For fifteen years Oniracom has grown into a leading creative marketing agency in the Santa Barbara area, but the company success was not achieved overnight. The Oniracom brand originated at 1453 Jameson street in the city of Montecito, with a small team in a duplex. Gradually, the team started to feel congested as they expanded up to fourteen people and realized the need to relocate. Jacob Tell, Sean Campos, and Mike Wald saw this as an opportunity to immerse Oniracom into a larger community. The chosen current location of 720 East Haley in downtown Santa Barbara is a vital part of the Oniracom success. The new town allowed them to expand their client target to the many small businesses in the area by actively outreaching and physically connecting. Oniracom has grown its reputation within the community and its broad range of clients by taking that opportunity to relocate.

The 2016 Santa Barbara Bowl season is well under way! Artists like G-Eazy, the 1975, and Chris Stapleton have already stopped by, but there are plenty more acts to prepare yourself for. Here are some dates I’m looking forward to…

We’re all familiar with the obstacles that come with scheduling work meetings. It’s something so simple, yet at times seemingly impossible.

Google Calendar has introduced a new “Find a Time” feature exclusively for Google Apps and Androids.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival brings in around 100,000 people into the desert city of Indio, California for two back-to-back weekends in April. This year I got to witness the music mayhem first hand during Weekend 1.

What’s new with Facebook? As the company continues to improve, new technology is introduced. Facebook has announced chatbot and Live Chat. This has the potential to replace 1-800 numbers and other “Help” related outlets. Facebook is working with Live Chat developers who can potentially build contact buttons that directly message people for help on websites. Instead of having to email or call help stations, customers can interact with someone on Live Chat, which optimizes efficiency, timeliness, and customer satisfaction. Happy customers = Happy business.

Botlist. Didn’t you hear? It’s what all the newest phones are raging about!

Botlist is an app store for bots. That’s right, there’s now a centralized directory for all the bots you’ll ever need in one place, rather than from a variety of different apps and services. Compiling potential outlets that range vastly hopes to save time and room on your mobile devices.

We live in an age of music, creativity, and expression. Part of today’s culture is harboring a community. Concerts are everywhere, and now there’s even more reason to see what all the hype is about. Ticketmaster has teamed up with Facebook so we can now buy tickets directly through their website on event pages.

Sick of cluttered news feeds and not knowing whether your posts are being seen? Facebook is developing a new way for businesses to reach their ideal customers. Recently, It was leaked that sometime in Q2 2016 the social media giant will allow business Pages to send advertisements via Messenger to customers who have previously contacted them.

The Doppler Lab buds are HERE. Literally. This generation has become one that is constantly moving toward new and innovative technology. To survive in this industry of entertainment and all its accessories, you have to be original. Originality is hard to come by when almost everything has been done, but Doppler Lab’s Here buds has accomplished this feat engineeringly and experientially.

Towards the end of January, Facebook introduced an organic targeting tool to help publishers reach the audience they want engaging with their content, and to analyze the type of people who actually end up reading it. There are three basic features in this new Audience Optimization tool.

Spotify: 75 million users. SoundCloud: 175 million users. SoundCloud more than doubles Spotify’s number of listeners and users, making it the new YouTube of audio. SoundCloud is a looming threat to Spotify (often compared to Netflix in this situation) because it promotes network value rather than monetary value. Since it started catching hype, SoundCloud has fostered a community of rising artists and fanatical listeners, eager to discover and get lost in an endless, beautiful stream of music. “Once you find an artist you like on SoundCloud, you can then see which songs that artist likes and go down a rabbit hole of music awesomeness.”

Today’s marketing environment is a visual one. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but video content is increasingly dominating the digital sphere. By 2018, 89% of internet traffic will be video. Statistics and strategic moves from social platforms indicate why this prediction seems plausible:

• Within the last year, Facebook users went from watching 1 billion videos every day to more than 8 billion.
• Twitter, which acquired Periscope in March 2015, now autoplays their live streaming videos within feeds.
• Spotify is introducing video content to its Android app starting May 2016.

“There’s not a minute to waste.” Uber is well aware of this concept, and has made quite the name for itself by taking advantage of that. How Uber manages to stay on top of its competition, however, is a constant struggle. Uber steadily tries to beat out neighboring competition like Lyft, taxi companies, and other alternative modes of transportation to keep their name on top. The solution? Customization.

The well-known Ride Request feature that we’re already familiar with just got much more personalized. Passengers can now stay updated with news and updates all with the convenience of Uber’s new service called “Uber Trip Experiences”, which delivers playlists, local news, and travel tips all to the palm of your hands. Although third party experts will control the flow of content, each ride’s personalization comes from Uber. “The time the content takes to consume will be synchronized with the estimated duration of the journey.”

When news broke last week of rock icon David Bowie succumbing to liver cancer at the age of 69, the Internet reacted quickly. Within 12 hours of the news, the hashtag #Bowie generated over a million tweets globally, and “35 million people had 100 million interactions about the singer on Facebook.” Perhaps the most relevant and intriguing statistics after any musician’s death in this digital age come from online music services like Apple Music and Spotify.

Peach, the new social media application has generated lots of buzz these past few weeks. So, what exactly is it? Dom Hofmann, the founder of Vine who also jumpstarted this app says it is simply “A space for friends.” Launched on January 7th, Peach is already ranked as the 8th most popular social networking app according to iTunes. The question, then, is: Will it stand a chance against the other giants of social networking apps?

While Summer has finally come to a close, the hot weather and the hot new albums it brought with it are here to stay. From pop to alternative, rap to electronic the music scene has been dominated by a ton of new music, and it’s wonderful. Here is a recap of some of the most successful releases in the past several weeks.

Oniracom and Playback Recording Studio host the second Solutions for Dreamers Fridays event of 2015, a networking mixer for creatives, artists, entrepreneurs and community builders.

We will be unveiling some amazing art by Matthew McAvene for the Tiger Heroes initiative, so be sure to wear whiskers and ears to get in the spirit!

Everyone’s favorite Australian psychedelic rock group returns with the much anticipated release of their third album Currents—albeit with a new musical style and a re-defined Tame Impala itself. Kevin Parker emerges as the lone mastermind of Tame Impala, revealing that the presentation of the band has merely been a facade, and Parker writes, records, and produces all of the music by himself in his cloistered home studio.

Apple entered the music streaming marketplace with the launch of Apple Music, debuting worldwide on June 30th. The app and streaming service aims to consolidate all of your favorite features in online music and foster greater engagement between fans and artists. The release quickly produced animated debate in the tech and music communities; namely, how does Apple Music compare with existing services, such as Spotify and Tidal? Does Apple Music offer any new features that will tangibly enhance music consumption?

Sonos has been a wireless stereo powerhouse in Santa Barbara for over a decade, reinventing audio for the digital age. Here at Oniracom, we’ve been beefing up our music system with Sonos gear since January, and it’s definitely made an impact.

“After I listened to classic albums on our Sonos such as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, The Doors’ Morrison Hotel, and The Beatles’ White Album I heard new things in the music I never had,” said our CEO Jacob Tell.

Thank you for making Solutions for Dreamers Fridays a huge success!

The crowd, food, chat, live music & of course, s’mores were all a hit! Thank you to Playback Recording Studio, StartupSB, and Up Global Regional Summit for helping us put on the event.

Here’s to more SFD Friday Nights! Check out some photos of the night, below!

Have you ever wondered if your music player was detracting from the original quality of the music? Well, it’s quite possible. After music is recorded, the file is compressed from its original rate of typically 192 kHz to about 44.1kHz in order to fit on CDs and properly download. But does this actually affect the sound we hear? Famous singer Neil Young believes it does, and so he set out in 2012 to create a device that would be able to support music’s original recording rate. To do this, Young and his team asked for $800,000 in funding through Kickstarter, but music lovers seemed to believe in the idea just as much as Young, as donations exceeded $6.2 million. And thus, the PonoPlayer was created.

The PonoPlayer claims to let listeners hear high-quality music in a way that gives puts the “soul” back according to Young and many others in the music industry. In a video produced by PonoMusic, artists such as Norah Jones, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Kid Rock, Mumford & Sons, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many other music icons agreed that listening to the PonoPlayer let music be heard in a way as never before heard when using a portable device. With all these stars agreeing that this is a revolutionary device, how can it not be true? But a double blind study by Yahoo! found that average music listeners could not confidently agree.

The study tested the PonoPlayer versus an iPhone and the results concluded that the people thought the iPhone actually played better sound. So why do so many say that this new device is the key to better music? No one is too sure, because those who say they love the PonoPlayer focus on the difference they “feel,” not the difference they “hear.” It looks like the better sound may just be a trick of the mind, because according to scientific studies, the human ear can’t even pick up differences after 44.1kHz (that of the average CD or download).

In the end, paying $400 for the PonoPlayer, plus having to re-download every song for $2, may not be the best investment in a “feeling.” But you can decide for yourself by trying it out at Fry’s Electronics. Would you want to try it? Buy it?

This Sunday February 8th, for the first time ever, the Grammy Awards will be streaming live via CBS All Access, the CBS Television Network’s subscription video on demand and live streaming service. With a free one-week trial subscription, users can access the red carpet arrivals and all of the behind-the-scenes footage before and throughout the awards. The event will stream on multiple platforms such as the CBS app, CBS.com, GRAMMY.com, and the GRAMMY live app for iOS and Android.
The only seemingly downside to this full access and clever marketing tool: it is only available in 14 cities – New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Lucky for you, however, if you happen to be in one of these 14, you’ll get legal and free access to live performances by Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, Tom Jones and Jessie J, Annie Lennox and Hozier, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Miranda Lambert, Usher, Ed Sheeran, Common & John Legend, Madonna, Eric Church, and for the first time in 14 years, AC/DC.
Not only is the Grammy Awards expanding their viewership through legal streaming, but they are also capitalizing on a multitude of different social media platforms. Included in these are: Shazam, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, Thinglink, Facebook, and Instagram. You can read more about the specifics of each platform here.

The marketing potential of this event is huge – perhaps even larger than any previous award show. This year’s Grammys may definitely be worth streaming from wherever you are, and even if you don’t get a chance to watch them, the odds that you’ll hear about them are definitely in your favor.

Coming to Austin, Texas this March: The 22nd annual South by South West (SXSW) Festivals!

