So LoudCrowd, what's this all about then?

A student waiting to see me this morning told me that she was getting into LoudCrowd, which I'd read about on Epicenter but still haven't found time to try out.

Conduit Labs' LoudCrowd, co-founded by former Harmonix employee Dan Ogles, generated tons of buzz with its Tuesday SXSW announcement of a social music gaming network, somewhat along the lines of Guitar Hero meets MySpace. After playing around with the LoudCrowd site for a bit today, we feel like that hype is somewhat justified.

The second paragraph has the twist -- using music discovery as the reward incentive for playing.

One of the coolest things about LoudCrowd is that it makes you want to earn virtual money by playing games to collect actual music. When we won our first track after performing well in a DJ game, we were thrilled even before we heard it. This is an intriguing way to get people excited about music, because it encourages active listening.

So I'm going to try it out at some point soon. Anyone else playing it already?

Messed with Texas

Finally back from SXSW. Too overwhelming to summarize, though I'll have more to say about it after a long snooze. Meanwhile, a hat-trick of music game news from around the internets this week:

The Apple iPhone OS upgrade is going to great for music. Let’s see: iPod library access (Audiosurf, baby!); Bluetooth A2DP for streaming to speakers or ‘phones; P2P Wi-Fi connectivity, so two devices can communicate -- ie, jam together -- sans a Wi-Fi network; and audio recording using a standardized API, so everyone can go crazy. This is going to be great!

Always keen to see new instruments applied to the GH/RB model, I was intrigued by the Trumpet Hero mod played at the Tangible Tech Exhibition in San Francisco this week. I’m still waiting for Sousaphone Hero.

Beyoncé reveals herself as a gamer, including love for GH, although since it’s all part of a promotional drive for upcoming Rhythm Heaven on the DS one may be forgiven a small degree of skepticism. Her old man Jay-Z is also looking to get into the game business too. Cute quotes:

I've been rehearsing for my [upcoming] tour in stilettos and uncomfortable corsets, learning all these arrangements. Today I was playing the game with my socks on, on the couch, and it was very relaxing … I like all the Wii games. Love Guitar Hero. This reminds me a little bit of a portable Guitar Hero, which is great, because I don't want to carry around a big guitar! Growing up, I liked Tetris. I even like BrickBreaker on the BlackBerry.

The stars, they're just like us!

[My first gaming system growing up was] a Nintendo. I would play Super Mario Bros. We weren't supposed to play it after 9 o'clock, and I would sneak and play all night. I loved it.