercom.io

MEASURING VIRAL DISTRIBUTION

Explanations are explanations, promises are promises, diagrams are diagrams… but only performance is reality.

Let’s look at how to measure social distribution. Our question here is: given a new user, how many additional new users will we get? This is what’s known as a k-factor. If k is above one, we have gone viral. Unless you are the purple cow, k is well below one, but that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Recall that Dropbox benefitted heavily from social distribution despite not going viral. A k of 0.5 means that for every 10 users you acquire (through adwords, blogging, affiliates, etc.), you’re also getting another 5 on top which lowers your cost per acquisition.

MEASURING YOUR K-FACTOR

You won’t get these 4 measurements from Google Analytics, so you’ll need to an engineer handy to run some queries. It’s a pretty simple formula, k=a*b*c*d with the following definitions

a: the percentage of users who publish at least one share event per visit.

b: the average share events per user per visit.

c: the number of Users referred from social networks for each share event.

d: the percentage of c that become authenticated users (i.e. in a state where they too can publish).

If you’ve just run the numbers here there’s a 99% chance that you’re disappointed. You were hoping for somewhere in the 0.5 to 1.5 range, but now you’re staring 0.02 in the face, meaning that for every fifty users you acquire, you might get one bonus one.

IMPROVING YOUR K-FACTOR

There are 4 metrics you need to aggressively monitor. They are as follows:

MUU: total number of monthly unique users.

MAU: total number of monthly authenticated users (i.e. those that are logging in).

DAU: total number of daily authenticated users.

pDAU: total number of daily authenticated users who publish sharable events.

There are 3 key ratios shown here—MUU to MAU, MAU to DAU, and DAU to pDAU. Improve each of these ratios improves your k-factor. Let’s look at what we can do.

IMPROVING MUU TO MAU

In other words, how can we get more of the monthly visitors to sign-up or login? There’s 3 ways to influence this ratio:

One-click social sign-in. This outperforms username/password on all consumer products, bar none. If you don’t have it as an option, you’re hurting yourself.

Promote social sign-in above your standard sign-in. All things being equal, consumer sites want customers to sign in via Facebook, as this helps the product spread. Of course, do offer your own login system as an option, but only as a secondary one.

Finally, for customers arriving from a social network, have them sign in solely through that network. e.g. if a user comes via Twitter, ask them to sign in via Twitter. It’ll be the smoothest experience (as they’re already logged in).

IMPROVING MAU TO DAU

Another way to phrase this would be: how can I increase engagement so that my users return to the site more frequently (and log in while doing so)?

We’ve covered the techniques for engaging users extensively on the blog before, but the key ideas here are automatic login (the average Facebook user is perpetually logged into Facebook, so you can automatically log them into your site based on FB authentication), useful notifications to motivate a return, and regular digests and summary mails.

IMPROVE DAU TO PDAU

How can we encourage more of our users to share? There are three key ideas here:

Lightweight event sharing: anywhere there is activity, you should ask yourself if it is shareable. Someone pins a dress on Pinterest, makes a playlist on Spotify, likes a photo on Flickr, reads an article on the New York Times site, adds a review on Foursquare, starts a project on Dribbble, searches for photos on Spots.io… all of these are shareable events. The more you have, the better your ratio.

Passive sharing: you can automatically share some activities, assuming you have user’s permission. For example, Spotify, LastFM, Quora, etc. all passively share lots of user activities, which guarantees a pDAU to DAU ratio of 1:1. Every single time I launch Spotify, I’m sharing to Facebook. When you can remove a ratio from the equation, it significantly reduces your challenges.

Share from anywhere: a common mistake here is to only permit sharing from your web app. Activities should be shareable any time they are performed—not just through a web application. This means that in the rush to sleek mobile design, you need to be careful about cutting off your call-to-actions for sharing.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Spamming doesn’t work. It’s bad for business. Sharing without permission, sharing non-user activity on their behalf, spamming friend lists, sending irrelevant push notifications, all of these are short-term wins, but in the long term you lose absolutely everything. Your app will be blocked, your users will cancel, and your product will be pulled from the App Store.

Viral distribution accelerates your logical conclusion. This is why you have to solve retention first. If you have no compelling reason to return, then going viral won’t help you—it’ll just speed up the process at which you die. Bill Bernbach famously said “Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. Everyone tries the thing and never buys it again.”. The same is true for good distribution.

Social distribution brings a new wave of growth which both consumer and business-to-business products can benefit from. But if your product sucks then it just brings the lethal injection.

Lastly, marketing guru Mark Baratto says put out great content and a reason to share it.  If content is good consistently over time, you will become an authority in your space.  The more value you add to your customer, there more they will want to help you; put your customer first.

Looking for FREE online tools to help you get more customers and persuade them to take action? Check out LAUNCH6.com for more details.

[priscillafeltencims-blog]

Consumerism as Cultural Capital: Priscilla Felten’s Media Diet and Diary

I begin consuming and interacting with media before I even gain consciousness in the morning. In the olden days of freshman and sophomore year, I easily could stay up until 4:00 in the morning and wake up with ample time to make it to my 9:00 AM class. Now, as a burned-out junior, I have achieved milestones such as waking up 6 minutes before a final finance presentation, still managing to get into my seat a minute before class begins. To offset this ongoing issue, I have begun to rely on my Amazon Alexa to get me up in the morning and start my day; her calm alarm not only gets me up without a harsh wake-up call, but it also ensures I don't hit the snooze button one too many times.

The first thing I check when I turn on my phone is my email. My Snapchat, iMessage, and Instagram check-ups follow closely behind, but I consider myself obsessive when it comes to my email. Not only does it contain important information regarding my academic, personal, and social life, but it is also the source of much of the media that I consume throughout the day. Before getting ready for the day, I give myself at least 15 minutes to peruse trade publications for my daily fix of all things entertainment. Specifically, I subscribe to and read "The Hollywood Reporter's" daily newsletter, "Today in Entertainment," every morning. It has essentially become a part of my morning routine, inseparable from mundane tasks such as brushing my teeth and putting on makeup. My reading of these trade publications by no means stops once I leave for class in the morning. I constantly have my email open, actively checking for the next article to read, or video to watch. I have come to consider this type of media a form of cultural capital. From these articles, I gain essential knowledge as both an informed consumer and an employee in the industry. Additionally, it is a form of cultural capital that I can "trade" with my friends for the sake of intellectual curiosity.

On my walk to class, I listen to The New York Times podcast The Daily in order to stay up to date with socio-political occurring in the world right now. Multi-tasking, I also check in on my social media accounts. On the grand scheme of things, I don’t consider myself the most active of users, but I use these apps as a way to communicate and keep in touch with the people who I don’t get the chance to see every day. For example, I keep up with my friends from home through daily Snapchat streaks; I still feel like I have contact with them just by seeing their face even if I am not sending text messages to them on a daily basis. Additional features like Snapchat Maps allow me to feel physically connected in a vast virtual space.

Because of our busy college schedules, much of my media consumption comes in small bursts between classes when I have 10 or 15 minutes to spare to check my phone. On my walks across campus, I use my Beats Wireless Headphones and put on my Spotify Daily Mix 2-- an algorithmically personalized playlist, with new music continuing to load as I listen. I have come to swear by the personalized algorithms that Spotify uses to recommend new content to their users. I am always eager to discover a new, relatively unknown artist or song. However, one limitation to Spotify’s algorithm is its ability to recognize the difference between multiple users operating under the same account. I admit to letting my younger brother utilize my Spotify Premium account. As a result, all of my personalized playlists, from my Release Radar to my Discover Weekly, have been inundated by heavy metal and rap music; I don’t mind it in doses, but it has limited my ability to discover new music that I would actually listen to.

My final and favorite type of daily media consumption often, to my dismay, ends up being the smallest portion of my day. Much of the trade reading that I do informs the next TV show or film that I want to watch. My passion for the entertainment industry stems from my love of storytelling, which ultimately falls at the core of the content created and streamed on platforms. Additionally, I see the content that I am watching as another form of cultural capital; many of my friends come to me looking for their next new TV show to watch. Additionally, by consuming content, I am able to participate in both national and global conversations virtually on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and beyond.

[wantyellow548]

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps

What the actual f*** is wrong with Spotify’s Shuffle?

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps Automatically

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps Free

Spotify Draw Over Other Apps

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps Together

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Category: Artist, Albums: A Child's Guide To Good And Evil, Vol. 2, Part One, Singles: Rhino Hi-Five: The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Top Tracks: I Won't Hurt You, Shifting Sands, A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death, Eighteen Is over the Hill, If You Want This Love, Biography: One of the more offbeat acts to emerge during the. But as a customer of Spotify Premium, it was more annoying than anything to be paying for something that failed to work. And it kept happening, and happening, and happening. Over the course of years. Use Spotify’s other tools Beyond promoting to the followers you already have, there are some key ways to get your music to more ears on Spotify: Make sure you regularly update your Artist Pick: It’s at the top of your artist profile, giving you control over what song, album, or playlist people see when they land on your page.

On desktop, download the Discord app and open it. Click Connections in the menu on the left. A web page will open to connect. If you’re not already logged into Spotify on the device, you’re directed to log in or sign up first. Click CONFIRM to confirm. Fortunately, it’s a pretty easy fix once you know what’s causing the error: a feature found in Marshmallow and beyond that allows apps to “draw” over other apps. For example, Facebook Messenger uses chat heads to stay in the foreground of whatever you’re doing—this is the app using the “Draw over other apps” feature. Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Spotify Music. LiveXLive is also free, which means you won’t have to spend a lot to get their content. Watching the live performances is the big draw of this streaming app, but it has plenty of other features as well. You can go beyond music here and catch the news or hear the latest scores of your favorite sports teams.

You’re on the go (maybe in a little hurry) you hit up that carefully curated playlist on Shuffle mode.

Only to get after two to three songs that Spotify plays the same song over again and again, and the very idea of you having to take out your device and adjust your Spotify doesn’t really make life any easier.

It’s frustratingly annoying.

But don’t worry.

Just hit up that Marvin Gaye and I’ll show you how you can fix when your Spotify Shuffle play is not random. 🙂

How to Fix When Spotify Shuffle Play is Not Random : 5 Ways

Make sure to go from 1-5 accordingly

1.Restart your Spotify App

Step 1: Go ahead and Log Out from your Spotify account by heading to Your Library and then your Settings (gear icon) which is to your top right hand corner.

Step 2: Once you’ve logged out from your Spotify, restart your Spotify app by closing the app, and clearing it from your apps which are running in your background.

Step 3: Now after you’ve done all that, select your Spotify app and log back in.

Now try a playlist of yours if Spotify Shuffle is indeed shuffling your music.

If you find that Spotify Shuffle play is not random then move on to the next method.

2.Sort Your Tracks By Title

This one’s apretty popular one amongst the Spotify community and for some it has provided a fix to their music shuffling crisis.

Here’s how you do it

Step 1: Head over to your Spotify and select the playlist that you want to listen to.

Step 2: Now you’re in your playlist right? Okay. So what you do is swipe your finger down on the screen. You will see a Filter search bar at the top and a hamburger-like symbol to its right.

Step 3: Select that hamburger symbol and once you’re in, you can select how you would like to sort out your songs in your playlist. Just select Title. Spotify mac os x 10.5.8 download.

Step 4: Now tap on that big green Shufflebutton in your playlist screen and see if your music plays randomly.

If you still feel that your music often plays the same song over and over again then.

Keep reading.

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps Automatically

3.Update Your Spotify App

Make sure that your Spotify app is updated to the latest version.

More often than not, the reason why your Spotify Shuffle play is not random is because Spotify could have already updated their Shuffle play algorithm and you’ll never know since you are on a older version of Spotify and when it still plays that same song over again and again.

I’ll show you how you can update your Spotify app whether you’re on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) or Android.

If you’re on iOS

Step 1:Head over to your App Store.

Step 2: Then go on to the Updates tab to your far right hand side and check if your Spotify app needs to be updated.

If you’re on Android

Step 1: Go ahead and open your Google Play Store app.

Step 2: Next, tap the Menu symbol (yeah it’s the one that kinda looks like a hamburger). Then select My apps & games.

Step 3: Look for Spotify. If you see Update next to it, then select Update. If not your Spotify is already updated to the latest version.

That’s it. 🙂

The Last.fm Desktop Scrobbler for Windows is a simple app that runs in the background and automatically updates your profile with what you’ve been playing on your computer via native media players such as Windows Media Player or iTunes. Download now for Windows Compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. Not using Windows? 1.7.0 (2019-9-22) codename: mingus. Login notification bug. Music App Activity bug. Rate Limit Exceeded status for Last.fm. Get the official Last.fm Scrobbler App to keep track of what you're listening to on Apple Music. Check out your top artist, album and song charts from all-time to last week, view detailed artist information and watch videos of your favourite tracks. Note: only tracks stored locally in. Last fm spotify scrobbler downloader.

Now try your Spotify again and hit up a playlist to see it if does shuffle your music randomly.

If it does, great!

If not, you are to going need to use your last resort.