South by South West (SXSW) is a set of music, interactive, and film festivals that occur every March in Austin, Texas. The festival was created to serve as a hub for artists, creators, and their audiences to develop and further their careers and expand upon each other’s creative ideas. It’s lively and artsy home of Austin attracts audiences from all over the globe and offers an ideal setting for people to meander from venue to venue, exploring live performances, sitting in on informational panels, and networking with others in their industry of choice. 


Music: March 17-22

The first SXSW festival was the 1987 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas. Since then, the festival has grown to become the largest of its kind in the world, with more than 2,000 artists performing at over 100 venues, and almost 28,000 conference participants.


Every year, the festival serves as a promotional platform for members of the music and media industries, including artists, panelists, businesses, and audiences. The music festival is unique in that incorporates thousands of live musical performances with panels, presentations, and other special events that are located at various venues throughout the area. About six events take place at each venue every night, meaning there are over 100 bands playing at any given moment. With a conference badge, you can start venue hopping at 8pm and attend as many events as you can make it to before the last show ends at the stroke of 2am. Strategy and efficiency is key!


Interactive: March 13-17

In 1994, SXSW added the Interactive Conference to accommodate the growing technology and digital industries. This branch of the festival features panels and presentations by some of the tech-world’s industry leaders along with special events that showcase the newest websites, video games, and startup ideas as a preview for the nearing future of technology.
This year’s Interactive Conference will include sessions such as the 18th annual SXSW Interactive Awards and the SXSW Trade Show, as well as the SXSW Gaming Expo – an open platform of game tournaments and game testing for consumers, developers, and game masters.


Film: March 13-21

Also added in 1994, the SXSW Film Conference and Festival gathers filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to preview the latest and most innovative film ideas. Over 150 film sessions occur throughout the week each year, which inspire discussion and networking among film industry members such as directors, actors, producers, and fans among many others.
The festival breathes creativity and collaboration, and is an opportune setting for making connections with some of the best in the biz.

With our fast pace of business, 2014 already feels like history.  Here’s an impressive look back at our year.

This past Friday marked the day long event where the 57th Annual Grammy Award contenders were announced. According to Rolling Stone, the event concluded with “A Very Grammy Christmas” where the five nominees up for the Grammy’s biggest award, Album of the Year were announced. Beyonce, Pharrell Williams and Sam Smith won most nominations (6 each) according to Mashable.

The most surprising nomination was Beck’s Morning Phase, the singer has not been nominated for Album of the Year since 1997 and 2001, however earlier in the day Beck was nominated for Best Rock Album, while the album single “Blue Moon” was nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song according to Rolling Stone. 

Beyonce after just having missed the cut off for the 56th Grammys was a clear candidate, given earlier in the day she became the most nominated female in Grammy history, surpassing Dolly Parton and ended the day with 6 nominations for the 57th Grammys. 

Sam Smith totaled 6 nominations as well, gaining recognition in all major categories including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist to name a few.

Pharrell also racked up 6 nominations, however, impressively William’s name appears on the credits for three of the five albums nominated for Album of the Year which includes being featured on Beyonces and Sheeran’s X says Rolling Stone. Other competitive categories such as Best Rap Album, Song of the Year, and more were announced, we look forward to watching and seeing who take home Album of the Year February 8, 2015.

Have you or your friends used Venmo, or any other money transferring app but feel neglected by the inability to send the recipient a seflie along with your money transference? Fear no more! We now have… Snapcash. Snapchat and Square are collaborating on this project where Square will handle the actual cash movements and Snapchat will host the social networking platform. The deal will also provide Square with access to Snapchat’s 100 million plus monthly active users according to Mashable.

To use the new feature, one must live United States, have a debit card, and be 18 years old. Snapcash will be made first available to Android users, and shortly after it will be brought to iOS users. When using Snapcash, one also creates a Square account where the actual money transference will take place. This new feature exhibits Snapchat’s ability to push past its original limitations of strictly existing as a chat application and now becoming a surprising new competitor to mobile payment companies such as PayPal. 

Snapchat has recently begun marketing and developing platforms for Snapcash, so draining your bank account might be even easier in the near future. Also, we love the video Snapchat made for the new feature. It’s crazy but that’s part of the reason why it’s amazing!

Read more about it on Snapchat’s blog.

One of our newest clients, Blind Tiger Santa Barbara, is celebrating the month of November and men’s health with a Made In Movember ‘STACHE BASH next Saturday, November 22nd.

They are also hosting a contest for the BEST ‘STACHE on social media—if you post a photo to either INSTAGRAM or TWITTER with hashtags #stachebash AND #blindtigersb, and FOLLOW @blindtigersb, you could win a bundle of super awesome prizes!

‘STACHE BASH supports the Movember Foundation, who seeks to raise awareness about men’s health and wellness.

The winner of the contest will recieve:
—2 Free Tickets to the Made in Movember ‘STACHE BASH on November 22nd
—2 Free Drink Cards
—Gift Certificates to Richie’s Barber Shop
—Dinner for two at Blush SB

For those of you who might not know, AIGA is the professional association for design, and AIGA Santa Barbara is one of 69 chapters across the nation. One of many cool benefits of being on the AIGA SB board of directors is being able to put on great design-related, educational, and networking events for our local chapter and community. Oniracom has already been part of many AIGA events (Jacob and Tad have been Portfolio Day judges, and Oniracom hosted a studio tour this past May), but the biggest bang so far was definitely last Thursday’s “Art of Music” discussion, where Jacob was a panelist and I co-moderated with David Cowan, also of AIGA SB.

We were thrilled to be speaking with some legendary heavy hitters: Hale Milgrim (former President/CEO, Capitol Records); John Kosh (former Creative Director, Apple Records; current Principal at Ten Worlds Productions), and Andy Engel (former Art Director, CBS Records; current Principal, Andy Engel Design, Inc.), and they did not disappoint. The combined wisdom from our featured panelists was a great blend of business, design and inside information, and music by DJ Darla Bea helped set a groovy tone. Here’s a quick rundown of what we covered (full audio at the AIGA SB website; all photos by Tad Wagner):

HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN! One of my favorite holidays is finally here, and I am even more excited about it this time around because it’s on a Friday! Halloween should be one of those holidays that switches its date in order to always land on a Friday or Saturday.

Well, we’ve got you prepared for any Halloween festivities you may be having this weekend with an awesome Spooky playlist. This one may be our best one yet!

Haaris:
“Abigail” - King Diamond
“Halloween” - King Diamond
“2 Minutes to Midnight” - Iron Maiden
“Cereal Killer” - Redman & Method Man
“Take Me To Your Leader” - King Geedorah
“The Killing Joke” - Captain Murphy
“The Cyborg Slayers” - Dethklok
“March of the Fire Ants” - Mastodon

AND THE SCARIEST MUSIC EVER:
“Halloween (Michael Myers) Theme Song” - John Carpenter

Jason:
“Dead Man’s Tetris” - Flying Lotus
“Gesaffelstein” - Atmosphere

Tad:
“Witchcraft” - Frank Sinatra
“Superstition” - Stevie Wonder
“Werewolves of London” - Warren Zevon
“Rock Lobster” - B-52’s

Jacob:
“Nature Trail to Hell” - Weird Al

Justin:
“Monster” - Kanye West
“Rustie” - Attak
“Voices In My Head - SBTRKT

Keir:
Band of Horses “Is There A Ghost” - creepy/fun exercise in minimalism: only words in the song are “I could sleep when I lived alone. Is there a ghost in my house?”
Beck “Scarecrow” - Reminds me of driving I-10 to Palm Springs at night, with all the weird and strange implications of that.
Camper Van Beethoven “O Death” - Surrealist/psychedelic folkie spin on the traditional old song.
Morrissey “Jack the Ripper” - Moz turns the Victorian-era serial killer episode into (what else?) an angsty melodrama.
TV on the Radio “Wolf Like Me” - Love as toxic lycanthropy, because why not?

Mike:
“Monster Mash”
“People Are Strange” - The Doors

Tracy:
“Ghostbusters” - Ray Parker, Jr.
“The Ghost Who Walks” - Karen Elson
“I Put A Spell On You” - Nina Simone

Ello is a revolutionary social networking site unlike all the rest. Ello, is different from Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking giants in that it is completely add free. Ello’s manifesto reads, “We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product. Ello. This is what makes Ello unique from its forefathers.  To generate revenue, Ello allows for users to customize their pages with special feature tools which may be purchased for a small price according to Ello these features are not necessary, but do provide some financial support to the company, as well as allowing for users to continue to create and uniquely customize their social networking experience.

Ello is set up as like a mash between Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter, in which users may generate statuses, post pictures and gifs, find friends and comment on posts. Started by a small group of programmers and artists, Ello has sprung up quickly with rapid popularity. There are as many as 35,000 requests to join the social networking site per hour according to The Guardian , and Ello’s head team is working rapidly to keep up with their growing popularity. The site however is not new; Ello was launched in March and was intended to be a small, invite- only community between friends. Interest was recently sparked by the LGBT communities’ migration to other social networking sites after Facebook launched their real name policy, prohibiting users from using names other than their legal names. As interest increased, Ello became more public, but one must still obtain an invite to join the site. Some have even begun selling Ello invites on eBay ranging from 5-150 dollars according to Mashable ,but it is still unclear whether or not Ello will be a fad, or is here to stay. 

Communist leaders in China have recently blocked and banned social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and now Instagram in light of the recent protests in Hong Kong. Protestors have been fighting for free elections, rather than being forced to choose from a predetermined ballot. These sites were shut down in order to prevent photos of the protests from flooding the Internet, in attempt to detain the conflicts going on within the city. Many living in mainland China are unaware of what is going on in Hong Kong due to strict government censorship. The hash tags and photo images of police attacking the protestors sparked government officials to block and prevent further media posting during this time in attempt to restrict access of information to other Chinese citizens. But this isn’t the first time China has censored Instagram, according to Stuff earlier this summer the Instagram app was removed from the android app store in china.” 
 
