iRATE Radio follow up

Monday, October 13, 2003 | 07:44 AM

UPDATE

Here's a quick update since we first looked at iRATE Radio.

I’ve been playing with iRate for the past week or so. A few things that jump out:

• The system adapts to your tastes fairly rapidly. This is a mixed blessing, depending upon if you are a) looking for new music or b) if you just want a free substitute to satellite radio;

• There is no genre distinction. I would love to see different “channels” for jazz, alternate, hip hop, etc. As the system expands, that's likely a realistic possibility. As a source for new music or a radio station, it would be more listener friendly to hone in on exactly what you like;

• The lack of genre distinction subtly colors the rating process. Example: I tend to be pretty forgiving of alt.rock, as long as there’s a decent melody and tasty guitar licks. So my overall rating on songs from that genre are probably on average higher then -- lets say -- pop or hip hop, where I tend to be much more critical (as I like the genre less). iRate has been feeding me more alt.rock songs; Good for listening, perhaps less good for new music discovery.

• For the most part, the streams were pretty clean. Streaming audio gets disrupted easily, depending upon web traffic. For the most part, the iRate streams have been pretty robust. I would imagine that as traffic picks up, this issue could become more of an problem;

• While the Java based iRate is plenty stable, I was able to disrupt it by launching multiple programs or Safari Windows while iRate was streaming (and I have oodles of RAM). Perhaps it’s the CPU load --- I’ve found Java apps often take a backseat to other programs in terms of grabbing the Central Processor's attention;

• Considering that there are no major artists on iRate radio, there is a surprising amount of very good talent here. The biggest risk to iRate's business model is that it becomes a "minor leagues" for talent to find an audience and then get discovered -- and bail to a major label.


All told, a very enjoyable experience, one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to fellow music aficionados as well as casual listeners.

Monday, October 13, 2003 | 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
de.li.cious add to de.li.cious | digg digg this! | technorati add to technorati | email email this post

bn-image

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c52a953ef00d834559da969e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference iRATE Radio follow up:

» music quick hits from meta-roj blog
i'm obviously still on the back end of the loop when it comes to the ongoing music business discussion, so in an attempt to catch up and keep myself a bit relevant, i've opted to skip the "essay-length" response once... [Read More]

Tracked on Oct 15, 2003 5:25:32 AM

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.



Recent Posts

December 2008
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31      

Archives

Complete Archives List

Blogroll

Blogroll

Category Cloud

On the Nightstand

On the Nightstand

 Subscribe in a reader

Get The Big Picture!
Enter your email address:


Read our privacy policy

Essays & Effluvia

The Apprenticed Investor

Apprenticed Investor

About Me

About Me
email me

Favorite Posts

Tools and Feeds

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Add to Google Reader or Homepage

Subscribe to The Big Picture

Powered by FeedBurner

Add to Technorati Favorites

FeedBurner


My Wishlist

Worth Perusing

Worth Perusing

mp3s Spinning

MP3s Spinning

My Photo

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Odds & Ends

Site by Moxie Design Studios™

FeedBurner