4.Use Spotify Shuffler (It’s Free)

Basically Spotify Shuffler is a completely free (and safe) third party application which helps shuffle all your music for you much better than Spotify ever does.

The only caveat is though you’re going to need to return to Spotify Shuffler every time you want your music to be shuffled. (But if you’re going to listen to a 50-100 song playlist on the go, you don’t need to shuffle all that often right?).

I’ll show you how it works.

Step 1: Go ahead and login to your Spotify account via Spotify Shuffler.

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps Free

Step 2: Signed in? Great! Now go ahead and choose any playlist you like and randomize it.

Step 3: In order to listen to the playlist that you just randomized you need to listen to the playlist in your Spotify app with the shuffle turned off. (This is so that Spotify’s Shuffle doesn’t interfere with our already-randomized playlist)

That’s it!

Now just return to the site whenever you want to repeat the process when you would like your tracks in a new order. 🙂

If you get any errors then you can drop them an email on their Contact page and they’ll let you know if there is any maintenance with their service (it’s a free service after all).But if you find that the errors you get still doesn’t get fixed, then keep reading.

Even if you have tried all the 4 methods above and you find that it still doesn’t do the trick then you can always…

5. Switch to Apple Music or Google Play Music

I know this is not really a fix, but it is certainly indeed an option.

Spotify Draw Over Other Apps

Both Apple Music and Google Play Music have a great algorithm to shuffle your music and both of which comes at the same price of Spotify at $9.99 or $14.99 with a Family Plan (up to six people).

Spotify Won't Draw Over Other Apps Together

I’ll only encourage you to move if you really use Shuffle play almost everyday and if you just about had it enough with Spotify’s efforts of improving their Shuffle algorithm.

[angryconnoisseurgentlemen]

Go Offline Spotify App

Spotify Premium is one of the most interesting and amazing apps for people who love music streaming. People are loving it and you can guess it through its no of download. But some people find some problem in using it as it’s a paid app and everyone can’t pay all the time and even for it’s with auto-renewal. Then here comes Spotify Premium APK for your need to fulfil. It’s not paid and doesn’t need any auto-renewal every time.

Play Spotify Offline On Computer

How To Turn Spotify Offline

Download Offline Spotify Free

One of the main reasons people also prefer to use Spotify is its unique and creative features. Developers have designed and updated it according to the need and suggestions of user experiences. Through Spotify Mod APK now everyone can use this app with all its current and updated features. It provides all Spotify Premium features without getting paid and auto-renewal.

By Ana Hurka-Robles, Henry T. Casey 26 October 2017 Here’s how to have your favorite tunes available even when you’re offline, by syncing your Spotify playlists on your iPhone. Spotify streams your favorite tunes to you as long as you have a data connection. But, what do you do if you don't have a data connection on your iPhone? You use Spotify's Offline mode, of course!

My Spotify will not let me sign in I have internet and when I sign in with Facebook it asks me to go online I don't want to reinstall the app as I would loose all my downloaded songs. Spotify is a digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs. Spotify is all the music you’ll ever need. Listening is everything - Spotify. However, the Spotify web player and Spotify Android app both appear to be working as usual. Turning off the iPhone's mobile data and WiFi allows the user to open the Spotify app in offline mode.

Contents

3 Key Features of Spotify Premium:

11 Spotify Premium APK Account FAQ:

What is Spotify Premium APK?

Spotify Mod APK is a modified and unlocked form of original Spotify App that can be used with immediate access without paying anything, unlike its paid version. Anyone can use and enjoy all the premium features of Spotify with family and friends as it has different versions.

Basic Features of Spotify:

Spotify Limited launched Spotify in 2008, and it gets updated with more exciting features all the time and then it also launched its app which has now around 500 million downloads with 271 million active users and it also introduced its monthly subscription options for individual, family and student basis. Spotify can be used offline and it’s also free from advertisement.

It is usually left to the editorial team at the company who decides which songs deserve to get the look. Over the past few years, being featured on the playlist has become a goal for many artists and labels. Download spotify playlist online.

You can search for songs by song lyrics and also with the singer name. It has more than 50 million tracks and 3 billion playlists. Firstly, Spotify was limited to use in the United States and Sweden, and now it’s being used in around 80 countries. Spotify has three plans Individual, Family and Student with monthly charges of £4.99/9.99/14.99. A family plan can be used for a maximum of 6 accounts and the other two can be used for one account only.

You can use Spotify for Android, iOS and with Computer (Windows, Linux, macOS) with full quality offline and online streaming. But in Spotify Premium APK there are limited features like it will show some ads, have lower quality than an original paid app as in this free download version some features are still locked.

Key Features of Spotify Premium:

No Advertisement:

All of us know that advertisement during app streaming is annoying and many online streaming has this issue but here in Spotify videos are ads free.

this feature has made this app more attractive. But if you get free Spotify here than it shows some ads in it but many of its users don’t mind of these little ads. It ruins a bit of experiencing this app but for sure that’s free.

Discover Favourite Music:

When you set up the account than Spotify asks about the account holder’s interest in favourite category and artist and after that Spotify show all the relevant interest-based music from which you can select the videos to play.

Skips and Shuffles:

The premium version provides an option to shuffles and skip any song, but this is for limited no of times, and when you expire this limit you can’t skip or shuffles any song. But Spotify Premium Mod APK gives unlimited skips and shuffles to users. And users love it.

Streaming Quality:

One of the key features of Spotify that its streaming audio quality adjusts as per the device and or you can select the default audio.

Vehicle or Car View:

If you are travelling and using Spotify Premium than video or audio switching option can be used. You have to turn this option “ON” then song switching will be very easy for Car or Vehicle mod. Many users spend all their leisure time while travel and here Spotify is a great option to spend with.

Spotify Offline:

It is also one of Spotify’s best feature. You can find any music or podcast video or audio you need and may download to play that in offline mode. And this feature also makes it a unique choice for many users. Because many users don’t have a WIFI option all day. So, they just download the music video so they can play it in offline mode.

No Extra Extension Required:

Another key feature of Spotify is that it doesn’t require any rooting means it has NO ROOT option which also makes it unique.

Music Lyrics and Back Story:

Spotify partnered with genius to provide its users, another extra feature of music lyrics and back story of the song to make that video more interesting to users and it also enhances their information about their favourite songs and singers.

Social Sharing Option:

Now-a-day’s people have more love to share their favourite videos and sons on their social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to show their kind of interest.

My Playlist:

Spotify also gives options for its users to create and build their playlist for their loving Songs and Podcasts.

Spotify Connect Option:

There are many users who use Spotify with many devices like T.V, Cell, Car, I pad with their sound system so they can use Spotify Connect option.

Spotify Radio:

One of the great features is that it automatically builds its playlist based upon your searches and interests and that helps its user to search for his/her specific video.

Spotify App Version:

Application NameSpotify AppDeveloper NameSpotify LimitedUpdate On2 Days AgoMod Version8.5.81.991Mod FeaturesNo Ads, Premium UnlockedAvailable GuideFor Windows, Android and iOSAPK Size23 MBNo. of Downloads500,000,000+

Requirements for Spotify Premium APK to Install and Use:

Spotify has a great feature that it can be used with minimum requirements for devices even though how old that device or phone is. At least Android 4.1 should be installed on the phone because this is the basic Operating System to use Spotify. Even with this one the requirement you can enjoy Spotify with all its premium features. But adding one more thing in these criteria is to create a Spotify account first that will make your experience smooth and easy for Spotify Premium features.

How to Install and Use Spotify Premium APK:

You can install Spotify from the above-given download link which will route you to download the unlocked and mod APK of Spotify. But here one main thing you must have to know and remember for future also that you don’t have to update the app from within the Spotify account for experiencing all features all the time even when the updated version is available because that will divert you to the paid version. Every time you must download the updated version from the above link as from here you will get the updated version link. We know this is one limitation of this but that should be bearable for experiencing the free Spotify.

One more thing to consider for using Spotify Premium it user faces a problem that APK version they are using on their device is unstable we know that’s annoying but to avoid this problem users first have to research and download the APK version that is compatible with their devices sometimes APK is heavy that put the device on rendering. You can follow a hint here if you a mobile version then download the older version of Spotify Mod APK which will more probably solve your problem.

Spotify Premium APK for PC users:

Here are some quick steps to follow and install the Spotify APK as its not available on Google Play store.

Step 1: Go to Download Page Link, which will route you to the actual page of download. Click here and download will start.

Step 2: When downloading is completed than in chrome upper right corner you will see three dots, click on it a drop-down menu will appear and you may select Spotify APK here.

Spotify Premium APK for Android users:

If you are an android user then follow these steps to download APK.

Step 1: Click the above-given download page link.

Step 2: This will route you to the download page. Click on the “Download Now” button. Install the APK here and complete the process to create your Spotify Account.

Step 3: Now you can open the APK and enjoy Spotify.

Spotify Premium APK for iOS users:

This Mod APK is just for PC and Android users but if someone wants to use this on iOS than some extra steps must be followed here.

Step1: Install any android emulator like apps valley in your iOS and connect your PC with iOS via this emulator.

Step2: Download, the Spotify Mod APK and save it at some specific location.

Step3: Turn ON the trust of that device with PC to give access to use the APK.

Step4: Now login to the Spotify APK and enjoy this.

Otherwise, the app allows the users to stream online the songs without using the extra storage space. Spotify mega mod apk no root.

One key thing to note if you are using a browser other than chrome than they will ask for unknown source permission to select the app and download the Spotify APK to install.

Note: Here is a free gift for all of you.

Spotify is not available in your country?

Spotify is only available in around 80 countries which sometimes limits its number of users expand but here you may solve the problem by using a VPN on your mobile. Here is the full process to follow and use the Spotify Account.

Install a free VPN and after that fully validate the VPN account and set target country location i.e. the United States. After this create your account in Spotify and use this freely.

Here one key point to note is trying to use VPN mostly when you are using Spotify Account even in Offline mode to pass the location tracking of App.

Spotify Premium APK Account FAQ:

Is it possible that the Spotify playlist gets deleted?

If you are using Spotify offline than it may possible that due to some error it stops showing you the playlist. You can get it back. Just go online and open up your account here your playlist is saved. You can find all your information here in Spotify account.

Is there any other app we can use instead of Spotify?

Spotify is the best among all the music streaming apps because of the quality and a vast collection of tracks and due to this, it has gathered a huge number of users who are active. Along with Spotify, there are some other streaming apps like Amazon Music, Deezer, etc.

How to update my Spotify Mod APK?

If you are using Spotify app paid version then you will find an option in the right side of your Spotify account to update it. If you want to update its Mod APK version than you can download it here again. We regularly update these versions on an immediate basis.

Can we use Spotify Offline?

Yes, there is an option to download songs from the Spotify app and after saving that you may go offline and may enjoy your lovely music while staying offline. This service is also available for free if you download the mod APK link from here.

Is it legal to use the Spotify free version?

If you are using the Spotify premium version than it’s legal and fair. Spotify has all the rights of its collection of tracks. They are fairly paying royalties to all the singers and content creator companies according to their contracts. If you are using a free version of it than it is against the terms and policies of Spotify Limited. Because it’s just modified and unlocked by freelance developers who worked over it released this free version. In the paid version account holders get full customer support and emails to get the Spotify update notification on time, which secures the account on time.

Can we use Spotify without rooting the phone or device?

If you are using the updated free mod APK version than you don’t need to root your phone, and it also does not need any other extension to play. But if you already rooted the phone then you still can use this phone.

Is there any difference between Spotify’s paid and free version?

Yes, there are many differences between free and paid versions of Spotify Account. You will find no ads if you are using a paid version. You will get notification all the time when the Spotify Limited will update the app. There are videos which you can access only if you are using a paid version. Even you get amazed by the high-level customer service support.

Can I use the Spotify Account if it’s not available in my country?

Spotify is available in around 80 countries and still Spotify Limited is working to expand its network to other countries. Currently, if Spotify is not available in your country you may use free VPN service for this. You may set your preferred location where Spotify is already available. You must have to ensure that your free VPN is bypassing the Google location finding parameters because sometimes even paid VPN stops working and can’t hide device location.

For how much devices Spotify can be used with better Quality?

According to Spotify’s criteria if you have individual or student account you can use it with one device only but if you have a family account than you can attach it with six devices.

Does Spotify operate fine to any internal or external internet connection?

Spotify works fine with both internal (normal cellular data) or external (WIFI connection). If its speed is around 5 Mbps, it works fine with the same speed and quality of content.

How to use Spotify when its showing location error?

When someone is using Spotify account with free VPN then it shows some location error when your VPN location is not active, or when your free VPN is not able to bypass the Google location finder. You have to log out both account than the first login to VPN to choose your Spotify supported location and after that loin to Spotify Account. In this way, it will start working. If it still not works then download any other free VPN available and try to choose location United States because it fully supports Spotify App.

Can we change the Spotify account password?

Yes, you can change the Spotify password. Once you search for the Spotify Login page and put your email or username and click on the password change request. You will find right below the password box. Spotify will send a password reset link to the given email. You have to click the link and put your new password and you can now enjoy your Spotify content.