Social media has been extremely influential during recent political unrest around the world. Some examples include the use of social media to coordinate revolution during the Arab Spring according to Engadget.  Earlier in 2011, The Egyptian government restricted use of the Internet, SMS and other methods of communication in attempt to control the riots. In March,Turkey banned YouTube in order to prevent continued videos of government corruption from leaking to the public. At the time, Twitter was also banned, in attempt to presumably limit the spread of corruption videos and prevent informing Turkish citizens of such scandals. Activists in the Ukraine have been gaining attention by tweeting hash tags and photos encouraging thePresident to talk to the citizens and keep them informed. The movement was started by Maxim Savanevskij,according to Yahoo,who is encouraging the political figurehead to inform citizens of the reasons and motives behind the government’s actions. 
 
Censoring social media is just one example of Chinese government officials attempting to curtail awareness of the protests. Students and protesters have been creative when attempting to circumvent the communication cut offs. Using apps, such as FireChat, allows for protesters to communicate should the government cut off or restrict cellular data. This app allows people to communicate when there is no Wi-Fi or cellular data, and avoid firewalls. As of now Chinese government officials are attempting to contain the protest, and prevent the rest of China from knowing of the current turmoil through web restrictions. 

Ever since stepping into Topshop’s Las Vegas store several years ago, I have been in love with the UK brand. When I was in London this past year, I got the chance to go into several Topshop stores, including their flagship in Oxford Circus, and was amazed at how the brand has become basically a household name in the UK. They not only have innovative clothing at affordable prices, but they always have seemed on point with weaving technology seamlessly into their label and fashion shows.

This year at London Fashion Week (#LFW), they stood out above the others with their democratization of fashion by targeting the younger customer base with a social media takeover.

Back in the day (and by back in the day I mean like, three years ago) when I was a DJ at UCSB’s on campus radio station, KCSB 91.9FM I was on TOP of my new music releases. I was required to come up with a fresh weekly playlist that included alternative artists who you wouldn’t hear that often (if at all) on commercial radio stations.

So yes, I had my new music radar goggles on at any given moment. Anything that hit my ear that sounded remotely new (even if it was a new twist on a cover) would make my ears perk up. I would immediately turn to the person closest to me and ask, “Who is this playing?” Eventually, I realized Shazam was probably a good thing to invest in, as many random individuals I encountered were as clueless as me, and probably a bit afraid of my loud, abrupt questions. Now, in an office environment at Oniracom I hear some new tunes occasionally, but my radar has become quite dull. Sometimes I become too engrossed in my work that my ears are never really listening to the music playing on the speakers. It’s a shame because my coworkers have GREAT taste in music.

Luckily though, this past week the music was just too good not to listen to. New Tennis, Jhene Aiko and Generationals graced my ears.

Tennis’ Ritual in Repeat is just as strong as their two previous albums, if not stronger. The album flows gracefully from one track to the next. “Night Vision” creeps up with a soft drumbeat and soft vocals then, one of their previous singles “Never Work for Free” follows with the upbeat beachy sounds we know and love Tennis for. Other stand out tracks in this album include “Bad Girls” and “Solar on the Rise.” Take a listen here!

Next up, we have the much anticipated debut album from Jhene Aiko. Although I’m not a fan of the cliche album name, Souled Out, Aiko did not disappoint with her tracks. It’s a beauteous R&B record with pretty vocals to the max. I won’t say too much more, listen to the deluxe album here.

OK, lastly we have Generationals with their album, Alix. “Black Lemon” is such a fun, hoppy boppy, lovely opening track. Yes, I said “hoppy boppy.” Like you can’t stop bopping your head back and forth because it’s just that catchy. The rest of the tracks are equally as “boppy” and I am a bit sad that this album came at the conclusion of summer because it would have been a great summer road trip soundtrack. Guess I’ll just have to listen to it in Fall and pretend like it’s summer (not like that’s an issue in Santa Barbara). Grab Alix here.

More “New Album Release” posts coming soon!

This morning at 10am PST, the whole world gathered for the unveiling of the highly anticipated iPhone 6 at the Apple Live event in Cupertino. However, Apple not only revealed the details of the next iPhone but also debuted their very first product in the world of wearable technology. The Apple Watch, described as “a smartwatch with inductive charging, a square face, sapphire glass, swappable bands, a heartbeat sensor and a rotating digital crown” by TechCrunch, is Apple’s sleekest new product proving their innovation in the advancement of technological development.

While Apple made it very clear that the watch is not simply an iPhone on your wrist (the watch is only compatible with iPhone 5 and 5s), the list of applications and functions available on the watch holds its own against its mobile counterpart. The design of the watch is classic Apple, with remarkably clean features and lines. All the watches use the innovative “digital crown”, aka the spinning thing on the side of the watch, to access the different interfaces and utilities.

A quick description of the aesthetic differences between the collections:
WATCH: The standard 38mm and 42mm watch faces with leather and stainless steel bands in a variety of loop designs and colors.
WATCH SPORT: Made to withstand sport-style use, these watch faces are made with a 60 percent stronger alloy case. This collection also includes a “sport band’ made of durable Fluoroelastomer in a variety of bright colors.
WATCH EDITION: This collection seems to be the high-end collection, with Rose and Yellow 18-karat Gold 38mm and 42mm watch faces and leather straps.

Instagram unveiled their newest venture in the app world this morning: Hyperlapse.

Hyperlapse is exactly what it sounds like: “a new app to capture high-quality time lapse videos even while in motion.” according to Instagram’s official press release.

Mike Krieger, Instagram’s co-founder and CTO told Wired that “this is an app that lets you be in the moment in a different way…we did that by taking a pretty complicated image processing idea, and reducing it to a single slider. That’s super Instagram-y.”

Hyperlapse is very much like taking an entire $15,000 setup and creating a cinematic-grade time-lapse video, with different speed options to create different “looks”, and image-stabilization, which is the key to it all. The product team behind the app are product designer Chris Connolly and software engineers Thomas Dimson and Alex Karpenko. Karpenko actually created the first image-stabilization technology for smartphone videos with Luma. This was added on to by Dimson, who after realizing that smartphones had the built-in technologies that could stabilize video footage. This developed into a prototype app, which was the start of Hyperlapse.

All you have to do is shoot a video, pick how fast you want it to speed up (the options range from 1x to 12x) and then save it to share with others. The interface is remarkably clean and very similar to Instagram, but the decision to develop it as a separate app stems from Hyperlapse being such a distinct idea that would be shrouded if it was simply added into the existing Instagram app.

Excited to try this out, and see how users get creative with this app!

Images leaked Tuesday by Android Police supposedly show the long-awaited joint effort of Google and Youtube. The new service, titled Youtube Music Key in the screenshots, will also mean changes for Google’s existing service: Google Play will reportedly become Google Play Music Key.

While i’m still not entirely seeing the appeal of yet another music subscription service, many of the features do seem interesting:
- A free trial month will be offered, and thereafter $9.99/month
- At least 20 million music tracks in the music library available to users
- Additional content such as concert footage, covers and remixes
- Offline playback of music videos and songs with audio-only option for background and screen-off listening

The most interesting claim in my opinion is the statement that all of this can be done “without an Internet connection” and the options for screen-off listening. However, i’m still unsure if this is enough to set it apart from the already existing services such as Spotify, Beats Music, and Google Play and draw users to pay for the service.

There is still not word on when any of this will be released or a predicted launch date, so we will have to wait and see how the final product develops and if it’s anything like the leaked images.

FYF 2013 completely won me over, and it instantly became one of my favorite festivals. From the music to the giant emoji balloons to the food trucks to the overall ~vibes~ of the festival, FYF was an amazing experience and one of my best memories from last summer. This year’s lineup is, in my opinion, one of the best lineups of the festivals this season, and here’s a quick preview of what i’m most excited for:

Want to know what we have been listening to lately? Check out our August playlist below and take a look at what some of the staff members have to say about their picks. Such a great playlist, definitely one of my all-time favorites from the Oni crew.

Keir:
I’ve been on all-Spoon-all-the-time since a few days before their new album came out. Standouts from that one for me are “Inside Out,” “Do You,” “Outlier,” and “They Want My Soul.” However I’m just about to dive deep into the new FKA twigs, starting with “Two Weeks” and “Pendulum.”
1. Inside Out - Spoon
2. Do You - Spoon
3. Outlier - Spoon
4. They Want My Soul - Spoon
5. Two Weeks - FKA Twigs
6. Pendulum - FKA Twigs

Calia:
Ryn Weaver, Broods, MØ, Laura Welsh… basically really interested in those soulful ladies with that catchy pop tune in the background.
7. Octahate - Ryn Weaver
8. Mother & Father - Broods
9. Pilgrim - MØ (MS MR Remix)
10. Cold Front - Laura Welsh

Justin:
11. Late Bloomer - Jenny Lewis
12. Love Never Felt So Good - Michael Jackson
13. Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire

Haaris:
NICE!!!!
14. Heavy Rain - Boris
15. They Dream - Bear In Heaven
16. Lemonade - Sophie
17. The Gold Chair Ate the Fireman - Le Butcherettes
18. Chimes - Hudson Mohawke
19. Forerunner Foray - Shabazz Palaces
I went a bit overboard, sorry

Drew:
Blake Mills new songs are amazing
20. If I am Unworthy - Blake Mills
21. Waiting for Loretta Too Long - Joe Purdy

Tracy:
22.Don’t Wanna Dance - MØ
23. Rather Be feat. Jess Glynne - Clean Bandit

Tad:
24. Time Stand Still feat. Aimee Mann - Rush
25. Save Me - Aimee Mann

Jacob:
26. Mission Statement - Weird Al
27. The Line - Phish
28. Quality Control - Jurassic 5
29. Montana - Frank Zapata

Earlier this year on April 9th, Facebook announced it would be moving its messages completely out of the app and into the standalone messenger app, thus forcing users to download the app in order to send and receive messages.

Over this past weekend, the changes began to ramp up speed when messages started disappearing from the Facebook app, making the only way to access your messages on mobile be through the Messenger app.

Today, Mashable published an article about the newest development in the Facebook Messenger app discussion: being able to retain your messages on the Facebook app without having to download the separate Messenger app. Turns out, if you simply start the download of the Messenger app but stop it before it’s installed, your messages will show up back in the main Facebook app.

