Posted on 05/10/2010 12:47:22 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
...Internet music services like Pandora, Slacker and Last.fm, already popular with computer and smartphone owners, are being tailored by software developers, consumer electronics companies and even automakers to work more seamlessly with car stereo systems...
...These handsets all have free applications that play customized music channels streamed over the Internet using the phone’s 3G wireless data connection. The services are generally free, although smartphone owners typically pay about $30 a month on top of regular voice service for unlimited data usage.
The attraction is that rather than being shackled to the same old hits from local radio stations, listeners can customize the music channel to suit their tastes. Pandora has about 750,000 songs and 40 million listeners...
...During a test drive when I became irritated by a Beyonce song, I simply pushed a “voice” button on the side of the Pioneer display and told the system to “play the Doors.” Within a couple of seconds, the unit began to play songs from the “Soft Parade” album. The sound quality, while not equivalent to a CD, was as good as typical radio reception and better than some satellite radio stations. And when a call came in, the built-in Bluetooth hands-free system automatically muted the music.
I did discover some limitations, however. AT&T’s 3G wireless service is notoriously patchy in New York City, so there were occasional dead spots when the music dropped out as the cellphone searched for a signal...
However, such limitations may soon disappear as automakers integrate streaming Internet services directly into their cars...
Of course, traditional radio broadcasters have heard the drumbeat of mobile apps. They have responded with their own apps, streaming live broadcasts from thousands of stations to handsets and through them, to cars...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Rush does offer internet broadcasting through his website. Lets you dig into the archives. Also sometimes has a 4th hour.
Now a few other syndicated programs are offering the same features.
But the internet talk radio broadcasts I listen to still have the (local) ads.
Doesn’t seem to matter though. Until I found the right button pretty much everything from the 60s or 70s eventually got the Beatles and everything from the 80s got Sting. I think it’s hero worship, way too many people think certain bands were the key to music. Van Morrison had a great rant on that last year.
Three chords played badly isn't art.
The lyrics may strike home with you, but the application
is quite frankly the "special olympics" of the music industry.
Right, because if you don't use the "thumbs down" feature Pandora assumes you like that song and will play it again at some point in the future.
Also use the edit station details feature by manually adding more songs and artists to really define your "station", then you begin to notice you aren't thumbing down every song Pandora is throwing at you. Over time, you will begin to discover artists and music you've never heard before and actually like.
Some people make the mistake of thinking that if they add 3 or 4 artists from the same decade, they're going to make a decades only radio station. Or 3 or 4 female artists and they'll create a female only station. Not true. Pandora is only looking at the notes played in a song, the tempo and the lyrics.
I tried creating an all 80's rock station and found it was playing a lot of cover tunes from more modern bands and artists. I mean, it was the same music from the 1980's but just not from the original artists.
Then there's auto-tune which is a crutch for no-talent ass clowns who can't sing.
True - but they’re less frequent than internet coverage if you’re driving in Wyoming or something.
I didn't realize he did that for free.
I thought you had to pay for it.
Because that's the premise here: free broadcast radio is going away because of non-free internet offerings.
Myself, I would always rather pay as much as possible for something, then get it for free. </sarcasm>
They need someone glib for the meet and greet promotions at parks and free movie screenings. But the DJ generally hasn't been able to choose his own playlist on commercial radio since the 1970s (with some of the uproar stretching all the way back to the "payola" scandals of the 1950s and 1960s). Payola is still present in the radio industry, so the present situation of having a programming director is no safeguard. It just results in blah "market tested pre-formated radio" suited to the "crucial" 18-34 year old woman.
I also miss the stunts that DJ's used to pull. In the late summer of 1962, for example, WGES in Chicago played Mope-itty Mope by the Boss Tones over and over for about three days straight. The jocks would announce "Roses are Red" by Bobby Vinton or You Won't Forget Me by Jackie de Shannon, but what they played was always the Boss Tones' opus. In between, they would run ads for the Staten Island ferry, the Royal Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal, and other outfits that would have little relevance to the Chicago market.
Sure, terrestrial radio is "free" but it is absolutely awful. The vast majority of stations have extremely limited playlists (of mostly lame songs) and during morning and afternoon drive, the yakking DJs and endless commercials consume most of the time.
Going to Sirius (now Sirius/XM) was the best move I ever made. Commercial free music in virtually any genre you are in the mood for and playlists of tens of thousands of songs on each station.
Now those Internet radio stations are even better. You basically tell them what you like hearing and eventually you will have a radio station that only plays music you like. Both terrestrial radio AND Sirius/XM have big problems ahead of them competing with that.
I agree with you, there is a lot of great country music out there and many people who choose to be ignorant by accepting the stereotypes will never experience it.
You do have to pay for it. Though when you listen to the replay of his show, you don’t get the commercials and can listen to a 3 hour show in under 2 hours. Mark Levin’s show however is free and plus, you can sync it to an MP3 player like the iPod or Zune. I prefer to sometimes listen to Levin’s show online through Google Reader.
Yes, that is a subscription service. But radiotime.com is free (you can’t play anything that isn’t a live radio stream but the program MAY be broadcast outside of the standard syndication time).
You still have to have a (non-free) Internet connection, to listen in your car/truck, right?
That's so much better than free radio waves. I would much rather pay then get it for free.
Internet search for radio airchecks with the call letters of your past.
Some radio hosts used to tape their broadcasts for submission later to get hired elsewhere.
Some of those decades old tapes have found their way online, sometimes with advertising, sometimes with the full songs. Sometimes they have been “scoped” to just include the segues from the hosts.
Mope-itty Mope Mope Mope Mope...
I was listening to some air checks of The Real Don Steele in LA in the 1960s. They had an on air contest for tickets to see The Jimi Hendrix Experience (midnight show) at some club (that was the “lesser” prize if you didn’t win money). Also a report of some car accident involving a driver on LSD...
Any place unable to look south.
You can sign up for Freenet’s around the country, but they filter any right of center content. Many public libraries do that too.
And you can be connected while driving in your vehicle>
I wish they would air something like The Stompin' 20's, The Peckin' 30's, or the Top 40 from the 40's.
I used to listen to the Real Don Steele--for real!
I don’t see why you feel the need to couch your distaste to country music by making a seemingly insensitive statement towards an event that gives kids who will never be able to do much in their lives that one chance to go out and be somebody.
And if you think country music is just “three chords played badly” you have no understanding of the instrumentalism that has often been present in country music.
You cannot listen to Hank Williams music and say it isn’t art. If it wasn’t, people wouldn’t still be covering his songs and touting him as a major influence 60 years after the fact.
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