on Apr 16th, 2007Social Radio and its influence
After a tiring ordeal learning in and outs of Adobe Flex, I got some time to unwind, play my guitar and get some much needed rest. I wanted to listen to this song by a particular band, but didn’t have it in my collection. I Googled for it and came across a bunch of Internet radio based sites which revolved around some amazing concepts of social music and thought I should write about it.
I had written about Music 2.0 and the different services that were there that helped popularize and sell DRM free music. My first pick was definitely Last.fm
Last.fm gives you an embeddable radio that you put up in your blog or website and play music from a particular genre. Just provide your artists name and Last.fm will suggest bands that play the same kind of music and will play them one after the other in your radio. Its again social music, so you can suggest your friends a particular band or a particular style of music, write reviews, give ratings etc. I got to hear some amazing bands thanks to Last.fm
Following close behind is Pandora. An initiative of the Music Genome Project, pandora and its flash based player streams quality music. Its plays a mix of songs from the artists that you want to listen to and those that play the similar kind of music. Worth taking a look. I found some really neat music on Pandora.
My old time favorite live365 provides thousands of radio stations that people broadcast. Ads are played in between songs for revenue, but there is a VIP alternative that you can buy for very less. You can even start broadcasting your own station if you choose. There are some really interesting music stations that play some really cool music. Worth taking a look.
Yahoo’s LAUNCHCast service has been around for ages. Probably my first internet radio experience came when I unknowingly clicked the Launch button in my Yahoo messenger. Launch has got a big big load of songs that you can listen to. Also considering that Yahoo is launching its own music player, Sansa Connect, in association with Sandisk that plays Launch music in a wifi spots for a price of $15 per month subscription. Both Sansa connect and launch will be things to look out for in the future.
There are other services like amiestreet which recently launched the first DRM free album by Barenaked ladies and then there is Slacker who has ambitions of becoming the Rupert Mudroch of online audio. Think thats enough for you guys to get started