While I have been an avid user of the Facebook Messenger app for as long as I have had an iPhone, I can understand the qualms users have over downloading the Messenger app, as well as the desire to keep everything into one app. Privacy issues remain rampant, and although this Huffington Post article lays out most of the questions and answers, users still have their doubts regarding security, especially now that they are being forced to download the separate app. While it doesn’t seem like there is any other choice at this point other than to download the Messenger app, this loophole is probably the last resort. Personally, I could see this new change coming, as Facebook’s claims over the past few years about the quality of the app versus in-app messaging (it is indeed faster) seemed to somewhat allude to this change. All in all, Facebook’s control over our lives does seem at times a bit forceful, but I don’t see any need to panic over privacy or security because of this requirement. Yet.

SoundCloud is deemed as one of the most popular among the many music platforms on the Internet today. According to reports posted in October 2013, the site had 250 million monthly active users. It was founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss. SoundCloud continues to grow as an online music platform and Ljung even coined the company as a “YouTube for music”.  As an online music site SoundCloud allows users to upload audio tracks, repost, like, comment, and share any track. Users are also able to upload copyrighted music and share it with friends. Therefore, this has become a concern for SoundCloud and the company will be held liable for hosting the content.

SoundCloud plans to avoid getting sued by giving record labels a stake. According to sources who spoke with Mashable Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group are part of the negotiations. It is said that SoundCloud could give anywhere between 3% to 5% stakes to each label along with a cut of future revenue. Thus, SoundCloud would be able to avoid lawsuits over uploaded copyrighted music to the site. Read more about the issue here and stay updated on the company’s plans to remain a popular music platform, which provides free streaming to users!

In a world where there are so many different ways and outlets to communicate, one system has stood out above the others: EMOJIS.

These little pictographs you see on their separate keyboard on your iPhone or iPad are relatively new, appearing in the last couple years or so, with origins in late 1990s Japanese cell phone usage (which explains much of the appearance of some of the emojis). Emojis were encoded into Unicode Standard in 2010, with over 700 characters currently in existence.

Emojis are there when words don’t or can’t say enough, to provide a visual example to a message, and for all those moments in communication and life when you just want to include a cute little relevant emoji. With each younger, tech-savvier generation, emojis have permeated to the furthest depths of the internet: Twitter supports them in a remarkably clean 2D style (see this article), you can track the use of emoji on twitter in realtime on emojitracker.com and there’s even a Wikipedia-esque website dedicated to explaining different emoji, Emojipedia.

American musician/parodist artist “Weird Al” Yankovic is known for his humorous, but respective parody songs in pop culture. He has recently made two ridiculously hilarious songs to parody Pharrell William’s successful hit ‘Happy’ and Daft Punk’s funky song ‘Get Lucky’. His take on ‘Get Lucky’ doesn’t have a crazy video to compliment it, but he sings it with accompaniment from an accordion, brassy horns, and slight banjo. However, he reworked ‘Happy’ into ‘Tacky’ along with a music video of him and comedy actors Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, and Eric Stonestreet dancing around in colorful, psychedelic outfits.

In collaboration with College Humor, “Weird Al” created a parody of Lorde’s mega-hit ‘Royals’. Watch the video of the parody ‘Foil’ about leftover food with a conceptual twist here.

“Weird Al” has released a parody of just about every major hit song and continues to keep on giving! Check out his latest fun parody videos here !

The Lobero Theatre on Sunday, July 13 is staging the event Americana Live at 5pm! Americana Live will celebrate the Santa Barbara music scene by featuring six local artists: Erland, The Kinds, Doublewide Kings, Omar Velasco, Bear Erickson, and Haddon Cord. There will be food and sponsor exhibits to keep the feel-good tempo going throughout the event. The artists will play brief, yet stunning performances individually, and also collaborate with one another between sets. The event is supported and provided by one of our awesome clients, Clean Water Tour. And hey, it’s also sponsored by Oniracom (that’s us!) and the New Noise Foundation.

Don’t miss the savory sounds of these unique local SB musicians on Sunday! You can buy tickets for the event here, and be sure to watch the promo video reel below. Hope to see you all at the show!

It’s finally summer AND we are a week away from Fourth of July. What does that mean? BBQ time. I asked our staff to give me their ultimate favorite summer BBQ songs that they would play while chomping down on a tasty grilled burger, hot dog, or veggie burger (if you swing that way).

You may notice the playlist looks a little different too, we tried out a new platform called bop.fm to create this month’s playlist. We love the look and functionality of it. Cool part is, you can also add video using YouTube or Vimeo. Try it out for yourself, here and check out our picks below!

Tad:
“Summertime” - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
“Cruel Summer” - Bananarama
“A Summer Song” - Chad and Jeremy

Calia:
“Summer Mood” - Best Coast
“Fresh” - Summer Camp
“Petition” - Tennis

Jacob:
“Three Little Birds” - Bob Marley
“What I Got” - Sublime
“Never Know” - Jack Johnson
“Brighter” - Matthew McAvene
“Lovely Day” - Bill Withers

Haaris:
“Doin’ Time” - Sublime
“Sugar Kane” - Sonic Youth
“Sunshowers” - MIA
“Super Rich Kids” - Frank Ocean

Justin:
“Diamonds on the Soles of Her shoes” - Paul Simon
“Holiday” - Vampire Weekend
“It All Feels the Same” - Tennis
“My Pet Snakes” - Jenny and Johnny
“Home” - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes
“5 Years Time” - Noah and the Whale
“Barnacle Goose” - Born Ruffians

Tracy:
BBQ equals country music in my mind:
“Man! I Feel Like a Woman” - Shania Twain
“Good Girl” - Carrie Underwood
Also, these songs scream summer:
“All Summer Long” - Kid Rock
“Wagon Wheel” - Old Crow Medicine Show
“Second Hand News” - Fleetwood Mac

Drew:
ANY CREEDENCE!
“Summer Girls” - LFO
“The Sign” - Ace of Base

Sean:
“Barbeque” - ALO

Keir:
Mellow & groovy surf-ish tunes will always be on at my BBQs:
“Kiwi Maddog 20/20” - Elliott Smith
“Ana” - Pixies
“Algiers” - Calexico

Culture Collide is an exciting new online magazine that was founded by Alan Miller, the co-founder of Filter Magazine.

This new editorial platform focuses on music, food, art and travel from all around the world. We were ecstatic to help develop their website into a swift responsive design. The Brigade designed the entire site, while we got down to the nitty gritty and coded the good stuff.

It was great to work with both Brigade and Culture Collide. Take a look around and be sure to share this new exciting website with your friends!

Check out this new video “Sunshine Waves” from our awesome client, Adam Zwig!

Facebook Pages are getting a redesign, yet again. The timeline on Facebook pages will now be a single column, much similar to the look of your general news feed on Facebook.

This redesign comes rather close to the Twitter redesign that has been flooding profiles within the past couple months. The new Twitter design also features a single column feed, with larger text/images.

The Facebook Pages Timeline now has a simpler design, less grid like and as Mashable states, “blurs the line between a personal account and a Pages account, which makes sense” (Mashable).

The new design also allows users to move sections around, being open to customization. And remember those nice little Custom Tab designs you had at the bottom of your cover photo? They’ve now moved to the left sidebar, which adds to the simple, more stripped down design that Facebook seems to be pushing towards.

What do you think? Is the grid like style or single column the way to go? Does it make a difference for Facebook? Let us know in the comments below!

Our theme this month is prep music! We’ve compiled our favorite background music to listen to while preparing or serving food. And it turned out to be a blend of pump-up jams and chill-wave flows for your enjoyment.

Haaris:
While I prep pure aggressive hip hop:

Wu Tang - “Ice Cream”
Hodgy Beats - “Turnt Down”
Odd Future or OFWGKTA - “Bitches Brewin”
Odd Future or OFWGKTA - “Bubble Gum”
Tyler the Creator - “Tamale”

When we eat it’s all about instrumentals and beats:

Flying Lotus - “Beginners Falafel” 
Omega One - “The Hashishin”
Boris - Flood (entire record)

Tad:
Boards of Canada - “Turquoise Hexagon Sun”
Tycho - “A Walk”
Sea Wolf - “Whirlpool”

Tracy:
Toro Y Moi and then Electric Guest if I need to get into a good mood.

Justin:
The XX - “Intro”
Tycho - “A Walk”

Jacob:
The Siket Disc!

Here’s a sample track “What’s the Use?” from the epic instrumental Phish album.

Wikipedia says: 
“The Siket Disc emerged from material developed during the Bearsville Studio sessions for Phish’s 1998 album The Story of the Ghost. Not exactly outtakes or unfinished songs, The Siket Disc’s compositions are actually select excerpts from the long-form improvisation of the “Ghost Sessions”. The Phish keyboard player Page McConnell edited and mastered the selections into this compilation, named for engineer John Siket”

Sean:
Fink is pretty good for background music - “Perfect Darkness”, “Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us”
But I listen to Live Phish Radio a lot too.

Calia: 
The XX - “Sunset”
How To Dress Well - “Repeat Pleasure”

Cheyenne:
Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne - “Rather Be”
Classixx - “Holding On”

Yesterday, all Twitter users gained access to their new web profile. The ability to personalize profiles, much like recent Facebook updates, is allowing for an increased creative and multi-media experience on this platform.

What’s new? Larger photos and profile headers are featured at the top of the page. Best Tweets, those more popular amongst followers, will appear larger in font size to promote positive reception. Pinned Tweets allow you to place your favorite Tweet at the top of your profile. Filtered Tweets are used while browsing, and you can choose to view Tweets alone, with photos or videos, or with replies. Also, the new “Following” list has boards of profiles with header photos and descriptions that resemble Pinterest formatting.

Overall, the new format makes editing and managing profiles more intuitive. Bigger photos and fonts are an effort to make Twitter more accessible and personalized in real time. The new twitter, the new you: check it out here.

On Tuesday, March 25, Facebook announced that it will be acquiring the virtual reality technology company Oculus VR for $2 billion. Oculus VR’s much anticipated development is the virtual reality gaming headset, Oculus Rift, which allows the gamer to feel completely immersed in the game itself. Oculus Rift was initially funded via Kickstarter, receiving over 2 million in donations from the original goal of $250,000. Although VR technology is not a new technology in and of itself, the current developments are highly priced and generally unattainable- used primarily by the military and scientific community. Oculus Rift’s promise to be the first “truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games” at an affordable price for the general public is a huge and exciting deal for the gaming community and future realms VR may be incorporated into. Facebook’s announcement to acquire Oculus VR, however, has sparked both outrage and excitement in speculation about the future of Oculus.

