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Earlier this month, music, film and interactive folks flocked to Austin, Texas for the annual SXSW conference. One of the big mobile app announcements to come out of the event is a new social radio service called WahWah.

What is WahWah?
WahWah is a personalized radio service that makes listening to music more social and customized. You can listen with friends, fellow WahWah listeners around the globe or by yourself. The songs you hear can also relate to your location or activity you've selected.

How does WahWah work?
Get started by downloading the app and signing up using your Facebook account. Browse stations from trending and featured lists, your Facebook friends, stations created around you and activity. The app pulls from its library of 15 million songs to serve up the best music based on the context. Everyone who clicks on a radio station listens to the music at the same time.

How does WahWah differ from "Pandora" and similar music apps?
WahWah adds a layer of customization that isn't available on Pandora or Spotify by letting users select their location and activity. Also, because of its social nature, it's great for group activities like exercise or studying — even if you are physically separated from your group.

How much does WahWah cost?
WahWah is free at the Apple App Store.

Whether or not you watched the Grammy Awards last night, you probably heard some of the highlights today. Despite the CBS "wardrobe advisory", these awards proved to be not only the biggest night in music, but still one of the biggest nights in fashion.

Exposed legs and towering heels aside, one artist took her choice of wardrode to the next level. Carrie Underwood, not one known to be cutting edge, appeared on stage singing an acoustic version of her title track "Blown Away" in a boring silver oversized prom dress. Carrying viewer's attention with her strong vocal ability alone, Underwood continued into her latest single "Two Black Cadillacs" simultaneously as her dress began to mysteriously light up and illuminate colors.

Suddenly, it became apparent this was not only a dress, but a giant projection screen. This conservative, basic gown suddenly transformed into a technicolor light spectacle. Within seconds, a simple garment became a digitally connected and living part of her performance's overall creative direction. Towards the end of the performance it even shed a cocoon of butterflies onto the screen behind her, directly playing into the perfomance set. The dress even proved itself to be GIF'able, whether this was intended or not. (Welcome to Tumblr, Carrie!)

Black Eyed Peas aside, it's refreshing to see other artists take risks and advantage of cutting-edge technology in their performance's creative direction. The growing relationship between technology and fashion will surely be interesting to follow in the years to come. 

Beck’s new set of songs, Song Reader, is released as a book of sheet music rather than a physical or digital album. He wrote music for twenty songs reflecting the tunes of the early 20th century. Musicians can purchase the book online and are encouraged to submit their cover songs to the website SongReader.net by way of YouTube or SoundCloud. They are also invited to share their songs on their own social media networks.

First conceived in 2004, the idea behind the album is reminiscent of times when artists wrote music that  was simple enough to be performed by everyone -- sheet music was valuable to a musician's business and was frequently bought and sold. Fortunately, Beck released this project in the midst of social media frenzy where sharing with friends, fans and complete strangers is a piece of cake.

Beck modernized an archaic idea by elevating it to an interactive experience in the digital age. For the first time, the release of a collection of songs is not so much about the music as it is about giving a platform that allows other to play music. You can easily find all the cover songs listed on the Song Reader website or search “beck song reader” on YouTube and find approximately 400 entries. Participants are given an advantage for uploading their music on otherwise crowded networks where an hour of video is uploaded every second. Not to infer that every band covering Beck's work will get their fifteen minutes of fame,...

The arrival of holiday music tends to have a polarizing effect. It seems like you're either the kind of person that spends most of the year anxiously awaiting "Jingle Bells" as you shop for frozen pizza, or the person who grits their teeth wishing "Little Drummer Boy" would just hold off until the second week of December. Regardless of which camp you fall into, if you're going to have to listen to holiday music in this post-Thanksgiving, pre-December limbo, it might as well be the kind of holiday music you can jam out to.

That’s why we've compiled a Spotify playlist of our favorite holiday music to share with you. Between Hal, Kristina, Brian, me, and a host of outside sources, we’ve rounded up 25 songs that will get you through the holiday rush. There’s a little something for everyone! Open it in Spotify here, or view tracks here. Listen, enjoy, and remember that Grinch is never a good look on anyone.

Starting tomorrow, October 8, Ellie Goulding will be hosting the "world's first" digital album signing on Google Hangouts to promote her upcoming album Halcyon. The English singer-songwriter is promoting the online event on her Google+ fan page, where fans can access everything they need to participate.

By clicking through to the official website, elliegoulding.com, fans can pre-order the album and purchase merchandise like posters, 7" vinyl records and exclusive photos. Various digital content like tweets, photos and video can also be accessed, giving visitors a range of ways to participate with the musician's brand.

To be eligible to attend the digital album signing event, participants must complete a form powered by Google Docs. The questionnaire asks for contact information, screens the questions you would pose to Ellie if selected, and ensures that participants meet technological requirements and have pre-ordered the album.

During the event, the selected fans will be able to ask Ellie their questions and receive a signature on their digital album. This experience will likely leave a larger impact than in-person album signing events, where fans must wait in long lines to exchange a few words with their idols. In this scenario, the opportunity to chat in real time is where fans will see the most value.

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