TheDopeFiend

Krop Portfolio and Resume Builder

When it comes to your portfolio, in most cases, the simpler the better. Krop who is known for their creative and technology job posting website has just launched a new website for creative professionals. The new site is a portfolio and resume building website that gives you everything you need to showcase your work without all the extra, unnecessary bells and whistles. The tools they provide for building your portfolio are super easy to use and really fast. Of all the portfolio sites out there this is one of my favorites. The basic account is free and it’s only $9.99 per month to upgrade to a pro account.

Muxtape Relaunches

The long-awaited relaunch of the music site Muxtape has (kind of) arrived. A preview of the new site shows playlists (if you can call them that, as most of them only contain 3-4 songs) by twelve featured artists including Girl Talk, Of Montreal, Dan Deacon and more. I have mixed feelings about Muxtape, I am a bit baffled as to why it became such a big phenomenon. It seems Last.fm offers so much more, or Favtape that followed Muxtape. However, I am still excited to see what they have in store and to see if they can live up to the users’ expectations.

Favtape!!!

For those of you who are bummed out about the death of Muxtape, or even for those of you who never even used Muxtape… Favtape is going to change the way you listen to music. If you don’t know Muxtape, it was a very simple online playlist builder, allowing you to upload MP3s and share personal mixtapes. Favtape is a very similar concept as Muxtape, only gives you much more freedom. The cool thing that separates Favtape is that you don’t upload your music. Favtape searches sites that already have huge databases of music, so unlike Muxtape, there is no limit to the amount on songs your playlists can have. Not only that, but again unlike Muxtape, you can have multiple playlists. This was one of the main reasons I never really got into Muxtape, it really limited the personalization of your playlists. These features plus a handfull of others makes Favtape one of my “fav” new music websites.

With websites like Last.fm, Pandora and now Favtape I can see needing massive amounts of hard drive storage for your music becoming less necessary. Why waste all that space on your hard drive when you can build your own playlists and listen to it on demand for free?!

I made this little mixtape in a matter of minutes.

Bandcamp

There is no doubt Myspace has helped bands and musicians promote themselves in a huge way. It’s a quick and easy way to set up a website. But there is one problem with it… it is a horrible “website”. It’s slow, messy and their music player just downright sucks. This is why I love Bandcamp. Bandcamp let’s you create a free, clean, very custom mini-site without all the ads and extra junk. Among many other features Bandcamp allows you to upload your music, set a cost and sell your music at different bit rates, see statistics on who is linking and listening to your music and much more. Viewers can also quickly share a track on Facebook, Myspace or blog. Making it very easy for others to promote your music for you. If it sounds simple, well, it is. It’s the perfect quick solution for promoting your music. Check out the screencast for more info.

Viva Radio

Sometimes listening to my iTunes playlists or library just isn’t doesn’t do it for me. I enjoy the surprise of not knowing what track is coming up next, which is why I listen to Last.fm, or the recently “rediscovered” Viva-Radio. I say “rediscovered” because I first found this website a couple years ago, and found it again after I heard it playing at an American Apparel store. Viva-Radio plays an eclectic mix of music and feature various contributors who’s mixes you can listen to on demand. They also offer a stand alone player that you can download and and play from your desktop.

Popdeck Stores

Awhile back I posted about a website called Bountee, Popdeck is a very similar site only it’s for skateboards. Basically Popdeck allows you to setup an online store using their website, upload your graphics to be printed on skate decks and then sold through the store you setup with them. You are able to set your own pricing for your skate decks, and any decks sold over $30 is split 50/50 with Popdeck. You can also print and sell your own wheels, and soon they promise to have trucks and other products as well. Chuck Anderson of Nopattern even has a store.

Bandsintown

The other day I wrote about the event listing website Eventful. Today I discovered a similar website (with an oddly similar logo) that looks just as good, if not better. Bandsintown, like Eventful, links up with your Last.fm and personalizes your account according to the artists you listen to. Although Bandsintown has most of the same features as Eventful, I like the overall user interface better. One thing it seems to be lacking is a section for adding favorite venues, if that were added it would have pretty much everything I would want in an event listing website.

Edit: I got an email from the guys over at Bandsintown and they said more features, such as adding favorite venues are in the works. They also wanted to clear the air about the logo similarities so there was no confusion. Here is a screenshot of Eventful’s logo when they first launched a year ago. And it looks as though Bandsintown launched their site in 2006.

