In anticipation of a mobile world, I went ahead and secured the Netmix.mobi URL (do you still call it a URL?) for future use. A few years ago, I’d registered Netmixmobile.com, mainly to make sure that I had my bases covered, but with the new dotMobi suffix coming into play, I thought I’d take advantage and register it just in case one day I need it.

dotMobi domains are registered and administered by EuroDNS.com. There’s been some speculation as to whether the .dotMobi domain will be relevant in the long term, but it is a key differentiator for Internet companies that operate in both spaces. Today, you can deliver specific experiences to targeted web browsers through the header information in your source code, but for companies who want to seperate the experiences, it could make sense. For example, I can get my Gmail over mobile, without having to type in a different domain. I’m just redirected by the web server to the appropriate application, which then delivers to me the correct format and experience for mobile.

The people at dotMobi claim by having a dotMobi address, you’re agreeing to operate a standards based service that conforms to the dotMobi consortiums specifications, and will appear on mobile devices in a more consistent and well structured way than just repointing to a mobile app alongside a web app from a mobile browser. Either way, it’s extra money out of the content provider’s pocket that may or may not have to be spent. For me, better to be safe than sorry. I’d rather own the real estate and see what happens, then be forced to buy it at a premium later. I learned that lesson early on.

In fact, I still own Netmix.TV, which isn’t as cheap as my dotcom or my dotmobi, but that’s because the dotTV domains are registered by the ccTLD, a small island nation in the Atlantic called Tavula. When they were assiged the dotTV TLD, they realized they could make a lot of money registering and administering it to television networks who wanted to own a piece of real estate on the web associated with television. Not a bad idea either, it’s just that we can do everyhing off the dotCom if we need to. But, like I said before, it’s a differentiator, and can allow someone to visit two indepdendent but cojoined experiences on the web at the same time and get two different experiences that quite possibly could be tied together somehow.

Speaking of mobile, we’re in talks with a company to bring the Netmix Radio stream to a mobile audience. In a few short weeks, not only will you be able to listen to Netmix over the web or on your TIVO digital recorder, which brings our streaming partners Live365.com to your living room, but also over your mobile device.

I’m working out the details now and will announce here when the mobile stream goes live.

Amazon.com has launched a cool new affiliate program that allows it’s partners to embed a fully functional shopping cart system into a web page. This takes the affiliate-type relationship one step further by keeping a site’s visitors within the site’s environment, instead of just linking off to Amazon to purchase the item.

The program, in its beta stage, provides a link to the affiliate shop in an iframe tag, which is simply added to the HTML of a web page. An affiliate can then choose Featured Products to display on its main shop page as well as pick links from specific Amazon categories the site’s visitors might be interested in.

I’ve selected a few CD’s, the latest Pioneer CDJ-1000 MK3, Rane’s Serato Scratch Live hardware/software combo as my Featured Products. Amazon picks a few other related items to featured products alongside the main picks.

Of course, you can also order anything you happen to navigate to through the Netmix DJ Shop, so whether you’re looking for that iPod, a pair of computer speakers, or a book on web design–by ordering through the Netmix DJ Shop, we’ll get a commission on the sale, and that will help towards paying down the hosting costs of Netmix Internet Radio, which is currently about $225 a month.

I’ve been maintaining Netmix more as a hobby than a real business for the last year and a half, and costs are increasing due to the popularity of Netmix Radio. We’re serving over 1,700 streams a month with listenership incresing daily as more people catch on to the blog and radio show. Every little bit helps, so I’d appreciate the support in asking that if you do want to order something through Amazon, just use the Netmix DJ Shop to do so and we’ll get a little piece of the action. That will really help to pay down the costs, and I certainly would appreciate it.

The Netmix DJ Shop is located on the Netmix.com homepage.

A couple of days ago, my friend Wanita asked me if I could help out a friend of hers, who’s interested in picking up DJing. He was wondering if he should bypass vinyl and go to CD, then to MP3. Although I hate to say it, with the advent of MP3 DJing, both vinyl and CD are going the way of the dinosaur. Don’t get me wrong; I love vinyl, but the trade-off between carrying a laptop to a gig today or three crates or records? In my book, the MacBook wins. Ask any touring DJ if he or she wants to get searched by security at the airport, then have their records lost, broken or stolen. In today’s touring DJ world, you bring a book of CD’s, your laptop and a portable hard drive, and you’re all set to rock it.

