How to find good music online with social media | Brad Grier - Lifestyle Technology Blog | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

In a recent post over at the Future Shop Techblog I started talking about various Internet Radio 'stations'. Today I realized I didn't talk about one of my 'go-to' online music sources blip.fm

It's not your average music service.
Blip.fm is a hybrid social media site and music discovery service, focused around the concept of Blips. To quote the FAQ:

What exactly is a ‘blip’?
A blip is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it. The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. Submitting a blip is also referred to as “blipping”, so from here on out, when you read “he blipped my favorite track” it means “he submitted a blip that had my favorite song attached”.

When you join Blip.fm, you assume the role of a DJ, running your own 'station' with a playlist. As you explore Blip.fm music, you'll see that songs were 'blipped' by varioius DJs. Check out their playlists (here's mine).

You'll see a list of blips that they found interesting, likely from other DJs -- a great way to see what tunes they thought were interesting.

Got Props?
If you like a tune you find on the main page, or listen to in someone's playlist, then give that DJ Props:

What are “Props”?
On Blip.fm props are tokens of respect that can be given from one DJ to another - say for blipping a good song or being a good DJ in general. Everyone starts with 10 credits that they can use to give props to other DJ’s. As you earn props from the community, your props will increase and so will the credits you have to give. 1 props earned = 1 credit in your bank. The number of props you’ve earned can only go up, but the credits you have goes down as you use them throughout the site. Check out our blog entry for a more detailed explanation.

Social Media Integration
Of course, it's no good to be listening to music without being able to share it. Blip.fm will send your tunes, as you listen to them, to the following Social Media services.

Twitter
Facebook
Friendfeed
Tumblr
Livejournal
Audioscrobbler
Ping.fm

In my case, I don't usually 'blip' tunes I'm listening to my followers -- it could get annoying after a couple of tunes. But, perhaps in the evening, I'll feel like going 'all DJ on my peeps'...hopefully they forgive me in the morning.

So check it out, check out my playlist, and let me know what you think.

Like this? Share it please!

Tagged as: Blip.fm, Entertainment, MP3, Music, sharing, Social Media, Tweet, twitter

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 bgrier (Brad Grier) January 20, 2010 at 3:05 pm: Twitter Comment

Blog Post: How to find good music online with social media — [link to post]

— Posted using Chat Catcher
2 adelaide dj hire January 20, 2010 at 4:02 pm: sounds like a great resource, thanks for sharing… and yes, it does get annoying when someone blips every track onto their twitter account!
3 locspoc (locspoc) January 20, 2010 at 4:06 pm: Twitter Comment

just commented on @bgrier blog How to find good music online with social media [link to post]

— Posted using Chat Catcher