This task was easy enough. I thought the Rollyo website was simple to navigate, and it took me less than ten minutes to set up an account and roll my own search engine. Being the predictable person I am, I chose to make my own search engine of reputable music sites.
I can definitely see how this search engine would be useful. It's an easy way to create a tool that allows you to to a very specific search using only sites you are interested in reading. I don't see myself using it regularly because I am such a Google girl and have been for years that I know how to find what I'm looking for using that search engine. A lot of time, what I'm searching for I might not know where to find, so in that case, a broad internet search is what I need. I suppose if I were looking up something very specific on a topic in which I was well-versed, then Rollyo would be very helpful.
Also, it sounds petty, but one of the big detractors for Rollyo for me is the interface. I really dislike the way the search results page looks, and even though function should come before aesthetics, I still like Google's interface better than Rollyo's. It's easier to read a list of links and abstracts on a page that is visually pleasing than it is to read them on a page that is harder to look at or not as visually organized or professional-looking. This is more of a personal preference, though, so I'm sure there are a lot of people who wouldn't mind the look of the Rollyo site at all.
Overall, it's a really spiffy concept, but I just don't think I'd use it much. The more I continue doing this 23 Things program, the more I wonder...how many online accounts can a person really have and use every day?
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Monday, July 2, 2007
Random Praise For Technology
So part of our assignment this week is to post about some form of technology, anything at all. I'm going to tackle the omnipresent MySpace for this post. Now, MySpace offers a ton of features, most centrally the ability to engage in social networking - either keeping in touch with old friends or making new ones. That's not the feature that interests me most though.
The best thing about MySpace, in my humble opinion, is what it is doing for music. These days, in the music industry, it's nearly impossible for small artists to get recognized and signed to labels because major corporations are buying up all the distributors. You've got your Sony/BMG and your WEA and your Warner, and they all own the publishing rights to labels all the way down the chain, from the big ones like Verve to the little ones like Saddle Creek. Radio moguls like the ubiquitous and heavy-handed ClearChannel control the airwaves and play songs for cash. (You may have heard of this. It's called Payola, and you can find more information about it here and here.)
Well, for a girl with as eclectic tastes as mine, this is really infurating. The last thing I want to hear when I turn on the radio in my car is the same stupid song by the same stupid band who is all over MTV and everything else within my ear- or eye-shot. I don't even like Britney Spears, but I know all the lyrics to her songs. Why? Because they're crammed down my throat against my will via any means possible.
But I digress. This wasn't intended to be a rant on the state of the music business these days, although it is relevant to my praise for MySpace. People like me who feel like they can't rely on mainstream media to provide music that makes their ears happy have to go underground to indie labels, digging through recommendations and websites and indie music mags to find things that we think are quality. When you're on a hunt for truly good music, it doesn't matter if only 12 people have heard of a band. If you like them and you managed to connect with their music in this big, wide world, you've achieved something fantastic. And if you're lucky, you can talk to fans of that band and find other musicians that they've discovered that you might like as well. (As a side note, I once read a quote that said, "All knowledge is contained within fandom. This is either very good for fandom or very bad for knowledge." I think it's good for both. There's no greater motivator than love for a sound or artist to encourage people to dig up all the facts they can.)
That's why MySpace is an amazing thing for people who are interested in finding music that is "outside the box." Thanks to the fact that everyone and their dog has a MySpace page, including musicians who are trying to make their way in this world, you can find and listen to just about any artist that's out there these days. The streaming audio that is provided on each band's page allows potential fans to sample the artists' work before buying, which is massively important when scouting out new music to add to your collection. It's easy for artists to upload songs, and they can make them available for download or just streaming. They can upload videos, photographs, tour dates, newsletters, and all types of information. Basically, MySpace offers them their own free webspace where they can advertise their band even if they have no web design skills whatsoever.
In the past, if a friend recommended a band to me, the only way I had of listening to them was to either A - hope they had a website with streaming audio set up (not easy for bands who are just starting out and aren't web savvy) or B - have my friend upload a song for me to download (i.e. file sharing). Now, if a friend asks me, "Have you heard this new band out of Columbus?" and I haven't, all I have to do is go to MySpace, search for their name, and listen to whatever they have up on their page. And if I really like them, I can add their song to my personal profile so everyone who visits my page can hear my new find too.
