Track of the Weekend #95: Stevie Wonder - “Superstition” (C2C Remix)

Sometimes the track of the weekend needs an explanation. Sometimes a song doesn’t need any introduction. Mariah Carrey singing “I’ll Be There” in the 90’s. Dixie Chicks covering “Landslide.” These are epic songs, covered by talented artists to give to a new generation of listeners.

C2C, the celebrated French DJ group who are regularly the most popular artist on Whyd thanks to their innovative style, revisited arguably one of the most famous songs of all time: “Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. When we saw this track added to Whyd by Steven Thomas-Brondeau, we instantly knew it would be the track of the weekend. And here we are. Enjoy your weekend with this exponentially funked up tune: 

iOS App V.2 is Out!

The Whyd iOS App has been out for about a month and half so far, and the reviews have been awesome. “Life-changing,” “the best music app out there,” and “I’m using Whyd more than Spotify,” are just a few examples of the praise from our music lovers. 

But like any V.1 there are limitations, and our mobile team consisting of Damien “Taylor Swift Code” Romito and Loïck “Dub was so 2013” Müller have been working like crazy to bring the Whyd app meet the social expectations it demands. 

The big news is that our famous “long tap” feature to like and re-add has been expanded to sharing. Now you can send your tracks - and entire playlists - to your friends on Whyd, Facebook, Twitter, and even via email or by SMS! Now, when you add a track that you know someone else will love, you can make sure they won’t miss it. And when your friend says, “yo man, I love this playlist,” you can send it to them directly, whether or not they have a Whyd account. 

The app also updates the player for better, continuous playback. 

PLEASE NOTE: For our music lovers who have already downloaded V.1, the new version tends to crash when you open the notifications in the update. We are working on a solution as quickly as possible, but if this happens to you, just delete the app and redownload it. The problem goes away and of course all of your music is still there! 

And, please keep giving us feedback so we can continue to improve the experience: tony at whyd dot com

1 MILLION TRACKS

When you are in a start up, it can be difficult sometimes. Watching the metrics sag, wondering about which feature will lead to explosive growth. Creating a road map and discarding it the next day. But sometimes, something happens that makes it all worth it, that gives you the confirmation that yes: what we are doing matters, and it’s working. Last night, we celebrated a major milestone, we surpassed 1,000,000 tracks added to Whyd

Our music lovers are the best on the planet, passionate about discovering the next awesome sound, and passionate about sharing those discoveries with everyone else. 1 million tracks later, we can say that the quality of music on Whyd is only improving: more activity means more discovery. More followers for our curators, a wider range of possibilities for our listeners. Tracks added from the web and now mobile. 

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. Thank you to our amazing community of curators for all the music you’ve shared with us. For a small little team split between Paris and San Francisco, crossing the millionth track added to Whyd is a game-changer. It powers us forward, to get to 10 million tracks added and to keep constructing a place that is dedicated to music and music lovers. 

With your help, we will get there. 

Never stop jamming! 

3 Awesome #Madrid Playlists

Have you been one of the lucky people to listen to the awesome music being shared by our new-born Madrid community? The Spanish capitol is world famous for its energy, and that’s in large part thanks to the awesome music that infuses the city like the summer heat. 

Each day on the Whyd Madrid page, we feature three new playlists dedicated to the Spirit of Madrid: http://whyd.com/madrid#playlists

Today we’re featuring playlists from Rob Filomena, Sergio Pastrana d’Abbadie, and Voyageman

Esta en Madrid tambien? Di nos! tony at whyd dot com para compartir su música! 

Live from Caen: Interview with Radio Phénix (92.7 FM)

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Hello! Can you introduce yourselves? Who is behind the team at Radio Phénix? 

The association Radio Phénix was born ten years ago from a group of students who wanted to bring new sounds to the FM radio of Caen, France. Since 2008 we have been on 92.7 and we have around 2,000 listeners each day from the Caennaise agglomeration. 

We have two true employees at the radio, and about 40 volunteers each year.

Tell us about the music content, is it varied or do you follow specific styles in particular? 

The musical color of the radio goes from indie hip-hop to electronic, passing by pop and rock. It is varied but we try to keep a clear musical identity for the people who know Radio Phénix from the moment they hit us on the dial. We follow a lot of music blogs and certain labels, we see trends and watch how they morph over the years. We have integrated more electronic music for example. Our influences come from the volunteers as well, members of Concrete Knives or Superpoze or Fakear have come through here, and today they are on the rotation! 

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What is the spirit? Is it radio for the students, or is it students creating radio for a larger audience? 

The radio is animated in part by students and we are in the Radio Campus France network but our listeners are anywhere between 15-35 years old. People recognize the music and the young identity of the radio. We are ad-free and are far away from the top 40 that other radio stations put on repeat. We have more than 500 tracks that rotate in our playlist. 

Do you have any news for the end of the summer? 

We are working with a new communications agency “Murmure” and we are launching a new visual campaign, changing our logo, and working on a new website by the end of the year! 

Follow Radio Phénix on Whyd to keep up with this cutting-edge radio station! 

Track of the Weekend #94: Seekae - “Test & Recognise” (Flume re-work)

July is almost over, and the offices in the incubator are emptier than ever as the hordes of entrepreneurs take their computers and iPads to word at the beach. We launched Whyd Madrid yesterday, an excellent radio to discover awesome new music. And the track of the weekend recalls the unique sounds that Whyd is world famous for. All is good. 

