 RAIN 11/18: Conceptual gadget brings in-office democracy to Pandora and Last.fm ·Nov 18, 10:46 AM WALL-MOUNTED DEVICE LETS EVERYONE VOICE THEIR MUSIC OPINION…BUT IT MAY “GET BRUTAL”In the category of “Things That Need to Be Made” comes the Office Music Democratizer for Last.fm and Pandora, from idea-factory Breakfast.com. The conceptual device is a wall-mounted panel with two large buttons: one to love or thumbs-up a song, another to signal your distaste with a ban or thumbs-down.
That button would be connected to a receiver, which relays the thumbs-up or down to a Pandora or Last.fm stream. Basically, the device allows an office of folks with differing music tastes to democratically control and personalize a radio stream from Pandora or Last.fm. Brilliant, right? You can watch a video of the conceptual gadget in action here. “The problem with ‘democracy,’ of course,” writes Ars Technica (here), “is that it doesn’t always facilitate a smooth-running workplace…The situation could get brutal. Back in ancient times there used to be these things called ‘radio stations that everyone could agree on.’ They had these great apps called deejays.” In my humble opinion, this would be a great social experiment. Set one of these gizmos up in an office and after a year, see what the Pandora station would sound like. My bet? The station would be nothing more than lite-FM. — MS PS — Dear Breakfast, this would look great in the RAIN offices. Just sayin’. RADIOTIME LAUNCHES REAL-TIME SONG AND ARTIST SEARCHUsers can now search RadioTime’s directory of web radio stations for artists and songs playing in real-time. For example, RAIN searched for “Come Together” and found a station in Iowa playing the song at that moment, while a search for “Best Coast” uncovered an indie rock stream from Texas.The search also finds stations and podcasts that — while they may not be playing that artist or track right now — “In essence,” writes The L.A. Times (here), “it turns hundreds of live broadcasts into an online jukebox, enabling people to play songs on demand…It also gives local stations a chance to develop audiences far outside their communities.” You can try out the new search feature and watch a video of how it works at RadioTime’s website here.
STREAM TUNES WIRELESSLY VIA BLUETOOTH TO “GORGEOUS” SPEAKER SYSTEMSoundfreaq’s new SFQ-01 Bluetooth audio system is harvesting plenty of attention, thanks to its ability to stream audio wirelessly from Bluetooth devices. That should mean it could wirelessly play audio from an Internet radio app on your iPhone or other Bluetooth-enabled device. It also boasts excellent sound quality, an FM receiver and a 3.5mm input jack. Engadget has more coverage here.share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
are likely to play similar kinds of music.
Isn’t there some issue with radios being played in offices being deemed commercial and requiring payments to the PRO’s?
— streamer · Nov 18, 12:55 PM · #
Typically not. Usually most offices are not in public areas of a place. It is different if you ran a store and played music from a source over the speaker system.
As to another thing in the post, maybe RAIN should try that in their small office and report back in a month after they start how the experiment went with the Pandora stream. last.fm won’t cut it, they have mostly older music which is fine but they don’t keep it up to date.
— JamesAnderson · Nov 18, 02:18 PM · #