One One Six Eclectic Playlist Contest Starts Today!
Are you a music lover? Do you always have the best track at the ready for any moment in any situation? Do you get bored when your friends share their “new” music with you? Do you roll your eyes, press STOP, and put on something that will really make people think? Do you have trouble putting a label on the style of music you like? If so, then have we got something for you!
You might recall the folks at One One Six from their massive 116 track Playlist of the Year 2012 entry that was shared over 500 times and easily won the honors as the best Whyd Playlist of the Year. You might also know them from the events they host around France, or even from the release of their artist DLSM’s new album two weeks ago. If you don’t know them: they are a group of rad dudes who love to mix all types of music into what can only be labelled as “specifically eclectic.”
And so, with no further distraction, Whyd and One One Six are proud to announce the first ever partner-led playlist contest on Whyd. For the next two weeks, everyone in the world will be able to check out One One Six’s site, see the rules for the contest, and create an eclectic playlist of the best 7 tracks that satisfy the requirements in order to win the prize of being featured on both One One Six and Whyd and claim their rightful position as an acclaimed music lover.
Click this link to get started, and remember, the playlists with the most shares will be the finalists, so as soon as you have 7 tracks get sharing!!
Feel free to contact us with any specific questions: tony(at)whyd(dot)com
Track of the Weekend #37: Daft Punk - “Get Lucky”
It’s been 8 long years since Daft Punk’s “Digital Love” consumed the entire world, and now the planetary icons have finally released a new single. What has transpired since then is like nothing that we’ve seen on Whyd ever before. Since the moment is was online it rocketed to #1 on the Hot Tracks and has stayed there, and as copies started popping up online, different versions popped up in the Hot Tracks too, with at one point various versions of the exact same song taking up 7 of the top 20 places in the hot tracks! There is clearly demand for the robot-masked French duo, and it is of couse the increasingly influential Alan Henry to thank for dropping “Get Lucky” on Whyd first.
Why are we called Whyd? The Answer you’ve all been waiting for!
Many of you have asked the excellent question: Why is Whyd called Whyd? Most people also wonder how you pronounce our name. But before we tell you the answer, it is worth noting that in English Whyd is the contraction of “Why did,” as used in the question “Why did you name your start up Whyd?” Yet in today’s online world where apostrophes are as rare as a non-racist YouTube comment, Whyd has become the way that people phrase (usually rhetorical) questions about life in general. So when we track #whyd on Twitter, we end up with a very broad range of results from the interesting (and obviously highly educated) Twitternet population. Sometimes we find some gems, so before we tell you the secret of our name, here are a few highlights of how people use “whyd:”
From complaining about the weather:
To worrying about the future availability of sexy celebrities:
To incoherent catholic-wannabe 8-year-olds:
To chill, accepting lesbians:
To self-deprecating, Twitter-addicted procrastinators:
To defensive, bitter Lakers’ fans:
To clumsy, perfectionist beauty queens:
To the incredibly lazy:
(Is it us or does everyone just use Twitter to complain?)
But, yet, after all that, sometimes — sometimes — there is light, even if that light is a little paranoid:
Now that we got that out of the way (and you see how tricky it is to be managing our social media…) let’s address the pronunciation of our name first. It is not Whyd like “weed,” the green plant that is impossible to find in Paris. It is not Whyd like “wid” as in “widget.” It is pronounced Whyd like “wide” as in the world wide web. And therein we start to understand the meaning of Whyd.
Whyd is a combination of Wide and Why. The “wide” is the breadth of new music coming online everyday, from new artists experimenting with new sounds to delight our ears in a never-ending sea of sound waves expanding like tectonic plates quaking our souls. But as there is a ton of new music, not all of it is good, not all of it moves us. There is a reason that we share certain songs, sounds that touch us. We share selected morsels for their quality, that is the “why.” In a way, Whyd is simply the rule of quality over quantity.
Never stop jamming!
Interview with Underground Playlist
1. Tell us about the minds behind Underground Playlist, where does your inspiration come from?
I started the Underground Playlist in January of 2010 realizing that there were many worthy up-and-coming artists out there not getting enough recognition. Newer artists were also greatly affected by the challenges the music industry were facing during the recession so it seemed especially appropriate considering the circumstances. I decided every week to post 5 new songs by new artists. I felt where many blogs were posting about popular artists this was a chance to offer unique content where the majority of the artists we feature are relatively unknown yet deserve as much recognition as the popular artists do.
