At HP, we’re always looking for the best way to tell our stories, and one of the most important pieces of a story is the story teller.
By now you’ve heard a lot from HP about how we collaborated with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine to develop Beats Audio, and how we designed the technology to give all the music buffs out there a better listening experience. If you couldn’t tell, we’re pretty proud of the result.
And if you haven’t heard about it from us, you’ve probably heard about the ENVY 14 and ENVY 17, our most recent editions systems with Beats Audio, from various reviewers – most notably the Computer of the Year Award that WIRED recently bestowed on the ENVY 14.
But to really put Beats to the test, and tell the real, practical stories that paint the most vivid pictures, we decided to work with some of the most connected tastemakers in the music industry; people who’ve spent years establishing themselves as music aficionados and gaining respect from music lovers everywhere.
Each of the people in the list below has received an ENVY 14 Beats Edition (exact specs here), and has been asked to share candid feedback on their experiences with the product. And by candid we mean 100 percent honest. Since we’ve partnered with Microsoft on this program, they’ll also be checking out Windows Live Essentials 2011.
We’re hoping they will let us know if we’ve hit the mark, and give us ideas on how to make the product better in the future. In the spirit of full disclosure, we’re not asking them to send the systems back. To be included in this little experiment, we’ve required them to disclose that when they’re posting.
In the coming weeks we’ll profile each of them in more detail here on TheNextBench and the HP Play Facebook community. In the meantime, friend them, follow them and check out their blogs and YouTube channels.
- Nathaniel Gravely co-founded the popular music blog “I Guess I’m Floating” along with Connor McGlynn. Nathaniel’s main goals through the blog are to introduce new bands to new listeners and provide an avenue through which underrepresented musicians can be recognized.
- Will Oliver created “We All Want Someone to Shout For” in 2008. The blog began with, and gets its name from, an intense love of the Arctic Monkeys.
- Thanks to the efforts of Matt Belanger and Camille Backer, Hard Candy Music is quickly becoming one of the most popular blogs covering indie, pop, electro and dance. The duo covers much of what’s popular, with a keen eye towards the underground.
- Luis Tovar started Pretty Much Amazing in 2007, and quickly grew it from just a blog to a popular podcast, Tumblr blog and purveyor of its own commissioned releases.
- Todd Roberts founded Truant Media in 2002 to be an artist management and music consulting company. He’s also the editor and co-founder of The Daily Swarm, a highly popular music news and information source.
- Arjan Timmermans is an award winning blogger and music aficionado. Along with developing content for his personal blog, Arjan Writes, Timmermans is also an official blogger for GRAMMY.com.
- Jeff Meltz is a man about town in New York City and one of the its finest nightlife photographers. The Culture of Me, his home blog, covers music, art, news, mp3 and features his photographic works.
- Hannah Rad aka Sheena Beaston has been aptly named a Woman Making History for her ardent devotion to music blogging. Along with maintaining her personal blog, she can be heard every Thursday evening on East Village Radio’s Belly of the Beast.
- Brad Walsh is an active musician, who’s passionate about bringing his readers the latest music news, trends and goings on. Check out his website to hear his work, or see the jewelry he designs in his free time.
- Saher Galt is one half Galt Aureus, whose music has created an incredible loyal fan base. Saher and Susan are very popular on YouTube, where one of their videos was short-listed for the Guggenheim contest YouTube Play.
- Nora Walker of I Rock, I Roll, is a New York-based blogger and music lover. Walker has been blogging since the turn of the century, or the year 2000 and loves introducing people to new bands. You can check out what she’s listening to lately on her Last.fm profile.
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