Audio

Alright, I'm checking out the audio sites. First up: last fm, the social music revolution. Right away one thing I don't like about the site is that you can't listen to a song while navigating around the site. That's weird for a music site. I do like the social aspect...connecting with other users, finding similar music,etc. I could see myself using it to find music similar to stuff I already like and previewing it. I didn't like that it wanted me to sign up to listen to some music. I just don't need another user name and password, so I'm going to skip that! Next up: Pandora. I've been using Pandora for a year or more and I really like it. I think Pandora does a good job of selecting similar music. Sometimes I just like to have it on in the background while I work (though not very often AT work due to the bandwidth issues.) I like it's simple interface as opposed to last fm's very cluttered and busy site. And finally, Imeem. I hadn't heard of this site. It looks like it might be better for music videos, I'm having a hard time just find audio. Again, it seems like I need to create a profile before I can access full length songs, and I'm not going to do that. My absolute favorite music audio site (at the moment,) is Songza. I don't need an account, I type in the exact song I want to hear and it plays it! It's that simple. It really is like having a free jukebox. Yeah, not all the songs play, but the majority of them do and I've found lot's of covers and re-mixes that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise. Oh, and I love that I can email a song to a friend or post a song to my blog, like I did here.

Are CDs dead? Not yet. My preferred method of music acquisition remains checking out CDs from Multnomah County Library and saving them to my computer. However, when I just want to OWN that one song, I do go to Itunes and buy it for .99. Instant gratification. Vinyl isn't dead yet, so I don't think we need to worry too much about CDs just yet. But what about the library? Should a library, like FVRL, who doesn't currently have a CD collection consider starting one? That's a tough one. I have a new car that has a port for my ipod, but the majority of people don't have new cars. Do they have ipods and ipod speakers? Are there companies out there providing downloadable music for libraries like the ebooks, video and audio book providers? I'm not sure, but if they haven't started, I would think they will soon. It's the never-ending dilemma between keeping up with current technology while attempting to provide access to everyone.