2. What type of music do you present in your playlists?
Underground Playlist features new music by new artists. Whether it’s Indie, Electronic, Pop, Hip Hop, Rock, or any other genre, if it sounds compelling and it’s from a new artist we’re all about it.
In the past we’ve been lucky enough to feature eventual hit songs months before they reached top status. Some in particular come to mind like B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars “Nothin’ On You”, Havana Brown “We Run The Night”, Cher Lloyd “Want U Back”, Kirko Bangz “Drank In My Cup” among others. Every now and then we come into songs of this stature and it is really cool to follow these artists as they reach newer heights in their career.
3. You’re now up to 171 playlists (with 172 right around the corner), how do you keep it up?
The way music and social media have mesh together it has allowed blogs and everyday music fans more access to discovery. If you look in the right places you’ll find a goldmine of undiscovered talent. Whether its looking under certain Twitter hashtags, searching extensively on YouTube and now Whyd, the process of discovery has given us plenty of choices to select music for our playlists.
An important aspect of our selection is that we make sure not to focus on necessarily being the first person to discover an artist but rather focus on featuring a quality playlist of music by new artists even if it’s a month or two young. Like we’ve seen with Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” in some cases it can take up to a year for a hit song to gain recognition but if the song has potential that new artists deserves to have their work featured at any point as whatever ounce of press they receive can only help them in their journey as an artist.
Another driving force is realizing in some cases it’s the first or second time an artist has been featured in their career and they’ll tweet or email us to send a thank you and that feedback makes us feel like we are making a difference whether big or small for these artists which just adds to the fuel of discovery for us.
4. The design of your site is very unique, where did you get the idea?
We feel it’s important to have a simple yet unique design to allow our visitors to navigate easily and most importantly keep their focus on the artist and their music. Being able to allow our visitors to listen and easily purchase the music we select is also another aspect to our site that is equally important to us.
We’ve also implemented a shared calendar powered by SpinGo that allows fans to easily search through a wide database of concerts and music events submitted by people from all around the world. Brand new to our site is the Whyd subscribe badge located at the footer of each page where you can access an exclusive monthly version of our playlist that we’ll update periodically during the month.
In all, our design is geared to give the artists we feature as much visibility as possible and fans the availability to purchase their music and tickets to theirs shows.
A big thank you to Whyd and be sure to subscribe to us!
Thank you guys! Follow Underground Playlist on Twitter and make sure to Like their Facebook page too!
Track of the Weekend #36: Empire of the Sun - “Alive”
2013 has already proven itself to be an epic year for music, with major new releases from The Strokes, Daft Punk (maybe next week’s track of the weekend?) and of course the Australian electro duo Empire of the Sun whose new single “Alive” is just that: a pulsating tempo of light and love that is beauty audiolized. Rarely does music achieve such a weightlessness of being, floating us all away. Thanks to Julien Pelletier for snapping it up and providing us with this superb Track of the Weekend!
Never stop jamming!
#AperoMusicTech #2 Recap
Last night saw the second #AperoMusicTech, this time on the banks of the Canal St. Martin at the Point Éphémère and what an evening it was! Perfect temperatures and weather actually saw people arriving early to grab a beer and a place to sit down! Co-hosted by the creative minds at Beware! Magazine, hundreds of interesting people including bloggers, journalists, DJs, musicians, entrepreneurs, music biz professionals, geeks, and music lovers all came down to meet and mingle.
It was a good night for the Whyd faithful too, with heavy-hitters like Aline, Julien, Le Coup de Lapin, Alix, Marwan, Tusbar, ptilu, and Vimare stopping by to spend some time with everyone. As always we appreciate their support and especially the awesome music that they add every single day on Whyd.
Speaking of awesome music, the line up of DJs on display last night was impressive too. Nu Ma from Sweet Electronic Music Lovers, Birol from Paradoxe Animalier, Tis, SSCK, and of course the swag-drenched Loïck M (pictured above) blasting out the evening. A gigantic thank you to these guys for sharing their talent and musical selections with us!
