online radio

Students come to my office all the time and want to know what I'm listening to. It's always internet radio via shoutcast. Internet radio is 100% legal, and when done properly, it can be more interesting than traditional file-swapping of mp3s. I personally like radioparadise, which bills itself as "eclectic intelligent rock", or, occasionally what you might call "chick rock". The "DJ" gives great thought to building blocks of music that "go together". Radioparadise relies on listener contributions, so it does suffer from some of the free rider effect in theory. They have tons of neat features online (listener forums, song ratings) and various incentives for listeners to pledge their support financially. Some other internet radio stations play ads during breaks. (Sometimes I listen to hiphop or some other genre-radio on shoutcast too. Since there is no way I would know which artists are worth listening to in these other genres, it is helpful to have knowledgable DJs compiling playlists for me.

In any event, internet radio gives you playlists compiled by people who love music, and internet radio eliminates the hassle of having to go get an mp3 of the song you want. For me, this is the ideal scenario because I like being exposed to new artists and songs that I *don't* already know about. That's the problem with file-sharing of mp3s, you have to know what you're looking for in order to find it. Often, I don't even care who the artists are, I just want 8 hours of reasonably nice background music in a particular genre. If a song is appealing to me or catches my attention, I look at the playlist on radioparadise, and I can choose to buy the album or comment on the song.

Streaming radio is perfect for me, and I hope more students take advantage of it. Enjoy.