What is Spotify++?

You can use Spotify paid version only for android or windows. What iOS users will do with that and how can they use that. Here you will find the modified version of Spotify by developers which is available as Spotify Plus Plus or Spotify ++. We told earlier that we must configure an android emulator or apps valley for iOS to use it as an android mobile. Android emulator like Apps Valley is configured first then go to the home screen and search Spotify Account to login. Here confirmation of VPN if you are using it from the country which is not supportive of Spotify.

Is using Spotify Mod APK safe on any device?

Spotify recently detected some modified versions of the app with malware and which also damage the Spotify users’ devices due to that malware. Here you will find mod APK after full scanning by world high paid websites like Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee, etc.

How much amount I can save with Spotify Mod APK?

Spotify is the world’s renowned music streaming app. It’s “Video Quality” is incomparable, but if you still want to save your cost, a free version is available as Spotify APK here. After three months trial period Spotify charges $5 and $10 per month for Spotify student and individual account. You can download Spotify Mod APK here if you want to save your cost.

How to get Spotify Premium account, for free?

Spotify Premium for android and Spotify Plus Plus for iOS can be downloaded here with full is free access.

Can I use Spotify in my car via Bluetooth and without Phone?

You can use Spotify in the car via Bluetooth. You must pair your phone or any other device in which you are using your Spotify account with car stereo. Remember this process of pairing is the same as a pairing of any other Bluetooth enabled devices.

Is this the latest version of Spotify Mod APK?

Play Spotify Offline On Computer

This Spotify mod APK 8.5.81.991 is the latest version to date. One thing you must remember that to update your APK you can bookmark this page. You will find here the newer version immediately when it’s available. Spotify premium free iphone without jailbreak.

Conclusion and Recommendation:

How To Turn Spotify Offline

Finally, we can say Spotify is the best music streaming app with millions of soundtracks. It has the largest number of active users due to this vast variety of its quality content. We update Spotify Premium APK all the time when the newer version is available. Someone may shift its account to a paid version or can use this for free forever. So, go and enjoy your free streaming music tracks without any hassle.

Download Offline Spotify Free

Related Posts:

[helpingmehelpmyself]

Things I Used to Enjoy- March 29, 2021

Gosh, I have so many things going through my head. I miss the days I was able to daydream, read fanfiction, and watch television. I remember the day would go by and I would question where the time went. But it felt like self care to me then and I enjoyed it. Now it feels like a useless distraction that no longer serves its purpose. 

I want to enjoy the things I used to enjoy. I love fanfiction (particularly, Teen Wolf sterek fanfiction. I can also ship steter, starrish, and stackson. I believe they can all compliment Stiles well). I would squeel while reading and get excited every time I found a new fanfiction that fits my criteria. Sometimes I have good days in which I can read fanfiction and fall into the story.

I used to love daydreaming. My imagination is basically a fanfiction with ten or so fandoms running around with some cannon and non-cannon storylines. I liked falling asleep to my daydreams or staring at the wall while I daydreamed. I considered writing my daydreams down and turning them into a fanfiction for Ao3, but part of it feels personal. This is a world I have written and rewritten so many times since I was... 16, maybe? It’s easier to rewrite or follow through a storyline in my head than it is to write it down and focus on details that I never really focused on before. If your curious, my daydream fanfictions include the following fandoms: Teen Wolf, Scandal, Glee, Twilight, The Gentlemen, and Crazy Rich Asians. Occasionally, Beyonce’s Homecoming special and other things will make an appearance. I include most characters from these programs and create some OC’s in my head that have nothing to do with the other fandoms. Sometimes I’ll pluck someone from another place, like Carrie from Sex & The City but combine her with Isabel from Glee and mix up her storyline, or create a character with the appearance of a famous actor, like the original Mr. Fantastic actor.

I loved music. I could listen to music all day and enjoy myself. Sometimes it was the soundtrack to my imagination or I’d have some of my characters sing the songs I was listening to. I would listen to the same songs on repeat and create scenes with them and sometimes I’ll be able to add new music to the mix. If I wanted to listen to an album, I’d sit/lay down in my room and focus on nothing but the album. If there was an artist I liked and wanted to explore more of, I would go through their entire Spotify history and listen to every song at least once. I’d add it to my Liked Songs playlist because I am crap at creating playlists (minus the Boudoir playlist I made last year for my photoshoot, but that’s another story). Almost every song I have ever liked is on my Liked Songs. I think I have over a thousand songs on there, which is pretty decent. I kind of know where every song is located when it’s organized by Recently Added. Minus screamo, heavy metal, gangsta rap, underground music or electronic music, I listened to a little of everything. I loved Glee, Hamilton, Meg the Stalion, Kendrick Lamarr, the Civil Wars, early Taylor Swift, American Authors, Secondhand Serenade, G-Eazy, Mulatto, Into the Heights, Moana, Victorious, I could go on. Every song plays a part of my history and I love expanding it.

I can’t really do those things the same anymore and I wish I could. Writing fanfiction sounds like it could be a possibility for me because most of my life, I wanted to be a writer or be an editor. The fear of financial security made me switch to a business major and it didn’t make things any easier I find. I guess more approving nods from other adults about my choice in degree was a plus.

I can’t focus on my own daydreams anymore. It used to give me so much joy but it also reflected my emotions: horny, sad, in love, etc. The fact that I was able to create worlds that don’t exist to anyone but me made me happy. Sometimes when I wanted to be closer to God, I’d even deepen the relationship of some of my characters with God. 

Music doesn’t sound the same anymore. I can’t focus to the point of slipping into happiness often.

I did have a good day the day before yesterday. I decided that maybe listening to the song that always lifted my spirits in the past, whether they needed lifting or not, would help. My song is “Do You Believe in Magic” by Aly & AJ. I don’t know what it is about that song but when I first heard it on Disney Channel when I was little for the movie, Now You See It. Something about that song was and still is special. I was able to sing horribly to the song. I was watching Freaky Friday that day and remembered how much Ultimate by Lindsey Lohan rocked. I was able to listen to that song and daydream a totally new scenario for my mental fanfiction characters. There was so much happiness and positivity in the scene.

That same day, when night fell, I felt so sad I made myself sick and was gagging in the toilet. I convinced myself not to make myself throw up because I don’t want that to become a habit. I don’t want to mentally make myself sick and think that throwing up every time will fix me. I felt like shit for hours later, but I was glad that I didn’t throw up. I knew I was in a bad enough position that I needed company. 2/3 of my best friends and one of their boyfriends showed up at my place, late at night and stayed with me for hours. We’d talk about the issues that were plaguing my mind and about 2 of them moving into a new apartment together. 

I went back and forth from lying in the bathroom and lying in my bed. I don’t know why but whenever I was sick growing up, laying on the bathroom floor made me feel better. I know it is unsanitary and gross, but you get to a point that you don’t care. The bathroom has always felt safe for me. I still remember the first time I did it. My mom, brother, and I lived in an apartment about 20-30 minutes away from where we live now. I was getting ready for school one day and I guess I didn’t feel good. I laid down on the bathroom floor and that’s how my mom found me. She knew that this little 5 or 6 year old that never complained about school wasn’t faking anything. I think after that point, my mom became pretty trusting of me whenever I said I can’t go to school. Whether I was physically sick or needed a mental health day, she let it happen. I didn’t practice this often until I was junior high and high school, but it helped knowing my mom would let me take care of myself however I saw fit. I think she also didn’t want to have to keep taking off of work to pick me up from school.

The issues that brought me to tears were my boyfriend, the love of my life. I have only dated one boy before him. That was back in high school and I liked that I had a boyfriend more than I actually liked my boyfriend. We had been friends for years and were in speech and debate together. I asked him to my prom and, due to a misunderstanding, he never replied. When we realized the misunderstanding, he asked me to his prom (We went to two different schools) which was fun. It was at a country club, his parents had dinner catered to their house for us (very successful accountants) and we got some cute pictures from that night. I found myself bored with the relationship and knew ending it wouldn’t affect my quality of life within that moment. So I did. Now he is happily out as gay with his partner of 3 years and starting Harvard Law in the fall. I kind of like that fact and it made it easier to be friends with him on Facebook and Instagram again.

But back to my current boyfriend, the boy I didn’t think that I would fall for. To make our love story short (I’ll probably go into more in another post), we met on Tinder 2.5 years ago when the guy I was talking to/dating previously decided to go back to his toxic/abusive ex-girlfriend. I was talking to my soon-to-be boyfriend and another guy at the time and my boyfriend was the one that lasted. I remember that I would message every Tinder match with “Aye” because everyone wants the other person to start the conversation or else there won’t be a conversation. He responded with “I love your smile. It’s so positive” and that was my downward spiral. We’re pretty good at communication and we are a good match for each other. We both come from mostly different backgrounds, racially and socially. Sometimes there are things about me he’ll never understand, but making strong friends with people who weren’t racially the same as me kind of prepared me for that. 

Anyways, he wants to be a doctor of osteopathic medicine (still don’t know what that is) and go to med school for it a year after our undergrad. I don’t plan on starting grad school right now because I am not fully sure what I want to do with my career just yet. I’m not going to put myself in more debt or spend more time in school without a reason. Anyways, not many medical schools in our state offer the certification he’d need so he’s even looking at schools out of state. I have always wanted to go with him and support him through it while I start my career, but as that time draws closer, I find myself unsure of myself.

I need a lot of attention and am very sociable. I know when he goes to med school, he won’t be able to give me as much attention and he can’t really be faulted for that. It probably won’t get any easier once he does his residency and beyond. Despite being sociable, I have created a support network of my family and friends (we’ve been together for like 10 years). It’s to a point that I can socialize with other people with the idea that they are going to be acquaintances or somewhat distant friends. I usually know what kind of friend I want people to be before or during meeting them. But my dependency on my support network is so... strong that it kind of messed up a very big job opportunity for me a few years ago. I am afraid of having to make new connections again once we move away. Regardless if he choses a school in our state or not, we’d have to move. I don’t want him to be my only social connection, but am also afraid of making new ones. 

I made a list of all the things that scared me with possible solutions in which moving away with him was on it. I wrote that I would try to connect with coworkers (I can’t imagine and kind of don’t want to be best friends with a coworker. You never know when play ends and work begins) and neighbors. I don’t even talk to my neighbors now. I thought I could bake my famous browned butter salted chocolate chip cookies and share them with people, hoping that it would be the start of something. I’ve picked up random conversations with random people before so hopefully I can still do that (I stopped the whole “don’t talk to strangers” thing when I was like 19). 

These solutions made sense to me and I hoped that by writing it down, I could move on with my life. That wasn’t the case. I became so focused on would by current boyfriend be able to meet my needs in the future and whether I’d be strong enough to let him go if it was impossible. I found myself loving him more than I loved myself and make decisions on bettering myself for him. Covid Vaccine? For him. Finding a good job? For him. I don’t want to love someone else more than I love myself. I don’t want these decisions to be based on another person. I want to chose what is right for me for me and not someone else.  

I wasn’t this way before my boyfriend. I actually avoided being in a relationship for a few years because I didn’t think I’d enter one for the right reason. Usually, I put myself and my happiness first. When I decided I was ready to care for another person, my boyfriend wasn’t the first guy I chose. I didn’t know he’d become the love of my life. I didn’t know that we’d want the same exact thing from our relationship and have active, open communication about or wants and needs from the other person. I craved his attention, always wanted to be around him, and didn’t even stop talking about him our first year together. I am better now, but he still finds way into my conversations because he’s what makes me happy. 

I’m not upset that I love him. I wouldn’t take that back. I just wish that I was enough for myself again in which I could make decisions for me and stand by them. I want to create the life I want and I want him a part of it. But if that’s not God’s Plan, can I let go of him? In all honesty, I’d rather be miserable with him with occasional happiness than miserable without him. Maybe that’s too strong of a statement so don’t take that at full face value.

I want to be able to figure this out while we are still together, but mentally I keep thinking I have a time frame to “fix myself”. At the same time, I know I don’t because I know mental health doesn’t work that way. I have the ability to take the time I need to take care of myself again which I am grateful for. It’s like having an adult and child in my mind. The child is crying all of my fears and anxieties while the adult is trying to calm them down with reasoning. I am thankful that I am at least this aware of my mental state. I can understand when something is anxiety or depression, name it, and although I am stuck with it, I try not to fall too deep in it.  

I still have hope things will get better and I won’t always feel this way. Hope and faith is all I have some days and that’s okay. I am one day closer to being the me I want to be.

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WordStream Employee Spotlight: Taylor Chan

WordStream has some impressive employees in its ranks: from industry influencers to marathon runners, from analysts to authors. The Employee Spotlight series aims to highlight the talented individuals who work here. Each month, we’ll be featuring an interview here on the blog and on our social accounts.

For this month’s Employee Spotlight, we spoke with Taylor Chan. As a product manager here at WordStream, Taylor works closely with our engineering and design teams to design and build new product features.  Specifically, she oversees basic connections between our flagship software, WordStream Advisor, and ad platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads. She also works on the 20-Minute Work Week (helping you make all your weekly optimizations in 20 minutes!) and a new, exciting feature called Strategies, which we’ll dive into imminently.

