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Until early 2009, when I wanted to listen to music, I would switch on my Launchcast Plus station. Launchcast was Yahoo's streaming audio service, and it supported above-average user customization. The Plus version was paid and ad-free, and allowed unlimited skips. After a few years with Plus, I didn't use skips, because after rating some 10,000 songs, I never heard crap. Moreover, their algorithm was excellent at matching my tastes and – here's the important part – recommending similar music.
You might notice a lack of linkage up there. That's because Yahoo discontinued Launchcast Plus. They were very good about it, giving quite a few warnings far in advance and refunding my balance promptly, but my custom station is gone daddy gone. That's tolerable in itself – I'm more of an iTunes guy anyway – except for one thing: no recommendations (not completely true . . . I could use Genius, but it sucks). I know that in a few months, that'll really get to me.
Now I work 10+ hours a day from home and don't get out as much as I would like, so where most people would simply ask a friend in person, I must do so on the Internet. The problem is that asking in a more general forum tends to yield all kinds of so-so recommendations from people who don't really know me . . . they just want to pimp their favorite band. My theory – which may well be badly flawed – is that anybody who wades through my blathering here might have enough in common with me to suggest tunes that I might like.
( Big lists o' stuff . . . )
You might notice a lack of linkage up there. That's because Yahoo discontinued Launchcast Plus. They were very good about it, giving quite a few warnings far in advance and refunding my balance promptly, but my custom station is gone daddy gone. That's tolerable in itself – I'm more of an iTunes guy anyway – except for one thing: no recommendations (not completely true . . . I could use Genius, but it sucks). I know that in a few months, that'll really get to me.
Now I work 10+ hours a day from home and don't get out as much as I would like, so where most people would simply ask a friend in person, I must do so on the Internet. The problem is that asking in a more general forum tends to yield all kinds of so-so recommendations from people who don't really know me . . . they just want to pimp their favorite band. My theory – which may well be badly flawed – is that anybody who wades through my blathering here might have enough in common with me to suggest tunes that I might like.
( Big lists o' stuff . . . )
