
(Maybe I'm listening to the wrong stations.) Anyway, radio DJs only represent a tiny fraction of the world's music lovers.

But most corporate stations have fairly predictable playlists that they don't stray from, and indie radio is a crapshoot-and not one that I've ever found immensely rewarding. There's the radio, where, it should be said, I've continued to discover exciting songs well into my iPod-owning years. LATER IN THIS SERIES: Tomorrow: Joe Fassler on Daytrotter Friday: Sam Machkovech on BitTorrent sites Pandora, the Web radio service that suggests songs and artists based on your input, is a neat bit of technical wizardry, but it'll only steer you toward things that are already at least somewhat familiar.Īnd no matter what you do, you, the listener, are still at the center of all this: your friends, your trusted critics. Noel Murray, one of the sharpest critics around, can only recommend what he likes. Your friends might have great taste, but they can only, in the end, recommend what they like. My guess is that most people find new pop the same way I do: you hear about things from friends, you find a few critics you trust, and you keep your ears open.īut each of these approaches puts you in a room of a certain size.
#HYPE MACHINE RADIO MOVIE#
Club," or "I heard this in a movie trailer two years after everybody else on the planet." "That was a Christmas present in 2005," I'd say, or "That's from my friend Kathleen," or " Noel Murray had great things to say about this at The A.V. For just about every song in my library, I can tell you how it came to be there-where I heard about it or who gave it to me. How do you find music that has nothing at all to do with you?Īssuming your music collection looks anything like mine, this may be a harder question than it seems. Today, Alex Eichler discusses The Hype Machine. In this three-part series, we'll look at websites that showcase artists and songs you don't already know by heart-but you'd probably like.
#HYPE MACHINE RADIO OFFLINE#
Although there doesn't appear to be an offline listening mode so you always need a data connection to access your music.In the age of the iPod, it's harder and harder to get exposed to new, interesting music.
#HYPE MACHINE RADIO FREE#
So, while it's certainly one to watch, Hype Machine is not quite the complete package yet.Ĭurrently Hype Machine doesn't follow the free and subscription models that the likes of Spotify, Google Play Music and Pandora so a one off payment will bring you all the music you want without adverts. But this app is still missing some features such as playlists that help you organize your music and the app is a little slow and buggy at the moment. There are lots of options for searching and browsing. In terms of discovering fresh music from new artists who might otherwise go under the radar, Hype Machine is a great option. Hype Machine can also be very slow to skip from one song to the next. When the song finally played, it only got half way through and then jumped back to the beginning. A few times when I searched for a song and tried to play it, the app went crazy and played one second of each song by that artist. What's New and Latest, for example, could surely be streamlined into one option.Īlso, there are some bugs within the app. Navigation is simple - all the options can be accessed from a slide out sidebar on the left, although it is a little overcrowded with options.

Hype Machine has a bright and colorful charcoal, green and pink interface (borrowing a little from Spotify, maybe). Much of the music that is in the charts today isn't in the app or it's a remix of the song. It's worth pointing out that Hype Music is geared towards new artists and less well-known music rather than mainstream songs. Something like the radio feature in Spotify would be welcome. Hype Machine also doesn't recommend you music based on your tastes or offer you the opportunity to listen to similar music to the artists or tracks that you like. Within the Favorites option, you have 'all', 'up', 'down', and weird. What the app lacks is the ability to organize your music into playlists. There is also the option to add friends and see what they are listening to. Then from within a song you can share it to social networks, buy the music from iTunes, and read articles relating to the songs. The app connects to the popular Hype Machine blogs so you can listen to playlists from your favorite bloggers on the site, which is arranged by country.
