Sunday afternoon, Nice and quiet, Upstairs in the central command
center… (well, Office .. workplace) Powerbook munching away at some
backups, turning them into ZIP files for later storage. And in the
background : Music. True, I’m good at multitasking but suck at
listening to podcasts and computing at the same time. Guess I’m not a
woman. Music of choice ? Nothing , that is , I let the choices be made
by somebody else. Somewhere in my aristocratic status as a cyberlord, I
have come across a little butler who queries me what my pleasure is.
"What is your Flavor Mylord" I almost hear him whisper. As I blurt out
a composer or artist that currently suits my whims, this little minion
scours away and brings me his music and that of other artists like him.
From my throne I vacantly pear at the old radio set that sits quietly
in the corner. ITs power cord disconnected, scavanged to feed the
powersupply of some pheripheral. I leer at it and bellow mockingly ..
"You, my dear radio, are Dead to me."
Having worked in radio as
a DJ I have witnessed it wither away from the powerful medium it once
was to the smoking remains it is to me today. As a DJ in a small radio
station I thought I could do my thing, let people hear new music, new
types of content. Talk about different things then the omnipresent
commercial crap that was so omnipresent. But the station manager handed
me a poorly copied hard copy of an excel sheet. Telling me to play 16
records in an hour , of which 4 should be in the current hit parade, 4
should be from the 70’s, 4 from the 80’s and 4 of the nineties (and
four from the plastic box that housed the ‘recently fell from the
charts’ category.) Creativity ? Trying to talk him into doing a show
about computers and technology and interviewing people were met with
arguments as being "Too High brow". I gave up. Listening to the radio
these days is the exact reflection of that argument. Let us take a look
at Q-music for example. One of the most popular radio stations in this
part of the country. Filled with DJ’s who think they are half-gods.
These guys must at least once a week get caught at masturbating in
front of the mirror. The music they play is an endless repetition of
the 20 something commercial records that are brutally forced down every
bodies ear canal for weeks and weeks on end. I mean it : Even F**
autistic people could be fased out by this amount of repetition. And
apparently this station is mainly directed towards goldfish. Since they
posses the average memory span of 5 seconds, the radio station assures
they remember who they are listening to by constantly jamming out the
"Q IS GOOD FOR YOU" Jingles. I mean .. Come on. When I listened 5
seconds ago , it was commercial crap, Now, i’m still listening to
commercial crap, I have not switched stations nor committed suicide so
its safe to assume that I am aware this is still the same fracking
radio station !.
So I tuned out of radio altogether 3 years ago,
switching to my own music collection and of course tons of podcasts.
Tailoring the content to my interest and weeding out the narcissistic
DJ’s all together (including Adam Curry). But once in a while my head
is on the virge of exploding with yet another info-rich podcast so its
time for some music. Itunes playlists … yeah .. but I know all my
content. I would like to listen to some "custum tailored radio" if I
may. But without the talk, Without the commercials and introducing me
to new artists and content within the boundaries of the genre I get to
select. If possible provide me with information about the artists and a
direct way to purchase the music online. Could you do that please ?
The
answer ! Yes you can. From the ashes of commercial radio and through
the pipes of the internets flows the sweet power of last.fm. The minion
I mentioned above is a free service that you can use to listen to music
online. High quality music, and its free. Just go to their website,
type in the genre or artist of your liking and Last.fm will give you a
cristal clear free stream of music filled with related music and more.
A great free way to listen to music, a magnificent way to discover new
artists and music. No jingles , No Dj’s. No being stuck in the same
playlists. The phoenix of radio has arrisen for me . .And its called
last.fm.