Many of the backers of the original Oculus Rift Kickstarter have voiced their disapproval to Oculus VR calling them sellouts and even demanding refunds of their Kickstarter donations, emphasizing that they didn’t sign up to back the social-media-giant that is Facebook. While Oculus delivered on its promise of perks and dev kits to backers, the Kickstarter community remains upset because the start-u[p project they supported has turned to corporate money and resources. Many opponents of the sale to Facebook are weary that the future of Oculus Rift will shrivel and die as many small companies that get enveloped by larger ones do (think Flikr’s fall after it was bought by Yahoo) or that the focus of VR technology will stray from its focus in gaming into other VR realms. Such agitated and dampened opinions are being voiced everywhere from genuine discussion posts to cynical memes and comments across the internet. A top comment on Oculus VR’s own blog post laments “This is an epic betrayal.” Numerous contributors to the discussion thread also emphasize their disappointment in Oculus’ settling to be run by a company that might not have its best interests as a gaming company at heart.

Reassuring disheartened Oculus fans is Oculus founder Palmer Luckey who spent many hours after the acquisition announcement responding to dubious supporters via Reddit. One major hesitancy that is being strongly voiced is Facebook’s direct involvement in the Oculus Rift experience. Luckey has been responding in accordance with the press announcements - that joining forces will make production faster, better, cheaper, that Oculus will still operate independently with a primary focus on gaming and a wide future for VR, etc. - but he is also consoling and reassuring in his statements that emphasize the future of virtual reality as a platform and promising that “You will not need a Facebook account to use or develop for the Rift.”

As for Facebook’s stance, Mark Zuckerberg, who posted the acquisition announcement yesterday afternoon, claims that Oculus’ plans for gaming development with the Oculus Rift “won’t be changing” and that “Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.” The post goes on to point out other areas in which Zuckerberg hopes to “make Oculus a platform for many other experiences” including sporting events, classroom and medical interactions, as well as adventures and hangout time with friends, the ultimate goal being to make “this kind of immersive, augmented reality…a part of daily life.” For those optimistic about Facebook’s newest acquisition, the reality of a sci-fi inspired virtual world seems closer than ever. And while there is undoubtedly skepticism in the air, there is also a voice of excitement sweeping the internet with inspired proposals for VR apps and indications of how the technology might be used in the future. Oculus’ new relationship with Facebook will afford it more resources and expansive opportunities that it may not have had independently. If Oculus really does continue to work independently then Facebook’s perks may be all the more helpful. Only time will tell as we sit in agonizing anticipation of how the future of VR will unfold itself to the world.

Artists have the ability to grow on you. We validated this statement in this month’s staff playlist. I asked all of our staff members to give me a couple bands that they used to absolutely hate, but have now come to love. Some of the choices will come as shocking.

This made for a pretty interesting playlist. Listen below and read the fun stories from each staff member as well.

Keir:
As a mopey insecure teen I actually hated mopey insecure British ‘80s bands like the Smiths/the Cure/Depeche Mode. A decade later I married someone who’s both well-adjusted AND a huge fan of those bands, so it was easy to let the hate go and finally appreciate so many overplayed classics that I missed the first time around:

The Smiths - “How Soon is Now?”
The Cure - “Fascination Street”
Depeche Mode - “Personal Jesus”

Calia:
The National. When I first heard their self titled album, Cherry Tree and even Alligator .... I really didn’t like it. I thought the singer’s voice was way too deep causing the lyrics to become buried behind his strange voice and the music itself just seemed boring. BUT BOY WAS I WRONG. They came out with Boxer, High Violet, and a real winner… Trouble Will Find Me and won me over.

Stand out tracks:
Cherry Tree (yes I love it now!)

Calvin Harris. This one’s more like a guilty pleasure but I seriously hated ‘Feel So Close’ until I myself experienced dancing to it with all my best friends and screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs while fist pumping. I still listen to ‘18 Months’ while running and working out and love every second of it.

Stand out tracks:
I Need Your Love
Bounce

Haaris:
Prince - I love Prince now, but when i was a kid i didn’t get it, then he did the whole Batman Soundtrack. It was like i shook hands with the Joker buzzer in palm style. “Batdance” - Prince

NIN - Yeah i said it, anyone who knows me know that I love this band (borderline obsessed would be more accurate ). I went from thinking these cats were a bunch of industrial electronic dj’s that ripped the shit out of Joy Division drums to not missing a single tour from 1999 and on. How did such a swing from hate to love occur? The magic of a live show in 1999 at Madison Square Garden for the Fragility tour. After seeing that i must say I was WRONG, really WRONG, sorry Trent and Atticus. And like i said I haven’t missed a tour since the fragile….. “Where is Everybody” - Nine Inch Nails

John Legend- When he 1st came out I thought this guy was super soft for an R&B guy, so disregard almost anything he did, then Kanye put him on a track and going back Mr Legend, i was wrong sir, my bad. John Legend is solid in my books. “Who Did That To You” - John Legend

Social media marketing has its challenges. At Oniracom, we navigate these challenges by employing a team of experts dedicated to providing the most engaging campaigns for clients. Our Community Management team works on behalf of clients to brainstorm and craft campaigns aimed at engaging the client’s audience in creative new ways. Our goal is to provide small and medium business owners with actionable advice for overcoming the challenges of social media marketing using the assets that are currently available.

Facebook has now acquired the fast-growing WhatsApp. For a grand value of $19 billion in stock and cash, Facebook bought out WhatsApp, which has many wondering what’s so special about the app? For starters, it’s one of the most used apps, with over 320 million active users on a daily basis. There are many new possibilities for Facebook after obtaining this app, but there hasn’t been much said on how these two will be integrated together, or how it will affect Facebook use. With this being the biggest acquisition in the social media industry, make sure to keep a lookout for any new updates on Facebook and WhatsApp!

We had to squeeze in a little Valentine’s Day playlist for all of you having romantic nights tonight, or just wanting some good tunes in the background.

Here is our playlist in all its glory! It’s a short and sweet one, but we picked a great variety, enjoy!

Tad:
1. “Love” - John Lennon
2. “Sea of Love” - Phil Phillips

Tracy:
3. “Love Potion No. 9” - The Searchers
4. “Let’s Get It On” - Marvin Gaye
5. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” - Frankie Vallie and The 4 Seasons

Calia:
6. “Made To Love” - John Legend
7. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” - Ray Charles
8. “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” - The Miracles

Haaris:
9. “Week In The Knees” - SWV
10. “We Are Gonna Be Friends” - The White Stripes
11. “Fell In Love With A Girl” - The White Stripes

Keir:
12. “My Funny Valentine” - Elvis Costello
13. “Say Yes” - Elliott Smith
14. “I Summon You” - Spoon
15. “Lover’s Day” - TV On The Radio

Jacob:
15. “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” - Weird Al Yankovic

Remember the hype of having a high Klout score? Though the buzz died down, Klout never gave up on its users.  It has recently come out with a new update that seems to be receiving very positive feedback. Klout’s new improvement allows users more opportunities to share content. It now has recommendations for articles that are suitable for your followers, which allows for more connection. The content you do decide to share on your various social media sites can be scheduled to appear on a specific time and date.

With this new service you can also see how many people share your content, which will consequently raise your Klout score. This new update appears to be a win-win for everyone. Users now have access to more content, while Klout now has free advertising from its users. Make sure to check out this new feature, which seems to be marking the rise of Klout—yet again. 

Evidence Facebook’s revenue is based on fake likes. Super interesting and a MUST WATCH for digital marketers and advertisers.

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Social media advertising and promotion seems to be ultimately inescapable in this day and age, but how much is your social media activity actually worth in cold hard cash?

With the most recent numbers from social media analytic teams, here is a breakdown of what your likes and tweets mean in revenue.

A single Facebook like (follower) has been valued by ChompOn at an average of $8.00. Each time someone likes your page, all of his/her friends are alerted and exposed to your page as well. Because of this exponential nature of Facebook promotion, the $8.00 value projected for each follower has the potential to skyrocket quickly. Interestingly enough, the estimated cost of a Facebook like is $1.07. A seemingly low cost in comparison to the value, acquiring a Facebook follower incurs only a minor set back due to the whopping $8.00 or more in potential profit.

With Twitter being the source of chatter surrounding the most popular current events, Facebook has now created a feature that allows their users to view what pages are currently trending. 

The new ‘Trending Pages’ feature is easy to navigate and provides a description of why the page is so popular, which helps you decide whether or not the topic would actually be interesting to you. 

Facebook wants to compete with Twitter for being the source of current news and events, and it seems that this new feature is receiving some heavy criticism for being too similar to Twitter’s features. Comparisons of Facebook and Twitter have now begun to critique which feature is better. This article on TechCrunch describes the pros of each social network.

With all the buzz surrounding Facebook’s new update, every user should check it out themselves to get a feel for the feature and it see if it actually could prove useful.

Santa Barbara Entrepreneurs rally around startups, music, and technology at Oniracom on January 30th at S’more Startups and Music.

SANTA BARBARA, CA – Jan 27, 2014 – StartupSB is kicking off the New Year with a January 30th event featuring music industry professionals, musicians, and startups at one of Santa Barbara’s most creative office locations, Oniracom.  The evening event, titled “S’more Startups and Music”, will feature a fireside chat with Brad Barrish, Head of Operations @ Topspin Media, Aaron Foreman, Head of Digital Marketing @ Sonos, and Eric Shiflett, Program Director @ The Santa Barbara Bowl.  The panel will cover topics surrounding entrepreneurship in the music business and the intersection of music, technology, startups, and opportunity for new ventures.  Beat Stream, winner of Startup Weekend San Luis Obispo, will also present their winning music streaming application, and local singer/ songwriter/musician Jesse Rhodes will play songs around the fire while attendees roast marsh mellows and eat s’mores. 

StartupSB is a Santa Barbara community based organization focused on celebrating local startup companies, fostering entrepreneurship and building a startup community in Santa Barbara and the Central Coast.  The public is encouraged to attend.

“We are excited to be hosting a StartupSB event and this amazing group of music professionals”, said Jacob Tell, Oniracom’s CEO and Creative Lead, “This should be a great night of entrepreneurship, music, startups and networking.”

“This should be a great kickoff to a year of StartupSB events”, Kyle Ashby StartupSB’s executive director stated,  “We are planning to have a lot of fun with the fireside chat theme for this event… think campfire songs, stories, inspiration… and s’mores.”

