Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Preferred Listening + Viewing format | Opinions Wanted

I have yet to make a decision on how to display and list music on this website and I would be interested in what the readers might have to say.

Radio | Streaming Content

So far, I've been tentatively using both Imeem.com and Last.fm as a radio outlet. I don't plan to use both--I'm aware that it create havoc with some of the older computers (anyone in a municipality in Bulgaria?) Last.fm has a more stream-lined approach and has the opportunity to "pull" in unknown content related to my tags. As I personally listen to music on Last.fm, it creates a broader but more detailed profile of my "radio" which is what you can listen to online. But its exactly like a radio, you cannot select tracks to play when you want. Right now it is pretty bare bones and occasionally you will get a strange song or but it will evolve as I listen. Example: I searched for "roma" music so now every once and a while I have Italian music until it filters out.

Imeem.com is similar but allows you to play a track whenever you want and I can also upload mp3s into my radio which gives me much greater control of the radio tracks. The difference is that I must find all the music and add it to my playlist either on Imeem.com or by uploading the mp3s.

So, its either more control for the reader and me (but more work for me) or less control but less access to lesser known artists on the radio (that don't have licensing contracts with Last.fm).

Access to Music and Videos

I think if every post has about 6-7 YouTube videos, the blog's performance will suffer. What I'm considering doing is creating a tag called "Music" and will just plainly be youtube videos and mp3 links but with limited explanation. Within this tag (listing of mp3s and videos) there will be subsections like Bulgarian music or Romani Music. This allows the person reading the blog for my content to be able to read without being barraged by continuous postings of mp3s and videos. Some of the longer posts will be lost in the fray. The video and mp3s will then also be easily accessible for those who are there solely for specific audio/video content.

Thoughts | Vote

Is there a program that I've missed? Is there a better way? What do you think? Also vote for which radio player you find a better option. Thanks.

2 comments:

dsparks said...

Couple of possible suggestions:
http://muxtape.com Which is awesome, though you have to upload your own MP3s. Related: http://muxfind.com and http://favtape.com/ (which I have not used, but seems to piggyback on Pandora & Last.fm)

Also http://www.tinysong.com/ which uses http://grooveshark.com

And http://www.muzicons.com/ which will let you embed MP3s that you upload yourself...

Hopefully some of that would work.

TheFootNotes said...

Researching them now, thanks for the heads up. I really like grooveshark (upon initial review).