Please have a look at the slideshow and read the story. Know your Mojo. Note that the slideshow requires Adobe Flash Player to work.
If you haven't already got it installed in your browser then you should see a button below that will take you to Adobe's site where you can download it.
Ask what Razor GoMojo can do for you
Now let's establish what GoMojo is not:
GoMojo is not the bitch of controlled by a big media corporation or record label. We are independent - but you are welcome to join!
GoMojo is not a place for sharing illegal downloads or doing a bit of second hand ticket business. We're into sharing information and we support face value ticket exchange only
GoMojo is not the biggest site on the Web with an army of developers, but it's a site with a heart. Feel the love!
Right then what is GoMojo?
GoMojo is a search tool for band, club and festival information of all sorts. It mixes information shared by users with up to the minute information pulled from the Web
GoMojo shows all the known releases, gigs, news, etc. for your favourite bands as soon as the information is added by another user
GoMojo even tells you about other projects by members of your favourite bands and you can view band family showing all these projects connected by members
GoMojo is your own personal blog with RSS feed and special features for tagging your blogs, showing photos, video clips and lists of all your favourites - or new lists for every post
GoMojo is a banner manager - create and share banners on GoMojo and beyond
GoMojo allows you to add all sorts of information (bands, clubs, gigs, releases and more) to be shared with the rest of the community instantly
GoMojo is a shop that sells CDs and downloads from exceptional independent artists
If you are an artists then GoMojo is a way for you to sell your music, run mailing lists and connect with your fans. More profit for you and you even get to work with a real person, not just an automated system
GoMojo is forever evolving and you can help shape it. Get in touch!
WE NEED YOU!
Razor GoMojo needs music fans like you (ehm - except if you are a search engine robot) to inject information about clubs, bands, their performers and their gigs. Together we can
build an amazing knowledge base and every time you add a new release or gig by a side project of a band, all those people who are into the main band are going to know about it instantly.
In these times of reality-tv-we'll-make-you-a-celebrity-instantly-just-sing-this-rubbish-and-we'll-get-you-to-number-one, it is more important than ever that music fans share information about
the truly great music that's out there. So feed the Mojo Engine today with some info, write stuff on your profile, maybe about your local music scene, share, rock on, GoMojo!
A not so brief history of Razor GoMojo
Razor GoMojo was not conceived by two dudes in a garage in sunny California. It was in fact conceived by one dude in a converted flat in not-very-sunny North London (UK).
However since this dude had been to several great gigs at The Garage and Upstairs at the Garage (London venues) in his time, he still felt that he was qualified to start a new
Internet "thing".
The dude, let's call him Casper because that is after all his name, was a strange hybrid of technology freak and music addict, possibly of alien (or at least Scandinavian) origin. Since 1996 he had been the man behind the fan site for goth/rock/ethereal/indie/weird/wonderful outfit Miranda Sex Garden and had dabbled with other musically related technology projects while
developing medical imaging algorithms and applications for a living - for consistency.
In 2005 Casper found himself playing around with socalled Web 2.0 technologies and started creating a monster. It was a Windows desktop application, which combined a calendar and alert system for tickets going on sale, a feed reader, an advanced product browser for Amazon, an automatic photo tagging tool and uploader for Flickr and more. A true mash-up of technologies that were all very handy for music fans. Unfortunately it was too scary a proposition for most of them, when it was unleashed in the summer of 2006 under the name GoMojo. "Great idea, but I'm not remotely technical" they said. One particular fan, on receiving a free CD with the installer at a gig, added "If this does anything bad to my PC, I'll hunt you down like a dog". Casper sensed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for his creation!
So it was that Casper started the long process of bringing his idea to the Web for all to use on whatever type of machine and browser. Something he'd learned while working on band Web sites was that many artists go on to do amazing solo projects after they've been in a "famous" band. However many of these projects get very little exposure. How about having a system where users could automatically be told about new releases and gigs from any new solo offspring from their favourite artists? How about a hub for shops and auctions, downloads, video clips, how about making all this available from one site? How about letting users add and edit content, like a Wiki, but all tailored to information about music? Casper was excited, put the kettle on and armed himself with a frightening amount of coffee (organic and fairtrade for extra smooth coding).
Gradually more features started to appear on the Web site. Then in June 2007 the new GoMojo Web was quietly launched and spent some time crawling around the Web as a beta baby. Cheers to those who helped out with testing! This time around there was positive feedback and no talk about hunting - other than for tickets and information. Finally in early September 2007 GoMojo Web was upgraded with a nicer design and lots of tweaks and extra features, including the full integration of the SNOCAP music player (which sadly had to be de-integrated a year later due to the collapse of SNOCAP Inc in its original form). On 26 September Razor GoMojo was awarded Mashup of the Day by programmableweb.com and attained a user rating of 5/5.
2008 saw GoMojo Desktop disappear and some of its features gradually appearing on the Web site for all to use, regardless of whether you're a Mac or a PC or an intrepid Firefox or Internet Explorer. GoMojo Basement was launched - a new marketplace for independent artists selling their music and merchandise, cutting out greedy distributors. The shop is currently selling music from Katharine Blake, Nick Marsh, Jocelyn West, The Shadow Kabinet, Stories From The Moon, The Paradise Motel, Taylor Mitchell and Merry Ellen Kirk and GoMojo is also running mailing lists for several of the artists involved. More good stuff is on the way! As we head into 2012, Casper continues his quest to provide the ultimate set of tools for music fans, outside the control of the big media corporations. A recent addition is high quality downloads, the highest bitrates in the business, providing the exceptional sound quality that the exceptional GoMojo Basement artists deserve.
GoMojo is free to use. However you can support the project by upgrading to VIP, which gives you a number of cool benefits. You also support the project by buying stuff through links in GoMojo. Please do. Casper needs to buy more coffee.
Casper would like to thank: Flickr hacker extraordinaire a.k.a. the man who took on Facebook with his F.B. Purity and I dare say my good old mate Stephen Fernandez of Excellatronic Communications - thanks for your help with comments, suggestions, research (i.e. surfing), early beta testing and for simply being a great friend through good and bad times (not to mention drunken times). Richard Marks is doing a top job running Scarlet Mist, the UK ethical ticket exchange. Thanks for your support and your dedication to beating the ticket touts - I love what you do and thanks for sharing your data with the good users of GoMojo! Ben Golomstock was the first independent artist to be featured in the site's banner ads and he's one of those rare people pushing the boundaries with his truly terrifying terrific music. The kind of artist you should expect to discover on GoMojo. Last but not least thanks to Kat for all the great music, gigs, good times and various music/Web collaborations we've had over the years - an inspiration for sure.
Finally, please report any bugs and stay up to date by reading the GoMojo News blog, where you can post comments and suggestions.