S’more startups is the first of StartupSB’s 2014 event series.  The series will consists of 10 events hosted at Santa Barbara based startups and the headquarters of Santa Barbara’s most entrepreneurial companies.  Two of these events will be Demo Nights featuring Santa Barbara startup companies showcasing their companies, products and technology. 

The event starts at 6pm and is located at Oniracom’s office at 720 East Haley Street in Santa Barbara. To RSVP for the event please visit http://www.meetup.com/startupsb.  For more information about StartupSB, and to become a StartupSB member, vist: http://www.startupsb.com.

About StartupSB
StartupSB began as a Meetup group and has grown to a membership base of nearly 800 Santa Barbara area entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts.  The group, run by local Entrepreneur and Startup Evangelist, Kyle Ashby, hosts monthly events at local startups and is heavily involved in helping the startup community grow in the Santa   Barbara area. For more information visit: http://www.startupsb.com

About Oniracom
Founded in Santa Barbara in 2001, Oniracom is a proven partner for brands and organizations looking to cultivate and expand their audience.  Jack Johnson, Deckers,  Warner Music, Topspin, Universal, SONOS – these top brands and many more trust us to produce authentic stories that rapidly increase brand growth and awareness.  http://www.oniracom.com

Contact Kyle Ashby at 805.323.6160, or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.

New year, new resolutions. Naturally, we made a playlist that gets us pumped up, motivated and ready for whatever crazy event the new year may bring. These are songs that get us up and moving physically and mentally.

I am pretty satisfied that Venga Boys made it on the list. Well done Justin.

Justin:
1. “Good Vibrations” - Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch
2. “Space Jam” - Quad City DJ’s
3. “Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool
4. “We Like To Party” - Venga Boys
5. “C’mon N’ Ride It” - Quad City DJ’s

Haaris:
6. “Wu-Tang Clan Aint Nuthing Ta F’ Wit” - Wu Tang Clan
7. “Freedom” - Rage Against the Machine
8. Who Gon Stop Me” - Jay Z & Kanye West
9. “Cosmonaut” - At the Drive-In

Calia:
10. “XO” - Beyoncé
11. “Gun” - CHVRCHES
12. “Livin’ It Up” - Ciara
13. “Can’t Hold Us” - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Tad:
14. “Mr. Blue Sky” - ELO
15. “Soul Meets Body” - Death Cab for Cutie

Jacob:
16. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” - Michael Jackson
17. “Whats The Difference” - Dr. Dre
18. “Make The Money” - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
19. “A Day At The Races” - Jurassic 5
20. “Bang Bang” - K’NAAN

Tracy:
21. “Lies” - CHVRCHES
22. “Don’t Hold the Wall” - Justin Timberlake

Cheyenne:
23. “Days Are Gone” - HAIM
24. “So Close” - Kidnap Kid

Lucy:
25. “Wild Child” - WEKEED
26. “Changes” - Faul & Wad Ad vs. Pnau

Elvis:
27. “Fatty Boom Boom - Die Antwood

Celebrating its one-year anniversary today, Vine is moving forward as a mature social network. Vine is achieving this goal with their life-long partner Twitter who realized the potential to install the built-in video platform a year ago.

Colin Kroll, Vine’s GM and co-founder, expects more collaborations, cameos, and hardware hack innovations to continue appearing on the feed.

But how is Vine changing after one year of service? Kroll states, “This year, we’re really focused on making it easier to discover videos and find new accounts.”

This app integration has been keeping up the competitive creativity of Vine against its similar social platforms like Instagram Video, Snapchat, and Youtube. However, the six-second videos of Vine continue to breed a unique creativity and production amongst other mobile video players.

Advertisements, film trailers, and actors’ comedic skits have all utilized Vine to achieve publicity, discovery, and monetary gains. Their influence in the past year has impacted other social media platforms to keep up and add additional video options.

A few weeks ago, Facebook launched a ‘Donate Now’ Button for non-profits — an extremely beneficial tool. As of now, Facebook has only launched this feature for select non-profits. It is currently in beta mode, being tested for larger non-profits such as the American Cancer Society, Red Cross, and a few others. We’re keeping our eyes and ears peeled for this button to make its way across all non-profits, which will hopefully be very soon!

Here are some of its awesome features:

As TechCrunch mentions, “Facebook seems genuinely determined to help these causes” (TechCrunch). The Donate Now button will serve as a great tool for non-profits on Facebook.

So far, the Donate Button is up and running for the following non profits:

The holidays are here, so we’ve got a holiday playlist for you before the New Year.

Play it for a party, or just take a listen below. Happy holidays folks!

Keir:
1. “Mrs. Claus Wants Some Lovin” - The Bobs

Justin:
2. “White Christmas” - Bing Crosby
3. “The Christmas Song” - Nat King Cole
4. “King Jesus Is His Name” - Larnell Harris
5. “The Chipmunk Song” (Christmas Don’t Be Late) - Alvin and the Chipmunks
6. “Up On The House-Top” - Raffi

Tad:
7. “Christmas Time is Here” - Vince Guaraldi
8. “TrioMele Kalikimaka” - Bing Crosby
9. “Blue Christmas” - Elvis Presley
10. “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” - Sufjan Stevens
11. “Jesus, Jesus Rest Your Head” - George Winston

Jacob:
12. Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guardldi (entire album)
13. “Another Christmas Song” - Stephen Colbert
14. “All I Want for Christmas is You” - Michael Bublé
15. “Jingle Bells” - Béla Fleck & the Flecktones
16. “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer” - Jack Johnson

Tracy:
17. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” - Mariah Carey
18. “My Only Wish This Year” - Britney Spears
19. “Santa Baby” - Taylor Swift

Calia:
20. “Baby It’s Cold Outisde” - She & Him
21. “Xmas Cake” - Rilo Kiley
22. “It’s Almost Christmas So We’ll Stop” - Frightened Rabbit

I was a bit confused this morning when I was about to post a picture on Instagram and was asked to either post to my followers or “direct.” Intrigued, I checked out the ‘direct’ option and realized that I could send a photo directly to one of my friends. What does this mean exactly? Well, to put it simply, it’s a private message. So the photo could only be viewed by them. Hm, sounds a bit like Snapchat, except without the automatic deletion of the photo. So what are the perks exactly?

With direct, you can choose a specific friend and type a direct message that goes only to them. They get to keep the photo and view it at any time. The fun part is, you can send direct messages up to 15 people, and according to TechCrunch, Instagram Direct also offers up suggested recipients (TechCrunch). Once you’ve sent an Instagram Direct, you can comment about the photo back and forth with who you’ve sent it to. You can also “Reply all” with another new photo or video.

This messaging feature adds a new form of engagement for the app, but I believe that most users will refrain from this feature, and will continue to use Snapchat or text messaging instead, since Instagram’s platform is mainly focused on all your followers and your main feed.

It’s interesting that through Instagram Direct, you must start the conversation with a photo message. Although the app is staying true to its roots, a fun and artsy Instagram photo should really be shared with all of your followers, don’t you think?

Read more details at TechCrunch here and watch the video preview below:

The Santa Barbara Bowl, built in the 1930s, has hosted many amazing shows throughout its history. The Bowl has been home to many big names in music over the years, as a venue to stop at when traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Some highlights that we picked out are:

Bob Marley + The Wailers - November 25, 1979

Bob Marley and his band, the Wailers, went on tour in the Fall of 1979 to promote their album, Survival. Marley had been diagnosed with cancer two years earlier, and this was the second-to-last tour for Marley. His entire set was recorded, and would eventually be released as in DVD format in 2003 called “Bob Marley” The Legend.

Jack Johnson - October 13 & 14, 2010

No stranger to Santa Barbara or the Bowl, Jack Johnson headlined two shows at the Bowl on his 2010 Tour for “To The Sea”. He played a two-hour set after opener G. Love, and his mellow and lighthearted demeanor graced the audience of families and children alike.  To The Sea was one of the top-selling albums that year, and both sold-out nights of his Bowl performances were filmed and became the official music video for “To The Sea”.

Read more >>

Can you believe 2013 is coming to a close? A full year has passed by quite rapidly, but it has also graced us with wonderful music! We had to share a “Best of 2013” playlist for November (since the December playlist is strictly a “holiday/winter wonderland” playlist).

There are lots of picks from The National’s Trouble Will Find Me as well as Haim’s hit debut album Days Are Gone. Check out what we’ve been listening to below!

Justin:
1. “Black Skinhead” - Kanye West - Yeezus
2. “Late March, Death March” - Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse
3. “Don’t Save Me” - Haim - Days Are Gone
4. “Cayucos” - Cayucas - Bigfoot
5. “I Sold My Bed, But Not My Stereo” - Capital Cities - In a Tidal Wave of Mystery
5. “Hannah Hunt” - Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
6. “While I’m Alive” - STRFKR - Miracle Mile

John:
7. “Press Pause” - Pretty Lights - A Color Map of the Sun
8. “Ringleader” - Shigeto - Ringleader
9. “Lose Yourself to Dance” - Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
10. “You Never Need Nobody” - The Lone Bellow - The Lone Bellow

Tracy:
11. “Don’t Let Me Down” - Solange - True
12. “The Love Club” - Lorde - The Love Club EP
13. “Lies” - CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe

Jacob:
14. “Know Till Now” - Jim James - Know Till Now
15. “Pompeii” - Bastille - Bad Blood
16. “The Darlnigs of Lumberland” - They Might be Giants - Nanobots
17. “Suit & Tie” - Justin Timberlake ft. JAY-Z - The 20/20 Experience
18. “Be Free, A Way” - Flaming Lips - The Terror
19. “Early Days” - Paul McCartney - NEW

Jack Johnson hit the road this fall touring at historic intimate theatres across the US and Europe. The Oniracom crew was ecstatic to get a chance to see Jack at the historic and beautiful Arlington Theatre in Downtown Santa Barbara this past Sunday.

Bahamas did a wonderful job opening for Jack. The crowd was swaying to their calm and soothing tunes. Santa Barbara was Jack’s last stop on his long 7 week tour with Bahamas, so naturally he made this last show a special one playing for two hours with appearances by J RADIO and Paula Fuga. The show went on for a full two hours, with Jack jamming out to “Bubble Toes”, “Staple It Together,” “Brushfire Fairytales” and also some new tracks from From Here to Now to You. Arlington’s intimate setting made for a great atmosphere. We were able to grab a great video of “Bubble Toes.” Check it out below!