It's really an amazing phenomenon for music. While Amazon offers you the ability to listen to 30-second samples of songs, sometimes that isn't enough to decide if you really like a band or not. Plus, their player can be clunky and annoying, while MySpace just streams automatically without having to open up a special player or make use of your computer's Windows Media Player.
MySpace may be a lot of things -- annoying, ad-laden, filled with skeezy people who treat it like a dating service, addictively time-consuming, rife with petty drama -- but for me, its most redeeming feature is the fact that it has allowed bands to advertise themselves and put their music out there for all of us who don't want to listen to what the ad execs tell us we should. Viva la resistance!
The best thing about MySpace, in my humble opinion, is what it is doing for music. These days, in the music industry, it's nearly impossible for small artists to get recognized and signed to labels because major corporations are buying up all the distributors. You've got your Sony/BMG and your WEA and your Warner, and they all own the publishing rights to labels all the way down the chain, from the big ones like Verve to the little ones like Saddle Creek. Radio moguls like the ubiquitous and heavy-handed ClearChannel control the airwaves and play songs for cash. (You may have heard of this. It's called Payola, and you can find more information about it here and here.)
Well, for a girl with as eclectic tastes as mine, this is really infurating. The last thing I want to hear when I turn on the radio in my car is the same stupid song by the same stupid band who is all over MTV and everything else within my ear- or eye-shot. I don't even like Britney Spears, but I know all the lyrics to her songs. Why? Because they're crammed down my throat against my will via any means possible.
But I digress. This wasn't intended to be a rant on the state of the music business these days, although it is relevant to my praise for MySpace. People like me who feel like they can't rely on mainstream media to provide music that makes their ears happy have to go underground to indie labels, digging through recommendations and websites and indie music mags to find things that we think are quality. When you're on a hunt for truly good music, it doesn't matter if only 12 people have heard of a band. If you like them and you managed to connect with their music in this big, wide world, you've achieved something fantastic. And if you're lucky, you can talk to fans of that band and find other musicians that they've discovered that you might like as well. (As a side note, I once read a quote that said, "All knowledge is contained within fandom. This is either very good for fandom or very bad for knowledge." I think it's good for both. There's no greater motivator than love for a sound or artist to encourage people to dig up all the facts they can.)
That's why MySpace is an amazing thing for people who are interested in finding music that is "outside the box." Thanks to the fact that everyone and their dog has a MySpace page, including musicians who are trying to make their way in this world, you can find and listen to just about any artist that's out there these days. The streaming audio that is provided on each band's page allows potential fans to sample the artists' work before buying, which is massively important when scouting out new music to add to your collection. It's easy for artists to upload songs, and they can make them available for download or just streaming. They can upload videos, photographs, tour dates, newsletters, and all types of information. Basically, MySpace offers them their own free webspace where they can advertise their band even if they have no web design skills whatsoever.
In the past, if a friend recommended a band to me, the only way I had of listening to them was to either A - hope they had a website with streaming audio set up (not easy for bands who are just starting out and aren't web savvy) or B - have my friend upload a song for me to download (i.e. file sharing). Now, if a friend asks me, "Have you heard this new band out of Columbus?" and I haven't, all I have to do is go to MySpace, search for their name, and listen to whatever they have up on their page. And if I really like them, I can add their song to my personal profile so everyone who visits my page can hear my new find too.
It's really an amazing phenomenon for music. While Amazon offers you the ability to listen to 30-second samples of songs, sometimes that isn't enough to decide if you really like a band or not. Plus, their player can be clunky and annoying, while MySpace just streams automatically without having to open up a special player or make use of your computer's Windows Media Player.
MySpace may be a lot of things -- annoying, ad-laden, filled with skeezy people who treat it like a dating service, addictively time-consuming, rife with petty drama -- but for me, its most redeeming feature is the fact that it has allowed bands to advertise themselves and put their music out there for all of us who don't want to listen to what the ad execs tell us we should. Viva la resistance!
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