blog.maestro.fm

Well it has taken longer than expected, but Maestro now has a Mac OS X version for our Maestro Connector. Thanks go to Marcus Zarra for helping us when we needed it most.

For those new to Maestro, the Connector lets you scan your music collection stored on your home Mac or PC, sync your iTunes playlists online and access everything remotely through Maestro.fm.

Once you scan your music collection with the Connector, you can manage playlists from anywhere, send them to friends or add them to your MySpace or Facebook profiles.

Check it out here if you’re a Mac user. Hope you like. Have fun.

Here’s an issue that should have some pretty divided answers: caffeine – evil or life-saving? Personally, I’m not a big fan, it seems to get along rather poorly with my stomach. There are, however, a few others in the Maestro office that would beg to differ. Leading their cause is Blair, a man who never saw a caffeinated beverage he didn’t like, or quickly chug down before someone else could get their quivering hands away from the next fix.

Now, I suppose my stance here is half-hearted. Since I tend to stay away from the stuff, I don’t feel all that strongly about it one way or the other. To each their own, I say! But Blair….how can I put this….Blair may be bordering on obsession. Is there a place you can bring someone for caffeine-rehab? Because, well, just take a look at his desk in the office, and I think you’ll understand:

Never say we don’t work late hours here at Maestro HQ!

Thanks to some kindhearted and influential friends at Opera, a popular nightclub in Atlanta, I was able to throw a decked-out birthday party in one of the Opera Boxes upstairs on their balcony. The vodka flowed freely, and with the music blaring a mix of house and hip-hop, the place was soon packed with blurry-eyed dancing machines.

The most random part of the night was the inclusion of Kanye West into the festivities. Just a few seconds after our group arrived, we were informed that we had to move over to the next Box, as we happened to be in Kanye West’s favorite one, and he had just called in to say he was stopping in later. Normally someone might have made a fuss about moving, but we hadn’t even gotten settled yet, and c’mon, it’s Kanye West!

Let’s be honest, I’m alright with getting bumped over 1 Box for Kanye. He’s one of my favorite artists, does a lot with community outreach programs, and is a great voice and advocate for hip-hop music. Plus…it also meant that when he arrived, we would be right next to him and his entourage. The concierge gave us a quick warning about getting star struck or bothering him, to which a smart-mouthed buddy of mine responded “Hey, we won’t bother him, but you tell him and his riff raff to keep out of our area too!” After good laugh and a round of shots, the staff was relaxed in knowing that we would be just fine with the arrangements.

At around 1:30am, Kanye West and his crew arrived to the scene. The entire place went nuts, I mean, absolutely insane…

It was particularly impressive that Kanye took the time to grab a microphone and sung about 4 of his songs right on the balcony next to us after arriving, sending the already vivacious crowd into a frenzy. This put our group about 2 feet away from him as he performed several of his top hits, including “Stronger” and “Flashing Lights”. He really did a great job performing for the crowd, and major props go out to him for putting on a show like that without any planning. If you want to hear some of his music, including those songs, check out my own Maestro Kanye Playlist:

If any of you get a chance to see Kanye live, in concert or wherever, I highly recommend it. Thanks again go out to the whole staff at Opera, particularly Ellen and XY, who were amazing, as well as everyone who made their way out that night. Definitely this was one to remember.

Oh and Kanye, we weren’t kidding about getting you involved in Maestro. Give us a call.