More Music!
Many (frighteningly many) years ago, one of my favorite radio shows was the New Music program in the mid-afternoon on the then-student-run WAER (the SU radio station). What I loved about it was the discovery of music that didn't get air time on the commercial stations. You remember those bad old days: we got to listen (over and over and over) to the rotating "top 40" or whatever was the formula for programming music at that moment, and you had a single genre - the station was pop, country, easy listening, or whatever.
How things have changed! One of my favorite music gurus FB posted that we music lovers should keep an eye on two new services, Grooveshark and Deezer. So naturally I had to try them out and see how they compare to services I've written about before, Blip.fm, Pandora Radio, and Spotify.
Most of the services do something essentially similar: you enter a song name or an artist, and you'll be provided music that somehow relates. Grooveshark (www.grooveshark.com) adds the neat feature of throwing just about everything an artists has created up when you enter the name of that group. You can then select a particular song, and you'll be shown all the other cuts on that album. You have an option to create a playlist based on genre or artist (or whatever other criteria you might have - like Spotify's "mood," for example); you can link to your social media accounts (if you favorite a song); you'll get album cover art; you can "pin" a song to your profile; and you can see videos created to accompany the music by other fans. Of course there is a "community" where you can meet up with like-minded listeners. The service will supply you similar artists, and offers you the opportunity to buy a song or album. All nice, and while I love Pandora Radio for discovering similar artists and songs to things that I already enjoy, and while I use Blip.fm for both discovery and creating a saved song playlist, I much prefer the idea of being able to program a playlist that I can return to again and again. One of Blip's failures (for me) is that even if I save a song, it's often lost if/when a particular link or version is moved or lost. I'll have to see how long my playlists persist on Grooveshark. The basic account is free (with ads), or you can opt for $5 a month (no ads, online) or the mobile version (again, no ads, $9/month). I may even consider this, as I'd be able to listen via my iPhone while traveling.
In addition to searching for music, you can use the Explore option, which provides artists by type, "tastemakers" playlists, or look for a genre. One small gripe: the play/pause controls are, for me, and on the browser Firefox 9, hidden at the bottom of the screen. But otherwise, you're right, Kevin, this is a service to watch!
His other recommendation, Deezer, isn't new - it was launched in 2007, in Paris, but unaccountably has not yet made it to the U.S.! I'm going to guess this has something to do with DRM (digital rights management). As Wikipedia explains it, "Deezer has negotiated rights to make 165,000 songs available for streaming legally via an agreement with Sony, as well as some of Universal's catalog. After its launch, there were legal issues relating to the uploading and sharing of music on Deezer, but this was resolved when Deezer updated its site on 9 February 2009.
"Deezer was the first music site based in France to sign an agreement with a publisher rights' organisation to reimburse artists through advertising revenue.
"There are four million registered Deezer users according to the home page of the website. In September 2011, Deezer stated that there were 13 million songs available on their service."
Deezer evidently allows users to download playlists to their smart phones, and listen when away from their computers. Other features include "the ability to create blind tests, in which one or more songs is played and questions asked about them, and send them to friends on the site. Users can also create a blog page where they can present themselves, copy or share playlists with other members or add other members to their friend list. Also, a mail feature is available to members, allowing them to talk with other members and a music news feature, also available to non-members, which displays recent music news."
Decisions, decisions. I guess my choice of music service will depend on what most intrigues me on a given day: discovery, sharing, playlist playback, and naturally, what music is in the collection. All in all, though, I can't help but wonder what all this is telling us about the future of radio, particularly as these services go mobile - and our ability to connect our portable devices to our car's and home's sound systems.
How things have changed! One of my favorite music gurus FB posted that we music lovers should keep an eye on two new services, Grooveshark and Deezer. So naturally I had to try them out and see how they compare to services I've written about before, Blip.fm, Pandora Radio, and Spotify.
Most of the services do something essentially similar: you enter a song name or an artist, and you'll be provided music that somehow relates. Grooveshark (www.grooveshark.com) adds the neat feature of throwing just about everything an artists has created up when you enter the name of that group. You can then select a particular song, and you'll be shown all the other cuts on that album. You have an option to create a playlist based on genre or artist (or whatever other criteria you might have - like Spotify's "mood," for example); you can link to your social media accounts (if you favorite a song); you'll get album cover art; you can "pin" a song to your profile; and you can see videos created to accompany the music by other fans. Of course there is a "community" where you can meet up with like-minded listeners. The service will supply you similar artists, and offers you the opportunity to buy a song or album. All nice, and while I love Pandora Radio for discovering similar artists and songs to things that I already enjoy, and while I use Blip.fm for both discovery and creating a saved song playlist, I much prefer the idea of being able to program a playlist that I can return to again and again. One of Blip's failures (for me) is that even if I save a song, it's often lost if/when a particular link or version is moved or lost. I'll have to see how long my playlists persist on Grooveshark. The basic account is free (with ads), or you can opt for $5 a month (no ads, online) or the mobile version (again, no ads, $9/month). I may even consider this, as I'd be able to listen via my iPhone while traveling.
In addition to searching for music, you can use the Explore option, which provides artists by type, "tastemakers" playlists, or look for a genre. One small gripe: the play/pause controls are, for me, and on the browser Firefox 9, hidden at the bottom of the screen. But otherwise, you're right, Kevin, this is a service to watch!
His other recommendation, Deezer, isn't new - it was launched in 2007, in Paris, but unaccountably has not yet made it to the U.S.! I'm going to guess this has something to do with DRM (digital rights management). As Wikipedia explains it, "Deezer has negotiated rights to make 165,000 songs available for streaming legally via an agreement with Sony, as well as some of Universal's catalog. After its launch, there were legal issues relating to the uploading and sharing of music on Deezer, but this was resolved when Deezer updated its site on 9 February 2009.
"Deezer was the first music site based in France to sign an agreement with a publisher rights' organisation to reimburse artists through advertising revenue.
"There are four million registered Deezer users according to the home page of the website. In September 2011, Deezer stated that there were 13 million songs available on their service."
Deezer evidently allows users to download playlists to their smart phones, and listen when away from their computers. Other features include "the ability to create blind tests, in which one or more songs is played and questions asked about them, and send them to friends on the site. Users can also create a blog page where they can present themselves, copy or share playlists with other members or add other members to their friend list. Also, a mail feature is available to members, allowing them to talk with other members and a music news feature, also available to non-members, which displays recent music news."
Decisions, decisions. I guess my choice of music service will depend on what most intrigues me on a given day: discovery, sharing, playlist playback, and naturally, what music is in the collection. All in all, though, I can't help but wonder what all this is telling us about the future of radio, particularly as these services go mobile - and our ability to connect our portable devices to our car's and home's sound systems.
Comments