Sound: #26: Making (or listening to) Music Together

I looked at the music networking sites. Since all I could play very well was the radio, I was impressed with the melodious sounds I could make with JamStudio. I truly enjoyed all the instrumentations I could put into a piece. Lately, I've liked guitar music best. So, I played with the sounds of the acoustic guitar. I even recommended this to my friend's much more music savvy son. Bottom line, JamStudio was free and fun!

Sound: #25: Am I a music pirate? It's hard to know...

Now, I have burned a song onto a CD. Actually, it was a whole CD. One of my friends wanted a CD with a "Fire" theme. So, I went online and found numerous songs such as "Light my fire," "Fire," "Ring of Fire," etc. I downloaded the music to my computer from Yahoo and then I put the music onto the CD. Other than the amount of time it took and the fact you can only burn 7 Yahoo Music songs to a CD, I found the process quite simple. I like the ability to download songs which I picked instead of having to take everything on an expensive CD. After all, it's quite unusual for me to like everything on one CD.

I love music. While I can't play much more than the radio, I spend a lot of time listening and trying to find songs I like. I still use CDs and I enjoy the ones I make more often than those that are done by one artist. In that sense, iPods or MP3s are more cost effective. Maybe I'll get something more than a CD player. I do believe musicians deserve some money, I think the prices of CDs are ridiculous. I believe a $1/song is reasonable but I can sympathize with musicians trying to sell a whole album. In the end, it's a tough decision.

Sound: #24: The sound of music!

I have used Yahoo Music to download songs. Between my home computer and this program, I felt it took an extraordinary length of time to do anything with it. Still, it did save me a trip to the store and the price wasn't too bad ($0.79 a song). Still, since it takes so long for me, at least, to work with it, I don't really enjoy downloading music from this site. Many of my friends love iTunes, though. Songs cost $0.99 with iTunes.

Using Download.com, I went about finding a song I would enjoy. I borrowed one of my branch's MP3 players. I wouldn't say I found the downloading especially fun but it was good to learn how to do it. I would've appreciated more musical variety yet I liked the price. After all, being able to carry your music with you is very nice.

I am quite fond of online radio. One of my classmates from grad school first told me about Pandora. It's a free "radio" in which the user creates. Say, if I'm a big fan of Stevie Wonder (which I am), then I can go to Pandora and type in Stevie Wonder. Pandora will retrieve and play a Stevie Wonder song. Next, Pandora finds artists who sound similar to Stevie Wonder. This introduces me to artists which I might like. When my classmate mentioned it, he said it was a "music genome" project. Pretty awesome, huh?

A friend and former coworker told me about Project Playlist. Free of charge, a user can create an account and build a list of songs he/she likes. Now, a user can put up to 100 songs on one list. Then, the user can post a working music player to a blog or profile easily. I truly like Project Playlist because I can go to a place where I've posted my play list and listen to my music. In fact, I have the beginnings of a play list at the bottom of the Brownie Points blog. Look for the green player.

Of local stations, I really do like 103.7 Jack FM. This station "Plays What We Want." So, one minute, they play 1960s surfer music, next it's 1980s rock, then it's blues. It is not repetitive, either. Jack has a free online station. At this moment, they're following up Stevie Ray Vaughan with Steve Miller Band. Before Jack, I listened to 107.5 K-Hits a lot. Their station has free online access, too.