When I was about 16 years old, I went with my family on the quintessential trip to Disney World in Florida. For my two younger siblings it was great trip. For myself, however, it was not. I was at the age when what I wanted least of all in the world was to be with my family. I bought a refurbished Sony Walkman at a RadioShack on the trip down and buried myself in the headphones.
Having grown up on Prince Edward Island, I was not used to having interesting music on the radio. I was amazed at what I discovered with that little yellow walkman while travelling down the eastern seaboard of the states. Discovering Bad Religion’s album Stranger Than Fiction stuck with me for years after. What I’ve missed since then is that feeling of discovering new music. MuchMusic and local radio just don’t cut it (although I do have MuchMusic to thank my discovery of Copyright).
Now that audio has come of age online (as opposed to the sketchy low quality realaudio we had two years ago) I want some new music. I spend my day at in front of a computer with a good set of speakers and a very fast permanent internet connection. The trouble is, I can’t find the music! There are loads of streaming audio sites out there (including biggies such as WindowsMedia.com and Launch.com) but I have a very hard time finding something I can listen to for more than a few minutes.
I want music that fits my tastes, but I don’t want to hear the same music. I have access to a 10,000 song MP3 collection (collected legitimately, for the most part) but that doesn’t help me discover new music. I’m overwhelmed with choices and the blinking cursors has erased my mind (it doesn’t help that the internet fried my brain either).
So help me out. What do you listen to?