Originally from the Philadelphia area, Taylor graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biological Engineering. She joined WordStream about a year ago, bringing with her no shortage of product development expertise, a passion for shrimp-filled spheres, and an irrefutable mastery of board games.

How long have you worked at WordStream?

I’ve worked here for just over a year— I started December 2017. I came from a company  that was much bigger, and everyone was super specialized in their roles. There were four or five flavors of product managers and you had to pick just one. I was really looking to join a smaller team—something that would help me learn a wider range of skills and continue to become more well-rounded. It’s been really great. I’m a lot closer to the strategy aspect of the business than I was previously, which is huge.  

How did you hear about WordStream? Why did you want to work here?

I worked in consulting for a little bit—manufacturing consulting. I have done a lot of strange things actually! At that time I was working in a water bottle factory and an almond factory on the ground floor trying to make their lines more efficient. I can’t say I joined WordStream for the marketing aspect, per se, but it’s been very cool learning it. I really didn’t know anything about it beforehand; it’s been crazy to learn what an integral part of our lives it is. But as far as what attracted me to the company, it was more about the people I’d get to work with and the size.

I found WordStream via a random job posting, but once I came in I really gelled with the people on the product team that I interviewed with. They seemed really thoughtful about their choices and what they were doing, which was something I wanted. The conversations felt natural with them.

Can you talk specifics about what your role involves?

I was originally hired specifically for the 20-Minute Work Week. The whole idea of that instantly appealed to me. I’m a person who loves to-do lists, and I’m huge on optimization and efficiency. So the job is really about bringing all those things to our customers at scale. It was really exciting for me. The 20-Minute Work Week is essentially where our customers want to go for quick hits; quick optimizations they can execute on in just a couple of minutes. And then you have the strategy piece where you’re looking for that next big, meaty thing to take your advertising to the next level. That’s the new project I’m spearheading.

Can you talk a little more about that Strategies feature?

Sure. When we say “Strategies” we’re talking about some of the more advanced things our customers can do—things that our customer success team consults them on now. They tend to be pretty complex, and often need to be done over the course of many different sittings. These are things like getting remarketing fired up or creating competitor campaigns or optimizing for mobile. At the moment, these kinds of strategies aren’t really accessible to people who aren’t super familiar with the native platforms. So what we’re trying to do is bring the things our customer success reps are preaching into the software. 

That’s really cool. What kind of work goes into that? Is there a timeline for completion?

So it’s not out yet. But the way it works is we have a huge amount of data about all of our different customers, and we’re going to use all that data to identify the top strategies that are right for each customer. So we might find that a particular strategy like RLSAs works well for SaaS (Software as a Service) customers. The software would then automatically recommend that strategy for the customer and prompt them through a nice multi-step flow, a flow that would be both understandable and also faster than manual implementation.

As far as a timeline goes, we’re hoping to come out with the first iteration of the feature in February 2019. There’s a lot of basic work that needs to be done to get the first strategy out the door, but then they should come more rapidly. Ultimately, we’re hoping to have 10+ strategies that span Google, Facebook, and Bing.  It’s incredibly challenging, because it involves taking the art that’s in our reps’ heads and getting it down on paper. For instance, how do you actually correctly set up a competitor campaign? And how can we bring that into the software? There are a lot of people here that are bigger marketing experts than I am, so it’s going to require a complete cross-functional effort to actually hash the whole thing out.

Has any other project here been particularly challenging?

Last year, I was working on improving the Add Negatives algorithm. That’s the most used 20-Minute Work Week alert. We are always trying to improve our algorithms so that the suggestions customers get are as relevant as possible. This one was really challenging for a few reasons. First, it’s extremely difficult to nail down a one-size-fits-all algorithm. For example, locations might be really good negatives for one customer, but they might not be great for another. And because a lot of our customers are small business owners, there’s not always an abundance of data to go off of.

So that project was very difficult. Right now, our engineering team is working on totally redoing the UI of that alert so that it uses the new algorithm, then also incorporates knowledge that only the customer knows.  We’ll walk them through a process that helps them decide: do we really want a negative, or do we actually want a new keyword? Or do we actually want a new ad group? Whereas before you could only accept or reject what was suggested, now you can really analyze your search queries to select the best option—even if it’s not what our algorithm came up with.

Very cool. Switching gears a bit—has any one thing you’ve learned here particularly stuck with you?

I think I’ve learned to have more empathy for other departments here. For example, I learned Python here when one of the engineers taught a class about it.  So, now I can read some of the code the engineers write, and I see just how much effort goes into my “easy” feature idea. I also have gotten the opportunity to shadow a bunch of Sales and Customer Success consulting calls, which helped me build empathy for all the work they do.

What’s your workspace aesthetic like? Minimalist? Homey? Neat?

It’s very neat. Like usually if the cleaning people move something just a little bit I can tell. Especially if they have the monitors out of the line…Everything has a place [laughs]! But yeah, I like to have some plants or some homey touches. I had this little eco ball, like a water sphere that had little shrimp in it. I killed them, though, so I don’t have anything right now. But in the future I hope to get them again.

You killed them accidentally or on purpose??

Accidentally! They were in the wrong sunshine when they died. It’s called an ecosphere, and it’s this entirely closed system that has like plants and shrimp. You can’t open it so it’s supposed to be self-sustaining…but obviously it was not.

You need to put your head down and get some work done asap. Do you have a go-to song?

 When I’m at work and I want to focus, I like quieter acoustic music. But it has to have words; I can’t do classical music that would make me even more tired. I listen to this one playlist on Spotify over and over. It’s called “Calm Down.” I don’t even know what you would call the genre, but it definitely helps me decompress.

If WordStream announced a last-minute day off for tomorrow, what would you do with your suddenly free day?

OK—so I play Pokemon Go. You remember that? From like 2017? Well, I still play it. I have played it every day since it came out. I’m really into that. My husband plays it, too. It’s a game that involves a lot of walking around to different places so if I had the whole day off, it would be great to just walk around and do that.

What are the best spots to catch Pokemon around the city?

Probably the best spot is Castle Island, but Castle Island and Boston Common are both really great. The first week the game came out there were just like hundreds of people at Castle Island, and there was a Blastoise. I took a video on my phone—I was running in a crowd of a thousand people trying to get this thing.

If you didn’t work in marketing, what would you do?

I’m very into board games so I think I would do that. Maybe I could be like a board game designer or a board game tester. Or I have this idea where I would open a board game café. I also have this idea where I could go into schools and teach board games. Because it really develops a lot of different skills—problem solving, cooperation, etc. Two of my favorite games are Eldritch Horror and 7 Wonders. I’ve joined various meetup groups over the years. I also play board games with a group of WordStream people that meets every other week.

Anything else you do in your spare time?  

I play volleyball, pretty poorly, in the Social Boston Sports leagues.

I also volunteer for the Crisis Text Line, which is basically a suicide crisis line but over text. I used to do it over the phone when I was in college, but I like it over text better. A lot of people in that kind of crisis feel more comfortable over text. It’s a lot of younger teenagers who don’t really know what other resources they have available.

How long have you been doing that?

For two years. It can be pretty intense. Sometimes I’ll take a break for a month or so. Especially over text, it can sometimes feel like you’re talking to the same person over and over again and they’re not getting better. But it definitely feels good when you can help someone. Like sometimes the texter will tell me it’s the first time they’ve told anyone about this. It’s rewarding to know you are helping in that way.

Read more: wordstream.com

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Interview: Secondhand Serenade

It’s hard to believe, but yes, Secondhand Serenade’s debut album, Awake, turned 10 years old this year! To celebrate, John Vesely recently embarked on a headlining tour with Hawthorne Heights, and Ronnie Winter of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. We were lucky enough to catch up with John Vesely on that tour, where we talked about the success of Awake, what followed, his future plans with Secondhand Serenade, and even a new project with his wife! 

How has the tour been so far?

Honestly, it’s been terrible -- I hate the bands, I hate all of the people, and I even hate my fiancé now.

But really, it’s been fantastic -- I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better. The lineup has been awesome, and I feel like the kids that came out have had a really great time and enjoyed the whole show.

Obviously the tour is four your first album, Awake, which turned 10 years old this year --

Are you calling me old?

Of course not, it’s just, 10 years is a long time...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was the first thing I released. I felt like it was a good time to pay tribute to it and give it the love that it deserves. This tour was the perfect thing for it, and honestly it looks like we are gonna be doing another leg of the Awake tour in the fall, because we missed a lot of big cities this time around. I’ve been having a great time, and it’s great to see fans ten years later still coming to shows and still loving the music.

How did you pick Hawthorne Heights and Ronnie Winter to join you on this tour?

Some of my first memories as a touring musician are with these bands. I went on a college tour with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus that was pretty crazy, and one of my first tours ever I went and supported Hawthorne Heights, so it’s like coming full circle. You know, as nostalgic as it is for the fans, it’s nostalgic for me, too.

What is your favorite memory that you have associated with Awake?

It’s funny because this isn’t one of the glamorous memories that you’d think, but it’s probably sitting in front of my TV the day after I quit my job. I was selling more CDs and making more than I was at work. So, I was sitting there packing CDs and watching CSI for three hours. I remember thinking how tedious it was, but also how amazing it was, because afterwards I would just go to the computer and network with fans. That was really my job for a year before I got my record deal; I got paid to sit at a computer all day, got to talk to fans, and people kept ordering the albums -- it was just amazing how it worked out.

That is crazy because you were selling a lot of records before the label came, then they came in and reissued it for you.

Yeah, and it went nuts from there and sold over 200,000 copies. That’s a lot for a little independent acoustic guy.

Around that time, you were getting some success with “Vulnerable” hitting the radio. Did you ever expect anything like that when the label came to you?

Yes and no. I didn’t think “Vulnerable” was going to do that, the album was cool and then we put out this serious song and people loved it how it was. I was surprised by all of it, but I knew that I deserved some of it, too. I worked my butt off and I went out there and did things differently than what other people were doing. But, I did not expect the extent of some of the success that Awake had, and especially A Twist In My Story after that.

I know you made the joke earlier that you quit your job and were just getting paid to sit at a computer all day, but there was definitely more work than that. It’s not as simple as people necessarily think.

It was all trying to figure out ways to really utilize the internet and get your music out there. Not so solicit or try to sell something, but really just to allow people to know that you exist. If you’re trying to be a musician, don’t spam people’s account and say “check out my album and do this” you know? You gotta be there for them and just let them know you exist. It’s more of just getting to know them and if they want to check out your music, then cool, but you have to be on the same level with them and try to respond if they message you, too.

That was the thing with Myspace at that time, too. It provided such a big platform to put music out there and connect with people, but it seemed like you kind of took that to the next level and set the standard with it.

You know, I’d love to see a platform launched that could be utilized that much by musicians again. Myspace was very, very good with the whole fan-to-artist interaction.

Do you think there is anything close to that now?

No, not really. There were literally regular pages and band pages, like when you signed up you had to pick which one you were. It was just meant for that kind of interaction. Everything else now is meant for networking, but the platform nowadays isn't built for the kind of fan-artist interaction that Myspace had.

There’s a lot of ways to still stay in touch, but like you said, with things like Twitter, it’s more just for people connecting to people and that’s about it.

Twitter feeds are twitter feeds, at least, and everybody that follows you has the ability to see that tweet. On Facebook, only 5% of your fans get to see the message that you post, and it’s frustrating that all of that is filtered by Facebook. I think that was one step away from what myspace had accomplished. If only Myspace didn’t let people customize their HTML settings, maybe it would still be here -- that was it’s downfall. People built it up so much that you could never load a page, crap was all over the place, and people didn’t know how to do it so it looked terrible. 

It’s just so hard to get to your fans now. Like, just to get posts promoting the shows on this tour, you have to pay for people to even see it on their feeds. It’s a little bit harder, but it’s still great to use that as a resource because there are a lot of people that want to know what’s going on.

So, when it came to writing your second album, A Twist In My Story, and coming off the success of Awake, did you have any sort of expectations for it? Did it make it harder to write?

It was my first time ever having the chance to record a full-band album. I did the same thing that I did acoustic, except I did it with a full band. It might have come off a little different because I had this acoustic mindset, but I had an electric guitar in my hand. It’s funny because all of my acoustic parts where inspired by electric parts of bands that I listened to, so it was like this weird translation that turned out to be something special.

What made you want to go towards a more full-band sound? Was that something you always wanted to do?

Me and the label both knew that it was the right thing to do, especially if we wanted to move to radio. It was definitely something I always wanted to do too, I just never had the money for it. It was a total accident that Awake was acoustic, too. I just had enough money for eight days in the studio, so I was on a time crunch. 

With the second record, too, you re-recorded “Maybe” and “Your Call.” How did you decide upon those two?

I really liked those songs, and I think they benefitted from it. The part where it gets really big at the end of “Your Call” ended up being really special. They brought in a choir for it and it was pretty cool. With “Maybe” it was always meant to be an upbeat song, so this just seemed like the right time to get that done.

