Grooveshark

I’ve been using and watching Grooveshark evolve for almost a year.  Its development is similar to another web-based music player, the slightly older and ever-evolving Muxtape (which I blogged about here,) in that it’s a flash-based web app that’s extremely robust and easy to use – one which allows users to listen to music on-demand and create playlists from any songs they have placed in their queue.  Unlike the version of Muxtape it bears the most similarities to, its primary function is not as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based music-sharing service.  Another marked difference is that the look and feel of Grooveshark is extremely similar to iTunes, which makes it easy to adopt and very intuitive to use, even on first glance.

One of my favorite things about Grooveshark is that it allows me to listen to practically any tune I can name, no matter the level of obscurity.  It’s great for those of us who like to listen to an album before we purchase it on iTunes.  And if that obscure track isn’t out there, I can upload it to the database, so we can all enjoy it.

A few of my Grooveshark playlists have recently gone from 20-something songs down to just one – ostensibly because artists who feel this kind of dissemination of their work is tantamount to copyright infringement may ask Grooveshark to remove the songs I had populated into their database (via my playlist).  This is in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  I’m still happy to have a service that allows me to listen to entire albums of the latest and greatest, on demand, so I want to make it clear that those bands and Grooveshark have my continued support.

I’ve included a screenshot of my Grooveshark window, complete with a playlist all queued up and ready to go, below:

My Grooveshark screen, showing the queued playlist "M. Ward." Yes, Grooveshark has ads, unless you pay to upgrade to an ad-free Grooveshark. I am neither Christian nor single.

If you’re familiar with iTunes, using Grooveshark should be a breeze.  Simply register a username and password, search the database for the songs you’d like to hear, add them to your queue, save the queue as a playlist, and listen happily ever after!

Where I’ve Been

I didn’t mean to take such an extended hiatus from this blog, but I’ve been doing quite a lot since my last post.  I pulled up stakes in my former home of Philadelphia and moved out to San Francisco, a city I’d always wanted to live in.  This was right as the recession hit.

For a few months, all my free time was spent searching for jobs (and riding my bike) rather than blogging.  Eventually, I was offered a job by my current employer – an Internet Marketing Company that has asked me in several non-disclosure agreements not to blog about them, so they shall remain nameless here.

I had a month of training for that job, all on the road.  I had little free time, as after dinner, I was generally exhausted, did my “homework” to learn and prepare for the days ahead, and went to sleep.

When I returned to San Francisco, I discovered that my roommate had extremely aggressive and hostile tendencies.  I was literally afraid to be in the apartment with him – so I moved out in less than a week.  Without movers, I got everything packed and loaded and hauled off to a storage unit, while I found a new place to stay.

The next few months were spent adjusting to the new job whilst bouncing between sublets.  And making the most of all San Francisco has to offer in my spare time – no small order, but I’ve been having a blast.

The months passed by with surprising rapidity, and here I am over a year later.  I’ve discovered that PPC Marketing, SEM, and Display Advertising, while still as intuitive as I thought they would be when I went into this job, are not as satisfying to work with or as fulfilling as working with emerging technologies, particularly social media, which has always fascinated me.  I’m currently incorporating social media into my job as much as possible, and I’m excited for what the future holds in store.  With that in mind, I’m eager and ready to begin blogging again.  Let’s go!

p.s.  Has anyone noticed that most of the services I’ve blogged about have since adopted the features that I wished for in earlier entries on this blog?  I’m delighted, even if it does drive home how outdated those old posts are.

An Introduction

I am a writer, a geek, and a musician.  This blog exists to help merge these identities, primarily the writer and the geek–though there are some extremely cool web-based music technologies out there, and you can expect posts on them in the future.  My obsession with music (as both a performer and listener) has rendered me a veritable encyclopedia of indie music, hence the self-proclaimed hipster title.  Discovering a new technology with relevant and interesting features is every bit as exciting as finding that undiscovered band whose unique sound is sure to make them the next great thing.  For this reason, the title of “geek” is also an appropriate label for me.

The purpose of this blog is to share with readers the technologies that have significantly impacted my life, as well as new technologies with the potential to change my readers’ lives.   I hope my discoveries and nerdy musings are informative to you, and welcome insightful criticism and/or suggestions for new posts.