This week we celebrate some fun little corners of radio. Matthew Lasar explains the history of the rise and fall of “turntable style” music community websites. Then Jennifer Waits shares her passion for radio station stickers, emphasizing a particular style of sticker art. Finally, Paul and Eric talk about Paul’s recent visit to Vassar College […]
Social media is something broadcasters and podcasters are advised to embrace, but why? And what the heck is a radio station supposed to do on Instagram? Station builder and social media maven Jeffory Simmons is here to help. He’s been advising community radio and small businesses on how to best use social media, and he […]
Shortly after the announcement that the turntable-style music sharing room plug.dj would cease operation, I wrote to the site’s founder, Jason Grunstra, for an analysis. “It really just comes down to money,” Grunstra responded. “The development and hosting of a massive real-time application is no small feat. It’s incredibly complex and we just couldn’t find […]
“It has come to the point that the costs of running plug.dj exceeds the income that we are generating, and that could prove disastrous to the future of plug.dj if we don’t make some important changes very soon,” warns the latest plug.dj missive on its blog site. Plug.dj is asking its members to donate six […]
If you are a classical music lover, 8tracks.com offers many great playlists. They are perfect for inspiration and/or background for study. Here are some recommendations: evening: an excellent piano oriented mix. Lots of Chopin and French impressionist music. It is 47 minutes long and has eleven tracks, including a nice improvisation on Satie’s Gynopedie. The […]
Most Radio Survivor readers have doubtless forgotten my effort to create a hybrid classical music room at plug.dj. Alas, I tried to pull it out of thin air without any of the real life connections you need to make an Internet music chat room work. Happily, someone remembered and brought a new one to my […]
Turntable.fm shut down its last component earlier this year: Turntable Live—a concert version of now gone turntable.fm. TT.fm founder Billy Chasen reflected on the end of the Turntable project in a blog entry posted on Wednesday: “Ultimately, I didn’t heed the lessons of so many failed music startups. It’s an incredibly expensive venture to pursue […]
Plug.dj, the online music/chat room service, has a great blog post on making online communities work. The seven tips go as follows: help your visitors feel welcome from the start; use social media to promote your room; make sure your staff are nice people; post clear community rules and guidelines; be multilingual; stage events for […]
I am enjoying Epic Dance Music, a beta application that draws from SoundCloud searches to create terrific dance playlist stations. Over the weekend I listened to a list riffing off of my initial pick: “Catgroove” by Parov Stelar. This was followed by a Decibel Junkies tune, DJ Trademark’s “Uncontrollable,” MGMT Kids, “BlogsDemodaCE,” Hello’s very amusing […]
I spent some of this weekend up to my nose in Soundrop, a Spotify chat room application. Soundrop has been available for about two years. I wouldn’t call the feature competition for plug.dj or its predecessor, Turntable.fm, but it is around and worth knowing about if you are a Spotify fan. To access Soundrop you […]
