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I love discovering music. When I was in college, my friend Drew would burn me CDs filled with his favorite indie rock groups and take me to $5 concerts to see bands with names I wish I still remembered.
That’s why I was so excited today when a co-worker introduced me to finetune. Much like Pandora and Last.fm, which CBS purchased this week for $280 million, finetune is a social music site that allows users to program the music.
Finetune actually builds playlists for you based on your music preferences, allowing you to discover news artists and tracks. The site also allows users to create their own playlists, explore other users’ playlists and upload playlists to personal blogs or MySpace pages. Finetune is everything that Webjay should have been.
What could be better than FREE, uninterrupted music from a site that allows you to discover new music and share your favorite tunes with others? Certainly not regular radio.
Terrestrial radio stations have felt the pressure of online and satellite radio for several years now, and many have responded by doing the only thing that can save them – handing the airwaves over to listeners. One of my favorite local radio stations just wrapped up a whole month of broadcasting listener playlists. Listeners chose five-song playlists from the station’s library – or wrote in their own – allowing the station to play songs it rarely or never plays. I not only loved the variety, but also enjoyed hearing other listeners’ preferences and the themes for their playlists. However, as great as it is to listen to during my morning and evening commutes, during the day it’s my computer that’s tuned in; not my radio.
I may not actively update my MySpace page every day or participate in many social networks, but I really enjoy these social music sites. They allow me to interact with strangers who have similar music interests without actually having to talk to them. That’s almost better than not having to listen to commercials.
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