Lana Del Rey GQ

The gamification of music has been a topic that has lingered in the back of my mind since late last year. In my opinion, this will be the next revolution in music technology following social and mobile.

How cool would it be to create a social-mobile music game that encourages music discovery and fan influence? Meet TasteMakerX, a San Francisco based start-up led by Co-Founder and CEO Marc Ruxin that has one of the most unique approaches to music discovery I have ever seen. Period...

TastemakerX combines social, mobile and gaming to create a virtual stock market for bands that allows users (TasteMakers) to influence the pricing of their favorite band in an open market system similar to Wall Street. Yes, we know Lana Del Rey is hot right now but she may not be worth as much as you think on the "streets." Here is a brief interview I had last week with Marc about his companies unique approach to gaming and music discovery.

It's an individual taste graph for personal music preferences. In short, you download the app, we give you 25,000 notes which is the currency of the game and then you use the currency to build a portfolio of the artists that you love. The game acts a virtual stock market for bands. We take all of the bands and put them through an algorithm were we look at likes, fans, plays, albums and other elements to determine a price for each band. Every bands starts at a least .25 and the most expensive band right now is which is worth about $48.00. We price the bands and then we rate the players. So, the idea of the game is to discover the trending bands and the trending TasteMakers.

We are trying to visualize whats trending in realtime; so people can listen to more music, go to more shows, and share more information about their favorite bands. If you are a band that has a lot of likes on Facebook it's almost impossible to tell if these are active likes or passive likes.

In TasteMakerX, you will be able to easily see who are your biggest shareholders. If you are on tour in Portland, and your biggest shareholder lives there you can reward them with free tickets to your show. If you wanted reward your top 100 shareholders with a free song you could also do that as well. As a fan, whats cooler than getting free tickets to a show or a personal thank you note from your favorite band?

Yeah, I think the more people that are buying and selling you will be able to see who charting from an artists perspective and who's charting from a TasteMaker's perspective. So, if you have a lot of juice in the music ecosystem and you find the next big thing you will be able to share that with your friends on Facebook and as the price goes up you will be able to see your influence.

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Lana Del Rey

OK indie music fans. Write this name down. Lana del Rey. You will be hearing this name dropped all over the place in the next few months for sure. If you can't remember her name, you will undoubtedly remember her lush hair and plump perfect lips. She is the epitome of a 50's pin up beauty queen and she is damn sexy.

Formerly known as Elizabeth "Lizzy" Grant, the 24 year old New Yorker admits that her new name has been" made up by lawyers and managers". This, is in addition to go with her new look. Lizzy tried to make it as a main stream artist in 2009 with little success. She slipped off the radar and came back sexier than ever. But this move has earned her some negative feedback amongst music blogs questioning her authenticity. Some have even referred to her as the "Frankenstein of Indie".

Really? Here's the bottom line. Who cares? The girl can sing! There are numerous artists that change their image from time to time or have taken on stage names. Some embellish to the point that they are beyond recognition at times. An amazing artist that comes to mind and has embraced both of these business strategies is Lady Gaga. There is more to Lana del Rey than just her sexpot image. However, she just proved that image plays a huge roll in getting people to pay attention, now didn't she?

Lana del Rey recently released "Video Games" and it was featured on the The CW TV-Series Ringer. It has had more than 2 million views on YouTube. She made her official U.S. debut in New York City at The Box on September 21, 2011. "Blue Jeans" was released by Stranger Records on vinyl on October 10, 2011 and October 11, 2011 digitally. Tickets for Lana del Rey's show in London were sold out within a half an hour. Both EP's are climbing the ladder on iTunes top downloads. They are robust with hooks and she is has admitted being a fan of sound bytes that you hear in both tracks.

Recently on Twitter she announced that she has recorded a track with Blur/Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn, XL Recordings owner Richard Russell, and acclaimed artist Bobby Womack.

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Sofia Vergara Hair

Temperatures are rising, the days are lasting longer and more and more weekend trips are being booked with pool days or beach trips. Beyond making sure you have a fabulous swimsuit, ensure you are accessorizing your beach wear with the right accessories to both flatter and look stylish.

To fully prepare for the ultimate look-at-me look by the water this summer, make sure you're decked out head-to-toe:

Hair: Depending on your waterside activity, you'll want to fix your hair in the appropriate way. If you're planning on a day of lounging and soaking up the sun, let your hair down with soft, beach-inspired waves. If you have a laid-back, boho style, opt for a fun headscarf; if you're more glam, get a floppy hat. Beyond looking fashionable, both of these accessories will protect your hair from sun damage

Light hair looks best with bolder colors, like hot pink, blue or green jewelry

Dark hair looks great with most colors, but really is accentuated by light (but bright!) colors like yellow jewelry

In general, the bigger the hair, the bigger the accessories should be (think studs with short hair and statement earrings with long hair)

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Sofia Vergara Legs

Toning shoes are all the rage lately. They've been popularized by famous folk and footwear fanatics all across the globe have united in their obsession to tone muscles while they walk. Toning shoes are great - you don't even have to do anything but walk and you end up strengthening your muscles. Celebrities have been singing their praises for years; at this year's Golden Globes, Modern Family's Sofia Vergara said she wears her Easy Tone shoes whenever she gets the chance to keep that famous backside in check. Wear them to the grocery store, to pick up the kids at school, to take a walk with the dogs in the morning, and voila, you're working out without even adding any extra effort into your day! While toning shoes should by no means replace a regular workout routine, they're a great supplement to the fitness plan you already have in place, as they offer you an opportunity to tone your muscles while you're walking, which, let's face it, you do all day, every day. Toning shoes are especially great for city dwel

lers who spend more time on their feet than your average suburbanite.

In the past few years, toning shoes have come pretty far - previously, toning footwear was unattractive and ultra-obvious, meaning that people who wore toning shoes looked positively ridiculous out and about. These days, however, the toning technology has been refined and perfected, so toning shoes look just like regular shoes - whether you're looking for sneakers or sandals, there's a pair for you that looks just like regular shoes. Here are some of our favorite styles.

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