Here is my Christmas present to you. If you’re into music, that is. If you’re not, please simply accept my best wishes and move on.
If you go here you’ll find what boils down to being your own radio station, designed to suit your own musical tastes, with the bonus of there being no DJ. All you do is type in a band or musician you like, and the website streams something of theirs’ and then music of a similar type, free and endlessly.
It sounds like it could be naff, but I’ve tried it and it works. I keyed in “The Postal Service” and for the next hour or so until I went and did something else I got stuff I really liked, some of which I had heard before, and even have, but most of which I hadn’t. I then tried it with another band, The Dirty Three, and it was great. So you hear music you like, and also discover bands and singers you’ve never heard of. It can’t be bad.
Like I said, it’s all free. Because it’s supposed to be listened to in the USA only (which, given that it’s the internet, seems like a ludicrous notion) they ask you for a US zip code when you register. That’s not difficult to do. After that, away you go……
I’m afraid I don’t have a poetry equivalent of this to offer.
And that’s it for 2007. No more posts here until 2008. Happy New Year and so on and so forth.
Be strong.
It’s a wonderful world, apparently.
UPDATE, 8th January:
I've just heard that Pandora is going to stop streaming to the UK from January 15th for legal, licensing reasons. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
Outstanding site! Well done, Mr S!
Posted by: Bob | December 21, 2007 at 11:54
I have to admit that when I put this on here I didn't know how good it was. My son Andy told me about it, and I tried it out. Today I've had it on for about 6 hours non-stop while I've been doing this and that and only once (once!) did it bring up a song that had no place in the scheme of things. So I told it, and they said Sorry! Given that I'm very hard to please musically (and in other ways) I'd say this is pretty fucking good.
Posted by: Martin | December 21, 2007 at 16:49
Musicovery does something similar. Constant music, no irritating talk, and you can choose both mood and genre, making it as eclectic or as focused as you like.
Posted by: Ros Barber | January 24, 2008 at 11:07