Phil Bradley's weblog

Spotify for literature

We generally tend to think of Spotify as a resource that streams music - and of course that's its primary goal, but it's worth knowing that as well as music, Spotify provides other things - such as sounds of nature (great if you want to get off to sleep listening to the sounds of rain or jungles or wotnot), but there's also a lot of spoken text as well. If you're a fan of Robert Frost the great American poet, there's some great recordings of him reading his own work, and it sends a real thrill down the spine to be able to hear him. If poetry isn't your style, how about listening to Sherlock Holmes, read by Basil Rathbone or Sir John Gielgud? While we're on Mr Holmes, how about listening to Mr Cumberbatch reading late night tales?

Can I tempt you to Jane Austen novels, or The Scarlet Pimpernel? How about Anthony Valentine reading The Count of Monte Cristo? If you fancy something a bit chilling, there's a collection of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James or the Best of Edgar Allen Poe?

Whatever your tastes, you're almost certain to find something that's interesting.

Radio Search Engine

The Radio Search Engine does pretty much exactly what you could expect. Pop in the name of a track, genre or artist that interests you and this search engine will attempt to find if it playing somewhere around the world for you. If it can, you can listen to it there and then. If it can't find your choice it will find stations that are likely to play it shortly. The stations are from all over the world. About half are internet only stations and half are simulcasters who are transmitting their AM/FM station online as well. It is very simple and easy to use.

Tubalr; YouTube Music Videos

Tubalr allows you to effortlessly listen to a band's or artist's top YouTube videos without all the clutter YouTube brings. To get started just type a band's or artist's name into the search box and select only or similar. You then get a listing of videos which automatically start playing. It's a really nice way to cut out all the nonsense and just get to the music.

Bye bye to the CD

There's quite a lot of noise around at the moment about the possible end of the CD, as record companies (love the irony of using that description) are set to abandon the format by the end of 2012. Quite frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if they did. Every time I go into an HMV shop to get myself a DVD (and that's going to be next on the list) I get the feeling that I'm walking into a museum. I can't honestly remember the last time that I bought a CD, and the only time that I ever play them is when I'm driving.

Most of the time it's on the iPod, iPhone or if I'm at my desk, Spotify. I honestly can't see a reason to buy a CD now, since I get just about all of the music that I want for a tenner a month, and I don't have to worry about scratches, putting them back in their cases, the whole nine yards. 'Ah, but what if Spotify goes bankrupt or puts their charges up?' I hear you ask. It's unlikely that Spotify will go bankrupt, although given that countries see it as all the rage at the moment I can't be sure - but I'd be surprised. I also don't see that much sign that they'll put their price up, though to be honest if they did I'd still be getting a good deal, given that I used to spend a lot of money buying music. But if that happened, and people got ticked off with them, the model they use is sound, so someone else will come along and do the same thing - and indeed there's already companies making similar offerings. It's not the tool that's important, it's the activity.

Now, where does this leave libraries? If I worked in a public library I'd certainly be eyeing up the racks of CDs and wondering what to put in their place. I'd also be tempted to offer advice and information on how to get music in other formats to my members. I'd be thinking also about what to put in place of that collection of racks.

Spotiseek - Helps you find new Spotify music

Spotiseek - Helps you find new Spotify music. This is a clever little resource - a bit like the iTunes Genius concept. Just pop in the same of an artist or band that you like and it'll produce a playlist for you.You can just drag it into Spotify and listen away. You can add more artists, or replace the chosen tracks individually or in batch. I've not tried it out yet, but it does look interesting.

Spotify

I've previously mentioned Spotify as an excellent jukebox resource. It's a free and easy way to listen to exactly the music that you like at the expense of listening to some adverts now and then. It's now available without an invite - just pop on over and start listening!

cleepr

cleepr, the music video search engine. That pretty much sums it up to be honest. Pop in a band or musician and see what it comes up with. I'm in a public area at the moment so I can't actually listen to anything (forgot headphones) but I did a few searches and it came up with the goods, so I'm going to presume it sounds ok. However, there doesn't appear to be any way of registering or saving playlists, which is a bit of a shame, so I'll be sticking with Songza as my preferred music engine/jukebox.