I did a radio show for more years than I have fingers (many more) and if it can be said that there is a good thing about that time that would be the amount of new music I got to hear. Lots. And if there was a bad thing about being there it would also be the amount of new music I had to hear. For every good thing, there were ten bad things. Sometimes horribly bad. And doing the local show meant that I got to hear the extra bad stuff that was recorded on some guy’s boom box in a basement and deposited in my mail box the next day. It was usually worth suffering through all the bad stuff to find the one thing that I liked. That’s something that not everybody got the opportunity to do. Until now.
Sure the internet has the potential to let you hear more music than you ever dreamed of, but the reality is that most of what you can find on the internet is stuff that has been packaged and released similar to the way music has been for the last eighty years or so. You don’t hear the random thing made by some teenager in his living room or the up and coming local band who release their own stuff (if they release anything at all). Well, this week I give you Cherrypeel, site that lets you upload songs and then functions as a social media site, letting people vote on and comment about your music. It’s true that there are other sites, like LastFM, with similar functionality, but none that bring you things that you are guaranteed never to have heard quite as well. I’ve been enjoying it muchly this week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In other news, in a mash-up of both of my topics of last week, John McCain was upset that YouTube took down several campaign videos and has decided to take on copyright law. Well, copyright law as it relates to presidential candidates, at least. Elitist.
I hope this trend of my disparate topics spontaneously fusing into something new continues. I look forward to finding a website this week that lets people write or vote on songs for John McCain’s YouTube campaign videos. Somebody make this happen.
I look forward to finding a website this week that lets people write or vote on songs for John McCain’s YouTube campaign videos.
I think I know what’s at the top of your list, the Nuuuuuge.
Years ago I joined some online music network called Garage-something-or-other. It was promoted by Chris Frantz (from Talking Heads). It was pretty much what you described and I uploaded de Schmog songs just for fun. It was sometimes humiliating – the criticisms. And sometimes tedious to review other people’s music. But the experience was worth doing at least once. I’d probably do it again – that was probably eight or nine years ago.
That was Garageband.com, I think. I uploaded my songs as well. And I actually thought it was a pretty good idea. It’s still around, by the way. I checked it out the other day and found out my songs are still on there.
You don’t hear the random thing made by some teenager in his living room or the up and coming local band who release their own stuff (if they release anything at all).
I dunno, I think MySpace already functions as the demo tape of the internet.
Right, but you can’t go to MySpace and tell it to sort by genre. That’s a completely foreign concept to MySpace’s structure. And you sure can’t vote on anything.