When Australian electronic artists get together, the result is often remarkable. There must be something in the kangaroos. This week’s track of the weekend is another example of two Aussie forces merging: Flume takes Seekae's “Test & Recognise" and warps it into a hypnotic wormhole that itches the back of the left side of your brain. It’s another track of the weekend from Le Coup de Lapin, one of our core music lovers (just be careful when you play darts with him!). 

Welcome to Madrid

On any given evening, Plaza del Sol might be one of the world’s most buzzing places. It’s a square in every sense of the word, filled with people strolling, eating ice cream, or sitting to drink Jager (at least when we are there). But it only represents a fraction of the pulse that beats like a drum all through the night, because in the Spanish capitol, energy is everywhere. And that energy is fueled by music. 

Music from the Spanish-speaking world spans the globe, from the barrios of Mexico City down to the Chilean desert over to the white villages of Andalusia and back across to the palm-and-Bentley-lined suburbs of Los Angeles. It is impossible to categorize as a genre, impossible to capture in one summary, but it begs to be shared and listened to, and with the launch of the next city community, we at Whyd are trying to centralize and diffuse the spirit that this type of music represents, for our listening pleasure. This is the goal of Whyd Madrid, which we are proud to announce today. 

Just like Whyd Paris, we have grouped together a collection of key curators who embody this spirit, to present you a Madrid Stream, their profiles, and three new playlists everyday inspired by those Madrileos. 

So as you switch on your air conditioning, add a couple extra ice cubes to your beverage, and sit back to enjoy the summertime, tune your ears to Whyd Madrid, and enjoy a new taste of Spanish music from those who know it best. 

And (there is always an and) of course we are looking for more and more curators to join the Whyd Madrid community and contribute their discoveries, so if you are in Madrid, or know someone who would be perfect for it, please get in touch: tony at whyd dot com. 

Never stop jamming! 

BBQ is Back! [PHOTOS]

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It’s been nearly two years since the infamous BBQ that crippled our ability to host parties in the little garden behind our incubator, but it was too nice of a day to sit by without pulling out the old charcoal and roasting some merguez. Damn it feels good to be a grillster. 

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Adrien making some serious bread:

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Getting that fire going:

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Hot day in Paris, perfect for beer and BBQ! 

Give us your #SummerInParis Playlists: Win a homemade sushi dinner!

Is there a better time to listen to music than the summer? When relaxation is key, we have time on our hands, and every type of event: from BBQs to rooftop parties to bonfires on the beach are so much sweetened by the sound of good tunes. You may have already done it, but if you are in Paris, we want you to create and send us your #Summer in Paris playlist. Email the URL of your playlist to us at tony at whyd dot com. 

Every playlist will be featured throughout the summer on the Whyd Paris community stream: http://www.whyd.com/paris

Around the middle of August, we at Whyd will select our favorite playlist of the summer, and the winner will be invited (with a guest of their choice) to a homemade sushi dinner at Tony's place.

Warning: Tony makes some excellent sushi, you may never fully be able to enjoy regular sushi again after this dinner. You have been warned.  

Happy playlisting, happy summer, and never stop jamming! 

Stay Ahead of the Curve: Interview with AlbumStreams.com

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Hello! Can you introduce yourself? Who are you and where are you from? 

Hi! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to introduce my site. I’m Thomas from Cologne in Germany. I’m 34 years old and I’ve been blogging about music for - I think - a decade now. My first album ever what the Star Wars soundtrack (I know!) and when I’m not listening to music, I’m also composing a little myself (check out the independent projects Souls of Zen & Shangdown by Jakob Montrasio). 

Why did you create albumstream.com? Where did the idea come from? 

Oh man, I just love music and I listen to so much of it - no matter which genre. If I like it, it’s in the playlist - be it pop, rock, metal, hip hop or classical music. I’ve been running several music blogs for years now and the think I’ve always loved most is collecting streams of upcoming songs and albums to be able to listen to great new music before anyone else :D

But it takes time to browse all the awesome blogs and magazines out there, so I decided to start albumstreams.com and aggregate new and officially streaming music in a cool and nice looking format for everyone else to listen to very quickly - to spend less time searching and more time listening! I’ve always paid much attention to unknown bands as well and I just love giving newcomers a platform where they can exist just right next to a La Roux or Linkin’ Park stream. If a stream is submitted by an ambitious band, it’s in the chronological albumstreams.com timeline. It happens not rarely, that a band with 50 Facebook fans finds itself between Coldplay and Bon Iver. I love that! 

What types of music do you cover? Who should come and check out albumstreams.com? 

There is no limitation in genre. If you like pop, check out the pop section, if you like rock, head over to the rock section, and if you like movie soundtracks, be my guest in the soundtrack section. Great music needs to be heard and I just love to broaden my musical horizon and be surprised by sounds I haven’t expected a minute ago. You know that moment, when you’re just utterly stunned by something, that triggers something in your hear that you don’t understand, when you just let that moment take control of you and you can’t breathe anymore? Music still does that to me even though I’ve already heard so much of it. I can’t live without it and I can’t risk to leave out a genre and miss any of these moments. 

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What are your plans for the rest of the year? Anything we can look forward to? 

First of all, you can look forward to great new music, I guess! But in terms of albumstreams.com I’m planning to launch the possibility to log in and save a stream into your personal profile and keep track of the artist. I talked to some fans and they really miss this possibility. You listen to a great track or album, which comes out 4 weeks later and maybe you forget about it in the meantime. This must not happen and my mission is to make this pain go away. I would also like to see, that the cover art of an album gathers more attention. I collect vinyl and I love checking out the huge covers in detail. It’s part of the art and it must be recognized as such even in the days of streaming. 

Thank you Thomas! Like albumstreams.com on Facebook and get to their Whyd page to find your next favorite song!