The joys of radio

What kind of rube would browse a record store (chuckle), listen to the radio (what?), or trek through snow to a video store (sniff). The magic of the Intertubes can find all this stuff for me - and not only that - tell me new stuff I'm going to like, for free!

Last.fm and Pandora are awesome because as soon as you hear something you like, with a click you can find out what it is, see the cover art, read a bio of the artist, and file it away for later consumption. But in terms of discovering new music, the services aren't good for much better than exploring musical genres I know nothing about. I still think the best place to hear new music is always on the radio. Looks like a lot of people agree with me.

CBS Radio's network of radio station Web sites saw its total number of unique visitors increase 30% in December 2008, compared to the same month in 2007, according to Web analytics service OneStat.com, reaching an all-time high for CBS Radio. The online measurement company also noted that unique visitors grew 7% between November and December 2008. (via MediaMemo)

Patrick Bryant, the music director on MIT's college radio station WMBR (full disclosure: I used to have a show there) told me the iPhone app Shazam can correctly identify less than 15 percent of the music he plays on his program, Subject to Change.

I have a question for any Web 2.0 acolytes who have predicted the demise of radio and records. Did you really think a robot could pick good music?

If only the Globe were this good every day...

I just want to give credit to the good people at the Globe for a great paper yesterday. I didn't get a chance to read the print edition, but I just spent about 10 minutes reading it before I put it in the recycling bin. The Metro page was great too, with stories on T ridership up, problems in the medical examiner's office, DiMasi's (then likely) reelection, and the third arson in as many years to hit a Jamaica Plain beauty shop. All this ranged around great photos of people jumping in frigid water nearly naked. (Admittedly, these last went with a relatively silly article that rehashed an earlier AP story.)

A Nation of Gameboy Addicts

There was a time when every parent I knew had the same problem: how to manage their kid's gameboy addiction. As with candy, Saturday morning cartoons and comic books, some level of control was needed. But kids became so attached to the things that parents risked a Nintendo 64 Freakout if they attempted to withold the device.

I now hear people say their smartphone has changed their lives, and I'm beginning to realize how far ahead of the rest of us the 12-year-old Gameboy addicts really were. MG Siegler writes on VentureBeat about a hidden "bells and whistles" feature on the iPhone's Google application:

...while it may not look like there is anything below the “About” selection, swipe your finger upward to go below. See anything? You probably don’t yet — keep swiping.

It takes a little bit of effort, but eventually a “Bells and Whistles” menu appears below the “About” menu. Clicking on this takes you to a new screen with even more options for the app including the ability to change its color to anything you want, the option to have the app’s default sound replaced by monkey or chicken noises, an option to see live waveform show up as you talk....

It reminds me of games I played as a teenager - Mario, Zelda or Mortal Kombat, for example - and the word-of-mouth tips and tricks I'd pick up from friends - like pressing an elaborate series of buttons crack open hidden stuff.

Smartphones have hooked us on our office email and news feeds, now they will make a nation of shivering gameboy addicts out of us all. I can't wait.