We talked a few years back, and you mentioned that Hear Me Now is a record that you thought could be special, but it just wasn’t quite there. Do you still feel that way about it, or has anything changed?

You know, everybody kind of goes through their growth as an artist. You start growing and progressing down one direction, and when it came time to re-release Awake for it’s 10th anniversary, I took a look back and wanted to start over. I wasn’t falling in love with what I was doing recently, and I felt like I was being pushed a certain way, so I wanted to go in a different direction. I think that making the music you want to make ultimately leads to what the fans want to hear, because they can hear that sincerity in your voice and music. When you go from being one type of artist and switch to a different type of music then it’s like “well that’s not why I like this artist, I like this other artist for that type of music.” 

I just decided to go back to being me, and I didn’t even expect this much commotion from it. Spotify has been working with us to put us on some great playlists, the tour has been good, and it’s just ensuring that we can keep this new momentum going.

So, you originally were only going to do the re-release for Awake and not a tour?

It wasn’t really my idea, but my manager brought it up and I said I’d do it if we could get a solid tour. This tour has actually been doing better than some of the previous tours I’ve done, which is great. All around, it’s been a great time and I’m happy with where things are headed.

Were there any songs that were hard to re-learn for this tour?

I remembered most of them, but “It’s Not Over” was a little tough, and learning the two new songs took a while, too. It takes a while to get comfortable playing songs live, it’s not always as easy as rehearsing for a song like “Fall for You.” I’ve probably performed “Fall for You” thousands of time, but I’ve been getting more comfortable with the new songs every day I play them live.

Your last album, Undefeated, came out in 2014. It was your first one being released independent since Awake for the first time, how different was it this time around?

I think it was more similar to Awake than some of the other albums were, because I couldn’t really depend on anyone doing anything for me. I did a PledgeMusic campaign and a lot of people were involved with that and those cool incentives. Granted, those incentives took me forever to fulfill -- like it’s tedious when you have that many orders and you have to do something personal for each one, but it was a lot of fun.

What was the hardest one to keep up on?

I had to do custom songs for people, and so I had to record acoustic songs that I wrote for people. In retrospect, I don’t think that the amount of money that was charged for it was enough for how much time and effort it took to do it. But, I also wanted to make it accessible to people and not just people with a ridiculous amount of money.

Would you think about doing that kind of PledgeMusic campaign again?

Absolutely. I’ll be doing another album, and I don’t know if I’ll be working with a label for it, but we’ll just have to see how this whole thing works out.

I know we’ve been talking about the past a lot here, but I wanted to catch up to the present here with you. You recently started a new project called The Rebel Roads, how did that whole idea come together?

Well, Veronica and I met because of music -- we actually met through a mutual producer. She's a fantastic singing and writer. We kind of fell in love while playing together and touring together. She was doing her thing, I was doing my thing, and we were both in Nashville, so it was kind of a no-brainer. I have a studio and everything I need to make an album, so we’ve just started writing and recording, I’m looking forward to doing a release later this year.

So you’ll have an album coming out under that project?

Most likely an EP at first, because that’s just how Nashville does things. We have like 13-15 songs done and produced, so we have a lot to choose from.

Is there gonna be some tour in support of that?

Yeah, we would like to do that. Once we get settled with everything, we’re gonna talk to some agents and try to get on some tours.

What does that mean for the future of Secondhand Serenade, will they just sort of coexist together?

Absolutely, I don’t see why not. Right now the Rebel Roads is still in it’s early stage, so who knows how big or small that project will end up being. I do believe in it a lot because the music is fantastic. Secondhand fans will always be there, and I’m not sure if I’ll go to radio again with Secondhand. It’s looking like we might with the song “Lost” overseas and possibly in the U.S., but we will see how it goes. This is a very unpredictable industry, so you’ll never really figure it out.

It’s definitely a bit different, too, from Secondhand Serenade.

Yeah, it’s a country project. I don’t think it’s too different where fans of Secondhand can’t get into it, but it’s different enough where country fans can get into it. I think it’s a good middle ground.

Where did the inspiration come from to do a country project?

Pop music doesn’t really have bands anymore. I moved to Nashville because I fell in love with the way they do things there, like they still record with a full band all in the studio at once and it’s amazing. A lot of people transition to country because it’s not that different from pop-rock, and Veronica was a country singer, so it just made sense. I just like doing this kind of music more than if I were to do some electric-pop type thing.

So, what’s immediately up next for you after this tour ends? I know you mentioned the potential for an Awake fall tour.

Well, immediately after this tour ends, we are going to get married and then our honeymoon. After that, we have a few things to take care of, then we will probably do an International tour before we come back to the U.S. to do another tour.

[makemoneyonline70]

14 CREATIVE WAYS TO MAKE $100 A DAY

1. Take part in research (up to $150/hour)

If you want to make $100 or more in a day, this is the perfect place to start without much experience or skills!

You can share your opinion in focus groups. Companies are looking for qualified people to join their research studies, and you don’t necessarily need to be a professional to participate.

Last week I received an invite to participate in a beauty study: $150 for an hour of my time! Not bad for answering some questions about my hair care routine!

User Interviews is a legit company that provides qualified research respondents to whoever needs it. And they now recruit people internationally!

The pay goes from $75 for 30 minutes of your time to $450 for very specific one-hour studies.

User Interviews has diverse studies, covering many topics: technology, food, consumer goods, family, software, hobbies, pets, sports, transportation, beauty, social media, music, you name it!

They have some incredible clients, including Pinterest, Spotify, Vistaprint, Wayfair, Thumbtack, and more.

Create Attention-Grabbing

Thumbnails In 3 Clicks With The World’s Only A.I. Thumbnail Creation APP

for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

or any video platform out there!

https://tinyurl.com/np3y9fk9

This is how it works:

1. You apply to participate in studies that you think are a good fit for you.

2. The researcher/sponsor of the study reviews responses and sends invitations to the best-fit respondents.

3. If you receive an invitation to participate, you choose a time that suits you from those made available by the researcher.

4.After you have completed the study, you are paid via PayPal, cash, or Amazon gift cards.

If you are interested in earning money with focus groups, another top-rated legit company is Respondent.io.

Respondent.io is always looking for industry professionals, parents, and students. They have projects that are available to US residents as well as international. This means you don’t have to be in the US to join and earn from $50 to 250$ per research.

All you need to join is a PayPal account and either Facebook or LinkedIn to connect your profile.

2. Become a shopper

Image from Grace Gordon

If you love shopping around, how about doing it for others? With Instacart, you will work as an independent contractor delivering groceries for other people.

There’s great potential to make good money, especially right now.

You could make up to $25 per hour during busy times, although the average is between $10 to $20 per hour.

It couldn’t be easier: you get offered the order, you shop the order, you get paid!

You make your own schedule and pick your orders, and the flexibility is what makes it so great, especially if you have limited time or are a stay at home mum or a student.

Instacart is the best website for shopper

Create Attention-Grabbing

Thumbnails In 3 Clicks With The World’s Only A.I. Thumbnail Creation APP

for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

or any video platform out there!

https://tinyurl.com/np3y9fk9

3. Get paid to watch videos online

InboxDollars is a cool website to make some cash with surveys. Plus, you can also make money by watching movie previews, TV shows, celebrity videos, the latest news, and many other videos. And you’ll get a $5 bonus just for signing up.

But how does it work?

That’s easy! Simply head to InboxDollars.com and login to see the list of videos available for you to watch. You’ll watch videos on your phone or laptop.

InboxDollars then rewards you for watching them with your choice of free cash or gift cards for popular brands.

You need to watch all of the shows in a specific playlist, so be prepared and get the popcorn ready! You can check out how long the playlist runs before you start watching, and playlists range from a few minutes to about a half-hour.

4. Wrap your car

Do you own a car? How about placing advertising on it and get paid? With Wrapify you can get paid up to $452 for having your car wrapped with an ad.

You need to download the Wrapify app, and then they will track your journeys until you reach 50 miles. Once you reach 50 miles, you are eligible to take part in a campaign. Each campaign will place ads on your car for 1 to 12 months.

During that time you will be earning free money every month!

To be eligible to take part in a campaign, you need to:

• Be 21 or older

• Have a clean driving (and criminal) record

• Have a car that is from 2008 or newer

I think this is a cool way to make money, but it’s also a great idea to generate passive income. If you are already driving around town, why not get paid for it?

5. Sell your crafts

Image from Fall For DIY

If you are a creative person, did you ever think about selling your crafts on websites like Etsy?

When Dan and I were 17, we came up with the idea of selling salt dolls for Christmas. Well, believe it or not, in a couple of months, we managed to make over $1,000!

By making and selling your crafts, you can set your own hours, spend your days producing items that you enjoy making, and earn some money in the process.

The trick here is to make sure you actually make items that will sell.

6. Download these 2 apps and make $125 by going online

Get the Nielsen App and make $50 a year

In the old days, Nielsen used to collect data by tracking TV ratings. But now, they have moved on, and they would like to get people like you to help them study the future of the online world.

By simply installing their app on your smartphone, they will pay you $50 a year if you are in the US.

The app will collect statistics on what websites you go to and how long you stay there. All the data collected is ANONYMOUS, and it’s not linked to you at all!

Install UpVoice Edge extension and earn $75 or more

UpVoice is a new passive user panel that pays users $75 in Amazon gift cards for regularly browsing specific sites (like YouTube, Twitter, Linked In, and Amazon!). While you browse, UpVoice passively collects data about the ads you see and match it with their demographics data to create marketing insights for brands.

It’s currently available in two new forms – a Windows 10 app or an extension for the Edge browser.

And you don’t have to worry about the security of your data! Any data UpVoice shares with their clients is always anonymized and aggregated, and they never share any personal information nor target or monitor individual users.

Create Attention-Grabbing

Thumbnails In 3 Clicks With The World’s Only A.I. Thumbnail Creation APP

for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

or any video platform out there!

https://tinyurl.com/np3y9fk9

7. Make an extra $100 pet sitting

Look after these cute dogs with Rover

If you love animals, pet sitting is a great way to make extra money.

Pet sitting is extremely flexible because you decide when to do it, and you can fit it around your own schedule. It’s easy to do even if you work full time, as you can spend time during the weekend looking after our little friends.

Rover is the perfect place to start!

It offers different services to pet owners and, once you have registered with them, you will be able to decide which one you want to offer to your potential clients:

• Dog walking

• Doggy daycare

• House-sitting

• Dog boarding

8. Teach anything online to kids

And I really mean anything! From cooking to coding!

Did you know that you could make over $10,000 a month teaching online, as Jade does?

Online teaching is forever changing the way kids learn at school and from home.

And if you are passionate about sharing your knowledge, you can benefit from this revolution. All you need is an internet connection and a laptop, and you can start to make money today.

And you don’t need to be a traditionally qualified teacher. You just have to love teaching kids under 18.

Places like Outschool let you teach any sort of subject from the comfort of your own home.

You can teach classical subjects like English and math, or fun classes like acting, singing or sketching.

Listing classed is free, and Outschool will provide you with the perfect platform to host classes online.

Teachers on Outschool earn an average of $35 per teaching hour.

But you have full control over the listed price for a class and the number of participants. Outschool will take 30% of your earnings for their support services. Once your class starts, you will receive payment via PayPal.

Teaching online is an incredible way to make extra money, especially during this time

Create Attention-Grabbing

Thumbnails In 3 Clicks With The World’s Only A.I. Thumbnail Creation APP

for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

or any video platform out there!

https://tinyurl.com/np3y9fk9

9. Get paid to walk

We all know we need to stay active to keep fit! And you are probably trying to get to your 10,000 steps a day every day!

How about getting paid for that? You can!

Apps like Sweatcoin will reward you for every step you take.

This app helps me be even more motivated to stay fit, take the stairs an extra time a day, and walk more! Will you make $100 a day just by using Sweatcoin? No way, not even close. But it’s a free cool app that can get you some nice rewards for something you already do.

10. Become a virtual assistant (and earn up to $4,000/month)

You can earn some great money working from home for a few hours a day by becoming a virtual assistant (up to $35-$50 per hour!).

Virtual assistants need to have strong administrative skills, be highly organized, and be familiar with blogging/social media.

There are different types of tasks a virtual assistant can help a business with. Some businesses use a VA to keep up with emails, customer service online, blogging updates, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

If you want to find out more about becoming a virtual assistant and all the tasks you can offer to potential clients, I strongly advise you to read Abbey’s story.

11. Answer questions for money

If you are in the US, you could earn up to $100k a year (yep, that’s not a typo) by answering questions online.

JustAnswer connects doctors, software engineers, plumbers, lawyers, and other experts to people that need answers to questions.

You just need a computer or smartphone and an internet connection. You can set your own hours, pick which questions to answers, and earn cash by helping people online.

Just make sure you have the right skills, and you can simply sign up for free, and you’ll be paid monthly via PayPal

12. Freelancing

If you have some skills, you could put them to good use and do extra freelance work from home!

But how can you find a freelance opportunity?

There are plenty of websites that will help you to find a side job to work part-time from home. You can work for a few hours a day as a proofreader, virtual assistant, bookkeeper, writer, social media manager, tutor, transcriptionist…

The options are infinite, and you could be making up to $100 an hour!