The New Noise Festival is back at it in Santa Barbara and we are stoked to see all of the amazing artists and panels that are organized for this weekend. It’s New Noise’s 5th anniversary, so they’ve of course given us a killer line-up that includes FMLYBND, Cayucas, and HAIM (yes, HAIM) at the Block Party on Saturday. The festival kicks off tomorrow with some great artists at various venues sprinkled around lovely Santa Barbara. Some artists on Thursday include Ghost Tiger, The White Buffalo, and Andrew W.K.

Our very own Mike Wald will also be moderating a panel at the conference on Friday called, “If Music Could Talk: Marketing Your Brand.” The conference is a great way to learn about the music and entertainment industries. Our staff is excited to sit in on these panels!

The festival will come to a close on Saturday with the Block Party on Mason Street. What better place to rock out to Dante Elephante, Grizfolk, FMLYBND, Cayucas, and HAIM than in the Funk Zone?

Check out the full festival schedule here, and get your tickets as there is a limited supply!

It’s really amazing and inspiring when a brand new band/artist starts off their career with a killer debut album that hits the Internet and blogosphere by storm. This year has brought me not one, but THREE ridiculously good debut albums.

What these three artists have in common however, is not just their amazing debuts, but the large amount of hype that they each received leading up to their release dates. Who do we have to thank for that? The Internet.

CHVRCHES are an electro synth-pop band from Glasgow, Scotland. The electro synth pop genre is a difficult one to really stand out in, especially on SoundCloud, which is where CHVRCHES first released their extremely strong single “Lies.” This track stood out for its dark and commanding lyrics, which is a nice comparison to your typical electro pop band. Lies was then featured on a music blog called Neon Gold and CHVRCHES became a band born on the Internet. Their debut album The Bones of What You Believe was highly anticipated, and although it included several already well-known tracks, (i.e. “Gun”, “The Mother We Share”, “Recover”) fans were ecstatic to hear the new powerful lyrics and synths behind The Bones of What You Believe. The album received critical acclaim across a wide array of music blogs including Pitchfork, Stereogum, The Line of Best Fit, and more.

Read more >>>

Arcade Fire came to Oniracom to build a creative campaign releasing exclusive content. A teaser video and mysterious social posts informed fans that something would happen on the website on 9/9/13. The page design was simple, featuring three mysterious, unlabeled clocks that were presumed to be counting down to an event. At 9PM BST, a music video for the new single was released replacing the first clock. Concurrently, the band’s most recent Google Chrome experiment by Google Labs and Vincent Morisset was also released, replacing the second clock. The third and final clock was replaced by a link out to the iTunes store at 9PM local time on 9/9/13.

The page is fully responsive and features a looping video in the background. Be sure to try it out on all your devices!

And who doesn’t want a full video walk-through of the site? Check out our Vimeo walk-through below!

We’ve dubbed September as “TV Month” here in the office. Why you say? Well, not only were The Emmys this week, but some great TV series have come to an end this month, and a bunch of new seasons are beginning to start up again as well. Dexter and Breaking Bad have come to a close, while we’re still excited for other shows like Homeland, New Girl, Parks and Recreation, and more!

In honor of “TV Month,” we’ve compiled a playlist of our favorite TV Show theme songs. So go ahead and reminisce with us!

Calia:
1. “In The Street” from That 70’s Show
    - That 70’s Show is a gem to me, and so is this song. Reminds me of hanging out with my friends in high school, watching this series and just being all around goofy together.
2. “California” from The O.C.
    - I love playing this song while driving up the 101, thinking of Marissa, Ryan, Seth, Summer ... and Captain Oats.

Tad:
3. The Muppet Show
    - My favorite part of the week as a kid was tuning into the Muppet Show.  Such a trip back in time for me.
4. Cheers
    - Love the sweet lonesome melody.

Justin:
5. Goof Troop
    - The iconic mix of classic Disney with young 90’s kids culture, bright backpacks, skateboards and a cartoon puppy named Max. Quintessential.
6. City Guys
    - The late nineties brought us one of the most under rated pre-teen dramas on the after school lineup. City Guys is a diamond in the rough characterized by that fantastic hip-hop theme song and inter-racial friendships.
7. “Hey Sandy” from The Adventures of Pete and Pete
    - Thank Nirvana for inspiring the New Wave version of grunge rock that become so essential to “rock” music in the nineties. This theme song always got me off the couch and flexing my temporary tattoo. God bless Danny Tamberelli.
8. All That
    - The intro says is best: “Fresh off the block. Stop! Look and watch. Ready yet? Get set! It’s Alllll That!”

Relix Magazine came to us for a brand new design and concept for their site. We built them a custom website with a responsive design fit for mobile, tablet and desktop devices. We’ve been a long time reader & supporter of the magazine, so we’re ecstatic about this new look and functionality!

Relix Magazine has been a publication since 1974, so you can imagine the large amount of content that needed to be migrated over to the new site. Never fear, we were able to swiftly migrate it to their new Expression Engine platform. To grow Relix’s social network audience, we leveraged current audiences, fans and partners for a multi-platform promotion.

Be sure to check the site out on your mobile and tablet devices: 

We’re stoked about the new look and functionality of Relix’s brand new web presence and we are excited to help maintain and manage their web presence with them through the months to come!

Culver City Dub Collective, a long time friend of Oniracom came to us for a brand new web presence. We built them a custom microsite that features their latest album, videos, and includes a full social stream. Culver City Dub Collective includes Adam Topol, Franchot Tone, David Ralicke, Chris Joyner, and Jose Esquivel.

Take a look at the screenshots below, and be sure to visit their site for the full experience. We can’t wait to hear more tunes from the boys at Culver City Dub!

We here at Oniracom have no shame in our song choices, so we are bringing you our ultimate guilty pleasure playlist. There’s everything from Usher and Britney Spears to… Creed. Yes, Creed.

It’s surprising that we haven’t chosen this theme sooner, but here you have it, the Oniracom Staff Guilty Pleasures Playlist. Enjoy!

Calia:
1. “Semi-Charmed Life” - Third Eye Blind
2. “Burn” - Usher
3. “Feel So Close” - Calvin Harris

Jacob:
4. “What’s the Difference” - Dr. Dre
5. “Haven’t Met You Yet” - Michael Buble
6. “Read My Mind” - The Killers
7. “So Damn Lucky” - Dave Matthews

Justin:
8. “Tarzan Boy” - Baltimora (from Turtles 3: Turtles in Time)
9. “Lucky” - Britney Spears
10. “Crazy for This Girl” - Evan and Jaron
11. “Dreams” - The Cranberries

We are EXTREMELY excited to announce the launch of Jack Johnson’s new and improved custom responsive website! We have been working hard to modernize JackJohnsonMusic.com with a complete aesthetic and technical overhaul of the web presence.

As you know, everyone in the office has been hard at work preparing the website for Jack’s next studio album release with his new pre-order store launch and 2013 Tour Charity Auction. Jack’s new site has been leveraged with new media/technology and social user-based marketing to increase the reach of promotions for the new album and tour.

With the new overhaul of the site came a nice mobile friendly layout! Check out the images below to see what we mean:

JackJohnsonMusic.com is completely revamped—and much faster if you haven’t noticed already! We hope you enjoy the site as much as we do, and don’t forget to check it out on your mobile and tablet devices!

Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville have always been hot spots for jobs in the music industry, but in terms of concentration of music industry jobs, Nashville is number one with 7.8 per 1,000 residents according to this article by Billboard. Los Angeles is a distant second with 2.8. Austin is third with 2.6. Charlotte, N.C has a score of 2.1, and New York surprisingly falls behind at 2.0. So, chances are higher that your neighbor works in the music industry if you live in Nashville. Makes sense, since there’s been so many new and young artists coming out of Nashville lately (Cherub, Wild Cub, just to name two)

Continue Reading→

Renowned music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine’s new project is almost ready to be released to the public. It is a new, online, subscription based music service. Now that in itself is nothing new as we already have Spotify amongst other streaming services. So what’s different this time around? What will make this successful?? Take a look as I attempt to break down several different features of this new service recently named: Beats Music.

The CEO & co-founder of Beats Electronics, Jimmy Iovine, plans to launch his new online music streaming service Beats Music (formally known as project Daisy) in the next couple of months. Noticing the lack of context and emotional connection in music streaming today, he has recently hired an expert team of curators to give the online music streamer a more personalized experience. If you want to find out who the curators are just click here.

Hip hip hooray! Jack Johnson’s new pre-sale store page is now up and running. His store features several merch bundles that include everything from a poster to a unique reclaimed wooden body surfing handplane.

We’ve been working very hard on this pre-sale store launch here at Oniracom, so we’re stoked to finally share the finished product with all of you. Jack’s store page is powered by Topspin and now includes a US and European page, allowing you to switch easily between currencies and save on shipping fees if you are from the UK/EU.

Check out the screen shots below, and be sure to pre-order Jack’s new album and any of the fantastic merch bundles soon! Jack’s new album ‘From Here to Now to You’ will be released on September 16 in the UK/EU and September 17 in the US.

This playlist was probably our most fun yet. I asked all of our staff members to come up with a few songs that are quintessential Oniracom.

All of the songs below remind us of our amazing office and the friendly environment that comes with it.

Some of our staff provided descriptions to each of their choices as well, which makes it all the more fun! Take a listen and soak in the Oniracom vibes.

Haaris:

1. ‘Go With the Flow’ - Queens of the Stone Age
Working in this environment is different from day to day. One must be able to adapt.

2.‘Sitting Waiting Wishing’ - Jack Johnson
Creative environment where we can contemplate creative campaigns and make them real.

3. ‘Clique’ - Kanye West
The quality of our work is extremely high, that can only be created by an all star team of individuals.

4. ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ - Guns n Roses
For this really busy days…

5. ‘Good Life’ - Kanye West
This is a GREAT place to work, I can’t say that enough.

