Remember a couple months ago when I told you guys all about a handful of ways to get your music fix for free?
I've got an addition to that.
Some of you may know I'm now on twitter (Jeepsterette), which... I can never, ever close because Jeep people keep finding me and they're fun to know... and there's just so freaking much interesting stuff going on with Tony Hawk, Penn Jillette, Dane Cook, PostSecret, and my favorite ever band, Railroad Earth... But my addiction to the latest "news" is beside the point, and I digress.
I have a buddy whom I've known for... I guess... well, let's say at least six years. This guy is responsible for my twitter addiction. You know who you are. But, knowing that I have this thang where I let you all know what I dig for tunes, he said, "http://blip.fm. You need this. For your blog."
Truer words were never spoken.
blip.fm is like Pandora radio, but on a less playlist, more individual level. You "blip," or search, whatever artist or song title you want to hear, select a track from the pop-up list, and your selection will show in the list below your search bar. You will see your selection for probably a second before it is engulfed by an extremely rapidly changing list of other selections from people all over the world, as they blip their selections.
You can listen to more tracks you choose to blip, or play something someone else is playing. If you like a song someone else digs, you can give that user "props" on their selection. You can also receive "props" on your selections. I'm not really sure what the point is behind "props" other than it probably shows you have decent taste in music. I give them out as I see fit, I've earned a few, and I listen to whatever the heck I feel like.
Bonus points: blip.fm has a LOT of stuff I would never expect- tons of live Railroad Earth tracks (I couldn't decide what to play first), classics (Jerry Vale - Volare), oldies (the Jamies - Summertime), modern rock, rap, world music... this site definitely runs the gamut on selections.
Also, you can choose to link your blips to your twitter feed- then, every song you blip will show up on your twitter feed as a tiny url- but you can also pick and choose which blips will tweet. Let's face it- the entire planet does NOT need to know that I'm listening to Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana" after T.I. & Justin Timberlake's "Dead & Gone," correct?
When your blipped track has finished, it will automatically play the track at the top of the list on your screen- usually from another user's blip. This is awesome if you get a bunch of people who like the same stuff you do, or if you love any kind of new music- and if you don't want to listen to that track, you can skip to the next. These tracks will NOT post to your twitter feed, either. Less embarrassment is good.
Demerits: You may not always get the best quality of a track on your first search- some of my selections, while live (and impressive), were of absolutely terrible Kbps quality.
Also, trying to give props to someone is tricky, as the list is constantly changing- several times now, I've attempted to click on one user and ended up three ahead of him/her in line because of the constant flow of new tracks. This "wastes" your props, and once you give them, you can't take them back.
And of course, because it's a streamer, you will probably have some "spots" in the playback. It's supremely annoying, but you do have a "pause" button, so make good use of it.
Happy blipping, folks.
