Yahoo LAUNCHcast

[illusionofjoy]

I have a Yahoo! LAUNCHcast station. I signed up for it about a week ago and have not only myself become completely addicted to the thing, but have become an enabler for joi_division's now growing addiction.

I first became aware of LAUNCHcast when I upgraded my copy of Yahoo Messenger quite a while back. I pretty much ignored the new tabs at the bottom, thinking, "what do I need this shit for?" In the past few weeks I been seeing people on my friends list with artists and song titles next to their screen names (along with an icon, which when moused-over popped up with the message "I'm on LAUNCHcast"). So, I decided to try it out. It wasn't long before I had stumbled past all of the pre-programmed stations into the discovery that I could program my own station anyway I wanted to. This was too good to pass up.

It works like this: you sign up at the Launch homepage using your Yahoo ID. From there, you'll be prompted to select your favourite genres of music along with some preferred artists associated with those genres. There are even a few slots for you to type in artists you like. One the station profile is created and the audio stream is up and running, it's a game of rating music as you listen to it...or, if you're an obsessive like me, you can actually go through the website's music database and rate like a crazed critic. Either way, the program learns about your preferences and begins to tailor your station in such a way that it tries to play what it thinks you'll like.

In my experience, it does a damn good job of it as well. As it stands, I have a nice little mixed-bag alternative station going, which just so happens to be a little heavy on the 80s. Of course, I've also rated over 4,000 items, so it should be playing pretty much what I want it to. That said, the program is set up so that it will always throw a new song or two your way. It also should be noted that, while the musical experience only becomes better the more you use LAUNCHcast, you'll have to abide annoying ads about every twenty to thirty minutes in-between playlists. At this moment, I don't think I've ever hated The Clarks more - and that is only from hearing the ad from their show in such high rotation. A paid subscription to the service kills the ads and allows you to stream at a higher bitrate, but I'm cheap when it comes to things like that.

Comments

[joi-division.livejournal.com]

I still can't believe it played 45 Grave. I can't believe 45 Grave was on there as well.

And The Chameleons! I've heard them three times now. I just wish they would stop trying to slip in 3 doors down. *gag*

I've heard The Clarks commercial- but now it's Clay Aiken. Yuck.