So, one of my last posts a month or so ago was... "I'm going to start blogging again". Well, it turns out I lied. After my time at Strands (formerly MyStrands), I thought I was going to take a few weeks off and catch my breath. But as supreme luck (and perhaps good karma) would have it, my dream gig landed landed in my lap about 24 hours into my psuedo-retirement. There has been a fair amount of speculation about what this new company is up to... some right, some wrong, but all compelling enough that I jumped at the chance to be part of it.
So, I quickly cranked through the extensive "honey do" list I had been assigned (involved lots of painting and fixing of stuff) and got back to work. And what a busy 6 weeks it has been so far. Those that follow me on Twitter (@jherskowitz) have probably seen me talking about numerous all-nighters as we've been hurtling towards unveiling ourselves to the public.
Drumroll please..... because here is. MY NEW PLAYLIST IS FINALLY DONE! :-P
Yes, that is what I believe those in the marketing world call a "tease". More info to come on what (and who) is behind all that made my new playlist possible soon. In the meantime, just enjoy some free and legal music above. There are some new albums that I've been really digging lately too, and I'll be posting more in the coming days/weeks. Enjoy.
"Today is my last day at Strands. I feel fortunate to have worked with many of you, and I think together we have built something really special - and something that was, and will continue to be, the foundation of something even bigger and better.
Whenever so much of one's spirit and soul are invested into the creation of something from nothing to a full, living and breathing product, it is saddening to not be able to take it further with you all. I hope to see everyone succeed on the path that we began down, regardless of what direction it ultimately takes.
I wish you all well.
- J"
What's next for me? I'm not quite sure yet other than a deep-breath and spending a little time evaluating a few options. I'll probably get back to blogging in depth on a few topics that I've been spending some time thinking about lately. I've got a couple of loose product ideas that I may further work through. And I've got www.mediaor.com (and now www.ambientsignal.com) that need some TLC. After that, I'm not sure yet... but I'll let you guys know once I figure it out.
I was going to write a long blog post talking about why I don't write long blog posts much anymore. But instead, I figured I'd just create a video...
You will also notice that I added a bunch of Strands Tips & Tricks videos in the sidebar that you may be interested in. Meanwhile, if you want to come follow my on Strands, feel free to come join. Just go to www.strands.com, click on "request an invite" and then enter your email address and promo code "jtwit".
I look forward to seeing you over there. And don't worry... when I do have something to ramble on about I will still do so here, but you will get it there (www.strands.com/jherskowitz). Along with my photos, bookmarks, favorite videos, songs, etc.
I've been really quiet lately, and that is always the first sign that things at work are really humming along and keeping me busy. Lots of things are going on, and we are quickly approaching the time when we will unveil some of the new big pieces. But, leading up to that point are a number of new Strands releases that are quickly becoming available. To begin with, last week we announced that we were changing our brand from MyStrands to just "Strands".
We have also unveiled a new business solutions initiative that "delivers advanced social recommendation and personalization technology as an easy-to-use Strands hosted service that enables high quality individualized discovery and community features in your site."
Perhaps you've also seen us starting to bang the drum about the importance of data portability. We strongly believe that a user's taste data should be their own - and given that, they should be able to control who they share it with (or not).
What else? Well, since you asked...
Since we partnered with MTV to run partyStrands at their New Year's Event (on the big screen on Times Square), the website just got a shiny new facelift and has been rockin' large and small nightclubs and events across the country.
Also, a few weeks ago our Social Player won the MobileRules 08 "best multimedia application" award. And today we are announcing the last version of that application that adds the ability for users to send playcount data (aka "scrobble") from your mobile phone to Last.fm in addition to MyStrands.com.
Strands Blog: "We have just released version 3.1 of Nokia’s Mobile Rules! 2008 winning application, MyStrands Social Player, which allows you to scrobble tracks to Last.fm as you play music on your Symbian S60 3rd Edition and J2ME (optimized for Nokia S40) devices (download for S60 devices here and for S40 devices here). Recently listened tracks on your mobile device will now be available on your Last.fm profile.
The MyStrands Social Player is a music player for mobile devices that lets you discover new music, connect with people, and share your tastes with friends. Version 3.1 works with Nokia S60 3rd edition or S40 devices (optimized for most recent Nokia S40 devices), which brings the MyStrands Social Player not only to 10s of millions of smart phones but to the true mass market of 100s of millions of Java devices.
Powered by Strands’ Recommender, MyStrands Social Player provides artist and song recommendations from over 6 million songs, automatically shows cover art and fully integrates with a social network of music enthusiasts.
The “Who’s Listening” feature lets you discover like-minded people who are listening to the same songs you are playing. You can send messages, see the listening histories of your friends, and keep an ear on what’s hot."
The next event in this year's award season for the Social Player is our nomination for a Mobile User Experience award. If you like what you see, vote for us!
This stuff is just the tip of the iceberg, with much more to come. I promise.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vxyOMflPFBykF5L3paIP4edbqf4juKcR68xl4pltMrjRWloFCsCh6cHsJzkw79Rd0HhIY3acK8yrInJEAG0AvBbL71_e9PLtasET_MJ-f8KkNcUdoL2gojUYabIO71Hjl3VHhBuTnKFMUwaTawcdY=s0-d)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t0MX21L5eTnZm77FRNvqmdgKf4cwns5bP1MdocdR04XWaphh-edgJ4U_Q07eRjxyA-n1vAVEZpVIoTcW6i1uJ0_-8LMBXmkjSQimBBJgQnRXC93u_rcUsPt0oH776O8FW0RCzpmJh_DkuSyJkMlyw=s0-d)
