Slowpoke

I had a realization yesterday... I've been so focused on radio programming and the news over the last few years, that I've lost touch with the music and podcasts I used to listen to.  It's not that I haven't been listening to music at all, it's more that I got stuck in a trap of old technology and old bands.

Here's what I mean...  Until now:

-I've been listening to my own collection using my Zune (sooo 2008)

-I've been streaming using Pandora (sooo 2005)

-I've only been buying music from touring bands on vinyl (sooo 1970)

It's time to play catch up.

My first adventure yesterday was with TuneIn Radio. 

Until yesterday, I didn't realize what made it different from similar apps (like iHeart radio, which combines Pandora-esque custom radio stations with terrestrial radio stations... a great way to listen to Hot 96.9).  TuneIn not only allows you to listen to your favorite local FMs & AMs, but also police scanners (which is a great feature to have on full-blast when you're walking alone at night through Dorchester) and podcasts.  Should you chose to listen to a station in real-time, TuneIn adds to the visual/interactive experience by displaying the Twitter-feed of the show.  I currently use TuneIn on my Roku box through my TV, as well as my Droid 4 so that I can listen on the go.

My other late-pass is for Spotify:

Since music consumption went digital, large corporations and small-startups alike have been trying to capitalize on a more personalized streaming service.  Copyright issues and a crowded market have made it difficult for most of them to take off.  Inevitably, anyone who signs up for one of these services will end up having to pay, unless they're okay with hearing an advertisement between every song, which can completely kill the momentum of an album, and makes the experience no better than going on YouTube to listen to music.  Spotify puts the choice in your hands.  You CAN access their massive library for free, but you're only allowed to listen to so many songs, and with ads.  You can pay just a little more to stream without ads, or just a little more than that to listen on your mobile device, ad-free, and without a song-cap.  What really separates Spotify from the pack, however, is how easy they make the experience.  Rather than sending you to a slow website, Spotify Premium is downloaded to your desktop, and operates as a media player very similar to ITunes.  So to explain it another way... it's like owning the world's largest music collection on your computer, without having to download a single song, all for less than the cost of an album every month.

And with that, I've finally made it to 2011.  Wait for me in 2013, I'll be there shortly.