Jacob:

6. ‘Hope’ - Jack Johnson
7. ‘Brighter’ - Matt McAvene
8. ‘Jerusalem’ - Matisyahu
9. ‘Let Love Rule’ - Lenny Kravitz
10. ‘Sunshine’ - Matt Costa

It seems like no chat conversation these days is complete without some crazy emoticons- emoji for iPhone has practically become a second habit, and now Facebook Chat has introduced stickers (basically large cartoon emoticons that embed into the chat conversation) on the web. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite Facebook Chat Stickers and appropriate times to use them, inspired by this Mashable article:

1. For when you want to pretend you work at the Bluth Banana Stand

2. For when you get food poisoning from a really bad seafood restaurant

3. For when you’re feeling ~FABULOUS~

4. For when you’re practicing for your big Shakespeare Broadway debut

Continue Reading→

Over the past few years, there has been huge leaps and bounds in the growth of the social networking site Pinterest. Clothing stores, Magazines, Designers, and practically every female who likes planning weddings and homemade gifts have taken to Pinterest as a place to store photos from their own computer or from their favorite websites. The visual bulletin board aesthetic lends itself easily for users to compartmentalize their images into different categories such as Recipes, Art, Interior Design, DIY, Fashion, etc.  

Unlike other photo-sharing websites, Pinterest has a “Pin It Button” that allows you to pin an image from any website. Once you click the button in your browser, it pulls images from the current webpage and allows you to pin it to your Pinterest profile. 

However, there are a few drawbacks on pinning directly to Pinterest: since you can only pin images, it’s hard to pin a quote, Twitter profile, or Website unless it is a single image. Also, it’s not possible to pin tracks directly from Spotify for the pinners that want to share music on their profiles. 

This is where Pinstamatic comes in: it’s a hip website that allows you to do all the above.

Continue reading→

Our client KCON released their official trailer for KCON 2013, which is being held at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in downtown LA on August 24th and 25th. Tickets are on sale NOW!

We were excited to revamp KCON’s web presence by creating a bright and simple responsive site that promotes their awesome K-POP Music Conference.

Don’t miss the K-POP sensation and be sure to check out the splash page we designed for more information!

Our very own art director, Tad Wagner has released a brand new single titled ‘Free Enough.’ Listen to the single here and enjoy the soft, smooth and comforting sounds. Tad created the music video himself with interesting images and footage from NASA. Visit Tad’s website here to find out more about his forthcoming album release. We hope you’re as excited as we are about the release!

Andrew Stockdale came to Oniracom to develop an album release campaign based around a google map and a custom SoundCloud player. The page boasts a stream of the entire new album along with an interactive photo stream of Instagram photos tagged with #KeepMoving.

Check out the full video walkthrough below!

VINE
Pros:

Cons:

Future:

INSTAGRAM
Pros:

Cons:

Future:

Also, this fun website plays two videos side by side (from Vine and Instagram respectively) and lets you pick which one you think is the best. Vine is currently winning the battle with 13657 votes, while Instagram has 11747 votes.

So who is the better video sharing app? Only time will tell, but we have millions on millions (literally) of both Vine and Instagram videos to look through in the meantime.

Check out Jack’s official new music video for his single ‘I Got You.’ Stay tuned for his new album coming out in September!

Summertime is most certainly upon us. We’ve got the Summer Solstice festivities kicking off in Santa Barbara this weekend, and the rays have not stopped shining! June Gloom is burning off and turning into a spectacular summer.

With that being said, the last thing we need to make this summer even more perfect is an awesome playlist. Check out the tracks our staff has picked for our Summertime June Playlist:

Calia:
1. “Let’s Get Out of this Country” - Camera Obscura
2. “Verona” - Geographer
3. “In the Sun” - She & Him

Jacob:
4. “Doin’ Time” - Sublime
5. “Hot Stuff” - Donna Summer
6. “Summer Teeth” - Wilco
7. “All Summer Long” - The Beach Boys

Tad:
8. “Step” - Vampire Weekend
9. “Bros” - Panda Bear
10. “At the Zoo” - Simon & Garfunkel

Haaris:
11. “My God is the Sun” - Queens of the Stone Age
12. “Food Fight!” - Be Your Own Pet
13. “Bull In The Heather” - Sonic Youth
14. “Summertime” - DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince
15. “Ice Cream” - Wu Tang Clan
16. “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” - Queens of the Stone Age

Justin:
17. “Cayucos” - Cayucas
18.“I Know What I Know” - Paul Simon
19. “Taper Jean Girl” - Kings of Leon
20. “Mansard Roof” - Vampire Weekend
21. “Finger Back” - Vampire Weekend
22. “Will ‘The Thrill’” - Cayucas
23. “East Coast Girl” - Cayucas

Tracy:
24. “I’m in Here” - Sia
25. “Chasing You” - Capital Cities

John L:
26. “Heaven” - Bitter:Sweet - The Mating Game
27. “People Keep Comin’ Around” - Tindersticks

Jack Johnson has stepped in to replace Mumford and Sons at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival tomorrow in Manchester, Tennessee.

The English folk-rock group had to cancel their appearance at the festival and their entire summer tour after discovering their bass player, Ted Dwayne had a blood clot in his brain.

Jack was already onsite at Bonnaroo to see friends ALO perform. After the festival organizers asked him to play, Jack confirmed with his band and decided to step in for Saturday as the festival’s headliner.

We hope Ted Dwayne from Mumford and Sons has a speedy recovery! And for those of you at Bonnaroo tomorrow—enjoy Jack’s sure to be amazing set!

The first single from the new album “From Here To Now To You” due out September 17, 2013

Jack’s new album is due out in September, but he’s already got a splendid new single for us to listen to.

Listen to ‘I Got You’ here on his site! So appropriate for the summer months. Enjoy!

Our previous client and good friends at A Year Without War are bringing a brand new film titled Following the Ninth to Santa Barbara for its premiere.

Following the Ninth is a documentary about the global impact that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has had at this time in our history. The film praises, “From Europe through Africa to Asia and the Americas, the Ninth Symphony is continuously performed celebrating our common humanity and joyous existence.”

The premiere will take place on June 4th at 7:00pm at the Marjorie Luke Theatre. Tickets are $10.00 and can be purchased either online, at the Marjorie Luke Theatre box office, or by calling 805-965-0581 #2476

Head over to Following the Ninth’s website to view the trailer. We hope to see you all there!

The official video for The Bayonets new single ‘Smartphone.’ Check it out and be sure to visit their website here

Flickr rolled out some new features and a hot new design that offers higher resolution, a news feed, and more.

Landing on the home page, you’ll already notice the brand new design, bigger images, and crisper resolutions. Flickr is giving all its users 1 terabyte (yes terabyte) of space. This makes way for bigger and better images.

Mashable explains that the “news feed” feature is a bit similar to the Instagram news feed. To see this feature in full, check out their video that takes you through the new Flickr here.

Sharing is now also easier on Flickr. Once you post, you can easily share to Facebook. Twitter, Tumblr and more.

Overall, the new design is much more progressive in the digital/social media realm and the endless amount of space and higher resolutions are sure to make all Flickr users happy.

In case you missed it, you can see Jack’s full segment on The Today Show this past Monday here.

He talked about the lovely Kokua Hawaii Foundation and his highly anticipated new record. More coming from Jack soon!

Greetings fellow dreamers! This month we are giving you a jam packed playlist that’s essential for any and all road trips. We’ve got a whopping 118 tracks on this playlist that’s sure to last you on long car rides. Enjoy and feel free to *collaborate* if you have an Rdio account. Click our playlist below and then simply click “collaborate” to add your own personal tracks to the mix!

My picks:
“July” - Youth Lagoon
“Recover” - CHVRCHES
“Hold On” - SBTRKT
“You Make My Dreams Come True” - Hall and Oates

Tad:
“Movin’ Right Along” - The Muppets

Tracy:
“San Francisco” - Foxygen
“When My Time Comes” - Dawes
“Don’t Let me Down” - Solange

Justin:
Sam’s Town - The Killers (In its entirety)
The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (In its entirety)
From Under the Cork Tree - Fall Out Boy (In its entirety)
Aim and Ignite - FUN (In its entirety)

Mike:
“Casey Jones” - Grateful Dead
“Ramble On” - Led Zeppelin

Haaris:
Enter the 36th Chamber - Wu Tang Clan(In its entirety)
I Love You its Cool - Bear in Heaven (In its entirety)
Sea of Cowards - Dead Weather (In its entirety)

Oniracom developed an interactive album release campaign for Everfound, a new band out of Colorado. The campaign leverages Twitter hashtags as a means to vote for songs. Fans are able to listen to previews of every track from the album and vote for their favorites. The song with the most votes is released at a set time based on the countdown timer on the website.

Get a full video walk-through of the site below, and be sure to visit it here!

Oniracom Portfolio | Everfound (EverfoundMusic.com/Listen) from Oniracom on Vimeo.

Spring has officially arrived. The flowers are blossoming and the nice mix of sunny and gloomy days in Santa Barbara are a refreshing change of pace.

Now all we need is a good springtime playlist to get us through spring cleaning and all of our spring projects. Here you have it, the April staff playlist:

Calia:

1. “Never Wanted Your Love” - She & Him
2. “The Sweetest Thing” - Camera Obscura
3. “Santa Cruz” - Gold Motel

Jacob:

4. “Make The Money” - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
5. “Mexican Cousin” - Phish
6. “Never Know” - Jack Johnson

Tad:

7. “The Desert Babbler” – Iron and Wine
8. “Morning Has Broken” – Cat Stevens
9. “What a Day for a Daydream” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
10. “Prelude in C Major” – J.S. Bach

The Santa Barbara Earth Day festival took place this past weekend at Alameda Park and it was an absolute blast! We were excited to share the Social Media Lounge with our friends over at LoaTree, hangout with the Community Environmental Council crew, enjoy good music, and have an overall good time.

It’s an honor to be a sponsor and marketing partner for the Community Environmental Council of Santa Barbara. Like last year, we designed and developed a live site that displayed all the fun that was going on at Earth Day from Saturday-Sunday. You can check out the live site here.

This year, there were 35,895 festival-goers and over 200 exhibitors. The food was tasty and the local music was fresh. SB Earth Day also presented two “Environmental Hero Awards” to Van Jones and Bill Nye.

Check out some of our Instagram shots below. To see more, search for the hashtag #sbearthday and you’ll see over a thousand Earth Day photos!

ALO will be hitting up the BottleRock Festival in Napa, CA on May 9. Check out the full lineup here