"I'm guessing Jennifer wouldn't be happy to hear that the first thing her description [of DJs curating their own shows] brought to mind was music blog aggregator sites like Hype Machine and We Are Hunted that ascribe these same virtues of authenticity and passion to the process of curating the curators (Hype Machine even creates online radio shows with the results.)..."
Similarly, another point that I made in my interview was that with digital music, for the most part people are selecting what they want to hear before they hear it; rather than ceding control to someone else, like a DJ.
Meredith also writes:
"All this is NOT to question the need for college radio DJs, but rather ask how the traditional role can evolve to embrace this proliferation of music-discovering avenues on the web? I'm sure many are already out generating innovative solutions (that I'd love to hear...)..."
This is an interesting question and I think college radio stations have actually been on the forefront of embracing technology. College stations were early to stream, blog, archive shows, provide live cams, and real-time playlists. So, yes, indeed...many college radio stations are similar to the music bloggers. But radio is still radio and has some inherent benefits. And radio stations have the potential to do so much, from live events, to specialty music shows, to band interviews and live performances, to audio art.
Posts
1 comment:
What I personally dislike about aggregators and why I think they are no match for a DJ is their very nature. An aggregator is about collecting and ranking. Most often ranking based on number of times listened or downloaded or some other measure of popularity. Even though the world wide web offers the ability for a world wide crowd to put in a vote, it's still what's most popular. As I say, 50,000,000 Elvis fans *can* be wrong. The DJ hosting the Hype Machine podcast is pretty much a modern day Casey Kasem and simply filling in material around a preselected top ten.
As you said in your interview, DJs are able to put together journeys. They can compare and contrast music, follow themes, or simply present purely joyful music.
Radio stations have a longer history than podcasters and by being a collective and supported by the college, they get studio space, licensing (what's left of it). It would be interesting to see if there are opportunities for podcasting collectives to form and offer some of the same services such as live events, band interviews and performances.
On that note, I happen to listen to a number of radio shows that I experience solely through downloads (though they are all created for on-air broadcast). In a way, I am selecting a genre or theme before I listen. However, within the time of the show, I am ceding control over to the DJ and have had several serendipitous discoveries.
For me, as a listener, the dichotomies are less radio v. bloggers as radio v. podcastng. What do listeners lose when transmitters are shut down. What do radio stations gain by providing *both* transmitters and time-shifted archives of their broadcasts.
Post a Comment