I remember when I was at a DJ Times Expo (I think it was ‘96 or ‘97) and someone was demonstrating one of the first MP3 DJ mixing hardware and software combination. My man had to roll in a cart with a computer tower, 15″ monitor and other gear. I thought, oh lord, this is never going to happen. What DJ in his right mind will roll in a kitchen cart to a gig? 9-years later, laptop computers are more powerful than ever and the processing speed, combined with mobile storage, is incredible.

If you want to see how incredible, check out this Rane demonstration video posted to YouTube of 2003 DMC Champion, DJ CXL on the turntables. He is using specially encoded records that come along with the software, which allow the DJ to use traditional turntables and needles to trigger playback of MP3’s on an accompanying laptop, virtually without any latency. What is “latency?” It is the time for instructions you have input into the computer as you slide (scratch) the record back and forth, to reach computer to manipulate the MP3 exactly the way you would if you were using a traditional vinyl record. The software was written to mimic exactly the sounds generated by scratching the same song as if you were using vinyl. Pretty amazing engineering, I’d say.

Serato Scratch Live is a program that is so well written, the latency is undetectable to the human ear. Whereas I doubted DJing with digital files way back then, I now see the power of moving right to MP3, and bypassing CD, for anyone who is interested in learning how to DJ.

I’ve heard, but I can’t confirm, that Stanton’s Final Scratch product, although similar, isn’t as good as Serato. I don’t want to start any rumors, but most of the DJs I’ve seen scratching with MP3 use Serato and swear by it.

I agree with audiophiles who claim that we have lost so much fidelity by adopting digital recording over the warmth of analogue vinyl. But in the club world, when your next record can make or break the dance floor, having a library of hundreds of tracks to program in the mix is invaluable. Add in software like Ableton Live 5, which allows you to add other elements to your set, and you’ll become a legend overnight.

So, check out the video. I would love to get some comments on what people think of the difference between Serato and Final Scratch.

Here’s a video from Summerstage in Central Park. Over the summer, I went to see Jean Grae, Pete Rock and DJ Sovereign. Posted the videos on my YouTube account, but never got around to posting them here.

Pete Rock is one of the most revered hip hop producers of all time, mainly for his track with C.L. Smooth, “They Reminisce,” among other notable hits. Check it out as Pete bounces back and forth between vinyl 12″’s. About 4 minutes long.

Hey, all! I’ve been so busy, I just haven’t been able to get to generating a blog post since my Entertainment Media Works colleagues and I left for MAGIC Markeplace over three weeks ago. I returned to NYC from MAGIC over Labor Day Weekend, but my stay in the Apple was short-lived.

After spending the weekend recovering from working 18-hour days in Vegas, I jumped right back on a plane to Atlanta for the Billboard Hip Hop and R&B Conference. Then it was onto Nashville for label meetings in the land of Country music and to interview a prospective candidate for a biz dev position at StarStyle.

This past week was a recovery week spent following up with people I’d met during my travels. I also squeezed in the first two classes of my Fall semester at NYU, where I’m entering my 3rd year.

The MAGIC trip successfully got us in front of the top brands, retailers, press, designers and even a few celebrities. It’s a must attend trade show for anyone buying, selling or marketing fashions or fashion related products or services. This trip, EMW showcased StarStyle.com with a booth in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. We brought a sizable team to the trade show to promote StarStyle, film content for the Fashion Five web video show we are getting ready to launch, and make contact with many of the brands and retailers we’ve been talking to over the past year.

My partner in crime, Fresnel aka Madsol Desar and I stayed at the MGM Grand, which played surprisingly good music throughout the hotel and casino area. It was very rhythm based; lot’s of loungey dance beats, which was definitely my cup of tea. Although the rooms are a little dated and mattresses in need of fluffing, the food in the hotel was the definitely the best in Vegas. From the Italian-style Fiamma, which has a sister restaurant in SoHo on Spring Street in NYC to Wolfgang Puck’s spot, you couldn’t ask for better service or better food. The Filet Mignon at Fiamma was absolutely amazing.