Eventful

In the past I have been rather skeptical of most event and concert community websites. They never seem to keep good track of the smaller, less mainstream shows and venues. However, Eventful has quickly changed my opinion. The website’s integration with many other tools is the best part. Eventful not only allows you to track your favorite local venues and the shows that are playing there, but it does a great job at customizing your profile to search out artists that you like. Eventful will even search you Last.fm profile and iTunes library for the music you listen to and then search for those artists playing in your area. You can also demand artists that you would like to see in your city, join community groups and discussions and add your favorite venues and artists to your watch list.

And for those of you with an iPhone of iPod Touch be sure to check out Eventful’s iPhone application.

Josh Spear: Big Ticket Tuesday

I absolutely love Nooka watches… and what’s cooler than a Nooka watch? A free Nooka watch. The crew over at JoshSpear.com has started a free giveaway every week which they are calling Big Ticket Tuesdays. Each week they will select a various item, and then devise a way for one reader to win this prize. This week the prize being given is an awesome camouflage Nooka watch. Head on over and check out the rules, and check back every Tuesday for a new prize!

wejetset – Travel in Style

If your going to be traveling this summer and need a place to find those random travel gadgets and goods look no further. wejetset is an all inclusive website about where and how to travel in style. The site includes a store with everything from the new WeSC headphones to super cool iPod cases to language guides. Not only does wejetset sell a bunch of cool stuff, but their magazine/blog is full of little travel tidbits and information as well.

Kitsune Noir Desktop Wallpaper Project

When you spend as much time in front as your computer as I do you tire easily of your desktop wallpapers. In addition to using the application I previously mentioned, Desktoptopia, I also eagerly await the weekly release of the desktops on Kitsune Noir’s Desktop Wallpaper Project. The project features super talented artists such as Mopa, Ryan Cox and Kelsey Brookes every week to produce designs and illustrations that are used for Desktop Wallpapers. All of the designs are free for download and available in almost all resolutions and even for the iPhone and PSP.

I Vote For Art

I love simple online tools that do their job well, especially when they allow you to make a little extra dough using your creative talents (ie. the amazing t-shirt site Bountee). The new Australian site I Vote For Art would fall into this category. I Vote For Art is simple, it allows you to easily buy and sell art and support small independent artists. Artwork is voted upon by users of the website, the most voted being featured on the homepage and towards the top of the artwork pages. Pieces must be submitted and accepted before posted to the site, and judging by the work so far the site’s management has a pretty good eye.

iPartee

No, despite what it sounds like iPartee is not another random overpriced accessory for the iPod. It is in fact a website designed for people who want a one-stop-shop for party events. In a nutshell this site allows you to plan events and share info with friends, share and promote your events, see what events your friends plan on attending, post photos of events and of course gives you widgets to share this info on your site. One feature I would see using a lot on this site is the venue guide. Whenever I visit another city I find myself browsing tons of useless websites trying to find what is going on where. If iPartee catches on I could see it being a great tool to browse venues and events in unfamiliar cities. In the sea of cool websites popping up these days it’s a bit hard to stand out from the rest, but if iPartee manages to do so it could be great.

Wear Palettes

Like most other designers/artists I find myself being influenced by a huge variety of sources. More often than not I get a great idea for a project when I am away from the computer. Like say a color scheme for a website from a well dressed woman walking down the street. The blog Wear Palettes has taken inspiration from the street photography of The Sartorialist and created color schemes using the awesome web tool Colour Lovers, then posting them all on their blog. A great idea for cataloging inspiration for design and fashion. I think it would be interesting to do this with a party photographer’s shots, like this one from Shadow Scene. I am sure you could come up with some some interesting schemes.

In Love With Bountee

Strait to the point here… Bountee is the coolest website I have come across in a long time. This says a lot because I visit hundreds of sites a day, and spend an embarrassing amount of time in front of this LCD screen. Bountee gives you the ability to design and sell t-shirts in the simplest and easiest way possible. There is no voting necessary in order to have your design printed. You make it. You sell it. You get paid! I love that everything has been done in the simplest way possible and gives the designer the power. You determine the price (anything above the base price), the color of shirt, the placement of the design, everything. After your design is created and uploaded Bountee does the rest, taking care printing, ordering and shipping. I plan on putting this website to use ASAP!

BONUS
CrownDozen and Bountee have teamed up to bring you 3 free t-shirts a week throughout all of December! Head over here for the details.