Posts Tagged boston
The most music tech ever squeezed into 1 weekend
Posted by Paul in events, Music, The Echo Nest on November 18, 2009
Workshops! The core activity for the music hack day weekend is hacking. But before we dive into the hard core hacking the weekend starts with a set of music tech workshops where hackers can learn about the latest in music technologies – it’s a way for the hacker to add more tools to their toolbox. On Saturday morning we will be conducting around 25 workshops running in 5 sessions of 5 parallel tracks. Anyone interested in the music+technology space will likely find something interesting – music recommendation, concert/event data, music meta-data, iPhone programming, electronic instrument construction, Playdar, NPR – everything from how to author a song for the Rock Band Network to the Yahoo! query language. If you are going to the Hack Day, you may want to do a little bit of planning to help you decide which of the workshops you’ll want to attend, so check out the workshop schedule.
Music Hack Day T-shirt
Posted by Paul in events, fun, The Echo Nest on November 17, 2009
Ben Lacker shows off the Boston Music Hack day tee-shirt – hot off the loom.
Getting Ready for Boston Music Hack Day
Posted by Paul in Music, The Echo Nest on November 11, 2009
Boston Music Hack Day starts in exactly 10 days. At the Hack day you’ll have about 24 hours of hacking time to build something really cool. If you are going to the Hack Day you will want to maximize your hacking time, so here are a few tips to help you get ready.
- Come with an idea or two but be flexible – one of the really neat bits about the Music Hack Day is working with someone that you’ve never met before. So have a few ideas in your back pocket, but keep your ears open on Saturday morning for people who are doing interesting things, introduce yourself and maybe you’ve made a team. At previous hack days all the best hacks seem to be team efforts. If you have an idea that you’d like some help on, or if you are just looking for someone to collaborate with, check out and/or post to the Music Hack Day Ideas Wiki.
- Prep your APIs – there are a number of APIs that you might want to use to create your hack. Before you get to the Hack Day you might want to take a look at the APIs, figure out which ones you might want to use- and get ready to use them. For instance, if you want to build music exploration and discovery tools or apps that remix music, you might be interested in the Echo Nest APIs. To get a head start for the hack day before you get there you should register for an API Key, browse the API documentation then check out our resources page for code examples and to find a client library in your favorite language.
- Decide if you would like to win a prize – Of course the prime motivation is for hacking is the joy of building something really neat – but there will be some prizes awarded to the best hacks. Some of the prizes are general prizes – but some are category prizes (‘best iPhone / iPod hacks’) and some are company-specific prizes (best application that uses the Echo Nest APIs). If you are shooting for a specific prize make sure you know what the conditions for the prize are. (I have my eye on the Ultra 24 workstation and display, graciously donated by my Alma Mata).
To get the hack day jucies flowing check out this nifty slide deck on Music Hackday created by Henrik Berggren:
Build one of these at Boston Music Hack Day
Noah Vawter will be holding a workshop during the Boston Music Hack Day where you can learn how to build a working prototype Exertion Instrument. It is unclear at this time if a leekspin lesson his included. Details on the Exertion Instrument site.
Who’s going to Boston Music Hackday?
Posted by Paul in events, fun, Music, The Echo Nest, web services on October 21, 2009
Look at all the companies and organizations going to Music Hack Day.
The Echo Nest
SoundCloud
Indaba MusicHarmonix
Amie Street
8tracks
Playdar
Bandsintown
Tourfilter
NPR
Boxee
Sonos
Aviary
Conduit Labs
Topspin Media
Noteflight
Dorkbot
Libre.fm
It promises to be a really fun weekend. If you are interested in hacking music and working with the folks that are building the celestial jukebox make sure you sign up, slots are going fast. There’s one guy I’d 
to get to come to the hack day. I’m sure he’d be fascinated with all that goes on.
Tour of the Music Hackday Boston site
Posted by Paul in code, events, fun, Music, The Echo Nest, web services on September 24, 2009
The Boston Music Hackday is being held at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center (aka The NERD). Jon, Elissa and I took a tour of the space on Tuesday, and I must say I was very impressed. The place is tailor made for hacking. There’s open space big enough for 300 hackers to gather to show their demos, there’s plenty of informal space for hacking, there are small and large conference rooms for break out sessions, there’s wireless, there are plenty of power outlets, kitchen facilities, soda coolers and great views of Boston. This space is being donated by Microsoft – and I must say that my opinion of Microsoft has gone up substantially after I’ve seen how generous they’ve been with the space. Plus, the space is simply beautiful.
Informal hacking space at the NERD
More hacking space at the NERD
This hackday is shaping up to be something special. I’m pretty sure that we’ll hit our 300 person capacity, so register soon if you want to guarantee a spot.
Hacking space at the NERD
Open space at the NERD
Meeting space at the NERD
Boston view from the NERD
More hacking and chilling for the Hackday
Music Machinery 