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Everyone around here knows that Dan is the music-ologist of the group. His recent 100 songs of 2009 post will no doubt be inspiring me throughout 2010. But while spending some time with his list, I realized that the way we experienced music this year was really different. Which is funny, because Dan is the guy I spoke to about music the most this past year.

So, in an effort to show an alternative view of the music world, I present my favorite albums of the past year. There are a couple key differences between our lists that reflect our different listening styles:

• These albums weren’t necessarily released in 2009, but albums I discovered in 2009. I’m not a “new music” searcher, I just kinda stumble upon stuff haphazardly throughout the year.
• These are albums, not singles or tracks. Ironically, I left the “singles” mentality during music’s transition to digital distribution. I’ll discover a song I like and I’ll need to hear the album.
• I’ve tried to keep it to one album per artist, but this was the year I found the Beatles. And I can’t just pick one Beatles album, dammit.
• I’ve tried to approximate what season I discovered the music in. It reflects how long the album has “been with me” – which (sometimes)  effected its position. It’s not anymore specific than that because I have the memory of a goldfish.
• I have a really obsessive relationship of album artwork – so you, dear reader, get to enjoy the fruits of my artwork searches.
• I’ve tried to post a link on the album in some form or fashion – note that some of them are obscure or prohibitively expensive. Sorry, I’ve got weird musical tastes.

This week, Denuo will brave the desert climes of Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, taking in all the new technology, trends, and Avatar-based 3D innovation our eyes can handle. We’ll be on the showfloor, of course, going glassy-eyed at all the cool new tech, but we’ll also be representing at the various panels taking place tomorrow and Thursday.

I’ve had multiple clients in the last few months ask how to better collaborate with consumers. The one thing that’s clear from those conversations is that “collaboration” is a vague term. From what I can tell, marketing people focus on only a fraction of its potential, and it’s the wrong fraction. In fact, I’ve become convinced an expertise in collaboration may just be the catalyst for agencies to reinvent their business models— and the industry as a whole.

Here it is again, my favorite 100 songs of the past year. This, of course, is not an exact science but that didn’t stop me from painstakingly ranking each one. The list follows but first some rules and caveats:

+ They are listed in reverse order because that is the only real way to do a list. Any of you with any sense of drama will listen to the whole thing from 100 slowly building up to number 1, at which point you will practically be bursting with excitement.

+ These are tracks, not singles. Again, radio is dead. I don’t even know if a lot of these are even singles or not. It’s like knowing what time your favorite TV show is on. Who cares?

+ I only have one song per artist because the list is way cooler that way. No one wants a list with a bunch of tracks by one band hogging up the Top 50. I had more than 100 great tracks by different artists so let’s share the wealth a little.

+ They were all released in 2009 on either an album or as a single. “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon made a lot of lists this year but came out December 15, 2008. No cheating, people.

+ If I’m wrong about the release date of something, blame Wikipedia and Rhapsody.

Everyone is talking about the real-time web. Which of course means, brands are asking questions about it. Which has ad guys and gals quoting pundits and regurgitating sound bites. Currently, most talk about real-time is specific to search. Which makes sense because search is a huge industry, used by most brand marketers. But, search really isn’t the easiest initial foray for brands interested in real-time information.