We've all experienced it. We dial, push, tune, etc. until we find anything that we can at least tolerate on the radio. Once whatever's left of the song is over, another one comes on that we dislike. So the process repeats itself. Lately I've had it just about up to here with that process, so I set out to find a way around it.
My search began with Launchcast. Launchcast is yahoo's customized station that collects information about your favorite artists, genres, albums, and songs. As the songs play you adjust them to hopefully tweak the station more to your preferences. I'd toyed around with it a few years ago, so my station needed a little revision. Once I'd finished with that, it felt like I had found the perfect station. But apparently my taste was too limited, so launchcast decided I could do with some expansion. It got to the point where I had to skip 20 songs I had never heard of just to get to one I liked. So I continued my search.
My next step was internet radio. I assumed that someone out there would play the songs I wanted to hear, and the world of internet radio seemed expansive enough. I went to shoutcast.com because I knew they listed the songs the station was currently playing. I looked at the categories they listed. None of them seemed to define what I was looking for. So I searched for the best way I could define the genre I wanted. None of the stations were playing anything I liked. I decided that internet radio wasn't for me.
Then I remembered yes.com. yes.com tracks the songs played on almost every radio station under the sun. I tried searching for artists I liked, because with yes.com yo can keep track of what stations are playing certain artists. I clicked on the profiles of all the stations that played the artist that I liked to see if I liked anything else they were playing. If they were, I went to the station's website and listened to their online stream. I found some stations, but none of them were as perfect as I was looking for.
As a last ditch attempt I googled "the perfect radio station" and found pandora. Pandora asks you simply for one artist, genre, or song you like, then determines what musical qualities that item has, and puts together a playlist based on it. I found that it got boring very fast. Their catalog doesn't appear to be as large as launchcast's and I didn't recognize any of the songs it chose for me. I know that seems a little beside the point, but I like to know the music I listen to before I listen to it.
In the end, I'll probably listen to my launchcast station from time to time, and maybe some of the stations I found on yes.com, but I never really found my perfect radio station. What do you think? Is there such a thing as the perfect radio station? Can you recommend something for me to try? Tell us in the comments!
picture from thefader.com
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