The best way to find freelancing gigs is to register to these great websites:

• Flexjobs

• Weworkremotly.com

• Remote.

13. Drive people around

Woman driving in a vintage car! Need money now? Make extra money fast with these creative ways to make money, the easy way. The best ideas to make money. Learn how to make 100 dollars a day!

Want to make $100 a day? You could drive for Uber!

If you need to get $100 fast and own a car, driving people around in your spare time can be a great way of earning the extra cash you need in no time.

The best companies to sign up with are:

•Uber

•Lyft

You need to consider car depreciation and the money you are spending on gas, but if you are clever about the trips you accept to do and don’t drive too far for a pickup, you’ll be able to make an extra 100 dollars in a day.

14. Get paid by searching online

We all spend hours every day searching online.

And guess what?

Swagbucks will pay you to use its search engine.

Create Attention-Grabbing

Thumbnails In 3 Clicks With The World’s Only A.I. Thumbnail Creation APP

for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram

or any video platform out there!

https://tinyurl.com/np3y9fk9

[stripedigital]

Content Marketing Best Practices + Examples From Top Brands

With great content comes great responsibility! You may have really great content but what do you do with it? The answer lies in content marketing. You can use this marketing channel to build your customer base by engaging them and providing content that converts. We’re going to dive into our favorite list of content marketing best practices.

Are you applying any of them? Let’s find out.

If you already know you want to take your content marketing to the next level. Then let’s get to it. Contact us and we’ll get started turning potential customers into loyal buyers today!

What is content marketing?

Content marketing focuses on creating valuable content for your target audience. The keyword here is value. You can create all the content you want but if it doesn’t resonate with your target audience you shouldn’t expect any sales to come out of it. Producing this valuable content is a way to break through the rest of the noise in the digital world. The goal, like most marketing tactics, is to drive customer action.

Think content marketing can’t be applied to your business? Think again. Any business can benefit from creating content. Not everything has to be an obvious advertisement or a push to sell. Relevant content helps cut through the clutter and can also help build brand awareness for your company.

So now your question is probably how can I make money by just publishing content? It’s not enough to just publish content. You must be creative! Get out of your comfort zone. Go where no competitor has gone before and be able to build a strategy. With our content marketing best practices on hand it will be a piece of cake!

Content Marketing Best Practices

Content marketing is all about the content of course! So the first of our content marketing best practices might sound a little strange.

Don’t sell anything. Repeat that. Do not sell anything.

Wait what?

We know what you are probably thinking. How can I sell my products or services if I’m not actually trying to sell them?

Yup that’s right. The purpose of content marketing is to produce great content so that your customers take action. If your content is extraordinary and unlike anything customers have ever seen before, they will be compelled to take action.

So, show content that your users want to see and do not push sales on them. You can create a separate online advertising strategy dedicated to sales. But sometimes people need a break from ads. This is why you need content marketing.  

Let’s take a look at a company that puts these content marketing best practices to work! Publix – the grocery store famous for “Pub Subs”- has an Instagram account filled with various food shots, recipes and cooking tips. They aren’t directly “selling” anything or telling you to buy something. But by showing followers recipes they are subtly encouraging them to go to Publix to purchase the ingredients they need to make meals or snacks like this delicious salsa.

If their account was filled with photos of their chip aisle when it’s buy one get one free, customers would be less engaged with their content.

Although this is a supermarket they have built their brand in such a way that it comes off as a source for professional recipes and cooking tips.

Deliver Value

While you are not selling your products, you should also deliver value to your customers. That’s what content marketing is all about right? What better place to have valuable content than your blog?! What’s that you say? You don’t have a blog yet? Then it’s time to start writing or outsourcing your writing to a content marketing company. This is one of the best places to deliver content that is beneficial to customers and that also represents your brand.

Blogs are great because you can use them to answer questions that your customers might have. Once you start blogging regularly you become a trusted and reliable source for content. When customers trust you, they are more likely to buy your products or services.

Patagonia, a company that sells clothing for the outdoors is on a mission to make the world better. The Patagonia blog is full of 100% great content that their customer base would find interesting and useful.

There are stories of people hiking, the changing environment, and possibly the best content from guest writers. Like this letter to Patagonia written by Laura Johnston about her pink Patagonia baggie shorts that she wore for 180 days while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. Her content is entertaining as she tells the story of her favorite pair of shorts. This content sells the shorts without telling customers to buy them and delivers value to the reader as they learn about how wonderful these shorts are.

Personalize your content

Personalization allows you to grab the attention of your customers and tailor their experience specifically to them. This essentially makes people feel special and like the company is working just for them. Personalizing your content can be anything from recommending content that customers might like to putting their names on your product, like Coke!

Have you found your name on a bottle of Coca-Cola yet? As part of their Share a Coke campaign, Coca-Cola has put thousands of different names on their bottles. Seeing your name on a product like this is exciting and makes you want to buy just because it’s personalized. This is a creative way to show customers that Coke cares while giving customers something fun and valuable. And it’s profitable!

Plus, have you ever seen you name on a drink before? This is key. In order to be successful think of things that your competitors aren’t doing. Or you can piggyback off of their content marketing ideas and make them better!

Spotify is another company that is personalizing their content for their users. They use an algorithm to create personalized playlists for every single person. If you are a Spotify subscriber you will have access to daily mixes, a discover weekly, release radar and more! All of these playlists contain songs that you have either heard before or new songs that are similar to your music taste based on the previous songs you have been listening to.

Even though creating content like Coke and Spotify might be out of reach for some smaller companies, it doesn’t mean you can’t compete to reach for the stars. Another way you can personalize your content is to simply include recommendations to additional content.

If you show customers content that is relevant to them it makes your company look smart! The more relevant content you can show your individual customers, the more trust you will build with them. You will quickly become a reliable source for information. When customers seek out your site because they know that they will get tailored content, you have just won the content marketing game.

Build a bond with customers through content

This is one of our content marketing best practices that any size company can and should do. It goes hand in hand with our personalization technique. But how can you as a company “bond” with your customers? Create content that resonates directly with them. Go beyond being just a “brand” and get personal.

People love when brands interact with them on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Getting a response from your favorite brand is like winning the lottery for some people. Incorporate this tactic with the content you post! Anthropologie takes the time to share repost photos that their fans post while wearing their clothing. When customers see this, they associate the brand with being in touch with their customer base and connecting with them on a deeper level. They are subtly encouraging their customers to purchase their clothing and giving them hope that maybe the company will repost their content. Sourcing photos from customers can make them feel validated. You, as a company, essentially become a support system. Anthropologie is supporting and recognizing their customers in an innovative way.

  Ask questions

Seriously, ask your customers or followers questions. This is a great way to engage with them and learn more about their pain points and how you could better service them. And you are providing valuable content at the same time! Once you do this, make sure that you engage with them afterwards. If they provide answers or ask additional follow up questions, you need to make sure you respond. Customers will quickly stop interacting with your brand and stop buying from you if you don’t continue to be attentive.

Nutrition Stripped is a health and wellness brand run by nutritionist McKel Hill. She provides content like recipes and tips for healthy eating, and she loves to ask her followers questions. Whether it’s asking them what their favorite veggie is or quizzing them in a Q&A fashion, she is always using content to engage her customers.

Many social media platforms as well as content platforms have made it easier than ever for businesses to communicate with their customers. You can do it through comments, instant messages, polls, or even a Q&A like with Instagram’s new rollout in their Instagram Stories.

Use Humor

Funny content is arguably the best content. It’s easily engaging, and who doesn’t like to laugh? Incorporating humor when you can is a great way to get people to pay attention to you so that you can get your message across. Depending on your business you may not think that you can leverage humor. You want your content to serve a purpose and you want to be taken seriously. There is a happy medium between being funny and still maintaining decorum.

Imperfect Produce is a company that sells “ugly” fruits and veggies and a lower cost. They use humor to draw attention to the fact that people waste so much produce just because it doesn’t look a certain way even though it tastes exactly the same. Using this content marketing strategy to make people aware of an issue is genius. They start by asking their followers questions (two content marketing best practices in one!) and following up with the answer as well as a funny line or two that actually humanizes onions. It isn’t over the top with humor and strikes a balance between getting their point across and entertaining followers.

Write good content, then ask for feedback

This is one of those content marketing best practices that may seem strange but it works! After you write content that answers questions or offers help to customers, ask for feedback. Not only is it helpful for you but it’s also helpful for your customers. They feel like they have a chance to tell you whether or not your content was useful to them.

You can now use this feedback to make your content even more useful and targeted. Additionally, if you actually listen to your customers and make the changes they mention, you better bet that they notice! And they love it! As I’m sure you can agree, there’s nothing more satisfying as a customer than when a company truly listens to what you have to say.

When you write articles like this that are supposed to be helpful. You are writing with the knowledge and the answers. It can be difficult to fully explain everything and from a customer perspective the answer might still be confusing. Feedback is always important so integrate it into your content marketing!

Mailchimp, an email marketing API has a long list of support articles for customers to turn to when they are confused or frustrated. At the end of each one they ask the simple question “was this article helpful?” It’s a quick yes or no question that takes all of two seconds to answer. They also give a space for customers to elaborate.

This allows customers to have an outlet to express their thoughts about the article that they have just read. And it gives Mailchimp the information they need to make their content more valuable if it didn’t answer the customer’s question. Remember, it’s all about providing valuable information and answering customer questions.

Video is content too!

You thought content was all text didn’t you? Content comes in many different forms including video. And in today’s digital world, video is so popular that 87% of online marketers use it in their strategies. Video can grab your customer’s attention and hold it throughout if you execute it properly. So how can you make your video content stand out? It needs to be clever and entertaining all while providing value to your customers so that they take action.

De Lijn is a public transportation company run by the Dutch government in Belgium. They produced this video urging people to take the bus. They do it in such a way that it entertains people while simultaneously sending a message to use the public transportation system. They are not necessarily selling anything but this clip is great, wholesome content that makes you think without even realizing it.

Content like this is pure gold. It’s compelling and doesn’t push people into buying a public transportation pass but it plants the idea in their minds that traveling in groups is better. Next time they travel they might consider taking the bus all because of a funny group of cartoon animals.   

Think outside the content box

The more creative you get with your content marketing strategy, the easier it will be to stand out and beat your competition. Can music be considered content? You bet. The more “outside the box” you can get while still being valuable and relevant – the better your chances of beating your competition (just make sure it’s relevant to your company).

    Many companies have decided to build Spotify playlists for their customers.

Cyclebar, an indoor cycling company, uses music in their classes to pump up their customers and create a fun athletic experience.

It’s difficult to look up a song you enjoy while you’re cycling up that imaginary hill.

Or maybe you want to save the songs you heard in class for later when you are working out at home.

That’s why they decided to make a playlist of songs that customers hear in classes. This is easily accessible content and customers can listen wherever they go!

  Another company that is utilizing this content marketing strategy is Starbucks. Sometimes you like the songs you hear in the shops but you don’t know the artist or song name. If you are a loyal customer and have their app, they show you which song is playing in the store you are currently in! How cool is that? Even if you are not in the store but want a fun coffee house vibe you can tune in to their playlist at any time.

What Not To Do

It’s also important to know what does not fall into our content marketing best practices.

Let’s look at what you shouldn’t do when creating content.

Randomly posting on social media is not content marketing. You need to set goals and craft a strategy. Content marketing is still marketing so you need to research before you start posting. Produce carefully curated content that resonates with your audience. Are you a little rusty in the creative content department? Our specialists can help you out with that. Feel free to check out our social media marketing services to learn more about our creative designers.

Don’t stop blogging. Content should be consistent. If a customer religiously reads your blog, they will come to expect new content from you on a regular basis. If you stop posting you will fall off the map. In addition to keeping your posts on schedule, you should make sure you continue to product high quality content. If it’s not up to par with your previous posts, don’t post it. You’re probably saying “That’ll never happen. I don’t have time to be consistent.” Well if you have 2 minutes to fill out our contact form, then you don’t have to worry about blogging anymore. We’ll do it for you!

Good content can sell itself but it needs to be optimized in order for people to find it. Write your blogs so that they rank for a targeted keyword. Integrate your content marketing strategy with your SEO strategy so that you can show up in search.

Don’t make your content all about you or your product. Remember these content marketing best practices we just shared with you. You need to add value and created a bond with your customers. You won’t be able to do this if all of your content just tells customers why you are the best. You are here to answer questions and solve customers’ problems. If your content only focuses on you and not your customers, they will get bored and move on.

Your content doesn’t have to be long to be good. Sure you can write longer blog posts but sometimes shorter is better especially when it comes to social media. Typically people won’t take the time to read an Instagram caption that is a paragraph long. Don’t be afraid to post a photo with a short caption. Your photo is still considered content and you can let it speak for itself. Just make sure you take high quality photos!

Content marketing shouldn’t stand alone. Integrate the principles you learn in content marketing best practices into other facets of your digital marketing strategy. If you have an advertising campaign you can create quality content that is centered around it. You can also share your content via social media or through emails that you send to customers in order to get noticed.