Opening night at MAGIC, we spent some time in the VIP area upstairs at TAO, then made our way to the dance floor to check out a live performance by Moby. Madsol is down with the Talib Kweli camp, so the next night we headed out to House of Blues to check out Talib and Jean Grae from an excellent vantage point backstage. The last night, we headed over to the Hard Rock Hotel to check out Tommy Lee’s party for his new clothing line. Out by the pool, Tommy actually worked the Pionneer effects rig while the DJ used Serato software and Technics tables to cut up some west coast sounding electronica and breaks.

You know, I love Triple Five Soul as a brand, but their party at the Wynn hotel was so wack, we had to leave. After Geology opened up (who was great by the way), things went progressively downhill. I don’t know who at BPM convinced Triple Five Soul to put this wack-ass DJ on, but it was just brutal. The mixing was god-awful. The music was like some half-dance, half rock, weird tracks that I couldn’t even comprehend. Just a bunch of noise and clashing keys. And to top it off, the DJ (I wish I knew his name…I can’t find the flyer around here anywhere) just stood there, up in the booth like he was rocking the place, and the dance floor was half empty. The cool people standing there wondering what was going on, while the trashed folk could have cared less. What’s worse, is then they had a live performance that was so horrible, I pulled my friends and said I’d just about had enough. I don’t care how dope the party was supposed to be, it’s probably one of the worst live performances I’ve ever seen. Contestants thrown off American Idol by Simon would have done a better job. Yes, friends, it was THAT BAD!

When we weren’t out at night, we were on the trade show floor networking with all the major urban brands. Ecko/G-Unit, Phat Farm, Southpole, R-World, Sean John…you name it, they were at the show. Our camera crew even caught Russell Simmons over at Project, a smaller version of MAGIC, to discuss a new Yoga line he’s just released. He recently cashed out of Phat Farm, so he’s got some cash to blow on more “green” type of projects, no pun intended!

I jetted back to New York to spend time with my girl over Labor Day weekend, then it was back on a flight to Atlanta for the Billboard R&B and Hip Hop Conference and Awards. I mainly went to check out top Billboard scribe, Michael Paoletta’s “I’m with the Brand” panel and try to catch up with D-Prosper from G-Unit. Michael’s panel was awesome. Beyonce’s father-slash-manager, Ludacris’s manager Chaka Zulu, and Jennifer Wu from FILA were on hand to give their input on product integration and other marketing related topics. I never did catch D-Prosper, he didn’t show for his A&R panel. But I did get to shake Rodney Jerkins hand and a few other notable A&R types after the panel.

After a few day’s rolling with the hip hop crowd, I jumped back on Jet Blue for a flight to Nashville, where I met with UMG Nashville and Curb Records for StarStyle. I also interviewed a nice woman who we ended up offering a job at StarStyle to handle the Country music market. Heck! What do I know about Country? Well, what I don’t know about the music, I do know that you can’t ignore one of the largest music markets in the country that has an extremely loyal fanbase and appeals to middle America. So, now we’re setting up a Nashville division to make sure we give the Country crew the love they deserve.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been back in the Apple, following up with people I met during my travels. School started two weeks ago at NYU, so I’ve been trying to keep up with that as well.

The big news is that I just ordered a new MacBook Pro, 15-inch screen with 2.16 Ghz Intel-based processor and 2 Gigs of memory. I’m waiting on it to come in from Apple, but when I get it, I’m finally going to be mobile with my MP3’s! I might even be spinning out again soon, now that I have my rig, Traktor DJ and Ableton Live . Although I do have to upgrade from Live 4 to 5, so I can get the upgrade to 6, when it comes end September, for free. Stay tuned.

Sorry that I have’t posted as much as I would have liked to. I’m sure you’re wondering where are all the photos from my travels? To tell you the truth, I just didn’t have time to shoot as much as I would have liked. I do have some cool shots that I’ll be posting over the next few days, but I’m thinking I gotta move forward, not backward.

I’ll get back in the swing of things shortly. Thanks for continuing to support Netmix while I’ve been away. Hey, I even finally crossed the $100 threshold in my Google Adsense Account! I’m rich!

For the past few days, I’ve been adding new friends on my MySpace page. I’m now up to 260-something. Let’s connect so we can get our networks to grow. My profile can be viewed at http://www.myspace.com/tonyzeoli. I also have a music profile at http://www.myspace.com/djtonyzeoli.

So, Tony Z. is back…that’s whassup!

Peace,

Tony Z.