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Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 03 Issue 14
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 3, Issue 14
Just so you know, in general, Kaylie is a pretty even-keeled
little girl. She doesn't get too upset over things and seems to
be laughing most of the time. Every once in a while, though, she
gets in a mood when she's feeling not so happy (don't we all?)
When that happens one of the things we've found that helps her
calm down again is to sing to her.
Now, I'm not much of a vocalist, but apparently Kaylie really
loves my rendition of "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit the Frog.
Often she needs only one pass through and all is right with the
world again. I was thinking that, wouldn't it be great to have a
radio station that plays songs like that for when I'm not
immediately available?
Heck, wouldn't it be cool to have a radio station like that for
myself, that only plays songs that I really like?
Guess what? It's here. I'll write about it in my article this
issue.
Oh, and for those who were wondering, yes, I did take a couple of
months off from writing. Between being on vacation in Colorado
and later in Atlanta and a few deadlines in the business, writing
a newsletter issue didn't make it to the top of the task list.
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In This Issue...
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1. Article: The Sweet Sounds of (My) Music
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
3. The Fine Print
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1. Article: The Sweet Sounds of (My) Music
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I love to listen to music while I work. Something about the flow
of the tune seems to make whatever I'm doing go a little more
smoothly. Given that I sit in front of the computer for most of
my day, it's hardly surprising that I've been using a variety of
Web-based music sites over the years. Most recently I've used
Live365 (http://live365.com/) which had the added benefit of
being able to play through my TiVo. I was reasonably happy with
Live365. I even purchased a subscription for a year of VIP
access (no commercials and access to popular "stations" which
have limited users).
Recently, my year of VIP was coming to an end. $70 felt like a
little much to be spending on Internet radio, so I thought I
would take a look around at some other services. The one that
really got me excited was Pandora (http://pandora.com/).
One of the limitations of Live365 is that, just like terrestrial
radio, someone else gets to choose the play list. The main
difference is that those someones don't have nearly the extensive
music library of the average radio station. On Pandora, you get
to create your own station. When you first go to the site, it
asks you for the name of a song, artist or group that you like.
It then generates a "radio station" for you based upon that one
piece of information. It selects songs that are similar to the
one you have chosen and away it goes!
I was a little skeptical about how well this would work, but
shortly after I entered the group "Men at Work", my computer was
pumping out those eighties pop tunes that I grew up on. For
kicks I tried to create a "traditional" Christmas station. Bing
Crosby's "White Christmas" soon led to Frank Sinatra and Nat King
Cole belting out the old classics. I even managed to create a
station based on the music from Cirque du Soleil.
Pandora uses data about songs generated by the Music Genome
Project (http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml) to locate similarities
in music. The folks at MGP have developed a list of music
"genes" which allow them to describe music numerically. The
Pandora software then uses these representations to see how
"close" two pieces of music are. Interestingly, different types
of music have different numbers of genes. Most pop music has
around 150 whereas classical can have from 200 to 500 individual
factors.
Now, there are a few downsides. First, you only get 40 hours of
free music a month. Also, during that forty hours, you may hear
an occasional advertisement (though I think I can count on one
hand the number of commercials I heard the first month). If you
want to listen beyond those first forty hours, there is a 99 cent
fee for the remainder of the month. The other downside is that
you have to interact with Pandora at least once an hour or it
will stop playing. They do this so they aren't paying royalties
on music that's playing to an empty room. They do have a premium
service which costs $36 for a year which bumps the minimum
interaction time to five hours and removes the advertising and
other restrictions.
Still for these limitations, if you sit in front of the computer
for any length of time during the day, having your own custom
stations to listen to is really quite nice. Give it a try to see
if it appeals to you. Of course, there are a variety of other
music services out there and maybe one of those works better for
you for whatever reason. If you use a different one, I would
love to hear about your experiences. Drop me a line at
gpeters@cyberdatasolutionsllc.com.
Copyright 2009, Greg Peters
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2. Shameless Self-Promotion
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The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
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3. The Fine Print
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