It takes time, effort and experience to craft the perfect content marketing strategy. You need to define your target audience and come up with content that is relevant to them. Not only does this content need to be valuable, it should be innovative, creative and exciting. Take notes from bigger companies in your industry and remember that no matter what type of business you own, producing great content should be at the top of your to do list.

Are you following these content marketing best practices? If not let us know and we would be happy to assist you on your journey to producing great content! Our seasoned marketing specialists will research your target audience and craft you a content marketing strategy that will wow and engage your customers. What are you waiting for? Get started today!

Do you have more content marketing best practices up your sleeve? Share them with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear them!

The post Content Marketing Best Practices + Examples From Top Brands appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog.

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[sheminecrafts]

My product launch wishlist for Instagram, Twitter, Uber and more

‘Twas the night before Xmas, and all through the house, not a feature was stirring from the designer’s mouse . . . Not Twitter! Not Uber, Not Apple or Pinterest! On Facebook! On Snapchat! On Lyft or on Insta! . . . From the sidelines I ask you to flex your code’s might. Happy Xmas to all if you make these apps right.

Instagram

See More Like This – A button on feed posts that when tapped inserts a burst of similar posts before the timeline continues. Want to see more fashion, sunsets, selfies, food porn, pets, or Boomerangs? Instagram’s machine vision technology and metadata would gather them from people you follow and give you a dose. You shouldn’t have to work through search, hashtags, or the Explore page, nor permanently change your feed by following new accounts. Pinterest briefly had this feature (and should bring it back) but it’d work better on Insta.

Web DMs – Instagram’s messaging feature has become the defacto place for sharing memes and trash talk about people’s photos, but it’s stuck on mobile. For all the college kids and entry-level office workers out there, this would make being stuck on laptops all day much more fun. Plus, youth culture truthsayer Taylor Lorenz wants Instagram web DMs too.

Upload Quality Indicator – Try to post a Story video or Boomerang from a crummy internet connection and they turn out a blurry mess. Instagram should warn us if our signal strength is low compared to what we usually have (since some places it’s always mediocre) and either recommend we wait for Wi-Fi, or post a low-res copy that’s replaced by the high-res version when possible.

Oh, and if new VP of product Vishal Shah is listening, I’d also like Bitmoji-style avatars and a better way to discover accounts that shows a selection of their recent posts plus their bio, instead of just one post and no context in Explore which is better for discovering content.

Every feed app should steal Pinterest’s ‘more like this’ button

Twitter

DM Search – Ummm, this is pretty straightforward. It’s absurd that you can’t even search DMs by person, let alone keyword. Twitter knows messaging is a big thing on mobile right? And DMs are one of the most powerful ways to get in contact with mid-level public figures and journalists. PS: My DMs are open if you’ve got a news tip — @JoshConstine.

Unfollow Suggestions – Social networks are obsessed with getting us to follow more people, but do a terrible job of helping us clean up our feeds. With Twitter bringing back the option to see a chronological feed, we need unfollow suggestions more than ever. It should analyze who I follow but never click, fave, reply to, retweet, or even slow down to read and ask if I want to nix them. I asked for this 5 years ago and the problem has only gotten worse. Since people feel like their feeds are already overflowing, they’re stingy with following new people. That’s partly why you see accounts get only a handful of new followers when their tweets go viral and are seen by millions. I recently had a tweet with 1.7 million impressions and 18,000 Likes that drove just 11 follows. Yes I know that’s a self-own.

Analytics Benchmarks – If Twitter wants to improve conversation quality, it should teach us what works. Twitter offers analytics about each of your tweets, but not in context of your other posts. Did this drive more or fewer link clicks or follows than my typical tweet? That kind of info could guide users to create more compelling content.

Twitter Quitters And The Unfiltered Feed Problem

Facebook

(Obviously we could get into Facebook’s myriad problems here. A less sensationalized feed that doesn’t reward exaggerated claims would top my list. Hopefully its plan to downrank “borderline content” that almost violates its policies will help when it rolls out.)

Batched Notifications – Facebook sends way too many notifications. Some are downright useless and should be eliminated. “14 friends responded to events happening tomorrow”? “Someone’s fundraiser is half way to its goal?” Get that shit out of here. But there are other notifications I want to see but that aren’t urgent nor crucial to know about individually. Facebook should let us decide to batch notifications so we’d only get one of a certain type every 12 or 24 hours, or only when a certain number of similar ones are triggered. I’d love a digest of posts to my Groups or Events from the past day rather than every time someone opens their mouth.

I so don’t care

Notifications In The “Time Well Spent” Feature – Facebook tells you how many minutes you spent on it each day over the past week and on average, but my total time on Facebook matters less to me than how often it interrupts my life with push notifications. The “Your Time On Facebook” feature should show how many notifications of each type I’ve received, which ones I actually opened, and let me turn off or batch the ones I want fewer of.

Facebook is finally rolling out its ‘how long do I spend on Facebook’ dashboard

Oh, and for Will Cathcart, Facebook’s VP of apps, can I also get proper syncing so I don’t rewatch the same Stories on Instagram and Facebook, the ability to invite people to Events on mobile based on past invite lists of those I’ve hosted or attended, and the See More Like This feature I recommended for Instagram?

Uber/Lyft/Ridesharing

“Quiet Ride” Button – Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for small talk. Had a rough day, need to get work done, or want to just zone out? Ridesharing apps should offer a request for a quiet ride that if the driver accepts, you pay them an extra dollar (or get it free as a loyalty perk), and you get ferried to your destination without unnecessary conversation. I get that it’s a bit dehumanizing for the driver, but I’d bet some would happily take a little extra cash for their compliance.

“I Need More Time” Button – Sometimes you overestimate the ETA and suddenly your car is arriving before you’re ready to leave. Instead of cancelling and rebooking a few minutes later, frantically rushing so you don’t miss your window and get smacked with a no-show fee, or making the driver wait while they and the company aren’t getting paid, Uber, Lyft, and the rest should offer the “I Need More Time” button that simply rebooks you a car that’s a little further away.

Spotify/Music Streaming Apps

Scan My Collection – I wish I could just take photos of the album covers, spines, or even discs of my CD or record collection and have them instantly added to a playlist or folder. It’s kind of sad that after lifetimes of collecting physical music, most of it now sits on a shelf and we forget to play what we used to love. Music apps want more data on what we like, and it’s just sitting there gathering dust. There’s obviously some fun viral potential here too. Let me share what’s my most embarrassing CD. For me, it’s my dual copies of Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other” because I played the first one so much it got scratched.

Friends Weekly – Spotify ditched its in-app messaging, third-party app platform, and other ways to discover music so its playlists would decide what becomes a hit in order to exert leverage over the record labels to negotiate better deals. But music discovery is inherently social and the desktop little ticker of what friends are playing on doesn’t cut it. Spotify should let me choose to recommend my new favorite song or agree to let it share what I’ve recently played most, and put those into a Discover Weekly-style social playlist of what friends are listening to.

How Spotify is finally gaining leverage over record labels

Snapchat

Growth – I’m sorry, I had to.

Bulk Export Memories – But seriously, Snapchat is shrinking. That’s worrisome because some users’ photos and videos are trapped on its Memories cloud hosting feature that’s supposed to help free up space on your phone. But there’s no bulk export option, meaning it could take hours of saving shots one at a time to your camera roll if you needed to get off of Snapchat, if for example it was shutting down, or got acquired, or you’re just bored of it.

Add-On Cameras – Snapchat’s Spectacles are actually pretty neat for recording first-person or underwater shots in a circular format. But otherwise they don’t do much more, and in some ways do much less, than your phone’s camera and are a long way from being a Magic Leap competitor. That’s why if Snapchat really wants to become a “Camera Company”, it should build sleek add-on cameras that augment our phone’s hardware. Snap previously explored selling a 360-camera but never launched one. A little Giroptic iO-style 360 lens that attaches to your phone’s charging port could let you capture a new kind of content that really makes people feel like they’re there with you. An Aukey Aura-style zoom lens attachment that easily fits in your pocket unlike a DSLR could also be a hit

Snap explored selling a 360 camera

iOS

Switch Wi-Fi/Bluetooth From Control Center – I thought the whole point of Control Center was one touch access, but I can only turn on or off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s silly having to dig into the Settings menu to switch to a different Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device, especially as we interact with more and more of them. Control Center should unfurl a menu of networks or devices you can choose from.

Shoot GIFs – Live Photos are a clumsy proprietary format. Instagram’s Boomerang nailed what we want out of live action GIFs and we should be able to shoot them straight from the iOS camera and export them as actual GIFs that can be used across the web. Give us some extra GIF settings and iPhones could have a new reason for teens to choose them over Androids.

Gradual Alarms – Anyone else have a heart attack whenever they hear their phone’s Alarm Clock ringtone? I know I do because I leave my alarms on so loud that I’ll never miss them, but end up being rudely shocked awake. A setting that gradually increases the volume of the iOS Alarm Clock every 15 seconds or minute so I can be gently arisen unless I refuse to get up.

Maybe some of these apply to Android, but I wouldn’t know because I’m a filthy casual iPhoner. Send me your Android suggestions, as well as what else you want to see added to your favorite apps.

[Image Credit: Hanson Inc]

from iraidajzsmmwtv http://bit.ly/2AcFp4w via IFTTT

[technicalsolutions88]

‘Twas the night before Xmas, and all through the house, not a feature was stirring from the designer’s mouse . . . Not Twitter! Not Uber, Not Apple or Pinterest! On Facebook! On Snapchat! On Lyft or on Insta! . . . From the sidelines I ask you to flex your code’s might. Happy Xmas to all if you make these apps right.

Instagram

See More Like This – A button on feed posts that when tapped inserts a burst of similar posts before the timeline continues. Want to see more fashion, sunsets, selfies, food porn, pets, or Boomerangs? Instagram’s machine vision technology and metadata would gather them from people you follow and give you a dose. You shouldn’t have to work through search, hashtags, or the Explore page, nor permanently change your feed by following new accounts. Pinterest briefly had this feature (and should bring it back) but it’d work better on Insta.

Web DMs – Instagram’s messaging feature has become the defacto place for sharing memes and trash talk about people’s photos, but it’s stuck on mobile. For all the college kids and entry-level office workers out there, this would make being stuck on laptops all day much more fun. Plus, youth culture truthsayer Taylor Lorenz wants Instagram web DMs too.

Upload Quality Indicator – Try to post a Story video or Boomerang from a crummy internet connection and they turn out a blurry mess. Instagram should warn us if our signal strength is low compared to what we usually have (since some places it’s always mediocre) and either recommend we wait for Wi-Fi, or post a low-res copy that’s replaced by the high-res version when possible.

Oh, and if new VP of product Vishal Shah is listening, I’d also like Bitmoji-style avatars and a better way to discover accounts that shows a selection of their recent posts plus their bio, instead of just one post and no context in Explore which is better for discovering content.

Every feed app should steal Pinterest’s ‘more like this’ button

Twitter

DM Search – Ummm, this is pretty straightforward. It’s absurd that you can’t even search DMs by person, let alone keyword. Twitter knows messaging is a big thing on mobile right? And DMs are one of the most powerful ways to get in contact with mid-level public figures and journalists. PS: My DMs are open if you’ve got a news tip — @JoshConstine.

Unfollow Suggestions – Social networks are obsessed with getting us to follow more people, but do a terrible job of helping us clean up our feeds. With Twitter bringing back the option to see a chronological feed, we need unfollow suggestions more than ever. It should analyze who I follow but never click, fave, reply to, retweet, or even slow down to read and ask if I want to nix them. I asked for this 5 years ago and the problem has only gotten worse. Since people feel like their feeds are already overflowing, they’re stingy with following new people. That’s partly why you see accounts get only a handful of new followers when their tweets go viral and are seen by millions. I recently had a tweet with 1.7 million impressions and 18,000 Likes that drove just 11 follows. Yes I know that’s a self-own.

Analytics Benchmarks – If Twitter wants to improve conversation quality, it should teach us what works. Twitter offers analytics about each of your tweets, but not in context of your other posts. Did this drive more or fewer link clicks or follows than my typical tweet? That kind of info could guide users to create more compelling content.

Twitter Quitters And The Unfiltered Feed Problem

Facebook

(Obviously we could get into Facebook’s myriad problems here. A less sensationalized feed that doesn’t reward exaggerated claims would top my list. Hopefully its plan to downrank “borderline content” that almost violates its policies will help when it rolls out.)

Batched Notifications – Facebook sends way too many notifications. Some are downright useless and should be eliminated. “14 friends responded to events happening tomorrow”? “Someone’s fundraiser is half way to its goal?” Get that shit out of here. But there are other notifications I want to see but that aren’t urgent nor crucial to know about individually. Facebook should let us decide to batch notifications so we’d only get one of a certain type every 12 or 24 hours, or only when a certain number of similar ones are triggered. I’d love a digest of posts to my Groups or Events from the past day rather than every time someone opens their mouth.