Now here is a gem shared for us last night by our man Tis:
Interview with SoUnD WaVeS: Audio Surfing
1. Hey SoUnD WaVeS, what are the different sides to your personality and how do they show up in your projects?
Creativity and Uniqueness is a side of me that definitely likes to be expressed, and I don’t consider myself a follower, so my sense of style from clothing to music, is always kept as original and unique as possible. And I express it in many ways, first one being:
1. Every single album cover I use for my songs is unique.
2. Also SoUnD WaVeS- accessories and apparel are made to stylishly make you stand out with high quality ! Available on Bandcamp
And was also expressed on: “Breakdancing to my Heartbeat ::: Official Music Video :::” on YouTube:
I do have an “extrovert” way of being, I consider myself outgoing, daring (not afraid of taking chances), and I definitely like the fun side of life (music & dancing)! I am the type of person that likes to have his feelings, thoughts and emotions heard, through my SoUnD WaVeS, with the goal to bring out the party animal hidden inside you, and with that said a “sense of humor” is big to me and in my music, and personal life. No one wants to ride a musical roller coaster that doesn’t break the speed of light, so I like to take it to that point, with my songs!
2. How does where you come from influence the music you make?
I would say that coming from the big city of Los Angeles, I was exposed to various cultures, a wide array of music, having unique people as friends, which meant “a lot” of cool experiences growing up, the metropolitan style of life are what made me the EDM lover & producer I am today ! In the culture I come from, parties always revolve around dancing, which means I appreciate and listen to many genres of music. It’s always been known that a lot of awesome electronic music artists are from Europe, the example that comes to mind is “Daft Punk” who I consider to be a very talented group, that shaped my style of acquired electronic music taste. And they also stand out in uniqueness (in a league of their own) which keeps them separated and distinct from others, a quality I admire and strive to live by.
3. What does “straight ahead electro” mean? Who listens to your music?
What it means to me is something that you produce, and dedicate hours to, and the reason you do it is because of the love you have for it.
I have my music in rotation by various online radio stations, and I have found that most of my fans are women, online and in my personal life, and being a male producer, I will say, I am pretty proud of that, lol. But none the less, I aim my music to target crowds that simply love EDM & dancing to it!
4. Tell us about your new single “Esta es mi ciudad (C’est ma ville/This is my city)”
On my last single: ”Esta es mi ciudad (C’est ma ville/This is my city)“ available on Bandpage & Soundcloud, I really wanted to express my love for the many cultures that I feel have complemented and contributed to my personal taste in life in music and food. A lot of EDM artist from my era that I like are from different parts of the world. And with this single, I wanted to demonstrate that music has the power to bring many cultures together, and provide unforgettable memories on the dance floor!
Make sure you subscribe to SoUnD WaVeS on Whyd, and follow him on Twitter too!
#AperoMusicTech #2: DJ Line Up
Wednesday is quickly approaching and with it the second #AperoMusicTech organized by Whyd with special guests Beware! Magazine. We have provided some of the details in the official Facebook event page, but we have been hard at work getting a cool line up of fresh DJs to spin Whyd’s characteristic blend of funky, unusual, electro, and pulsating jams.
Here is a rough timetable of what to expect, music-wise, on Wednesday night! Check the links to get more info:
19hr30: Anaïs Ngbanzo @anaisjulia
20hr30: Tis — from Enlarge Your Playlist
21hr30: Birol — from Paradoxe Animalier
22hr30: Loïck M
Midnight: SSCK
Track of the Weekend #35: Girls in Hawaii - “Misses”
Someone is going to have to stop Mademoiselle Laurène Sturm from slipping such delicious music drugs into our Whyd water. Normally we would disqualify her from being eligible for the Track of the Weekend, since she has already been responsible for frequent musical coups de coeur. But, it’s her birthday, and the Whyd community has been celebrating all week with the dreamy waves of her added track “Misses” by the Belgian indie group Girls in Hawaii. A rather disappointing Google image search (we must say) for the name of the group, but there is nothing disappointing about the quality of this track, and a special vinyl EP goes on sale exclusively for Record Store Day (April 20)!
Happy Birthday Laurène! Looking forward to celebrating with you tonight!
Playlist of the Week: L.A. Beat Scene by Tristan H
Photo by Marco Kusumawijaya
If you like the down tempo beats and vibes coming from the deeper side of L.A — the endless acres of warehouses and bent homes, ringed by rusted barbed wire and fed by urban grunge — this tracklist will keep you low sniffing the ground. Presented in all its purity by Tristan H, L.A. Beat Scene grows like grass through the cracks of broken pavement and crumbled foundations.
Subscribe to Tristan H on Whyd, and never stop jamming!