Mediaphyter – A Communications Cocktail

It was a heck of a show. Aaron had been up since 3:30 a.m. to catch a flight with his family to the east coast and I’d just had a mental breakdown over a granola bar. However, the shining spot in our afternoon was the Quick’n'Dirty show, and what made it super shiny today was our guest — Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.

Aaron and I are both big fans of Pandora. I personally have gotten very emotionally involved with Pandora’s grassroots battle against unfair, significantly heightened royalty fees that could’ve crippled the company’s business some months ago. Westergren talked to us about the latest win in Pandora’s fight, the history and mechanics of the Music Genome Project, how Pandora is a service for the artists (they want to create a “musicians’ middle class”), plans and ideas, and how much they love their listeners. Oh, and Westergren had some words of advice for would-be entrepreneurs, too.

In other news:

• Social Network: We talked about the coolness of 12 Seconds, a micro-video site for the folks who have something to say… in 12 seconds or less. It’s a pretty cool idea and I’ve absolutely loved watching my friends’ 12 seconds videos. But as I told Aaron, I have a face for radio, so I’ve yet to do them myself. Check it out.
• Featured Twitterer: Dr. Ogan Gurel is walking from Chicago to Washington D.C. to “draw attention to the very real stories of hardship and inequity that persist in our health care system.” According to his official blog, Dr. Gurel is sharing his stories along the way via multiple social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Loopt, etc.) and is currently in Pennsylvania.
• Point / Counterpoint: Aaron and I have been Twitter buddies for a long time (having finally met in person back in April) but our friendship really soared after he wrote a blog post for me on “branded communities.” There was some legal hassle over which Aaron and I bonded (and, well, we were also totally right). We thought we’d dredge up the topic this week since it’s a continually relevant one. Should you build or join a community? I uttered my usual mantra: “Depends on what you want, etc.” Aaron, who is incredibly passionate about the topic, talked about how it shouldn’t be a choice — a company should build and join. Aaron even issued a challenge — contact him either through his blog or through Twitter and he will show you how ANY company can benefit from both building and joining communities.

You can listen to the recap here or find us on iTunes by searching for “QuicknDirty.”

Next Week! We’ll have a guest host as Aaron will be on vacation, and it’s the super fabulous, wonderfully awesome Kyle Flaherty (who just happens to be my mentor). We’ll talk about all kinds of fun stuff and our special interview will be with Rick Calvert, CEO of Blog World and New Media Expo!

Join us!