I so don’t care

Notifications In The “Time Well Spent” Feature – Facebook tells you how many minutes you spent on it each day over the past week and on average, but my total time on Facebook matters less to me than how often it interrupts my life with push notifications. The “Your Time On Facebook” feature should show how many notifications of each type I’ve received, which ones I actually opened, and let me turn off or batch the ones I want fewer of.

Facebook is finally rolling out its ‘how long do I spend on Facebook’ dashboard

Oh, and for Will Cathcart, Facebook’s VP of apps, can I also get proper syncing so I don’t rewatch the same Stories on Instagram and Facebook, the ability to invite people to Events on mobile based on past invite lists of those I’ve hosted or attended, and the See More Like This feature I recommended for Instagram?

Uber/Lyft/Ridesharing

“Quiet Ride” Button – Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for small talk. Had a rough day, need to get work done, or want to just zone out? Ridesharing apps should offer a request for a quiet ride that if the driver accepts, you pay them an extra dollar (or get it free as a loyalty perk), and you get ferried to your destination without unnecessary conversation. I get that it’s a bit dehumanizing for the driver, but I’d bet some would happily take a little extra cash for their compliance.

“I Need More Time” Button – Sometimes you overestimate the ETA and suddenly your car is arriving before you’re ready to leave. Instead of cancelling and rebooking a few minutes later, frantically rushing so you don’t miss your window and get smacked with a no-show fee, or making the driver wait while they and the company aren’t getting paid, Uber, Lyft, and the rest should offer the “I Need More Time” button that simply rebooks you a car that’s a little further away.

Spotify/Music Streaming Apps

Scan My Collection – I wish I could just take photos of the album covers, spines, or even discs of my CD or record collection and have them instantly added to a playlist or folder. It’s kind of sad that after lifetimes of collecting physical music, most of it now sits on a shelf and we forget to play what we used to love. Music apps want more data on what we like, and it’s just sitting there gathering dust. There’s obviously some fun viral potential here too. Let me share what’s my most embarrassing CD. For me, it’s my dual copies of Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other” because I played the first one so much it got scratched.

Friends Weekly – Spotify ditched its in-app messaging, third-party app platform, and other ways to discover music so its playlists would decide what becomes a hit in order to exert leverage over the record labels to negotiate better deals. But music discovery is inherently social and the desktop little ticker of what friends are playing on doesn’t cut it. Spotify should let me choose to recommend my new favorite song or agree to let it share what I’ve recently played most, and put those into a Discover Weekly-style social playlist of what friends are listening to.

How Spotify is finally gaining leverage over record labels

Snapchat

Growth – I’m sorry, I had to.

Bulk Export Memories – But seriously, Snapchat is shrinking. That’s worrisome because some users’ photos and videos are trapped on its Memories cloud hosting feature that’s supposed to help free up space on your phone. But there’s no bulk export option, meaning it could take hours of saving shots one at a time to your camera roll if you needed to get off of Snapchat, if for example it was shutting down, or got acquired, or you’re just bored of it.

Add-On Cameras – Snapchat’s Spectacles are actually pretty neat for recording first-person or underwater shots in a circular format. But otherwise they don’t do much more, and in some ways do much less, than your phone’s camera and are a long way from being a Magic Leap competitor. That’s why if Snapchat really wants to become a “Camera Company”, it should build sleek add-on cameras that augment our phone’s hardware. Snap previously explored selling a 360-camera but never launched one. A little Giroptic iO-style 360 lens that attaches to your phone’s charging port could let you capture a new kind of content that really makes people feel like they’re there with you. An Aukey Aura-style zoom lens attachment that easily fits in your pocket unlike a DSLR could also be a hit

Snap explored selling a 360 camera

iOS

Switch Wi-Fi/Bluetooth From Control Center – I thought the whole point of Control Center was one touch access, but I can only turn on or off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s silly having to dig into the Settings menu to switch to a different Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device, especially as we interact with more and more of them. Control Center should unfurl a menu of networks or devices you can choose from.

Shoot GIFs – Live Photos are a clumsy proprietary format. Instagram’s Boomerang nailed what we want out of live action GIFs and we should be able to shoot them straight from the iOS camera and export them as actual GIFs that can be used across the web. Give us some extra GIF settings and iPhones could have a new reason for teens to choose them over Androids.

Gradual Alarms – Anyone else have a heart attack whenever they hear their phone’s Alarm Clock ringtone? I know I do because I leave my alarms on so loud that I’ll never miss them, but end up being rudely shocked awake. A setting that gradually increases the volume of the iOS Alarm Clock every 15 seconds or minute so I can be gently arisen unless I refuse to get up.

Maybe some of these apply to Android, but I wouldn’t know because I’m a filthy casual iPhoner. Send me your Android suggestions, as well as what else you want to see added to your favorite apps.

[Image Credit: Hanson Inc]

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2ELMwDV ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

[theinvinciblenoob]

‘Twas the night before Xmas, and all through the house, not a feature was stirring from the designer’s mouse . . . Not Twitter! Not Uber, Not Apple or Pinterest! On Facebook! On Snapchat! On Lyft or on Insta! . . . From the sidelines I ask you to flex your code’s might. Happy Xmas to all if you make these apps right.

Instagram

See More Like This – A button on feed posts that when tapped inserts a burst of similar posts before the timeline continues. Want to see more fashion, sunsets, selfies, food porn, pets, or Boomerangs? Instagram’s machine vision technology and metadata would gather them from people you follow and give you a dose. You shouldn’t have to work through search, hashtags, or the Explore page, nor permanently change your feed by following new accounts. Pinterest briefly had this feature (and should bring it back) but it’d work better on Insta.

Web DMs – Instagram’s messaging feature has become the defacto place for sharing memes and trash talk about people’s photos, but it’s stuck on mobile. For all the college kids and entry-level office workers out there, this would make being stuck on laptops all day much more fun. Plus, youth culture truthsayer Taylor Lorenz wants Instagram web DMs too.

Upload Quality Indicator – Try to post a Story video or Boomerang from a crummy internet connection and they turn out a blurry mess. Instagram should warn us if our signal strength is low compared to what we usually have (since some places it’s always mediocre) and either recommend we wait for Wi-Fi, or post a low-res copy that’s replaced by the high-res version when possible.

Oh, and if new VP of product Vishal Shah is listening, I’d also like Bitmoji-style avatars and a better way to discover accounts that shows a selection of their recent posts plus their bio, instead of just one post and no context in Explore which is better for discovering content.

Every feed app should steal Pinterest’s ‘more like this’ button

Twitter

DM Search – Ummm, this is pretty straightforward. It’s absurd that you can’t even search DMs by person, let alone keyword. Twitter knows messaging is a big thing on mobile right? And DMs are one of the most powerful ways to get in contact with mid-level public figures and journalists. PS: My DMs are open if you’ve got a news tip — @JoshConstine.

Unfollow Suggestions – Social networks are obsessed with getting us to follow more people, but do a terrible job of helping us clean up our feeds. With Twitter bringing back the option to see a chronological feed, we need unfollow suggestions more than ever. It should analyze who I follow but never click, fave, reply to, retweet, or even slow down to read and ask if I want to nix them. I asked for this 5 years ago and the problem has only gotten worse. Since people feel like their feeds are already overflowing, they’re stingy with following new people. That’s partly why you see accounts get only a handful of new followers when their tweets go viral and are seen by millions. I recently had a tweet with 1.7 million impressions and 18,000 Likes that drove just 11 follows. Yes I know that’s a self-own.

Analytics Benchmarks – If Twitter wants to improve conversation quality, it should teach us what works. Twitter offers analytics about each of your tweets, but not in context of your other posts. Did this drive more or fewer link clicks or follows than my typical tweet? That kind of info could guide users to create more compelling content.

Twitter Quitters And The Unfiltered Feed Problem

Facebook

(Obviously we could get into Facebook’s myriad problems here. A less sensationalized feed that doesn’t reward exaggerated claims would top my list. Hopefully its plan to downrank “borderline content” that almost violates its policies will help when it rolls out.)

Batched Notifications – Facebook sends way too many notifications. Some are downright useless and should be eliminated. “14 friends responded to events happening tomorrow”? “Someone’s fundraiser is half way to its goal?” Get that shit out of here. But there are other notifications I want to see but that aren’t urgent nor crucial to know about individually. Facebook should let us decide to batch notifications so we’d only get one of a certain type every 12 or 24 hours, or only when a certain number of similar ones are triggered. I’d love a digest of posts to my Groups or Events from the past day rather than every time someone opens their mouth.

I so don’t care

Notifications In The “Time Well Spent” Feature – Facebook tells you how many minutes you spent on it each day over the past week and on average, but my total time on Facebook matters less to me than how often it interrupts my life with push notifications. The “Your Time On Facebook” feature should show how many notifications of each type I’ve received, which ones I actually opened, and let me turn off or batch the ones I want fewer of.

Facebook is finally rolling out its ‘how long do I spend on Facebook’ dashboard

Oh, and for Will Cathcart, Facebook’s VP of apps, can I also get proper syncing so I don’t rewatch the same Stories on Instagram and Facebook, the ability to invite people to Events on mobile based on past invite lists of those I’ve hosted or attended, and the See More Like This feature I recommended for Instagram?

Uber/Lyft/Ridesharing

“Quiet Ride” Button – Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for small talk. Had a rough day, need to get work done, or want to just zone out? Ridesharing apps should offer a request for a quiet ride that if the driver accepts, you pay them an extra dollar (or get it free as a loyalty perk), and you get ferried to your destination without unnecessary conversation. I get that it’s a bit dehumanizing for the driver, but I’d bet some would happily take a little extra cash for their compliance.

“I Need More Time” Button – Sometimes you overestimate the ETA and suddenly your car is arriving before you’re ready to leave. Instead of cancelling and rebooking a few minutes later, frantically rushing so you don’t miss your window and get smacked with a no-show fee, or making the driver wait while they and the company aren’t getting paid, Uber, Lyft, and the rest should offer the “I Need More Time” button that simply rebooks you a car that’s a little further away.

Spotify/Music Streaming Apps

Scan My Collection – I wish I could just take photos of the album covers, spines, or even discs of my CD or record collection and have them instantly added to a playlist or folder. It’s kind of sad that after lifetimes of collecting physical music, most of it now sits on a shelf and we forget to play what we used to love. Music apps want more data on what we like, and it’s just sitting there gathering dust. There’s obviously some fun viral potential here too. Let me share what’s my most embarrassing CD. For me, it’s my dual copies of Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other” because I played the first one so much it got scratched.

Friends Weekly – Spotify ditched its in-app messaging, third-party app platform, and other ways to discover music so its playlists would decide what becomes a hit in order to exert leverage over the record labels to negotiate better deals. But music discovery is inherently social and the desktop little ticker of what friends are playing on doesn’t cut it. Spotify should let me choose to recommend my new favorite song or agree to let it share what I’ve recently played most, and put those into a Discover Weekly-style social playlist of what friends are listening to.

How Spotify is finally gaining leverage over record labels

Snapchat

Growth – I’m sorry, I had to.

Bulk Export Memories – But seriously, Snapchat is shrinking. That’s worrisome because some users’ photos and videos are trapped on its Memories cloud hosting feature that’s supposed to help free up space on your phone. But there’s no bulk export option, meaning it could take hours of saving shots one at a time to your camera roll if you needed to get off of Snapchat, if for example it was shutting down, or got acquired, or you’re just bored of it.

Add-On Cameras – Snapchat’s Spectacles are actually pretty neat for recording first-person or underwater shots in a circular format. But otherwise they don’t do much more, and in some ways do much less, than your phone’s camera and are a long way from being a Magic Leap competitor. That’s why if Snapchat really wants to become a “Camera Company”, it should build sleek add-on cameras that augment our phone’s hardware. Snap previously explored selling a 360-camera but never launched one. A little Giroptic iO-style 360 lens that attaches to your phone’s charging port could let you capture a new kind of content that really makes people feel like they’re there with you. An Aukey Aura-style zoom lens attachment that easily fits in your pocket unlike a DSLR could also be a hit

Snap explored selling a 360 camera

iOS

Switch Wi-Fi/Bluetooth From Control Center – I thought the whole point of Control Center was one touch access, but I can only turn on or off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s silly having to dig into the Settings menu to switch to a different Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device, especially as we interact with more and more of them. Control Center should unfurl a menu of networks or devices you can choose from.

Shoot GIFs – Live Photos are a clumsy proprietary format. Instagram’s Boomerang nailed what we want out of live action GIFs and we should be able to shoot them straight from the iOS camera and export them as actual GIFs that can be used across the web. Give us some extra GIF settings and iPhones could have a new reason for teens to choose them over Androids.

Gradual Alarms – Anyone else have a heart attack whenever they hear their phone’s Alarm Clock ringtone? I know I do because I leave my alarms on so loud that I’ll never miss them, but end up being rudely shocked awake. A setting that gradually increases the volume of the iOS Alarm Clock every 15 seconds or minute so I can be gently arisen unless I refuse to get up.

Maybe some of these apply to Android, but I wouldn’t know because I’m a filthy casual iPhoner. Send me your Android suggestions, as well as what else you want to see added to your favorite apps.

[Image Credit: Hanson Inc]

via TechCrunch